Driving America Forward with Yolanda Gonzalez
“Kids should be able to forget how they get to school, and just focus on being at school. Let’s make sure we make that possible.”
Yolanda Gonzalez
Operations Manager
Foundever
Yolanda is Operations Manager at Foundever. She began her seventeen-year career as a customer service agent for Sykes, a company later acquired by Foundever. As a working student, she went on to earn a degree in Telecommunications Engineering, as well as a Masters in Human Resources Management. Today, she leads operations for Zum’s customer service account nationwide.
How is the customer service team at Foundever driving innovation forward?
Well, our job is to handle Zum’s customer service inbounds. In this case, Zum’s customers are anyone who uses the platform and app—parents, bus drivers, school administrators, Zum’s district managers, and also Zum’s charter customers, SaaS clients, etc. Truly, everyone who comes into contact with Zum is potentially our customer.
At Foundever, we’re innovating by constantly seeking to anticipate the needs of those customers, who we can increase our efficiency and better serve those customers, making sure they get the best experience possible. One of the most common ways we get out ahead of customer needs is by monitoring data—what kind of customer service requests we get, when, and why.
A good example is back to school. It’s a busy time of year, and of course, there are always a few bumps. Take, for example, the start of Zum’s contract with Kansas City. It was a strong launch, though some of the routes were changing we were getting a number of customer service requests from parents, who wanted to make sure they could track their children. It was taking us a long time to get in touch with the Zum yard managers—so we created a “quick connect” feature that made it possible for us to communicate with the Zum yard instantaneously. With that feature, we could get information right away, and pass that on to the parents whose kids were riding the bus. That gave parents peace of mind, improved our customer service, and helped us get through back to school—and now we use that feature across the company.
We innovate by staying ahead of customer needs—even if that’s a bunch of small changes.
From your perspective at Foundever, how is Zum driving America forward?
I’ve worked in the customer service industry for seventeen years. I’ve seen a lot of different businesses and industries, and I know there’s a spectrum of customer service—from the bare minimum to top-tier.
Zum truly is at the top tier.
Its product itself—getting students to and from school—is already incredibly impressive, from a technological and operational perspective. Yet on top of that, they’ve made sure that parents and school administrators who call in with service requests get near-immediate and highly effective service. My team and I are fully dedicated to ensuring that we not only handle, but anticipate, the needs of Zum’s customers—and you don’t get that unless you truly care about your customers and their needs.
The student transportation industry has not always had the best customer service. Zum, though, has invested where it counts and continues to ensure that its users get the absolute best experience possible. By putting students and parents at the center of their product, and really ensuring they are treated right, they’re innovating every day.
When you think of the future, what role do children/the next generation play, and how can we set them up for success?
Let’s make sure we keep putting our children at the center of our products.
At Foundever and Zum, ultimately, we’re serving our kids—and we need to keep doing that. What our kids do at school—learning, playing, figuring out how to be around other people—that’s the important thing. Student transportation is important, but if it’s done safely and effectively, it should really be invisible.
Kids should be able to forget about how they get to school, and just focus on being at school. Let’s make sure we make that possible.