JK Harris Executive Appointments Underscore Commitment to Customer Service

    /24-7PressRelease/ - NORTH CHARLESTON, SC, August 08, 2007 - When Bernard Bandish was named JK Harris and Company's Executive Vice President of Operations this past April, he immediately began making his mark in his new position.

Bandish was formerly the Executive Vice President of Financial Services, where he helped create and manage the growth of JK Harris Advisors and JK Harris Small Business Services. He now is in charge of the company's tax resolution operations as well and oversees nearly 275 employees.

He is now expanding the methods the company uses to obtain client feedback and improve upon JK Harris' commitment to customer service. One of the first things Bandish did was give Training Coordinator Kelly Scott some additional duties and the title of Director of Training and Customer Service for the nation's largest tax resolution firm.

"I am committed to continuing the improvements we have made over the years to serve our clients' needs," Scott said. "Customer service improvements are an ongoing process at JK Harris and have been since our inception in 1997. We will continue to make necessary modifications based on customer feedback."

"Kelly has been with the company almost from the beginning," Bandish said. "She's worked in a variety of positions at JK Harris and is knowledgeable on many levels."

Teamwork has proven to be the key at JK Harris. Customer feedback has motivated the company to implement a specialty team concept for its Tax Resolution operations. There are a total of eight teams with 11 to 14 Case Specialists per team.

Currently, JK Harris has one team of 11 Case Specialists who work only Installment Agreement cases, and another team of 11 works strictly "Currently Not Collectible" cases.

Installment Agreements are monthly payment arrangements between the taxpayer and the IRS to pay the entire liability over a certain amount of time.

The CNC status allows taxpayers to make no payments on their delinquent tax debt because paying the liability in full would deprive the taxpayer of the basic needs of life, such as food, shelter and clothing.

"It is my goal to continually and consistently improve our customer service operations at JK Harris so that we can most efficiently meet our client's needs," said Bandish. "From our phone queue system to our team approach, we are perpetually tweaking and refining our customer service. Customer feedback is vital to this process."

Bandish established JK Harris' phone queue system so that Case Specialists would answer a large percentage of incoming phone calls and customer calls would not go to voice mail. The queue was designed so incoming calls would be directed to each team's queue, and the client would get to speak to a Case Specialist from that team, even if their own Case Specialist was not available.

Bandish and Scott are excited the teams have been consistently accomplishing their goal through the early stages of the program.

"The clients' questions get answered. It's what they want, and it gives them the service they expect," Scott said.

And both are currently creating another client survey, hoping to get even more feedback.

About JK Harris & Company, LLC
JK Harris & Company, LLC, [url=http://www.jkharris.com] based in North Charleston, S.C., is the nation's largest tax resolution firm and has served over 200,000 customers since its founding in 1997 by John K. Harris. JK Harris consultants are available to meet with consumers in over 450 locations nationwide by appointment only. The company also provides services for consumer and commercial debt, student loan debt, investment fraud, financial planning, tax return preparation, and audit representation.

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