Company: Wells Fargo Bank, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company, provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance services through stores, the internet and other distribution channels across North America and internationally. Headquartered in San Francisco, but decentralized so every local Wells Fargo store is capable of satisfying all our customers' financial needs.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Executive of the Year

Nomination Title: George Larribas, EVP, Treasury Management Client Delivery

Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2011 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Dedication

At the company’s 2011 internal national product and sales conference, George Larribas, who leads Wells Fargo’s Treasury Management Client Delivery team, received a standing ovation for his leadership running the group’s customer service team during the biggest merger in banking history. He maintained a customer-focused approach, never wavering on his commitment to be the best.

Some key accomplishments:

• The creation of a Welcome Center staffed with 135 team members to ensure all customers had knowledgeable experts to talk to during the merger. The Welcome Center completed 262,000 customer outreach calls and handled more than 131,000 service follow ups, exceeding service level performance goals. The team also answered 193,000 inbound calls.
• He focused on developing his team’s knowledge, making it possible for the team to complete nearly 18,000 hours of training, a 23% increase from 2010.

2011 Results

• His centers answered more than 1.6 million calls with an average handle time of 462 seconds. It was a record year for volume, the team closed more than 1.9 million service requests (99.2% exceeding goal and 82% closing same day).
• The team achieved outstanding results with a 9.2 Overall Satisfaction rating (1-10 point scale) as measured by nearly 12,000 online customer surveys and more than 3,200 phone interviews.
• The Online Fraud Prevention team decreased losses by 9.8% as measured by total losses through process, call routing, and reporting improvements.

Customer voice

Because of his role and his team’s constant interactions with our customers, George brings forward the voice of our customers and is instrumental in prioritizing initiatives. He has a welcome seat at the decision table where his voice is used to prioritize initiatives such as product releases and fixes. His input is valued because of his deep understanding of how our customers interact with the bank and his knowledge around how changes will affect them. During the merger, he championed a new issues tracking tool that was purely customer focused (not issue or product-centric), which enabled better service for converting customers by rapidly deploying experts to resolve more than 300 critical issues.

George is an active participant at customer meetings and advisory councils nationwide and takes action on new ideas, often within 24 hours. These meetings are his source for learning firsthand about customer issues and identifying new opportunities. He quickly mobilizes his team and holds them accountable for delivering on new ideas and improvements to service. He is highly regarded by his team because of this commitment and his quick action.

Commitment

George is committed to the Trevor Project as a Circle of Hope member, where he sponsors annual fundraising efforts. He also supports Special Equestrian Riding Therapy, a nonprofit organization serving children with special needs. He is dedicated to the bank’s diversity efforts, serving as the Executive Sponsor for the Southern California Latino Connection and he encourages his team to support their communities and local nonprofits, working to make their communities better places to live. In 2011, his team volunteered 5,200 hours.

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Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:

George Larribas is Executive Vice President and Head of Wells Fargo Treasury Management Client Delivery (TMCD). Based in Los Angeles, he oversees over 1,000 team members who deliver customer service and technical support for Wells Fargo Treasury products. TMCD is the advocate of our customer and works with operational areas, product management and systems to manage the client experience to ensure exceptional service delivery. With more than 29 years in banking, George began his career with Wells Fargo managing multiple operational groups before moving to Treasury Management. George earned his B.S. in business management from the University of Phoenix.