Gavin Harvey believes that good customer service is at the heart of any successful business, so we sat down with him to chat about his three-and-a-half years as a Customer Service Advisor at the heart of Allied. Read on and discover what Gavin loves most about his role and his passion for the Allied Vehicles Charitable Trust, why he laments not paying more attention to languages at school, and the reason you might spot him marching the streets of Possilpark, whatever the weather.
Describe your typical day at Allied.
Come in, check emails, make sure that there’s no major dramas, and then take calls from the customers. We work very closely with the Mobile team and the Warranty team to make sure our customers get the best service possible.
So, you handle queries on both phone and email?
We do. We also have Zendesk, which anyone in the business can use to reach us. I’m in charge of the international customers, so I have something called Web2Case, which is connected to the portal that the international teams use.
Do we get a lot of international customers coming through?
It definitely keeps me busy. I really enjoy the international side of things. I’m interested in maybe progressing into that as it goes on. I’m really proud of it because I feel that I’ve now whipped it into shape and have it where I want it to be.
I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had with the international stuff, and for the support from people like our International Business Coordinator, Giampaola Nairi, my manager Angela Rafferty, and Andy Robertson, the National Allied Autocare Manager. Gerry Facenna, the owner, is in the weekly meetings with us now as well.
I fully believe that Gerry and our MD, Peter Facenna, will corner the market in Europe and that’s something I’d like to be a part of. I would really like to step up and help with that.
How long have you worked at Allied?
I’ve been here for three and a half years. Before that I worked for Home Bargains, and before that for Scottish Power.
So, I went from a call centre to retail and then came back to a call centre and it was kind of a culture shock. It took me a moment to get back into it, but it was like riding a bike.
It’s a different service, you know? You’re not getting callers saying, “my boiler’s not working.” That’s very different to somebody phoning and asking, “what’s happening with my car delivery?”
You said that you enjoy the international stuff. Is that what you enjoy most about your job?
My team is what I really enjoy most. They make it easy to come to work. I get on well with every one of them, especially Debbie Readie and Andrew Craig. “The Three Musketeers” they call us, because we are really close. Angela is a great manager too.
But I do enjoy International. I enjoy the whole job. It’s hard at times, there are times where I’m pulling the hair out of my head – which I don’t have much of – but overall, I enjoy it.
Tell me about some of those challenges that make you want to pull your hair out.
The biggest challenge is communication. Other departments might not get back to you, or it might take hours, and you’ve got a customer waiting for an answer.
The way around that is the new Quality Tool that’s been added.
We can go in there and we put in all the details, and it takes a lot of the work away because I’m not chasing up emails, I don’t have to chase you around the building, we don’t have to come up to your desk, it’s all on there, and it’s then their responsibility to pick it up and respond.
It’s a good team which is growing . As well as myself, Debbie and Andrew, we have Corrine Geddes and the newest member, Thomas Clark, and we have someone else joining us next week.
What’s your experience of the company culture here?
I would say that Allied, especially within your teams, is a family. Yes, it’s a family run business, but also within your team, it’s a family. Everyone seems to be there for you, they care about you. We all have a bond.
I started right in the middle of the pandemic. I had two weeks training, then we
went into lockdown, and I had no choice but to go home and work. So, it wasn’t like that; I didn’t really know my team members. I didn’t even really know my manager other than through Teams.
Since coming back and being in the office for two days and then three days, it’s much better. You get to see your colleagues a lot more and spend more time with them.
You got involved with the Allied Vehicles Charitable Trust. What drew you to that?
I’m a Possil boy. It’s a community that doesn’t have the best reputation and I loved seeing that the business really cares about this community, the community that I grew up in.
I like knowing that we are helping places like food banks, and the work that we do with the wider community. Especially when they do things like help my old primary school, Saracen Primary, to get things that when I was younger, we didn’t have.
We had to fill up Smarties tubes with money for our school to take us on trips.
So, a big thank you to David Facenna, because it was him who encouraged me to get involved, and he’s always really supportive.
Your involvement in the Trust has taken you to a few Awards ceremonies. Tell us about one of those.
The first one was the Herald Family Business Awards. It was my first ever black-tie event, and we won the Highly Commended award award for customer services, and we won for corporate social responsibility.
Angela and I were told, “you need to go on the stage,” and I was a bit anxious, but I went up there, we accepted the award we got our pictures taken and it was a really good night. It was first time in a tux, and I’d lost a lot of weight and was feeling quite good about myself, so I plastered the photos everywhere!
Years ago, I would never have gone to things like that. I was a lot heavier, I didn’t have the best confidence, but I now put myself out there more.
If there’s one thing that you could tell somebody about working at Allied, what would it be?
I’ve actually got a few people I know to come work here. My dad, Brian Harvey, works in Production, my friend Lynn Black is in the S
ales department. I said to them, “this is my job, I really enjoy it, it’s a good place to work.”
I would tell anyone to come work for Allied.
How do you like to unwind?
Walking. I will put my earphones in, and I’ll just walk for as long as my feet will carry me, sometimes it’s 10km, sometimes 20km, and I forget about absolutely everything – the stress of the week, family, friends, all that.
I also enjoy the gym. I go a Monday with Andrew from Customer Services after work. I go at 4 o’clock in the morning on a Wednesday, and on a Friday after work. I also have a home gym.
So, unwinding for me is working out and walking. Or sometimes just chilling in bed with my three cats.
What is something that not many people would know about you?
Probably that I have lost ten stone since March last year. I want to lose at least another two to get to my target. I also want to try and buff up a wee bit. I’m never going to be Arnold Schwarzenegger, six pack and all that, but if I can get a wee bit of definition, I’ll be happy.
But I don’t have any weird hobbies. I’m not a secret superstar DJ or anything, unfortunately.
Actually, I keep tropical fish, and I used to breed and sell them. People won’t know that. I don’t do it much now, but I have two fish tanks with over 50 fish and three African land snails.
Do you currently have a goal or objective that you’re working towards?
That weight loss goal, and to get to a point where maybe I don’t have to work out as much as I do. In this job you’re sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. So as soon as I get a chance, I’m up and walking.
Professionally, I would like to progress within the company, and international is what I’m really interested in. I’m actually learning French and Spanish to talk to our customers.
I hated learning languages at school, I would skip it at every opportunity. If you told me back then, “you’re going to need it,” I’d have laughed at you. That has come back to haunt me because a lot of our international customers would, of course, rather talk to us in their own language.
If you weren’t doing this job, where do you think you might have ended up?
I probably would still be with Home Bargains, because I really enjoyed it, but they cut my hours down and I couldn’t afford to stay there anymore, but I enjoyed it.
I’m glad I’m at Allied, though. I’m definitely in the right place.
