One of her best practices is to focus first on the easiest fixes, where a simple solution can be found quickly. Then, she moves on to greater challenges.
“Through my whole career, as far as prioritizing, I’ve found that it’s important to first fix the things that you can fix with a good solution, quickly, Then, you move on to take care of any larger problems,” she says.
“However, if you have a problem that is affecting many different areas, instead of putting band aids on things, I like to look at a process and say, ‘Okay. Let’s overhaul this. Let’s fix it,’ so that, instead of spending every day trying to deal with all the issues that come from not doing it right in the first place, we fix it, and do it right in the first place. Determine the root cause of a problem, and attack it.”
Andrade says Gem’s vision as an organization is to provide world-class customer service, and everything Jenn has done has been indispensable in helping it achieve that goal. As annual revenue rose from $1 million to more than $40 million today, Jenn designed the processes and procedures central to its world class customer service, including automating communication and administration systems which laid the foundation for the organization’s most recent success.
As Gem’s payroll grew to 250 employees, Jenn was instrumental in creating the processes and infrastructure to meet customers’ and the business’s needs, ensuring continued success.
“She sourced and implemented the operational software necessary to sustain the growing complexity of the business, and to enable Gem to continue to exceed customers’ expectations, helping take Gem to the next level,” Andrade says.
Jenn also transformed the company’s call center, from a single employee taking calls to a state-of-the-art, 24/7 control room.
Driven by Jenn’s eagerness to learn and her determination, Gem began utilizing the latest technology, becoming a New England regional HVAC, plumbing and electrical leader. These include her leadership in installing GPS system to the 70-vehicle fleet, which has greatly increased the team’s efficiency. Also, a transition from the old walkie-talkie method of communicating was taken over by cell phones and iPads. “Jenn is single-handedly responsible for spearheading this technological transformation,” Andrade says.
When she realized she needed a better understanding of the field team’s daily challenges, Jenn began a Ride-Along program. Each month, she dons a company uniform and rides with a technician for a full day. This has allowed her to be able to make necessary changes within the office staff in an effort to make things better and easier for technicians to be able to get their jobs done in an efficient manner.
On the most personal note, Jenn is a founding member of the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation, a Foundation created in the memory of her late grandmother, who passed away from breast cancer. The mission of the Foundation is to provide resources to families and patients of breast cancer within the community.
“When Joe told me he had nominated me for this, I felt, I guess, humbled. “I told him I’m not the person in the field doing all the great work. This is my team. This is very much my home, and everybody here, they’re my team. I just really wanted to emphasize that point that I’m not somebody that likes to take credit for anything. I like building a team of people and then making that successful. That’s my enjoyment in this place, so that’s kind of the core of me.”