Our ‘Meet the Team’ series is designed so that you can get to know us friendly folk at GKD a little bit better.
Next up, we’ve got our Aftermarket Customer Service Manager, David!
What’s your name, job title and how long have you been at GKD?
My name is David Clifford, I’m the Aftermarket Customer Service Manager here at GKD and I have been in role for 3 months.
Before you joined GKD where did you work / what did you do?
Before joining GKD I worked at Mears Group as a Customer Success Manager. I was responsible for the customer and client experience, and contract performance on all Central Government, Home Office and MOD contracts. Prior to that, I worked for Fujitsu Telecoms Europe as the national service delivery manager, and at Sky TV in field operations and customer experience.
What do you like about your job?
Firstly, the freedom to be creative and implement changes and improvements to our service delivery and constantly improving the overall customer experience. I very much enjoy the fast-paced and challenging environment we work in. It’s very rewarding to be supporting our customers and allowing them to focus on their core responsibilities by swiftly finding solutions and resolving issues they experience.
Secondly, working with focused, knowledgeable, and supportive colleagues who all work as a team pulling towards to the same goal. Together we aim to provide excellent and innovative products, backed up with industry-leading customer service and experience.
What are you looking forward to over the next six months?
I’m looking forward to getting to know our customers and their needs better, and finding solutions and improvements to better support those needs. I’m also looking forward to building really productive relationships, both internally and externally, to further enhance the service we provide our customers, and further grow the trust and confidence they have in our products and our service.
I am also looking forward to the new and exciting products we are introducing and building my knowledge and understanding of the products in our range.
Tell us about those phrases you picked to describe yourself!
Inquisitive and openminded – I like to understand “why” something works the way it does or “why” something happened the way it did. I can then get to the root cause and come up with a creative solution to overcome it, improve it, or prevent it from happening again. I’m also very interested in current affairs and world events, not just the headlines but getting deep into the detail and understanding why and the implications. Knowledge sets you free, as they say! I am always willing to change my views or opinions based on new information.
A bit of a Bear Grylls character – I have a love of the outdoors. Nothing beats spending a few days living in the mountains or in a forest, sleeping in a bivy, cooking on an open fire, and sleeping in the open under the stars. My entire life I have been into kayaking, rock climbing and mountain biking. Anything that provides some adrenaline I’m there, along with my son who is now old enough to start coming with me – much to his mother’s despair!!
Values – Values I strongly believe in are courage, determination, unselfishness, and cheerfulness in the face of adversity.
When I left school, I went straight into the Royal Marines where I first learned these values and they have served me well through my life to this point.
I have the courage to get out front and do what is right.
I’m extremely determined in everything I do, and I never give up.
It’s always Customer first, Team second, Teammate third; Self last.
Make humour the heart of morale, even in the face of adversity.
No TV – It may sound really strange that I don’t watch TV, but after working for Sky TV for 13 years I was sick of TV and it pained me to have to start paying for a subscription when I left. So, I didn’t, and I’ve never regretted it. I realised just how much time I wasted watching TV and just how much information there is out there that’s not covered in the mainstream media. I’ve learned more since I stopped watching TV than in my entire life up to that point.
We hope you enjoyed learning more about David. Keep a look out as we get to know more of our team members over the coming weeks!
