Well, this is it.

What just happened? I think 8 weeks went by, but I'm not sure. There's no way.

This week I've been tying up loose ends before I head back to Mount Union. Kathy asked me to recreate the Customer Service bulletin board materials to be sent to CST in South Dakota and Elyria. I included packets of instructions for carrying out the Customer Service and De-Escalation Training reinforcement activities and knowledge checks that the supervisors will be helping with over the next month.

While my projects and tasks have been dying down as I complete my final week, a lot has been happening within the HR Department. This week, Jessica began her three week CST training for the new hires. She is being shadowed by our two new trainers, Beth and Andrea. As a former team lead for CST, Beth was an internal hire. Andrea is our new junior trainer. I have essentially been doing her job all summer, so her joining the team this week came at a great time. Also, our new VP of HR started on Thursday.

In order to make space for all of these wonderful new HR team members, Jessica, Beth, and Andrea are moving into an office together on the fourth floor of the Berea building. I had the awkward task of trying to help the movers rearrange the office at 8:15am while Jessica was in training. Mind you, I had no key fob access to the room, no idea where to put all the extra conference tables, and wasn't exactly sure how the whole cubicle break-down and rearanging thing worked, so I was basically in panic mode trying to direct the poor movers. Naturally I resorted to, "I'm so sorry, I'm just an intern..." (Help, help, help...)

The office saga continued when Jessica, Beth and I returned later that day to scrub dry erase marker off the walls. I should note that the walls of the office were covered in a paint that is specifically made to be written on like a dry erase board. I was not implying that ETC promotes the use its walls for notetaking. The marker had been on the walls so long that we ended up going through three containers of Clorox wipes to get it off. We joked that a permanent marker was used on my wall, because the writing was going nowhere. It's been three days and my fingers are still blue. Another side note, the HR department did NOT torture me as an intern. Don't worry Jessica, I won't tell everyone that I was not scrubbing your walls all summer :) But, now you can think of me everytime you look at those sparkling, Clorox scented walls...

On Wednesday, Jessica organized a happy hour for my going-away at the Upper Deck. It was so much fun! Andy and Tiffany came from Elyria, and, due to the CST payday happy hour tradition, many of the CST members I worked with were there. It was an awesome way to get to spend time with everyone I worked with this summer. I really appreciated it!

Summing up how much I appreciated this experience would be incredibly lengthy, so I will do my best to keep this short. I cannot imagine having spent my summer any other way. Being a summer intern for Equity Trust Company has been hands down the most valuable experience that I've had in my college years in terms of making strides toward a future career. I was given so much more responsibility than I had anticipated, which really enhanced the experience. I grew close with everyone I worked with and truly felt like a part of the ETC family. Not once did I feel like a temporary employee. So, a HUGE thank you to ETC for everything you have done for me. I would enthusiastically recommend this internship program to anyone!

Busy Busy Busy

These last two weeks have been a blur.  I am not sure where to begin with what I have been doing this week, so I suppose I will start with vacations.  Next week Brendan and Heather will be going on vacation.  I do not think they knew they both took vacations in the same week, but it is definitely something we have been working diligently to offset.  I have been taking on pieces of three different positions in these last few weeks including assisting Kent with Tax-Free Wealth Seminar and Real Estate Investor Association mailings and databases, taking some of the projects off Heather's hands while she is gone, as well as my own work.  I  compiled a mailing list of REIA organizations around the country and sent them four documents that works towards bringing their members to our Networking Conference.  I had to contact some of the organizations that we did not have a mailing address for, and even worked with a man in Canada to help foster a relationship between his organization and ETC.  I also began drafting some of our emails for our drip email campaigns we will be running throughout the month of August in addition to some press releases we will be sending out.  I have worked closely with Heather to gain a better understanding of how she utilizes our Genius email software and to learn how she crafts each piece of writing for the various campaigns we are working on.  It seems that everything has been coming due at one time, so naturally everyone has been working feverishly.  When I told my dad what I have been doing, and the extra work I have picked up, he frankly replied, "welcome to the real world."  It was a blunt assessment of a valuable lesson I have been learning throughout my internship here at Equity Trust.  It does not matter if people get sick or are on vacation, the work still needs to be completed.  It is encouraging to know that, while stressful, I welcome the challenge and do not mind stepping up to the plate.  Another aspect that softens the blow of my increased workload is the wonderful people I work with.  Michelle excitedly scheduled my going away luncheon for today with the entire department.  I truly enjoy spending time with everyone in the department and it is not just words when Equity Trust states one of our core values is we have fun here.  It is always fun and interesting in the office, something that I find important in the workplace.  Although I still have one more week, we wanted to spend time as a team before Heather and Brendan leave on vacation.  I am also pleased to announce that Michelle also scheduled a welcome back party for me as well!  I will be returning in a part-time position during this fall after taking a week and a half to get settled in for school.  I am so excited to have been asked to stay on here, and feel validated.  If I could give an intern some advice it would be to look at your internship as an audition.  There is no doubt that an internship is critical as a learning tool, but one should also look at it as an opportunity to audition for that company.  I have attacked each day with the thought of proving myself, showcasing my skills, and helping ETC in as many ways that I can.  If you look at it more than what I can get out of this, but also as auditioning yourself as a job candidate you increase your chances of finding somewhere to stay.  Once I make it through this next week, it will be nice to take a week of to recharge before school starts.  I will then return to the office with a renewed vigor and will hopefully continue this wonderful experience here at ETC.

There is so much merit to the saying "time flies when you're having fun"

I say this every week, but I really just can't believe another has gone by. I just have way too much fun here!

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished the Customer Service and De-Escalation Training for CST, which was put into action this week. I sat in on 4 training sessions where Jessica presented the material I came up with. Just about all of the Client Service Representatives and the Project Apple Team attended the sessions. It was definitely rewarding to see the presentation carried out! I've received a lot of positive feedback, which is always nice :)

Jessica has been making fun of all of my crafting this week. I've been working on a bulletin board to reinforce the Customer Service training. The last bulletin board on our floor was a little plain, so I thought I would liven things up a bit! I also created little reminder cards based on the training to hang in the cubes for Client Service Representatives to reference. If anyone is on the CST floor, prepare to be surrounded by beach ball themed reminders of how to be more client friendly. I may have gone a bit crazy with the theme, and use of colored paper. Many trees died in the process of this project...

I'm also finishing up the presentation on how the departments within ETC function and how they interact with other departments. Jessica will eventually use this information for a self-taught training program so that after new hires have been with the company for a few months, they can make better sense of how they fit into the company as a whole.

Things have been pretty hectic with CST New Hire Training fast approaching. Well, more hectic for Jessica, but I help out when I can. We've been putting together binders of the material that Client Service Representatives will learn in their first three weeks here at ETC. It is crazy how much information these binders contain! I find it amazing that the Representatives are able to learn it all in just three weeks, and that Jessica can teach it all in the short amount of time.

Just one week to go. Can someone slow time please?

Wait, it's week 6 already?!

Where do these weeks go?? Time is seriously flying...

This week was a short one for me due to a death in the family. But, I have a great ETC family who sent flowers and was very accommodating! They're way too nice to me :) Despite a short work week, it was still a very productive one.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been busy working on customer service and de-escalation training for Client Service Representatives. On Friday, I met with Kathy, Phil, Jessica, Beth, and Rob to present the training I created. It covers the basics of customer service, techniques for approaching escalated calls, a basic overview of why client satisfaction is important, and what not to do while on the phone with a client. While most of the topics covered may sound like common sense, Jessica, the CST team, and I found it valuable to review them with the Reps. Having little to no personal interaction with clients, it is obviously very important that the company provides excellent customer service over the phones. The training concludes with client scenarios that the Reps will be responding too. Jessica always emphasizes the importance of making training interactive, so I included a fun beach ball activity.

The reaction that Jessica and I received to the training was much more enthusiastic than I expected; CST loved it! In fact, they liked it so much that we are starting training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, just three days after presenting the concept. I won't lie, I'm feeling pretty good about this one. It's really awesome to see all of my hard work paying off and my presentation being utilized so quickly. All of the current Client Service Reps will be going through training this week in shifts before the new class comes in on August 13. The new class of Reps will also go through the customer service training as part of their new hire training. 

In an effort to reinforce the "continuing education" aspect of the customer service training, CST has adopted a theme on their floor to act as a reminder of how to be client service friendly. Next week I'm working on a beach themed bulletin board that will review all of the topics covered in the training. Kathy mentioned hanging small beach balls in each cubicle as a reminder of how to deal with the client scenarios acted out in the beach ball activity. It's a subtle way to incorporate training into daily calls. 

Stay tuned for next week!

Weeks 4 and 5 recap!

Sorry ETC, I've failed you as an intern. I was unable to finish my blog for week 4 so I will combine it with week 5. In my defense, I think that this just goes to show how busy I am here!

The last two weeks have been very productive. Since finishing the New Hire Orientation presentation, I held my first GoTo Meeting with Jessica to show Andrea and Tony, two members of our HR team, the final product. I reviewed the organization of the presentation and how it should be presented. It was perfect timing because Andrea will be handling a fairly large group of new hires during orientation on August 13th. I'm attending the presentation so that I can make adjustments to it afterward if necessary. I'm excited to see how it goes!

One of my newer projects has been creating customer service and soft skills training for Client Service Representatives. The main focus of the training is how to de-escalate a call. I had a great time working with Liz, one of the CST team leads, to come up with effective ways to approach some of the more common issues that occur over the phones. I listened in on a few calls with her to get an idea of how Client Service Reps interect with clients. She really knows how to handle escalated situations! I give her a lot of credit; I don't know if I would have been as calm as she was. I finished up the training this week and plan to present it on Friday to Kathy, Phil, and Amanda, who are the CST supervisors, along with Ira and Rob, who are working on Project Apple. Hopefully this training will improve the call experience for both our clients and CST Reps!

Recently, Jessica and I have been taking on a hefty task list for Project Apple with Ira and Rob. Luckily, I get the tasks that don't require knowledge of IRA's. Jessica, however, has been working on a real estate training program for Project Apple Liasons. Ira gave her an intimidating-looking book that covers everything you would need to know about real estate investments. Way over my head. So instead, I've been working on Outlook training to show CST Reps some of the shortcuts that Outlook has to offer. This will hopefully make their lives easier! It's actually making my life a bit easier too as I learn about some of the shortcuts.

Sadly, I no longer get to spend time with Tiffany and Andy in Elyria. Luckily, they send me funny emails to make up for it! With project Apple requiring many new training programs and me living closer to Berea, it's just easier to be here full time. Andrea did stop by from Elyria to go out to lunch with Jessica and I, which was a great time! I was happy to get Aladdins twice this week; once with the other wonderful interns and once with Jessica and Andrea. Not mad about that!

Overall, it was another fantastic two weeks here at ETC! It's crazy to think that I only have three weeks left... :(

Yeah on the catwalk, on the catwalk Yeah

When I heard that the Equity Trust intern program exposes you to a wide range of careers, projects, and tasks I never thought it could pave a way to a modeling career.  KT had some shirt samples come in from a vendor for our employees to wear at the upcoming Networking Conference in Orlando, Florida.  We were deciding if we liked the look of the royal blue, button-down shirts and I was asked to try one on.  Naturally gifted model and all, I struck a few poses so KT could send a picture to Jeanette to hear her thoughts while she is out of town.  We then compared how it looked with the khaki pants Wes was wearing and the black pants I was wearing.  Needless to say I won the competition!  Now before anyone tries to scoop me up for their modeling agency let it be known that I only won because I happened to be wearing the black pants that looked better with the blue shirt.  It was no indictment of Wes's own modeling skills.  Like I keep telling you, interning at ETC keeps you on your toes!

On a more serious note, I continued plugging away at the competitor analysis I have been working on.  I looked at the first fee comparison and brainstormed another scenario that would delve deeper into how the fees actually work through multiple years and differentiate us even more.  I then set up the second scenario and scripted another portion of my analysis.  I drafted my hypothetical profile that I will use when I call each competitor's sales team and act like I am interested in opening an account with them.  I also thought of some questions that I will ask each sales team that will give a more complete profile of each company.  We continued posting for our Olympic Facebook campaign.  We have not been getting that many entrants to the Equity Trust Games contest we are promoting so we used a different method with our most recent post.  Rather than explaining how to enter, we focused on what one could win from the contest.  We decided people aren't as interested in what they are guessing and what the contest is for as they are for what they can get from it (and rightfully so).  I'll let you know if it worked in my next blog.  Kent needed a letter mailed to our Gold Level Service clients and asked if I could help him out.  He sent me over an excel spreadsheet with the information of all the GLS clients in Florida.  I then created a mail merge and printed the mailing labels and copies of the materials that would be included in the mailing.  Also this week, Jaime Acosta in the IT department was a great help with my Evergreen project.  I sent him some questions that had arisen regarding the coding and programming aspects of the program.  I asked him what it would take to host the program on our own server as opposed to the one provided by Evergreen.  After he took the time to analyze my situation he provided his answer and we concluded that it would not be practical to try to host it on our server.  It was decided that, as of now, we would push forward with the current settings of EBS so we can get a live program out there to analyze.  Finally, Alicia, Tyler, and I went to lunch again this Wednesday.  One of the many benefits of ETC's internship is the relationships you can form with your other interns.  We are all in the same situation as college interns so it is great to be able to hang and work with some of your peers.

I'll catch you all next week! Unless I leave ETC for a modeling career that is...

Olympic sized headache

This past week was primarily focused on social media.  We began our Olympic Facebook campaign yesterday so last week was full of planning, drafting, and brainstorming.  I was exposed to a side of contests that I have never seen before.  There is so much behind the scenes work that must go into setting up a contest.  We first had to read through the International Olympic Committee's legal publication regarding the copyright and trademark restrictions for the 2012 London Olympics.  You wouldn't believe how stringent they are!  We wished to run a contest coinciding with the Olympics that asked contestants to like us on Facebook and then guess how many medals the United States would win this year.  Little did we know but the words London, Summer Games, Olympics/Olympian/Olympiad, or even 2012 were copyrighted!  It goes without saying that it was extremely difficult to brainstorm a way to run our "Olympic" promotion without specifically mentioning the Olympics.  We used to crafty marketing lingo to come up with the 2012 Equity Trust Games!  We first had to set up the contest on a program called Shortstack.  This sets up a tab for the game to be played directly from our Facebook page.  Another long, arduous process we had to go through was reviewing our own rules and regulations.  It is mind-blowing to me all the detail that must be put into each game or contest because of all the lawsuits that are filed in today's day and age.  Luckily we got the contest up and running and I will be posting a new Olympic themed post each day until the end of July. 

Also this week we threw together a short campaign because we were closing in on 1,974 likes on our Facebook page.  Since Equity Trust Company was founded in 1974 we thought it would be a fun idea to post some fun facts about the year 1974.  I drafted and posted four different posts talking about how gas prices have changed from 55 cents a gallon, how that was the year the speed limit was changed to 55 mph, and also mentioned the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match that took place that year between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.  It was exciting to me to see the quick feedback to these posts as I received a like only one minute after posting.  Now if only my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts could be so popular! 

This week I also continued with my competitor analysis and met with Kent and Jeanette about the Evergreen system.  I am hoping to start running with that later this week.  Finally, great news from the BiggerPockets blog forum that I have been monitoring.  A gentleman responded to one of my posts, he must have liked that I was an informative and educated poster, asking for information regarding a self-directed IRA.  I passed him along to our sales team and I learned later that they had converted this lead and he opened an account with us!  I was extremely excited that the posting I have been doing on the site is generating business for our company. 

I should hopefully be posting later this week to update you on my work.  I'll cross my fingers the IOC didn't notice how many times I mentioned the Olympics in this blog, since I'm sure they follow the ETC marketing intern very closely.  Until next week!