17-Year Customer Service Veteran Employs Skills at APHW

Rusty Reynolds was frustrated. He’d spent 17 years working for a company that seemed to have stopped caring about its employees, and he was ready to move on. Month after month he’d applied to different jobs, even getting the occasional interview, but nothing panned out—until his wife overheard news of a job fair at Jackson College.

“It was a God-Intervention,” Rusty said. There had been only two hours left when he got to the job fair, and Rusty had walked right by America’s Preferred Home Warranty (APHW) at first. It wasn’t until about five minutes after the event had ended that he handed his last good resume over. About two months later Rusty was hired into APHW as the Call Center Operations Manager, and now he’s only weeks away from his one-year anniversary.

“I definitely saw a lot of great things in the company,” Rusty remembered from his hiring process. “The growth of the company was very appealing, plus the growth of the call center. I could see what I would be able to do with it—and we’ve accomplished a lot since then.”

Part of leading his crew to success is in choosing the right people to add to the team. “I pull from my years of call center experience in what makes a good call center representative—skills that show you’re a hard worker, dedicated, and have the ability to learn and communicate. These are all signs of the type of employee I’m looking for,” Rusty said.

He also keeps other APHW departments in mind when he’s looking at potential candidates for his call center. “I like to let other leaders know if someone I just hired could be a good fit,” Rusty said, adding that he looks for both a good call center employee and promotion potential.

Several of Rusty’s hires have already moved up in the company, and their promotions are a point of pride for him. “It tells me I’m accomplishing the task to help them be the best they can be, at what they want to be,” he said, noting that could be in other departments or right there in customer service leadership.

APHW will be holding a job fair on April 24 to help in expanding their call center, and Rusty will be keeping an eye out for new recruits—he’d like to hire at least six more for his team. His advice? “Be yourself, curb the nerves, be professional, and enjoy the experience.”

For more information about the job fair, please contact Susan Town-Richards at stownrich@aphw.com or 800-648-5006 ext. 232.