Andrew Falk - A Biography

Andy wanted to find a position where he could make a difference - not only on a personal ‘one-on-one’ level but also to the whole customer service ethos of an organisation.

Andy grew up in Masterton (near Wellington) attending St Patrick's Primary School and later Chanel College. At the conclusion of his school years he decided he wanted to pursue a vocation that didn’t involve sitting in an office and so promptly took up a position as an apprentice butcher with Steer's Butchery. After completing his butchery apprenticeship Andy took a new role with Kuripuni New World in Masterton eventually managing the entire butchery department.

Andy was then head-hunted by Superior Meats in Carterton to manage a new butcher shop in Masterton. The business unfortunately failed but during his time running the shop Andy found that he immensely enjoyed the customer service side of the business. This started him seriously thinking about exactly what he wanted from his career. Following the conclusion of the butchery business Andy decided to make a leap of faith and pursue a career in customer service.

Andy then successfully applied for a customer service position with Telecom in Auckland within their Corporate Billings team and subsequently moved with his wife to Auckland to pursue the role. He was very successful in this role quickly developing a sound understanding of Telecom’s technical systems and processes. Subsequently, he was then recruited into Telecom’s Corporate Resolutions Management team as a technical specialist providing technical ‘fault resolution’ support for some of Telecoms top corporate clients.

After a long stint with Telecom, Andy was ready for a change and started looking for a new challenge. He was frustrated by many of Telecom's approaches to customer service and wanted to find a position where he could make a difference - not only on a personal ‘one-on-one’ level but also to the whole customer service ethos of an organisation.

Andy joined Zeald.com in 2005 and is Zeald.com’s Customer Service Manager. He has built from the ground up the team of Account Managers that project manages customer projects and provides ongoing support to Zeald.com’s client base. Andy has been responsible for much of Zeald.com’s development in the customer service area and brings a fresh and innovative approach to customer service. His mantra is, “treat people (staff & customers) as people – don’t treat people as numbers.” Andy is passionate about fantastic service and nothing puts a bigger smile on his face than a happy customer!

Andy lives with his wife Shirina in Birkenhead on Auckland’s North Shore. He has a purebred golden labrador called Kane that is ‘getting on in years’. He places a huge amount of importance on ‘family time’ ever since he experienced a shock heart attack in his late twenties. Andy loves travelling having visited Los Angeles, Mexico, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Hawaii and completes an annual pilgrimage to the Cook Islands to spend two weeks with Shirina’s family.

Andy loves his sport and played both softball and rugby right throughout his school days. Andy continued playing rugby for a number of years after school playing prop (specialising on the loose-head side) for the Pioneer Rugby Club in Masterton before hanging up his rugby boats (although he is still a keen armchair follower of the sport). Andy’s best mate at Zeald.com is Jonathon Sim (the head of our Development team). They can often be heard in the workplace giving each other a good ribbing!