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Never Content with Status Quo – Meet Mike Poth, SVP of Delivery & Customer Support

Mike Poth has joined Avenu as the Senior Vice President of Delivery & Customer Support. In this role, Mike will work closely with Business Unit leaders to ensure the organization is delivering operational excellence, while creating innovative services and solutions to offer our customer base. As part of the Executive Team, he will help determine the overall strategy, priorities, and direction for operations at Avenu.

Mike is an award-winning leader known for his strategic and operational excellence, streamlining processes, and increasing customer satisfaction. He has extensive experience transforming and optimizing services and solutions designed for international, federal, state and local governments.

His career includes being the CEO for the First Responder Network Authority where he led negotiations and built the largest public/private partnership between a Fortune 10 company and the U.S. government. This partnership led to building a $60 billion nationwide wireless network covering 99% of the population and 90% of the geography. This network guarantees First Responders access the country the ability to communicate during an emergency. The project created 25,000 jobs within two years.

In a recent interview, we learn about the goals and internal mechanisms being put in place under Mike’s leadership and the positive trajectory that it is taking Avenu’s clients and staff.

What drew you to Avenu?

My entire career I have been in public service working to optimize government efficiencies which ultimately helps communities. I find it humbling to make a difference in the everyday life of a citizen and that is what Avenu does across the board with its services and solutions.

You’ve now met with over 200 Avenu employees. Is there a common thread that you see among them across the different business units?

Passion. Without a doubt passion is at the core of what drives our employees. They wholeheartedly want to make a positive difference for their clients and the citizens they serve. My goal is to further empower employees so that our clients have a quicker response time in client delivery.

Are there any changes you’re making internally to improve client delivery?

Everyone has a different skillset to offer, and I want to optimize our staffs’ abilities by providing them with additional tools and training. That will make each individual even better in their role, thereby benefiting and strengthening teams across the organization. I also want to get everyone focused on the same goals which will make it easy to do business with Avenu.

What goals are you establishing for your teams?

We need to make it easy to do business with Avenu. The goals I have are basic but will create a positive client experience.

  • APPRECIATE OUR CLIENTS’ PERSPECTIVE. For the most part, our clients are not experts in the software or solutions that we provide. Clients have mandates they are obligated to adhere to while balancing the needs of their citizens. We need to understand and focus on their end goals. Our services need to be seamless and easy to use for our clients and their constituents.
  • COMMUNICATE MORE EFFECTIVELY. We need to tell clients what we are going to do and when we are going to do it. If for any reason, we cannot meet that commitment, we need to inform our client early along with our plan of action to make it right.
  • ACTIVELY LISTEN. We need to have conversations with our customers to understand what they need tomorrow and hear their voice as we develop new products and solutions to meet and evolve with their future needs. Listening allows us to be more proactive and anticipate future needs. Ultimately, it allows Avenu to accelerate our responsiveness.
  • NEVER BE CONTENT WITH STATUS QUO. We need to continually evolve and find new approaches and techniques so that clients can reap the rewards and be more effective. This means Avenu will leverage newer technology to improve our clients’ experience. Technology evolves at a rapid pace and it’s important to continually strive for updated and creative solutions to meet new demands as quickly as possible.

Is there a common message you’ve been sharing with our clients while meeting them?

I want to build deeper collaboration and a true partnership with our clients. It goes without saying that contracts guide us but working together builds relationships and trust. In the course of a contract, I can guarantee that something will go wrong (i.e., global supply chain slow-down). I also guarantee that Avenu will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our clients to make things right. Our clients put their trust in us, and we will not let them down.

To our clients, please know that you can reach out to me directly by email at mike.poth@avenuinsights.com. If you have a concern, I’d like to hear it. If you have a need, I’d like to hear it.  If you have an idea of how we can do things better, I’d like to hear it.

Avenu does not sell widgets. We provide software and solutions along with our partnership to adjust to changing dynamics and grow together. Avenu is here and ready to serve.