Claude Courtois  Client Relationship Manager
  

Hailing from a retail management background, where he developed his passion for skills development and training, Claude brings a wealth of valuable experience to the VeryCoolIdeas team. His commitment and passion for delivering service excellence and quality products has become an obsession! As the Client Relationship Manager, Claude has the ideal role to flex his impressive skills in relationship building and quality control. Claude also assists with the translation of the learning material into French and in training French speaking learners.

Claude is originally from Mauritius where he completed his O-levels (matric equivalent) at St. Joseph Marist College, Curepipe (Mauritius). Shortly after this, Claude visited South Africa on holiday and fell in love with the country, its people and the endless career opportunities culminating in Claude's immigration to South Africa in 1975.

Claude has more than three decades working experience in the retail industry. He began his working career as a Trainee Manager for Game Discount World in Durban. Within 2 years, Claude was promoted to floor manager. One of his key responsibilities was customer service, which immediately ignited Claude's inherent passion for harnessing the value of great customer experiences and the importance of delivering service excellence.

In 1978, Claude was head hunted by the Clicks Group and joined as a Trainee Manager. Claude's responsibilities included managing, mentoring, training and developing trainee managers to become successful all round regional managers, managing their Clicks stores as their own businesses - a personal career highlight for Claude.

After cutting his teeth in training, Claude decided to use his knowledge and skills to map out his own successful career path within the Clicks Group. Progressing up the corporate ladder, Claude was appointed Regional Manager in Kwa-Zulu Natal in 1990. Claude's tenure as Regional Manager spanned 13 years, focusing on continued development, training, coaching and mentoring of management and staff, overseeing the operations and logistics of the stores as well as overseeing the strategy, vision, mission and objectives for the region.

Due to structural organisational changes in 2003, Claude was strategically assigned to key Clicks stores to assess and assist with managing the overall store performance (from general management and managing staff to turnover management). This change resulted in Claude relocating to Gauteng in 2004, where he managed the Rosebank Clicks Store followed by the Cresta Clicks Store.

In 2006, Claude joined VeryCoolIdeas, initially as a Sales and Marketing Manager, which subsequently evolved into Client Relationship Manager. Regarded as a people's person with strong interpersonal skills, Claude's portfolio includes implementing and maintaining quality service levels, while also being responsible for developing new business and nurturing these relationships. Claude is an invaluable team player and being French speaking provides VeryCoolIdeas with an unique opportunity by assisting in translating training material into French and training learners throughout Francophone Africa. Claude's role enables him to enjoy the best of both worlds - customer service and training.

Claude is in the process of completing his Facilitation and Development Skills Diploma. He has also successfully completed a number of courses relating to education, training and development including Assessor Training and the Management Development Programme.

Claude's commitment, passion, determination and reliability make him an asset to VeryCoolIdeas.