Women of Inframark – Aretha Morris

When Aretha Morris talks about her work, her team, and her passion for solutions – you can feel the excitement and enthusiasm in her voice. As Director of Support Services for Inframark’s Community Management division, Aretha brings energy, experience, and innovative thinking to her role in helping our Support Services Team (Customer Care, Administrative Assistants and Architectural Dept.)  deliver their best to Inframark clients.  

Aretha joined Inframark in 2014 as a Customer Service Supervisor, supporting HOA clients. She was quickly promoted to Customer Service Manager and expanded her role to include Municipal Utility District (MUD) Customer Service. After serving in this position for a couple of years, she was looking for a new challenge. “I didn’t want to leave Inframark, but I was ready to do something more. So, I thought about what would be valuable to our Customer Service team and I came up with the idea of creating a Training and Quality Assurance (QA) department. I saw that we had a need in onboarding new customer service team members, and I also recognized the opportunity to develop quality assurance guidelines for our entire team to ensure that we were handling calls consistently and effectively.”   

Fast forward through multiple discussions, strategic plans, and “pitches to leadership,” and the Training and Quality Assurance department was approved, with Aretha serving as the manager and three trainers. This newly created team got to work, implementing consistent training, monitoring calls and providing feedback – and the results paved the way for even more improvements!   

As the new training and QA team got traction, Aretha was part of Inframark Academy, which required a capstone project – a project that would provide value to the company – in order to “graduate.” Aretha’s project was focused on repurposing some unused space in the building to create a dedicated customer service training room. Following budget developments, risk analysis, and other project management considerations – the training room was approved. “I’m really proud of what I have been able to accomplish at Inframark and the opportunities I’ve been given. There was not a Customer Service Training and QA function – so this was a first for me and Inframark! And, before the training room, we had to train new hires in meeting rooms, which was challenging because we had to bring in computers, monitors, etc. to create a workable classroom and sometimes availability of space was an issue. It just wasn’t as efficient or professional as I wanted it to be – and I thought it wasn’t the best impression to make on new employees. I knew there had to be a better way.”  

Aretha’s track record of bringing forth new ideas and successfully implementing them aligns perfectly with her advice to others, “You have to be solutions-oriented. If you can see the need and offer a way to solve it, then you can be successful – don’t just point out the problem.”   

Aretha also credits the support she has received from various leaders in Inframark as critical to her success. “One of the nice things about Inframark is that people can be themselves here, and I think it’s important to be authentic because everyone has their own way of being amazing. Get comfortable with yourself and let your true personality shine.”