MEET THE TEAM: Russell Follows

A little bit about me..

I’m Russell Follows, sometimes known as Russ, and I’ve worked for Loomis UK since 2010.

Prior to this I had followed  a wide ranging career in Customer Service Sales Management that covered Private Sector, Public Sector and Outsource Sector, B2C and B2B for a number of well known organisations. So when the opportunity arose it seemed a logical step to join Loomis and help to develop its embryonic “Service Management Operations” Centre of Excellence in Warwick as the role required a strong commercial alignment.  

Prior to building my career in earnest I’d occupied myself in my youth with various roles in Engineering, Archaeology and a number of other roles, which I believe gave me a more rounded view on people and work but, in honesty, left me feeling intellectually unfulfilled. I tackled that by getting a couple of degrees and made the decision to develop a customer-focused career, which I have done now for the last 3 decades.

Q: What attracted you to Loomis?

I joined Loomis with a clear aim to improve things,  initially in Customer Service. Here we recruited on aptitude, retained on culture and trained on thematic needs-based training, which resulted in a really strong  team. When we moved the centre to Dunstable we had the opportunity to enhance and build back even better - which we did!

Following on from this this I became a Client Director which, after managing large teams for so long was quite a revelation, as I essentially managed customer relationships. I like to think that I was pretty successful and helped inform Loomis' strategy with customers’ culture and aims at its core. 

9 years later, and after a brief period leading on Banking, I moved to  my current role, again with a need to support re-definition in our commercial supplier relationships.
We are now gaining real traction and we are seeing some significant improvements that can be built upon as we build strong strategic relationships.

Q: What is it like working at Loomis? What do you enjoy most about your role?

The really exciting thing about working for Loomis is how much you can make a difference - through personal impact and emotional integrity  - and are given the opportunity within the company to do so.

We have the flexibility to work intuitively and collaboratively with customers and potential customers, suppliers and strategic partners - on sustainable future proof solutions that will deliver mutual benefits and redefine what market leading customer centric excellence really feels like.

Q: And to relax out of work?

In my leisure time, I enjoy painting and have exhibited my paintings - and I’ve written some (mostly unpublished) books.

But marriage and parenthood have first call on my leisure time these days.

Q: One final thought?

Put simply, in a time where the cash industry has never felt such an existential challenge, Loomis is in great shape to meet that challenge.