A Warm Handoff: Anders Coe Joins PSDS as the Customer Experience Lead

Anders Coe

After a decade in the service industry, Anders Coe brings
his talents and passion for providing high-quality customer service to UVA. Coe
recently joined Procurement and Supplier Diversity Services (PSDS) as the
Customer Experience Lead—a new role. In the job now for roughly six weeks, Coe
has only kind words for his colleagues, saying they have been very welcoming
and helpful getting him acquainted with department’s work.

“Coming in, I think that it’s really about being able to put
a friendly and inviting spin on the procurement process,” Coe says. “With
people having questions about what’s going on, we want to invite them to
inquire about their problems and make it a smoother process. I like to solve
problems, so that was one thing that attracted me to the job.”

Though Coe is new to UVAFinance, he’s no stranger. He
learned about the opening from his sister Addie Coe, who also works in PSDS. In
addition, he may be familiar to a lot of us, as he bartended at Zin Burger in
Barrack’s Road for some time. Most recently, he worked at Lowe’s, a role he pivoted
to when restaurants shut down because of the pandemic. He began in hardware but
quickly moved to leading the internet sales unit, which has been booming. While
hesitant to leave the team he led at Lowe’s, the opportunity at UVA felt too
good to pass up.

Coe will be working primarily with Connie Alexander, Danae
Polemi, and Raegan Harouff Gaye, to whom he reports, but will also collaborate
with the rest of the procurement team. He fields incoming inquiries, an Anders-of-all-trades
if you will, addressing those he can and passing along those he can’t to the appropriate
person.

“My role is about being able to help out as much as I can
and to be able to give a warm handoff rather than a cold open for customers who
need assistance from someone else on the team. Not just being like, ‘You have
to go talk to this person,’ but being like, ‘I found out this much; let me
prime this person before they hop into fixing this issue for you.’” 

The timing of his joining the team, with UVA COVID-related
restrictions easing, enabled him to meet many of his colleagues in person early
on, which has helped him settle in. He reiterates just how welcoming and kind the
team has been.

Coe sums up the goal of his
new position as “being able to make the whole process of finding information
and learning how to do things for customers, whether they’re our vendors or
staff and faculty at UVA, a whole lot easier and feel a little better.”

Coe’s passions include playing music and acting. He loves to
perform. His first musical performance since COVID hit is coming up in
September. He’s also excited that Four County Players is resuming theater
productions and looks forward to future opportunities on the stage.