The Super Pack
Everyone needs a reason to show up each day — a cause to be a part of, and a broader objective to work towards. I found mine when, as a product manager, I linked up with our amazing customer experience (CX) team, called the gTEAM. The gTEAM is highly regarded, and for good reason. They are one of the best, if not THE best CX team in the direct-to-consumer business. Their dedication, mindfulness and compassion for our customers is unmatched. And they work fast, with an average handle-time of less than 7 minutes, faster than one would brew and drink a cup of coffee.
Behind this incredible empathetic and tech savvy squad lies an almost invinc(s)ible technology built by a team of software engineers, data analysts, UX Researchers, and UI Designers. This is a cross-functional team that has authentic customer empathy for both our internal users and our customers — and who can architect, develop high standard tools and products, and understand what it means to ship high-quality code.
Leading this amazing team has taught me to listen, really listen to my customers so I can build a strategic roadmap that directly aligns to the organization’s goals, but also ensures the development of the product is directed by vision and priorities. Read on for examples of how we build this invincible and also invisible technology.
Improving interaction design:
One of my goals is to streamline our gTEAM’s daily tasks to allow them to continue to exceed our customers’ expectations. So making modifications to our UI, or user interface, to make it as intuitive as possible enables them to be more efficient and productive. One approach is to carefully consider each and every visual and interactive element the gTEAM editors encounter in their tools. This is where it’s been helpful to have taken UX Research & Design courses — I can quickly test and learn interaction patterns to inform the roadmap.
One thing we quickly realized was that some of the buttons in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform were misaligned and lacked consistency — for example, the “next” button for example was located on the bottom-right side of some pages but on the top-left of other pages. Reorganizing these buttons might have seemed like a small adjustment, but within the scope of how much time our team spends within this tool, it had a big impact.
Focus on usability for important tasks:
When I first joined the team, a primary issue was how many step it took to process an RMA. RMA, or a return merchandise authorization, is the process of returning a product to receive a refund.
Returns are an inevitable part of running an e-commerce business (or any consumer business!), and our gTEAM ensures the customer satisfaction by replying to these customers in a timely manner — but their process was cumbersome. To fix this, we built a quick-tap tool for gTEAM that cuts the time it takes to handle an RMA by 84%, cutting a 25-click operation to a mere 4 clicks.
Don’t forget the value of integrations and data:
Having shadowed the gTEAM for almost 3 years, I’m focused on continually improving the CRM platform we use by implementing customized integration between our systems, so our gTEAM doesn’t have to waste time toggling between platforms. When our tools can help them manage centralized data, they can respond to our customers’ needs more quickly.
As a brand that is dedicated to deliver the best experience for its customers, we use different concessions to rectify issues our customers encounter from time to time, like they would with any retailer, whether it’s placing a complementary order, offering store credit, or adjusting an order total. With the help of the Data team, we realized we had an opportunity to introduce better tracking into when and why these solutions are used. Incorporating this analysis helps us across the company — for example, we can feed this data back to the product development team. It also gives us the ability to know where to invest in improving our digital platform!
Fundamentally, the relationship between technology and quality customer service is about making sure your internal and external customers feel they are appreciated and treated fairly. More than just a speedy response, we work to go beyond reacting to customers’ problems but instead anticipating them, and nurturing our connections with them so they feel like an integral part of our community. Our gTEAM Editors are experts in our customers and their needs; my team is made of amazing engineers who bring their unique abilities, strengths and perspectives to these alliances. When we are working together to solve a challenging problem, we feel stronger through collaboration. It’s all about teamwork!
