Love Wellness: Every Employee Answers 2 Support Emails a Day

Love Wellness: Every Employee Answers 2 Support Emails a Day

Introduction

Customers are undeniably at the heart of every business. While each department interacts with customers to some extent, the Customer Experience (CX) team stands out for having the most direct contact.

In any business, the CX team goes beyond merely addressing inquiries; they serve as the direct link to understanding customers' thoughts and feelings.

Ever wondered if every department could tap into the same direct connection that the CX team enjoys?

Well, that's precisely what Amanda Kwasniewicz, VP of Customer Experience at Love Wellness, a personal care product brand, is making happen.

Amanda has created a 6 week CX training program to ensure that every team member, from the office manager to the CEO, is aligned with the principles of exceptional customer service.

But why?

A well-structured CX training program can bridge the gap between departments, fostering a culture of understanding and collaboration.

With better communication, you have a better team, better product, and happier customers.

Let’s take a look at how you can bring a CX training program to your company in just 6 steps.

Step 1: Explain The Why

“Sometimes you have to put your hand on the hot stove to realize it's hot.”

At Love Wellness, Amanda leads a comprehensive six-week CX training program to ensure that every team member, regardless of their role, can truly understand the mind of the customer.

The CX team paraphrasing customer feedback to the rest of the business is very different from a team member now being the one to directly answer to the customer.

“Someone telling you it's hot doesn't really do it. Sometimes you have to feel it yourself.”

By involving the entire business, this the stage for a shared understanding of the importance of customer service in the overall success of the company.

Step 2: Host Kick-off Session

Amanda kicks off the 6-week CX training program with a two-and-a-half-hour intro session.

This kick-off includes topics such as:

• What is CX?

• Training program structure

• Resources on the website

• CX team tools

The types of tickets trainees will help answer fall into four categories: fulfillment, delivery, general sales, and returns. And the reason is because these types of tickets often have repeatable steps and can be easier for someone new to CX to start out with.

Then, explaining the data within the CX tools is a helpful step to show, “what your work translates to.

"It's not just an email.”

Step 3: Set Flexible Program Structure

The overall program is 6 weeks and the main goal is: answer 2 emails per day.

This can be to new customers or replying to existing threads. There is also no set time of when these emails need to be sent, Amanda says that some folks like to get it done right in the morning or during their lunchtime.

It’s important to be cognizant that everyone has their own separate workload on top of this and people can manage themselves so there is no strict rules.

With this balanced amount of work, Amanda noticed that,

“People can feel the impact they're making. They're actually involved enough that they're doing work, but not so much that they're not able to complete their personal workload.”

Step 4: Maintain the Program with Slack Channels

A Slack channel is created for the participants in the program to act as a safe space to ask and get questions about tickets answered.

The channel even has notifications set up at 10AM and 3PM to remind everyone to answer their emails for the day if they haven’t.

Amanda notes that Slack, “does quite a bit of heavy lifting for us” so the CX team doesn’t have to be one to remind which overall creates a more free space for people to get the work done on their own time.

“We give people a lot of space to have the agency to make their own decisions as long as they get their work done.”

Step 5: Handle Challenges in Employee Participation

Overall, there aren’t big issues in participation that Amanda has faced. Employees have had a really great attitude and even get competitive, requesting for more difficult tickets to handle.

To monitor the quality of responses to tickets, at the end of the week, a CX team member overseeing the program will check the CSAT scores and share positive feedback with the whole business.

This type of positive encouragement helps motivate the whole team to continue on with the training.

Of course, since everyone is also balancing their own workload, there are cases where some people fall behind.

“Despite this being extra work, people did really care about doing it right, even if it was extra. It was really nice to see that people had our backs. They knew that if they didn't do the work, CX would have to do the work.”

In a case where a team member only answered two emails the previous week, the CX team would have a quick check-in with that individual.

The CX team would ask questions such as:

• Can we help schedule something to get you up to speed?

• Where does this work fit in your schedule?

It’s important to be flexible in this situation and offer as many resources as you can to help out.

A word of advice from Amanda is to encourage everyone to answer the two emails per day first thing in the morning so you can be set and get on with the rest of your day without having to be concerned about it.

Step 6: Run Shadowing Sessions

One of the highlights of the 6-week CX training program is the shadowing sessions which come during weeks 3 and 4.

How it works:

• All trainees shadow 2 CX team members for 30 minutes

• CX team members then shadow the trainee for 30 minutes

• Share what you learned about your teammate (about their role or even their personal life, anything counts!)

The greatest benefit is the connections that form from these shadowing sessions. Amanda recounts a story of an Ops team member and CX team member shadowing each other, “now they work on projects together every single week. When the Ops team has something going on, they come directly to my CXer.”

It’s more than just professional connections as well.

“There's a girl on my team and the finance team who go to workout classes every week. And someone product development team with my team member, they started a book club.”

This part of the program fosters a collaborative culture across departments and connects people that wouldn’t otherwise meet.

Conclusion

This 6-week CX training program Amanda has implemented at Love Wellness has cultivated a customer-centric culture within the company that helps build a strong foundation for every team member.

By taking a peek into the world of customer experience, employees gain a better understanding of the customer which ultimately helps them in their respective roles.

This shared understanding encourages collaboration across departments, creating a more interconnected and customer-focused workplace.