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Jess Cervellon 34 min

The Versatility of CX Roles in Ecommerce


Jess and Nichole explore the importance of being available to your team, leveraging AI for better communication, and the integration of CX and marketing in Ecommerce. Nichole’s dedication to supporting the UCLA community through Ecommerce revenue showcases the broader potential of innovative CX strategies.



0:00

(water splashing)

0:01

- My name is Jess Servion,

0:03

and I'm super excited to bring you my new podcast,

0:05

The Juice With Jess.

0:07

This podcast, he's gonna be about everything

0:09

in your customer's journey.

0:10

We're talking acquisition, awareness,

0:13

making that purchase, retaining that customer,

0:16

bringing them back around, and everything in between.

0:19

This is gonna be all about delivering dope brand experiences

0:23

and talking to some really amazing people

0:26

who are in the customer experience space,

0:27

the marketing space, and everything in between.

0:30

(upbeat music)

0:32

Welcome back to another episode of The Juice With Me, Jess.

0:41

This week, I'm super stoked to bring you this episode

0:44

because guess what, my friends?

0:46

We are filming and recording in a penthouse suite

0:50

in the four seasons in Las Vegas at Shop Talk.

0:55

So kind of crazy.

0:57

You might hear some people in the background

0:58

because we also have an audience.

0:59

So real fun, but also this week,

1:04

I am joined by Nicole Ramirez.

1:06

Nicole is one of my dearest friends.

1:08

We met in a CX Discord, and she is now

1:13

the e-commerce manager for UCLA as in the school,

1:19

which is so cool, and we have a lot to unpack there.

1:22

Nicole, do you wanna tell the audience who you are?

1:25

Sure, so yeah, Nicole Ramirez,

1:27

I've been in the D2C and e-commerce space for about 15 years.

1:31

So kind of a generalist and a little bit of everything.

1:35

So I've been in marketing, I've been doing

1:38

warehouse management and also e-commerce.

1:41

So that's kind of what my role covers now at UCLA.

1:46

I work for one of the largest independent college bookstores

1:49

in the country at the number one public school

1:53

in the country.

1:54

So it's quite a cool place to be.

1:56

And so I manage the UCLA store website

1:59

and also the Bruin Team Shop,

2:01

which is a partnership we do with the athletics teams at UCLA.

2:05

So working with NIC and on all of that college athletics merch.

2:10

So it's really fun, really cool.

2:11

Yeah, I think that's really so interesting

2:15

because it goes to show you that one e-commerce, CX, UX,

2:21

all of these things, if you are selling something on the internet

2:25

or you're selling something at like a brick and mortar store,

2:27

you have a need for an experience, my friends.

2:31

You have a need for marketing.

2:33

Before we dive into it, I'd actually really,

2:35

'cause a lot of the audience is,

2:37

there's marketers out there,

2:39

but there's also a lot of like CXs out there.

2:41

And I'd really love to hear from your words,

2:44

what does an e-commerce manager do?

2:46

Yeah, so it's one of those kind of over-encompassing terms.

2:51

They can do all sorts of things.

2:54

What I do specifically as the e-commerce manager

2:57

is I make sure that the website is running correctly.

3:00

I work a lot with IT to make sure,

3:03

all the scripts that were running work

3:05

and all of the images look correct

3:07

and the SKUs are up and the descriptions are accurate

3:12

and compelling.

3:13

And so I work a lot with the buyers and a lot with IT

3:16

to make sure that's really robust.

3:19

But also I manage the fulfillment team,

3:21

so everyone who's actually packing up the orders

3:24

and sending them out.

3:25

And also the customer service team.

3:28

So we have a whole customer service team as well

3:31

as part of the e-commerce department.

3:32

Yeah, it's like all encompassing from the experience.

3:35

As part of the e-commerce department.

3:36

All encompassing.

3:37

Well, I would love to know,

3:40

like how did you get this job?

3:42

Yeah, like I said, I'm very much a generalist.

3:45

I've worn a lot of hats in my different career paths.

3:48

And I actually got it on LinkedIn,

3:51

which is like, you know, in our spaces

3:54

we tend to work a lot on referrals

3:56

and someone recommends you for a job.

3:57

And that's how I've gotten jobs for quite a while.

4:00

But this one, it just ticks all the boxes

4:02

because I had had experience setting up a warehouse

4:06

and setting up, you know, picking strategies

4:09

and things like that and running a warehouse team.

4:11

I had also had experience in marketing

4:14

and in running an e-commerce website.

4:17

And so they were having a hard time finding someone

4:20

who had that very well-rounded experience.

4:24

And so I applied in March of last year

4:29

and got hired in July.

4:31

So it was definitely, academia is very different.

4:34

(laughing)

4:36

It moves so slow.

4:37

Yeah, I actually wanna dive a little bit into that.

4:40

Yeah. But I do have one comment to make.

4:42

And this is just for like anybody listening.

4:44

Like, even though we're talking about Nicole

4:47

being a general list in the CX world

4:50

and like e-commerce world.

4:51

And specifically we're talking about UCLA.

4:54

I think it really goes to show you though, CXers, right?

4:58

People who work in experience are also marketers.

5:02

We're also UX people.

5:04

We're also the film and scene-iron people.

5:06

Like we are generalists

5:08

and we can run so many different types of roles

5:12

as they touch customer touch points.

5:14

And you're a prime example of this.

5:16

And I'm like super proud of you.

5:19

Well, thank you.

5:20

I really appreciate it.

5:21

Yeah, as a CXer, like the first role that I got

5:25

where I was the customer experience manager,

5:28

I got the role because I had a marketing background

5:30

and because the company was looking to really fine tune

5:35

and provide a white glove experience for their customers

5:38

because they had a very specific product.

5:40

Education behind it was a little bit tricky

5:43

and it was also a really high-tech cost.

5:45

And so they had been using a BPO

5:48

and we're looking to have like really specialized

5:51

customer service as part of their team.

5:53

And so they hired me.

5:54

I came in and ran my first CX team,

5:57

developing the brand voice,

5:59

teaching the customers the different profiles

6:02

of our customers and how to communicate with each one.

6:05

We tended to have customers that were a little bit older,

6:08

kind of boomer aged.

6:09

And so, picking up that phone was just,

6:12

it meant so much to them.

6:13

And so just really paying attention

6:15

to who your customers are and meeting them

6:18

where they wanna be met and just taking that extra step.

6:21

And so that was something that I did there,

6:23

helped develop that.

6:24

And they were amazing.

6:26

And basically, once we got those specialists set up,

6:28

they were just running on their own.

6:29

And so I pivoted more towards the e-commerce

6:32

and bring that CX and that marketing bit

6:34

into the e-commerce space.

6:36

- Girl, I love it.

6:37

'Cause this is literally what I've brought.

6:38

- Yeah, yeah.

6:39

- Like all the time, right?

6:40

It's about like brand experience

6:42

and like brand experience is like in every avenue of it,

6:45

but also like knowing your audience.

6:48

'Cause not every setup that you have

6:50

is gonna work for every single one of your audiences.

6:53

- Yeah.

6:53

Man, I really wanna dive into that.

6:55

What does retention look like?

6:57

I mean, I know you briefly touched it,

6:59

but what does retention look like

7:02

in a nonprofit organization, right?

7:04

'Cause we're so used to it being revenue, revenue, revenue,

7:08

revenue, right?

7:08

Like I'd love for you to just double click into that.

7:11

- Yeah, so revenue is definitely still

7:14

an important consideration for us.

7:16

All of the money that we make, like I said,

7:17

goes back into the university.

7:20

And it's going in through student government,

7:23

student activities, the student unions.

7:25

So we are the core place where,

7:28

especially new students come to like build

7:31

their college experience on campus.

7:32

And the money that we make in store and online

7:36

all goes back to fun.

7:37

Those experiences also things like scholarships

7:41

and all sorts of really important activities

7:44

that happen on campus.

7:46

And so it's, I still am in that revenue generating mindset

7:51

because I want to make money to go towards those things.

7:56

But it just feels really fulfilling to know

8:00

that what I'm working towards,

8:02

I can see it a really actionable thing on campus.

8:06

Like we'll see therapy dogs come in

8:09

and know that it's midterms

8:12

and we have therapy dogs on campus

8:14

and the money that we made slinging t-shirts, you know,

8:18

is creating these experiences for these students

8:20

to help them through their college career.

8:23

So yeah.

8:24

- God, that's actually really amazing, right?

8:26

'Cause I think we talk in e-commerce a lot

8:29

about wine, sustainability, giving back,

8:31

like all of these things.

8:32

Like I've worked with several brands that like,

8:34

oh, I want to give back

8:35

and I want to do all this stuff.

8:36

And like they're like, I don't know,

8:38

like Feasibles was like giving back in planting trees, right?

8:43

So, but I think what's really interesting is that

8:46

because you're a nonprofit

8:48

and because you have all of these like programs

8:51

for students that you're giving like funds back to, right?

8:55

It's like in a way, that's your revenue, right?

8:58

Like that's your revenue

9:00

and it's like in to see the direct impact.

9:03

- Oh yeah, 100%.

9:04

One really cool program that we have on campus

9:07

is that we are the largest student employer in Westwood,

9:12

which is where the university is located.

9:14

So, and we're also an on-campus employer.

9:17

So we actually work around the students' schedules

9:21

with their school.

9:22

School always comes first.

9:23

We have very limited hours available to them

9:26

to make sure that they're not just, you know,

9:29

working, working, working

9:30

that they have the time to focus on their schoolwork.

9:33

But it's really great to work with these students.

9:35

They're so smart.

9:37

They're so talented.

9:39

And I get to build relationships with the folks

9:43

that what we're doing is actually helping.

9:45

And so that really, really means a lot.

9:47

- I think it's just amazing.

9:48

I think it's really awesome

9:49

because it's like we all, again,

9:51

like we wanna do like sustainability

9:53

and we wanna give back and all these things,

9:55

but it's like you have this like really dope e-commerce,

9:59

customer experience program.

10:01

They're actually like getting to see the impact.

10:04

And I think that's really, that's really cool.

10:07

I definitely wanna dive more into that,

10:08

but I, this question like kind of popped into my head

10:12

while we were chatting.

10:14

So we're talking about like the customer service team, right?

10:16

What types of inquiries do they get?

10:18

Because here's why I'm asking this.

10:21

Coming from festivals, right?

10:23

Gen Z can be difficult, be your best worst enemy, okay?

10:28

So I'm curious, like what types of questions

10:30

are your customer service team getting

10:33

from students as well as parents?

10:36

- Yeah, so it is surprisingly parallel

10:40

to traditional DTC because it's things like,

10:43

where's my order?

10:44

How do I return this?

10:45

Things like that.

10:47

But we also deal with in-store pickups.

10:49

So we're fulfilling items that are very non-traditional,

10:52

like you're capping down,

10:54

things that have very sentimental meaning behind,

10:58

like they're very, very important.

10:59

And so really providing that experience

11:02

where the customer places their order,

11:04

we have everything ready for them,

11:06

we're able to hand it over them directly.

11:09

It's just really cool to experience.

11:11

And it's really great that it's student to student

11:13

because my students are mostly sophomores and juniors.

11:17

And so they get to be the ones that are handing off

11:19

the capping down to the seniors,

11:21

which I think is pretty cool.

11:22

- Yeah.

11:23

- So yeah, man, that's awesome.

11:24

So you seem like a really analytical person

11:28

and wanting to really improve programs

11:33

and understand data.

11:34

What type of data are you looking at

11:36

when it comes to the CX department?

11:38

- Yeah, so we brought on a platform when I was there.

11:42

Like I said, academia is a different piece for sure.

11:46

Things move at their own pace.

11:48

So I don't want to freak you out too much.

11:51

But when I got there, there was 20 people

11:54

using a shared Outlook box.

11:56

- Oh God.

11:56

(laughing)

11:57

- So God, how many inquiries were they getting a day?

12:02

- Probably 50 to 60.

12:04

But they were all working two, three, four hours a day.

12:08

So, and many people with their hands in it daily.

12:12

And so the first thing I did, I was like,

12:14

no, no, no, this is not going to work.

12:16

And so we brought in a platform

12:17

that would manage that, a CX platform.

12:21

And so that's been really great

12:22

because that data just didn't exist before I got there.

12:25

So the cool thing about the platform that we use

12:28

is that before you can even respond to an email,

12:32

you have to categorize it.

12:33

So it won't even let you hit send

12:35

until you put it in a category.

12:37

And so we're able to do that really high level,

12:40

filtering and organizing right at the beginning.

12:45

And then we do, it has macros and tags

12:48

and all of that sort of thing.

12:49

But I've really found that that little step of just,

12:53

you have to think about what is actually going on in here

12:56

and put it in a category.

12:58

- Yeah.

12:58

- The time that it takes to do that

13:00

is maybe a little bit prohibitive,

13:03

but the fact that they had to do it

13:05

and they had to think about it,

13:07

that data is really clean.

13:09

- Yeah.

13:10

I mean, I think that's like the biggest problem.

13:12

Well, when we're talking about customer support agents,

13:15

right?

13:15

Like, I don't care what level you're in,

13:17

when you're in it and you're clacking away, right?

13:21

It's really hard to remember,

13:24

I have to do all these other things.

13:26

And then like, and if you don't create that habit

13:29

and you don't continue that habit,

13:30

your data can be so messy.

13:32

So I love that you've created an agent experience

13:36

that makes it a lot, a lot quicker and cleaner, right?

13:42

Like, 'cause I think that that's like super important.

13:45

I've been on like so many different platforms

13:49

where it's like, if you don't tag it, right?

13:50

Or if like, if it's not a requirement,

13:53

then the agents will like just put other.

13:55

So yeah, so I think that it's,

13:58

I think it's really important to like have clean data,

14:01

but to also instill a process that is easy for the agents.

14:05

- For sure.

14:06

Yeah, and we've been really happy with our platform.

14:08

It's actually the first time that I've used

14:10

something that has integrated AI,

14:12

which has been really interesting to use

14:15

and really helpful for the students.

14:17

I mean, one thing that I've really learned about students

14:20

is that a lot of them, especially this generation,

14:25

Gen Z, like this is legitimately their first job.

14:28

They grew up in the pandemic.

14:29

They didn't have the experience like I did,

14:31

where I was 16 and slinging t-shirts like, yeah.

14:34

- At the store, yeah.

14:36

- Like that wasn't a thing for them.

14:37

And so this is their first job

14:39

and they're really high performing

14:41

and they wanna do really well.

14:42

But that means sometimes they come off a little robotic.

14:45

They come off a little bit to like,

14:48

like they're talking from a manual

14:50

because they just are so interested

14:52

in doing the job correctly

14:53

that they don't always make that step to be more conversational

14:58

and more friendly.

15:00

And the AI has really given them that tool

15:02

where I've told them, you know,

15:04

our AI does this and gives these kinds of responses.

15:07

Those are more than okay to use.

15:09

We want you to feel like you're talking to your friend

15:11

when you're doing it.

15:13

And the fact that the AI is the one telling them, you know,

15:15

this is how to respond, has really trained them over time,

15:20

you know, to take that on on their own

15:22

and be more conversational and be more friendly.

15:24

'Cause a lot of time it's students talking to students

15:27

a lot of the time.

15:28

And so we want it to feel like that.

15:30

We want that to be the experience

15:32

that a student or an alumni is reaching out

15:34

about their order, that they know

15:36

that they're talking to a student

15:37

and that the fact that they purchase from us means

15:39

that they're supporting their school

15:41

in a really actionable way.

15:43

And so it's super important for me running the CX team

15:47

to make sure that, you know,

15:49

they're having that conversational back and forth

15:53

and so it's seeming like they're just talking to a chatbot.

15:55

Guess what, fam?

16:00

The customer community is back.

16:02

If you're not already familiar with the community,

16:04

you can sign up to get your questions answered,

16:06

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16:08

and connect with other professionals in the CX space.

16:11

Check it out today at community.customer.com.

16:14

See you there.

16:15

I mean, I think that's really interesting.

16:21

You brought up like a couple of things

16:23

that I actually want to like touch into,

16:24

but like one, before we even get into talking about AI,

16:29

how did you develop the brand voice?

16:32

Like in general, like how did you train the agents

16:35

and your team, not even just the agents,

16:37

like everybody under you,

16:39

like under the entire e-commerce department

16:41

about the brand voice?

16:43

Because if I was walking into it in my day one,

16:46

I would be like, okay, these are students

16:47

and these are parents and these are alumni, right?

16:50

And that's like really great, but it's like,

16:52

I wouldn't think about like what my voice would be.

16:55

Like how did you approach that?

16:56

Yeah, so one thing that I really lucked out is that

17:00

we are part of Associated Students UCLA

17:04

and it's an organization that's been around

17:06

since the school started since 1919.

17:09

So there's a really long history behind it

17:12

and they have a really strong voice

17:14

and they have a mission statement

17:16

and I can look up the ethics

17:18

and I can look up everything that I want to know

17:21

about the kind of messages that we want to convey.

17:26

And so I really use that as a foundation.

17:29

And so I make it a point, you know,

17:32

to really make sure that the students,

17:35

when they're communicating, are thanking the people

17:38

who are purchasing from us because they could buy that shirt

17:41

or that hat at Target, at genetics,

17:44

at any of our big competitors.

17:46

And I want them to know, you know,

17:48

every time they purchase from us,

17:50

it's helping the students on campus

17:53

and a lot of them once were students on campus

17:55

and remember that experience and have really fond memories

17:59

of what it was like to be at school.

18:01

And yeah, so we have some very loyal customers

18:04

just for that particular reason

18:06

because maybe they worked at the store

18:09

when they were a student and they remember what it's like.

18:12

And so just reminding them, you know,

18:14

that that is what they are helping to build

18:17

when they make that purchase is golden.

18:21

Like I couldn't ask for more.

18:22

It's really, really wonderful.

18:24

And I just leverage it at any opportunity

18:26

because I think it's our strongest selling point.

18:28

- Absolutely.

18:29

You know, the brand voice is like so different, you know what I mean?

18:32

Because it's like you have these loyalists already

18:35

because they have these shared memories.

18:37

It's very sentimental, right?

18:39

So it's like you want to appreciate that

18:41

and you want to like display that.

18:43

I think that's really awesome.

18:45

So let's actually dive into the AI piece then.

18:48

I'd love to hear like, okay,

18:49

so you've developed out this brand voice.

18:52

You've done these things.

18:53

But then like, what's the next step of that?

18:56

Like if you're putting that into AI,

18:58

like how did you train the AI

19:01

to be like very thoughtful and sentimental?

19:04

- Yeah.

19:05

So we're really lucky with the platform that we use.

19:08

A lot of the AI training comes from a knowledge base

19:11

that we build out directly.

19:13

So with our policies and procedures,

19:15

but also with things like our brand voice.

19:18

And so we're able to really train that AI

19:23

in how to respond.

19:24

And it does things like you can actually,

19:27

it gives recommendations.

19:28

A lot of them are really good,

19:29

but you can also just go in automatically

19:32

and edit those and change what you need to.

19:35

But it'll also have this,

19:37

it has this feature that I really love

19:38

that's just make it friendlier.

19:41

So like I said, our students sometimes struggle

19:44

with trying to be very professional

19:45

and really come across, you know, more like a manual

19:48

or how to then conversational.

19:51

And so just the opportunity to just, you know,

19:54

write out what you would want to write out

19:56

and then select make it friendlier

19:58

has been really, really helpful for them.

20:01

- Wow.

20:02

Okay, cool.

20:03

I love that.

20:05

Like, do you ever experience the AI though?

20:08

Having any sort of like, we call them hallucinations.

20:10

- Oh yeah, for sure.

20:12

How do you manage that?

20:13

- I always train our students.

20:17

And also I work in tandem with our CX manager

20:20

who's really, really amazing.

20:23

The AI is a tool, it's not a replacement.

20:25

And so, you know, it's gonna suggest things.

20:28

You have to actually read it, you have to look at it.

20:30

I don't want them to just send the boilerplate AI

20:34

out into the world.

20:35

It's a foundation, it's a starting point.

20:37

You still have to build from there

20:39

and you also have to double check it

20:41

and make sure that it's accurate

20:43

and that it's not, you know, going off the rails.

20:45

And so that's a big part of the training

20:48

is that it's a tool, it's not a replacement.

20:50

- How do you train your agents to QA along the way too?

20:55

Like, or do you have one?

20:56

'Cause I run into this a little bit, right?

20:58

Like, I will, there's like a couple of brands

21:02

that I've, you know, advise or consult with.

21:05

And I've run into this before where the AI kind of just,

21:10

like has these hallucinations,

21:12

but then like the agents didn't like tell me about it.

21:14

So I'm like, well, how am I gonna QA this?

21:16

- Right, right.

21:18

That's actually something we haven't really done much of,

21:21

but it's something that I'm definitely gonna have to go in

21:24

and try to figure out.

21:26

We are working with a platform

21:29

and they're pretty great at keeping it up to date.

21:33

And anytime we have questions, you know, they follow through.

21:36

But yeah, I really haven't.

21:38

Yeah, something of like, oh!

21:40

- I know, I know, I think that's totally fine.

21:42

Like, listen, like this is a very honest conversation, right?

21:45

- Yeah, oh, for sure, yeah.

21:46

- We're not gonna have all the answers, but--

21:47

- Yeah, and it's so new.

21:48

It's something, yeah, yeah.

21:49

- Yeah, and I think that that's the thing

21:51

is that we have to think about with AIs that it's really dope.

21:56

Like you can utilize it for these process,

21:57

but you still have to keep it with boundaries.

22:01

And you can't forget about that, you know?

22:05

I recently was like teaching a workshop

22:09

and that, and like people were like,

22:11

"Oh, well, how do you deal with like the hallucination?"

22:13

It's the same question I asked you.

22:14

And I'm like, "Listen, my dudes."

22:17

Like, you gotta put some boundaries around this.

22:19

You also gotta create a QA process.

22:22

Like, it's not the end all be all.

22:24

It ain't replacing your job.

22:25

It's just helping you with your job.

22:27

- Is that okay?

22:28

- That's it.

22:29

What's the pain point that you'd love AI to solve for?

22:34

Besides tickets, though?

22:35

- I wanted to go to my meetings for me

22:38

(laughs)

22:39

and take notes.

22:40

- Girl.

22:41

(laughs)

22:42

- Girl.

22:42

- It's all of those things that, you know,

22:44

it's the struggle of everyone who is moving upward

22:48

in their career the more time you spend in meetings

22:51

and the less time you spend, you know,

22:53

having time to actually do work.

22:55

(laughs)

22:56

- I know.

22:56

I hear you.

22:57

- Yeah.

22:58

- I hear you.

22:59

Are there any other places that UCLA is leveraging AI?

23:03

- Yeah, so the campus, I mean,

23:07

they have a whole department in Anderson

23:10

that is really leveraging AI in interesting ways.

23:14

We're really lucky that we are on campus.

23:18

So we haven't quite used it for AI yet,

23:21

although that's something that definitely

23:22

we should look into, but we have done things like

23:26

there's a course, there's a professor who teaches

23:29

a course on Google Analytics.

23:31

And so we gave them access to the stores, Google Analytics,

23:35

and they did their whole semester

23:38

just about analytics from the store.

23:40

And I was able to tell them,

23:42

well, I'd like to know if A, B and C happens,

23:45

what is the, you know, that sort of thing.

23:47

And so there were about six different cohorts,

23:50

and I was able to tell them

23:52

what I wanted them to look into into the site.

23:55

And then their finals all came back to me.

23:58

And so I had just, you know--

24:00

- Dude. (laughs)

24:01

You got this army of people who are like QA-ing things?

24:05

Hell yeah.

24:06

Make them start a QA process for your AI.

24:09

- Yes, exactly.

24:10

- Make it self-training.

24:11

- Yeah, yeah, totally.

24:11

Yeah.

24:12

One of the really interesting things that we learned from that

24:15

is because we are nonprofit,

24:17

we don't do a lot of fundraising or anything like that.

24:22

That's not related to UCLA directly,

24:24

but athletics came to us during the wildfires in Maui.

24:29

Everyone was doing Maui strong related things,

24:31

and they really wanted to make a Maui strong UCLA t-shirt.

24:35

And they asked us to make it.

24:38

And so I was able to have Anderson do a deep dive

24:42

to see how that affected our sales

24:45

and how much it made it rise or lower.

24:49

And if it was something that was directing traffic

24:53

to our site that would have come through,

24:55

you know, non-traditional channels.

24:57

And so it was really cool to just be like,

24:59

we've never done this before.

25:00

Can you guys take the time and dig into it?

25:04

'Cause it's something I don't have time to do.

25:06

- Yeah.

25:07

- And yeah, it's really great.

25:08

And they really enjoy working with actual data.

25:12

- Yeah.

25:13

I know, I love it.

25:15

I'm a data nerd.

25:15

So like for me, I'm like,

25:17

"Tell me more about these insights that you've gotten."

25:21

Well, I actually do have one, another question about it

25:23

is like besides the Maui strong,

25:25

like what's some feedback that you've gotten

25:29

from like in your overall CX department,

25:34

not even just the customer service,

25:37

like e-commerce, like everything

25:39

that you've leveraged to make the experience better

25:43

for the students.

25:44

- Yes.

25:45

- What's your favorite one?

25:46

- I have to go into returns for us.

25:49

We're not doing anything amazing.

25:51

We're doing pretty basic things.

25:53

But one thing also dealing with academia

25:56

is that the person who had the job before me

25:59

had worked there for 35 years.

26:01

She had been there before there was a website.

26:04

- No way.

26:04

- And so there were certain processes

26:06

that you just kind of learn along the way.

26:09

They had an issue where the customers were the ones

26:12

who were generating the return labels

26:13

and because we're on campus,

26:15

the chances of that package would actually get to us

26:18

because they were just like,

26:20

"You see, we're centered at UCLA, UCLA, Westwood."

26:23

Off it goes.

26:24

And so they had built a really protective

26:28

of the store return policy

26:30

where the customer actually had to have a signature

26:32

required on their returns, which is wild.

26:35

(laughs)

26:37

And so one of the first things I did was

26:39

go in and try to make it more customer friendly.

26:41

Now they contact us.

26:42

We generate that label for them.

26:44

So we know our address.

26:46

We know we're gonna provide them with something

26:47

that's correct.

26:48

We're able to keep the costs down for things like that.

26:51

And we actually leverage it as a benefit saying,

26:54

"We heard you, we listened to you, we sent out an email

26:57

"to everyone who had ever done a return."

27:00

Because the thing that I was hearing

27:01

when I first came in was, "Your return policy sucks.

27:04

"I'm never gonna buy from you guys again."

27:06

- Yeah.

27:07

- I agreed. (laughs)

27:09

And so I made a point once we changed that policy

27:13

to message everyone who had ever done a return on the site

27:16

and said, "You know, we listen to you.

27:17

"This is our policy now.

27:19

"It's really easy.

27:20

"It's a free return.

27:21

"Email us and we'll send you the label."

27:23

So yeah.

27:24

And we heard immediately, you know, a response to that.

27:27

- Wow.

27:28

- And that email actually generated quite a lot.

27:31

(laughs)

27:31

So yeah.

27:32

- That's awesome.

27:33

Listen to all the fam out there,

27:35

like listening or viewing or whatever.

27:38

I just wanna point out, Nicole has changed

27:41

the customer experience of UCLA.

27:43

And I encourage you all to go and purchase a t-shirt from her

27:48

because she is developing a dope experience for UCLA.

27:52

And I think that's really awesome.

27:54

And I think it goes to show you like, you know,

27:55

that person that had that job before you,

27:57

they might have been there for 35 years,

27:59

but they would have like really stuck in their ways,

28:01

like doing their jams, like whatever.

28:03

But like, times change, you evolve.

28:07

And like technology changes and you have to constantly

28:10

like keep evolving.

28:11

And like, I think it's really important as you're looking

28:15

at your overall customer experience.

28:18

I don't mean just service.

28:19

I don't mean just website.

28:21

I mean like fulfillment, you know, your shopping cart,

28:26

any of these things, right?

28:29

You have to evolve with the times.

28:32

And it's really important.

28:33

- Yeah. - Yeah.

28:35

- Okay, I just have some fun questions for you.

28:38

- Yeah, I'm ready for it.

28:39

- What's your worst customer experience moment

28:41

that you've ever had?

28:42

- Oh man, what is my very worst?

28:46

Oh boy.

28:47

And saying this is really painful

28:52

as someone who's worked in CX and deals with fulfillment.

28:55

But I've had a couple of experiences

28:58

where a package has just gone MIA.

29:01

And then Cricut's from the brand.

29:04

Like that's, to me, that's the very worst

29:06

that you could do, especially like one of them

29:09

was like a $200 order that just like disappeared.

29:13

And to just like, I heard back from them,

29:16

oh, so sorry Cricut's.

29:18

And I was like, that's it, really?

29:21

So yeah.

29:22

So of course I never bought from that company again.

29:24

It's painful as a brand to really, you know,

29:29

have to make that step.

29:31

But when you make that step,

29:33

you just build those customer relationships.

29:35

I am constantly trying to tell people

29:40

that I've worked with at many different brands, you know?

29:43

Think of it as marketing expense.

29:44

Don't think of it as a CX expense.

29:46

Don't think of it as an e-com expense.

29:48

This is marketing.

29:49

So you have to spend like it's marketing.

29:52

- Yeah, I know.

29:53

And I think that's a common misconception

29:55

that like we think people think of CX as just support

30:00

just the community building.

30:02

Like I constantly have these conversations with people

30:04

where I'm like, it's not about like,

30:06

okay, it needs to go into the marketing department, right?

30:09

What I'm saying is that I think

30:12

that customer experience is marketing.

30:15

It's your brand experience.

30:17

Stand behind it.

30:18

- It's closer to anything that you could possibly do.

30:22

Even an Instagram ad is not going to be as compelling

30:25

as having an actual conversation with a person

30:28

who's at the brand.

30:29

So you have to treat it like the goal that it is.

30:32

It really, you know, it's the closest that you're going to get

30:35

to building a relationship with that customer.

30:37

- Absolutely.

30:38

- Yeah, you gotta leverage it as much.

30:39

- And there's so many different channels

30:40

and there's so many different things that you have to do.

30:42

It's just like, just focus on like building

30:45

a dope brand experience, man.

30:47

Okay.

30:50

- I'm excited about this one.

30:51

You ready?

30:52

- Yeah.

30:53

- What's a leadership principle that you stand by?

30:55

- I have an open door policy.

30:58

And it's not just like saying, I have an open door policy.

31:02

Like if my door is closed, I have a whiteboard on my door

31:05

that people can leave notes to let me know

31:07

that I need to follow up with them.

31:09

Like everyone who works under me and everyone that works

31:13

with me knows that you need those two minutes,

31:16

I'm going to set it aside for you.

31:18

And yeah, it eats into my day,

31:20

but we're able to accomplish so much.

31:22

And just, you know, in the moment,

31:24

just sitting around and talking about whatever is going on

31:29

and moving forward, then letting that fester.

31:32

And so 100% stand by having an open door policy

31:35

with everything, with ideas, with friction, with anything.

31:39

And it just helps everyone move forward.

31:42

- Yeah.

31:43

- So yeah.

31:43

- Absolutely, man.

31:44

I love that.

31:45

I love like being a good leader means like, you know,

31:48

not even just like coming to your office,

31:50

but like being available for your team.

31:52

- Yeah.

31:53

- And like, and establishing that line of communication.

31:57

- Yeah. Yeah.

31:58

And it was the same policy that I had

31:59

when I worked completely remote.

32:01

My team knew I was a Slack message away from a video call

32:04

and anytime they needed some FaceTime with me, you know,

32:07

as long as I wasn't already in a meeting,

32:10

I was there for them.

32:11

And if I was in a meeting, you know,

32:13

tell me you want to schedule a meeting with me

32:14

and we're on it.

32:15

So yeah.

32:16

- Yeah, absolutely.

32:17

Last one.

32:19

What's your favorite thing about working at UCLA?

32:22

- I love being on campus.

32:23

I didn't think I would.

32:25

It's a really long commute.

32:28

I live on the other side of town.

32:29

I live near downtown and I'm commuting all the way

32:32

over to the West side.

32:33

But there's a reason I love doing it.

32:35

It's just being on campus.

32:36

Like it's, there's always something going on.

32:39

There's always activities, you know,

32:41

there's been a lot of political unrest

32:44

and seeing that, you know, happen on campus

32:47

and seeing people using their voices

32:49

to really stand behind their beliefs.

32:52

Like it's really wonderful

32:54

and it's just a really cool environment.

32:55

And it's also a nice reminder of why I'm showing up

32:59

to work every day 'cause it's for those guys.

33:01

So yeah, I really love it.

33:03

- You have a community that you get to like visibly see

33:06

all the time and I think that's really dope.

33:09

- Well, I appreciate you coming on Nicole,

33:11

tell the audience where they can find you.

33:14

- Yeah, so I am on LinkedIn.

33:16

It's Nicole Ramirez.

33:17

Yeah, that's probably the easiest way to find me

33:20

or, you know, our Discord group,

33:22

which is how we met and I love it

33:24

and I love everyone there.

33:25

So yeah.

33:26

- Yeah, I will put Nicole's LinkedIn in the show notes

33:30

as well as an invite to the CX Discord that we met in.

33:34

And I appreciate you guys all for tuning in

33:37

to another week of the Jews.

33:39

And I'll see you and you can hear me

33:42

if you're listening next Thursday.

33:45

Toodles.

33:46

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33:48

- Hey, wow, you made it to the end of the episode.

33:51

That means that you like me and I like you,

33:54

which also means you should subscribe to this show.

33:57

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