Response Time: Vol. 31
In our latest “Response Time” interview, we ask Scott Donnelly, Customer Operations Enablement Manager at SiteMinder, which movie robot they'd choose as their AI sidekick, what advice they'd give to their peers in the customer service industry, and more.
You satisfy your customers, but can you satisfy our curiosity?
With Scott Donnelly, Customer Operations Enablement Manager at SiteMinder.
Please tell us a little bit about your company and what you do there.
SiteMinder is a market leader in the hotel technology space, with nine offices around the world and software in eight languages. Our platform is the leading distribution and revenue platform used by more than 41,000 hotels in over 150 countries to power over 120 million reservations each year. As the Customer Operations Enablement Manager, I work with our leaders in Support, Onboarding, and Success to drive outcomes for our team and our customers through existing and emerging technology, process, and experience improvement.
What word or phrase in customer service jargon should be retired?
Deflection – stop trying to get further away from your customers!
Which celebrity would be really great at your job, and why?
Thom Yorke (Radiohead) – a master of empathy, creativity, and technology, and someone who finds amazing things where all three collide.
What’s the most valuable thing that working in customer service has taught you?
Everyone is stressed, time poor, and doing their best. Customers don’t think of your product as being the center of the universe in the same way you do, so let’s all be patient and kind to each other :)
Describe the essence of great customer service using only three words.
Empathy, context, patience.
Which movie robot would you choose as your AI sidekick and why?
Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – a brilliant mind, and a reminder that a positive outlook can change an outcome. Also, I really, really like Radiohead.
What can you do that a bot will never be able to replicate?
Make hideous and preventable mistakes over and over that lead to cool ideas … GOOD LUCK ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever said/done to a customer?
- Forget to mute.
- Yell loudly at your misbehaving dog: “ARE YOU DOING A SH*T?”
- Be surprised when the customer you are trying to help says “I don’t think so, will that help?”
Do you identify more with the title “customer support,” customer service,” “customer success,” or “customer experience,” and why?
I can’t think of anything I care less about than what it’s called, but I wish we could just have one and stick to it. I feel for anyone trying to break into the industry and having to read an entire job ad to know if it’s the right role or not.
“Do everything you can to stay connected to your customers’ and your teams’ experiences”
What’s the one piece of advice you would give to your peers in the customer service industry?
Do everything you can to stay connected to your customers’ and your teams’ experiences. Emulate their experience from start to finish, talk to them directly, jump onto the support queue, buddy up with your agents. Get as many people in your business to do the same. Put the data you use to make decisions into the context of real experiences.
What book are you reading at the moment?
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Probably the most gut-wrenching and irredeemably bleak thing I’ve put myself through.
If customer service was an Olympic sport, what would be the main event?
Handball. A team with diverse skill sets, fast-paced, and a medium to high chance of being hit in the face.
“There are a thousand good moments every day, and they far outweigh the not-so-good ones”
What’s the best thing a customer has ever said to you?
“I now think of my experience using this software as ‘BS’ and ‘AS’ – before and after Scott.”
What gif best describes your mental state right now?
What do you wish people knew about working in customer service?
There are a thousand good moments every day, and they far outweigh the not-so-good ones.
If you wrote a book about your experiences in customer service, what would the title be?
“Customer service and Radiohead: How I went through my life only knowing lots about two distinct things and somehow managed to cram both of them into this 900-page novel that is not at all long-winded and strange.”
What’s your most used emoji in customer chats?
GOAT 🐐
Conversation closed… for now 😏