On this week’s episode of The Startup Smoothie podcast, Lydia Day, the Customer Operations Manager at CharlieHR, imparted her insightful beliefs on enhancing the employee experience and emphasizing customer obsession.
We began by discussing the role of HR professionals and how HR departments prioritize the organization's interests and advocating for employees. Lydia's input here is especially significant as she shared her experiences working with HR professionals and explained how HR departments can prioritize both employee growth and wellbeing, as well as the organization's interests.
She emphasized the importance of having customer obsession come from the top down in support by the CEO and customer function for delivering excellent customer experiences. Moreover, Lydia discussed how Culture Ops, or HR, must align closely with the outcomes of an organization to be successful. She discussed how involving people across the organization in customer support and sharing customer stories can bring more people into the customer's world.
Subsequently, we delved into the topics of upholding a careful balance between providing meaningful and strategic perks to employees and the importance of fostering growth opportunities within one's team. As our discussion drew to a close, Lydia offered valuable guidance to job seekers and underscored the importance of recruiting individuals who possess fervor for your product and customers. Furthermore, we touched upon the significance of job seekers prioritizing their search for a company that genuinely piques their interest.
All in all, it was a great conversation. Lydia's perspectives provide valuable insights into how to align your Culture Ops with organizational goals, create customer-focused cultures from the top down, and maximize both employee satisfaction and customer obsession.
Timestamps
0:04:36 Exploring Customer Obsession
0:06:33 Striking a Balance Between Employee Perks and Pay Increases
0:12:23 Exploring the Impact of Consumer Experience on CX Management
0:14:13 The Benefits of Offering High-Quality Customer Support
0:16:51 Creating a Positive Customer Experience Culture
0:20:07 Fostering Growth and Development within a Support Team
0:21:56 Open and Honest Communication for CX Professional Development
0:26:48 Supporting Team Development and Empowering Customer Teams
0:30:10 Empathy and Passion for Product Development
0:32:54 Conversation on Job Search Strategies and Mistakes to Avoid
Highlights
"At Charlie, we've coined the term Culture Ops, which describes lots of different functions and roles that would traditionally be responsible for HR. Our Culture Ops team is responsible for leading and iterating on our company processes which could be OKR processes, planning processes, and how we communicate progress. As a business, it's really important that all functions feel that they play a part in this, but especially our customer function."
"A big part of our culture at Charlie is that all functions within our organization feel that they have a voice and a platform to be heard."
"My biggest piece of advice for anyone who is currently in their job search or thinking about their next move is to treat the interview process as a two-way process. I think the best interviews are the ones where both parties are asking questions that are helping them to determine whether this is the right fit."
"We have a progression framework. Everyone within our organization is given a level within that framework on their different tracks. It could be a customer success associate or it could be a product designer. Whatever your kind of expertise is, you'll essentially have a level within that progression framework and it will be really clear about what is expected from you at the next level, and that's something that has been created by our Ops team."
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