speaker-0: Welcome to CXO Loading. I'm Laura Miles, a CX director using this podcast to build the insight, technical confidence and career context that you and I need to make the move to C Suite. This conversation with Director of Customer Experience Lorena Lovrick is an honest conversation about AI for customer experience. Not the hype, but the leadership work that has to happen around the technology. Lorena is an award-winning agent-first CX leader. We talk about managing a team and customers through a huge challenge, creating the exceptional employee experience and using AI to remove the noise, not the people. Let's jump in. Senior leader in ZX, what is that like?

speaker-1: Crazy. The journey to get to this stage and my career has been the most wonderful and the ⁓ the most difficult journey of I've ever experienced. And so I started my journey on the front lines. So it's been very kind of just one step at a time. I went through every single level within the CX and ⁓ I would I would not have done it any other way.

speaker-0: No, I think it's there is something to be said about the firsthand experience. You know, I'm in a similar boat, been at the same organization for 13 years. Like we having the insights from each of those levels, no substitute. Absolutely no substitute. What do you think was kind of the biggest differentiator when you got to senior level?

speaker-1: Probably the stress level and just the level of responsibility. But honestly, I haven't really changed. I think I am exactly how I was back when I was an agent. we had we had a blast, so one of my favorite things that I took from the beginning of my career was that CX is supposed to be fun. We should have fun. It's not all about strategy, needs to be fun. And I think I still bring that to to all the way up now to the exact level and I don't think that will ever change.

speaker-0: Have you got any like really good anecdotes or kind of customer stories that kind of bring that to life? I happen to know it was a very leading question. ⁓ but I I love it when you kind of put it into context, ⁓ because there's the whole rumba ⁓ anecdote, right, in terms of CX and how you need to think about that and AI.

speaker-1: Yes, I'm big on anecdotes and metaphors. I think that's my new brand. Wow. So yes, I'm a big big fan of AI, but I think ⁓ people need to be a little bit more careful when they start implementing AI. ⁓ a lot of anecdotes come from our our journey towards implementation and optimization of AI in ⁓ now. ⁓ but yeah, the Roomba metaphor If you don't clean up your processes and your team before you bring AI in, they're it's like buying a Roomba, it just drags the mess all around your house.

speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I loved you know, when something makes complete sense. And I think, you know, it's a big thing for people at the moment. You know, everyone's on a different stage of their their AI journey, particularly I think in CX, because it's just the touch points are so widespread for organizations. How be you know, from a senior leader perspective in CX, how did you start to kind of get into AI in in your your journey?

speaker-1: Lucky, I worked in an amazing company that was very enthusiastic about letting us play with the AI without so much of the constant pressure. ⁓ let's just use it because we want to say that we're using AI. So I AI was my playground. ⁓ and I got to build it alongside the tech team and alongside my team. And one of my favorite things is that everything we build, we've built together in just CX and tech. It was literally the most beautiful collaboration. We actually won an award last year for our AI transformation. ⁓ yes, and it's been incredible.

speaker-0: It's amazing. ⁓ so I think that's really interesting to kind of play the CX so directly in that playground with with AI because I think because there's a customer on the end of this thing, I think people get super scared about it.

speaker-1: Exactly. And the patience, customer patience is borderline non existent. ⁓ you know, it's all about ⁓ we talked a little bit about it, the binge culture and the doom scrolling. Customers don't have the patience that they've had back in the days. It's so hard to keep their attention. So you gotta move fast, but you also they don't wanna repeat themselves. They no longer think in tickets. Your customers are not a ticket number. They don't think in priorities w what your priorities are. You gotta step in.

speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. A hundred percent. And I think, you know, you do such a good job at kind of keeping at the top of that that AI because it moves so fast all the time and you do so great at keeping on top of that. As a senior leader in CX, do you think the way you're using AI at the moment is a differentiator for you?

speaker-1: I believe it's very different. I mean, I feel like we all think we use it differently. ⁓ I I don't think anything when it comes to my leadership change per se. I think my principles stay the same, which is happy agents equal happy customers and I don't care how cliche that sounds, I will always keep on saying that.

speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. No, a hundred percent.

speaker-1: Nothing changed when it comes to my leadership, but everything else around us has changed. And obviously we are a lot faster, we're a lot more efficient, we have a lot more insights, we have a lot more data. Data has been something that's has almost been a luxury in the past, like getting those insights and platforms that did insights well were the leading platforms. Now you have everything you can possibly want when it comes to your data. It's almost like you have a little bit too much and you need to try and refocus yourself. ⁓ so that's been a very big change throughout my career.

speaker-0: Yeah, amazing. Is there anything else you're sort of doing at the moment to pure edge? 'Cause you know, you're at the top of those senior leaders in CX. What's the edge for you?

speaker-1: Yes, I'm a member of the most beautiful community. I might be a little bit biased, but the most beautiful community out there, which is Women in CX. And it's a group of wonderful, amazing women that are so happy to share what they're going through and and what they're working on. So that's been one of the biggest ⁓ sources of inspiration for myself. ⁓ I'm also a member of Genesis Orchestrators. ⁓ Another amazing community that that it's crazy to see what people are coming up with and how creative they're getting. and you know one of the Wix members, Elena ⁓ Marcel, ⁓ she's also doing she's actually writing a book right now, kind of can't wait for that to come out. ⁓ but she's doing ⁓ a newsletter that I'm ⁓ religiously sub subscribed to, ⁓ which is CX Strategy. ⁓ And it's such a great insight and and kind of helps me vocalize what I'm ⁓ stressed about in my career and feeling and helps me refocus. So those are some of the things that I do to try and stay relevant to what's going on.

speaker-0: Yeah, incredible. So I I'm also biased just for the context of the listeners as part of the same community. But I think for me, it's incredible to see the breadth, I think, of touch points we also have in that community. ⁓ like you say, from kind of strategy through to everything else, that just means that you, you know, you've got that that context. So for you, you sort of put this podcast together in the hope of, you know, pushing towards that kind of chief experience officer role. And I think again biased, but ⁓ you know, you're well on your way. What for you, if we were kind of putting together this, you know, the CXO Codex, what for you is up there? What what stress you, what tool?

speaker-1: Agents first, ⁓ and then any other tool. But if we're talking tools tools, you know what, to nobody's surprise, ⁓ to anybody that knows me, I will forever be saying that it's Genesis. Yeah. It's it's the platform that revolutionized our CX and that it keeps revolutionizing when we think we've built something amazing, it's just a platform that keeps giving you more and more. Yeah. And it also comes with a community. ⁓ which a lot of ⁓ companies like to say and platforms like to say that they do, but Genesis actually treats their customers as the first line of innovation. And that i ⁓ is in line with how I'm looking at our agents. They should be the first line of innovation and not the first line of defense. ⁓ so it's it's it's been incredible. For me it's definitely Gen Genesis. They are very cautious with how they launch AI. so ⁓ I feel safe. Trying and and playing with it and and launching it. They're very transparent when it comes to pricing, which we know today's a luxury. Yes, exactly. and very flexible. So number one tool, Genesis, but first talk to your team before you go any route.

speaker-0: Yeah. And I think, you know, if we were going to listen to anyone on that advice, it's you because you've had some incredible kind of ENPS results with your approach, haven't you? Yeah. Tell me a bit more about that.

speaker-1: It's it's crazy because one of our best ⁓ EMPS comes from the hardest period we've been through and that was a CPSC mandated recall. so for anybody that's been through it, you know, it's it's a a huge amount of volume. For us it was ⁓ a hundred and ninety four thousand customers that were impacted that all got notified about ⁓ product recall and we only had a team of fifteen agents. luckily, you know, we were working on a platform like Genesis that also comes with a lot of gamification. So we made our journey very fun. ⁓ there was a lot of tech tech ⁓ behind it that, you know, removed the noise for the agents, removed the the fraudulent attempts and everything from the agents, and then agents just got the the actual customers to deal with. So that was a huge help. But our EMPS ⁓ was eighty two and then ninety two. ⁓ throughout our recall process, which just goes to show that if you include them into your build, you know, there's a little bit of a sense of pride because then this is a team build. So if something goes wrong and it's not working the way you expected it, there's a lot more patience from the front lines because they've built it with you. And there's a lot of pride and and and you don't have to worry about the containment rate and whether they'll use it. They build it. They will use it.

speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. And did you find, you know, with all the AI and automation, was there anything you had to kind of drop? Did you have to push back or deprioritize anything to kind of make room for these?

speaker-1: Absolutely. I think one of the hardest things with AI is staying on track and just you pick one thing, you fix it, and you stay until it's fixed. It it opens up so much opportunity and possibilities that it's so easy to get excited. So staying on track has been very, very hard. So yes, I've been trying to step back a lot and just trying to focus on one thing at a time.

speaker-0: So for you, you know, you're not, yes, it's fifteen agents, but you know, you're you're running, you know, big organization, big global team. ⁓ we spoke a lot about the importance of fun, ⁓ keeping the guys involved. Like, how how are you doing that? Cause that is not easy.

speaker-1: It is not easy. It's not easy unless you have a team that's actually ⁓ it engaging. ⁓ we do a lot. I invest a lot of time in making sure that my agents know that this is a safe space, that it's okay to not to to have fun. ⁓ so I've been engaging them at the very beginning with like small things. Hey, let's do a photo challenge real quick in a group chat chat. Hey, like let's let's have a team building every f every last Friday of the month. So it took a while to get them to relax and to want to have fun with you and not to overthink, ⁓ my God, I'm talking to to a senior ⁓ leader. What do I can I say something? Should I say something? So it took us a while to get to that level, but ⁓ we do a lot of gamification inside our platform, outside our platform. We're so competitive. We're doing book clubs. One of our favorite things in the world is book club. Our book club is incredible. I'm in. I know. I love it. I will a hundred percent you're invited. We've done a step challenge. We've done a lot. We just always try to have fun. But I think most importantly, we celebrate each other's ⁓ special moments. And ⁓ they don't necessarily have to be a huge ⁓ life event, but we like to celebrate at any chance that we can. ⁓ and just cheer for each other. And I think That's what's kind of keeping us close and it's keeping everybody engaged and ⁓ we can have fun.

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean celebrating these wins is huge. Absolutely huge. They might feel small, I think, in context of what like I think in the moment everything feels huge, right? When it's when it's a win. So selfishly, you know, we're talking about progression. We we want to kind of push to that next leap. You can give one piece of advice. What is it? What's gonna what's gonna push me to to see it? So

speaker-1: Stay true to to who you are and what your leadership principles are. That would be my number one advice that I had to learn the hard way ⁓ in my career. And don't be afraid to make mistakes. I, especially with the AI, I would not have done anything differently, even though we have made a lot of mistakes along the way. But because it's such ⁓ new field out in the industry and nobody knows exactly how and where what the direction is. All those mistakes are gonna be so much more valuable ⁓ to what's yet to come ⁓ than than doing it properly. So don't be afraid to make a mistake, experiment, try it out, get involved with the industry and with with people like yourself and our beautiful communities. That would be my number one advice.

speaker-0: Amazing. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today, Lorena. It is it's been amazing. I've loved every second of it. And we'll make sure that your LinkedIn and your gorgeous website are in the show notes so people can stalk you as much as I do. and ⁓ yeah, thank you so much.

speaker-1: Thank you for having me. You made me feel so, so calm and welcome. And I love it. Thank you so much for having me.

speaker-0: You can find more resources from this episode, practical prompts and a growing CXO Codex at CXocodecs.com. Each episode is built to help turn good CX insight into their career moves, confidence and influence to take you to C Suite. If you want to keep the conversation going, you can join Women in CX. It's a brilliant space to connect with other senior CX leaders who are building, leading and shaping the future of customer experience. Subscribe, share and we'll see you next time on CXO loading.