Who is Mandy?

Meet Mandy Scott, CX Manager at Groove Life!

About Groove Life

Groove Life wants to share with the world for the first time a breathable ring that is perfect for an active lifestyle. Wearing your hard metal ring on the job or at the gym is uncomfortable and sweaty. More importantly, you run the risk of losing your finger if your ring is caught on something. We made Groove to solve these problems so that you can push your limits, achieve your goals, and live life to the fullest. Since launching in 2016 with our Groove ring, we have added belts, wallets, watch bands, and air pod cases to the Groove Life collection.

Mandy’s CX Journey

After working 13 years as a nurse, Mandy decided to focus all her energy on homeschooling her daughters. “It was hard because I like to work,” she recalls. “But I committed to it knowing that once they were old enough, I would go back.” Once that time came, she learned about a small company called Groove Life, which was known for hiring homeschool moms like herself. Soon after, Mandy got a part-time entry-level job at Groove Life, processing returns for its ‘try on’ program.

When the ‘try on’ program ended, Mandy transitioned to a part-time CX representative position. Enjoying her new responsibilities, she “started getting the itch to move into more of a management role.” That itch turned into necessity when her husband’s insurance changed - they found that they could use the benefits that came if Mandy became a full-time employee at Groove Life. “I became team captain,” she recounts. “I was managing a pod of agents and loved it. Eventually, I was offered the position of team lead and accepted.” 

Mandy had been with the company for 5 years when the CX Director decided to leave in 2023. Rising through various CX roles, she gained knowledge and skills while establishing strong work relationships. To have someone come in from the outside and take over the team was not what she, or really anyone, wanted. So, when Mandy was approached last March for the position, she said “yes.” She credits the leadership of Groove Life executives for helping her ease into the new responsibilities as CX Manager by offering guidance, support, and mentorship. She goes on to say “Everything that I do in this role is filtered through my background as a nurse. I use a very holistic approach - it’s about having a wider frame and looking at everything rather than honing on one specific issue or problem.”

CX: The Glue That Binds a Company

Mandy’s caring and passionate nature helped her move up quickly in the company. Still, she admits to being intimidated when she stepped in to head the CX Team. Experience revealed to her that CX is ‘the glue that binds’ and other departments rely on feedback from her team for customer insight. In the beginning, Mandy was challenged with the question, “I have this information, but how do I share it?” To ensure that shared information was being heard and clear for everyone, she met with other department directors to ask what the best methods for communication are.

Meeting Customers Where They Are At

“We are only here because the customers exist,” Mandy states. The challenge of making customers excited about Groove Life’s products while meeting them where they are at motivates Mandy and her team. “We strive to make everything ‘Fisher Price’ easy for people,” she adds. To earn a good review takes effort, care, and understanding. A customer’s experience must be unforgettably impressive for them to take the time to leave 5 stars. It’s a great feeling knowing that they are making a positive impact on people while helping the company to grow, she says.

The CX Team at Groove Life

Mandy heads a hybrid CX team of 17 representatives. She and a few representatives work fully in-office while the rest come in 1-3 days a week. Groove Life gives all local employees the option to work from home on Thursday. Further support comes from 6 offshore representatives in the Philippines. “They have their own Slack channel - we are in constant communication, and I do a monthly meeting with them. Despite geographical distance, they feel seen and like part of the team,” Mandy notes. The international, hybrid model allows for her team to provide around the clock customer service coverage.

Team Restructuring and Defining Roles

Mandy had a vision for her team where operation and function were clear and strongly defined. “When I came in, we were all doing a little bit of everything,” she notes. Restructuring was necessary – the team is currently divided into 3 main verticals, each headed by an appointed lead. Brand Reputation manages escalations, reviews, and social moderation. Voice of Customer focuses on mining data to create robust summaries and surveys related to customer sentiment. CX Service is managed by 2 reps – one handles day-to-day operations while the other monitors systems to make sure tech is running efficiently. Rounding out the organization are live help and overnight representatives who support customer inquiries. “It’s been so great to see everyone operating more to their strengths and understanding what they are assigned to do. Everyone has ownership of a job and what their role is,” Mandy adds.

Training New Hires: Make it Exciting

To make the CX step-by-step training manual “exciting” and more reflective of Groove Life’s company culture, Mandy looked to her team for input. Through collaboration, they came up with a Canva experience that is module-based training and includes webinar videos. In addition to CX, new hires are expected to spend time in other departments, observing processes and workflow. “It’s like a little treasure hunt,” Mandy adds. “We even got Peter, our Founder, to do a video for it.”

Team Success Factors

Grateful for the support the CX department receives from upper management, Mandy says, “It’s exciting to know that I work for a place that champions me and I can champion them back.” This sentiment imparts how she leads her CX team with a focus on quality, efficiency, and business growth.

Balancing CX and Scaling Business

Asked about main challenges as CX Leader, Mandy’s attention goes to managing volume fluctuations while staffing efficiently. “With customer service, companies want to be cost-efficient,” she points out. “It’s about striking the perfect balance by offering amazing support with the right number of agents in the face of spikes and dips in business.” For example, a promo or sale may require extra staff for a certain period. Mandy must then project how many representatives are needed in the following week as volume subsides. For projections, she uses a managers dashboard, set up by their data analysts, that looks at business history alongside their marketing calendar.

Prioritizing Live Help

Transitioning to a live help team was another main priority for Mandy. Previously, operations were more email and overnight based – they now provide live help support with assigned representatives working 9am to 4pm daily answering SMS texts and returning phone calls (Groove Life doesn’t have a direct line, but customers can fill out a form on the website to request a direct call). “We do about 40 to 50 calls a day, and average between 200 - 300 SMS a day as well.” Mandy reveals.

Key Data Points: Looking at Quality and Efficiency

Monitoring her team’s performance, Mandy is concerned with quality in combination with efficiency. The main data points she reviews weekly are CSAT, NPS, customer effort score, and KPIs regarding each representative. She explains, “We look at their contacts per hour and their average handle time, which is challenging. Because ultimately, we want them to have quality over quantity.

Tech Stack

Gladly – “We use Gladly for our Helpdesk.”

Narvar –  “We use Narvar for returns and exchanges.”

Shopify – “Shopify is our order system.”

Postscript – “Postscript is our SMS service for marketing and sales.”

Okendo – “We use Okendo for reviews.”

Inveterate – “We use Inveterate for our membership program.”