At A Glance

Jose Rodriguez, Lunchbox's CX guru, uses his training in coaching and psychology to improve the customer experience. His creative thinking and human touch are revolutionizing the way the business engages with its active community. Discover his methods for building great relationships with clients and encouraging loyalty.

Who is Jose?

Meet Jose Rodriguez, Customer Experience Manager at Lunchbox!

About Lunchbox

Lunchbox provides sturdy and fashionable packs for ravers and festival-goers alike. With its unparalleled anti-theft feature, no leak hydration system, customizable design, and fun accessories, customers can dance the night away in style and without worry.

Jose’s CX Journey

Fascinated by people and the way they think, Jose majored in psychology in college before switching to business economics because he thought it might be more applicable in the workforce. He then became a soccer coach and has coached every level between ninth grade and college for both men’s and women’s teams. Later, he worked at GNC as a salesperson, and at Aldi. Before transitioning to E-Commerce, he worked for a non-alcoholic wine business.

Jose’s work experience connects him to his future CX experience in many ways. As a coach, he had to get people to work together and execute the same goal that they believed in. At GNC, he learned about customers’ lives and created regimens based on their habits. At Aldi, he learned how to interact with various types of people and personalities. In a way, his psychology interests went to good use!

In his CX work, Jose tries to tackle every situation as the other person. He finds his job to be most successful when he acts as the customer’s friend and works with them to find a solution to their problem. By speaking informally with his customers, he’s able to form a genuine connection with them because they’re on the same level. This tactic, he says, makes all the difference because once you know the community, then you know your customers and can create meaningful relationships with them

“It’s cliché, but put yourself in their shoes. If you just talk to them like they’re your friend or they’re in the room with you and try to be on their team,” he says, “Then it just makes all the difference.”

The CX Team at Lunchbox

Jose is the sole CX team member at Lunchbox. In this role, he has to make sure that everyone within the company knows what’s going on and is on the same page at all times. Luckily, this type of synergy is easier to attain with a smaller company.

The CX and marketing teams overlap as Jose handles the company’s social media in some cases, but primarily, the marketing team works as an extension of customer experience.

“Since [our teams] are on the same page, they handle a lot of the stuff that’s incoming on socials,” he says. “They’re an extension of your team without the focus being necessarily on the customer service.”

As CX manager, Jose also leads some of the partnerships with influencers and serves as the face of communications within the company.

One challenge that Jose faces in his role is the volume of customer inquiries he receives. As the company grows, he has found that efficiency can lead to more success. By focusing on how to educate customers on the issues they may be facing, Jose has created better relationships with customers. 

For instance, when a customer asks about a late shipment, Jose does his best to explain why the delay happened. Instead of saying something can’t be done, he tells customers the reason why. From his experience, Jose has seen that customers will learn from that new information.

“If you really take the time with the customer to give them all the info… your thread ends up being two emails long already because [you] answered everything right off the bat,” he says.

KPIs Jose Is Tracking

When it comes to KPIs, Jose is primarily concerned about CSAT scores. Although it doesn’t make up the whole of CX operations, if a CSAT score is super low, you have to look at what happened during the customer interaction.

Jose believes that in general, positive reviews are the only thing that matters. It’s important to strive for high CSAT scores at all times. Moreover, if a CSAT score is good, then it will take care of other KPI aspects like resolution time.

Otherwise, Jose might look at the percentages of two- and three-touch tickets because he wants those to occur less frequently. Ultimately, the goal is to help the customer in as few interactions as possible, and this can be achieved by ensuring that communication with the customer is thorough and tailored to their needs on the front end.

“It’s not just trying to answer as many as can really quickly and hit solve,” he says, “it’s about making sure that [your response] is super thorough.”

Tech Stack

Richpanel — Although it’s fairly new, Jose likes the UX, support, and aesthetic compared to Zendesk and Gladly. The comparison is like Apple vs. Android. “They’re excellent.”

Klaviyo

ShipBob

Customer Experience Outside of Support

Lunchbox best connects with its community at music festivals. Throughout the year, the company hosts meet-ups at these festivals, which is a great way to remind customers that the company and its team members are still involved in the rave scene.

The company also impacts the customer experience by being active on social media, specifically in its Facebook group. Every team member, no matter the department, is in the group and actively engaging with the community. The company’s great connection with customers has created a space where they can help potential customers whenever they have a question. Customers end up answering product inquiries and providing recommendations before the team can get to their keyboards.

“They’re totally understanding, so when you answer everyone’s questions and you’re fully transparent, they go to bat for you,” he says.

Word of mouth also helps recruit new customers and continues to provide CX. Lunchbox is built around a tight-knit community, which helps them immensely. When the company was first established, the CEO and other team members would meet customers during raves and had the opportunity to form personal connections with them. This created a genuine relationship between customers and the Lunchbox team simply by engaging in casual conversations with them in the place both love best — festivals. This is the company’s superpower because not every brand has the ability to form connections with customers in this way.

“You can’t underestimate the power of word of mouth,” he says. “You give that person such an experience and such a memory.”

When it comes to going above and beyond in the customer service queue, Jose uses photos and videos to encourage customers to purchase products. In one instance, he showed a customer examples of what one product’s light-up features looked like during the day and at night to support the customer in their decision-making process.

He emphasizes that it’s important to make the experience special for the customer, which makes their interactions with the company more meaningful.

Another time Jose was able to expertly tailor to a customer’s needs was when he sent a customer pictures of how their phone would fit in the different products they were considering purchasing.

Some customers ask Jose for his thoughts on different festivals and events. This informal relationship works really well for the company’s customer experience, as though “you were texting your friend for a recommendation.”

Advice for CX Leaders

Jose tells other CX leaders to pretend that their mom is the customer. Just like a mother asks a lot of questions, you should anticipate follow-up questions that the customer may have and try to answer them as simply and effectively as you can. 

To create a successful customer experience, you have to make them feel as though you are on the customer’s team as you work with them to find a solution. It’s also important to make the interaction as smooth as possible.

“Pretend that you’re helping your mom and base just about everything off of that,” he says.