Meet Jessica Botello, Customer Service Manager at Manduka!
Manduka is a company that specializes in yoga products. They sell yoga mats, blocks, blankets, and apparel, all designed to make yoga accessible for anyone who wants to practice it.
Jessica considers making people happy a lifelong pursuit. "Service, for me, goes all the way back from when I was young. It's about people helping people, reaching out, and connecting on a very human level.”
It’s that same perspective that drives her passion for yoga. Jessica studied conflict resolution in college, and even spent time in Northern Ireland as it worked on rebuilding its society after many years of conflict.
"I was very struck by the human stories and the human element of that.”
Seeing all that pain and hardship ultimately drove Jessica toward yoga, viewing it as a vital tool for personal grounding and peace amid life's challenges, both significant and mundane—a mindset shared by Manduka.
"As a team, we aim to extend the experience of yoga class beyond the mat. It's about making that human connection and letting people know they are heard, seen, and assisted.”
Jessica envisions customer service as an extension of the yoga practice. She acknowledges the power of human connection, recognizing that a simple interaction can either be a venting outlet for a tough day or a source of much-needed support.
"Customer service is an extension of that yoga practice, especially when someone's having a hard day. It can be that person that turns somebody's day around because they really just needed that human connection.”
Jessica fosters a work atmosphere where every customer interaction becomes an opportunity to brighten someone's day. From resolving shipment issues to addressing lost orders, the focus remains on fostering a human connection.
For her, customer service isn't just a transaction; it's an opportunity to inspire balance, groundedness, and peace in others' lives.
"Yoga, for me, is not just on your mat in that class. It's about finding a sense of peace in the face of any kind of life situation,"
Jessica leads a team of three full-time reps. However, during busy periods, the team grows to accommodate increased demand. During these times, they may require as many as seven people to handle customer concerns.
Currently, the team is going through a transition. "We are remote at the moment, but we're about to transition to kind of a hybrid, and we will be getting a new office space in El Segundo, California. So those of us who are local will be in the office—two of us locally and two remote reps, one in Louisiana and one in Florida."
Managing a customer service team poses challenges, but Jessica sees these challenges as opportunities for growth. "Sometimes with customer service, there can be a lot of turnover and burnout because it can be challenging when people come and dump all over you or be very aggressive and upset."
To combat the potential for burnout, Jessica focuses on trying to foster an empathetic environment. "I'm so trying to infuse that humanity and that action of like, yes, I'm a real person, and I want to help you. I have a name; I have feelings.”
Sometimes, communication technology makes that hard. “[With] text communication and sometimes over social media too, that can be where customers can come in with very aggressive language, sometimes a little bit abusive, sometimes a little bit harsh, swearing, just so offensive."
While angry customers are an inevitability in CX, Jessica does everything she can to support her reps. "It's not about them, even though somebody's coming at them.”
Jessica looks at a standard slate of key performance indicators that include CSAT, average response time, and the number of messages her agents answer. However, it’s not only the response time that she cares about. She also looks at how many messages it takes to close a ticket.
Her team analyzes these metrics to optimize their workflows, considering factors like the time of day when tickets are most frequent and the busiest periods for phone and chat support.
However, work-life balance remains important. "Some people think we are [available on weekends] but we're not. You can buy your yoga at any time, but if there's an issue, we'll talk to you Monday through Friday because everyone's got to have a weekend, and we've got to go to yoga too."
Jessica’s team currently leverages Gorgias’s AI features as a way of helping customers get quick answers to simple questions. However, for complicated tickets, the focus is always on creating a human connection.
“If there are questions a little more complicated or a little more nuanced, yeah, come through, speak with somebody because that can be infuriating on the other end when you're like…I just want to speak with somebody to know that I'm really being heard.”
Gorgias–I’ve been very excited with them and their continual offerings.
Shopify
Number 1 Tool: Team chat.
Most Important Quality in New Hire: I would say it’s kindness.
Favorite Communication Channel: Probably phone.
Interesting Book or Podcast: I have a toddler. And so it's actually called Deep Blue Sea. And it's for kids. And it's all about ocean animals and education on the ocean and animals. And she loves it right now. But I love it too. learning so many things. I didn't know manta rays could get so big.
Number 1 Challenge: That human disconnection…People can feel like they're talking to a robot and so lose some of their politeness.
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