1. Prioritize human connection: Nika emphasizes the importance of personal relationships between agents and customers. Empathy and understanding are crucial for building trust and loyalty.
2. Empower your team: By allowing agents flexibility and autonomy, Nika fosters a positive work environment where employees feel valued and motivated.
3. Advocate for CX: Nika highlights the need for CX leaders to champion their teams and customers, ensuring their priorities are heard and addressed.
4. Leverage personal connections for sales: Nika's approach of building relationships with customers can naturally lead to upselling opportunities.
5. Resist AI for a more human experience: Nika believes that AI lacks the emotional intelligence and empathy necessary for truly exceptional customer service.
Nika Chapel, who began as an enthusiastic intern and is currently in charge of Selkie's customer experience, will take us on a tour around the colorful world of the brand. Nika's story is one of transforming passion into leadership while navigating the ups and downs of a developing fashion firm. She has a foundation in problem-solving and an enthusiastic heart.
Meet Nika Chapel, Director of CX at Selkie!
Selkie is an imagination-driven line of formal wear that encourages self-expression. The clothes are fanciful and unique giving everyone the opportunity to find something that makes them feel beautiful and seen.
Nika's customer service journey spans over a decade. She’s enjoyed the ride and is grateful for having had the opportunity to do work that fulfills her. "I've been fortunate enough to always have a job that I really loved. I've never really worked for a company that I just didn't want to work for. That's just not been my case."
Nika's affinity for customer service arises from her natural inclination to assist and solve problems. "I really just have a natural affinity for helping people. It's something that I enjoy. I love solving problems." This inclination traces back to her very first job at In-N-Out Burger, where she discovered the satisfaction that comes with aiding others and making connections.
She approached Selkie from a place of love. Having already experienced Co-Founder Kimberley Gordon’s WildFox clothing line, she was excited by the potential to collaborate with her for this new endeavor. When Nika heard that Kimberley Gordon was working on something new, she decided she wanted to see if she could be a part of it.
"Being in the pandemic and very early days of funemployment, I decided to just reach out to my favorite brands, founder. She founded WildfFox back in the day, and she was starting this new company, Selkie. I found them on Instagram and said, 'Hey, I want to work for you,' and she was like, 'I'm not hiring, my team is so small right now.' I was like, 'That's okay, here's what I do. Let me help you,' and she was like, 'This is interesting.' So, yeah, I kind of started off as an intern."
Things worked out well. Nika is now the Director of CX at Selkie, and she still loves the journey. “You just never know what you're going to get, right? Every day is different, every customer interaction is different.”
Nika leads a small team—that does sometimes include temps during busy periods to account for the increased demand. While her team is primarily remote, there are a few people who work out of the office to assist with return processing.
Nika’s biggest challenge is to help team members feel comfortable enough to depart from the script. "Teaching CS agents to understand that policies are guidelines and not law. Letting them know, hey, it's okay to extend them that grace on a return. It's just a day, just a couple of hours. To them, it might change their entire experience.”
Her team is slowly beginning to leverage revenue generation strategies into their approach to support. Because Selkie offers products that are so personal and empowering, it gives Nika a chance to make personal connections with customers that can sometimes turn into future sales.
“We're easily able to help them on the SMS line, ‘Hey let us know your measurements, let me help you,’ and then it becomes, ‘Oh what styles are you thinking about getting,’ ‘Oh I kind of have similar measurements,’ ‘This is my favorite style’. And really just having those friendly conversations with them. It can naturally turn into an upsell situation.”
Nika tracks a pretty standard slate of KPIs, monitoring CSATs and response times to ensure that tickets are being processed effectively and in a time-sensitive manner. She wants to make sure her staff is providing consistently good support, but she also uses the numbers to determine when it is time to add more agents.
Nika is currently very AI-resistant. While she recognizes its capacity to handle tickets efficiently, she ultimately feels that it subtracts from the overall customer experience.
“Personally, I feel like it takes that human element out of customer service, which I think is necessary. AI kind of lacks emotion and empathy, and customers notice that I think.”
Nika believes that CX success is all about connections, both with agents and the customers they support. “I really think that when you stop being in touch with a customer, you stop being able to relate to your team, and you sort of lose sight of things a bit.”
She also recognizes the need to advocate for her team. Nika knows that CX sometimes gets deprioritized because it isn’t traditionally seen as a revenue generator. Part of her job is to make sure that her team’s needs are being heard.
“I want to go to bat for them, I want to go to bat for our customers, I want to make sure that our customers are prioritized. And I can't do that if my team's not prioritized.”
Gorgias
Dropbox
Number 1 Tool: WeChat.
Most Important Quality In a New Hire: Critical thinking. It can be taught but in my experience is most valuable to hire somebody who's already got it down.
Favorite Communication Channel: SMS.
Interesting Book or Podcast: Diverse.a.tea by Tess Holliday.
Number 1 Challenge: I want to talk to all of the customers myself because talking to customers is my passion, but that’s not realistic with the goals/KPI’s I’ve set, and a team to train.
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