At A Glance

Daniel Fuerst's philosophy of customer experience at Yoto Play, where his emphasis on personal interaction and positivity is changing the CX scene. Learn how Daniel uses feedback and remote work to improve customer interactions and achieve success.

Who is Daniel Fuerst?

Meet Daniel Fuerst, Customer Happiness Supervisor at Yoto Play!

About Yoto Play

Yoto Play is a company that specializes in children’s entertainment products that cater to parents who are apprehensive about excessive screen time. Inspired by the Montessori school of thought, the founders developed a child-centric audio device capable of playing famous stories and songs made for young audiences.

Daniel’s CX Journey

Daniel's career journey began at the age of 16 when he started working at a local grocery store. He quickly transitioned to a cashier position, where he discovered his passion for working directly with customers.

At 23, Daniel landed an entry-level tech support role, which further fueled his desire to continue working in customer-facing positions. Through hard work and patience, he grew within the company, eventually becoming a supervisor and ultimately securing his current role at Yoto Play.

Throughout his career, Daniel has also gained sales experience, which he believes has enhanced his ability to provide excellent customer service. He recognizes that effective communication is key to success in both sales and customer service roles.

The CX Team at Yoto Play

Daniel helps lead a team of around forty people. The relatively big scope of the CX team reflects the significant growth the company has experienced since its inception five years ago.

Yoto Play has two physical offices, one located in London and another in Brooklyn. However, the majority of the company's staff works remotely.

Daniel mentions that employees who live closer to the offices tend to visit more frequently, but the remote work setup offers a significant benefit in terms of access to talent. By not being limited to hiring from a specific geographical area, Yoto Play can select the best candidates from a much larger pool.

"The best thing about being remote, though, is it just allows more access to more people. You're not forced to pick from a small collection in a small area. You can hand-pick all you want, which is super nice," Daniel says.

Positive Outlook

Daniel reflects that his title, Customer Happiness Supervisor, is more than just an upbeat description of standard CX responsibilities. It reflects a mindset. “We want people to be happy with everything that we have going on. We want people to be invested. We want people to enjoy the stories, whether it be our own self-created stories that we have out there or ones that are in the books,” he reflects. “that are already published that we find that would hopefully resonate with our listeners.”

CX often focuses on the negatives. Customer complaints. Mistakes. However, most customer experiences are ultimately positive. Daniel’s unique title reflects the true responsibility of a CX leader—to be there for every customer throughout their buying journey.

CX Team Success Factors

Daniel appreciates the autonomy that he and the rest of the CX team at Yoto are given. "We have some more flexibility which I find very, very helpful,” he says.

Daniel appreciates that Yoto empowers its employees to go above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction, even when the company may have made a mistake.

"There are jobs where I've had where it's like, no, we can't do this for somebody, but we made the mistake. That's not what we focus on,” Daniel reflects. 

“There are jobs where I’ve found that when we would make a mistake, we were told to “deal with the customer. Which really hampered the level of customer satisfaction that we wanted to uphold. Yoto focuses on trying to make as much right with the customer as possible, with the business in mind”

Growth Through Feedback

When he first started, Daniel focused primarily on negative reviews to identify areas that needed improvement. However, he soon realized that it's equally important to examine positive reviews to understand what the company is doing well and to continue building on those strengths.

Daniel also highlights the value of taking the time to engage with customers individually whenever possible. These one-on-one interactions provide valuable insights that help Yoto better understand and serve their customers.

"Getting those customer reviews and getting those feedback, taking the time to individually talk with those consumers as we're able really helps us,” he says.

Tech Stack

Shopify

Gorgias

Slack

Notion

Revenue Generation/AI/topics of interest

Daniel reflects that Yoto Play has seen a significant portion of its sales come from parents living in North America. He believes that this source of revenue generation owes to several factors. Market size, branding, and marketing of course play an important role in revenue generation at Yoto Play.

Daniel believes that the product itself also has a natural appeal to North American parents who are interested in taking a few big steps back from screen-based entertainment.

“I think just people want to have their kids educated, right?” Daniel reflects.