You can think of this website as a look into my CX Journey.
I’ve worked at a lot of fun companies — from OpenSea, Gorillas, Better Mortgage to Squarespace, and I wanted to share some things I’ve done in the Customer Experience world.
Feel free to skip ahead and go to my resume here.
OpenSea is the first and largest marketplace for NFTs. Don’t know what an NFT is? Well, most people didn’t… I took on the challenge to come in and help educate them, and scale the CX team to keep up with the volume.
But, hiring didn’t stop there. I built and managed all of our Internal CX agents, our 230K+ member community Discord, outsourced BPO provider, Training, Knowledge Management, Quality Assurance, and Product Ops & Analytics teams as well.
My team achieved some incredible things. From reducing our first response times from 35 days to just 6 hours, solving close to 60k tickets per month, achieving an 85% or higher CSAT rate, just to name a few.
I sat on the US Management Team, where I was hired pre-launch to oversee and build the US CX department, as we geared up for hyper-growth in the US market.
I created and owned all training, coaching, forecasting and budgeting, data and analytics, SOP documentation, career progression pathways, and any additional elements needed to run the department.
I struggled a lot in school, I simply just learn differently. Today, I consider that my superpower. I’m really passionate about finding creative ways to educate, and really nothing makes me happier than to see someone finally “get it.”
I joined to build out their Written Communications team. Live Chat has always been my jam, and I built a great team who guided borrowers through the lending process. Also, not to brag, but I got the highest score in the company when getting my mortgage license — I missed just once question!
I quickly learned what it meant to “wear many hats” in the start-up world. Not only did I lead the CX team, I also created training materials for over 300+ dog (and customer) obsessed members, worked directly with the founders to develop product launches, built our social media following and learned to raise my hand for any task to add to my tool belt.
At Squarespace, I fell in love with Customer Experience. I didn’t intend to build a career in CX (I went to school for Art Direction!)
I took the role at Squarespace in the CX department thinking it would be my stepping stone to something else, but it ended up being my island.
As a member of the Quality Assurance team, I learned how to give effective feedback, coached team members who were underperforming, and read data — lots, and lots of data.
I really believe this role is what set me up for success in the CX world. I became obsessed with training and documentation, learned how to manage teams and know how to set a high bar for quality.
You can read more about my story and journey into Customer Experience on a blog I was interviewed for here.
“Under a fast paced, chaotic environment, Felisha showed tremendous poise and positivity that made an impact on the entire organization. Felisha strikes the right balance between operating autonomously and knowing when to reach out for input. She is comfortable with using data to make decisions and is an empathetic people manager.
Most important, she’s an all-star person and is somebody I hope to work with again. ”
“Absolutely one of the best people I have ever managed. Felisha’s attitude is an infectious burst of positivity, optimism, and willingness to learn. She’s willing to take on tasks outside of her conventional job description, as evidenced by her eagerness to prepare and host the All Hands Meeting weekly. Felisha has a deep understanding of customer experience and customers often commented on how valued they felt using our service. She’s extremely organized and hires very well. I hope to work with her again in the future! ”
“Felisha is among the brightest and most versatile colleagues I’ve ever had. There is no project too large and no task too small. She is a thoughtful and empathetic business leader who prioritizes customer experience above all. A magnet for other colleagues, building team support and company culture comes as second nature to Felisha. I can’t recommend her enough..for any position in any discipline. I’m convinced she can do it all. ”
Experienced executive with a background in building, scaling, and leading both outsourced and internal customer experience teams at early-stage and hyper-growth companies.
Hands-on cheerleader with a passion for developing egoless and compassionate teams, and building world-class performing cultures where employees love to work. Motivated by providing surprisingly delightful interactions that create happy and loyal customers.
Director of Customer Experience
OpenSea
Oct 2021 to present
Managed and scaled Customer Experience department from 10 to 160+ people within 6 months, including Internal CX agents, Outsourced BPO, Training, Knowledge Management, Quality Assurance, and Product Ops and Analytics teams
Launched outsourced BPO partnership from 0 to 130 agents through negotiating contract, building training and quality programs, managing the launch project, and overseeing all day to day responsibilities. Resulting in global 24/7 support and on average 60k tickets solved per month
Revamped BPO and internal forecasting process, saved $1.6M per year and decrease our cost per ticket solved by 50%, while still improving key support metrics
Reduced 40k ticket backlog to 0, while improving company first response time from 35 days to less than 6hrs and resolution time from 28 days to less than 3 days
Increased CSAT from 40% to 87%, and an agent QA score of 98% by building and implementing a quality program
Assisted in launch of multi-language support and company internationalization efforts, offering 7 languages
Owned Zendesk experience, recreating help center (averaging over 2.5 million views per month), automation flows, ADA bot, and submission form that led to reduction in tickets and higher quality data
Led the migration from Zendesk to Intercom for all customer interactions by importing over 1 million tickets, designed conversation workflows for every type of customer inquiry, added 500+ macros, created and facilitated agent trainings, built 100 data reporting dashboards, re-built our automated theft detection emails, imported and redesigned our Help Center
Head of Customer Experience, US
Gorillas
May 2021 to October 2021
Sat on US Management Team and hired pre-launch to oversee and build US CX department as company geared up for hyper-growth in the US market with a goal of hiring over 100 in-house CX roles
Recruited, hired, and trained high-performing CX reps within eight weeks, reducing live chat first responses to 47 seconds from 30 minute global average
Created and owned all training, coaching, forecasting and budgeting, data and analytics, SOP documentation, career progression pathways, and any additional elements needed to run the department
Chosen by Head of US to lead weekly company all-hands meeting and set the tone for an engaging work culture
Led global Zendesk launch, building 30+ automations for optimized live-chat routing, over 300 macros, and nearly 2000 tags for data reporting purposes
Launched the Voice of Customer program that allowed all departments to gather actionable customer feedback
Laid off with the majority of US employees as part of an organizational restructuring to focus growth on the EU market
Head of Written Communications
Better Mortgage
April 2020 to May 2021
Launched and managed Better's CX live chat platform and email communications team (15 employees), completing 11k avg customer interactions monthly, resulting in a consistent 95% CSAT score
Improved email response times from 26 hours to 45 minutes and reduced chat response times from 3 minutes to 41 seconds through workflow optimization and efficiency training initiatives within three months
Streamlined workflows by implementing 100+ macros, utilizing chatbots for triage, and prioritizing inquiries based on urgency
Invested in agent training to enhance skills, such as typing speed, communication and product knowledge, while proactively analyzing chat data to identify and address process bottlenecks
Worked closely with Operations, Product, Marketing and Analytics leadership to develop features as needed using data driven insights
Head of Customer Experience
Barkly
Feb 2018 to April 2020
Increased agent utilization rate by 50% by implementing Zendesk, a scalable customer support ticketing system and automated ticket routing based on agent expertise and workload. Dynamically adjusted resource allocation to prioritize urgent tickets, maintaining quality service amidst increasing inquiries. Utilized analytics to identify trends and optimize system for enhanced scalability and effectiveness.
Reduced needed agent touches by 60% by implemented scalable self-service knowledge base, containing FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and tutorials to empower customers. Reduced reliance on support agents for routine inquiries, enabling quick and efficient issue resolution. Continuously updated and expanded knowledge base to cover wider topics, accommodating growing volume of inquiries.
Leveraged actionable, data-driven insights to elevate CX standards, consistently achieving an outstanding NPS score of 72 or above quarter-over-quarter
Recruited, mentored, and developed a customer-centric team of over 300 members, fostering a culture of excellence and dedication to exceeding customer expectations
Drove a culture of conscious and sustainable improvement internally and as a brand
Worked closely with founders to align on product launches by creating content that educated customers about the product, including UI copy, transactional emails, product release communication, and support messaging
Quality Assurance
Squarespace
Feb 2015 to Feb 2018
Monitored and reviewed 100+ weekly customer interactions to assess agent performance and adherence to departmental quality standards
Evaluated interactions based on predefined criteria such as accuracy, workflow, customer satisfaction, company voice and ethos
Audited existing policies to ensure continuing relevance and practicality
Provided feedback and coaching to 25 agents to enhance their skills and performance
Identified training needs and collaborated with management to develop targeted training programs
Maintained detailed records of evaluations to track trends and provide insights for improvement
Compiled quality data to produce biweekly and monthly reports for department managers
Creative Advertising - Art Direction
Virginia Commonwealth University
2014
Hi, I’m Felisha. I’m from the middle of nowhere Virginia, now living in Denver, Colorado. However, after a decade in NYC, I like to say I’m still a New Yorker. I’m a mom, a dog lover, an artist, a book reader and a secret nerd. Want to work together? Contact me below.
