As the Head of Customer Experience at Slack, Kevin Albers leads with a spirit of collaboration and innovation. He believes that having a team whose drive and talent match (or surpass!) your own is vital.
“Every interaction with us is an opportunity to make a difference and enhance either our product or our service.”
What one invention would make your work life easier?
Teleportation. While I strongly support remote work, the ability to connect with team members in person is critical.
If there were no holds barred, what change would you make to customer service?
I would remove chat bots. When companies implement this, it’s not with the customer experience in mind. When was the last time you reached out to support and thought, “wow, I had a great experience talking to a computer.”? This applies to even the simplest of requests.
If AI is going to change the customer service industry monumentally, who do you think stands to benefit most, and why?
It depends – how is AI implemented? If it’s to respond directly with the customer, the company benefits. If it’s to improve the lives of the agents working on the support ticket, then the customer benefits.
What’s the most important thing to keep in mind when nurturing a team?
Empower them to make decisions and learn. Mistakes are powerful when you look at them as improvement opportunities. We’re human. Things happen.
What do you think is the most important lesson you’ve learned recently?
Be open and transparent when times are tough, even if the answer is “I don’t know.” Treating your employees like adults goes a long way. They can handle bad news, so don’t hide it from them.
What makes you proud of your team?
The high level of courtesy, empathy, and solidarity that we demonstrate every single day.
Which book, podcast, or newsletter are you enjoying right now?
I just put down V.E.Schwab’s ‘A Darker Shade of Magic’ series, so if you have any recommendations for what’s next, lemme know!
What part of your day do you look forward to most?
When I wake up and pull my 13 month old out of bed, and when I get to pick him up from daycare.
What’s your most-used word or phrase?
My most-used emoji inside our Slack instance is :high-five:
Who is your favorite cat?
Thackeray Binx
