Highlights:
- Kim Davies joined RingCentral as Global VP of Customer Care 90 days ago.
- We checked in with Kim to learn more about her ideal customer experience and how she and her team are collaborating to make it happen.
Global VP of Customer Care Kim Davies is passionate about delivering the best outcomes. She joined RingCentral with more than 15 years of experience managing and transforming customer experience and contact centers for big Australian telecommunications companies. We sat down to chat with her about her first three months at the company and learn how she and her team plan to optimize the customer experience using AI while still relying on that essential factor, the human touch.
RingCentral journey
Last fall Kim joined the company, reporting to our Chief Customer Officer, and has spent two of her first three months traveling to meet teams in Manila and the US. It’s been an exciting journey learning about the company’s customer-centric culture. Although RingCentral is far from a start-up, Kim has been impressed by the ways our teams collaborate and innovate. She is committed to encouraging a similar spirit of collaboration and innovation as she and her team deliver an optimized end-to-end experience for RingCentral’s customers.
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The optimal customer experience.
Kim told us the optimal customer experience is one where customers don’t need to call us because our products and services work seamlessly without any issues, but that, our course, is nirvana. When they do need assistance it should be the best possible experience, which is why we give customers a choice in how they want to contact us. Some want to call and chat. Others like to email us regarding their issues. The RingCentral app is another way customers can contact us. Ideally, customers connect in the way they feel most comfortable.
It is about giving customers the choice and then ensuring that we get that customer to the right person who can solve their issue as quickly as possible while keeping them informed so that they are comfortable that we are addressing their concerns.
Using AI for a better customer experience
The evolution of AI is starting to have an impact on how we can better support customers to help themselves. In our customer help centers, AI is being used to help customers quickly find information and solutions, mostly for relatively simple issues. This is much better than in the past, where they might have waited a long time on hold for a live agent. Expediting solutions is one of the ways AI has improved customer care beyond the old model of humans answering phones and solving problems. Our customers are now empowered by AI with solutions to actively optimize their digital experiences.
The human touch for bigger situations.
With more complex situations, Kim relies on relationships to deliver an optimized customer experience. “We deal with businesses and businesses rely on our products to function so when there is a big issue or significant incident that is stopping that business from operating you absolutely need human interaction.” The goal is for the customer to feel comfortable and have someone they can put their trust in, knowing they are going to get their business back up and running.
Collaboration benefits customers.
Collaboration throughout the entire RingCentral organization is another way Kim is optimizing customer experience. Her team is starting to share insights gathered through their interactions with customers across the rest of the organization. Sharing data with the sales teams and Customer Success Managers enables everyone with customer contact to be on the same page and understand where improvements can be made: offering additional customer training or support, or introducing new products and services better tailored to a customer’s needs. This internal collaboration connects the dots within the organization, so the customer doesn’t have to do it themselves.
Growing the Customer Care Team
Over the next several months Kim will be hiring additional Technical Customer Support Specialists in our Manila offices. The ideal candidate has a combination of technical skills to resolve customer issues and the soft skills to put customers at ease and build trust. She explains, “The RingCentral organization is complex. Someone who can shield customers from the burden of those complexities while reassuring them their issue will be resolved is ideal.” She looks forward to developing new specialists who will take ownership and help each customer, no matter the size, solve their problems quickly and seamlessly.
On the personal side.
Kim lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. She enjoys spending time with her husband, teenage son, and 21-year-old daughter. To relax and de-stress she enjoys practicing yoga and walking her dog, a Westie-Toy Poodle mix named Cica (pronounced Chica). If she were stranded on a desert island, she would want her yoga mat, popular music, and her iPhone.
Originally published Feb 23, 2024
