8x8 shines the light on the amazing members of our community. In this post, we spotlight Lisa Nugent, Director of Customer Service at California Faucets.

8x8: Tell us about California Faucets and how you support the business.

Lisa Nugent (LN): California Faucets is a B2B business. We make custom faucets, and some accessories. We have 28 different finishes. We sell to showrooms, not to homeowners, and everything is made in house and made to order. I'm the Director of Customer Service and within my group, I have four technical support specialists, six customer support specialists, two order entry specialists, a quality manager, a key account manager, and a lead. We take about 300 calls a day and process hundreds of emails.

8x8: Tell us more about your contact center.

LN: Every day, our agents field calls and emails for seven hours a day and have one hour for post-call activities. It's very important to our team to deliver white-glove treatment to our customers.  We firmly believe in the idea of speaking with a person when you call our organization. So when we implemented 8x8, we made the conscious decision NOT to implement a phone tree.

8x8: What path led you to where you are today?

LN: I started off my professional career as a kindergarten teacher. I have this fundamental belief that there isn't a whole lot of difference between an adult and a kindergartener, other than maybe vocabulary. Human nature being what it is, we all need the same things. As a manager of people, people need to get very specific praise for things that they do. They need to be told how to course correct when they're not doing well. And you should probably bring cookies once in a while and reward them for being good, right?

So I started out in kindergarten, and then I went to work in a manufacturing firm in Colorado as a business analyst. I oversaw an Oracle implementation then asked for an opportunity to move into customer service management. They were very gracious and gave me that opportunity. I was fortunate that the director of the department was one of the best mentors I could ever have, and they helped me become a better leader, which led to progressive promotion. I became director of customer service for a global sister division, but I found I was traveling too much for work. I moved on to the City of Anaheim, and, after five years, joined California Faucets in customer service. I love taking care of people, solving problems, and helping people grow—oh, andnd bringing them cookies.

What prompted California Faucets to change to 8x8?

LN: Our phone system literally died in the middle of the pandemic. It wasn't supported anymore. We quickly implemented Teams, and it served our needs for a while. However, if I wanted to see the number of voicemails from the previous day, I couldn't. I had no real-time metrics, no performance measurements. If we were to make improvements we needed to understand our baseline. Our IT consultant, Packet Fusion, hooked us up with 8x8 and we've been using it ever since. We rely heavily on the CRM portion of it. Every email and phone call that comes in is a case. It's doing exactly what I need to get all the metrics I need. My team is happy with it, and it's fairly intuitive.

What have been the greatest impacts of switching to 8x8?

LN: One is the ability to see the history of the conversation with the customer, whether they called in, and then we kept it going with an email, and having that entire history. So regardless of who gets that next phone call, you can see it all. We just didn't have that before. If they called and they were working with Shannon and Shannon left, then we lost whatever she had in her email, no one had access to it. That was a huge moment for me to understand how we were performing. At the beginning of our journey we had a 60-70% answer rate. Because it was all in Teams, I had no real-time visibility into performance metrics. That ability to understand where we are and where we're going and be able to have targeted conversations with individuals to say, "Here's what I need from you," has allowed us to achieve a 97% answer rate. That's pretty amazing.

8x8: What are some of the tools that helped you in your journey?

LN: About three years ago I was a Lean Enterprise Manager, and that discipline helped with IT with the understanding of what happens in the back end. Teaching is great for people management, process improvement, how to make it all better as you go, and looking for ways to make people's lives easier.

8x8: What advice would you give to someone who was beginning a career in customer service?

LN: If that is your passion, then embrace that. If somebody thinks about California Faucets they are thinking either about my team or when they open the box and get their faucet. I don't think there's much else that flips through someone's mind when they think other than their experience with my team or when they open that box. The idea of recognizing the value that customer service brings to the image of the entire company is so important, and if you can help elevate how important it is to everybody in your department, then you help elevate your company, you're going to get recognized and you're going to move forward.

8:8: Thanks for chatting with us today! Do you have any hobbies outside of work that you're excited about?

LN: If I find something interesting, I have this need to conquer it. I just have to know how to do it. If you go on to Instagram, you'll see my baking page @cobblestonebakery.  For years I had a bakery on the side to make cakes for weddings and parties. I wanted to see if I could learn how to make a three-tiered wedding cake-I needed to conquer it. I'm always trying to learn something new. My latest interest? I'm currently trying to teach myself Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

What would you say if somebody asked if you'd recommend 8x8?

LN: It has been really good for us. For my size business, it is great. Generally, it's pretty easy to manage. I would say do it!

(Editor's note: This spotlight originally appeared on the 8x8 Community.)

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