Jennifer Lee: Changing the Landscape of Call Center and Workplace through Intelligent Automation
Intradiem provides Intelligent Automation Solutions for customer service teams. The company’s real-time automation unlocks the value of contact center data to maximize productivity, engagement, and customer experience. Intradiem’s patented AI-powered technology processes the massive amounts of data generated by centers in real-time and takes immediate action to support the staff working in the center or remotely.
Intradiem’s vision is to reinvent customer service for everyone. The company believes in the power of human-to-human connections and thinks that the best use of technology is in service of, not in the replacement of humans. Intradiem’s platform empowers hundreds of thousands of service agents around the world while saving millions of dollars annually for organizations and streamlining the customer experience.
A Leader Born Out of Experience
Jennifer Lee is the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of Intradiem. She has been with the company for more than five years now. Jennifer started as the Director of the customer success department, where she helped in building the organization that aids customers in driving adoption of its platform. The role was all about getting to know Intradiem’s customers and deeply understanding their challenges, then working with them to build automation solutions to address those challenges. In late 2019, Jennifer transitioned into her current role as the Chief Strategy Officer, where she uses those learnings from the early years to help lead the teams responsible for the company’s product strategy, product management, product marketing, and marketing departments.
Jennifer doesn’t come from a tech background. She is from the call center industry and would proudly say that she grew up in the call center. Jennifer started her career as a customer service agent for a computer company, helping consumers set up their home PCs and get their dial-up modems working. She spent fifteen years in the industry in a variety of roles before joining Intradiem in 2015.
From Call Center to Automation: Jennifer Wins it All
Jennifer recalls that the first time she knew she wanted to be a people leader was when she first got a job as a call center supervisor. She worked the second shift (2 PM – 11 PM, Wednesday through Sunday). Jennifer remembers that it was an exhausting and stressful gig. She adds that the team was under-resourced and constantly battling attendance and attrition issues because agents didn’t want to work that shift. Jennifer reveals that despite the challenges, she loved every minute of it! Jennifer thrived on the connections she built with her team members and the pride she felt in helping them grow and develop their own skills. The team quickly moved up the performance rankings, and that was when she realized that the call center industry was ripe with opportunity if somebody was willing to put in the work. She highlights that metrics are king in the call center environment, and no one cared if employees were young or old, male or female. If they could drive performance, they could advance through the ranks.
Jennifer recollects that when she joined Intradiem, she immediately recognized it as a rare opportunity to be part of something special. The culture grabbed her from day one. She found that Intradiem had a group of passionate and innovative people willing to do whatever was necessary to help customers succeed. She reveals that the company’s product was like nothing she had ever seen before. Jennifer says that she knew it was a game-changer for the industry, poised to help contact center leaders elevate performance in a sector that was ripe for change.
Initially, Jennifer wasn’t sure how she would fit in, but she was determined to be part of this great thing. She states that she took the job without a clear vision of where it would lead, which was a little scary for a planner such as herself. Therefore, she decided to start where she knew she could add value, by getting to know the people on her team and helping them succeed. Jennifer also decided to say ‘yes’ to anything that was asked of her, even if it was outside of her expertise or comfort zone. That decision has led to so many opportunities with Intradiem, and the willingness to stretch her capabilities has paid dividends over the last five years.
Breaking the Routine by Speaking Up
Jennifer shares that many times, especially early in her career, she found herself as the only female and the youngest person in a given meeting. Finding her voice and confidence in those situations was challenging. Jennifer recalls that more than once, she listened in dismay as a colleague presented her ideas as their own. But she didn’t speak up out of fear of appearing petty or insecure. Over time, she realized that credibility can only be assumed for so long before it must truly be earned and that the best leaders are those who seek to learn rather than tell. So she focused her efforts on listening to those around her and seeking ways to build her knowledge outside of work through courses, tutorials, and books. This helped Jennifer establish her voice, instill confidence, and create a habit of continuous learning, which she has kept to this day.
Authenticity and Vulnerability, a Must for Transformational Leaders
Jennifer asserts that authenticity and vulnerability are the lynchpins of transformational leadership. To drive transformation, one must be able to both articulate a vision and get others to believe in and rally around it. She opines that if people don’t believe in leaders as a person, they’ll never fully buy into their vision. For Jennifer, being authentic starts with transparency. She strives to maintain an open and transparent relationship with her team members. She doesn’t hide or sugar-coat anything and has found that kind of communication always workable. When team members trust leaders, they will bring forward new ideas and problems and be unafraid to speak up when they know something is wrong. Jennifer insists that this kind of insight into what is really happening is invaluable. In order to embrace it, leaders must also be vulnerable as a leader, meaning, they must be willing to admit that they don’t have all the answers and actually listen to their team members who do.
Jennifer speaks of seeing so many leaders fall short because they can’t let go of a classic ‘command and control style of management, where things must be done a certain way (their way) or no way at all. According to her, this kind of attitude may produce short-term results, but it smothers innovation and hampers growth. Jennifer avows that the best leaders understand how to articulate a vision, build consensus and momentum, and then get out of their team’s way.
Customer Suggestions as to the Catalyst of Innovation
According to Jennifer, the most important thing Intradiem does with its product strategy is to listen to its customers. It sounds simple, but so many companies lose sight of this part of the equation, and then they find themselves selling a product that is looking for a problem. She proudly says that Intradiem starts with the problem. The company constantly asks ‘what challenges do our customers face? What keeps them up at night?’ Then the company builds the solutions to those problems and continuously partners with customers to iterate and learn together.
Powering the New World with Disruptive Technologies
Jennifer averts that particularly, in the contact center industry, 2020 forced disruption in all of these areas. She adds that contact centers have been notoriously slow to move to the cloud, but the rapid pivot to remote working changed that, and the sector is seeing a significant push on cloud initiatives this year as a result. Jennifer claims that the great thing about the transformation is it inherently leads to innovative thinking around data strategy and subsequently ML and AI initiatives. One of the benefits of the cloud infrastructure is data accessibility, so leaders are starting to think about how to use data more strategically going forward, and that opens up the possibilities around things like AI and hyper-automation.
Jennifer affirms that technology is advancing rapidly. In many cases, the capabilities of AI and ML technologies are outstripping the actual application of them. She opines that everyone knows the future is in AI, but few have really figured out how to harness that and produce real results to date. It is incumbent upon today’s leaders to take a pragmatic approach in how they apply these technologies, by stepping back and starting with the “why” versus the “what”. She highlights when one starts with the problem, one can tailor the strategy around it and understand, measure, and build upon the results. Jennifer underlines the fact that innovation without a purpose falls flat pretty quickly.
Future Vision: Humans and Machines Work Together
Jennifer anticipates that the next five years will bring about a tremendous amount of change across all industries. She states that Intradiem knows that the way people work is fundamentally changed as a result of 2020. Therefore, the company expects to see a hybrid workforce, with a strong remote work presence across many industries. The intersection of humans and technology will only strengthen as organizations get their arms around data and AI strategies, and deploy new technologies. However, Jennifer remarks that she doesn’t think the human labor in the service delivery model goes away, but rather that they’ll evolve. She adds that as machines and AI are used to take care of more routine tasks, humans will be freed to focus on those with more complexity and nuance. Upskilling will be important and new and exciting jobs will open up for those who are willing to adapt.
Jennifer exclaims, “For Intradiem… the sky is the limit.” She highlights that the company is expanding its capabilities every day, shaping the future of customer service. And that future is one in which humans and technology operate together seamlessly to enhance the customer experience.
A Piece of Jennifer’s Mind for Emerging Women Leaders
Jennifer advises emerging women leaders to not try to be anything they are not. She adds that women are powerful because of who they are, not in spite of it. She became a mother in late 2019 and she has found it really empowering to be open and honest about the challenges of being a working mother, rather than trying to downplay them and pretend she has everything figured out. Jennifer exclaims, “I don’t! And that’s okay.”
Jennifer directs budding leaders to always say ‘yes.’ She adds that even if the project, role, or opportunity sounds ‘too big or they feel they are not ready, still say yes. Jennifer concludes by saying that women leaders will never know what they are truly capable of if they aren’t willing to feel a little bit uncomfortable along the way.
