CX Spotlight: Angel Funes on Radical Transparency, Caring Loudly, and the Bowling Alley Twist That Launched his CX Career

CX Spotlight is a series where we speak to customer experience leaders from across industries who are rethinking support, building customer-first cultures, and finding clarity in the messiness of real-life CX.

Every edition is a quick, candid conversation. No fluff. No jargon. Just real-world insights from people who’ve been there and done that.

Table of Contents

• In Conversation With Angel Funes
  • 💬 What would your support alter ego be called — and what would their superpower be?
  • 🧩 What’s the weirdest or most unexpected support request you’ve handled?
  • 👂 What’s one practical change you’ve implemented to make your team more customer‑centric?
  • 🛠 What’s one tool or app you can’t live without at work?
  • 🙌 One piece of advice you’d give someone entering the field of customer support?
  • 🤖 A use case where AI actually made things better for your team or customers?
  • 📬 Is email underrated or overrated as a support channel? Why?
  • 📚 A book, podcast, or show you would recommend to peers?
  • 😊 What emoji do you use most with customers?
  • 🎬 If you were not in CX, what would you be doing?
  • Want us to send you awesome content?

In Conversation With Angel Funes

Angel Funes is the Founder and CEO of Mentors CX, a platform where CX professionals and operators can book 1:1 calls with leaders to grow their careers and their businesses. Inside his own team, Angel is known for his relentless energy and extreme transparency: if he knows it, the entire team knows it. Strategy, progress, risks, numbers – nothing sits in a silo.

Interestingly, his customer experience journey started when he was seventeen! He walked into a mall to book a bowling lane and found that the alley had been replaced by a call center.. “Do you speak English?”,someone from the center asked him, casually. And that turned into an on-the-spot interview. Days later, Angel was taking support calls. He stayed three years and worked his way through roles in customer service, technical support, mentoring, QA, and floor supervision. This journey shaped how he leads today.

In this edition of CX Spotlight, Angel talks about high-stakes customer calls, why context sharing builds customer obsession, and why none of this works if you don’t actually care.

💬 What would your support alter ego be called — and what would their superpower be?

Sleepless Angel. Unlimited energy. Never needs rest. Always thinking about how to improve CX, and actually doing it.

🧩 What’s the weirdest or most unexpected support request you’ve handled?

One call has always stayed with me. A woman believed someone was trying to get into her house while we were on the phone. I had almost no tools, no way to place outside calls, no personal phone, and strict compliance rules. I tried to help with what I had while she was shouting in the background and then the call dropped. It was so messy! It reminded me of how serious “support” can feel to the person on the other end.

👂 What’s one practical change you’ve implemented to make your team more customer‑centric?

Radical transparency. I bring the team in early on projects and share everything I know, even when it falls outside their function. Roadmaps, dependencies, business impact – you name it, and my team has full visibility. When people understand where the business is going, they make better decisions for customers.

🛠 What’s one tool or app you can’t live without at work?

Google Workspace (Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides). We run ideas, plans, and execution through it. 

🙌 One piece of advice you’d give someone entering the field of customer support?

Care. About customers, co‑workers, the business, and your own growth. If you do not genuinely care, everything becomes harder and less meaningful.

🤖 A use case where AI actually made things better for your team or customers?

AI saves time by summarizing long threads, helping with copy writing, and speeding delivery. It lets us move work forward faster without sacrificing quality.

📬 Is email underrated or overrated as a support channel? Why?

Neither. Email is essential and will stay that way. Almost every company offers it and many customers prefer it when they cannot stay on a call or live chat. It is a reliable way to document an issue and get a response later.

📚 A book, podcast, or show you would recommend to peers?

We keep a list of podcasts we like at Mentors CX. Here’s the list: https://mentorscx.com/resources/podcasts-we-like

😊 What emoji do you use most with customers?

😊

🎬 If you were not in CX, what would you be doing?

Marketing or filmmaking. I love telling stories and shaping how people experience a brand.

Enjoyed Angel’s take on customer experience? Follow him on LinkedIn or check out more stories in the CX Spotlight series.
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