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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 Siobhán James
- 1. What would your support alter ego be called, and what’s their superpower?
- 2. How did you find your way into customer experience? Intentional or accidental?
- 3. The weirdest or most unexpected support request you’ve handled?
- 4. One practical change you’ve made to make your team more customer-centric?
- 5. One tool or app you can’t live without at work?
- 6. One piece of advice for someone entering customer support?
- 7. Where has AI actually made things better for your team or customers?
- 8. A book, podcast, or show you’d recommend to your peers?
- 9. An emoji you use regularly with customers?
- 10. If you weren’t in CX, what would you be doing?
👉In Conversation With Siobhán James
“Great customer experiences don’t happen by accident.” Siobhán James didn’t arrive at this belief overnight. She has spent years close to customers, from retail floors at 15 to software support teams later in her career. Across roles, one pattern kept repeating. Trust didn’t break because agents lacked effort. It broke when systems created confusion. That repetition changed how she worked. Instead of focusing on individual tickets, she began fixing the systems behind them.
Today, as Director of Client Operations at Fullscript, Siobhán is responsible for how support workflows operate at scale. She works on routing, handoffs, and agent context so customers get clear answers. All without agents having to piece things together mid-conversation. Most recently, she led the rollout of an internal Agent Copilot to help newer agents close conversations with the right context and fewer follow-ups.
In this episode of CX Spotlight, Siobhán reminisces about the time she unexpectedly became a comedy coach for a customer. She also discusses how AI truly helps in support, especially when simplifying processes for agents is more important.
1. What would your support alter ego be called, and what’s their superpower?
The Synthesizer. I take scattered customer feedback, internal inputs, and edge cases and turn them into clear system changes. I decide what needs structure, what needs simplification, and what must stay flexible as we scale.
2. How did you find your way into customer experience? Intentional or accidental?
A happy accident. I started in retail at 15 at Music World, a Canadian music store chain. That’s where I saw how quickly customers lose trust when things feel unclear. When I moved into software support, a pattern became obvious. Results depended less on effort and more on how the system was designed.
In one role, I owned how support worked day to day. I fixed routing issues, improved agent context, and cleaned up customer-facing messages. I care about simplifying processes, tightening systems, and making tools work together instead of creating more friction.
3. The weirdest or most unexpected support request you’ve handled?
I once became a regular customer’s stand-up comedy test audience. He was a person with disabilities and used support conversations to connect. I eventually crossed town to his group home to help him with punchlines. It reminded me that support isn’t always about speed. Sometimes it’s about meeting the human need behind the request.
4. One practical change you’ve made to make your team more customer-centric?
I make sure our team regularly shadows frontline agents. It helps us see where customers struggle and where agents lose time or context. Staying close to real support work keeps our decisions grounded. That perspective also keeps us from designing workflows, automations, and policies in isolation.
5. One tool or app you can’t live without at work?
Google Docs. It’s where I think things through. I break down CX problems, document edge cases, and get alignment before anything turns into a workflow or automation. It’s also where my notes live, both for work and for myself.
6. One piece of advice for someone entering customer support?
Even on tough days, remember that customer support is a critical part of the business. It’s where customers actually experience the company, especially when things don’t go as planned. The work can feel thankless, but it has a real impact on how people feel and whether or not they trust you.
7. Where has AI actually made things better for your team or customers?
We’re rolling out an Agent Copilot that summarizes conversations and applies topics automatically. It doesn’t change much for our most experienced agents. It does help newer team members work with more confidence and consistency.
Since Fullscript operates in the wellness space, our customers generally expect fast resolutions. That’s where our chatbot has made a real difference. Customers can handle returns, replacements, and cancellations on their own. This also allows agents to specifically focus on cases that need a human touch.
8. A book, podcast, or show you’d recommend to your peers?
Start With Why by Simon Sinek. It’s a useful reminder that a clear purpose leads to better decisions. When teams understand the why, alignment comes more naturally, and customer experiences improve.
9. An emoji you use regularly with customers?
I don’t interact with customers directly, and I have mixed feelings about emojis in support. But if I had to pick:
🙂 for warmth
😅 for relatable humanity
💪 to celebrate progress and solutions
10. If you weren’t in CX, what would you be doing?
If not CX, then I’d perhaps do something behind the scenes, like backend development. Or, if I went in a completely different direction, running a dog rescue.
✨Three Takeaways from Siobhán’s CX Playbook
- Use AI to reinforce consistency. Applying AI where it supports confidence and repeatable outcomes delivers more value than chasing speed alone.
- Turn noise into action. Convert scattered customer feedback and edge cases into clear system changes teams can act on.
- Stay close to the front line. Regularly shadowing agents keeps decisions rooted in real customer and agent experience, not assumptions.
Enjoyed Siobhán’s take on customer experience? Connect with her on LinkedIn or check out more stories in the CX Spotlight series.
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Siobhán James shares how she fixes support systems & uses AI to assist new agents. Read about the customer moment that shaped her perspective on trust in CX.
