Mercer Smith's Linkedin Analytics

Hey, you. Been thinking about you a lot lately. Wanted to tell you that I see and feel how exhausting it is to be a professional carer when it feels like everything in the world right now needs a little more care. Even more so because much of the world is telling us that care and empathy can be fabricated in a little robot factory. Spoiler: it can't, and that's probably why we are in this situation in the first place. If it could, everyone would be a carer (if you can't make your own, store-bought is fine, etc., etc.), and those of us who feel so deeply wouldn't be spread quite so thin. Anyway, love you, mean it. Hit me up anytime. I miss you.

Why call it "polyworking" when we could just call it what it is? People breaking themselves in an attempt to survive in a system that is primed to deprioritize people. You don't see Forbes talking about a person who works multiple part-time jobs in their local community, giving back and leading a fulfilling life and calling it "polyworking." No, they're talking about tech employees striving to work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Don't give a cute name to something that isn't cute. I'm tired of it. Also, just from a linguistic perspective, it is actually ugly as sin. "Poly" is a Greek prefix, and "work" is Germanic. It's about as elegant as gluing a Parthenon column onto a Viking longhouse.

It’s Katie Duck day over on Escalations. Or, it was yesterday but I didn’t post about it so I am now! I *loved* talking with Katie. It felt like I had known her forever—which I think is a really strong sign of a person who is excellent in CX. If someone can make you feel comfortable from the second you start talking to them, what can’t they do? Beyond that, her story of growing from a humble barista to an absolute support operations boss reminded me of my own trajectory (me as barista pictured below). Katie has a level of humility and curiosity which I find incredibly inspiring and I can’t wait for you to read her story and to include her in the book. https://lnkd.in/gvQYBtXF

It's that time, folks. I am looking for beta readers for the next book. I have finished interviewing for the most part (there are still a few of you I would like to talk to), and am about to start writing the actual copy for the next book. I would love to hear if there is anyone that would be interested in reading chapters as I write them, or even particularly interested in reading specific chapters on certain topics. Let me know! I am just happy to get it read pre-publishing however I can. <3

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Senior Director, CX Strategy & Solutions at Boldr! I'm stoked to be able to continue focusing on and championing human-first CX at one of the most human-first places I know.

Today is my last day at PartnerHero. When I joined as VP of CX Insights, I knew I was stepping into something special, but I had no idea just how much I would learn, grow, and be inspired by the people around me. Darnell, Mandy, Josh, and the rest of that early crew: thank you for building something worth believing in, and for letting me help shape what “insights” could mean for a BPO with a heart. Then came CX Transformation—a chance to build something new with Craig and Hosam. Together, we launched new service lines, brought fresh ideas to market, and laid the groundwork for what would eventually become one of the most exciting pivots of my career. That pivot led to Managed Operations, where I got to work under Steveand alongside some truly brilliant folks (Ashley, looking at you! You too, Kevin, Thales and Alexandra) to develop a category-defining service model. It was one of the hardest and most rewarding roles I’ve ever held and I’m so proud of what we built together. From there, I moved into Blended Operations, working with Amy, Allison Müller, Carol, Diego, and an incredible team of operators. Getting to know the whole crew reminded me why I love CX: watching ops leaders step into the role of true CX practitioners, putting on their “expert” hats, experimenting, iterating, and ultimately succeeding. It was magic. And most recently, as VP of Content & Community, I got to bring it all together: building guides, hosting masterclasses, and writing the playbooks I wish I had earlier in my career. Nicole, Brittni, Mona, Taylor, Mike—you’ve made the work joyful. I can’t wait to see how you evolve the brand from here. A special thank you to Shervin, who always trusted me, championed the weird ideas, and reminded me what’s possible when you lead with both vision and care. PartnerHero (now Crescendo) is full of good people doing good work, and I feel lucky to have been a part of it. Here’s to what comes next and to everyone who helped make this chapter unforgettable. (Adam, Taylor, Taylor, Alana, Alice, Ixchel, Nia, Elen, Josh. Thank you.)

Remember when every single CEO was like "we need live chat! we need phone support!" but maybe they actually didn't need that and their customers didn't even care about it and we were all just lemmings hopping off a cliff to implement tooling that didn't even matter? That's where we are at with AI. Instead of jumping at the call to "implement AI" ask yourself the following questions: 1. Do our customers need it? Are they feeling pain that could be better resolved by AI? 2. Does our team need it? Are there things that could be handled by AI to free them up? 3. Does our current experience actually break without it? Or are we just trying to keep up with the Joneses? 4. If we add AI, do we know what good looks like? (And who's responsible for making it better if it isn’t working?) Implementing AI shouldn't be the goal. Better customer experience is. Sometimes that means AI (it's really great! I love it! I swear!). But, maybe it means cleaning up your help center. It also could mean creating better onboarding or more thoughtful escalation paths. The point is: understand if it's an actual issue and stop solving imaginary problems just because a VC panel said “AI is the future.”