Her Story
About Vanessa
I have spent over 20 to 25 years in customer support, which has been most of my adult career. I initially came out of school wanting to go into elementary education and did that for a few years, but it wasn't taking care of the bills, so I transitioned into collections, doing both third-party and first-party collections. From there, I felt more aligned to the customer service aspect of the role and wanted to help individuals before they got into hardship situations. I found customer service very rewarding and something I was quite good at, so I ended up there by default. Currently, I work for Spirit Airlines in the travel and hospitality space as Director of Guest Care, overseeing the contact center and all guest interactions across voice communications and digital channels like WhatsApp, SMS, Google RCS, Apple Business Chat, email, web chat, and social media correspondence. I also oversee all training and quality programs that support onboarding and ongoing development for agents, as well as an optimization group that looks for opportunities to streamline the business, impact the P&L, and improve the overall guest experience and journey. Additionally, I co-lead the Women's resource group for the company, supporting and mentoring women within the industry and helping younger women understand and see what their capabilities are to achieve their goals.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Vanessa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I grew up on the Navajo Reservation in a small community in a rural town, and growing up in an environment that didn't necessarily allow for the ability to see the broader landscape of opportunity helped me to know that I always wanted to be able to have options. I always wanted to be able to learn more and know what was going on outside of our area. Growing up on a reservation is very different than growing up in a suburban area in the city, but I think it helped me to be able to understand that I always wanted to have the ability to know what else there was out there and what else I'm capable of achieving. Sometimes people will find themselves in a box and be fine living in a box, but what it taught me was that I really wanted to see everything outside of the box more than anything.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would always say that you want to put yourself in that individual's shoes, and you kind of want to think of it as if it's your family member, maybe your mom, your sister, your grandfather, whoever it may be, that's going through that situation to help you to always make sure you're doing the right thing for that particular guest. It's about going over and above and treating others not only the way that you would want to be treated, but the way that they would want to be treated.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
One of my top priorities is really being fair and having that level of integrity in all the decisions that I take. When you're in different leadership positions, you have to make a lot of choices, and I think it's easy to get swayed and make the wrong choice based off of the consensus or where people would like you to shift towards. For me, the biggest thing is making sure that the integrity and the values that you have within your decisions are always grounded and anchored in the things that make you who you are. The integrity and the character value are most important to me. I believe everything happens for a reason, so you have to always be keenly aware of the environment and be true to who you are and what you would decide, even if there weren't outside influences happening at the same time.
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