The Fierce Video editorial team is proud to present its third annual Emerging Leaders Awards, recognizing the brightest young professionals rising up the ranks of the streaming TV industry. Throughout the month of May we’ll be featuring these profiles with each of our finalists. We will announce the winners during our StreamTV Show with a live awards ceremony in Denver on June 6 at 7:30 p.m. MT. Not yet registered for the StreamTV Show, running June 6-8? Be sure to register now!
Hannah Hartsig/Sling TV:
Prior to Sling, Hartsig spent eight years advising numerous enterprise brands on their customer experience strategy. In that role, she helped develop ever-evolving approaches to listening to, interpreting and acting on customer feedback. She also helped develop best practices for enterprise engagement with CX and how companies can efficiently identify and act on customer insights. Hartsig is now the head of customer experience for Sling TV and leads a team of managers responsible for oversight of engagement at every customer touch point across Sling's products.
What her colleagues are saying:
“Hannah’s innovative and collaborative approach to the customer experience continues to elevate consumers’ affinity for the Sling brand. Since joining the Sling team, Hannah has engaged cross-functional departments and taken on complex projects with a ‘can do’ attitude and enthusiastic spirit. Looking to the future, we will continue to rely on Hannah’s expertise to advance Sling’s long term vision with a constant focus on the user experience at every customer touch point.” - Seth VanSickel, SVP of operations and product at Sling TV
“As we’ve strengthened Sling’s interface and rolled out new features, Hannah has been a wonderful partner to effectively communicate updates with our users. Hannah's customer-first approach and sharing of feedback from various sources has enabled us to stay on top of the end-to-end experience and make updates that add incredible value for our users." - Jonathan Lin, VP of product at Sling TV
Streaming Industry Q&A:
What streaming services do you subscribe to?
Of course I'd be lost without Sling as I have to keep up on Below Deck Med and all the Housewives franchises. I am also a frequent binger on Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max (especially when there's a new season of Succession).
Describe your biggest career highlight so far.
In my previous role I was honored to advise and partner with brands such as Chick-fil-A, Chipotle and Party City on developing an innovative customer-first culture. However, as any consultant knows, your final product is simply a strong recommendation. Which makes my transition to Sling as head of customer experience the true highlight of my career. Sling has positioned me to not only bring forward that "strong recommendation" for advancing CX, but empowered me to enact those changes. I'm particularly proud to be leading our digital transformation of customer care, and the team that makes it all come to life. We've driven customer satisfaction and time to resolution by meeting customers where they are with the solutions they need.
What has been your biggest career learning experience?
Taking care of customers isn't just about driving an NPS score, it's about doing the right thing. In my career, I have had the advantage of sitting in many boardrooms of many large companies, hearing first hand how executive teams respond to the needs of their customers. Some wrote off the feedback, narrowly focused on their bottom lines. Others however, respected the fact that their customers were choosing to spend their hard-earned dollars with the brand. They valued the customer relationship and felt obligated to respond to their needs. Not only did the later brands drive significantly greater customer loyalty and therefore business growth, but created a positive culture of respect and collaboration among their teams. This experience has driven my passion for the customer experience and the art of developing customer-centric cultures.
What's next for you in terms of new challenges in streaming TV?
Customer experience and TV are not two topics that jive particularly well together. Our industry is behind in creating differentiated customer experiences. I am incredibly humbled and excited by the challenge to drive a customer-focused culture at Sling and build upon its reputation as a brand customers can trust. To get there, we have to consider CX from two angles. First, empower every team member at Sling to take ownership of how their role affects the customer, and welcome customer feedback in their decision making. Second, create exceptional care experiences for customers through existing and emerging support channels. I'm thrilled to innovate with my talented CX team, and collaborate across the organization to deliver a truly customer-centric culture. (I am also excited to annoy all the aforementioned team members with my overuse of the word "customer-centric.")