36 Seconds to Success: How Western Rise Used AI to Transform Team Potential

Western Rise is a performance travel brand helping their customers step outside their comfort zones.

"A lot of what we do as a brand is try to elevate your travel experience and make people feel comfortable to step out of their comfort zone and experience something new," Kelly Watters, co-founder of Western Rise explains. 

"Because we personally believe that travel fundamentally changes people and it makes the world a better place."

This philosophy of personal growth and transformation extends beyond their products. It also influences how they manage their team, particularly in customer service. While there’s a widespread fear across multiple industries that AI technology can replace jobs, Kelly saw it as an opportunity to develop her team members. 

The challenge

Western Rise faced familiar customer service hurdles. Lucille, their Head of Customer Support, identified one key challenge: maintaining personal customer interactions at scale.

Customers would typically get an autoreply highlighting that they contacted a small team, as a way to set customer expectations.  

"We were using a lot of automated macros in our ticket management system, and it made it hard to personalize the customer responses," Kelly notes. The team was caught between efficiency and authenticity, struggling to maintain the human touch their customers deserved.

They also had seasonal volume fluctuations that strained their Manila-based support team. 

“Our team number stays the same throughout the year, but we have a very seasonal business. In the spring and the holidays through January, it's super busy. But then it’ll be quiet from January to March,” says Kelly. Managing these types of fluctuations was exhausting for the team. 

The solution

After evaluating four different AI platforms, Western Rise chose Siena. 

Intuitive design

There were a few factors that stood out about Siena: 

• A user-friendly interface. "The UI was easier to manage for the customer support team that doesn't use AI tools all the time," Kelly notes, making it accessible for team members new to AI technology.
• Comprehensive integration options. They could connect Siena with their website, ticket management platform, and enable it to manage returns and order management. Being able to pull data from multiple systems in real-time made Siena a game-changer. Instead of toggling between multiple systems to process a return, team members could now handle the entire workflow in one place.
• Useful out-of-the-box analytics. “Siena’s ready-made dashboard is very smooth and intuitive, easy to learn, and easy to teach,” Lucille explains.
• Customizable personas. Crafting a persona that matched their brand voice was straightforward with granular control over tone, language, and response styles. They could fine-tune their AI's responses, testing and adjusting the tone until it perfectly matched their brand.

Empowering the team

Implementing Siena wasn't without challenges. 

"Our team were scared that if we take over AI, we will reduce job responsibility. They thought we were trying to replace us," Kelly recalls. The solution was reframing AI as a tool for career advancement.

"None of us are going to work at this brand forever. We're upgrading, elevating, and moving on with new tasks," Kelly emphasizes. "I want them to leave empowered to take on more senior positions. And AI is not going away in customer service."

At the beginning, Kelly managed that implementation by herself. Over time, this responsibility was transitioned to the customer support team, as they developed their skills in:

• AI prompt engineering training
• Persona customization and workflow optimization
• Strategic customer experience design

This approach transformed team members from AI skeptics to champions, as they saw how the technology could enhance rather than replace their roles.

The results

The quantitative improvements were impressive:

• First response time was reduced from 20 hours to 36 seconds. 
• CSAT scores increased from 91-92% to 98-100% within 14 days. 
• Resolution time went down by a full day.

These improvements meant customers could get quick answers about their performance wear when planning trips, immediate assistance with returns or exchanges when needed, and faster resolution of any issues that might impact their travel plans. 

For a brand focused on enhancing travel experiences, Siena helped them make that difference. 

But the real success story was in team transformation. 

"Siena got our team out of the ‘boring’ ticket management," Kelly notes. "Optimizing their workflows and solving repetitive questions faster allows them to spend more time on things that they're actually really good at."

The team has more capacity to contribute to:

• Brand positioning work.
• Sales and upselling initiatives.
• Website experience optimization.
• End-to-end customer journey improvements.

The impact on team engagement has been profound. 

With an average tenure of 5 years, Siena has enabled their team to evolve. 

"We've really loved pulling our team into other parts of the business," Kelly says.

This integration has transformed other parts of the company. "It's made a lot of our remote team a lot more integrated, it's made people a lot closer, and it makes the business run a lot better because they know what's going on in the other departments."

Looking ahead

For Western Rise, having an AI agent unlocked a new model of support for their customer support team. 

"Nobody wants to show up to a 9 to 5 and do the same thing for 10 years of their life and be unappreciated," Kelly reflects. “Everybody wants to learn, grow, and have new opportunities."

As AI continues to reshape customer service, Western Rise's experience offers a blueprint for the future: one where AI handles routine tasks while support teams grow into strategic business partners. 

‍Ready to transform your team's potential? Siena can help your team grow while providing an amazing customer experience. Book a time with our team here.