In a recent interview with The Experience Edge PodcastCrunchyroll Senior Director of Global SVOD Customer Experience Luciane Carrillo broke down the cultural differences between the popular anime-centric streamer Crunchyroll and her former employer, Netflix.

When asked about strategies learned from her Netflix experience that do and don’t work at Crunchyroll, Carrillo replied:
“I wouldn’t say ‘doesn’t’ work, because for me, nothing is impossible. I’m still figuring out how to make some of those things work. One good example is feedback. I think at Netflix, I learned so much on receiving feedback and being open to it as well as getting better at giving feedback that is timely—that helps at that moment, and not wait the whole year, you know, to write feedback to somebody.

Like, if we were in a meeting and I didn’t perform well in that meeting, I knew I would close the meeting, and I would get a ping like, ‘Can we talk?’ from somebody that would be very blunt with me. (They’d say,) ‘You know the way you came across was not the greatest’ or ‘Can we talk about where you’re coming from?’ So that feedback culture is so well done at Netflix, but then like when I came to Crunchyroll, I brought that bluntness and more candor that I had with Netflix, I had to adapt because it was not, still is not… I think people are not ready for that level of bluntness.“

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“So it’s been interesting on how I also adapt. Because I don’t want to let go of the feedback — That’s how we grow. We need to be open. But how do I change people’s mindset and empower them with tools on how to do it well, and see the value of that feedback being done? So yes, feedback definitely is something that we will get better at. We are just starting our feedback cycle at Crunchyroll, and I’m planning a session next week about feedback with our leaders just to go over those things. You know — How do you do self-reflection, and how do you have good intent when you’re hearing the feedback somebody is giving? — all those beautiful things about feedback. So we’ll get there!“

Crunchyroll Senior Director Says Company Isn’t As Mature as Netflix, but Praises Customer Service Position in Organizational Structure

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Carrillo also said that while her first instinct when facing a challenge at Crunchyroll is to consider her Netflix experience, this doesn’t always work. “Because of my experience with Netflix, when I face a challenge at Crunchyroll, my mind right away goes, ‘Oh, I’ve done this before.’

“But sometimes, I try to apply the same thing and it doesn’t work because also the maturity of the company, but also the maturity of my own team. You know, some of these things I was applying at Netflix, but I had a very mature team that had been with me for years — that knew how things work. Where, now, I’m introducing a whole new concept for some of my teammates who haven’t had that experience. They’re more junior and they struggle a little bit with that sort of thing.“

Despite the differences, things similar at both companies include the metrics to track customer service. Carrillo also lists conflict resolution between staff. Experiences at Netflix helped Carrillo identify that it’s not necessarily personalities clashing, but sometimes different expectations and communication styles due to cultural differences. She also outlines how she overcame some of these barriers, e.g., by building connections to understand how a person communicates. Carrillo recounted her first job in the U.S. and how blunt feedback from a Spaniard frequently drove her to tears. By connecting with her and seeing her perspective, she recognized the Spaniard was actually pointing her in the right direction.

Carrillo also had praise for Crunchyroll’s organizational structure, giving her team an important seat at the table in product rollouts. “I feel like at Crunchyroll, we are very lucky to have Customer Experience sitting under Product and Engineering. In the organization, that’s where CX (Customer Experience) sits, and that’s a very privileged position as well because it helps us build those relationships with the different teams and not be an afterthought for those teams.” She expands on this in the interview, stating that enabling the customer service team to be proactive rather than reactive avoids predictable pitfalls.

Overall, cultural differences and how this impacts relationships were a core theme of the interview. Carrillo had numerous stories across her career about overcoming barriers, including mentorship of women who felt pushed into certain career paths, women who were overlooked due to assumptions about pregnancy and childrearing, and, similar to employee conflicts, identifying that strained relationships with customers from certain regions isn’t necessarily about personalities clashing, but again culture manifesting in different communication styles. She cited examples of improvements in customer satisfaction by retraining customer service agents with a more global mindset. It’s a good interview. There are timestamps for different sections in the video description depending on your interests.

Source: The Experience Edge Podcast

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