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Ruth O'Brien
EMEA Senior Manager, Customer Support at Intercom
Professional Background
Ruth O'Brien is an enthusiastic and inspiring leader in the Customer Support industry, with a wealth of experience that spans over a decade. Her professional journey has taken her through various roles including front-line agent, quality assurance, team lead, manager of managers, and thrillingly, to the position of regional leader. Currently, Ruth serves as the EMEA Senior Manager for Customer Support at Intercom, where her passion for enhancing employee and customer experiences has made a significant impact.
Over her career, Ruth has demonstrated a strong commitment to leadership that emphasizes integrity and accountability. She genuinely believes that effective leadership can unleash the full potential of employees, fostering an environment where they can thrive. This belief has guided her approach to coaching and management, making her a revered figure among her peers and team members alike. Ruth encourages her teams to pursue career development actively and celebrates their growth, taking great satisfaction from witnessing their personal and professional evolution.
Ruth's knack for driving programs and projects that amplify productivity has established her as a transformative force in her organizations. Her strategic initiatives have not only improved efficiency within her teams but also enhanced the overall employee and customer experience. Ruth's ability to manage teams effectively is underpinned by her dedication to wellness and inclusion in the workplace. She actively seeks to create an inclusive environment that values the contributions of every team member, believing that a healthy work atmosphere leads to greater achievements.
Additionally, Ruth is passionate about celebrating successes, whether they are individual or team accomplishments. She maintains that recognizing outstanding work is as crucial as providing constructive feedback, understanding that appreciation boosts morale and motivation. Her dynamic leadership style encourages a blend of seriousness towards work while not taking herself too seriously, fostering a culture of camaraderie and laughter even during challenging times.
Education and Achievements
Ruth O'Brien holds a Bachelor’s Degree with Honours in English and History from University College Cork, where she developed a solid foundation for her future endeavors. Her academic background fosters a unique blend of analytical thinking and creativity, which she applies to her professional roles daily. This educational experience has contributed to her effective communication skills, making her an asset in any team setting.
Throughout her career, Ruth has held a series of impactful positions at renowned organizations. At Intercom, she progressed through various roles from Manager and Associate Manager of Customer Support to her current role as Senior Manager. Her journey reflects her relentless dedication to customer service excellence and team development. Notably, her contribution as the Manager of Customer Support has gained attention for improving customer satisfaction rates through innovative strategies.
Prior to her successful tenure at Intercom, Ruth showcased her leadership acumen at Voxpro, where she served as the Nest Team Manager. She also had the opportunity to work as a Quality Assurance Lead and Trainer for Google for Work, where her skills in coaching and training emerged. Ruth not only provided technical support but also played a pivotal role in enhancing team performance through her leadership and quality assurance efforts. With a deep-seated understanding of how great management can inspire teams, she has showcased her talents across diverse roles.
Furthermore, Ruth began her career as an Account and Technical Support Representative at Blizzard Entertainment and later worked as an Apple Product Specialist. These foundational roles profoundly shaped her customer support expertise and gave her critical insights into maintaining customer satisfaction while handling technical inquiries. Her transition from teaching English as a volunteer during her career break further exemplifies her commitment to personal growth and community involvement.
Achievements
Ruth O'Brien's professional journey is marked by several noteworthy achievements that highlight her skills, dedication, and impact in the Customer Support arena. Her tenure at Intercom has seen remarkable improvements in customer satisfaction, driven by her innovative coaching strategies and team development initiatives. Ruth's leadership has been instrumental in fostering a supportive environment where employees are encouraged to reach their full potential.
Throughout her diverse roles in leadership, Ruth has successfully launched various programs that focus on employee wellness and inclusion. Her efforts to cultivate an inclusive workplace culture have not only benefited employee morale but have also positively impacted customer experiences, an essential component in today’s corporate landscape.
Celebrating accomplishments, both big and small, is a hallmark of Ruth's managerial style. Her recognition of team and individual achievements has contributed to a motivated workforce, fostering both loyalty and performance. Ruth believes that a workplace should be enjoyable, and she actively promotes laughter and positivity as a core part of her work ethos, enabling her team to navigate challenges with resilience and determination.
In summary, Ruth O'Brien is not just a manager; she is a leader, a mentor, and a champion for both employee and customer experiences. Her extensive background in customer support, her educational credentials, and her unwavering commitment to fostering growth and inclusivity in the workplace make her a valued player in the industry. As she continues her journey, Ruth is sure to leave a significant mark in the Customer Support field and beyond.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
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Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
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Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
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