At a Glance

Justin Schumann is the Director of Customer Care at Deep Sentinel, a live security monitoring company that combines AI-powered cameras with real human guards who can intervene in real time when suspicious activity is detected. 

Who is Justin Schumann

Meet Justin Schumann, Director of Customer Care at Deep Sentinel.

About Deep Sentinel

Deep Sentinel combines AI-powered security cameras with live guards who can intervene in real time when suspicious activity is detected.

The Customer Care team supports technical issues, billing, partner needs, escalations, and customer education while working closely with engineering and guard operations. Because of the product's nature, CX is about more than fast responses—it's about building trust and helping customers feel protected.

Justin’s CX Journey

Justin's CX career began in 2009 when a referral led him from restaurant work and comedy at Second City to Groupon. He quickly moved into leadership, eventually becoming an Area Manager reporting to the VP of Customer Service.

Along the way, he developed a passion for building systems, leading teams, and creating better customer experiences. After Groupon, he held leadership roles at companies including Trunk Club and Nordstrom, before joining Deep Sentinel through a former colleague's referral.

The CX Team at Deep Sentinel

Deep Sentinel's Customer Care team consists of roughly 30–35 team members supporting customer care, technical support, billing, partner support, and escalations.

The fully remote team spans the U.S., Philippines, and India and works closely with product, engineering, finance, sales, and guard operations. Team members are trained to combine product expertise, communication skills, and sound judgment to either resolve issues directly or escalate them with clear ownership.

The Exciting World of CX

For Justin, CX is where customers discover who a company really is. While other teams attract and build for customers, CX is where trust and loyalty are earned.

At Deep Sentinel, that means handling everything from hardware and software issues to billing and live guard response. Team members need empathy, technical knowledge, strong judgment, and the ability to stay calm under pressure.

Whether helping customers troubleshoot issues or responding after security incidents, the team plays a critical role in the customer experience.

Training the CX Team

Deep Sentinel's onboarding process combines shadowing, structured training, and hands-on experience.

New hires learn product knowledge, billing processes, escalation procedures, and customer communication. Because the team supports customers' homes and businesses, judgment, ownership, and empathy are just as important as technical skills.

The goal is to prepare team members to confidently handle a wide range of situations from day one.

CX Team Success Factors

Customers engage through email, phone, support tickets, the app, and partner channels.

Justin sees the future of CX in proactive support—monitoring system health, educating customers, and identifying issues before they become problems. As security threats evolve, the team must stay connected to customer feedback, field trends, and product improvements. The focus is creating a seamless customer journey from onboarding through renewal and beyond.

The Importance of Customer Service

For Justin, customer service is about more than solving problems. It's about educating customers, building confidence, and creating peace of mind. That includes proactively addressing issues, following up after major incidents, and ensuring customers understand the value of the service.

Retention isn't just preventing cancellations—it's making customers feel supported and cared for. To do that, agents also need strong support from the company behind them.

Tech Stack

Deep Sentinel's CX team relies on HubSpot, Chargebee, internal admin tools, and Slack. The real value isn't the tools themselves but the visibility they provide. Agents need a complete view of each customer, including account history, subscriptions, equipment, and internal context.

Justin values HubSpot's ability to centralize information, automate workflows, and integrate with other systems, helping teams work more efficiently.

Making It Better

Justin feels the biggest opportunity for improvement is creating a single, unified customer view. Today, important information lives across multiple systems. Bringing it together would help agents understand customer situations faster, reduce handoffs, improve escalations, and deliver a more consistent experience.

AI in Customer Service

Justin believes AI can make CX teams more effective when used thoughtfully.

AI is valuable for summarizing information, identifying patterns, surfacing knowledge, and reducing repetitive work. But customer service still requires human judgment, empathy, and flexibility. The goal isn't replacing agents—it's giving them better tools, context, and insights so they can deliver stronger customer experiences.

Topic of Interest: Internal Perception of CX

Note: This topic is based on conversations I’ve had with CX leaders across the country and reflects a broader industry trend, not a company-specific observation.

One of the biggest challenges CX leaders face is changing how businesses view customer experience teams.

Too often, customer service is seen as a cost center — a “bottom line” function tied to refunds, credits, compensation, and support volume. As a result, CX teams are frequently asked to do more with less despite being one of the strongest drivers of customer loyalty. The reality is that CX teams save relationships that would otherwise be lost. We prevent churn, identify growth opportunities, and help customers get more value from the products and services they use. That is revenue. That is growth. That is retention. Yet CX is still often measured as a liability instead of an asset.

The shift I want to see before I retire is this: measure CX against retention and lifetime value, not just cost per contact. Every customer we save and every relationship we protect represents revenue retained by the business. The companies winning today are not just focused on acquisition. They are focused on protecting what they already have.

They say to choose your battles in your career. I’ve chosen this one — at least until I retire in a couple decades.

What New CX Leaders Need to Know

If you're stepping into a CX leadership role, start with two fundamentals:

Know your “why.” Understand what drives you, why this work matters to you, and what unique value you bring to the role. That sense of purpose will help guide your decisions and sustain you through challenges. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.” -Simon Sinek

Listen closely to your customers. Their feedback is one of your most valuable resources. Customers will tell you where the friction exists, and often point you toward the solution. The message may not always be delivered gently, but the insight is invaluable. Use it.