At A Glance

What started as a part-time job to help pay for college grew into a career for Sydney (Dowd) Gillen, who is part of a team that is overhauling the experience at one of the iconic outdoors brands. Sydney’s energy jumps off the page, and as you read her story, pay particular attention to the importance she places on making the process not just accessible, but inviting.

Who is Sydney (Dowd) Gillen

Sydney (Dowd) Gillen is the Experience Team Manager at SCOTT Sports, a position she has held for just over a year.

About SCOTT Sports

The SCOTT Sports legacy in outdoor sports can be traced back to 1958 when Ed Scott, an engineer from Idaho, fashioned the first ski pole from aluminum. In 1970, Scott Sports began selling eye goggles for motocross riders, and eventually moved its headquarters to Switzerland. Scott Sports entered the mountain bike market in the mid-1980s and in 1989 its aerodynamic handle bar was used by American Greg LeMond as he pedaled to a victory in the Tour de Force. Bicycles have grown to become one of the cornerstones of SCOTT Sports, which has subsidiaries in the United States, South Africa, India and several European countries in addition to the headquarters in Switzerland.

Sydney’s CX Journey

Originally from the Southeast, she first walked into a bike shop because she needed a job to help pay for college. Once she worked her way up to selling bikes, she came to understand how important it is to not only build but sustain relationships with customers as they became more knowledgeable and experienced. “That's really where I found my passion for customer experience in general,” she says. After college, she got a job offer from the owner of three Trek shops in North Carolina. That's where she cut her teeth and worked her way to management. After that, she worked for the sports industry giant SIGNA Sports United before it folded suddenly. Next she did a year at a company overhauling its customer service entirely, they produced bikes and ebikes licensed by automotive brands. Finally, she was offered her current position at SCOTT. “He was the first person who probably saw something in me I didn't see in myself,” Sydney says, “which was not just being half-in, half-out in sales, but really good at a rounded customer experience.” She was promoted to manager and given the job of making the company more accessible and welcoming in an industry that can be intimidating for newcomers. “I made it my mission to make sure every single person got an amazing experience, start to finish,” Sydney says. “No matter if they walked in with a $10,000 bike or $50 bike that they picked up out of a ditch.” After that experience, she was able to use her experience on the ground floor in bike shops and work remotely for SIGNA Sports United, the sports conglomerate which folded in 2023. From there, she worked with a micromobility company before joining SCOTT in 2024. 

CX  team at SCOTT Sports

Sydney’s team has grown from four to seven and oversees both customer and dealer experience. It is one component of SCOTT USA’s larger CX team. Some experience team members work out of the headquarters in Ogden, Utah, while others are remote. This allows the flexibility and agility to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mountain time each day, providing on-call help via phone, live chat and the contact form on the Scott website.

‍Formula for success

One of the key performance indicators for the team is average first response time for the email ticketing system, which reflects the importance of providing quick support to dealers and sales representatives. Customer satisfaction is monitored via emails as well as chat, and when it comes to handling issues that arise, Sydney works to make sure the people on her team feel empowered to solve a problem as well as supported if they’re not sure on the best approach to take. “I tell my entire team that they have just as much power as I do,” Sydney says. “I don't want them to feel like they're hampered in their ability to take care of something.”

Tech stack

The team uses the full SAP suite, which is required because the company is headquartered in Switzerland with additional subsidiaries in the European Union. Currently, the experience team uses a chat program, which does include some AI features, and runs on the company’s B2B platform as well as the  front-facing website.

AI ready or not?

Everyone is talking about the ways in which AI could be used to improve CX. That might actually be a red flag in and of itself, and Sydney points out that emulating another company’s approach might actually negate an advantage that Scott has with both its history and knowledge base. “At the end of the day, we feel that our strength here is going to be what we can do differently,” she says. “And right now, that means not having a chatbot that people have to swim through.” What is intriguing, Sydney says, is using AI to collate the company’s internal resources, providing its agents to more quickly answer customer and dealer questions. “Right now, we've got resources across a variety of different formats and places,” Sydney says. “If we could get that answer that much faster, that would be kind of a game changer.”

What does the customer really want?

AI tools can provide quick answers. That’s not always what customers are looking for, though. Sometimes, what they really want is someone to listen to the problem they’ve encountered and respond to the frustration they’re experiencing. If that’s the case, an AI tool is not only unhelpful, but it becomes a barrier to what the customer really wants. “You really have to meet your customers where they are at,” Sydney says, “instead of being like, ‘They're asking this question, I have this answer, and now they can find it faster. Boom, winning.’ “It's going to matter for each and every business to kind of understand their customer better and understand how AI-empowered tools can help their teams and their customers.”