So without further ado, let’s start with getting to know Silvia by understanding her job and what her day-to-day looks like:
“I oversee the Player Experiences for various mid-core and strategy games, which involves supporting and engaging our players in all ways and platforms. People management is at the heart of my day-to-day. The Player Experience team is composed of customer support leads, VIP account managers, and VIP campaign managers. Even though their focus is on taking care of players and their games’ feedback, issues and suggestions, their backgrounds and skill sets are quite different. As a team manager, I have to support and guide the team toward the right strategy and execution and provide a clear path for their career development.”
“The other area I spend most of my day with is the alignment with each studio so that my directions are reliable and consistent with the overall product and marketing strategies.”
We continued by asking Silvia how long she has been working in the player-facing field and what’s her favorite thing about it.
“My career started in customer support and social media management at Zynga in 2011. Since then, I’ve managed all aspects of marketing, including design and web development, SEO and SEM, content and social media, and of course, customer support.”
“I believe player support and relationship management are vital to the product’s success. Having a direct relationship with players allows us to receive feedback in real-time on how a product, a release, events, and game updates are received.”
When we asked Silvia if there are any other professionals in the field that she particularly admires, or that she has learned a lot from, this was her answer:
“Gemma Doyle, VP of Player Success in Zynga. When I moved into the management side of the gaming industry, Gemma was the person who took me under her wing and truly mentored me. She remains one of my mentors to this day. I find her approach to VIP management, specifically proactive outreach and ad hoc communication methods, inspiring. She taught me what it is to be a good people manager. To care about my teams and to have a clear mind on what needs to be done.”
Next, when asked about the importance of Player Feedback in her organization, she answered:
And how does Silvia measure success?
“Generally, you can clearly understand how our Customer Support team performs by looking at CSAT (customer satisfaction). But this it’s not the only indicator. We take a holistic approach by also reviewing effectively our self-service and FAQs performance to ensure we are delivering high-quality player experience. For example, players will rate how our FAQs were able to assist them with their game question, they will “like or dislike” an article, and our team constantly analyzes articles that receive high “dislikes” as well as searched terms that do not result in any suggested articles. We continue to optimize the content to ensure our players have relevant and up-to-date information.”
“Another indicator we actively look at is player sentiment among our player communities, which allows us, together with CSAT, to understand whether the level of service we are providing is well received.”
Besides eternal glory in the hall of fame of Affogata’s Player Insights Champion Awards, you might be wondering what the prize is. We wanted the prize to be meaningful and long-lasting, so we planted 100 trees 🌳 in Silvia’s name and sent her a certificate showing exactly how his eco-impact is making a difference.
Thank you, Silvia, and congratulations! Your work inspires us and many other pros out there🔥