Krista Cook is our wonderful customer success supervisor here at Silver Star. Her career path is full of valuable experience which gives her unique insights that benefit her team and customers.
A Strong Foundation
Krista Cook has worked in Silver Star’s Customer Success department for nearly 13 years, but her experience in the telecommunications industry began with the launch of a local internet service provider in Pocatello. Krista and her dad started a company together and later sold it to pursue other career opportunities. Krista moved into the healthcare industry where she worked as a manager and patient financial counselor for the Portneuf Cancer Center.
These experiences laid a strong foundation for Krista and developed her skills in handling customer relationships. In 2012 she re-entered the Telcommunications industry at Silver Star and is now our Customer Success Supervisor. “When I joined Silver Star, Customer Success felt like the perfect fit. My career has always centered around building relationships, improving processes, and helping people, whether that’s guiding a patient, supporting a customer, or coaching a team. The role gave me the chance to combine my industry knowledge with my passion for developing people and delivering exceptional service,” said Krista.
Managing the Toll of Customer Service
Customer service is not easy. Throughout multiple industries, customer service professionals take the brunt of individual customer complaints with the job of de-escalating and solving any problems a customer is facing. The ups and downs of customer interactions can pile up and before you know it, you’re exhausted and need a break.
Many new customer service professionals, across multiple industries, end up leaving the profession within their first year because of the social stress that comes with the territory. Krista’s advice for aspiring customer service professionals is to be patient and stay curious. “This is not a role where you’ll know everything in a week, or even a year. The industry moves quickly, and the learning curve is steep. But if you come in open to learning, willing to ask questions, and able to find balance outside of work, it’s incredibly rewarding. You get to make a real difference for people every day,” Krista said.
With patience and curiosity as guiding principles, Krista has been an indispensable leader at Silver Star. Her efforts continue to benefit both her team members and customers with her experience and thoughtful approach to problem solving.
Standing for a People-focused Future
At Silver Star we only hire customer service professionals within our service areas. With the rise of AI and outsourced labor, we want to make it clear that we never outsource to foreign call centers, nor do we plan on using AI as anything more than a support for human work. Krista is on the front lines with these changes and says that “These tools aren’t about replacing people; they’re about enhancing the customer experience. By streamlining tasks and providing smarter solutions, we’re able to focus on the most important parts of our work: building relationships, solving problems, and creating long-term value for our customers. Just as importantly, these tools allow us to keep all our customer service local so that customers always receive the personal, community-based experience we’re known for,” Krista Said.
The Person Behind the Screen
Krista is an entrepreneur at heart. When she isn’t spending time outdoors in a kayak or on a quad, she spends her free time helping others with their small businesses. Two of her clients are her own two sons. Her youngest is currently pursuing a career in law enforcement and her oldest is an artist and author who is hard at work on creative endeavors with Krista’s business know-how guiding a path to profitable success. “I’m fortunate to get to support him in turning his passion into something tangible,” said Krista.
We are always striving to live by our company core values and Krista is a wonderful example of how we can strive to be our best across multiple areas of our lives. Krista says that her favorite core value is Better Together. One of her most cherished memories is when a coworker, despite having more than enough on their own plate, set everything aside to help Krista work through a personal, workplace-related hardship. They led with kindness and made sure she felt supported and valued. “That moment didn’t just help me; it reminded me of the kind of people I’m fortunate to work with every day at Silver Star. It’s experiences like that which make this such a great place to be. Whether it’s collaborating across departments, helping a team member grow, or finding solutions for customers, everything we do at Silver Star is stronger when we work as a team.” said Krista.
We are lucky to have Krista in her role as customer service supervisor and look forward to the future with her leading such a crucial part of Silver Star.