Karina Becerra Dahir Listens Closely to the Consumer

VP of Consumer Advocacy and Compliance Karina Becerra Dahir is making sure all voices are heard on SiriusXM

Karina Becerra Dahir, VP, Consumer Advocacy and Compliance, Sirius XM; Photo by Danny Bristoll

BY ZACH BALIVA, HISPANIC EXECUTIVE

Karina Becerra Dahir joined SiriusXM, the leading audio entertainment company in North America, in 2007. The company has a portfolio of audio businesses, including its flagship subscription entertainment service by the same name. Since Becerra Dahir came on board, SiriusXM has continually expanded its content offering and listening platforms, including its advanced in-car audio entertainment experience and its next-gen streaming app. Through all the changes, Becerra Dahir has had just one mission: to do right by the customer.

Becerra Dahir started with SiriusXM as program manager of listener care and is now vice president of consumer advocacy and compliance. She manages a team of people responsible for interacting with customers, identifying any pain points they encounter while using various SiriusXM products and services, and then resolving those issues. “My team is here to make sure everything the company does works and goes seamlessly,” she says. “We are on the front lines of protecting the customer experience.”

It’s an especially important role in today’s crowded entertainment landscape, because listeners have more options than ever before. A positive user experience helps build brand loyalty and gives SiriusXM an advantage over competitors like TuneIn, Spotify, and Apple Music.

Users also have more options for airing their grievances. Becerra Dahir gathers feedback from surveys, call centers, and seemingly endless social media outlets, including Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, and Reddit. She then looks for repeated concerns before prioritizing issues and routing them to dedicated social or escalation teams for resolution. While these efforts were once siloed, Becerra Dahir’s department is building a dashboard to unite all data points and collect the full scope of SiriusXM’s valuable consumer feedback.

“We are on the front lines of protecting the customer experience.”

Karina Becerra Dahir

Becerra Dahir was born in New York City, where she was raised by an Ecuadorian mother and Spanish father in a bilingual home. Life in the Big Apple gave Becerra Dahir a sense of belonging. In fact, she rarely felt like a minority until she started attending a small liberal arts college in Vermont to study economics and Spanish. “College was a time of culture shock, but the experience forced me to grow as a person, as I started to understand more about the challenges I would face in the real world,” she says.

The small environment—Middlebury College has fewer than 2,500 students—showed Becerra Dahir the importance of speaking up, engaging with others, and trying new things. She took advantage of the opportunity to take graduate-level language courses and study abroad in Spain.

Karina Becerra Dahir; Photo by Danny Bristoll

The choice soon paid off, as a tech-driven startup called Synapse recruited her as a project manager in its business development unit. There, Becerra Dahir used her Spanish language skills to lead the marketing company’s efforts to launch the distribution of a Hispanic magazine. She also oversaw outreach and communication to the company’s domestic Hispanic market.

After five years, Becerra Dahir was ready for a change. She took a few months off to recharge and rebalance herself. Then she landed an interview at SiriusXM—but was surprised to see red ink all over her résumé during an initial meeting with the company. The hiring manager wondered how such a young professional could have had such big responsibilities and whether Becerra Dahir had quit her job because she was confident in her ability to quickly land another one. When she answered affirmatively, the recruiter hired her on the spot.

One of Becerra Dahir’s first projects at SiriusXM involved expanding the company’s call center operations and opening new international facilities. She evaluated options in India, South America, and the Philippines before advising leaders on the best overseas locations.

Now, nearly two decades into her tenure at the pioneering broadcaster, Becerra Dahir is using her legacy knowledge as she continues to advocate for the customer. She and the nine colleagues on her team search for information regarding apps, products, programming, processes, policies, billing tactics, the call center experience, and more. “We can do what we do best when we have a holistic understanding of what’s broken and what needs fixing,” Becerra Dahir says. “Collecting the right information helps us tell the full story.” 

SiriusXM’s practices have inspired outside organizations as well. “It is a privilege to collaborate and learn from Sirius XM. Their innovative approaches in the media and entertainment industry are transformative,” says Rahul Soni, EVP of Lumenore. “By working together and delivering analytics and insights for key business decisions, we have made a positive impact, pushing boundaries and achieving excellence.”

In December 2023, SiriusXM announced the rollout of its new streaming app, which “allows fans to go deeper into their passions and get closer to their favorite music, artists, personalities, and sports.” Features in the SiriusXM app include personal recommendations, exclusive streaming-only channels, automated reminders, and enhanced organization. The company, which originally offered in-car programming, has made it easier than ever to listen at home and on connected devices.

The introduction of the revamped app comes after a busy year, in which SiriusXM debuted a new logo and launched year-round channels for artists like Kelly Clarkson, Shaggy, Smokey Robinson, John Mayer, and Carrie Underwood.

It can be hard for Becerra Dahir to know exactly what to expect, but her team stands ready to ensure users continue to have the best experience possible.

“We can’t predict exactly what challenges we will face with a large population using new systems and technologies,” she says. “But I’m confident that the strong SiriusXM culture, combined with my dedicated team, has us in the position to address whatever may come our way.”

HISPANIC EXECUTIVE

Hispanicexecutive.com