October 15, 2024 • 48 mins
This week we are recapping our time at the ElevateCX Conference in Denver! Kate Chupp joins us to discuss some of our main takeaways from our time at ElevateCX!
In this episode, we'll discuss specific talks from the event, why ElevateCX doesn't feel like your typical work conference, and how our time in Denver inspired us to continue providing remarkable support experiences for our customers. Plus, you'll hear directly from support professionals as they share their advice, software recommendations, and insights into the future of Customer Support!
If you're able to make it to ElevateCX in London, we highly recommend it.
Tools featured in this episode:
Special thanks to everyone who interviewed with us at ElevateCX!
- Ashley Hayslett
- Cheryl Spriggs
- Deon Nicholas
- Kate Wilson
- Kristi Ernst Thompson
- Lance Conzett
- Mercer Smith
- Sarah Caminiti
- Sarah Hatter
We want to hear from you! Share your support stories and questions with us at happytohelp@buzzsprout.com!
To learn more about Buzzsprout visit Buzzsprout.com.
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Priscilla (00:00):
Welcome to Happy to Help.
A podcast about customersupport from the people of
Buzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brooke.
Today we're recapping our timeat Elevate CX in Denver.
We'll discuss our maintakeaways from the event and
you'll hear from some of thecustomer experience
professionals we met while there.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it.
Jordan, did you know that thisweek is National Customer
(00:24):
Service Week?
I did not.
Yeah, I had no idea.
I didn't know that either untila couple weeks ago.
Someone mentioned it, actuallyat the Elevate CX conference.
I was talking with SarahCaminiti and she said oh well,
next week is Customer ServiceWeek.
And I went there's a CustomerService Week and I looked it up
and, sure enough, it's NationalCustomer Service Week last week.
So when we're recording thisit's this week, but by the time
(00:46):
it gets published it'll be lastweek.
Jordan (00:48):
Okay, I feel like I should have sent flowers or
something.
It's like when they do like theteacher appreciation week and
like I'm really busy and so Iforget to like get a gift for
the teacher, I feel so bad.
I have like that kind offeeling right now.
I should have gotten yousomething.
Priscilla (01:05):
Well, the good news for you is that it's real time,
so you have the rest of the weekto do something.
Jordan (01:09):
I do.
I have the rest of the week toget it together, but if you're,
listening to this and it's nextweek and so you've missed it.
Priscilla (01:16):
You don't have to wait until next year.
You can do something next weekand it'll just be a couple of
days late, but I promise youyour support friends and your
customer service workers willlove whatever it is you want to
do for them, even if it's a weeklate.
Yeah, so this is just areminder to anyone who didn't
know that customer service weekwas happening or that they
missed it.
Go back and do something foryour team, because it really is
(01:38):
a great way to just celebratethe people on your team, who
often get overlooked and reallyon this podcast, every week is
customer service week.
Jordan (01:47):
There you go.
Priscilla (01:49):
I love it.
Speaking of which, we have aguest on this podcast today.
Kate Chupp is back.
She was here on our lastepisode to talk about writing,
and she's here today to talkabout Elevate CX, because she
and I both went to Denver forthe Elevate CX conference.
How are you doing, kate?
Jordan (02:05):
Hi guys and Kate, you're in Colorado, so this was like
super easy for you to go toElevate CX, right, oh?
Kate (02:12):
yeah, just over to the nearest big city, denver, for me
.
I love it.
Yeah, it was such a coolexperience.
I'm excited to be talking aboutit today.
Priscilla (02:20):
Yeah, so before we get to our takeaways from
Elevate CX, I want to sharesomeone who made my day recently
and really it's a community ofpeople.
So if you live in the US, youprobably know that Hurricane
Helene came through thesoutheast a couple of weeks ago
and really devastated a lot ofthe southeast, but specifically
western North Carolina.
(02:40):
And last week I and some of myfamily members packed up a bunch
of supplies and drove up toNorth Carolina.
And last week I and some of myfamily members packed up a bunch
of supplies and drove up toNorth Carolina just to donate
those to people who need it andto get them.
They're accepting a lot ofdonations in that area and then
taking them to people who arestranded in their homes, who
need, you know, food and waterand clothes and all the things
(03:01):
that they lost in this terrible,devastating hurricane.
So we went to Franklin, NorthCarolina, which is about an hour
west of where a lot of themajor destruction was.
Franklin, north Carolina is alittle community, it's very
small.
I think the day we went up iswhen it got cell service back.
So for about a week and a halfafterwards it didn't have any
(03:22):
cell service and so it was hardto get in touch with people
there.
So they were dealing with majorpower outages and no cell
service and no internet and allof that.
But even while they weredealing with that and that small
town, they were collectingsupplies and they were
communicating with each otherand they were organizing
donation and it was incredibleto see like you could go to any
(03:43):
open parking lot in Franklin andgive supplies and they were
accepting and organizingsupplies and getting them onto
trucks and sending them eastinto like Asheville area and the
surrounding communities thatwere like just devastated.
And it was just—it made my day,but it was also heartbreaking,
right.
Deon (03:59):
Yeah.
Priscilla (04:00):
But it made my day to see this community come
together and support each other.
But it made my day to see thiscommunity come together and
support each other.
Our hearts are with the peoplein North Carolina, but it's so
cool to see that community cometogether and really serve the
people in the area.
Jordan (04:11):
That's so incredible.
That's beautiful.
Priscilla (04:13):
It reminded me that, like, we have so much power to
impact each other, even if we'rein need Exactly, yeah, and it's
little things.
It's like going and helpingsort, you know, water and food
and diapers and formula out sothat it's in the right spot.
Like that's not hard work butit takes hands, and so being
(04:35):
able to offer that, or justgiving someone a compliment or
giving someone a hug when theyneed it or, in our case, giving
someone really good customersupport, like those kind of
things are pretty easy to giveout and can make a huge impact
on people, and so it was justencouraging to me to see, and so
hopefully that's encouraging toyou guys as well.
Love it All, right.
So let's talk about Elevate CX.
So last week, or I guess a weekand a half ago at this point,
(04:55):
kate and I went to Denver.
We met in Denver, we attendedthe Elevate CX conference and
for both of us it was our firstconference that we had gone to
for Elevate CX.
Oh, wow, which was cool.
Yeah, it was new for both of us, and you know we had just done
the episode with Sarah Hatter onHappy to Help, so if you
haven't listened to that, goback.
I think it's three or fourepisodes ago.
(05:17):
Amazing episode yeah, sarahcame on and told us all about
Elevate and where it came fromand how it's grown over the
years and what it looks like nowand that episode I started to
get really excited about whatthis conference was going to
look like.
I, even afterwards, was like Idon't even want to call this a
conference.
This sounds more like an event,like it just sounds less like a
stuffy conference that you'reused to when you're going to a
(05:39):
conference.
Right, it sounds more like afun party.
Jordan (05:42):
I think I told her like it sounds more like a retreat.
Priscilla (05:47):
And so we went and had a wonderful time and thought
it would be really cool to havean episode kind of talking
about some of our takeaways fromthe event.
So there was so much good,encouraging information at this
conference, so we're going to gothrough some of our top level
takeaways, let's go.
So the first one that I want totalk about this was not like a
(06:09):
conference that I have ever seenbefore.
Start there, I mean Elevate CX.
I mean I knew that when we hadthe conversation with Sarah that
it was clear it wasn't going tobe like a regular conference,
and it really was one of thosethings where I was a little bit
skeptical when we were talkingwith Sarah, like how is this
conference not going to be justlike a regular old conference?
(06:32):
But it really was elevated.
It was so intentional.
The way that Sarah put it onwas so intentional and it really
fostered an environment for usto connect with everyone around
us.
And so one of the things thatwas really cool that Sarah
talked about on that episode wasthat it was small,
intentionally small.
(06:52):
Yeah, I want to say there werenot more than 120 people in the
room.
Would you agree?
Agreed?
Kate (06:59):
including, like, all the people sponsoring the event and
everything.
It was small.
Yeah, we were all in one room.
Priscilla (07:06):
Yeah, it was small but in like the best way
possible, because when it'ssmall like that, it gives you
the ability to meet everyone andtalk to people and actually
build relationships that you'regoing to stick with beyond the
weekend.
And it's kind of like going toa cool networking event that you
actually want to be at and thatlasts more than an hour and a
(07:29):
half, where you actually get tomeet people and talk to them
about the things that they'redoing and the things that
they're struggling with, andgive advice and accept advice
and get tips from people.
Like it fostered an environmentfor that, which was really,
really encouraging.
Kate (07:43):
Totally.
That was the thing that stuckout to me the most was just how
people focused.
It was Like even a lot of thetalks and the speakers focused
on like whole person developmentand not just here's some
practical customer servicethings.
It was like very people topeople focused, relationship
building focused.
It was really cool, reallyunique.
Priscilla (08:10):
Yeah, that's very true.
And another thing is that thespeakers were all just sitting
in the conference room with us.
Yeah, it wasn't.
Like you know how you go to aconference and the speaker's
like up at the front and you'relike, oh my gosh, I can't
approach the speaker.
Like they're up there speakingand then they leave, or they're
in the VIP lounge out backExactly, and so there's this
like curtain between you and thespeakers and you really you're
lucky if you get a chance totalk with them.
The cool thing about thisconference was that there are no
(08:32):
tracks, right, so everyone isin the same room.
Everyone goes to all the talks.
We all go together to all thetalks.
You don't have to leave yourtable, so it kind of eliminates
the rushing from room to room ortrying to figure out what's
more important, or finding aseat because you're a little bit
late, having to figure out whento go to the bathroom, like all
(08:52):
of these kind of annoyancesthat come with conferences were
gone because everything's in thesame room and so you find a
seat at the beginning of the dayand that's your table, and then
people sit at your table withyou and you get to have these
conversations with the people atyour table and then the next
talk happens and someone at yourtable stands up because they're
giving the next talk and you'relike whoa.
(09:12):
I didn't even realize I wastalking with this person it was
very cool and so you had a lotof accessibility to the speakers
and you know there was one talkabout performance plans.
That was really interesting andafterwards I sat and talked
with the speaker for a whileabout her strategies around it,
and so it was cool to have likethese continued conversations
(09:33):
beyond the talks.
Jordan (09:35):
It was very cool yeah, it kind of reminds me of when
you go, like, on a cruise and Idon't know if you've ever been
on one, but like you basicallyare assigned a table at dinner
and you get to know the familiesthat are at your table for the
entire duration of the cruise.
Oh, that's cool, it's justreally nice because you get to
know these families that are onthe cruise with you.
Priscilla (09:54):
Yeah, it was very cool.
I wonder if they would everconsider doing an Elevate CX
cruise in the future.
Kate (10:01):
I feel like that would be right up that community's alley
.
Priscilla (10:04):
I'm not a cruise person but I would go on an
Elevate CX cruise, I think, butit was very cool.
One of the other things that Ithought was fun was that they
really are very intentionalabout just community time and
hangout time and fostering thoserelationships outside of like
going to talks, because you'redoing everything together when
(10:26):
the talks are over and you go toa happy hour.
It's not like at otherconferences where you go to a
happy hour and you don't knowanyone and you're looking for
the one or two people that youconnected with in a talk and
you're trying to find thembecause it's kind of awkward,
yeah, but instead you like walkout with all your friends that
you've just met and hung outwith for you know four hours,
and do a happy hour with themand then you talk to all these
(10:49):
different people and get to knowall these different people.
And it was very cool that therewas so much of that time
wrapped into the conference,because we had like two happy
hours and we went to this crazyrestaurant, casa Bonita.
Kate (10:57):
Casa Bonita which.
Priscilla (10:58):
I don't even know how to explain Would you call it a
restaurant.
Kate (11:02):
I don't know what.
I would call that An experience.
Jordan (11:05):
I don't know what I would call that An experience.
I don't know.
Is that the one I think?
Kate (11:11):
I feel like I've seen, like a image of that, where it's
like, it's like a pink building, it is a pink building and
inside they have cliff jumpersand mariachi bands and all sorts
of like an arcade and felt likeDisney World.
Priscilla (11:25):
Or like Dave and Buster's it was kind of Dave and
Buster's like yeah, so weird.
But it was so fun because it wasa wild experience that we all
did together.
So, honestly, I feel like CasaBonita fostered an environment
for people.
You know how it's like.
You know you become betterfriends with people after you go
to like amusement park withthem or something like that.
You have this like sharedexperience.
(11:46):
That's what it felt like, andthe next day I felt like I was
so much closer to people at theconference because of Casa
Bonita and we all experiencedwhatever that was together,
totally.
Kate (11:55):
And also the people were just so welcoming, like it felt
like everybody there wanted toconnect and to talk and there
wasn't an air of like clickinessyes, yeah, like it was
structured in such a way thatallowed that time, but everybody
there also just reallyapproached you and was welcoming
and kind and all that.
Jordan (12:16):
So it seems like I mean especially like what you were
talking about earlier, kate.
You were you were discussinghow everything was like person
to person focused, and it feelslike this conference sort of
embodies that like not just inthe talks and like what they're
saying to do, but it's also likeshowing that in building
relationships and communitywithin the professional space,
(12:37):
right, yes.
Priscilla (12:38):
Yeah Well, and the vibe was very celebratory.
It wasn't like a dullconference where everyone's
there because they're beingforced to be there.
It felt like a conference thateveryone was there because they
really wanted to go and theywere pumped to see their friends
and it was our first time there.
But you could see that thesepeople had met and been friends
(13:00):
for years and years and it wasexciting like being pulled into
that community and they really,like Kate, that it did not feel
like there was this click and wewere on the outside trying to
get in.
It felt very inclusive and veryexcited and we were celebrating
the fact that we all do thesame kind of work and that we
get to help our customers andimprove their days.
(13:21):
And it was like this fun,exciting vibe instead of, you
know, what can oftentimes bekind of like monotonous.
You know it was by far the bestconference in the customer
experience world that I've everbeen to.
I haven't been to a ton, sothere's the caveat, but it
really was wonderful and so ifyou haven't gone to an Elevate
(13:42):
CX conference or if you areinterested in it, I highly
recommend you go, because itreally is worth the time to get
there and the ticket cost it'sway more than worth it to go.
Okay, so a couple of the maintakeaways.
The first one I want to talkabout is one of my favorite
talks of the whole event.
Mercer Smith gave a talk.
(14:03):
It was the very first talk andI think it was entitled like
Untitled Goose Talk.
Oh, like the game.
Have you ever played that?
Wait, is it a game?
Jordan (14:12):
Did I miss that?
It's the Untitled Goose Game.
Kate (14:15):
Oh my gosh.
Oh, we missed that.
I missed that reference too.
Well, I totally missed that.
Jordan (14:26):
Tell us about it.
Let me tell you.
It's basically this game whereyou're a goose and you get like
a task list of things you haveto do, and so it's things like
you run in and like ruinpeople's picnics by dragging
their picnic into the pond, butthey try to like chase you off.
You're basically just runningaround as a goose rigging havoc
on a town and it's the best.
Priscilla (14:43):
That's so funny.
Well, now that that makes melaugh, because I just thought it
was a funny title because itwas called Untitled Goose Talk,
but now I'm realizing that itwas even funnier than I thought.
So, mercer, if you know me, youknow that I love a good analogy
, and Mercer's talk wasbasically one big analogy, and
so I just I loved it.
(15:04):
So, ok, here's the like twosentence overview.
She talked about how geese flytogether, obviously, but, like
she talked about some of thereasoning why geese fly together
and why they fly in a V and theways that they take turns,
being the point of the V andflying toward the back to like
share the load of the difficulty, because it's so much easier to
(15:25):
fly toward the back than towardthe front.
And then she talked about how,when geese honk at each other, a
lot of the times what they'rehonking is encouragement or
communication to stay in thecorrect formation, and so it's
like a reminder to stay in theright formation.
And she talked about how we ascustomer support specialists are
(15:46):
kind of like geese in that wework better when we're in a
community and when we flytogether and when we support
each other, when we take turnsleading and letting other people
lead and when we honk at eachother for encouragement.
It was such a good analogy,it's so cute and she did such a
good job of laying it out andher graphics for her PowerPoint
(16:06):
were amazing and it just wassuch a fun way to start the
event.
It was the first talk and I wasimmediately like, oh, I'm going
to love this, like this isgoing to be so encouraging.
And she created a honk boxwhich they put at the back of
the room so that if you wantedto encourage someone, you could
just or shout someone out, youcould write down a honk and put
(16:28):
it in the honk box and then theywere reading them throughout
the event and so they would honkeach other.
It was the cutest thing and itwas so encouraging and I loved
every minute of it.
Yeah, and you know I wasthinking about it.
It doesn't have to be.
You know, if you are hearingthis and you're like, oh, that's
so great, I want to support thepeople on my team, like within
(16:48):
my support team, that's sowonderful, Right To like.
Support each other on your team.
But if you're listening to thisand you're maybe the head of a
company that's trying to figureout how to support your support
team, you don't have to be insupport to be a goose that's
honking at another goose.
You know what I mean.
You can be encouraging yourteam even if you're not on the
(17:08):
support team, and so hopefullyyou know that's kind of what I
was thinking Like.
When you're in that room in thecommunity with a bunch of other
people working in customerexperience, it's easy to honk at
each other and encourage eachother.
But when you go back to yourcompanies, where you might be
one of four support people, it'sharder because there's just
four of you.
And so obviously you know,encourage the people that you're
(17:29):
working on a team with.
But if you're someone who'soutside of the support team,
know that you can stillencourage your support team.
You can still be one of thosegeese in the V, you know,
helping support each other, evenif you're not directly like on
that customer facing supportteam.
Jordan (17:45):
A good example of that is this week you guys are
getting hit with a hurricane,yeah, and literally before we
started recording I was like hey, you know, I know that you guys
are probably going to havepower outages and stuff like
that.
So if you guys need me to hopin the support box like I'm not
technically customer support, no, but I feel like I can hop in
(18:05):
there and at least help as muchas I can.
Priscilla (18:07):
exactly, you can move to the front of the V Jordan
and guide us while you havepower and internet all the way
over there, on the other side ofthe country and for those of us
in Florida who may not havepower and internet at the end of
this week, we'll be in the backof the V just letting you carry
it, okay.
So, kate, what was one of yourtakeaways?
Kate (18:28):
Yeah, one of my favorite talks was on assumption and
basically the whole point wasstop assuming and to use
curiosity instead of assumingthings, and I really loved that.
I thought that applied to somany different areas in building
a team and in customer supportLike there's just so many ways
(18:50):
that you can apply it.
But I thought that was powerfulto, when you're interacting
with a customer, to not assumethat you know everything that's
going on in their head or tojust take a pause.
That was one of the big pointsthat they talked about was the
power of pausing and, yeah, Ithought that was just a really
easy, practical tip to apply toevery area of customer support
(19:13):
interacting with your team, yourpersonal life, everything.
To just pause and assess thesituation before you react.
Yeah, yeah.
Priscilla (19:20):
That was a talk that Sarah Caminiti did, who was on
our show a couple months ago,and yeah, she was talking about
just the assumptions that wemake, and one of the things that
I thought was powerful was thatshe kind of like how self-doubt
can get into our heads andbecome those assumptions, like I
assume that I'm going to failat this.
(19:41):
I haven't done it before, so Ireally don't know if I'm going
to fail, but my brain is tellingme that I'm going to fail, so
I'm assuming I'm going to fail,and it was encouraging to hear
her talk about it in a way that,you know, instead of letting
the assumption which is notbased in fact lead, what if we
hypothesize that?
Actually, my hypothesis is thatthis is going to go well.
(20:02):
Now let's see if that wasaccurate or not Totally, and
you're right, it was somethingthat was cool because she
applied it to like a variety ofdifferent scenarios, both within
ourselves personally, like Iassume that I'm not going to do
well in this thing I've beentasked to do, but also in a
customer facing, like actuallyjust helping someone log in,
like something as simple as that, if you assume you know what's
(20:25):
going on but haven't asked thequestions, or been curious or
taken the time to pause and lookat the context, then you won't
be offering the remarkableexperience that you want to be
offering.
And so the power of taking aminute to pause and to look up
that context and to get thefacts because the assumption
that you've made in your head isnot fact, even if it's based on
(20:46):
experience of like oh.
Ashley (20:48):
I've seen the same.
Kate (20:49):
Why can't I log in email a million times?
I know what's going on, butmaybe take a pause.
Look at the whole context.
Yeah, yeah.
Priscilla (20:56):
I thought that was a very powerful talk, and it was
one toward the end of the eventwhich was really I think the
placement of it was really great, because it allowed us to kind
of leave on this note of allright, I'm not going to assume
things about myself that Ihaven't proven, like the
negative self-talk in me wantsto do, and I'm also going to go
back to my work with thisrenewed sense of curiosity to
(21:19):
find out what's really going onand to understand the context of
a situation when I'm workingwith someone, whether it be in
person, like within the company,or whether it be a customer
that you're working with.
So, yeah, I thought that was agreat one as well.
Okay, another thing that cameup a bunch of times while we
were there was AI's role incustomer support.
Yes, let's talk about it.
(21:40):
Let's talk about it.
There were quite a few sponsorsthere that were AI focused, and
then we had quite a fewconversations or talks that were
about you know how to navigateAI in your customer support
offerings, and so you know therewas a talk about navigating AI
anxiety.
That was really good, and so Ijust thought you know one of a
talk about navigating AI anxiety.
That was really good, and so Ijust thought you know one of the
(22:01):
takeaways from the event wasthat AI is here, yeah, and
really it's been here forcustomer support.
We've been using it for a longtime, right, but now it's trying
to figure out how we take thatAI and the tools that we have
now available and what thatmeans for customer support now
available and what that meansfor customer support.
The biggest thing that I feellike I recognized while we were
(22:22):
there was that AI is going to bea tool that we can use to make
our work more efficient and tomake customer support even more
human.
Honestly, the things that AI isgoing to come in and hopefully
take over are going to be thelike small, easy things that
people need quick answers on,but it's going to give customer
support specialists the abilityto kind of go deeper into the
(22:44):
more complicated issues and tooffer even more personalized
service, and so it was reallycool to kind of hear people in
the AI space that were also inthe customer support world talk
about how this movement towardAI is not a way to replace
people who are doing customersupport, but a way to enhance
the work we're doing and give usthe ability to go even deeper
(23:05):
into personal connection withour customers.
Kate (23:08):
Yeah, it did feel like at that conference everybody was
on the same page about wantingto provide the most care to the
customers as possible when we'rein an interaction with them and
how AI can kind of support that.
But I think one of my biggesttakeaways was just how caring
customer support people are andhow AI can kind of help benefit
(23:29):
that and push that forward, butcan't replace that kind of care
that people can offer on like ahuman-to-human interaction but
there's some great ways that itcan support.
Yeah, one of my favorite talkswas from Sunit Bhatt, who did a
talk on happy, proud and not yetsatisfied.
He does this talk to mainlycollege students.
(23:49):
He's a guest professor and thisis like a class that he talks
about with students.
But he gave us kind of thehour-long version and it was
amazing, it was so practicalhands-on.
And he gave us kind of the hourlong version and it was amazing
, it was so practical hands on.
And he asked us some greatquestions about looking at this
past year, what are some areaswe've been like happy and ask
some good questions about that.
And then same with proud, andthen areas where you just don't
(24:12):
feel satisfied, where you feelstuck or where you're having
trouble kind of accessingsolutions, and he left it up to
us for that to be personal or inyour professional life.
Yeah, Space and grace wassomething he talked about a ton
and kind of giving yourselfspace and grace to think through
some of the areas that you feltstuck.
Priscilla (24:33):
The thing about Sunit's talk that was so cool
was it wasn't really just a talk, it was a workshop and it was
long enough that it gave us timeto really sit down and try to
think through the things that wefeel stuck on.
So he, right at the beginning,we did kind of some exercises
and then he said okay, I wantyou to pick something that you
(24:53):
where you feel stuck and we'regoing to focus on that.
It wasn't to share it witheveryone, it was so much more to
just in your own head, writeout your thoughts about this
thing where you feel stuck andlike give it intentional time.
And so it was really cool,because you know it's so hard,
especially in a professionalsetting, to like take a step
back and to really giveintentional time to the thing
(25:16):
that you feel like you can't getover because there's so many
things coming at you from alldifferent angles.
And so it was kind of like hegave us permission to just sit
and focus on this one thing thatwe want to accomplish or that
we can't seem to get over, andit was really therapeutic.
Honestly, it felt more like atherapy session than it did like
a conference talk, and therewas an aspect of it that was
(25:38):
very vulnerable with the peopleyou were sitting with too,
because he was encouraging us toshare with the people we were
sitting with at certain timesnot always, but at certain times
and it was very cool to kind ofhave that vulnerability with
these people that you've beenlearning with all day, and it
was the way that we closed outthe first day of the conference.
It was really.
It really felt more liketherapy, honestly.
Yeah, two the first, day of theconference.
Kate (26:00):
It was really.
It really felt more liketherapy, honestly.
Yeah, two practical tips I justwanted to share.
That I really took away fromthat talk was one using like
positive imagination.
So he was talking about oftenwe look at the future and we're
like what could be wrong, whatcould like troubleshooting kind
of thing.
He said, instead of doing that,to start imagining what you
have done, what has made youhappy in the past year or what
(26:21):
has made you proud in your workfor the last year, and start
thinking about that and how itmade you feel and different
things like that, and use thatas a marker of like what you're
going to do moving forward.
Priscilla (26:33):
Yeah, and another thing he said that I really
liked was he said you know,think about a time that you were
proud of something you workedon or something like that, the
things you bring to something.
And he said if you're having ahard time coming up with
something, think about how thepeople in your inner circle
would answer the question aboutyou.
So, like, what would your bestfriends say about something that
they were proud of you, thatyou did?
Because so often we don't thinkabout it that way for ourselves.
(26:56):
We don't give ourselves thecredit.
I thought it was a really coolway to look at it and it helped
me a lot to think about it thatway.
Kate (27:02):
Yeah, and something that I've actually have been
practicing from his talk,because it's come up quite a bit
in my life, is he had us writefor 15 minutes just like stream
of conscious, write everythought you have down, and it
was with the topic of likesomething that you feel stuck on
and he called it the rustyfaucet or something like that
and it was like clearing out allthe thoughts and all the things
(27:25):
that are in your mind to kindof help you get to some clear
waters and some answers and somesolutions and tie back into the
writing thing.
Writing's just very powerful,yeah, yeah, that's been one of
my favorite little activitiesfrom his talk and it actually is
helpful to get you unstuck,like a practical thing.
Oh yeah, so just startjournaling.
Priscilla (27:45):
Yeah, and the fact that we can't support customers
well if we don't feel that weare in a place where we're
healthy.
Right, and so a lot of it waslike getting to a place where
we're healthy and it was just areally nice intentional time to
take a step back and do that and, all in all, I feel like Kate
and I both can agree we would goback.
It was a wonderful conferenceTotally.
(28:07):
I met people there that I amconfident I will be connected
with for a long time.
It was honestly powerful to bein a room with other
professionals in the sameindustry as we are who are
committed to that elevated levelof service, because it wasn't
just a conference about how towrite a good email.
While that is really important,this felt elevated and it felt
(28:30):
like it was more than that, andso it was really cool to be in a
room with people that you knoware all committed to that same
standard and to share advice andto get advice from them.
I highly recommend that, ifyou're not already plugged into
the Elevate CX community online,that you go and do that,
because it's a great communityand so welcoming and so
(28:52):
encouraging, and then look upthe next event you know that you
can get to.
I know they have an eventcoming up in London that's
completely free, and so if youare in that area, I highly
recommend that you grab a ticketand you go.
I want to say it's a one dayevent, so if you are in London,
go and enjoy that, and if you'renot in London, then join the
Elevate CX Slack community,because it really is a wonderful
(29:16):
place to be if you are in thecustomer experience world and
you want to offer an elevatedservice to your customers.
So it's time for our Support inReal Life segment, which is
where we discuss real lifesupport experiences and
questions, and this one is goingto be a little bit different
than normal.
(29:36):
While we were at the Elevate CXconference, I sometimes
awkwardly pulled people awayfrom the conference to ask them
some questions about customerexperience.
I kind of felt like we're inthis room with all of these
professionals who have so muchadvice to give, and I thought
how am I not going to get someof that and share it with our
(29:59):
listeners?
And so I did these like miniinterviews with people to get
some awesome advice to shareback with our listeners, and so
what we're going to do now islisten to some of those
responses, and so I will tellyou what the question is, and
then we'll listen to what somepeople had to say about it.
Sound good, awesome.
Kate (30:15):
Sounds great.
Priscilla (30:16):
Okay, so the first question I asked was what do you
love about working in customerexperience?
Deon (30:22):
I'm Dion Nicholas, ceo and co-founder of 4Thought.
There are two things I loveabout working in customer
support.
One is the people.
I love that we're in anindustry where empathy and
understanding other people'sproblems and going to bat for
other people is the name of thegame, so that attracts a certain
kind of personality, thatattracts a certain kind of
person, and so I just lovespending time with support
(30:44):
leaders, agents, everyone in thespace.
And then the second thing isactually just a follow up from.
That is like problem solving.
I consider myself a problemsolver when it comes to
technology and business and Ilove that.
In this industry, our whole jobis to solve problems for other
people.
Kate (30:58):
My name is Kate Wilson.
I am the Senior Director of theProduct Solution Architect team
at a company called Highspot,so what has kept me in customer
experience and what I reallylove about it is the fact that
you get to see your product inthe real world.
You get to see customercreativity.
I love seeing how customerstake our product and run with it
in unexpected ways and canbring that back even to our
(31:20):
product team and just like seethe value that they're getting
from it.
I think it's super cool andrewarding.
Lance (31:25):
Hi, I am Lance Konzit.
I am the customer experiencelead at Found and I have been in
customer experience slashsupport for the past 13 years.
I love solving problems.
I spend all day solvingproblems, whether it's for our
customers or for my team, or forthe managers that report to me
(31:48):
or to my boss or to the productteam is nonstop solving problems
and figuring out whatinformation can we give to the
right people to tell the storyof the customer, so that we are
solving those problems in a waythat makes sense for not just
the business but for the peoplethat we're serving.
Priscilla (32:07):
That's so good.
Yeah, all right.
So next I asked them what pieceof advice they would give
someone entering the customerexperience industry.
Kristi (32:14):
My name is Christy Ernst-Thompson.
I've been doing customersupport since 2015, and I've
been on the support team at HelpScout since 2017.
My advice would be you have tobe really intentional about
protecting your own work-lifebalance and not burning out.
And so that looks like beingdone with your work at the end
(32:34):
of the workday and it looks likebeing empathetic with your
customers, but not to the pointthat you take on all of their
feelings as your own.
And it also means concentratingon what's within your locus of
control, because there's a lotof things swirling around
product decisions andengineering fixes and financial
decisions and so many thingsaren't in your control.
(32:56):
So keeping your head down andfocusing on how you treat your
customers every day because thatis in your control will really
help prevent burnout.
Deon (33:05):
I think one piece of advice I would give to someone
entering the customer experienceindustry is to really take a
step back and understand yourdata.
A lot of times, we enter thisfield and intuition is very
important.
Try and understand what's theproblem, what's going on, but
there's actually a wealth ofinformation in understanding
what are people asking, what arecustomers asking about, what
(33:27):
are the most common problems,and then turning that back into
insights for whether it's yourproduct team, whether it's your
sales team or whoever, I thinkthat the customer experience
organization is actually themost data-rich organization in a
company.
Cheryl (33:41):
My name is Cheryl Spriggs.
I am a manager of premiersupport at Zapier.
One piece of advice I'd givesomeone to like entering
customer experience customersupport is that you have so many
transferable skills from otherjobs or projects or school that
you've done.
I come from a theaterbackground and I first started
(34:06):
in acting and then pivoted tolike stage management and like
that just translated so wellinto support with working with
other people, working onprojects, collaborating together
and like making a cohesive teamtogether to put on a show.
Kate (34:21):
So my biggest piece of advice is actually what I still
continue to tell people in thecustomer experience industry.
Very much related to Sarah'stalk Just be curious and don't
be afraid to ask questions.
Everyone here is learning fromeach other.
Whether you've been, you knowyou're brand new to the field or
you've been here for 20 years.
Like just be curious.
The industry is always changing, the tools are always changing,
(34:45):
the software stack is alwayschanging, so, like you know, the
answer you get today is goingto be different than the answer
that you get tomorrow.
So just don't assume thatpeople know better than you.
They probably don't Askquestions.
Be curious, that's it.
Priscilla (34:57):
There's some really good advice in there.
The next thing I asked was, ifyou were joining a company for
the first time without anydedicated support system, what
is the first thing you wouldwant to develop?
I was really excited about thisquestion, and there's some good
answers in here.
Sarah C (35:14):
My name is Sarah Caminiti.
I have been in and around theCX space for close to 20 years
now or more, not going to agemyself and I am currently the
head of customer service in theUS for AppCamp, but I am also
the host of Epical Growth.
If I was joining a company thatdid not have a dedicated
customer support team yet, I'vedone it before, and the first
(35:37):
thing that I did was talk to allof the teams that have been
handling support in somecapacity and understand what it
was like for them, and then seehow we can build a system that
works for the customer, thatthey understand better than I do
, and respect what they'vealready done and just find ways
to make it better.
Ashley (35:55):
I am Ashley Haislett.
I have been working in customersupport for almost 20 years now
.
I started in college and havenot left.
The first thing that I woulddevelop is an FAQ because, at
least for me, doing so alsotrains me.
That helps me learn the product, it helps me learn the pitfalls
(36:17):
of the experience so I canstart a new dialogue with
product and engineering, andthen it helps me start pulling
out things to be macros foranswering users and things like
that.
So obviously, like after divinginto tickets and doing all that
stuff, the first thing that Iwould really implement is an FAQ
.
Mercer (36:35):
My name is Mercer Smith and I am the VP of Blended
Operations at Partner Hero, sothe first thing I'd want to
understand and develop wascustomer personas.
So who it is that we're tryingto help, right, because if you
don't understand who it is thatwe're trying to help, right,
because if you don't understandwho it is that you're trying to
help, how are you going to helpthem?
Right, like if you don't knowwhat it is that they're curious
about, or where they're hangingout or what kind of questions
(36:57):
they have, you're just going tobe kind of like taking a shot in
the dark, whereas you could bespending less effort to make
more impactful choices if youactually know who they are
choices if you actually know whothey are.
Priscilla (37:11):
The next thing I asked them was about a tool or
piece of software that they usethat makes their work easier.
I was unsure about thisquestion and how much response I
would get, but, honestly, thereare so many good tools that are
recommended that I am going todownload and start using.
Sarah H (37:25):
My name is Sarah Hatter .
I am the events and communitymanager at Rebuy, but also the
founder and producer of ElevateCX, and I've been running
Elevate CX since October 2012,but I've been involved in the
world of customer experiencesince 2008.
Slack, Slack, Slack, Slack.
(37:51):
You can quote me on that.
I just think it's one of thosethings that I think if you know
how to use it and use it well,especially if you're working
with people who are remote orare in other countries, it's
just invaluable.
Deon (37:52):
So one tool or piece of software I use to make my life
easier?
This is kind of a trickquestion for me, because I
actually use Forethought, whichis a company I work at, and we
build generative AI for customerservice and we use it for our
customers on our website.
We also use it internally forthings like IT, hr questions and
(38:13):
just general knowledge.
So I'm super excited about AIin general, but also very
excited about Forethought, usingit and also sharing it with
other people.
Ashley (38:23):
I'm a Notion girly.
I live in Notion and have builtso many different systems in
Notion.
I think the best thing that Iwas able to get out of it was
building like our vendordirectory and resources in
Notion so all of their SOPs, allof their training and all of
that stuff in there, and justmaking it super accessible and
(38:45):
super editable.
But man, it's just madedocumentation so much easier
than having to dig around inGoogle Docs for everything.
Kristi (38:53):
I cannot live without Alfred, which is a tool for
MacBooks.
The main thing I love about itis you can create keyboard
shortcuts, so it's kind of likehaving your own saved replies
built right onto your owncomputer.
So I do not ever type my ownemail address.
I type semicolon KR and itautofills my email address.
So you can do that with allsorts of stuff and it's a huge
(39:13):
time saver.
Kate (39:16):
I freaking love Airtable.
I think it is purpose built forpeople like me and people in
support who are technical butare not engineers, because you
can automate so many of yourproblems.
You can put in workflows.
You don't have to remember todo things.
You can set up theseautomations.
It's a relational databasebuilt for business people.
(39:37):
I'm going to be a walking adfor them, but I do.
I love Airtable.
I totally encourage you to tryit out and experiment with it.
Mercer (39:46):
Yeah, probably you haven't heard this one before.
I use a tool called Habitica,which is a habit tracker.
It tracks things that I need todo every day and then also has
like a to-do list function, andso every single morning I go in
and I look at Habitica and I'mlike, okay, here's the stuff
that I still have to do, and Iorganize and I prioritize it.
Jordan (40:03):
And we're going to be linking to every single one of
those in the show notes.
Priscilla (40:08):
Yes, we definitely have to link to all of those.
Yeah, there are so many toolslisted that I am so excited to
start using Alfred specifically.
I am so excited Christy wastelling.
I mean I talked to her aboutAlfred during the interview and
then we went back to our tablefor the next talk and she pulled
(40:29):
it up on her computer and wasshowing it to me and I was like,
oh, this is cool, this is Imean I don't know if I've said
this on the show before, but Idon't like the phrase game
changer, but it felt like thatLike oh my goodness, this is
going to simplify so many thingsin my life, and so I'm very
excited to test out some ofthese, and so, yeah, we'll
definitely link these in theshow notes so that you can
(40:49):
download what you want to tryout and use it, and hopefully
it'll make your life just thatmuch easier.
Okay, and then the next thing Iasked them was about the future
of the customer experience spaceand specifically what they
expect to see over the next fiveyears and how they expect to
see the customer support worldchanging.
Mercer (41:09):
I'm really hopeful for two things.
The first one is that we willsee a swing back to value being
placed on human, to humaninteractions.
You know, throughout the 80s, wesaw like prepackaged stuff,
like oh Wonder, bread is amazingand all of these like you know,
like kid cuisine and stuff likethat.
And then, as we came into like2020s or so, people were like oh
(41:29):
yeah, I really want likehomemade sourdough and I want
hand poured espresso and I wantall of these things, and I think
we're going to come back intoan area like a realm of craft
customer support.
So, rather than saying like, oh, let me hit a button to speak
instantly to like a bot, peopleare going to hit a button to
like wait a little bit to speakto a human, and so I see that
changing button to like wait alittle bit to speak to a human,
(41:50):
and so I see that changing.
And then, simultaneously, I seethe impact of AI as freeing up
support teams or CX teams to domore meaningful work and like
the stuff that actually fulfillsthem, because no one gets into
support to be like yeah, let merespond to like 50 inquiries
about refunds today.
Lance (42:04):
I mean, we're all saying AI right, but I think the thing
that is changing is the thingsthat happen after AI.
So AI handles all of the basicstuff that anybody can do and,
theoretically, your customersshould have already solved
through a help center visit orsomething like that.
So what I foresee is morespecialization, more focus on a
(42:28):
white glove, high touch servicewhere you want to build a
relationship, pulling away fromjust the blast chamber of
support tickets.
Deon (42:38):
I think the customer experience landscape will change
in one critical way, in thatcustomer experience will start
to be merged with the rest ofthe organization.
I think that a lot of peoplehave traditionally viewed
customer experience as a costcenter, as a place where people
only go when they have issues,and you've heard phrases like
the best customer support is nosupport, for example.
(42:59):
Well, I actually think, whenyou think about it, customer
experience is the front line ofyour organization.
It's where customers go notonly when they have a problem,
but when they have a question,when they want to learn more,
right, no-transcript.
It's where you go and where youthink about when it comes to
retaining your dollars andexpanding your dollars, and so,
(43:20):
in that sense, customerexperience should be merged, or,
at least you know, in tandemwith your sales org, with your
marketing team and with yourproduct team.
So I think embedding a cultureof customer experience
throughout an organization isactually going to be the winning
play.
Priscilla (43:35):
And then the last question that I asked everyone
was what is one takeaway thatyou have from the last two days
at Elevate CX?
I really wanted to hear youknow.
I knew what things I was goingto take away from it and I had
been already ruminating on, butI wanted to hear what things
stood out to the other people atthe conference.
Sarah H (43:56):
Even as someone who produces this event and chooses
every speaker, I still walk awaywith a lot of stuff, and it
just really reiterated to me thepower of community and what
that means and that you don'talways have to be in person to
have these beautiful momentswith people, these authentic
relationship building moments.
You can still do that virtually.
You can still do that overSlack or over whatever it might
(44:18):
be.
I think if you focus on growingthose authentic relationships
and nurturing them, they lastright, and we have people in
this audience who've been comingto Elevate for 14 years.
We have people in this audiencewho have this is their first
time, and to see them meshtogether and build those
relationships and still havethings of value to share with
each other, that just reminds methat the community work is
(44:39):
super important.
It's super, super importantthat we continue to give people
these spaces and to nurture thatand to make it available.
Deon (44:47):
One of my big takeaways is actually, in a lot of the
content we've been focusing onjust leadership right.
In so many ways, building acustomer support team or
building a customer experienceorganization is actually about
building an amazing businessthat is customer-centric and
empathetic, and these aretakeaways that you can really
bring across any organizationthat can be taught to any leader
(45:08):
.
So there were a lot of talks atthis conference that weren't
even necessarily about customersupport specifically, but they
were about performancemanagement, feedback, imposter
syndrome, learning how to growas a leader, and I think that
was my biggest, almost metatakeaway is that in the customer
support world, we're all justleaders trying to do what we can
for our customers and for ourteams, and so I think that's
pretty awesome just leaderstrying to do what we can for our
(45:30):
customers and for our teams,and so I think that's pretty
awesome.
Cheryl (45:31):
This is my fifth Elevate CX, third in Denver, which is
awesome.
One of the special things aboutit this year is that like I got
to come with my manager too andwe got so many cool ideas.
Got to meet people, connect andreally just like see things
from you know not ourperspective, from like our
company and get to just reallyget together with other peers
(45:53):
and like that we're goingthrough the same things together
successes or challenges andlike it's just very validating
and I always feel so jazzed upafter I leave Elevate.
So it's been a great fifth year.
Mercer (46:08):
There's so many people to learn from and I think you
know I've been doing this for along time.
I've been helping Sarah withElevate for like 12 or 13 years
at this point, so I've seen alot of talks.
You're never done learning.
I think that's.
The main takeaway is like nomatter how long you've been
doing it, you need to allowyourself to be humbled and be
willing to learn, becausethere's always something to take
(46:29):
away.
Sarah C (46:31):
One takeaway that's cute From the last couple of
days at Elevate CX is holy crap.
I am so freaking lucky to bearound so many wonderful, smart,
talented individuals that arechanging the way that companies
operate and think about customersupport or customer experience,
and it's just freaking awesome.
Jordan (46:53):
Sarah's energy is just so infectious I can't get over
it.
Priscilla (46:58):
I know what a great note to end on.
Thank you to everyone who tooktime to answer those questions
and to have those little miniinterviews.
It was really fun to be able totalk to everyone and to pull
all of that together and shareit all with you.
There's so much good informationin those quick clips and so if
(47:19):
you're listening to this likeyeah, download some of the tools
they recommended, listen to theadvice they gave about starting
a new support team anddeveloping processes.
That stuff is gold, and so Ihope that if you listen to this,
you'll take some of that andbegin to incorporate it into
your work.
And I'm excited to see what thesupport landscape looks like as
(47:40):
we continue to figure out howAI works with customer support,
and I'm also just really excitedto go to another Elevate CX
conference and to see all thesepeople again.
So if you have a question or asupport situation that you want
us to discuss, you can email usat happytohelpatbuzzsproutcom or
text the show using the link inthe episode description.
(48:07):
We usually spend this timetalking about a question or a
situation in a real life supportcase, so feel free to send
those in and we will discuss iton a future episode.
And if you liked this episode,I would love it if you would
give us a rating or review onApple Podcasts.
It would make me very, veryhappy.
So thank you all for listening.
I really mean it.
Now go make someone's day.
Welcome to Happy to Help.
A podcast about customersupport from the people of
Buzzsprout.
I'm your host, priscilla Brooke.
Today we're recapping our timeat Elevate CX in Denver.
We'll discuss our maintakeaways from the event and
you'll hear from some of thecustomer experience
professionals we met while there.
Thanks for joining us.
Let's get into it.
Jordan, did you know that thisweek is National Customer
(00:24):
Service Week?
I did not.
Yeah, I had no idea.
I didn't know that either untila couple weeks ago.
Someone mentioned it, actuallyat the Elevate CX conference.
I was talking with SarahCaminiti and she said oh well,
next week is Customer ServiceWeek.
And I went there's a CustomerService Week and I looked it up
and, sure enough, it's NationalCustomer Service Week last week.
So when we're recording thisit's this week, but by the time
(00:46):
it gets published it'll be lastweek.
Jordan (00:48):
Okay, I feel like I should have sent flowers or
something.
It's like when they do like theteacher appreciation week and
like I'm really busy and so Iforget to like get a gift for
the teacher, I feel so bad.
I have like that kind offeeling right now.
I should have gotten yousomething.
Priscilla (01:05):
Well, the good news for you is that it's real time,
so you have the rest of the weekto do something.
Jordan (01:09):
I do.
I have the rest of the week toget it together, but if you're,
listening to this and it's nextweek and so you've missed it.
Priscilla (01:16):
You don't have to wait until next year.
You can do something next weekand it'll just be a couple of
days late, but I promise youyour support friends and your
customer service workers willlove whatever it is you want to
do for them, even if it's a weeklate.
Yeah, so this is just areminder to anyone who didn't
know that customer service weekwas happening or that they
missed it.
Go back and do something foryour team, because it really is
(01:38):
a great way to just celebratethe people on your team, who
often get overlooked and reallyon this podcast, every week is
customer service week.
Jordan (01:47):
There you go.
Priscilla (01:49):
I love it.
Speaking of which, we have aguest on this podcast today.
Kate Chupp is back.
She was here on our lastepisode to talk about writing,
and she's here today to talkabout Elevate CX, because she
and I both went to Denver forthe Elevate CX conference.
How are you doing, kate?
Jordan (02:05):
Hi guys and Kate, you're in Colorado, so this was like
super easy for you to go toElevate CX, right, oh?
Kate (02:12):
yeah, just over to the nearest big city, denver, for me
.
I love it.
Yeah, it was such a coolexperience.
I'm excited to be talking aboutit today.
Priscilla (02:20):
Yeah, so before we get to our takeaways from
Elevate CX, I want to sharesomeone who made my day recently
and really it's a community ofpeople.
So if you live in the US, youprobably know that Hurricane
Helene came through thesoutheast a couple of weeks ago
and really devastated a lot ofthe southeast, but specifically
western North Carolina.
(02:40):
And last week I and some of myfamily members packed up a bunch
of supplies and drove up toNorth Carolina.
And last week I and some of myfamily members packed up a bunch
of supplies and drove up toNorth Carolina just to donate
those to people who need it andto get them.
They're accepting a lot ofdonations in that area and then
taking them to people who arestranded in their homes, who
need, you know, food and waterand clothes and all the things
(03:01):
that they lost in this terrible,devastating hurricane.
So we went to Franklin, NorthCarolina, which is about an hour
west of where a lot of themajor destruction was.
Franklin, north Carolina is alittle community, it's very
small.
I think the day we went up iswhen it got cell service back.
So for about a week and a halfafterwards it didn't have any
(03:22):
cell service and so it was hardto get in touch with people
there.
So they were dealing with majorpower outages and no cell
service and no internet and allof that.
But even while they weredealing with that and that small
town, they were collectingsupplies and they were
communicating with each otherand they were organizing
donation and it was incredibleto see like you could go to any
(03:43):
open parking lot in Franklin andgive supplies and they were
accepting and organizingsupplies and getting them onto
trucks and sending them eastinto like Asheville area and the
surrounding communities thatwere like just devastated.
And it was just—it made my day,but it was also heartbreaking,
right.
Deon (03:59):
Yeah.
Priscilla (04:00):
But it made my day to see this community come
together and support each other.
But it made my day to see thiscommunity come together and
support each other.
Our hearts are with the peoplein North Carolina, but it's so
cool to see that community cometogether and really serve the
people in the area.
Jordan (04:11):
That's so incredible.
That's beautiful.
Priscilla (04:13):
It reminded me that, like, we have so much power to
impact each other, even if we'rein need Exactly, yeah, and it's
little things.
It's like going and helpingsort, you know, water and food
and diapers and formula out sothat it's in the right spot.
Like that's not hard work butit takes hands, and so being
(04:35):
able to offer that, or justgiving someone a compliment or
giving someone a hug when theyneed it or, in our case, giving
someone really good customersupport, like those kind of
things are pretty easy to giveout and can make a huge impact
on people, and so it was justencouraging to me to see, and so
hopefully that's encouraging toyou guys as well.
Love it All, right.
So let's talk about Elevate CX.
So last week, or I guess a weekand a half ago at this point,
(04:55):
kate and I went to Denver.
We met in Denver, we attendedthe Elevate CX conference and
for both of us it was our firstconference that we had gone to
for Elevate CX.
Oh, wow, which was cool.
Yeah, it was new for both of us, and you know we had just done
the episode with Sarah Hatter onHappy to Help, so if you
haven't listened to that, goback.
I think it's three or fourepisodes ago.
(05:17):
Amazing episode yeah, sarahcame on and told us all about
Elevate and where it came fromand how it's grown over the
years and what it looks like nowand that episode I started to
get really excited about whatthis conference was going to
look like.
I, even afterwards, was like Idon't even want to call this a
conference.
This sounds more like an event,like it just sounds less like a
stuffy conference that you'reused to when you're going to a
(05:39):
conference.
Right, it sounds more like afun party.
Jordan (05:42):
I think I told her like it sounds more like a retreat.
Priscilla (05:47):
And so we went and had a wonderful time and thought
it would be really cool to havean episode kind of talking
about some of our takeaways fromthe event.
So there was so much good,encouraging information at this
conference, so we're going to gothrough some of our top level
takeaways, let's go.
So the first one that I want totalk about this was not like a
(06:09):
conference that I have ever seenbefore.
Start there, I mean Elevate CX.
I mean I knew that when we hadthe conversation with Sarah that
it was clear it wasn't going tobe like a regular conference,
and it really was one of thosethings where I was a little bit
skeptical when we were talkingwith Sarah, like how is this
conference not going to be justlike a regular old conference?
(06:32):
But it really was elevated.
It was so intentional.
The way that Sarah put it onwas so intentional and it really
fostered an environment for usto connect with everyone around
us.
And so one of the things thatwas really cool that Sarah
talked about on that episode wasthat it was small,
intentionally small.
(06:52):
Yeah, I want to say there werenot more than 120 people in the
room.
Would you agree?
Agreed?
Kate (06:59):
including, like, all the people sponsoring the event and
everything.
It was small.
Yeah, we were all in one room.
Priscilla (07:06):
Yeah, it was small but in like the best way
possible, because when it'ssmall like that, it gives you
the ability to meet everyone andtalk to people and actually
build relationships that you'regoing to stick with beyond the
weekend.
And it's kind of like going toa cool networking event that you
actually want to be at and thatlasts more than an hour and a
(07:29):
half, where you actually get tomeet people and talk to them
about the things that they'redoing and the things that
they're struggling with, andgive advice and accept advice
and get tips from people.
Like it fostered an environmentfor that, which was really,
really encouraging.
Kate (07:43):
Totally.
That was the thing that stuckout to me the most was just how
people focused.
It was Like even a lot of thetalks and the speakers focused
on like whole person developmentand not just here's some
practical customer servicethings.
It was like very people topeople focused, relationship
building focused.
It was really cool, reallyunique.
Priscilla (08:10):
Yeah, that's very true.
And another thing is that thespeakers were all just sitting
in the conference room with us.
Yeah, it wasn't.
Like you know how you go to aconference and the speaker's
like up at the front and you'relike, oh my gosh, I can't
approach the speaker.
Like they're up there speakingand then they leave, or they're
in the VIP lounge out backExactly, and so there's this
like curtain between you and thespeakers and you really you're
lucky if you get a chance totalk with them.
The cool thing about thisconference was that there are no
(08:32):
tracks, right, so everyone isin the same room.
Everyone goes to all the talks.
We all go together to all thetalks.
You don't have to leave yourtable, so it kind of eliminates
the rushing from room to room ortrying to figure out what's
more important, or finding aseat because you're a little bit
late, having to figure out whento go to the bathroom, like all
(08:52):
of these kind of annoyancesthat come with conferences were
gone because everything's in thesame room and so you find a
seat at the beginning of the dayand that's your table, and then
people sit at your table withyou and you get to have these
conversations with the people atyour table and then the next
talk happens and someone at yourtable stands up because they're
giving the next talk and you'relike whoa.
(09:12):
I didn't even realize I wastalking with this person it was
very cool and so you had a lotof accessibility to the speakers
and you know there was one talkabout performance plans.
That was really interesting andafterwards I sat and talked
with the speaker for a whileabout her strategies around it,
and so it was cool to have likethese continued conversations
(09:33):
beyond the talks.
Jordan (09:35):
It was very cool yeah, it kind of reminds me of when
you go, like, on a cruise and Idon't know if you've ever been
on one, but like you basicallyare assigned a table at dinner
and you get to know the familiesthat are at your table for the
entire duration of the cruise.
Oh, that's cool, it's justreally nice because you get to
know these families that are onthe cruise with you.
Priscilla (09:54):
Yeah, it was very cool.
I wonder if they would everconsider doing an Elevate CX
cruise in the future.
Kate (10:01):
I feel like that would be right up that community's alley
.
Priscilla (10:04):
I'm not a cruise person but I would go on an
Elevate CX cruise, I think, butit was very cool.
One of the other things that Ithought was fun was that they
really are very intentionalabout just community time and
hangout time and fostering thoserelationships outside of like
going to talks, because you'redoing everything together when
(10:26):
the talks are over and you go toa happy hour.
It's not like at otherconferences where you go to a
happy hour and you don't knowanyone and you're looking for
the one or two people that youconnected with in a talk and
you're trying to find thembecause it's kind of awkward,
yeah, but instead you like walkout with all your friends that
you've just met and hung outwith for you know four hours,
and do a happy hour with themand then you talk to all these
(10:49):
different people and get to knowall these different people.
And it was very cool that therewas so much of that time
wrapped into the conference,because we had like two happy
hours and we went to this crazyrestaurant, casa Bonita.
Kate (10:57):
Casa Bonita which.
Priscilla (10:58):
I don't even know how to explain Would you call it a
restaurant.
Kate (11:02):
I don't know what.
I would call that An experience.
Jordan (11:05):
I don't know what I would call that An experience.
I don't know.
Is that the one I think?
Kate (11:11):
I feel like I've seen, like a image of that, where it's
like, it's like a pink building, it is a pink building and
inside they have cliff jumpersand mariachi bands and all sorts
of like an arcade and felt likeDisney World.
Priscilla (11:25):
Or like Dave and Buster's it was kind of Dave and
Buster's like yeah, so weird.
But it was so fun because it wasa wild experience that we all
did together.
So, honestly, I feel like CasaBonita fostered an environment
for people.
You know how it's like.
You know you become betterfriends with people after you go
to like amusement park withthem or something like that.
You have this like sharedexperience.
(11:46):
That's what it felt like, andthe next day I felt like I was
so much closer to people at theconference because of Casa
Bonita and we all experiencedwhatever that was together,
totally.
Kate (11:55):
And also the people were just so welcoming, like it felt
like everybody there wanted toconnect and to talk and there
wasn't an air of like clickinessyes, yeah, like it was
structured in such a way thatallowed that time, but everybody
there also just reallyapproached you and was welcoming
and kind and all that.
Jordan (12:16):
So it seems like I mean especially like what you were
talking about earlier, kate.
You were you were discussinghow everything was like person
to person focused, and it feelslike this conference sort of
embodies that like not just inthe talks and like what they're
saying to do, but it's also likeshowing that in building
relationships and communitywithin the professional space,
(12:37):
right, yes.
Priscilla (12:38):
Yeah Well, and the vibe was very celebratory.
It wasn't like a dullconference where everyone's
there because they're beingforced to be there.
It felt like a conference thateveryone was there because they
really wanted to go and theywere pumped to see their friends
and it was our first time there.
But you could see that thesepeople had met and been friends
(13:00):
for years and years and it wasexciting like being pulled into
that community and they really,like Kate, that it did not feel
like there was this click and wewere on the outside trying to
get in.
It felt very inclusive and veryexcited and we were celebrating
the fact that we all do thesame kind of work and that we
get to help our customers andimprove their days.
(13:21):
And it was like this fun,exciting vibe instead of, you
know, what can oftentimes bekind of like monotonous.
You know it was by far the bestconference in the customer
experience world that I've everbeen to.
I haven't been to a ton, sothere's the caveat, but it
really was wonderful and so ifyou haven't gone to an Elevate
(13:42):
CX conference or if you areinterested in it, I highly
recommend you go, because itreally is worth the time to get
there and the ticket cost it'sway more than worth it to go.
Okay, so a couple of the maintakeaways.
The first one I want to talkabout is one of my favorite
talks of the whole event.
Mercer Smith gave a talk.
(14:03):
It was the very first talk andI think it was entitled like
Untitled Goose Talk.
Oh, like the game.
Have you ever played that?
Wait, is it a game?
Jordan (14:12):
Did I miss that?
It's the Untitled Goose Game.
Kate (14:15):
Oh my gosh.
Oh, we missed that.
I missed that reference too.
Well, I totally missed that.
Jordan (14:26):
Tell us about it.
Let me tell you.
It's basically this game whereyou're a goose and you get like
a task list of things you haveto do, and so it's things like
you run in and like ruinpeople's picnics by dragging
their picnic into the pond, butthey try to like chase you off.
You're basically just runningaround as a goose rigging havoc
on a town and it's the best.
Priscilla (14:43):
That's so funny.
Well, now that that makes melaugh, because I just thought it
was a funny title because itwas called Untitled Goose Talk,
but now I'm realizing that itwas even funnier than I thought.
So, mercer, if you know me, youknow that I love a good analogy
, and Mercer's talk wasbasically one big analogy, and
so I just I loved it.
(15:04):
So, ok, here's the like twosentence overview.
She talked about how geese flytogether, obviously, but, like
she talked about some of thereasoning why geese fly together
and why they fly in a V and theways that they take turns,
being the point of the V andflying toward the back to like
share the load of the difficulty, because it's so much easier to
(15:25):
fly toward the back than towardthe front.
And then she talked about how,when geese honk at each other, a
lot of the times what they'rehonking is encouragement or
communication to stay in thecorrect formation, and so it's
like a reminder to stay in theright formation.
And she talked about how we ascustomer support specialists are
(15:46):
kind of like geese in that wework better when we're in a
community and when we flytogether and when we support
each other, when we take turnsleading and letting other people
lead and when we honk at eachother for encouragement.
It was such a good analogy,it's so cute and she did such a
good job of laying it out andher graphics for her PowerPoint
(16:06):
were amazing and it just wassuch a fun way to start the
event.
It was the first talk and I wasimmediately like, oh, I'm going
to love this, like this isgoing to be so encouraging.
And she created a honk boxwhich they put at the back of
the room so that if you wantedto encourage someone, you could
just or shout someone out, youcould write down a honk and put
(16:28):
it in the honk box and then theywere reading them throughout
the event and so they would honkeach other.
It was the cutest thing and itwas so encouraging and I loved
every minute of it.
Yeah, and you know I wasthinking about it.
It doesn't have to be.
You know, if you are hearingthis and you're like, oh, that's
so great, I want to support thepeople on my team, like within
(16:48):
my support team, that's sowonderful, Right To like.
Support each other on your team.
But if you're listening to thisand you're maybe the head of a
company that's trying to figureout how to support your support
team, you don't have to be insupport to be a goose that's
honking at another goose.
You know what I mean.
You can be encouraging yourteam even if you're not on the
(17:08):
support team, and so hopefullyyou know that's kind of what I
was thinking Like.
When you're in that room in thecommunity with a bunch of other
people working in customerexperience, it's easy to honk at
each other and encourage eachother.
But when you go back to yourcompanies, where you might be
one of four support people, it'sharder because there's just
four of you.
And so obviously you know,encourage the people that you're
(17:29):
working on a team with.
But if you're someone who'soutside of the support team,
know that you can stillencourage your support team.
You can still be one of thosegeese in the V, you know,
helping support each other, evenif you're not directly like on
that customer facing supportteam.
Jordan (17:45):
A good example of that is this week you guys are
getting hit with a hurricane,yeah, and literally before we
started recording I was like hey, you know, I know that you guys
are probably going to havepower outages and stuff like
that.
So if you guys need me to hopin the support box like I'm not
technically customer support, no, but I feel like I can hop in
(18:05):
there and at least help as muchas I can.
Priscilla (18:07):
exactly, you can move to the front of the V Jordan
and guide us while you havepower and internet all the way
over there, on the other side ofthe country and for those of us
in Florida who may not havepower and internet at the end of
this week, we'll be in the backof the V just letting you carry
it, okay.
So, kate, what was one of yourtakeaways?
Kate (18:28):
Yeah, one of my favorite talks was on assumption and
basically the whole point wasstop assuming and to use
curiosity instead of assumingthings, and I really loved that.
I thought that applied to somany different areas in building
a team and in customer supportLike there's just so many ways
(18:50):
that you can apply it.
But I thought that was powerfulto, when you're interacting
with a customer, to not assumethat you know everything that's
going on in their head or tojust take a pause.
That was one of the big pointsthat they talked about was the
power of pausing and, yeah, Ithought that was just a really
easy, practical tip to apply toevery area of customer support
(19:13):
interacting with your team, yourpersonal life, everything.
To just pause and assess thesituation before you react.
Yeah, yeah.
Priscilla (19:20):
That was a talk that Sarah Caminiti did, who was on
our show a couple months ago,and yeah, she was talking about
just the assumptions that wemake, and one of the things that
I thought was powerful was thatshe kind of like how self-doubt
can get into our heads andbecome those assumptions, like I
assume that I'm going to failat this.
(19:41):
I haven't done it before, so Ireally don't know if I'm going
to fail, but my brain is tellingme that I'm going to fail, so
I'm assuming I'm going to fail,and it was encouraging to hear
her talk about it in a way that,you know, instead of letting
the assumption which is notbased in fact lead, what if we
hypothesize that?
Actually, my hypothesis is thatthis is going to go well.
(20:02):
Now let's see if that wasaccurate or not Totally, and
you're right, it was somethingthat was cool because she
applied it to like a variety ofdifferent scenarios, both within
ourselves personally, like Iassume that I'm not going to do
well in this thing I've beentasked to do, but also in a
customer facing, like actuallyjust helping someone log in,
like something as simple as that, if you assume you know what's
(20:25):
going on but haven't asked thequestions, or been curious or
taken the time to pause and lookat the context, then you won't
be offering the remarkableexperience that you want to be
offering.
And so the power of taking aminute to pause and to look up
that context and to get thefacts because the assumption
that you've made in your head isnot fact, even if it's based on
(20:46):
experience of like oh.
Ashley (20:48):
I've seen the same.
Kate (20:49):
Why can't I log in email a million times?
I know what's going on, butmaybe take a pause.
Look at the whole context.
Yeah, yeah.
Priscilla (20:56):
I thought that was a very powerful talk, and it was
one toward the end of the eventwhich was really I think the
placement of it was really great, because it allowed us to kind
of leave on this note of allright, I'm not going to assume
things about myself that Ihaven't proven, like the
negative self-talk in me wantsto do, and I'm also going to go
back to my work with thisrenewed sense of curiosity to
(21:19):
find out what's really going onand to understand the context of
a situation when I'm workingwith someone, whether it be in
person, like within the company,or whether it be a customer
that you're working with.
So, yeah, I thought that was agreat one as well.
Okay, another thing that cameup a bunch of times while we
were there was AI's role incustomer support.
Yes, let's talk about it.
(21:40):
Let's talk about it.
There were quite a few sponsorsthere that were AI focused, and
then we had quite a fewconversations or talks that were
about you know how to navigateAI in your customer support
offerings, and so you know therewas a talk about navigating AI
anxiety.
That was really good, and so Ijust thought you know one of a
talk about navigating AI anxiety.
That was really good, and so Ijust thought you know one of the
(22:01):
takeaways from the event wasthat AI is here, yeah, and
really it's been here forcustomer support.
We've been using it for a longtime, right, but now it's trying
to figure out how we take thatAI and the tools that we have
now available and what thatmeans for customer support now
available and what that meansfor customer support.
The biggest thing that I feellike I recognized while we were
(22:22):
there was that AI is going to bea tool that we can use to make
our work more efficient and tomake customer support even more
human.
Honestly, the things that AI isgoing to come in and hopefully
take over are going to be thelike small, easy things that
people need quick answers on,but it's going to give customer
support specialists the abilityto kind of go deeper into the
(22:44):
more complicated issues and tooffer even more personalized
service, and so it was reallycool to kind of hear people in
the AI space that were also inthe customer support world talk
about how this movement towardAI is not a way to replace
people who are doing customersupport, but a way to enhance
the work we're doing and give usthe ability to go even deeper
(23:05):
into personal connection withour customers.
Kate (23:08):
Yeah, it did feel like at that conference everybody was
on the same page about wantingto provide the most care to the
customers as possible when we'rein an interaction with them and
how AI can kind of support that.
But I think one of my biggesttakeaways was just how caring
customer support people are andhow AI can kind of help benefit
(23:29):
that and push that forward, butcan't replace that kind of care
that people can offer on like ahuman-to-human interaction but
there's some great ways that itcan support.
Yeah, one of my favorite talkswas from Sunit Bhatt, who did a
talk on happy, proud and not yetsatisfied.
He does this talk to mainlycollege students.
(23:49):
He's a guest professor and thisis like a class that he talks
about with students.
But he gave us kind of thehour-long version and it was
amazing, it was so practicalhands-on.
And he gave us kind of the hourlong version and it was amazing
, it was so practical hands on.
And he asked us some greatquestions about looking at this
past year, what are some areaswe've been like happy and ask
some good questions about that.
And then same with proud, andthen areas where you just don't
(24:12):
feel satisfied, where you feelstuck or where you're having
trouble kind of accessingsolutions, and he left it up to
us for that to be personal or inyour professional life.
Yeah, Space and grace wassomething he talked about a ton
and kind of giving yourselfspace and grace to think through
some of the areas that you feltstuck.
Priscilla (24:33):
The thing about Sunit's talk that was so cool
was it wasn't really just a talk, it was a workshop and it was
long enough that it gave us timeto really sit down and try to
think through the things that wefeel stuck on.
So he, right at the beginning,we did kind of some exercises
and then he said okay, I wantyou to pick something that you
(24:53):
where you feel stuck and we'regoing to focus on that.
It wasn't to share it witheveryone, it was so much more to
just in your own head, writeout your thoughts about this
thing where you feel stuck andlike give it intentional time.
And so it was really cool,because you know it's so hard,
especially in a professionalsetting, to like take a step
back and to really giveintentional time to the thing
(25:16):
that you feel like you can't getover because there's so many
things coming at you from alldifferent angles.
And so it was kind of like hegave us permission to just sit
and focus on this one thing thatwe want to accomplish or that
we can't seem to get over, andit was really therapeutic.
Honestly, it felt more like atherapy session than it did like
a conference talk, and therewas an aspect of it that was
(25:38):
very vulnerable with the peopleyou were sitting with too,
because he was encouraging us toshare with the people we were
sitting with at certain timesnot always, but at certain times
and it was very cool to kind ofhave that vulnerability with
these people that you've beenlearning with all day, and it
was the way that we closed outthe first day of the conference.
It was really.
It really felt more liketherapy, honestly.
Yeah, two the first, day of theconference.
Kate (26:00):
It was really.
It really felt more liketherapy, honestly.
Yeah, two practical tips I justwanted to share.
That I really took away fromthat talk was one using like
positive imagination.
So he was talking about oftenwe look at the future and we're
like what could be wrong, whatcould like troubleshooting kind
of thing.
He said, instead of doing that,to start imagining what you
have done, what has made youhappy in the past year or what
(26:21):
has made you proud in your workfor the last year, and start
thinking about that and how itmade you feel and different
things like that, and use thatas a marker of like what you're
going to do moving forward.
Priscilla (26:33):
Yeah, and another thing he said that I really
liked was he said you know,think about a time that you were
proud of something you workedon or something like that, the
things you bring to something.
And he said if you're having ahard time coming up with
something, think about how thepeople in your inner circle
would answer the question aboutyou.
So, like, what would your bestfriends say about something that
they were proud of you, thatyou did?
Because so often we don't thinkabout it that way for ourselves.
(26:56):
We don't give ourselves thecredit.
I thought it was a really coolway to look at it and it helped
me a lot to think about it thatway.
Kate (27:02):
Yeah, and something that I've actually have been
practicing from his talk,because it's come up quite a bit
in my life, is he had us writefor 15 minutes just like stream
of conscious, write everythought you have down, and it
was with the topic of likesomething that you feel stuck on
and he called it the rustyfaucet or something like that
and it was like clearing out allthe thoughts and all the things
(27:25):
that are in your mind to kindof help you get to some clear
waters and some answers and somesolutions and tie back into the
writing thing.
Writing's just very powerful,yeah, yeah, that's been one of
my favorite little activitiesfrom his talk and it actually is
helpful to get you unstuck,like a practical thing.
Oh yeah, so just startjournaling.
Priscilla (27:45):
Yeah, and the fact that we can't support customers
well if we don't feel that weare in a place where we're
healthy.
Right, and so a lot of it waslike getting to a place where
we're healthy and it was just areally nice intentional time to
take a step back and do that and, all in all, I feel like Kate
and I both can agree we would goback.
It was a wonderful conferenceTotally.
(28:07):
I met people there that I amconfident I will be connected
with for a long time.
It was honestly powerful to bein a room with other
professionals in the sameindustry as we are who are
committed to that elevated levelof service, because it wasn't
just a conference about how towrite a good email.
While that is really important,this felt elevated and it felt
(28:30):
like it was more than that, andso it was really cool to be in a
room with people that you knoware all committed to that same
standard and to share advice andto get advice from them.
I highly recommend that, ifyou're not already plugged into
the Elevate CX community online,that you go and do that,
because it's a great communityand so welcoming and so
(28:52):
encouraging, and then look upthe next event you know that you
can get to.
I know they have an eventcoming up in London that's
completely free, and so if youare in that area, I highly
recommend that you grab a ticketand you go.
I want to say it's a one dayevent, so if you are in London,
go and enjoy that, and if you'renot in London, then join the
Elevate CX Slack community,because it really is a wonderful
(29:16):
place to be if you are in thecustomer experience world and
you want to offer an elevatedservice to your customers.
So it's time for our Support inReal Life segment, which is
where we discuss real lifesupport experiences and
questions, and this one is goingto be a little bit different
than normal.
(29:36):
While we were at the Elevate CXconference, I sometimes
awkwardly pulled people awayfrom the conference to ask them
some questions about customerexperience.
I kind of felt like we're inthis room with all of these
professionals who have so muchadvice to give, and I thought
how am I not going to get someof that and share it with our
(29:59):
listeners?
And so I did these like miniinterviews with people to get
some awesome advice to shareback with our listeners, and so
what we're going to do now islisten to some of those
responses, and so I will tellyou what the question is, and
then we'll listen to what somepeople had to say about it.
Sound good, awesome.
Kate (30:15):
Sounds great.
Priscilla (30:16):
Okay, so the first question I asked was what do you
love about working in customerexperience?
Deon (30:22):
I'm Dion Nicholas, ceo and co-founder of 4Thought.
There are two things I loveabout working in customer
support.
One is the people.
I love that we're in anindustry where empathy and
understanding other people'sproblems and going to bat for
other people is the name of thegame, so that attracts a certain
kind of personality, thatattracts a certain kind of
person, and so I just lovespending time with support
(30:44):
leaders, agents, everyone in thespace.
And then the second thing isactually just a follow up from.
That is like problem solving.
I consider myself a problemsolver when it comes to
technology and business and Ilove that.
In this industry, our whole jobis to solve problems for other
people.
Kate (30:58):
My name is Kate Wilson.
I am the Senior Director of theProduct Solution Architect team
at a company called Highspot,so what has kept me in customer
experience and what I reallylove about it is the fact that
you get to see your product inthe real world.
You get to see customercreativity.
I love seeing how customerstake our product and run with it
in unexpected ways and canbring that back even to our
(31:20):
product team and just like seethe value that they're getting
from it.
I think it's super cool andrewarding.
Lance (31:25):
Hi, I am Lance Konzit.
I am the customer experiencelead at Found and I have been in
customer experience slashsupport for the past 13 years.
I love solving problems.
I spend all day solvingproblems, whether it's for our
customers or for my team, or forthe managers that report to me
(31:48):
or to my boss or to the productteam is nonstop solving problems
and figuring out whatinformation can we give to the
right people to tell the storyof the customer, so that we are
solving those problems in a waythat makes sense for not just
the business but for the peoplethat we're serving.
Priscilla (32:07):
That's so good.
Yeah, all right.
So next I asked them what pieceof advice they would give
someone entering the customerexperience industry.
Kristi (32:14):
My name is Christy Ernst-Thompson.
I've been doing customersupport since 2015, and I've
been on the support team at HelpScout since 2017.
My advice would be you have tobe really intentional about
protecting your own work-lifebalance and not burning out.
And so that looks like beingdone with your work at the end
(32:34):
of the workday and it looks likebeing empathetic with your
customers, but not to the pointthat you take on all of their
feelings as your own.
And it also means concentratingon what's within your locus of
control, because there's a lotof things swirling around
product decisions andengineering fixes and financial
decisions and so many thingsaren't in your control.
(32:56):
So keeping your head down andfocusing on how you treat your
customers every day because thatis in your control will really
help prevent burnout.
Deon (33:05):
I think one piece of advice I would give to someone
entering the customer experienceindustry is to really take a
step back and understand yourdata.
A lot of times, we enter thisfield and intuition is very
important.
Try and understand what's theproblem, what's going on, but
there's actually a wealth ofinformation in understanding
what are people asking, what arecustomers asking about, what
(33:27):
are the most common problems,and then turning that back into
insights for whether it's yourproduct team, whether it's your
sales team or whoever, I thinkthat the customer experience
organization is actually themost data-rich organization in a
company.
Cheryl (33:41):
My name is Cheryl Spriggs.
I am a manager of premiersupport at Zapier.
One piece of advice I'd givesomeone to like entering
customer experience customersupport is that you have so many
transferable skills from otherjobs or projects or school that
you've done.
I come from a theaterbackground and I first started
(34:06):
in acting and then pivoted tolike stage management and like
that just translated so wellinto support with working with
other people, working onprojects, collaborating together
and like making a cohesive teamtogether to put on a show.
Kate (34:21):
So my biggest piece of advice is actually what I still
continue to tell people in thecustomer experience industry.
Very much related to Sarah'stalk Just be curious and don't
be afraid to ask questions.
Everyone here is learning fromeach other.
Whether you've been, you knowyou're brand new to the field or
you've been here for 20 years.
Like just be curious.
The industry is always changing, the tools are always changing,
(34:45):
the software stack is alwayschanging, so, like you know, the
answer you get today is goingto be different than the answer
that you get tomorrow.
So just don't assume thatpeople know better than you.
They probably don't Askquestions.
Be curious, that's it.
Priscilla (34:57):
There's some really good advice in there.
The next thing I asked was, ifyou were joining a company for
the first time without anydedicated support system, what
is the first thing you wouldwant to develop?
I was really excited about thisquestion, and there's some good
answers in here.
Sarah C (35:14):
My name is Sarah Caminiti.
I have been in and around theCX space for close to 20 years
now or more, not going to agemyself and I am currently the
head of customer service in theUS for AppCamp, but I am also
the host of Epical Growth.
If I was joining a company thatdid not have a dedicated
customer support team yet, I'vedone it before, and the first
(35:37):
thing that I did was talk to allof the teams that have been
handling support in somecapacity and understand what it
was like for them, and then seehow we can build a system that
works for the customer, thatthey understand better than I do
, and respect what they'vealready done and just find ways
to make it better.
Ashley (35:55):
I am Ashley Haislett.
I have been working in customersupport for almost 20 years now
.
I started in college and havenot left.
The first thing that I woulddevelop is an FAQ because, at
least for me, doing so alsotrains me.
That helps me learn the product, it helps me learn the pitfalls
(36:17):
of the experience so I canstart a new dialogue with
product and engineering, andthen it helps me start pulling
out things to be macros foranswering users and things like
that.
So obviously, like after divinginto tickets and doing all that
stuff, the first thing that Iwould really implement is an FAQ
.
Mercer (36:35):
My name is Mercer Smith and I am the VP of Blended
Operations at Partner Hero, sothe first thing I'd want to
understand and develop wascustomer personas.
So who it is that we're tryingto help, right, because if you
don't understand who it is thatwe're trying to help, right,
because if you don't understandwho it is that you're trying to
help, how are you going to helpthem?
Right, like if you don't knowwhat it is that they're curious
about, or where they're hangingout or what kind of questions
(36:57):
they have, you're just going tobe kind of like taking a shot in
the dark, whereas you could bespending less effort to make
more impactful choices if youactually know who they are
choices if you actually know whothey are.
Priscilla (37:11):
The next thing I asked them was about a tool or
piece of software that they usethat makes their work easier.
I was unsure about thisquestion and how much response I
would get, but, honestly, thereare so many good tools that are
recommended that I am going todownload and start using.
Sarah H (37:25):
My name is Sarah Hatter .
I am the events and communitymanager at Rebuy, but also the
founder and producer of ElevateCX, and I've been running
Elevate CX since October 2012,but I've been involved in the
world of customer experiencesince 2008.
Slack, Slack, Slack, Slack.
(37:51):
You can quote me on that.
I just think it's one of thosethings that I think if you know
how to use it and use it well,especially if you're working
with people who are remote orare in other countries, it's
just invaluable.
Deon (37:52):
So one tool or piece of software I use to make my life
easier?
This is kind of a trickquestion for me, because I
actually use Forethought, whichis a company I work at, and we
build generative AI for customerservice and we use it for our
customers on our website.
We also use it internally forthings like IT, hr questions and
(38:13):
just general knowledge.
So I'm super excited about AIin general, but also very
excited about Forethought, usingit and also sharing it with
other people.
Ashley (38:23):
I'm a Notion girly.
I live in Notion and have builtso many different systems in
Notion.
I think the best thing that Iwas able to get out of it was
building like our vendordirectory and resources in
Notion so all of their SOPs, allof their training and all of
that stuff in there, and justmaking it super accessible and
(38:45):
super editable.
But man, it's just madedocumentation so much easier
than having to dig around inGoogle Docs for everything.
Kristi (38:53):
I cannot live without Alfred, which is a tool for
MacBooks.
The main thing I love about itis you can create keyboard
shortcuts, so it's kind of likehaving your own saved replies
built right onto your owncomputer.
So I do not ever type my ownemail address.
I type semicolon KR and itautofills my email address.
So you can do that with allsorts of stuff and it's a huge
(39:13):
time saver.
Kate (39:16):
I freaking love Airtable.
I think it is purpose built forpeople like me and people in
support who are technical butare not engineers, because you
can automate so many of yourproblems.
You can put in workflows.
You don't have to remember todo things.
You can set up theseautomations.
It's a relational databasebuilt for business people.
(39:37):
I'm going to be a walking adfor them, but I do.
I love Airtable.
I totally encourage you to tryit out and experiment with it.
Mercer (39:46):
Yeah, probably you haven't heard this one before.
I use a tool called Habitica,which is a habit tracker.
It tracks things that I need todo every day and then also has
like a to-do list function, andso every single morning I go in
and I look at Habitica and I'mlike, okay, here's the stuff
that I still have to do, and Iorganize and I prioritize it.
Jordan (40:03):
And we're going to be linking to every single one of
those in the show notes.
Priscilla (40:08):
Yes, we definitely have to link to all of those.
Yeah, there are so many toolslisted that I am so excited to
start using Alfred specifically.
I am so excited Christy wastelling.
I mean I talked to her aboutAlfred during the interview and
then we went back to our tablefor the next talk and she pulled
(40:29):
it up on her computer and wasshowing it to me and I was like,
oh, this is cool, this is Imean I don't know if I've said
this on the show before, but Idon't like the phrase game
changer, but it felt like thatLike oh my goodness, this is
going to simplify so many thingsin my life, and so I'm very
excited to test out some ofthese, and so, yeah, we'll
definitely link these in theshow notes so that you can
(40:49):
download what you want to tryout and use it, and hopefully
it'll make your life just thatmuch easier.
Okay, and then the next thing Iasked them was about the future
of the customer experience spaceand specifically what they
expect to see over the next fiveyears and how they expect to
see the customer support worldchanging.
Mercer (41:09):
I'm really hopeful for two things.
The first one is that we willsee a swing back to value being
placed on human, to humaninteractions.
You know, throughout the 80s, wesaw like prepackaged stuff,
like oh Wonder, bread is amazingand all of these like you know,
like kid cuisine and stuff likethat.
And then, as we came into like2020s or so, people were like oh
(41:29):
yeah, I really want likehomemade sourdough and I want
hand poured espresso and I wantall of these things, and I think
we're going to come back intoan area like a realm of craft
customer support.
So, rather than saying like, oh, let me hit a button to speak
instantly to like a bot, peopleare going to hit a button to
like wait a little bit to speakto a human, and so I see that
changing button to like wait alittle bit to speak to a human,
(41:50):
and so I see that changing.
And then, simultaneously, I seethe impact of AI as freeing up
support teams or CX teams to domore meaningful work and like
the stuff that actually fulfillsthem, because no one gets into
support to be like yeah, let merespond to like 50 inquiries
about refunds today.
Lance (42:04):
I mean, we're all saying AI right, but I think the thing
that is changing is the thingsthat happen after AI.
So AI handles all of the basicstuff that anybody can do and,
theoretically, your customersshould have already solved
through a help center visit orsomething like that.
So what I foresee is morespecialization, more focus on a
(42:28):
white glove, high touch servicewhere you want to build a
relationship, pulling away fromjust the blast chamber of
support tickets.
Deon (42:38):
I think the customer experience landscape will change
in one critical way, in thatcustomer experience will start
to be merged with the rest ofthe organization.
I think that a lot of peoplehave traditionally viewed
customer experience as a costcenter, as a place where people
only go when they have issues,and you've heard phrases like
the best customer support is nosupport, for example.
(42:59):
Well, I actually think, whenyou think about it, customer
experience is the front line ofyour organization.
It's where customers go notonly when they have a problem,
but when they have a question,when they want to learn more,
right, no-transcript.
It's where you go and where youthink about when it comes to
retaining your dollars andexpanding your dollars, and so,
(43:20):
in that sense, customerexperience should be merged, or,
at least you know, in tandemwith your sales org, with your
marketing team and with yourproduct team.
So I think embedding a cultureof customer experience
throughout an organization isactually going to be the winning
play.
Priscilla (43:35):
And then the last question that I asked everyone
was what is one takeaway thatyou have from the last two days
at Elevate CX?
I really wanted to hear youknow.
I knew what things I was goingto take away from it and I had
been already ruminating on, butI wanted to hear what things
stood out to the other people atthe conference.
Sarah H (43:56):
Even as someone who produces this event and chooses
every speaker, I still walk awaywith a lot of stuff, and it
just really reiterated to me thepower of community and what
that means and that you don'talways have to be in person to
have these beautiful momentswith people, these authentic
relationship building moments.
You can still do that virtually.
You can still do that overSlack or over whatever it might
(44:18):
be.
I think if you focus on growingthose authentic relationships
and nurturing them, they lastright, and we have people in
this audience who've been comingto Elevate for 14 years.
We have people in this audiencewho have this is their first
time, and to see them meshtogether and build those
relationships and still havethings of value to share with
each other, that just reminds methat the community work is
(44:39):
super important.
It's super, super importantthat we continue to give people
these spaces and to nurture thatand to make it available.
Deon (44:47):
One of my big takeaways is actually, in a lot of the
content we've been focusing onjust leadership right.
In so many ways, building acustomer support team or
building a customer experienceorganization is actually about
building an amazing businessthat is customer-centric and
empathetic, and these aretakeaways that you can really
bring across any organizationthat can be taught to any leader
(45:08):
.
So there were a lot of talks atthis conference that weren't
even necessarily about customersupport specifically, but they
were about performancemanagement, feedback, imposter
syndrome, learning how to growas a leader, and I think that
was my biggest, almost metatakeaway is that in the customer
support world, we're all justleaders trying to do what we can
for our customers and for ourteams, and so I think that's
pretty awesome just leaderstrying to do what we can for our
(45:30):
customers and for our teams,and so I think that's pretty
awesome.
Cheryl (45:31):
This is my fifth Elevate CX, third in Denver, which is
awesome.
One of the special things aboutit this year is that like I got
to come with my manager too andwe got so many cool ideas.
Got to meet people, connect andreally just like see things
from you know not ourperspective, from like our
company and get to just reallyget together with other peers
(45:53):
and like that we're goingthrough the same things together
successes or challenges andlike it's just very validating
and I always feel so jazzed upafter I leave Elevate.
So it's been a great fifth year.
Mercer (46:08):
There's so many people to learn from and I think you
know I've been doing this for along time.
I've been helping Sarah withElevate for like 12 or 13 years
at this point, so I've seen alot of talks.
You're never done learning.
I think that's.
The main takeaway is like nomatter how long you've been
doing it, you need to allowyourself to be humbled and be
willing to learn, becausethere's always something to take
(46:29):
away.
Sarah C (46:31):
One takeaway that's cute From the last couple of
days at Elevate CX is holy crap.
I am so freaking lucky to bearound so many wonderful, smart,
talented individuals that arechanging the way that companies
operate and think about customersupport or customer experience,
and it's just freaking awesome.
Jordan (46:53):
Sarah's energy is just so infectious I can't get over
it.
Priscilla (46:58):
I know what a great note to end on.
Thank you to everyone who tooktime to answer those questions
and to have those little miniinterviews.
It was really fun to be able totalk to everyone and to pull
all of that together and shareit all with you.
There's so much good informationin those quick clips and so if
(47:19):
you're listening to this likeyeah, download some of the tools
they recommended, listen to theadvice they gave about starting
a new support team anddeveloping processes.
That stuff is gold, and so Ihope that if you listen to this,
you'll take some of that andbegin to incorporate it into
your work.
And I'm excited to see what thesupport landscape looks like as
(47:40):
we continue to figure out howAI works with customer support,
and I'm also just really excitedto go to another Elevate CX
conference and to see all thesepeople again.
So if you have a question or asupport situation that you want
us to discuss, you can email usat happytohelpatbuzzsproutcom or
text the show using the link inthe episode description.
(48:07):
We usually spend this timetalking about a question or a
situation in a real life supportcase, so feel free to send
those in and we will discuss iton a future episode.
And if you liked this episode,I would love it if you would
give us a rating or review onApple Podcasts.
It would make me very, veryhappy.
So thank you all for listening.
I really mean it.
Now go make someone's day.
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