Our team had an inspiring time at the Support Driven Expo 2024 held in Las Vegas from May 14-15. Every year, this event brings together industry leaders and CX professionals to explore best practices, strategies, and tools in customer support.
For those who couldn't attend, here are the most important highlights from the event, featuring talks about AI tools, customer journeys, outsourcing partnerships, and enhancing customer support.
Walking Back the Customer Journey
Happy customers are loyal customers. Our Fractional Executive and CX expert at Boldr, Ben McCormack kicked off his talk by taking a few steps back and analyzing the customer journey to identify the root causes of customer issues.
“Sometimes the best way to move forward is to look back.” -Ben McCormack
Customer journey mapping can feel overwhelming, especially when you are not able to identify the customer journey stages, during Ben’s talk he shared an actionable approach to proactively identify and mitigate potential customer pain points, improving your customer’s experience and preventing churn.
During Ben's talk, he highlighted the importance of ensuring everyone in the organization understands the customer's perspective, this promotes an alignment across departments and creates a shared language for discussing the customer journey.
He suggested mapping your customer journey and using customer-centric language, as a way to build a foundation within your organization and develop strategies to optimize the customer experience at every stage.
Are you interested in mastering the customer journey mapping? Click here to download our post-event practical guide.
The Rom-Com Guide to Perfect Partnerships
Our Head of Tech and SaaS at Boldr, Vicky Windell, wooed the Support Driven Community with her tips and tricks on how to successfully navigate the world of outsourcing. Her talk was designed for support professionals who have never worked with an outsourcing partner or companies looking to give outsourcing another shot.
Vicky explained that, much like in failed romantic relationships, some companies experience PTSD from previous outsourcing partnerships, leaving them with uncertainty and loss of faith.
From our experience working with multiple clients across various industries, we’ve noticed a common denominator when it comes to integrating clients with their new teams: their desire to be involved in every step of the onboarding process.
“So we listened and gave them what they needed, and also built a 90-day plan identifying what long-term integration would look like and how we would get there. Because when you’re in a relationship with someone, they want to know what your intentions are and what the future looks like. Much like dating, the growth and trust in the partnership came from being trustworthy.”
Throughout her talk, she introduced the “trust equation” emphasizing that trustworthiness is built on Credibility, Reliability, and Intimacy, divided by Self-Orientation. We effectively build trust by demonstrating our capability to fulfill clients' needs and building personal connections.
To build a long-lasting romance with your outsourcing partner, Vicky advised organizations to learn from past mistakes, define clear expectations, and develop a tailored integration plan to guarantee a “happily ever after”.
Elevating Customer Support in the AI Era
In several talks, the speakers spoke about using the power of AI to improve Customer Experience.
Sayam Kim, Senior Customer Support Engineer at Intercom talked about the importance of AI in customer support, specifically about how you can leverage the power of these tools to handle repetitive tasks allowing your team members to focus on specialized work.
Kim explained how deep product knowledge, helps support teams become more strategic, creative, and specialized.
Kodif’s Co-founder Mike Zayonc, shared his expertise on differentiating AI solutions for customer experiences, focusing on specific use cases rather than tool categories. AI tools often overlap in functionality, so he suggested starting by identifying the problem you're trying to solve.
Additionally, Mike recommended working closely with your team to frame your solution by asking the right questions such as “what can AI do for us”, “what problems are we trying to solve” and “can AI help us”. He also mentioned following this process of asking your clients critical questions to guarantee your services will fit their needs.
Creating your ideal customer experience also requires training experts in framing knowledge, describing how you want a bot to talk, and making sure you tailor your AI solution to the necessities of your business.
Check out Kodif’s article to learn more about AI solutions for CX.
Outsourcing, and Optimizing Performance Culture
Some of the takeaways from the rest of the Support Driven Expo 2024 speakers include:
- Better metrics do not necessarily equate to better customer experiences: Joseph Huisman, Director of Customer Success, emphasized metrics should guide, not dictate support strategies, or drive the right team behaviors.
- Integrating culture principles: Adam Boelke from Alignment Advantage Group underscores the need to integrate seven culture principles to improve performance:
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- Build foundational beliefs
- Clear mission and values
- Clear strategic objectives
- Clear cascading goals
- Clear rules of engagement
- Clear budget enablement
- Clear recruiting requests
He mentioned that with leaders' help, companies can drive culture actively, creating a transparent and collaborative environment.
Connecting Within, Empowering Teams Together
At Boldr, we believe that outer balance and connection come from within. By nurturing our inner selves, we set the base for stronger relationships and more effective teamwork. This year we hosted a series of three Sound Healing sessions in between talks, where our customer support community was able to interact and create a space of mutual support.
Sound Healing is a therapy used to trigger a relaxation response in the body, helping to reduce many symptoms caused by chronic stress, while helping to balance our body from within. We were thrilled to hear the positive feedback from our attendees.
“This is a good break after listening to multiple talks” - a Sound Healing attendee.
We thank everyone who visited our booth and connected with us. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the Support Driven community.
