Support Driven Leadership Summit 2023: Day 1 Notes

Notes from Day 1 of Support Driven Leadership Summit 2023 Oakland.

Two Heads Are Better Than One: How AI Can Work Together with Human Agents to Provide Superior Customer Support

Andrea Silas

AI is here
threat or not? to support, thinking about replacing, or non-customer facing situations; should be more augmenting
harness the power: external and internal solutions; what need to think about as leaders
what problem are we solving?
situation: large team (150), lost of recent hires, complex technical product
current practice: recorded knowledge, lots of workflows, live assists from non-recent hires
our AI-based solution: TS assist (tech support)
goal: augmentations: reduce handle time, increase self-reliance and FCR, free up higher-level resources
does not replace team members, assistors
what is it? smart browser extension, not an app
based on open AI models: GPT 3.5/4, embedding models
trained on our recorded knowledge,
collects and filters info: knowledge base, internal troubleshooting docs, incident tracker, etc.
summary of request, potential solutions: summary per channel and relevant sources
optional components: composer: voice/tone/knowledge level, translator, interactive conversation (TBD)
not a chatbot, external facing, complex situations
developers at roots = CEO support, built-in wiggle room for internal projects, not a daunting sustaining work, tailor-made for us, legacy/home-grown platforms means integration is hard, technical complexity
POC instead of full-on production: quick to iterate, reduce resource needed
small team: dev, head of support, testers, support QA (later), trainer/knowledge coordinator (later)
learnings: talk to your team: threat or benefit? recruit involvement interest, stress their role: help me help you!
may not have internal team to do development
data review: data exists, AI can’t use all data, manual processing of assist data, AI will help here too eventually
manage ambitions: strictly POC only, focus on value not features: iterations, later phases, dev vs. support needs
AI is happening all over the company: check for overlaps, does it affect support? could it contribute to later phases?
be aware of resource usage process: planning, “interest” vs. real availability, product resourcing
create a business plan
learnings: testers: further iterations validation, possible dedicated role scoping, make testing/feedback easy, variety of testers of ability/experience and usage type, reluctance to participate: figure out why, create a solution; better messaging, facilitate testing, creating time
process validation: make the digest digestible, make sure it’s not too slow or too much info, auto/marketing vs. human, need to be more refined
legal stuff: OpenAI has good privacy policies but not enough, new technology means involving legal early with protect privacy (PII), proprietary info
stuff outside your control: be aware of outside forces (such as Zendesk forced upgrade)
know your own: needs, system, process, resources, funding, technology
how are you utilizing AI in your support organization?

When Work Doesn’t Fit the Mold, a Chief of Staff Steps In

From Advocates to Allies: Unleashing Human Potential in AI Support

Panel: Moderator: David Sudolsky (Boldr), Chyngyz Dzhumanazarov (Kodif), Panelists: Michael Dang (Nom Nom), Chirs Murray (Babylist)

more people using AI and automation being used interchangeable, but not the same; AI has ability to constant learning, automation is for repeated/routine tasks. AI uses recognition to respond.
delight CX
allows you to focus more on the customer, be more customer-centric
help go through large backlog, save time for team members
not going to change everything, change the way how we get information, near future hire for creativity, etc.
when solving the same issues over and over, think about what more can do, can have the AI help build solutions
need to give people to the time to look into it
the technology enables us to do more
can create new jobs
how do you measure performance, ways to delight; right now, tend to measure on volume of tickets: the hope is to displace the time, do need to show value. Push brand loyalty, find the metric, such as lifetime value of a customer. Monitoring change.
Have some ideas of how to test/measure beforehand, and comparison later
make sure you have executive buy-in
preparing: technical: make sure the data is clean, processes are consistent, coming to an ultimate single source of truth is ideal, important to put guardrails in place
low effort, high impact use cases: example of if told a customer that previously inquired that a service is back
best thing you can do is talk to vendors, give them feedback
guardrails = teach it what not to say through prompt engineer, not answering random questions or questions about competitors; see different use cases from different customers
enable support agents to solve issues faster, once confident, can push some of them to customers if repetitive
communicate the scope of the project, not full AI replacement, getting better, but generations away from that
advocate for your team to executive about upskilling
“people first” AI is there to help people, focus on the people, create a great environment
“bring your people along” have others ask questions of the vendors, the more they know, the less scared they will be
prepare!

Lunch

Crafting ROIs for Key Initiatives with Aimiable

Panel: Moderator: Olga Gemonova (Aimiable), Panelists: Travis Brace (Grindr), Ryan Klausner (Who Gives a Crap), Charlotte Ward (Snowplow), Kevin Yang (Idiomatic)

[missed part of this because another session went over]
reduce churn
in-person event
attribute incredibly low, highest level of engagement
CX highest movement to other teams
automating: how much save
20% cost when there’s turnover
challenges: isn’t getting to ROI calculation, can automate one-touch; lack in-house resources
can look at cost and attribute to each team, help them prioritize
What is the company’s goals? Growth, retention, profitability, etc.; even with positive ROI, difficult to spend money on things that aren’t directly tied.
ask finance to help build business case. Can even brainstorm the different ways are.
it’s about retention and employee engagement and happiness: lock in learning and development budget
everything people learn can have “shockwaves” across the team and company
we want to be aligned with the company’s goals, but hired for as SMEs, part of it is reminding that the team is important
shouldn’t have to calculate for everything
focus is delivering in budget and contributing to the company goals
conference attendance: one example is one travel/conference per year, budget is built in for internal and external events

Resilient Leadership: Navigating Layoffs and Reduced Budgets

Matt Dale

CXO consultant
tech layouts 2022-2023: it’s tough out there
Step one: buy yourself time to think (and freak out a little bit), maybe talk to someone who isn’t at your company, sounding board
Step two: understand the “why” behind the ask; what are we trying to accomplish with the company? long-term or temporary tightening?
Step three: build a plan. Can’t do something well without a plan. Look into alternatives, be creative!
Define your essential services. What’s the nice to have?
Prioritize the right customers. If you have a free tier, how to serve them, give them options, but also focus on paid customers. Consider adjusting SLAs.
Optimize your tools. What can you do to make your employees’ experience? Get a better ROI. Better integrations. Single screen, instead of multiple, bringing in tools to ticketing system.
Optimize your product. See where issues are happening. Example: improved in-product contextual help.
Step four: Get buy-in from company leadership. Make sure you’re using the right language, tie it back to what you’re accomplish. Consider kicking things down the road.
Step five: Communicate with your team. Effective frequency. Generally 7 times hear about it before get it. Have 4 points to focus on.
Lead with empathy. Something to always be doing, but especially during a crisis. Immediate human response is how it’s affecting “me”.
Share transparently, as much as possible.
Show you have a plan. Don’t like uncertainty, so best to provide a plan.
Talk through changing priorities and expectations. Need to understand the “why” behind it.
Listen to feedback and concerns. Need to listen to what can be addressed. As a leader, you’re the representative of your team to the company and vice versa.
Give clear updates as the situation changes. Continue that cycle, listen, make changes.
Not guaranteed success, but your job is the best to reduce stressful as much as possible, be a buffer.

Balancing Parenthood and the Workspace: Navigating Boundaries and Advocacy

Erica Seamster

something we talk a lot about, but normally in passing, and not usually on a platform
pandemic highlighted a lot of the challenges of parents
many started advocating and setting personal boundaries, because had to, but want to continue
Why: 40% of the labour force are parents with a child under 18, increases employee morale and loyalty, increases productivity and satisfaction, enhances diversity and inclusion efforts
during pandemic, 1/3 of all working moms left their jobs; probably have a deficit in the workforce still
challenges face by parents: balancing work and family responsibilities, lack of flexible work arrangements, bias and stigma against working parents, inadequate parental leave, they are tired
carrying many of these things as mental load, in some cases physically
raise awareness: highlight personal stories of employees juggling work and parenting, if you’re a leader at your with kids, share your boundary setting experiences
allow a couple minutes of chit-chat at the beginning of meetings, ask how they’re doing
parent-focused ERG: representation and visibility, networking and mentorship for those that may not normally interact, resource sharing and support, feedback mechanism, influence organizational policies, (author note: executive sponsorship can make a big difference in getting traction)
promote and demonstrate flexibility: remote and hybrid options, flexible PTO, emphasize results not hours, async work
create inclusive parental policies: advocate for extended and gender-neutral parental leave, encourage paid leave for both primary and secondary caregivers, present benefits of on-site children services, transition plans – pre and post leave
lead by example: public calendars, take time off, talk about your experiences, demonstrate empathy
measure your success: establish key metrics (employee satisfaction, retention rates), conduct surveys and feedback sessions and be transparent about the results, continuously adapt policies based on feedback