Visionary Leaders Share Insights and the Spotlight at Qualtrics X4 2024: Part 2

AI: What’s changing and what’s not

The rising use of artificial intelligence (AI) has increasingly brought into question how AI should and should not be used. The question remains: Is it truly a force for good?

At X4, we experienced firsthand the capabilities that AI can have as a force for good when it comes to data collection and management. Brad Anderson, president of products, UX, engineering, and ecosystem at Qualtrics, demonstrated live how AI can help the user deeply understand customer interactions at a much faster scale through its ability to index reviews, analyze sentiment, and compile relevant results.

Anderson also showcased how the new Qualtrics AI integration can pull and compile data from various customer sources, as well as learn from the data to make results smarter over time, allowing the user to pinpoint exact customer pain points to determine solutions. For example, he was able to ask Qualtrics AI to pull specific customer service calls with negative results, determine the cause of the negative results, and generate a report for the employee who conducted the call, so that he and the employee could easily discuss how the employee could improve. And that’s just one example!

On the flip side, New York Times best-selling author Morgan Housel shared the importance of keeping expectations in check and seeking to understand what won’t change (instead of fixating on what will change), specifically when it comes to AI. His book, Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes, details how, at their core, most things don’t change at a fundamental level, so life becomes more enjoyable when we focus on what can’t change. Relating to AI, he acknowledged that there are some who might think AI is going to take over the world and replace every job, but in reality, not everything is going to change that much. He argues that although the use of AI will grow, we can take comfort in knowing that humans will always be needed.

CX Takeaway: AI integrations can increase efficiency and data intelligence but should never replace the value of human employees.

Empowering customer loyalty through smarter surveys

Mandia Moïse, director of CRM & voice of customer at Cirque du Soleil, a world-class, live entertainment company, taught us that customers are often willing to give you feedback if you give them the opportunity to share. Partnering with Qualtrics, Moïse and her team developed a short, simple survey delivered straight to customers’ emails, enabling customers to record a video explaining their pain points when attending various shows. Their strongest feedback, surprisingly, was not about the shows themselves, but the parking. Cirque du Soleil realized they could easily address this pain point—and drive greater CX—by providing more information and clearer parking directions on their website.

Moïse’s story illustrated how a smart survey has allowed Cirque du Soleil to better understand its customers and make direct changes to deliver specifically on what its customers want. The result: They are now better able to anticipate their customers’ needs so they can keep the focus where it belongs—on entertaining, surprising, and delighting audiences.

CX Takeaway: Start small, but be smart in your data collection approach. Give customers the chance to voice their pain points, and they will give you clear areas to improve.

For Lauren Cheatham, principal quantitative researcher at Roblox, an online gaming platform—or, as she likes to say, “a platform for players and creators to interact, create, and have experiences”—improving CX took time. She and her team realized that if they wanted to obtain good data, they needed to meet customers (players) where they were. Put simply, they needed to embed their customer surveys into the Roblox platform.

Cheatham described how getting to that point was not an easy task, since it’s not the most standard way to conduct a survey. She and her team worked to showcase the value of good data for improving the Roblox platform and started gaining support one person at a time. Once they had enough allies across multiple departments within Roblox, they were able to gain the leadership buy-in they were seeking, allowing them to integrate the survey directly into their platform.

CX Takeaway: Expect that a change in CX within an organization will take time. Start small and grow support incrementally, until it’s easy to showcase the value of change to your leadership team.

Co-creation: a winning strategy for employee happiness

From a panel of various fintech companies assembled and led by EY, we learned that elevating the employee experience leads to greater customer satisfaction. Panelists illustrated the overall success that comes when you provide employees with the tools they need to be successful, explaining that the only way to discover which tools are needed is by speaking with your employees.

First, employers should seek opportunities to co-create exceptional experiences with employees. Gather employee feedback and then work with employees to make the changes that address the feedback, so they know you are taking action. One panelist even suggested collecting and monitoring an employee HAP (hate, abuse, and profanity) score, based on employee survey responses, to determine and better understand negative employee sentiment. As you actively address employee concerns, employees will recognize that they can trust you as an employer, increasing employee loyalty and ultimately improving CX.

CX Takeaway: Gather feedback from employees and then act. Gain their trust by involving employees every step of the way and demonstrating that you have heard and are willing to implement their feedback.

After gleaning so many insights, our team was excited for the summit’s grand finale—an energizing concert by the Backstreet Boys. Yes, they’ve still got it! Thanks to everyone at Qualtrics for another first-class summit. We look forward to next year’s lineup. Until then, check out our suite of CX services, and reach out to hear how we can bring our expertise to help you surprise and delight your customers!