Workflow Quarterly the Customer Issue

Workflow Quarterly SUMMER 2020

The Customer Issue Delivering great experiences in the next normal

The new battleground 5 charts: Why CX tech How to optimize the for growth is the answer customer experience PAGE 02 PAGE 08 PAGE 14 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

Workflow Quarterly is dedicated to publishing new research and reporting on the future of work Letter from the editor

The Customer Issue

In tough times, companies For months now, we’ve all been navigating The survey, conducted by ESI 14 How to optimize your return 18 How to please new ways of living and working. The ThoughtLab, also suggests that the road- to work for customers customers at scale need to double down on COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need map to digitizing customer experience customer experience. for significant shifts in nearly everything we remains constant across industry sectors. Return to work faster and stronger Lessons from a Missouri magician, do, as well as new business imperatives—to First, create a customer experience strategy by investing in foundational customer service guru Shep Hyken. BY LARA CAIMI reduce expenses, transition workforces, and, aligned with business goals, and install a customer experience technologies. yes, digitally transform the enterprise. customer management system to support Though cutting costs may have been that strategy. Next, identify key customer How COVID-19 is sparking the intuitive first response to the COVID-19 touchpoints and use them to build an 16 crisis, retaining customers is the existential immersive personalized experience. Third, innovation in customer experience one. As we look ahead, digitally transform- make sure your team has the skills to sup- ing the enterprise rightly begins with the port a digital customer experience. Q&A customer experience. Not surprisingly, our survey also Insights from leaders in telco, In February and March, Workflow showed profitability and return on invest- banking, retail, and beyond. 20 How to create awesome customer journeys Quarterly commissioned a global survey ment grow as an organization’s digital of 600 senior executives to learn how com- transformation matures. Just ask panies in five major sectors are digitizing Massimiliano Pogliani, the CEO of the A conversation with customer their customer experiences, and the result- iconic Italian coffee purveyor illycaffè—the experience expert Bruce Temkin. ing impact on their businesses. Two take- company whose customer experience aways I found compelling are that most transformation we 02 The new battleground examine in this issue’s feature story. for growth: customer enterprises are not prepared to create a QUIZ “Suddenly, everyone, even my 80-year- experience digital customer experience, and that the “digital divide” between customer experi- old mother, has to be digital,” Pogliani said. 21 Is your customer experience ence leaders and laggards is growing larger “If they have a good experience with us, Digital CX will make or break pandemic-proof? by the month. they’re going to stay with us even after businesses in the COVID-19 The survey, which canvassed execu- COVID-19 has passed.” economy and beyond. Take the quiz to learn if your tives in financial services, healthcare, man- He was speaking about coffee drinkers, organization is maximizing ROI. ufacturing, telecommunications and the but his prediction rings true for customers public sector, showed North American in every sector. Including yours. 08 The customer experience companies are furthest along in their digi- — maturity curve tal transformation journeys. However, Lara Caimi is chief strategy officer European and Asian enterprises are at ServiceNow. She guest edited the 5 charts that show why companies picking up the pace. Customer Issue of Workflow Quarterly. can’t wait to invest in CX tech. Read the issue online: workflow.servicenow.com/quarterly

Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 1 FEATURES The new battleground for growth: Digital CX will ince it pioneered the modern espresso-mak- make or break ingS process in 1933, illycaffé has moved far beyond just selling good coffee and the machines that create it. In the 1990s, it began making artsy espresso cups, businesses in commissioned from famous designers. In the 2000s, customer it opened cafes around the world. Then, after he became the first outside CEO of the the COVID-19 family-owned company in 2016, Massimiliano Pogliani set out to make sure it was extending the illy experience to the digital realm. As part of a larger economy and technology revamp, illy has since expanded its online experience shop with better graphics and video, a smoother checkout process, and a loyalty program that offers beyond. personalized recommendations and rewards to customers, whether they’re shopping online or sitting in BY PETER BURROWS one of those 269 cafes. “Thank God we started when we did,” says Pogliani. While the COVID-19 pandemic has slashed sales to restaurants and the cafes, illycaffé’s e-commerce revenues have since increased by more than 200%—double the increase for online coffee as a whole, according to Pogliani. Better still, more than half of those sales are from first-time customers. “If they have a good experience with us, they’re going to stay with us even after COVID-19 has passed,” he says. With storefronts and offices still shuttered in varying degrees, the pandemic has put a spotlight on digital experiences. A thoughtful, well-designed experience—whether on a mobile app or an AI- powered chatbot—makes it easy for consumers to find and buy what they need. It also creates goodwill that translates into higher satisfaction and increased loyalty. But the number of companies that are prepared to compete on their ability to offer great digital experience to their customers is surprisingly small. While companies have poured trillions of dollars into digital transformation projects over the last decade, most haven’t focused those investments on improving customer experience, according to a new global survey from ESI ThoughtLab and ServiceNow. Instead, most of these efforts have focused on creating back-office, behind-the-scenes efficiency. That matters, but the new research shows it’s not enough

Illustration by Rebecca Clarke Rebecca by Illustration in today’s marketplace.

2 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 3 FEATURES

When it comes to making changes that help customers, however, most companies are just getting Research The 11 key customer started. According to the survey of 600 executives in 12 countries and across five different industries: methodology experience dimensions

• Just 18% say they’ve done the work to figure out the touchpoints that determine cus- ServiceNow and its research partner, ESI tomer satisfaction or lack thereof. 01. Aligning CX approaches ThoughtLab surveyed 600 C-level executives about • Only 14% have automated elements of how organizations are digitizing the customer with business goals customer service so that simpler requests experience to improve outcomes. The respondents can be handled via self-service or chatbots. came from 12 countries and represented five • 12% have consolidated customer data in one 02. Consolidating data to create industries. Job titles included CEOs, COOs, CIOs, place, a requirement for developing person- CHROs, and board directors. a single customer view alized services across all channels. In addition to the overall findings, we also seg- Meanwhile, companies that have invested heavily in 03. Setting a roadmap with mented the respondents into three groups—lead- digital customer experience are reaping outsized The evolution of ers, intermediates, and beginners—based on 11 key defined roles gains, and they’re likely to pull further ahead over the dimensions of a digital customer experience. next few years. The ESI/ServiceNow study segmented customer experience survey respondents into three groups—leaders, inter- 04. Ensuring collaboration mediates, and beginners—based on 11 key customer Companies of all sizes have access today to ever- across the organization experience dimensions and found: cheaper technologies—including artificial intelli- By Region gence—and near limitless computing power. Which By Industry • Leaders are far more likely than beginners raises the question: How has the world of digital cus- 05. Developing skills to create to report high or very high returns on a wide tomer experience trended toward a marketplace of and support digital CX range of technology investments. haves and have-nots? 15% 21% • 37% of leaders report better profitability per For starters, CX has taken a back seat to other customer as a result of their CX efforts, com- areas when it comes to tech investments. Early on, 21% 06. Embracing a agile customer 52% 21% pared with just 25% of beginners. companies found they could generate more immedi- management program • 76% of current CX leaders expect to make ate returns by using technologies like cloud comput- 33% big improvements to CX in the next three ing to slash infrastructure costs and improve produc- 21% 16% years, compared with 16% of beginners. tivity. Rather than offer customers more options and 0 7. Installing a CX more personalized service, they instead focused on management system “The importance of customer experience is not going “scalable efficiency,” says Hagel. Europe Telecoms away,” says John Hagel, founder of Deloitte LLC’s When Amazon and other digital pioneers showed Asia Pacific Manufacturing Center for the Edge. it was possible to do both at the same time, customer Americas Financial Services 08. Identifying touchpoints that That’s especially true because the COVID-19 pan- expectations changed forever. “For a century, people Public Sector matter most to customers demic has exposed weaker areas of modern CX at a were forced to accept what I call the industrial bar- Healthcare & Life moment when consumers are turning to every avail- gain,” says Hagel. “If you want affordable prices, you Sciences able digital channel—from intelligent chatbots to have to accept standardized, mass market products 09. Building immersive and automated self-service platforms—instead of resolv- and services. That’s no longer acceptable. We want personalized experiences ing issues in person, or over the phone at overloaded something that’s tailored to our specific needs.” By Revenue call centers. That’s one reason why CX is such a challenging “The pandemic is an opportunity to rethink the discipline, says Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing 10. Automating customer way you operate and the value you bring to custom- the Chasm and other management books. Companies service processes ers,” says Hagel. that have skimped on CX don’t yet have the systems It’s also a critical catch-up opportunity for com- in place to satisfy today’s customers, whose expecta- panies that got a late start developing CX technology tions are set by their most recent best experience. 11. Creating systems for measuring and expertise. “Many companies are going to shine in “That’s why you hear so many complaints when a impact on customer this moment even though they are laggards,” says Zoom session wobbles for a second,” says Moore. 34% Bruce Temkin, head of the Qualtrics XM Institute, an “Rather than think about how awful video conferenc- experience-management consultancy. COVID-19, ing used to be, customers think ‘what’s the matter Temkin argues, raises the urgency level to develop with Zoom? It didn’t do this yesterday.’” digital CX and offers a roadmap. “The pandemic has Most companies aren’t resourced to meet these created a moment where it’s easiest to see where and new demands. According to the ESI/ServiceNow sur- how to apply CX in a place that adds value to your vey, just 21% of organizations have developed the skills organization.” or systems to support digital customer experience. Even fewer have mastered CX basics, such as plotting an implementation roadmap (15%) or doing customer journey-mapping (18%). While most organizations say they plan to make big investments in the next three years, more than half will still remain beginners, according to the survey.

4 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 5 FEATURES

That leaves a relatively small number of companies at Mastercard’s sentiment-analysis tools can perform the top of the heap. They invested early and deeply, similar feats when, say, a customer yells “Dammit!” and are now seeing significant payoffs. Just 27% of And for first-time callers, the system can personalize “Many companies think CX surveyed organizations qualified as customer experi- responses based not just on the country, town, or ence leaders. These companies are more likely than neighborhood she’s calling from, but from her street beginners to prioritize: or even her house. is about e-commerce, or it’s For Mastercard, these new personalization meth- • Personalizing customer service and ods are becoming critical differentiators. Predictive marketing efforts (48% for leaders vs. 24% analytics, for example, help the company accurately a communication channel to for beginners). predict how many reps to have on call to keep wait • Streamlining customer service processes times short and to spot problems before they become (46% vs. 35%). widespread. And Mastercard also now has a better interact with your customers. • Real-time assessment of customer needs sense of what customer support skills are most in (41% vs. 26%). demand, which has informed the way it trains • Creating immersive experiences for custom- employees. For me, it has to be embedded ers (41% vs. 29%). Companies such as Mastercard that have invested deeply in CX technologies are ahead of the competi- And they support these priorities with their wallets: tion in many key areas, according the ESI/ServiceNow in everything.” Leaders spend 2.7 times as much digitizing and auto- study: mating the customer experience as beginners. “I see a — Massimiliano Pogliani, CEO, illycaffé CX shakeout ahead,” says ESI CEO Lou Celi. “Too many • 47% of leaders have put in the time to make companies are moving too slowly, at a time when the sure their CX efforts are actually driving leaders are moving even faster.” better business results compared with 2% of beginners. • 40% of CX leaders have the ability to offer personalized services versus 3% of beginners. • 37% of leaders have automated customer CX in real time service processes compared with 3% at Mastercard of beginners. And CX leaders aren’t letting up. That’s why these Long before customer experience became a corporate and other gaps are likely to widen. In three years: management discipline, Lance Gruner earned his The digital CX and interior decorators who normally go to High Point wings as an old-school practitioner. As a young man- have joined the Chairish network. Weekly sales have ager of a high-end hotel in the late 1980s, Gruner • 76% of leaders say they’ll have largely or advantage jumped 70% over the year before, as home-bound shop- habitually walked the floors, trying to put himself in fully aligned their CX efforts to business pers look to spice up their surroundings. the shoes of guests and looking for anything out of goals compared with 21% of beginners. If you’re not an accomplished early adopter of CX Even if the crowds go back to brick-and-mortar place that might turn them off, whether it was • 81% of leaders say they’ll have largely or like Mastercard, what can you do? Get busy, says stores in future years, Chairish will have expanded its un-bused plates in the banquet room or no fresh tow- fully personalized services compared with Moore. Moreover, “a crisis is the best time to introduce ecosystem, creating more price competition and inven- els in the weight room. 16% of beginners. wholesale changes.” tory for shoppers. And very likely, at least some fans of Thirty years later, Gruner is executive vice presi- • 80% of leaders say they’ll have largely or Consider Anna and Greg Brockway, co-founders of the site may skip the trek to High Point altogether. dent for global customer care at Mastercard, the $12 fully automated customer service processes Chairish, an online marketplace for high-end furniture “I love going to High Point, but not everyone can billion financial services company. He applies the compared with just 15% of beginners. and antiques. For them, the COVID-19 crisis quickly get there, even in the best of years,” says company same mindset to creating great customer experience, became an opportunity to help accelerate a rapid con- President Anna Brockway, who says it takes her two only this time, he does so with data. These numbers should send a strong warning to com- sumer shift toward digital retail sales—and more flights and an hour long car ride from Charlotte airport. Thanks to big investments in text and speech panies that have delayed making CX a priority. “If you sophisticated digital CX. She’s now convinced there’s lasting value in a digital analytics, Mastercard captures almost every interac- do not take advantage of this opportunity, not only The 7-year-old company already supported digital alternative. tion with customers, including the billions of words will you miss the window, you will marginalize your tools, such as an imaging feature in its mobile app that “By bringing the experience online, it opens the spoken with its call center reps each week. company’s future,” says Moore. “By the time you real- In three years, lets customers view how that rococo chaise lounge market up to many more people and provides a virtual “We mine as much data as we can possibly get our ize you have to catch up, it likely will be too late.” 80% of leaders would look in different spots of their living rooms. But way for brands and designers to connect,” says hands on,” says Gruner. “And I intend to get to 100%.” it still relied on industry trade shows. Brockway. The data helps identify which customer interac- say they’ll have At the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, organizers If the importance of CX was clear to most compa- tions should be automated, as well as those that call largely or fully were forced to scrap a major show, called High Point. nies before COVID-19, the pandemic has now made it for the assistance of human agents. Predictive analyt- That got the Chairish team thinking of a way to fill the undeniable. “It’s an accelerant” that will cause leaders ics give Mastercard’s call center agents a good idea of automated void for many brands that rely on face-to-face sales to to push even harder and force everyone else to try to what a person is calling about before they say hello, as customer ser- home decorators and other big buyers. keep pace, says illy’s Pogliani. “Before, there were peo- well as tips on how to personalize service features It created a virtual experience so brands could ple who we figured would not be interested in our dig- that customers may not even be conscious of, but vice processes more effectively showcase their product lines, includ- ital efforts. Now everyone, even my 80-year-old mother, appreciate. When the system detects a Japanese- compared with ing the ability for buyers to hear directly from big has to be digital if they want to speak to their loved speaking customer, for example, it can advise a call names such as Peter Sallick, CEO of Waterworks. ones. “I would expect that companies that were kind of center rep, virtual agent, or email engine to respond just 15% of Since then, the company’s organic social traffic has sleeping with regards to CX now have to wake up. in “high Japanese” or “business Japanese.” beginners. increased 160%, and thousands of the 75,000 dealers Otherwise, they will disappear.”

6 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 7 FEATURES Most companies are behind 1 with digital CX

On the whole, there aren’t many companies What progress have you made in implementing key aspects of a digital customer experience? that say they’ve made substantial progress What progress do you expect in 3 years? Largely or fully implemented responses shown. in any of the 11 foundational practice areas of CX asked about in the survey. One reason: Now Three years Just 21% of organizations say they’ve largely The customer 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% or fully developed the skills they need to make these projects successful. That finding isn’t only indicative of the state of digital CX Developing digital skills 21 50 at most companies, but previews more challenges ahead. Customer experience experience 20 45 Despite the slow start, it’s clear that CX management system is a priority for the surveyed companies. The Aligning experience with percentage that expects to make substantial business goals 18 45 progress over the next three years is more than double today’s rate for every one of the Identifying key customer maturity curve 18 44 11 areas. touchpoints 5 charts that show why companies Immersive and personalized experience 18 43 can’t wait to invest in CX tech. Setting out implementation 15 40 BY JEFFREY DAVIS roadmap

Automating customer service processes 14 38

Consolidating data into single customer view 12 38

Agile program or testing, analysis, and improvement 11 33

System to gauge customer impact and engagement 12 33

Ensuring collaboration across management functions 10 31

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

C ompanies that invested early in customer experience technology are better poised to remain resilient and drive growth today. Pre-COVID 19, they were already seeing significant business results from their efforts, and their progress is accelerating, according to a global survey by ESI ThoughtLab and ServiceNow. Just 21% say “In the past, people could say, ‘we’re running our they’ve largely or business successfully as usual, so why do we need fully developed the CX?’ Today, if you really understand your business, skills they need CX is how you need to run it,” says Bruce Temkin, to make these head of the Qualtrics XM Institute. projects successful.

8 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 9 A smaller number of leaders Digital CX processes save time 2 3 stand out from the pack and accelerate progress

A small group of companies—just 27% What progress have you made in implementing key aspects of a digital CX leaders are far ahead when it comes to In which areas have you made considerable progress in digitizing the overall—qualify as CX leaders. These organi- customer experience? Largely or fully implemented responses shown. digitizing a broad range of customer-facing customer experience? Respondents selected all that applied. zations are three to four times more processes, according to the survey. Among advanced than other organizations across Leaders Everyone Else the ones with the biggest gaps between Leaders Everyone Else the 11 CX practice areas, with the widest leaders and the rest of the field: customer gaps in aligning CX strategy to business 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% enrollment (69% of leaders say they’ve made 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% goals (a 43 percentage point gap), installing considerable progress compared with 32% of a CX management system (a 51 percentage Aligning experience with all other companies); billing and payments 47 Billing and payment 87 point gap), and identifying key customer business goals 7 (87% vs. 62%); customer service administra- 62 touch points (a 44 percentage point gap). tion (76% vs. 54%). The companies that have invested and Companies aren’t investing in these dig- Customer service/ Customer experience 45 76 accomplished the most with CX tend to be management system 11 ital processes “simply to run a report or to administration 54 the biggest and fastest growing. Thirty- drive a metric,” says Temkin. “They’re creat- eight percent have revenues of more than $5 Identifying key customer ing an environment where they can actually 43 Data management 63 billion, and 47% have annual revenue growth touchpoints 8 jump to a more advanced level of CX because 45 exceeding 10%. they have a better understanding of their A higher percentage of organizations in customers, which will fuel action.” Immersive and personalized 40 Customer enrollment/ 69 financial services (39%) and telecom (33%) experience 10 onboarding 37 are CX leaders; a lower percentage are leaders in manufacturing (25%), healthcare (23%), Analyzing customer Developing digital skills 39 51 and the public sector (16%). Yet even among 14 needs, behaviors 38 financial services firms, which as a group have invested more than any other sector, Setting out implementation 38 Fraud detection 63 just 22% say they have made significant roadmap 6 and compliance 33 progress in all 11 areas.

Automating customer 37 Resolving customer 52 service processes 6 problems 37

Agile program or testing, 33 Tracking customer requests 46 analysis, and improvement 3 39

System to gauge customer 29 Personalizing customer 44 impact and engagement 4 experiences 29

Consolidating data into 28 Designing customer- 44 single customer view 7 centric products 28

Ensuring collaboration across 26 Targeted sales/ 43 management functions 4 marketing campaigns 25

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

69% of leaders say they’ve made considerable progress compared with 32% of all other companies

10 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 11 Deeper CX investment yields Leaders are poised to pull further 4 5 bigger returns ahead in the years to come

Leaders have done a better job investing What level of investment are you making in the following digital technologies to improve the More worrisome for CX laggards is how What progress do you expect to make in implementing key aspects of a digital cus- in technology that can support a large num- customer experience? What return are you achieving? High or very high responses shown. the leaders plan to extend their lead. tomer experience in 3 years? Largely or fully implemented responses shown. ber of CX programs. Of 16 areas of tech Although most companies anticipate mak- investments covered in the survey, CX lead- Investment: leaders Returns: leaders ing big gains in CX over the next three years, Leaders Everyone Else ers invest the most—and are seeing the big- leaders will effectively lap the field, judging Investment: everyone else Returns: everyone else 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% gest returns—in cloud-based platforms, by survey data. cybersecurity tools, and mobile devices and Within three years, for example, CX lead- 0% 11% 22% 33% 44% 55% Setting out apps. ers say they will have mastered CX imple- 83 implementation roadmap 25 The rest of the field, in contrast, lags far mentation roadmaps (83%) personalized behind in each of those areas. The survey 21 53 experiences (81%), customer workflow auto- Cloud-based Immersive and personalized showed another aspect of this leader-lag- mation (80%), and other facets of CX. 81 platforms 28 48 experience 30 gard divide: All companies are making sim- Companies that don’t accelerate their invest- ilar investments in AI, but leaders are seeing ments will just find themselves further Automating customer far higher returns. 13 30 behind. The COVID-19 pandemic has only 80 service processes 23 In fact, the survey shows a significant Digital payments raised the level of urgency. 28 41 gap between leaders and the field when it “I don’t know of a leader today who can comes to ROI across many tech investments. say they will be successful even in the next Developing digital skills 79 40 Leaders are about twice as likely to report a 10 19 six months without truly understanding high return on investment in chatbots, pre- Social media what their customers’ changing needs and 27 34 dictive analytics, and customer experience feelings are,” Temkin says. Identifying key customer 78 touchpoints 30 management platforms, among others. 13 28 Data and analytics Customer experience 77 24 37 management system 33

12 31 Aligning experience 76 Mobile devices with business goals 33 and apps 20 43

Agile program or testing, 73 analysis, and improvement 18 Cybersecurity 18 42 technologies 23 33 System to gauge customer 69 impact and engagement 19

12 23 CRM systems Consolidating data into 68 19 37 single customer view 27

15 17 Ensuring collaboration across 67 AI and RPA management functions 18 technology 17 34

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Self-service, 8 17 web-based apps 17 28

Digital assistants/ 4 18 chatbots 18 18

CX management 7 27 platform 14 36

0% 11% 22% 33% 44% 55%

12 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 13 FEATURES

But the formula was flawed from the start, says CEO Build your cloud Ralph Bower, who took over the top job in 2016. The foundation menu was too limited, the geofencing often didn’t work well, and the music feature was rarely turned on It’s no surprise that cloud platforms are the technol- at many stores. ogy in which the highest percentage of leaders have “Some of the technology that we saw as features invested. After all, more than 50% of respondents to were dissatisfiers, not satisfiers,” says Bower, a fast- the ESI/ServiceNow survey said that legacy IT sys- food industry veteran and former president of tems were the biggest blocker of CX progress. Cloud Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and CEO of Pei Wei Asian systems not only solve that problem, they generate Kitchen. The all-important Yelp review average lan- the highest returns. Yet the vast majority of compa- guished in the mid-3s. nies have yet to make the commitment. It wasn’t that digital CX didn’t have potential—it “Catching up is not fun,” says Shep Hyken, a long- had simply distracted the company from serving time CX consultant and author of several books, customers’ immediate needs. At Bower’s direction, including “The Amazement Revolution.” “If you need the IT group wound down the gimmickry and to improve immediately, my advice is to find a cloud focused on robustness and on streamlining the partner that can help you scale up quickly.” ordering process on the mobile app. The chain also illycaffé, the Italy-based coffee maker, embraced redoubled efforts to provide friendly, helpful service, the cloud as part of a broad digital transformation even providing more than 16,000 free meals to first launched by CEO Massimiliano Pogliani two years responders and healthcare workers during the ago. With that foundation in place, the company has COVID-19 crisis. been building out an “experience hub”—an integrated Bower’s back-to-basics approach is paying off. set of websites, apps, and other digital channels that Melt’s Yelp reviews now average 4.7, and sales are manage every type of customer interaction, from now exceeding pre-pandemic days—far better than Illustration by Rebecca Clarke Rebecca by Illustration a first-time shopper’s purchase at one of its 269 cafes most restaurants are faring. to a restaurant owner requesting help with an espresso machine. “Many companies think CX is about e-commerce, ROI compounds with How to optimize your return or it’s a communication channel to interact with your customers,” says Pogliani. “For me, it has to be embed- sustained investment ded in everything.” illy is making more moves to make good on the If there are key intangibles for leveraging tech to cre- to work for customers promise. The company recently rolled out a loyalty ate great CX, determination might top the list. As the program that will form the core of its mobile experi- survey shows, the ROI on CX investments increases ence, and is working on a new global payments sys- both with time and through integration with other tem. And new IoT-based features may soon handle tools. For example, companies at the beginning of diagnostics and maintenance on espresso makers for their CX journeys report an ROI of 17% for CX analytics, Return to work illy’s B2B customers, hints Pogliani. “Rather than while CX leaders achieve double that return. More gen- faster and B usiness leaders can make the ‘return to work’ Following this start-with-the-basics approach react, we’ll be able to anticipate.” erally, leaders report a higher ROI across a broad range transition more impactful by investing in technology appears to be paying off. Not only have leaders made But none of it, he adds, would be possible with- of technology investments. stronger by that will help them better understand customer substantially more progress toward CX goals, but out the platform. “Cloud services let you shift your There are also opportunities to make an impact investing in needs, create a more personalized experience, and they’re more likely to report a higher return on CX focus from managing technology to ‘what can I do to without a big investment. For instance, just 12% of com- enhance loyalty. technology investments than beginners. improve the experience?’” panies said they’ve invested heavily in social media, yet foundational According to a new survey from ESI ThoughtLab As a result, they are also likely better poised to 29% said they were getting a high or very high return. customer and ServiceNow, companies that have made the most keep and grow customers in this time of economic For Chairish, a digital marketplace for high-end progress toward customer experience goals like these uncertainty. furniture and antiques, social media delivered big experience have made significant investments in foundational Here are takeaways from three companies that Focus efforts on what helps returns at exactly the right time. At the onset of the technologies. technology. For example: pulled off big CX wins in different ways. customers the most pandemic, the company quickly made all of its 500,000 SKUs searchable on Pinterest and ramped up new con- BY PETER BURROWS • 53% of CX leaders have invested heavily Other companies have learned the inverse lesson of tent on Instagram. “People have a lot more time on their in cloud platforms compared with just 12% CX tech: sometimes less is more. When The Melt, a hands,” explains Chairish President Anna Brockway. of beginners. San Francisco–based chain of grilled-cheese sand- While Chairish does not spend on paid advertising, • 31% have invested heavily in mobile devices wich shops, launched in 2011, it invested big in digital organic social traffic is up 160% over last year and sales and apps compared with 9% of beginners. CX features. are up more than 70% from a year earlier. • 30% have invested heavily in digital pay- Its app used geo-fencing so orders weren’t Social media, Brockway says, “makes sure Chairish ments compared with 14% of beginners. bagged until customers got within two blocks of the is top of mind when people are thinking about beauti- • Conversely, more beginners (18%) have store. If you shared your Spotify stream, one of your ful homes. It’s like standing next to the hoop, so when a invested heavily in AI and robotic process favorite songs might come on the sound system buyer is ready to take a shot, we are whom they think automation than leaders (17%). while you ate. of first.”

14 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 15 COLUMN

“Many of us have had How COVID-19 is to throw out the old playbooks and improvise. — Dean Robison, SVP of global sparking innovation in technical support, ServiceNow customer experience

Insights from leaders MAKING SUPPORT WORK FROM HOME In part, that may be due to the greater customer and pressing the flesh is critical,” When ServiceNow’s support teams set flexibility that comes with working at he told the group. “But moving forward in telco, banking, retail, up their workspaces at home, many found home. we’ll probably ask if we can do more over and beyond. they didn’t have the support they needed. A customer support executive at an IT video with customers, which was unthink- A kitchen chair was fine for a meal, but not services company tells us, “People that are able before.” for eight hours of ergonomic support. used to working the 9-to-5 have been work- We authorized a $300 stipend for every ing much different hours, catching up at HITTING THE GAS ON DIGITAL ServiceNow employee who needed to night or early in the morning because they TRANSFORMATION buy a comfortable chair and other have children who they’re homeschooling. Necessity is the mother of invention. BY DEAN ROBISON critical supplies. Tasks are getting completed way outside of Nowadays governments around the world For many, that meant monitor stands. typical call center hours.” are providing urgent credit relief to citizens Most support workers and engineers need Even onboarding and training new and businesses. This support tends to be There’s nothing like a global crisis to chal- dual monitors to be fully productive. But customer support staff are occurring funneled through banks, which are experi- lenge your assumptions about what you if I’m in Hyderabad, India, it’s not easy to remotely. Our teams have purposely taken encing a surge in customer calls as a result. think is realistic for companies to get done wrangle two bulky monitors on a packed senior engineers and set them up on an One bank used robotics and AI capabil- in a set period of time. public bus. We quickly added money so all-day video chat session so that new hires ities to deploy a front-of-line chatbot. “The Within two weeks after the COVID-19 our Indian employees could hire taxis to can jump in and ask them questions, a life- interaction feels like a Siri or an Alexa,” crisis hit in March, we took our entire cus- get equipment home safely. line that has proven very beneficial. says a customer support leader at the bank. tomer support operation—more than 950 Many companies have had a hard time A customer support leader at a global “It’s crisp, it’s simple, and it feeds straight employees in nine different support centers sourcing monitor stands. Even if you can software company tells us that going into our automated system or a case man- around the world—remote. We’ve learned find one online, shipping could be spotty. remote has forced his organization to agement ticket for manual processing.” a lot in the process, and so have all of our Our resourceful teams have used cinder rethink their entire onboarding process. At ServiceNow, we’ve had to accelerate customers and partners, who are navigat- blocks, two-by-fours, and even yoga bricks “We’ve had to bring on hundreds of our operations to deal with this pandemic. ing different challenges. to prop up their monitors. people overnight,” he explains. “It used to Bureaucracy goes out the window when To share that learning, we’ve been As minor as the monitor-stand problem be a four- to nine-week process, but now you’re helping your team navigate massive holding a series of virtual roundtable dis- may seem, it points to a major issue that we have specialists online guiding them so disruption. With everybody working from cussions with customer service leaders companies are facing: supply chain break- they can begin working with customers home, decisions that normally take weeks in several industries, including telecom, downs caused by curtailed air travel, short- within hours of being on the job. It will can be handled in a video call and commu- banking, and retail. age of goods, and worker illness. Many take longer before they’re 100% effective, nicated through the company very quickly. One common thread: Nobody saw this companies have had to find alternate routes but at least they’re adding value to opera- When the COVID-19 pandemic passes, coming. While everyone had continuity and and vendors to move equipment to workers tions in the short term, which is critical at let’s all try to untangle ourselves from disaster-recovery plans and policies in place across the globe. Many of us have had to this moment.” bureaucracy. The crisis has demonstrated for high-impact, short-duration events like throw out the old playbooks and improvise. An executive at a financial services that we can be nimble and make decisions hurricanes and terror attacks, no one had company that’s also experimenting with quickly. Our hard-working teams deserve a strategic plan for a prolonged global pan- REMOTE WORK ACTUALLY… WORKS virtual training echoes this. “It’s actually no less, as do the customers they support. demic with so many uncertainties. A common refrain we’re hearing, and forcing us to do things differently,” she — Everybody has had to learn, and inno- one that we’re observing ourselves, is that, notes. “We know it’s not going to be perfect, Dean Robison is the head of global vate, on the fly. The COVID-19 pandemic despite working remotely, employee but some of the things that you put into technical support at ServiceNow. has inspired companies to rethink not only engagement is soaring. As an executive at practice now might be long-term improve- how to support customers, but how to sup- an HR software company put it, “This is ments for the future.” port the teams who support those custom- bringing the best out in people.” Remote interactions might even ers. From this pandemic, new approaches From these roundtables, we’ve also become the norm for important customer are emerging that I expect will change learned that productivity has gone up (as meetings, according to a top executive at a customer service operations for years have other key support metrics, including construction materials company. “We’ve to come. customer satisfaction scores). always felt that getting in front of a

16 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 17 FLOW STATE LESSONS FROM EXPERTS

Another constant: Customers have always craved convenience. Hyken points Bolster the business case How to please out that 7-Eleven launched the world’s first Proving the business value of customer experience investments—through convenience store back in the 1920s. Those improved customer satisfaction, loyalty, and affinity—takes as much discipline as stores were smaller than those of many designing the program itself. rivals, he says. They offered a smaller selec- tion of goods, and their prices tended to customers at scale be a bit higher. So how did 7-Eleven survive and thrive? In a word, convenience. According to the company, 7-Eleven was the first con- Lessons from a Missouri venience store to stay open 24 hours a day, the first to sell gas, and the first to offer magician, customer service ATM services. Today there are 60,000 guru Shep Hyken. branches around the world. The marriage of AI and mobile devices takes convenience to a new level. Hyken expects this trend to accelerate in coming years. “AI and interactive technologies “Dive into your data to make correlations between will get better,” he says. “You won’t have efficiency and satisfaction. What will moving to answer 17 questions about your Social Security number and your mother’s maiden customer satisfaction from 93% to 95% mean for name.” Instead, advanced voice recognition revenue? That makes it a lot easier to justify the BY RICHARD MCGILL MURPHY will enable frictionless experiences, while AI and machine learning finally deliver on journey that you’re taking.” the promise of personalization at scale. As you’d expect from a motivational Shep Hyken fell in love with magic as a kid — Colin Crowley, VP of customer experience, Freshly.com speaker, Hyken is generally optimistic growing up in St. Louis in the 1970s. At 12 about the future of customer service. he started a business doing magic shows However, he warns that companies at birthday parties around town. After the shouldn’t become so enamored with first performance, Hyken’s parents gave machine intelligence that they lose the him his first lessons in customer service. ability to connect with their customers Lesson 1: Write a thank you note. at a human level. “That’s how you become Lesson 2: Write another one. “My dad told commoditized,” he says. Support every touchpoint me to follow up a week later and thank To avoid that fate, companies must Great customer experience needs to be consistent at every point on the them again,” Hyken recalls. “He said I balance tech with human-to-human inter- journey map. That requires integrated workflows from front end to back. should ask what tricks they liked the action. You need advanced tech to satisfy best and start getting rid of the tricks customer needs at scale, but it takes they didn’t talk about. I had no idea that The World Wide Web came along in companies anticipate customer problems human contact to build the emotional I was learning about feedback and the early 1990s, creating a host of digital before they arise. Chatbots provide auto- bonds that turn customers into advocates. process improvement.” ways for brands and customers to interact. mated responses to routine queries, freeing “Satisfaction is a rating,” Hyken con- Magic led Hyken to a successful career Then came the rise of customer relation- service reps to focus on more complex cludes. “Loyalty is an emotion.” as a customer service guru. Today he’s a ship management (CRM) applications that issues. Digital workflows help companies — sought-after motivational speaker and the sales and service pros used to collect infor- break down internal silos, making it easier Richard McGill Murphy is the editor author of several books, including “The mation about their customers. Armed with to track customer issues all the way in chief of Workflow. Amazement Revolution” (2011), a best-sell- all these customer histories, they could through to resolution. ing collection of strategy tips for compa- provide personalized service at scale. nies that want to create great experiences During the 2000s, the rise of smart- CRAVING CONVENIENCE for their customers and employees. phones, mobile apps, and social media Hyken points to one thing that hasn’t “Many companies focus on the front-end—the upended customer service yet again. In changed: “When customers have a prob- product, the design, the brand—but the magic is CUSTOMER SERVICE EVOLUTION the old days, customers had little recourse lem, they want it resolved quickly.” That Customers“ no longer Much has changed since Hyken sent that after a poor service experience. You could expectation has never been higher than compare you to your equally on the logistics and operations side. It’s first thank you note. The digitization of suffer in silence, complain to the Better today, when we can shop, hail rides, order not only about helping someone pick a sofa, but customer service started in the early 1960s, Business Bureau or take your business a meal, and manage far-flung social net- closest competitor. with the invention of touch-tone tele- elsewhere. With supercomputers in their works with a few taps and swipes. They compare you to helping them figure out if they can get it up the phones. Early computers could recognize pockets, customers could now share the “Customers no longer compare you to stairs. Creating a great customer experience and respond to the tones produced by these highs and lows of their service experiences your closest competitor,” he adds. Instead, every company that has devices. This laid the foundation for the with a global audience. they compare you to every company that ever provided them with requires both inspiration and operations.” emergence of Interactive Voice Response Today we’re seeing another revolution has ever provided them with a great experi- (IVR) technology in the late 1970s, which in customer service, built on the rise of ence. That could be Amazon, Uber, Netflix, a great experience. — Anna Brockway, president, Chairish allowed companies to torture their intelligent machines. AI algorithms chomp or a host of others across industries and — Shep Hyken, author, “The Convenience customers with automated phone trees. their way through vast datasets to help around the world. Revolution”

18 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 19 Q&A: Quiz: How to create awesome Is your customer experience customer journeys pandemic-proof?

What are the biggest customer What other metrics should companies A conversation with Take the quiz to learn 01 Digital Skills: How much 04 Using Data To Know Your experience challenges facing compa- use to measure success? progress have you made to Customer: How much progress customer experience nies today? It’s based on what you want to achieve. if your organization is develop the skills to create a have you made consolidating The notion of repeatability is the big- Customers have a perception of their expe- expert Bruce Temkin. maximizing ROI. digital customer experience? data into a single customer view? gest challenge. Many times, companies rience, which leads to attitudes, which lead look at the customer experience and say to future behaviors. NPS is not a good mea- A Not considering or not applicable A Not considering or not applicable “OK, we can improve that experience,” but surement of perceptions, but satisfaction B Planning or starting to implement B Planning or starting to implement they don’t put in place an environment tends to be a pretty decent one. We have where you can do that continuously. the Temkin Experience Index, which we C Partly implemented C Partly implemented What many companies do is try to fix published for eight years, and now we’re D Largely implemented D Largely implemented an experience problem as opposed to build- calling it the Qualtrics XM Institute Nearly overnight, the COVID-19 pan- How do you delight customers in a con- ing those capabilities—not thinking about Experience rating. That measures success, demic raised the importance of delivering E Fully implemented E Fully implemented nected world where everyone expects this as a set of capabilities an organization effort, and emotion, which are the three fast, helpful digital experiences to custom- instant and personalized solutions to their needs to have, and just focusing on trying components of perception. ers who were suddenly cut off from conven- 02 Knowing Your Customer 05 Your Digital Experience: problems? That’s an $80 billion question, to fix or improve isolated experiences. tional ways of doing business. Yet only 27% Journey: How much progress How much progress have judging by how much companies are How do you instill a culture of cus- of companies have made the moves—from have you made in identifying you made towards providing expected to invest in customer relationship How important is segmentation so you tomer experience with employees? recruiting the right in-house talent to auto- the touchpoints that matter an immersive, personalized management (CRM) software by 2025, can design customer experiences with This goes back to repeatability of the mating elements of customer service—to be most to customers? customer experience? according to Grand View Research. more granularity and personalization? system for delivering customer experience. considered leaders in customer experience. Understanding what defines—and how The better we can be at understanding The “system” isn’t just a CRM or CSM solu- That’s one insight from a new global A Not considering or not applicable A Not considering or not applicable to create—great customer experience today the experience we’re delivering for specific tion. It also includes employees, stakehold- study by ESI ThoughtLab and ServiceNow, B Planning or starting to implement B Planning or starting to implement is the underlying question that Bruce customer segments during specific jour- ers, and a lot of other people who, if they which surveyed 600 executives in 12 coun- Temkin has devoted most of his career to. neys, the more effective we’ll be at creating think of customer experience as some sort tries across five industries—financial C Partly implemented C Partly implemented In an age of 24/7 connectivity, it’s a much great experiences. of black box, they can’t be a part of it. services, healthcare and life sciences, man- D Largely implemented D Largely implemented more complex discipline than it was just For example, with measurements Execs have to be able to explain it to ufacturing, telecom, and the public sector— 10 years ago. Workflow sat down with like Net Promoter Score (NPS), if we don’t employees so they can support it, and we about the progress they’ve made digitizing E Fully implemented E Fully implemented Temkin, head of the XM Institute at understand what an NPS score is for a par- have to be able to design experience around their organization’s customer experience. Qualtrics and author of the Experience ticular type of customer, and we just have them so they’re meaningful for the actual But there’s no safety in numbers from 03 Business Results: What 06 Closing the Loop: What progress Matters blog, about how he defines and an average across all of them, then we customers. Disengaged employees can’t being part of the lagging majority. While progress have you made in have you made towards measures customer experience, and how really don’t have the insight to understand create engaged customers. That’s why we 40% of all companies plan to become profi- aligning customer experience deploying a customer experience companies can improve their CX game. and fix things. see lots of links between the customer cient in key aspects of digital customer efforts with business goals? management system, to track, The better companies can be at under- experience and the employee experience. experience in the next three years, up from analyze, and make improvements How do you define customer experi- standing the specific experience that we’re I would challenge you to find a place where 15% today, CX leaders will have significantly A Not considering or not applicable to your customers’ lives? ence, and how has it changed over the delivering for specific segments during there’s a great customer experience but a extended their leads in that time. Seventy- B Planning or starting to implement years? specific journeys, the more effective they poor employee experience. five of these leaders expect to be proficient A Not considering or not applicable Customer experience is simply the will be at creating great experiences. Also, companies that have really good in digital CX by then, up from 37% today. C Partly implemented B Planning or starting to implement perception that customers have of their customer experiences tend to be purpose- At stake aren’t just Net Promoter D Largely implemented interactions with an organization. What’s the best way to show a tough- driven organizations. If you look at a com- Scores and market share, but profitability. C Partly implemented Customer experience has existed forever. minded CIO or CFO the value of great pany that’s leading in customer experience, The study makes clear that the biggest E Fully implemented D Largely implemented But it’s become a discipline, more of a focus customer experiences and the invest- I’ll bet you that the leaders aren’t spending returns from CX initiatives don’t come that professionals understand and are able ments they require? all of their time talking about revenue from initial moves, but from having the E Fully implemented to apply practices against, similar to what The more you focus on journey-based growth and profitability. They’re talking people, processes, and technologies in place you’d see in engineering, accounting, and approaches, the tighter the link is between about how important it is for their organi- to provide a consistent, superior experience marketing. They all have specialized the investment and the return on invest- zation to deliver something that’s much over time. Nearly half of leaders report a expertise that they apply to situations in ment. If we invest in the journey, we’ll bet- more meaningful. moderate to large ROI from building an a repeatable fashion so they can have ter understand what the NPS improvement immersive, personalized customer experi- repeatable results. will be and how to invest in making that — ence, versus just 22% of beginners.

What’s really new is that it’s become journey better. As we get tighter on that, Bruce Tempkin is the head of the XM So where does your company fall on

SEE NEXT PAGE FOR RESULTS FOR PAGE NEXT SEE a repeatable discipline. How we treat it is we get a better linkage between the invest- Institute at Qualtrics and author of the the customer experience maturity curve? 4 = E / 3 = D / 2 = C / 1 = B or A KEY: ANSWER new. How we think about it is new. ment and the ultimate ROI. Experience Matters blog. Answer these questions to find out.

20 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 21 How do you compare to the SCORE 14 OR MORE SCORE 10–13 SCORE 6–9 surveyed executives? You’re a Leader You’re an Intermediate You’re a Beginner Leader Intermediate Beginner Customer experience leaders, as a group, are way out in Customer experience intermediates are implementing Customer experience beginners have not begun their CX front of the field. Not only have they invested more in many of the 11 core elements of digital CX; 43% of these journey or have just taken baby steps. Just 3% of these com- By Industry CX-related technologies, they’ve worked out more of the companies fall into this middle category, and they come panies have made significant progress to implement any of operational kinks to deploy them more efficiently. Forty-six in all sizes and geographies. Forty-four percent of compa- 11 essential best practices. While they report some short- Financial Services percent of CX leaders say they’ve achieved meaningful ROI nies in Asia are intermediates, 44% in Europe, and 33% in term business benefits from their efforts, they run the risk on their efforts, and 37% have seen a meaningful boost in the U.S. of falling further behind more advanced competitors. per-customer profits. Other characteristics of CX leaders: Already, beginners lag leaders on key business metrics: CX beginners can learn a lot from intermediates when it Telecoms • 48% offer marketing and customer service that’s comes to getting a return on their CX efforts. All told, 20% • 25% of beginners report an increase in customer personalized for each customer. Only 24% of beginners of intermediates report a good return on their investments profitability as a result of their CX efforts, compared do the same. in technology to improve their customer experience, com- to 37% of CX leaders. pared to 30% of leaders and just 12% of beginners. • 46% have streamlined and automated aspects of • 33% of beginners report improved customer satisfac- Manufacturing customer service versus 35% of beginners. tion and engagement, compared to 39% for CX leaders. • Intermediates out-invest beginners on technologies • 41% have the ability to respond to changing customer that deliver the biggest returns to leaders, such as • 2% of beginners have aligned their CX efforts with behavior in real-time versus 26% of beginners. cloud-based platforms, mobile apps, and social media. their business goals, compared to 47% of CX leaders. For example, 28% of intermediates invest heavily in Healthcare/Life Sciences cloud-based platforms, compared to 12% of beginners. CX leaders are predominantly large and U.S.-based. CX beginners also tend to be smaller companies, with Depending on industry, they tend to focus on different • Intermediates are seven times more likely than nearly 40% of those in the study having revenues less aspects of the CX challenge. Financial services and telecom beginners to have made progress in tearing down than $1 billion. (A similar percentage of leaders have reve- companies focus most on providing personalized products internal silos to create the cross-company collabora- nue greater than $5 billion per year.) Forty percent of Asian Public Sector and automated self-service. Public-sector organizations lag tion required to quickly address customers’ needs. Pacific companies are CX beginners, compared with 31% of in those areas, but are more focused on delivering faster European companies and only 11% of U.S. ones. Companies • Intermediates are five times more likely than customer service. Healthcare companies are also focused in healthcare, manufacturing, and public sector organiza- beginners to have consolidated all sources of data to on streamlining processes, but less committed to using tions are more likely to be starting out; more consumer- provide one a single, holistic view of each customer. customer psychographics or location-based technology. oriented industries such as financial services and telecom tend to be further along. By Revenue CX leaders are also betting big to keep their lead. While Intermediate’s use of AI and robotic process automation only 16% of CX beginners plan to make meaningful prog- highlights a pragmatism that beginners lack. While these Beginners have made good headway in making billing $5b or more ress in all 11 practice areas over the next three years, 76% companies tend to invest heavily in cybersecurity, data and paying easier for customers, and many offer self-help of leaders make the same claim. analytics, and mobile apps—all core elements of basic online tools to get customer service. But they lag far behind CX-centric management—only 12% of intermediates have with migrating IT systems to the cloud, do far less to pre- invested heavily in AI and RPA, compared to 18% of begin- vent cybercrime, and few have done much to create inte- $1b—$5b ners. And yet 22% of intermediates report a meaningful grated, omnichannel experiences for customers. return on AI and RPA investments, versus just 10% of beginners. Beginners also seem to be more vulnerable to AI-related hype, as they invested more heavily in AI than both CX $500m—$1b leaders and intermediates, but don’t have much to show for it. One-third of CX leaders say they’ve seen positive ROI on these investments, versus just 10% of CX beginners.

By Region

U.S.

Europe

LEVEL LEVEL LEVEL 3 2 1 APAC

22 Workflow Quarterly The Customer Issue 23 LESSONS FROM EXPERTS WORKFLOW Don’t wait to invest in Put your data to work customer experience Organizations that report outsized business results from customer experience focus heavily on data management and The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for some analytics. companies to start investing in digital CX; for others, it’s validating earlier investments and accelerating progress. Issue Contributors

“We used to rely mostly on customer surveys, but they only give you part of the “A crisis is the best time to introduce picture, maybe 10%. With new technology, wholesale changes. If you do not take you can get to 100%. You can see what’s advantage of this opportunity, not only happening in real time and respond will you miss the window, you will accordingly.” Peter Burrows Jeffrey Davis Richard McGill Murphy marginalize your company’s future.” Peter Burrows is a long-time technology Jeffrey Davis, a founding editor of Business Richard McGill Murphy is the editor in — Lance Gruner, executive VP of global customer care, journalist and author who has written for 2.0 magazine and former executive editor chief of Workflow. A journalist and social — Geoffrey Moore, author of “Crossing the Chasm” Mastercard Business Week, Bloomberg News, MIT Tech at CBS Interactive, writes frequently about anthropologist by background, he runs Review, and other publications. technology and business. a research and publishing program at ServiceNow that studies how emerging technologies are shaping the future of work. Preserve the human factor

While chatbots and AI are playing bigger roles in digitizing customer experience, companies must be aware of their limitations, and reserve higher-level tasks for human agents. Lara Caimi Riva Froymovich Lara Caimi is chief strategy officer Riva Froymovich is the editor of Workflow at ServiceNow. She guest edited the Quarterly. She manages a research and Customer Issue of Workflow Quarterly. digital publishing program at ServiceNow. Dean Robison “A lot of companies talk about the word A former journalist and author, she has Dean Robison is the head of global reported for The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, technical support at ServiceNow. ‘resilience,’ but when I press them it and other outlets. usually translates to wanting to bounce back to where they were before. Why would you ever want to bounce back to where you were? This is an opportunity to transform and change.” “People immediately gravitate to the interactive digital chat experience, but — John Hagel, co-chairman, Deloitte’s Center for the Edge Get more Workflow™ what you don’t see is the intelligence Looking to visit the future of work? We’d love to show you behind the scenes we’re feeding to around. Visit workflow.servicenow.com to catch the latest agents to make a better conversation.” Workflow stories and sign up for our e-mail newsletter.

— Luke Hagstrand, VP of customer experience personalization, Comcast

24 Build the agile enterprise: Return to work, refocus on your priorities, and thrive in today’s economy on a single cloud platform.