The customer service department is too often referred to as “just a cost center”. And perhaps in the past we have been more reactive than proactive – but not anymore.
As experience overtakes price and product as a key brand differentiator, customer service is being recognized as the face of, and driver for, organization-wide strategy. With a new emphasis on the importance of customer data, support leaders hold some of the companies most valuable insights. In order to feed that back into the organization, their responsibilities and internal footprint are changing and, simultaneously with customer expectations, they must evolve.
The platform to enact change and start this evolution is reputably the 9th Annual Customer Service Summit (Oct 23-24, NYC). The meeting strives to equip support leaders with the tools and strategies they need to overcome these challenges and deliver the ultimate customer experience.
That’s why we’ve gathered together those leading customer support and experience (CS/CX) from the world’s most influential brands to set the bar for omnichannel support and ensure we are meeting the needs of customers of the future.
“The Customer Service Summit brings high-level leaders together from a variety of industries to learn from each other and network. We all have at least one thing in common – we’re passionate about Customer care. The Summit provides a space for us to learn best practices from each other and about new technologies from sponsoring vendors.” – Michelle Buckley, Director of Operations, Customer Relations/Rapid Rewards, Southwest Airlines
In order to stay relevant, there are two crucial discussions that leaders must prioritize:
- Internal Customer-Centric Team Strategy: How can we evolve internal structures, optimize our workforce, and close the feedback loop to meet new customer demands?
- External Customer Facing Strategy: How can we thrive in the age of exceptional experiences and develop an innovative 2020 strategy to surpass our competition?
These questions were established as key to the future of CS/CX by the Incite Customer Service Advisory Board, who have made a commitment to ensure this meeting is only covering cutting-edge strategies and solutions in the most informative, impact-driven way. The board includes:
- EVP, Global Customer Care, Mastercard
- SVP, Customer Success Group, McAfee
- SVP, Customer Care, Samsung
- VP, Customer Experience, Twitter
- SVP, Head of Growth, WeWork
- Director, Customer and Partner Care Operations, Starbucks
“During this conference, my hope is that engagement from my fellow leaders in other companies will spark innovation on how we evolve customer service for the future, making it a source of delight for consumers and a primary strategic differentiator for customer experience.” – Michael Lawder, Senior Vice President of Customer Care, Samsung Electronics America
Check out the full speaker line-up for the Customer Service Summit here!
With horizontal tracks and vertical themes, designed in collaboration with the executive advisory board, the agenda is focused on transforming customer service to meet changing customer demands. Attendees will leave with strategies to:
- Build Voice of Customer Analytics into Your Proactive Support Strategy: Create a closed feedback loop to understand how your customers want to communicate with you, analyse resulting data to anticipate customer expectations and improve overall customer experience
- Deliver Seamless Omnichannel Support, Anytime, Anywhere: Map your key points of interaction, break into new social and digital touchpoints, synchronize channels to capture the entire customer journey and personalize each experience
- Build, Retain and Empower the Ultimate 2020 Workforce: Streamline hiring and onboarding, augment your workforce with automation, knowledge systems and accurate sentiment analysis, and let workforce optimization guide you seamlessly into the future of contact center support
- Scale Support with Chatbots, Automation, AI, IoT and More: Prove ROI, seamlessly integrate innovative solutions and effectively leverage machine learning to identify key customer friction points to deliver personalized, automated solutions with the human touch
See the full timed agenda for the Customer Service Summit here!
But the question remains, how are customer service leaders eliminating “cost-center” mentality and ensuring they are recognized as the face of, and driver for, organization-wide strategy?
“At WeWork, we see member experience as critical to member success and therefore to unlocking account-based growth. Being able to demonstrate the tight correlation between success and account growth builds a strong case for investing in customer service as a revenue driver rather than a cost center.” – Samuel Lee, SVP & Head of Growth, WeWork
With effective internal collaboration and data sharing, customer service is best placed to lead a customer-centric 2020 strategy. Now is the time for your department, and you as a leader, to take these steps and enact change.
Join the America’s biggest brands in their mission to bring customer service to the center of the business. Hear from 40+ customer support, experience and contact center leaders:
- Global Chief Customer Officer, Johnson & Johnson
- VP, Returns, Walmart
- VP, Client Services, Boston Red Sox
- Senior Director, Customer Care, Hilton
- SVP, Digital Product, Messaging & Support, Citi
- SVP, Global Loyalty & Partnerships, Wydham Hotels & Resorts
- Director of Operations, Customer Relations/Rapid Rewards, Southwest Airlines
- VP, Marketplace Operations, Nike
- Brad Maglinger, Vice President, Digital, Marriott International
- Director, Customer Obsession, Uber
- VP, Operations and Medical Call Lead, Cigna
- Head of Workforce Optimization, Bed, Bath and Beyond
- Director, Customer Service and Support, Microsoft
- VP, Customer Success, General Electric, GE Digital
- Director, Customer Service, PVH Corp.
- Director Customer Care, Frontier Airlines
- VP, Customer Experience Design, AARP
- Chief Consultant, Lufthansa Systems
- Chief Operating Officer, Raymour & Flanigan Inc.
And many more… Check out the full speaker line-up for the Customer Service Summit here!
“Connecting to discuss and share strategies for customer experience is crucial to the success of companies. The Summit brings together leaders from brands and tech experts to converge and build on the customer service ecosystem. Customers are clearly the most important pieces in the sales of products, and it’s critical that companies anticipate their future needs and focus on how to keep them engaged.” – Rob Lawson, Customer Experience Partnerships, Google
As customer service has evolved, so too has the Incite Group and the Incite Community. We’re excited to be creating this platform for CS/CX leaders to share insights, network and change the face of customer service.
You can download the brochure for the customer service summit here.
About the Author
Jasmine Kees is the Global Project Director at Incite Group. For more information contact Jasmine by phone: +44 (0) 207 375 7532 or
Email: jasmine@incite-group.com.
