Welcome And What To Listen For

Jeannie Walters 0:00

Welcome to a special episode of the Experience Action Podcast. I'm Jeannie Walters, and I'm so excited to bring you a special interview. Now I spent some time on site at Qualtrics X4 this year. The first year it was in Seattle, and I had the opportunity to sit down with a true expert there, and that's the interview I'm bringing you today. Dr. Elizabeth ErkenBrack is not only the Chief Strategy Officer, which I'll let her share about that, but really somebody who looks at customer experience in a very similar way as I do. So there are a few things I want you to listen for in this conversation. Number one is how she talks about balancing, communicating, and strategy and how important that is. And then I also just want you to listen for the joy and the fun of this conversation. We really had a great time talking with one another, and I think you'll enjoy it. So let's listen in. Dr. Elizabeth ErkenBrack, I would love for you to introduce yourself to the audience and share a little bit about what you do here at Qualtrics.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 1:08

Absolutely, Jeannie. I'm so excited to be here with you today. Thank you so much. I've actually been at Qualtrics for seven years now, which is a pretty long time in a tech company. And I work as the head of strategy for the office of the CEO now, which means I get the privilege of partnering with a lot of our large, complex, regulated, really strategic and visionary customers and helping as they're trying to unpack this question of how do we create amazing experiences? How do we leverage technology very strategically, right? Not just throw technology at a problem or throw it at the wall and hope it works like spaghetti and some stuff sticks. How can we really look at the problems a lot of organizations are navigating and use that tech very, very carefully to be able to really execute those experiences they're committed to? So everything from hospitality to B2B, healthcare, financial services, things that are deeply important to their lives and helping to really make sure that they're listening to both their employees and their customers.

Jeannie Walters 2:07

I love it. I love it. And part of what I think is so interesting about now, this is my fourth X4, uh, is that the conversation has been evolving, but I would say it's not super fast, right? Like a lot of the customer experience professionals that we work with and talk to, they thought something was going to solve whatever the problem was that they had identified. And I think as the industry has matured, as we've noticed how, you know, technology has maybe not solved all the problems, we have to take a step back and look at what is it we're really trying to do? What is that strategic vision?

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 2:43

Exactly.

Jeannie Walters 2:43

So when you're working with these large organizations, how do you get them to see that instead of just saying, here we go, like let's plug in the technology and hope for the best?

Start With Ideation Not Tools

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 2:53

It turns out this is a thing we saw with experience management as well as with AI, right? Where they're like plug in AI. And there's like, but what do you mean by that? What are we trying to do? And one of the things that I do is actually really sit down with teams and say, we have to start with the ideation. And the ideation itself is very disciplined. It's not saying, well, we're just gonna sit and think deep thoughts about experience, but saying, what is the problem we're trying to solve? Let's start with what we're trying to do. And once we know what we're trying to do, we can look at for who? Who's our segment? What are the tools that are really gonna help us address that? And what's the work that really needs to happen to be able to address that problem? So then when we look at technology, it's really applying it towards what is the work that needs to be done, and what are those pieces that need to be done by a human, a very human connection that all of us need and value, particularly in some of those vulnerable moments, right? In healthcare, in financial services, our health, our money, our families, our travel. Those are personal experiences.

Jeannie Walters 3:59

Absolutely.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 3:59

And so that human-to-human touch isn't going away, but maybe helping someone remember their password doesn't need to be a human-to-human moment. That's an opportunity to really leverage technology to take some of the friction out. And so part of how I really help our strategic leaders work is to say, what are we trying to solve? Because we shouldn't start with the technology. We should start with what the technology is going to do for you. And so it's really in that do space, which is also where we see the value come from experience management, right? Just having metrics that you're chasing isn't always where you're gonna find value. It's what is the action that you're taking? What are you doing with it? That is where that business value is. So I help them back up to the do and then back into it as well.

Trust And Compliance As Partners

Jeannie Walters 4:46

I love the way you said that because I think a lot of times in today's really fast-paced world, we love the promise, right? We love the promise of like it's so shiny. And oh my gosh, it's gonna make my job easier and everything else. And one of the things that I have seen that I'm curious, especially in regulated and these highly complex organizations, is that they kind of start from what they can't do sometimes based on regulation and getting them to think bigger, getting them to that ideation stage, that can be a challenge because yes, there are certain things you have to, you know, require and simulate and all those things. That's all very important, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the same way we did it yesterday. And so I'm curious about specifically those regulated industries and kind of helping people look up from just like, okay, we're gonna just have AI do everything around the regulation, and it's they're gonna do the same things that we've been doing, and we're just gonna train it to do that, right? And just don't worry about it.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 5:46

Yeah, it's exactly just trust us. Yeah. To just trust the tech. Um, I think it's a really important question. And I would say regulated as well as pretty much every industry, trust, especially in a space of technology, is so important. Yes. And is often one of the concerns we see from clients is how do we know the AI won't hallucinate? How can we trust it when it's going to turn the work back over to us? Right. And part of how uh I help our clients work with that is pulling on my background as a practitioner. I worked with the programs at Western Union, which is one of the most heavily compliant organizations in the world, right? Traveling, sending cash internationally. And when I was working with our compliance teams there, it was less let's start with what we can't do, and and and saying, what is our end goal? What are we trying to achieve? Because everybody in the organization wants to be successful and wants to help the organization do what it's trying to do. And when you can start with that end goal of let's try and make this easier, great. Okay, so we're gonna try and make this easier. How do we back into that with what those guardrails need to be? But the guardrails don't always need to be speed bumps and they don't always need to be dead ends. Sometimes they're guardrails and to say we really respect what you're doing, right? Coming at it from a place of respect with compliance and regulation and say your job is keeping people safe. Like let's partner. We want to keep people safe too. This is absolutely important. But as we're evolving, what the possibilities are, how do we keep people safe in a new world?

Jeannie Walters 7:22

Yes.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 7:22

And how does that idea evolve as well? So it's a sense of partnership. And I really find that when we come to the table as experienced professionals with that level of respect of saying, look, we're coming at like we're coming at the same thing. Let's work together on how to create a better, compliant experience, they then also feel a bit less combative because often they get a lot of friction internally as well, of like, well, just get out of my way. No, no, they're just trying to keep things safe, right? They're not gonna get out of the way. And so, how can we really create a streamlined guardrailed experience? It's about really recognizing everybody's aiming towards that same definition of success and wanting the clients to be successful.

Jeannie Walters 8:06

Yep. Yep. And I think you highlight a really important part, which is it really does take partnership, not just with compliance, but also, you know, I've been in meetings where the chief legal officer walks in and really kind of goes, oh no. It's like, no, they they should be here.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 8:22

That's it!

Jeannie Walters 8:22

They should be part of this conversation.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 8:24

And early.

Jeannie Walters 8:24

And early exactly.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 8:26

Part of it is not giving them an experience and saying, make it compliant, right? But saying we want to make this piece a little bit different, a better experience, partner with us in the design, yes, not just the back end of the okay, we've done this thing, give us your your stamp of approval. When they're like what even is this, right? Oh the red lines.

Jeannie Walters 8:47

So we love red lines. Oh, of course. Well, we love partnership, right? Exactly. That's what this is about. And I think that as we move forward in this world that is so fast-paced now, I really believe that when we have things like AI and this technology, it's going to amplify what you already think, basically. So if you look at customer experience as a cost center, as something to control, then that's what's going to show up when it's amplified. But if you look at it as this strategic way to move forward in the world with your customers and on behalf of your organization and on the for the betterment of everybody, I think that's what's going to show up. So I'm just curious, like, we're in this very unique moment and everything's speeding up, but I feel like we're still at the start of the marathon with this. And so, what do you see for leaders today? Like, where should they be looking for how to use AI and all these great tools in the right way so that they amplify the right things?

Turn Experience Into An Investment

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 9:47

It's a really important question. So it's saying, how are we using this tool carefully? And actually, you hit on it in the first part of the question. I think it's shifting the idea of experience from a cost to an investment, right? And so it's a strategic differentiator. It's all those pieces, but it's not just a cost, it's an investment. And once you look at it as an investment, you need to make sure you're setting up the structure to see that return.

Jeannie Walters 10:10

Yes.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 10:10

Part of an investment is not, okay, we're just gonna put money into it and watch the number go. It is saying we are gonna get return on our investment for this. It is a business differentiator, it is a pillar. And so one of the ways to really leverage AI is to clarify that piece. How do we make sure that we are attaching attributable revenue to the experiences that are being developed and designed and saying we're not just gonna do something that's really nice for the sake of being nice, although we love nice, just like we love partnership, but to say in this Venn diagram of looking at customers, looking at employees, and looking at the business, how do we find what's good for multiple pieces of that? So we don't just toss revenue into the customer bucket without thinking of the fact that we all want to keep the lights on in our organizations as well.

Jeannie Walters 11:01

Yep.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 11:02

But how do we really set this up to be a value and an investment conversation? And that also really helps to focus. It helps open internal guardrails because everyone wants to be a part of things that are really good for the business, in addition to being really good for the people. And it's it is mutually beneficial when looked at from that perspective. Um, we saw a lot of airlines struggle with the perspective from customers coming out of COVID because all of a sudden they started selling the middle seat again, right? They had stopped selling the middle seat for a while, customers were thrilled. Yes, they started selling the middle seat, and this is across the board, and customers were like, excuse me, I don't want to share my armrest, but it's not really a business viable decision to only sell two-thirds of your seats.

Jeannie Walters 11:45

Right.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 11:46

And so, how can we sort of create this experience that isn't exclusively catered to customers and isn't exclusively catered to the business either, right? You want to make sure your average handle time is balanced with actually solving the problem, not just get folks off the phone as fast as possible because it's expensive. How do you look at the balance of expense and experience and find that common ground to really enhance both?

Jeannie Walters 12:10

Well, and I think that airline example is great because essentially if we just show up sometimes as customer experience people and say, well, just do what's right for the customer, right? Like it's not that simple.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 12:21

It's not simple.

Jeannie Walters 12:22

We have to make sure that we are being cognizant of the business results as well.

Connect Insights To Revenue Action

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 12:26

Exactly. And we see a lot of customers and especially executive teams really ask these questions around, well, our NPS is going up and our CSAT looks great, but our revenue is flat, right? Our revenue is dropping. And why is that? And that's when you don't have that real strong connection between experience and operational. And AI can really close that gap. But one of the things that we're really helping exercise is this idea of taking action on the insight, right? To say, okay, we figured out what is causing some pain, what is really challenging, or what is really good. And let's look at how we can prioritize it, really do the analytics there. AI really pops those pieces in this brilliant way. So, you know, TruGreen was talking this morning about 500 million points of data around experience and leveraging AI to be able to navigate that is a real asset of a tool. But all of that is aimed towards what are we going to do? And how do we make sure that what we do is different and that we can look at those revenue attributions around changing the ways of working, changing the delivery, and being able to see either churn go down or retention go up or share of wallet or portfolios, whatever it is that's that business metric for the organization. Back the experience into it and make sure we're really connecting that insight to that action.

Jeannie Walters 13:46

Well, and I think this is kind of going back to that maturity and like the evolution of the industry because for so long the talk was about the feedback metrics as kind of the gold star. That's what you're looking for. And after a while, people said, Well, first of all, they're not that easy to change, right? Like we it can take a long time to see the changes implemented. And then the other part of that is I'm the messenger. Like there were people who would say, you know, we've got to do these things. They didn't happen, the numbers didn't change or went down, and they were kind of held to task for it. So when we think about moving to a place where it's kind of understood that we need this attributable revenue. For the leaders who are listening and watching us today, what is one thing that somebody who is leading a CX program or trying to lead a CX program, what is one thing they should focus on in order to get that attributable revenue?

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 14:41

It's a good question.

Jeannie Walters 14:43

I know it's complex too.

Break Silos With Executive Backing

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 14:45

Can I say two things?

Jeannie Walters 14:46

Sure, of course.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 14:47

The first is in that challenge of where the measurement and the action are often different, right? And by governance and design, they're often different. The business, uh, the business team are the ones that are executing the digital experience, for example, versus the core functionality of the insights team. They often are very different. And that, what they need to do there is that's an executive decision. Whether it's all the way up to the CEO or in the C suite, it is a C plus two at maximum, a skip level to the CEO at maximum. It is an executive level decision to say we need to bring these together.

Jeannie Walters 15:23

Yeah.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 15:24

Because it's often an executive level decision to separate them, to say, we're gonna have this be shared service versus we're gonna have you own the actual design and execution of the experience. And so to say that these two need to be sort of lockstep working, that's an executive decision. And that's a really fair ask to go back and say and to be like, we want to do this, but this is inherently cross-functional.

Jeannie Walters 15:46

Yes.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 15:47

We have to be breaking down some silos. And with that, then this gets to the second one. So the first is recognizing the executive is we need to get executives on board to be able to bring them together and open up those silos. The second is we need to go back to the problem we're solving because it is a lot easier to get executives to the table and stack hands on bringing their teams together when you say, we really need to be increasing the conversion rate of our claims process for an insurance company. We really need to be improving this process that is closely connected to revenue, right? What is the problem connected to revenue we're trying to solve? And then you bring it to your leaders and say, we need this very clear ask to be able to take action on it. So it's kind of recognizing the reality we're working in and then recognizing what needs to change. And then coming up with the why statement for those leaders that can change it.

Jeannie Walters 16:41

Yep. Yep. And I think that kind of underlines the fact that really this is so cross-functional that you need leadership, but you also need everybody in the organization to kind of lift up as well. And so it's this coming together of everything.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 16:55

So it's the execution of that leadership vision.

Jeannie Walters 16:57

Yes.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 16:58

And often there's this sense of oh, the frontline takes care of it. Well, but the frontline has to understand what they're executing against, and that is a leadership choice. So this is strategy and execution brought together.

Jeannie Walters 17:10

My favorite things.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 17:12

I agree. It's where experience shines.

Where To Connect And Final Framing

Jeannie Walters 17:14

Well, thank you so much. This was a fascinating conversation. And if people want to learn more about you, what's what's a good way for them to do that?

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 17:21

Finding me on LinkedIn is probably the best. I'm one of the only ErkenBracks on there. So look for the capital B. Yes. Um, and the I am the only ErkenBracks at Qualtrics. So would love to be able to connect with anyone on LinkedIn.

Jeannie Walters 17:33

Thank you so much.

Elizabeth ErkenBrack 17:34

Thank you so much.

Jeannie Walters 17:35

Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening to this episode and especially this interview with Dr. Elizabeth ErkenBrack. Now, I think that we really got a lot out of that conversation because of the framing of things. And that's something I'm going to encourage you to think about as you move through whatever your next project or program or initiative is with customer experience. Think about how you're framing things up and helping people understand not only the work that you're doing and the effort you're putting in, but the results that this can lead to. That's what we get so excited about. So thanks for being here, and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to Experience Action brought to you by Experience Investigators. If you're ready to turn insights into action, join our CXI Membership. That's our community for Customer Experience Investigators just like you. It's where CX leaders get the tools, support, and inspiration to move from ideas to true impact. And don't miss my new book, Experience Is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations. It's available now for pre-order. Learn more and reserve your copy at experienceinvestigators.com. Until next time, keep asking questions, keep improving, and keep leading with experience.