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Steve:
It's the largest experience management conference in the world, and we had a front row seat to some of the action.

Lauri:
There were a lot of different highlights. I think the big one for me was just the ability to actually connect with individuals that I had been working with for years now that I had not yet met in person. So to be able to actually connect and give hugs and see people that that I felt like I knew that I had actually never seen in person before. I think that was my big highlight.

Steve:
Recapping our time at the Qualtrics X4 Experience Management Conference on this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.

Announcer:
The CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.

Steve:
Hello, everyone. I'm Steve Walker, host of The CX Leader Podcast. And thank you for listening. As we like to say on this show, it's never been a better time to be a CX leader and we explore the topics and themes to help leaders like you deliver amazing experiences for your customers. Well, our bags are unpacked and we've settled back into our normal routines. But many of us here at Walker had a great time attending the 2023 Qualtrics X4 Conference in Salt Lake City. It was fun connecting with many of you in person, along with other XM professionals from all over the world. So we thought we'd recap some of the highlights from the conference in this episode of The CX Leader Podcast. To make certain I hit all the highlights and because there were so many people and activities going on, I've invited three of my colleagues as guests. They are no stranger to the podcast. They've all been on the podcast before and they've also were all at X4 with me a couple of weeks ago. So Lauri Jones and Sara Walker are both part of our sales team here at Walker. And then Pat Gibbons is our senior VP of marketing and he really is the mastermind of our X4 participation as usual. So Lauri, Sara Pat, thanks for joining us on The CX Leader Podcast.

Pat:
Pleasure to be here.

Lauri:
Thanks for having us.

Steve:
Yeah, it was fun to be back in person. You know, it was four years ago since they did it, 2019 was the last one and then they were scheduled to do it kind of right on that fateful day of March 13th, plus or minus in 2020. And they had to cancel at the last minute. And boy, it came roaring back with with gusto. It was it really did feel like we were back to the regular way of doing business. And I, for one, really, really enjoyed the experience. Let me just go down the road, just kind of get your initial take on it. Lauri, what kind of stuck out for you? What was the highlight of X4 for you this year?

Lauri:
Yeah, you know, there were a lot of different highlights. I think the, the big one for me was just the ability to actually connect with individuals that I had been working with, as you mentioned, for years now that I had not yet met in person. So to be able to actually put like a full body to faces that I had been seeing on screen for years that I had navigated and been through a lot with professionally and personally, just building those relationships. It was really just a joy to be able to connect and give hugs and see people that that I felt like I knew that I had actually never seen in person before. So that was I think that was my big highlight.

Steve:
Yeah, that's almost guaranteed to be a good time, right? If you actually feel like you know somebody but you've never actually met them in person, that's that's cool. Sara, what about you? What was the highlight for you?

Sara:
Yeah. I would say along that same vein, I just really enjoyed the energy of being around so many people who are as excited about customer experience and experience management as we are. It can feel a little like you're isolated to your day to day when you're living inside a Zoom boxes, but then when you get to see really the impact and the breadth of the industry and all the creative minds that work in it, it's really pumps you up to get back to work post conference and see what else is coming down the pipeline. So it was just a really good energy, I would say, overall.

Steve:
Pat, what's your highlight from the experience?

Pat:
Well…

Steve:
Besides that, it's over for you and your team.

Pat:
Well, you know, it's just it's such an interesting combination of activities, which I'm sure we'll… we'll highlight as we go on. And and for context, just so people can get a picture of it, you know, this is not just your typical conference of a few hundred people. This is like 8000 people. And it is a combination of some exceptional keynote speakers, entertainment and lots and lots of workshops. I think the thing that stands out for me the most was the theme that they created, which was making business more human. And I think that is it's a strong theme. It's something that we're seeing more and more in customer experience, and it really highlights how our profession has really a noble cause. So I was really pleased to see that.

Steve:
And you in particular, Pat, you were before we got on the air here, we're talking about one of your favorite presentations, which was kind of right in line with that theme of making business more human. Share a little bit about that session that Brad Anderson did.

Pat:
Yeah, it was. So for people that may not be aware, Brad Anderson is one of the senior executives at Qualtrics. And really within the last year or two came over from Microsoft where for years, you know, he had a great deal of experience in the tech industry. One of the things that was interesting was he kind of compared the evolution of experience management. And to his experience at Microsoft. Like one of the things he cited was that, you know, Microsoft Word, I think, came out in 1983 and Excel trailed it by a few years. But it wasn't until 20 years later that they started putting it together in applications like Microsoft Office, and he started presenting kind of a vision of where that could be going for CX and how it really can really permeate an organization and have so many more people involved because we're all involved in delivering an experience for our customers.

Steve:
Yeah, I was reflecting on this a little bit too, after you mentioned it, but it really is a true X and O data integration story, and I actually just was able to see a kind of a case study where a company's X data on their employee experience was going up about the time their business was going down. And I just thought that was kind of intriguing and very timely. And and that's really what we're talking about here with with experience Management is really having an integrated set of metrics that we can use to to really understand, you know, not just the experience our customers, employees are having, but also how that relates back to the business metrics and what we're trying to drive and, you know, really finding a way to measure those tolerances. So I also was noting that one of our most downloaded episodes of of this podcast is a report that we did a couple of years ago called Effectively Combining CX and EX. So yeah, it really is back to the future in some ways for us. We've been talking about this for a long time and I think that's one of the amazing things. The one of the things that I take back from the conference is that Qualtrics is just such a great promoter of the profession and they've brought so many more people into it and they do it on such a grand scale. You know, while we say it, it's a great time to be a CX leader just because so many more people are interested in this topic today. Speaking of amazing experiences, did anybody have any amazing experiences while they were out there? Lauri, you're shaking your head on the Zoom. What was amazing for you?

Lauri:
You know what? I was able to have some lunches with different stakeholders that, again, may not in the grand scheme be super amazing, but it was to be able to sit down over a meal and kind of talk about a few things. Um, so that was, that was fun. I think another amazing experience and I'll just bring it up was the Walker Tailgate party. During the event, having all of those people there. I've said it to Sara in passing, it was almost like a whirlwind of activity, but I have just had great feedback and great interactions from everybody that was there about just what a great start it was to what we were embarking into. So I'd say that was one of my, you know, besides the the intimate lunches, the the Walker Tailgate party was, was an amazing experience for me.

Steve:
I kind of described the Walker tailgate party as a fraternity party that got out of hand. I'm surprised the cops and the fire marshal weren't there, actually. But no, it was a good time. And and people had a had a great time. And yeah, the individual connections and meetings. I know that you put a lot of effort into getting those things set up, so I'm grateful for that. Sara What about your amazing experience at the conference?

Sara:
I would have said the same thing as Lauri as far as just the the tailgate was such a fun way to kick things off. And it was because it happened at the start of the conference. It was probably the first time we were seeing a lot of the people that we were intending to connect with. And so it was a bit of a whirlwind, I think said in a meeting earlier, it's, Oh, I'm sure I did see what I was probably flinging a pom pom in your face. And you know, now it's great to be catching up on business here a week and a half later. So that was super fun. From a personal point of view, I think, you know, from just watching and attending the conference, there were lots of amazing things that seemed to be happening to individual conference goers as well, just through the Qualtrics Dream team and making some of those unexpected surprises was just kind of a fun way to pass the day as far as, you know, who's getting what special little touches and seeing CX really come to life in small ways and big ways.

Steve:
Yeah, the Dream Team is kind of interesting. It's right there on the conference app, but if you have some sort of request or you need, you want to have an experience, you can just, you know, you can type it in on your phone. And then sure enough, somebody from the quote unquote Dream Team gets in contact with you. And if they can do it, they they try to help you out, do it. So it's pretty neat.

Sara:
Yeah. I later learned there were a few staked out at the Nordstrom across the street, maybe getting some more comfortable shoes and and what have you for conference goers. So maybe I should have submitted one of those tickets.

Steve:
Yeah, I need better. I need some sneakers. Yeah. Size ten and a half, please. Hey, Pat, what was your amazing experience there at the X4?

Pat:
Well, you know, I mentioned that X4 is a combination of a lot of different events. And while there was terrific programing, one of the things that I attended that was pretty cool was what they call Fight Night. And so a little background. The philanthropy that Qualtrics is heavily invested in is Five for the Fight where they encourage people to donate $5 and it goes to cancer. And so Fight Night is all about their philanthropy. So it's interesting that in a in a short period of time, just a few days, they dedicated quite a bit of time to philanthropy, which again, I think is a good thing for our profession, that it's kind of tied in. It was a combination of entertainment, dance. There was some kind of heartwarming stories of people that have been affected by cancer and helped by their philanthropy. So that was just a fun and unique event that you would not see at a lot of different conferences.

Steve:
Yeah. I think, you know, again, it's it relates to the human element of it and the fact that we can run a good business and we can also contribute back to making the world a better place. And I know that's something that is consistent with our values. So I think that's why we register. And you actually had orchestrated a little exercise at our booth to help support the Five for the Fight, too. You want to talk about that real quick?

Pat:
Yeah, we did. So we asked a simple question of people coming to our exhibit about their goals for 2023 when it comes to experience management, and they had five choices and they could vote with marbles that would go into a glass cylinder. And so after they voted, we said, Well, everybody that plays is a winner. So you get to pick an envelope from a selection. So they they would pick an envelope and when they would open it, they would find cash in it. So there was one bill. It could be a dollar, it could be $100. And, you know, or any denomination in between. And then their options were they can obviously keep it. It's theirs or they could donate it back to us and we would give it to Five for the Fight. And really, almost almost everyone donated theirs. I think honestly, I think there was one person that pulled a $100 bill and can't blame him for keeping that. But we did have one of our clients pulled a $50 bill. No question. She handed it right back to us. So it was kind of a neat thing. And we were able to raise some money for Five for the Fight.

Steve:
Yeah. Again, it just says a lot about the type of people that are there and and the kind of the spirit that was created there. So that was a lot of fun. I get to watch a little bit of that while I was there, too.

Steve:
Remember the CX Now series we just wrapped up not too long ago here on The CX Leader Podcast? Well, we just published a new e-book highlighting each of the essential themes driving CX. You can download it at walkerinfo.com/cxnow. And don't forget about our blog. That's right. We have a blog and we update it regularly. Check it out at walkerinfo.com/blog. There's a ton of great experience management content available and the best part, it's free. That's walkerinfo.com/blog.

Steve:
You know, I kind of wish we would have invited Kovacs on here because I know he was excited about some of the technology and some of the things that were unveiled there. But maybe I'll just get your each of your take on what do you think comes out of this that is going to have an impact on us in the next year, 12 to 18 months with some of the things that struck you that came out of there that are especially important for CX pros to be aware of? Maybe I'll go to you first, Sara, on this one.

Sara:
Yeah. You know, what's like an overall kind of theme of the conference that I was struck by was just the focus on action. So not overcomplicating ways in which you might solicit or listen for data, but being really focused on what you're getting served and how you make a difference on that data. A really good example of that I would think is the second day of keynotes really opened up with Zig, you know, kind of highlighting some of the negative feedback they've got they'd gotten from the days before and how they're adjusting on the fly to make that experience better, which I just think is a really awesome application of why we get up and do what we do every day. And a very simplistic form, right? I think one of them was that, you know, maybe the sense that they were pumping in for ambiance was a little too strong for some folks. So quickly dialing that back and, you know, think that it's just in the spirit of being more human, maybe not overcomplicating things sometimes as far as moving the needle and in the way our customers experience and interact with us.

Steve:
Lauri, what's your take? What should our CX pros be looking out for over the next year?

Lauri:
Yeah, we touched on a little bit earlier, but the first day there was a keynote around the merging or the alignment between employee and customer feedback and what that fundamentally means and actually seeing a real use case and listening and understanding kind of exactly what that meant to that organization and having that kind of real proof instead of the theoretical or hypothetical that that we had been talking in, I felt was really impactful and honestly had a number of conversations after that about how can we do this? What does this mean? Where do we need to head? So I think that that blend and that real use case of that, that ability to tie and link how employees and customer experience overlaid with operational data can really make such a massive impact and made it almost attainable for others to start driving towards thought that was super impactful.

Steve:
Yeah, totally there with you, that that is just it's so possible to do now and we're just scratching the surface on that. So that's going to be really exciting. Pat, what do you got any big trends you're seeing?

Pat:
Yeah, absolutely. I saw interest in AI, you know, and the application for CX, I think that's something that has been kind of a buzz, but few have really started to put it together. But I think, you know, it is progressing nicely. And the other thing that actually I kind of got excited about was there's a lot of discussion about getting information into the right hands of the people that are taking action. So this kind of goes along with what Sara was saying about taking action. They referred to it as Frontline. And I guess one of the reasons I was excited to hear such a focus on getting information to the frontline of the business is that's just something that in our business we've been talking about for a long time is it's got to get out of the CX or EX Department and get to the people that are really going to make a difference. So it's the contact centers, it's the account managers, it's the others that are really face to face with customers on a daily basis.

Steve:
Yeah. You know, the good point, both you and Sara focused in on this because, you know, if we take the feedback and we can't make things better for the customers and employees, then it's kind of a waste of effort. And so much of the history of our profession has been, you know, fits and starts and now with closed loop and really the kind of the ability to impact things, the frontline is where we where we get it. And again, that comes back to Lauri's comment about, you know, putting that CX and data together so that, you know, you really are aligning that and then ultimately linking it to the business performance you're trying to drive. So that's good. Hey, my amazing experience is I got to do my podcast live there. And it was it was kind of fun because we had three of our clients in case studies who had been on the podcast before. We could only scratch the surface. But you know, Pat, you were real helpful in in designing that and recruiting the clients. But and real quick, Pat, for for our listeners just kind of tee up what we did and and this will be a shameless plug for our listeners to go back and listen to a few of our other podcast episodes. But…

Pat:
Yeah well, we really tried to tie it in with the theme. So it was all about how to make customer experience more human. And so, as you indicated, we had three clients. We had Jill Helmly from ServiceNow. Jamie Lutz from ChenMed, a health care organization, and Alex Merchan from ASM Global. And as you indicated, they've all been on the podcast very recently, but they, you know, were really able to give three different perspectives on what their business is doing. So in some cases, in ServiceNow case, it was you got to really get information as we were just discussing, to the front line so people can take action. Nobody does it better than them. At Chenmed, they have turned the health care model on its head to do something that that gives patients much more access to doctors and other professionals. And at ASM Global, they're an entertainment business dealing with large convention centers, doing some amazingly innovative things to make a total experience for those going to concerts and sporting events and so forth. So yeah, it was a real interesting combination of speakers with unique experiences that I think they all did a great job.

Steve:
Yeah, and part of the key for me was that to tie back to the humanizing concept is that there's probably nothing more personal than your own health. And so when you're receiving care for your own health, you're pretty particular about that. And as our colleague Sara Andrews always reminds me, and and you might not necessarily want to be there either. So it is kind of a unique situation. And then, you know, you think about when you spend money for, you know, to go to a sporting event or a concert or a theater, you know, you're going to be pretty particular because you're probably spending, you know, pretty good money to to do that experience. So those are the kind of things that I think, you know, really do highlight the importance of why we do what we do and why customer experience is so relevant today. Laura, you said you attended the session too. Did you have any take on on the session? We did.

Lauri:
Yeah. No, I agree. I think it was really fascinating, the three different industries, the three different groups. But how fundamentally, you know, underpinning it all, there's still just really focused on whomever their customer is, whoever their their stakeholder is, they're really driving towards that same goal. So we're all different, but we're all the same. And I felt like that kind of came through a little bit in the conversations that were had during the session. It was great.

Steve:
Yeah. And we also tied it in with our new report that we just released, the "CX Now," sort of the eight essentials of which I think are very consistent with what we heard during X4. Pat, you might want to just reference that real quick. We have a downloadable ebook for our listeners too, don't we?

Pat:
Right. And I'm sure we can include that on the podcast page or they can find it on our website as well. Yeah, this harkens back to the series of podcast episodes, Steve, that you recorded over the last few months where we identified eight themes that we feel are really driving the evolution of CX. And so now we've combined kind of written material from all of those podcast episodes into one booklet that I think is a great resource for experience management professionals.

Steve:
Sara You talked to prospective clients and existing clients all day long. What is the value of of having, you know, actual case studies from from great companies like ServiceNow and Chenmed and, and ASM Global being able to reference that for our other clients maybe who are just starting on this journey.

Sara:
I think it's probably the same reason we have a lot of listeners tuning in right now to the podcast or Qualtrics had, you know, upwards of 8000 people attend their conference at X4. It's because you want to know that you're not alone in what you're trying to do and where you're trying to move the needle and you want to learn from other people in the industry, the CX industry that is. And a lot of great things about our industry is that we're omnipresent across so many different industries in terms of what CX means to health care, what CX means to high tech, what CX means to managing huge venues, and how you can share challenges, share opportunities, wins across those industries and apply it to your own program, what you're trying to push forward. So I think it just goes back to collectively, how do we all get smarter? How do we make sure that we're being innovative and our thinking and apply that in in real time? So just like a written case study helps maybe push through someone's initiative internally, certainly picking up and rubbing elbows with people trying to do the same thing like we're doing at conferences or hearing on podcasts is in that same vein.

Steve:
Well, what a great segway into take home value because as you know, since you've all been guests on The CX Leader Podcast, we always finish up with little take home value and our do everything writer talent agent Brenda Mackey said that if the take home value included something from X4, it was extra points. So to make sure that we can give them some practical advice coming out of X4, we're ready for take home value. So why don't we go first to Pat this time?

Pat:
Well, my take home value relates to learning that I mentioned earlier, and that is think about how you can get information to the front line. That's where the action takes place.

Steve:
Wow, that was concise. Thank you. See if you can top that. Sara.

Sara:
I tend to be a little more long winded than that. I'll keep the theme of it.

Steve:
Might be in your genes, by the way.

Sara:
So the Qualtrics conference going as far as just keeping business human, making business more human. At the end of the day, every interaction you have with a customer, with an employee, a stakeholder of any kind, there's a human on the other end of it. So don't overcomplicate things, have empathy and, you know, don't. Yeah, that concise like that.

Steve:
Good job. Lauri. What's your take home value for our listeners this week? After X4.

Lauri:
I am going to steal my take home value from Martha Stewart's speech or keynote that she had there and in essence, concise. Always…

Steve:
Martha Stewart was there?

Yeah, she was delightful.

Steve:
What a cool conference that must have been.

Lauri:
Yeah. But one of her statements was that just every day she's constantly learning and she's just constantly learning. And if you think about how she has evolved and reinvented herself over the years, just understanding and that just kind of struck a chord for me about that, being willing to always be constantly learning every single day, be learning. So that was kind of my take home value for myself, for our industry, for our colleagues, for our clients. Just always be learning and open to learning.

Steve:
Yeah, that's one of the things I've always said about doing this podcast and I've done 260 episodes now. I learned something in every podcast and today has been no exception. So I want to thank all three of you for being great guests and helping me recap X4 and being good colleagues. I enjoyed spending some time with you out in Salt Lake City and can't wait for next year. So Lauri Jones, Sara Walker, Pat Gibbons, they're all team members and colleagues and friends here at Walker, and I think you can find them all on LinkedIn and you can find all of them on our website, walkerinfo.com. But thanks again, Lauri, Sara, Pat for being guests on The CX Leader Podcast. Hey, if you want to talk about anything else you heard on this podcast or about how Walker can help your business's customer experience, feel free to email me at podcast@walkerinfo.com. Remember to give The CX Leader Podcast a rating through your podcast service and give us a review. Your feedback will help us improve the show and deliver the best possible value to you, our Listener. Check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com to subscribe to the show and find all our previous episodes, podcast series and contact information so you can let us know how we're doing. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We're an experience management firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success. You can read more about us at Walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening and remember, it's a great time to be a CX leader So go out there and keep listening and keep trying to do the best you can for your customers and take some action on your feedback and we'll see you again next time.

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