5 Things I learned from my ‘Peeps’ at CCW Nashville, Jan 2019 – 1000 CX Tech Vendors Calling !

It was great to be back at CCW for the first time since 2011. Many of the same faces, some new, many of the same challenges, some new.

1. The ‘all you can eat buffet’ does not mean you should eat all you can eat (especially those little chocolate cream cones).
2. There really are ‘1000 tech vendors with CX solutions messages’ today to quote the Gartner VOC Technology Marketplace report for Q4 – Everyone has a CX story, most platforms work in some CX way. Most Buyers are going to safety with vendors they know or advisors they trust because they cannot face the onslaught of sales calls. (we got two new requests for help sorting through the noise so that is good)
3. Talking of sales calls in a ‘beer brainstorm’ (copyright that) we estimated that this means that there are 10,000-50,000 sales people in North America today pounding away at the buyers with their CX Messages. A VP CX we were talking to says she gets 10 calls a week, up from 4 a month 3 years ago.
4. There is a definite trend towards Customer Service leaders assuming the mantle of CX leadership. We have said this makes sense for years when loyalty is about a lifetime of interactions and 15% of the interactions happen in marketing, 15% in sales and 70% in service. Plus who else knows how to adopt process improvement oriented, technology enabled, quality centered discipline like CX better than a ‘care’ leader.
5. In every conference there will always be at least 5 people dressed in attention getting outfits .. yeah to the bright green suit guy!