What do President Barack Obama, Sir Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher, and Oprah Winfrey have in common? Other than being incredibly influential people, they were all keynote speakers at the Qualtrics X4 Summit 2019. And while that list of speakers alone makes the event worth attending, these powerhouses were just the tip of the iceberg of what was in store.
At Rybbon, we’re always striving to stay on the cutting edge of marketing and technology, making the Qualtrics X4 Summit the perfect event for us to sponsor. Hosted by the survey company Qualtrics, it’s the biggest event in the world of market research, and an awesome opportunity to hear from some big names (did you see the list?) Being a part of something that monumental is a no-brainer for us.
But being involved in such an important experience isn’t about slapping our names on a poster; it’s about taking part in the conversation. For that reason, we went along to see what we could learn.
The entire summit was focused on just that: important experiences. Breakthrough experiences. Commercial, political, personal and communal experiences. More specifically, it was about how companies can harness the power of experience and apply it to their interactions with customers, employees, brands and products. The event itself was an experience as well, of course, with the opportunity to learn from and mingle with high-profile figures, from business magnates to a former US President.
Now that we have experienced Qualtrics X4 Summit 2019 and processed the wealth of insight and information we gained, we’re ready to pass that on to you. We heard from a Disney exec about the value of customer experience, and learned how HR can apply experience-related data to create a better workplace. Here are some of the takeaways from our favorite sessions.
Let’s dive in.
Webb Stevens, VP of CX at Qualtrics, and David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue, told us about the importance of customer experience breakthroughs.
In a recent study conducted with Qualtrics and Bain, 97% of executives said improving customer experience (CX) was very important to achieving or maintaining a competitive advantage. This highlights a rapidly growing trend: customer experience is becoming impossible to overlook.
We’re in a kind of (much nicer) arms race, where brands are fighting to stay ahead of the competition when it comes to customer experience. This is leading to a growing focus on building, transforming, and advancing growth capability for organizations, with CX at the heart.
The amount of data out there is already at mind-boggling levels, and growing fast. Coupled with the fast pace of technological development, this creates a challenge for CX teams. They need to cut through the noise and deliver clear, actionable insights, talking clearly to their users.
This can be achieved a number of ways, such as using chatbots and automated live chats to address customer concerns quickly and helpfully, and sending notifications and alerts when things are going wrong.
Continuing the theme of customer experience, we heard from Porsche and Disney. As two of the biggest brands out there, when they talk about the value of customer experience it’s worth stopping to listen.
Andrew Pine, Global Director CX at Porsche, and Jeff James, Vice President of the Disney Institute, talked about how customer experience is changing and how to get the most out of it.
They mentioned the importance of being intentional about what matters most to your customers, and creating a CX culture ‘by design’. It’s important to separate purposes from tasks, and never stop driving and pushing for CX improvements.
Here, the focus was on experience data (X-data) and how to use it for a competitive advantage. Staying ahead of the game, or disrupting established competitors, involves a focus on standardization and using a single system of insights for the entire organization.
By building a centralized system like this, all your teams can quickly turn X-data into an effective tool and secure an advantage.
Brands like Spotify and Under Armour have led the charge with X-data, giving their businesses the tools and knowledge to get the most out of it. Done right, X-data can give your organization a massive boost — you just need to give your team the right tools to launch their own projects and discover insights.
Data is often viewed as cold and impartial, but it can be an incredibly effective instrument for telling and supporting stories. It helps lend credibility and substance to what you’re trying to say, but it’s important to use data in the right way.
JD Schramm, Lecturer at Stanford GSB, delivered some important takeaways around using data to fuel effective storytelling. Here are some of the key points:
HR is a central part of any business, but can they make the move from a cost center to driving business success? We learned how HR teams can shift to an always-on approach, providing crucial insights to managers and making employees the key focus.
X-data is an important resource for HR, as it allows them to generate real, valuable insights about employees and deliver breakthrough experiences to each one. It’s a way to drive decision making and prioritize employee experience.
With so much valuable data at our fingertips, drawing actionable insights that can benefit our businesses has never been easier. But it can also be tough to know where to start with the overwhelming amount of data out there.
Aimee Lucas from the Qualtrics XM Institute spoke about the 4 Ds of actionable insights: detect, disseminate, diagnose, and deploy. She also stressed the importance of enabling and supporting your insights users and making sure to celebrate success.
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We look forward to the next conference on our 2019 agenda, as we continue learning about the ever-changing world of market research. Each time our team attends an industry event, we walk away with a greater understanding of the challenges facing market researchers. Ultimately it helps us provide you with the right tools to streamline your incentives program so you can focus on what’s important – your research.
Learn more about how market researchers use Rybbon’s all-in-one platform to organize and track rewards for multiple surveys and studies and eliminate the hassle and expense of manual reward administration. Get started today for free with no strings attached.
Brenda has over 20 years of experience building, selling and marketing products for F100 and start-ups.
Brenda has over 20 years of experience building, selling and marketing products for F100 and start-ups.
