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On this episode, we’re joined by Seth Earley, consultant and award-winning author of The AI Powered Enterprise. Tune in to hear Seth’s insights on navigating uncertainty in AI development while keeping customer experience at the forefront, and his take on the biggest challenges when it comes to human-machine partnerships.

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Seth Earley on setting the groundwork for AI implementation

Artificial intelligence is set to define the future of banking. Learn about how banks are using machine learning, RPA and other AI-powered tech.

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Six AI technologies set to define the future of banking

Protecting your company's reputation in an evolving digital world isn't always easy. Between cyberattacks, phishing, fraud and other harmful behaviors, companies have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to preserving their brand.

These concerns are often compounded when working with a customer experience (CX) provider. Not only do you need to ensure that your brand promise is met in an outsourced environment, but also that your customer and company data is protected.

When selecting a customer experience provider, risk mitigation should be a top consideration. The right partner will make sure you're covering every angle to care for the security of both your brand and your customers — at every touchpoint.

What should you look for in an outsourcing provider?

When it comes to customer experience outsourcing, brands typically have two primary concerns: preserving customer data, and keeping all systems that might compromise operations tight as a drum, says Steve Jablonski, vice-president of information security at TELUS International. These concerns are often driven by an idea that outsourcing some aspects of your business means giving up control — but that's not the case when the right checks and balances are in place.

Companies and their outsourcing partners need to set clear parameters about how to proactively prevent harm, and how to respond if it ever occurs. Setting a strong communication foundation in your outsourcing relationship enables your brand to work in concert with your partner to avoid and mitigate risk. With that at the core, here are three additional factors to consider when assessing an outsourcing partner.

Training: Team members are the first line of defense

With both online reputation management and protecting customer data, organizations frequently wonder where to begin. The answer is: start with employees. Team members are often the first line of defense against security breaches and ever-present bad actors. "Think of your CX team as a human firewall," says Jablonski. "You have to prepare your customer care representatives for battle by providing them with comprehensive training."

Rather than taking a one-and-done approach to customer service training, partners should treat it as an ongoing process, every part of which can strengthen and enhance the customer care team. As threats become more sophisticated and ill-intentioned parties find new ways to infiltrate your defenses, it's important that your team's knowledge base has comparably advanced documentation.

That said, it isn't just outsiders that are cause for concern. When assessing a CX outsourcing partner, businesses often want to know what's being done to mitigate insider risk and to keep employees from jeopardizing the system. While it's smart to ask questions related to brand loyalty and engagement, you should also consider whether teams are being sufficiently trained to prevent all manner of attacks and breaches, adds Jablonski.

Outsourcing partners must have processes in place to mitigate risk from internal and external individuals intent on committing a crime and innocent insiders who fall victim to phishing links. Phishing simulations and security awareness training are useful protocols in a world where threats are subtle and ever-changing. Team members should also know what to do if they suspect a colleague is acting nefariously. Training employees to recognize patterns is crucial, Jablonski says, "because you can't always get ahead of the threat."

Technology: Taking advantage of economies of scale

According to recent research conducted by TELUS International and Statista, leaders named data security and compliance as the number one challenge impeding their digital customer experience goals in 2023. The same research found that transparency and data security were considered the most important qualities for an outsourcing provider.

Collaborating with the right digital CX partner can provide brands with access to best-in-class software with the proper security checks. "There needs to be solid due diligence when buying secure software," Jablonski says of outsourcing partners. "Robust patching, internal scans and penetration testing should occur on a regular basis." A good outsourcing partner not only does everything in its power to safeguard your company; it also takes the pressure off brands to identify and invest in the new technologies needed to deliver a secure and scalable CX.

Put security management processes under the microscope

Outsourcing providers should be investing in market intelligence to stay on top of potential threats. Jablonski suggests that the right partner will "leverage paid and public intelligence to stay current. Your provider should always be collecting information and taking action." They should also have a strong network in place for sharing brand and industry information, he adds.

Look for a partner that prioritizes security at all levels and makes a point of obtaining their third-party certifications demonstrating their commitment to protecting brands like yours. Regulatory compliance and certifications like ISO27001 offer a solid foundation for cybersecurity. NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the U.S. Department of Commerce, is a good resource for publications, reports and other information about the standardization process, while the NIST 800-53 framework serves as a comprehensive guide to strategies, systems and controls that businesses should employ based on risk, cost and an organization's capabilities. Other options include industry-specific certifications, like HITRUST in the healthcare space.

Regardless of the approach your outsourcing partner opts to take, key controls like multi-factor authentication and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) should be standard. Consider your potential partner's stance on working from home and bring your own device (BYOD) management, too. From data leakage to loss and infection, related policies should be treated with the utmost caution and care.

Above all else, when selecting an outsourcing partner you should aim to find a company that values your brand and customers as much as you do. "Your customers are our customers," says Jablonski of TELUS International's mindset. A quality outsourcing partner should share your commitment to defending against threats, while also working to improve your customer experience.

Risk mitigation should be a top consideration when selecting an outsourcing partner. Learn what to look for to ensure your brand is protected.

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Protecting your customers and brand in an outsourced environment

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TELUS International, in partnership with Statista, surveyed 250 enterprise leaders to explore where they plan to invest in digital customer experience (CX) technology in 2023. Uncover the results.

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Survey results: Digital customer experience priorities for leaders in 2023

On this episode, we’re joined by a returning guest: Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University and the co-author and co-host of The Intuitive Customer, a book and podcast series by the same name. Tune in to hear us break down his most recent research on the science of decision-making, how cognitive exhaustion has impacted our everyday lives and how the customer journey will be influenced by COVID-19 for years to come.

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Professor Ryan Hamilton on COVID-19 consumer decision-making (two years later)

The digital world continues to shift rapidly. Discover what's next for content moderation to help you navigate the changes in this evolving industry.

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What's next for content moderation in 2023 and beyond?

Telemedicine has grown exponentially during COVID-19. Here are five digital transformation and CX lessons we can glean from its meteoric rise.

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Five CX lessons from the rise of telemedicine

In a virtual doctor’s office, a patient observes as the doctor ages her digital twin — a virtual copy of the patient that draws from real-time data — to show the long-term effects of her recovery from surgery.

Physically, the doctor and patient are hundreds of miles apart. But in the metaverse, they are face-to-face.

The metaverse is a parallel digital environment where extended reality technology and blockchain enable people to interact virtually in a secure way. There, a patient and doctor are able to push the limits of conventional healthcare.

It may sound futuristic and perhaps even revolutionary, but the imagined scenario might be more rooted in reality than you think. While gaming, entertainment and social gatherings have a tendency to dominate the discourse on tech evolution, metaverse healthcare is opening the doorway to a whole new patient experience and approach to wellness and mental health support.

According to the Global Wellness Trends Report: The Future of Wellness 2022, the wellness metaverse is “inevitable.”

“Wellness is now front and center in consumer’s minds — and at the forefront of business and government strategies around the globe — and the world is seeking new technologies that can far better engage and impact the health of many more people,” write the report’s authors. “From virtual reality and augmented reality to merged reality and haptics, the coming wellness metaverse will create vast opportunities for each sector of the $4.4 trillion global wellness economy.”

How the metaverse is transforming the health and wellness industry

According to American think tank the Brookings Institution, only 43% of health centers said they were capable of providing telehealth prior to COVID-19. In 2020, that number increased to 95%. Insurance claims for telehealth services also skyrocketed during the pandemic from around 529,000 in February 2020 to 12 million in April 2020.

Clearly, the healthcare and wellness industries are in the midst of a transformation driven by the adoption of technologies like AR, VR, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, robotics and the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) — a concept akin to the Internet of Things (IoT) where sensors in medical devices and advanced analytic platforms help to capture patient and customer data.

Some of these technologies are already taking root. VR, for instance, has been gaining traction within the healthcare and wellness sector because of its unique ability to immerse users into an experience. It has been used as a pain management tool by doctors, as corrective therapy for ailments like lazy eyes by optometrists and as a method for treating phobias, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Blockchain is another key technology for healthcare. It offers an opportunity to encrypt and decentralize patient and customer data, allowing individuals to control what information gets shared, and with whom.

The metaverse may be used to link these technologies in one place alongside emerging technologies like digital twins, ultimately enhancing customer experience (CX) and the patient experience by bringing virtual healthcare into a single environment.

For health and wellness providers and brands, this creates new ways to offer treatment. It also allows patients and customers to seamlessly switch between different types of care. For example, with a VR headset, a user could enter the metaverse for a meditation session, followed by a fitness session or doctor’s appointment, all without leaving the virtual world. It could be seamless, with relevant data following them as they move through the wellness metaverse.

However, the experiential and experimental aspects of the metaverse demand a strong commitment to the patient experience. Without it, brands may risk their reputations and their customers’ well-being.

The metaverse customer experience in healthcare

For brands operating in the metaverse, the blurred lines between real and virtual life will require a level of consistency, especially in an environment like health and wellness that has a habit of bringing out people’s vulnerabilities.

Omnichannel support is key so that customers can engage effortlessly between brand interactions. A positive customer and patient experience will be defined by how easy it is to move and access help both inside and outside the virtual healthcare sphere — and humans are critical to this equation. According to a recent TELUS International survey, 49% of respondents said “if they could only receive customer support in one way for the rest of their lives, their preference would be speaking with a human on the phone.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean users will want to leave the metaverse to receive support. Rather, they need live agent support options regardless of where they’re interacting with your brand.

The human element is also critical to delivering one of the most important aspects of healthcare: empathy. As the metaverse continues to evolve and new technologies emerge, the learning curve for some users may be steep. Having an engaged, knowledgeable and empathetic support team ready to handle queries is intrinsically important to your CX success.

Additionally, the growth of digital healthcare and wellness is giving birth to new online communities. For example, boutique fitness chain Trib3, has become one of the first fitness operators to strike a deal to launch a gym in the metaverse. In its digital world, users will be able to take part in workouts and group fitness classes. That means that as people begin to gather and interact together in these virtual communities, brands will ultimately be responsible for ensuring that users feel safe and welcome. To protect brand reputation and ensure a positive customer experience, brands will need to give trust and safety a frontline role in their metaverse strategies.

In tandem with personal safety, privacy and data security in the metaverse are critical to its success in delivering personalized healthcare. It is, after all, a heavily regulated industry in the U.S., with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requiring the protection and confidential handling of personal health information.

Ensuring ongoing compliance and patient security will require brands to stay nimble with their data security strategy as rules and regulations evolve to fit the metaverse.

We can’t fully predict the impact of the metaverse on the health and wellness industry, but there’s no question that technology is already pushing the limits of healthcare. At its core, the metaverse is rooted in experience. For brands to keep in step with the next frontier of CX and patient experience, there needs to be a clear strategy in place — and the right partner with the expertise and understanding of emerging technology and best practices — before you take your first (virtual) steps in the metaverse.

Are you ready for metaverse medical care? This is what health and wellness brands need to consider when designing customer experience for the metaverse.

metaverse health

As the metaverse transforms health and wellness, don't forget about CX

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Outsourcing Locations E-book Feature

Discover some of the top outsourcing destinations for consideration and the factors to keep in mind as you make your decision.

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Selecting the best outsourcing destination for your business

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Explore insights into customer experience outsourcing in 2022 from a survey of executives with strategic decision-making authority.

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Executive survey results: CX outsourcing in 2022

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Uncover how TELUS International’s business process consultants helped a leading financial services brand optimize its operations, enhance its customer experience (CX) and begin its digital transformation journey.

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Streamlining operations and kickstarting the digital transformation journey of a leading financial services brand

Customer experience analyst and best-selling author, Matt Dixon, sits down with TELUS International Studios to share insights from his new book, The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision. Dixon takes us through the bane of every salesperson’s existence: a long customer courtship that ends with an “I’ll think about it.”

Leveraging a first-of-its-kind study that analyzed 2.5 million documented sales conversations through machine learning, Dixon reveals that 56% of sales loss is actually caused by customer indecisiveness. Listen to the episode to gain more sales growth best practices to overcome indecision.

To learn more about TELUS International and our digital CX solutions, contact us today.

The JOLT Effect: How high performers overcome customer indecision is available for pre-order now.

Intro: TELUS International Studios, where customer experience meets digital transformation.

Patrick Haughey (PH): And you are very welcome back to TELUS international studios. I’m your host Patrick Haughey, and on this episode I am delighted to be joined by someone who I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with at a few TELUS International events over the last couple of years. Matt Dixon is a CX and sales expert, he has written many best-selling books — one of the best known is The Effortless Experience, but he’s joining us on this episode to talk about his newest book, currently available for pre-order. It’s called The JOLT Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision. To prepare for this book, 2.5 million documented sales conversations were studied using machine learning. So get ready to hear some very interesting insights from this first of its kind study. So I thought an interesting jumping off point with Matt might be a line that jumped out at me from the book’s description when I was reading it. And that line reads: “In sales, the worst thing you can hear from a customer isn’t ‘No,’  it is ‘I need to think about it.’ And I started by asking Matt why this is.

Matt Dixon (MD): Yeah, it’s a great question. That’s the beginning of the whole tale. And I love that line, too. Well, I don’t love it: I hate it — it’s terrible, it’s really bad news actually, for sales people. But it speaks to what the whole story is about. You know, I think if I’ve been out there engaged with sales people, I know, obviously, Patrick, you and I have spent a lot of time talking about customer experience, customer service, the effortless experience, etc. The other hat I’ve worn as a researcher is really focused on business to business sales and commercial effectiveness, and how is buying behavior evolving and so on and so forth. And one of the things I’ve been struck by over the years is that when you ask a roomful of salespeople to think about the deals they’ve lost over the past quarter or the past year perhaps, and you ask them to categorize that into two different buckets. On the one hand, deals you lost to a named competitor. So the customer ends up buying but they didn’t buy from you, they bought from somebody else. Versus customers where you lost, but you didn’t lose to a competitor, you lost to no decision — you lost to the customer doing nothing. What you find is, in organization after organization, by far more hands go up around the latter, that salespeople feel like they’re much more likely to lose to the customer doing nothing than buying from a competitor or, as you said, even just saying no.

MD: In fact, I think sometimes in sales we can feel like our sales people are heavily influenced by the last sales call they had, you know the product is too expensive, this competitor is eating our lunch, whatever it is. But in this case, our salespeople are actually onto something. We studied this with data and we’ll talk more about the research that went into the book, but I’ll pull forward one finding, which is that anywhere between 40 and 60% of all deals are actually lost to no decision, to the customer doing nothing. And we studied this across 2.5 million sales conversations. We used machine learning to study it. And what we found is exactly what you said. If you look at all of the I would say hundreds of thousands of things that are said in sales conversations, both on the salesperson side and the customer side, by far in our analysis, the worst thing that can be uttered by the customer is I need to think about it. And the reason it’s so bad is that, you know, the old adage in sales has long been that as a salesperson, you don’t want to you don’t want to chase garbage trucks, right? You don’t want to pursue opportunities that have no chance of closing. So in many respects, for a salesperson, it’s far preferable — it may be painful — but far preferable to be told no. The worst outcome is where you go through the entire sales process with the customer. For many companies that can be months or even years, and think about all the resources, the time investment from the salesperson side, the resources from their organization, not to mention all the resources from the customer side. These are customers who go through the demo, they go through multiple iterations of the proposal, they talk to your reference clients, they talk to your subject matter experts, you talk to all of the sales prevention departments inside the customer organization like legal, finance, procurement, etc., only for the customer to get cold feet late in the game and end up doing nothing. And so that is such a deadweight loss for the average salesperson, for sales managers and teams and for entire sales organizations. We do think that how to overcome that ‘no decision’ phenomenon, how to break through and pull more deals across the finish line is the thing that separates great sales organizations and great salespeople from the rest.

PH: We’re going to come to those traits of a great salesperson who can manage to overcome the hurdle in a few minutes’ time, because it’s a fascinating area. We’re looking at something very psychological here called omission bias. Is that right? Which you cover a little bit in the book. Just briefly explain what omission bias is and what kind of mistakes customers are looking to avoid.

MD: Yeah, perfect. So I think the conventional wisdom in sales has always been that if the salesperson starts to get cold feet, if they start to backpedal, wring their hands a bit, waver, waffle, straddle the fence, whatever term you want to use, that it must be that we’ve not we haven’t put to rest the status quo, because we all know, even as human beings, we are predisposed to stay the course. We’ll pass up on better options just for no other reason than we’re lazy and we don’t like to change. And for salespeople, that’s a really powerful obstacle. But I think salespeople have always been taught that that is your only enemy in sales. And what we found was that in our analysis of 2.5 million sales conversations, when this customer starts to show signs of hesitancy, when they start to show those signs of cold feet, by far, three-quarters of salespeople we found go back and they kind of hammer the status quo. They either try to re-convince the customer that ‘you must not really understand the value that our solution is going to deliver.’ ‘You must not really understand how wonderful it is, the ROI projections and how amazing things are going to be on the other side.’ Or, when the customer doesn’t respond to that, what do we do? We put away the carrot and we break out the stick. And what we try to do is show the customer the cost of inaction. And we do that by dialing up what’s called FUD in sales: fear, uncertainty and doubt.

And what we’re really trying to do is make the customer squirm a bit, make them feel the pain of what they’re going to miss out on if they don’t if they don’t buy the solution. We actually found in the analysis, surprisingly, is that that approach, while it’s commonly practiced, actually makes it 84% less likely you’re going to get the customer out of no decision. So you actually increase the odds of the customer doing nothing by using some of those tactics designed to beat the status quo. And to your question, what we actually found, we realized that we wrestled with this quite a bit because it’s been the conventional wisdom in sales for a very long time. In fact, we wrote about this in the Challenger Sale that the best salespeople are gifted at showing the customer that the “pain of same,” the pain of the status quo is actually worse than the pain of change. And that is one of the things they do really well. And so it came as a big surprise to us that that strategy, that approach backfires so often. And so we took a step back and what we realized was we were asking the wrong question. The question that we were asking was, what’s the best way to beat the status quo? Maybe it’s just not being done well. Maybe high performers have figured out a different technique that’s really effective today. But the question we should have been asking is a bit different, which is not how do we beat the status quo, but rather why do customers make no decision? And it turns out the reason they make no decision is exactly what you talked about, Patrick, actually if you look at the psychology research and this is actually backed up in our own analysis, that there are really two reasons the customer will choose to do nothing. The first reason is that they’re committed to their status quo, they just prefer the status quo. It could be that they don’t believe your solution is superior to what they do today or they may just believe it’s superior, but they believe their current approach is good enough. Right? ‘It’s just not worth it for us to change.’ But there’s a second reason that the customer will choose to do nothing. It’s not commitment to the status quo, it’s indecisiveness about changing the status quo. And I think when people hear that, what they immediately ask is, how are those two things different? You’re telling me that customers choose to do nothing either because they prefer what they do today or because they don’t want to change what they do today. And what we explain in the research is that those two things are massively different. And it’s something that high performers get an average performance don’t.

MD: So if we go to the psychology research, what we find is that there are really two types of loss that people in our customers are worried about. On the one hand, there are what are called errors of omission, which are mistakes and losses that we incur because we choose to do nothing. One of the old stories to illustrate is you’re in a tennis tournament and your competitor has a peanut allergy and you sit down to enjoy a lunch before your match and you know there’s something on the menu that has peanuts in it. The omission bias is when your competitor orders the dish that has peanuts in it and you don’t say anything about it. And so they get sick and they have to drop out and you win. The opposite is an error of commission. Now, an order of commission is when you incur a loss because of something you did, not because you failed to do something right, but because you actually did something wrong. So the same metaphor uses you’re sitting across the table from your tennis competitor and you proactively suggest they order the thing that has peanuts in it because you want them to get sick. Now, with those two scenarios, the outcome is exactly the same, your competitor has gotten sick and had to be rushed to hospital, etc. But by and large, everyone was more comfortable with the first one because I didn’t have anything to do with it. The second one is ‘a thing I did.’ ‘I did something wrong.’ And what we find with customers is that when they’re facing two different options, whenever something could go wrong by me not choosing to buy your solution, we could not capitalize on an opportunity, or I could buy your solution, and then something bad could happen as a result, they will choose to do nothing far more often than they’ll choose to do something and run the risk of getting something wrong. Now, the three types of things they’re worried about getting wrong are:

MD: One, I picked the wrong option. We think about all the options we put in front of our customers. So often they start to wring their hands about, ‘I’m not sure if I’m picking the right contract length’ or the right scope of the agreement or ‘I’m buying the premium version — should I really just buy the basic version?’

MD: The second thing is they start to worry that they haven’t done enough research and think about all the content out there about every vertical, every technology out there. And they start to fret over the fact that it’s the next white paper that they would consume that will have all the answers that they need to be a smart consumer.

MD: The third source of indecision is what we call outcome uncertainty. This is where the customer, before they sign on the dotted line, starts to worry that they don’t have any assurance that they’re going to get the benefits they’re paying for. And despite your rosy ROI projections, despite the great demos and proof of concept trials you did, despite the wonderful reference calls and the great analyst reports they read about your company, the customer is worried that they might be the one company for whom this whole thing goes sideways and if that happens, somebody’s head is going to roll. And the person who is going to roll first is the person whose name is on the contract.

MD: So those three things: I’m picking the wrong option, I didn’t do enough homework, or I’m going to be left holding the bag (if you will) and not getting what I’m paying for, are the sources of indecision, which interestingly have nothing to do with the customer’s preference for the status quo. And so it helps explain why we see this phenomenon that salespeople who are taught that every indecisive customer, every waffling and wavering customer with cold feet, must be struggling with a preference for the status quo. So you go back and, you know, your ‘beat the status quo playbook’ is like a hammer, every indecisive customer looks like a nail. But in fact, if they’re worried about something else, then going back and trying to convince them of the loss that might result from inaction only gives them more to be worried about when they’re actually worried about something quite different. So we found in the research that high performers have figured out a different playbook, a companion playbook not just for beating the status quo, but for laying to rest or overcoming these sources of customer indecision.

PH: And does this take us to the JOLT effect?

MD: Absolutely, yeah. So what we found is, there’s again, there’s two playbooks. We’ve all got ‘the beat the status quo’ playbook. We wrote a book about challenger selling; we happen to think being a challenger is one of the best ways to beat the status quo. But as I said before, it’s only part of the story. If beating the status quo is all about showing the customer the cost of inaction, overcoming indecision is getting them more comfortable with the action you’re asking them to take, making them feel like you’re making a good choice, don’t worry about the other options, you’re picking the right thing. You’ve done enough research, you’re in good hands. I’m your subject matter expert, your trusted advisor, and don’t worry, you’re not jumping out of a plane without a parachute. There are some assurances we can give you that this is going to actually work out well for your organization, etc. So if the beat the status quo playbook is about dialing up the fear of not purchasing with the customer, then the playbook for overcoming indecision is about dialing down the fear of purchasing, right? It’s making the customer more confident and comfortable in the decision you’re asking them to make, which they are quite anxious about, right. I didn’t do enough homework. I’m picking the wrong thing. I don’t have any assurance this is going to work out for me. And so JOLT is a set of four behaviors, and I’ll just explain what they are really quickly, that together form this playbook for overcoming indecision:

MD: The J is judging the level of indecision. And what we found is that high performers are quite good not just at assessing opportunities and customers on their ability to buy their solution, but also on their ability to make a decision. So not just the ability to buy, but the ability to decide. And they do that through active listening, probing questions, and powerful requests they make that elicit responses from the customer that tell them, ‘Is this person somebody who can actually make a decision and do so in a reasonable amount of time?’

MD: The O: offer your recommendation. So salespeople have been taught for a very, very long time that it’s all about diagnosing the customer’s needs, understanding what they want. And the hope is that by asking good questions, the customer will figure out on their own what they really want or what they need. But what high performers know is there’s a time for asking and letting 1000 flowers bloom, and then there’s a time for telling and making a recommendation, because with too many options on the table, the customer again will get wrapped around the axle about what they should choose and they’ll fear I’m going to choose the wrong thing, and that will become an irreversible decision.

MD: The L is limiting the exploration. So in a world where customers want to continue to consume content, they always feel like they’re not enough of an expert on the technology or on the platform or on the competitive landscape or on the decision they’re being asked to make. They will consume information endlessly, and there’s no way that they could possibly develop the level of expertise that we as salespeople have. And so we’ve got to put a limit to their exploration, and the way we do that is we’ve got to earn the trust, the trust and credibility, if you will, the customers trust, and we’ve got to establish our credibility as trusted subject matter experts who have the customer’s best interests in mind, and that we can guide them through this learning journey and that they don’t need to consume all the content because we’ve already done that. And we are their trusted advisor.

MD: And then finally the T: this is about taking risk off the table. So when our customer’s hand is hovering over the contract and they’re worried: ‘boy, this is a really big investment, it’s a really big decision for our organization and what if this goes sideways on us?’ We’ve got to provide some assurance that we’ve got their back, that things are going to go fine. And sometimes it comes down to additional professional services support, not that we give it away for free, but proactively suggesting that starting smaller, getting the customer to not bite off more than you can chew, or creative contract structuring that gets us in a place where the customer feels like they’ve got a safety net if things start to slide, if they start to go sideways. So that is the JOLT Effect. And we like it because it’s memorable, but it also speaks to what’s happening here, right? It’s about jolting our customers out of their indecisive state toward action.

PH: It’s really, really interesting. And actually everything you’re talking about there, there’s a couple of words that are shining through to me, which are customer success, it’s not just ‘make the sale and that’s it.’ It’s not a new area, but it’s certainly been more in focus in the last few years that we come out the other side of the funnel with a whole new funnel, which is making sure that the product is used properly, that we keep we keep them educated, that we’re there for them. Is there an element of this in all of that?

MD: 100%. We talk about actually in that T chapter, taking risk off the table, that one of the best things that that salespeople can do is pull forward some of those customer success engagements, laying out the roadmap for how we’re going to work together, the project plan, here are the key milestones, here are the metrics. Let’s get the quarterly business review meeting set up now, let’s get all of this lined up because we know from working with companies who get a ton of value out of our solution, this is the roadmap for success. So it sends the customer the impression that you’ve done this before. You know where the pitfalls are, you know where the landmines are, you’re going to start thinking one step ahead and you’re going to make sure that we’re going to end up in a good spot — this is a huge confidence giver for the customer.

PH:  And on that note, and again, in relation to customer success, is that the area where a lot of this is about the sale and the salesperson, but when it comes to CX professionals, customer experience professionals, what are the lessons here as well?

MD: Yeah, for others who support the sales organization, whether that’s marketing, it’s customer success, I think understanding that when our customers start to waver, it is more often than not, in fact, I didn’t mention this before, but what we found is if you divvy up losses to no decision by losses to the status quo versus losses to indecision, you find that indecision actually encompasses more of those losses. 56% of the losses are because the customer is indecisive, it’s not because they’re in love with the way they do things today. And for all of us in the organization to understand the sources of that indecision so that we can work together to get our customers over the hump and get them across the finish line, again, whether that’s customer success, articulating the plan to work together, even proactively introducing you to your customer success team members, and maybe sharing roadmaps and project plans that have been successful with other clients and talking openly about the risks and the pitfalls and the landmines you want to avoid. Or it’s marketing perhaps, figuring out what are, what are the configurations that we should pre-package into, kind of, if you will, “Happy Meals,” because we know when customers buy this configuration, they’re really, really happy. So let’s package those up, let’s market around those and let’s train our sales people to actually advocate for those solutions because we know when people buy it that way or buy that configuration, they’re much more happy with the results. Or lastly, it might be finance, it might be thinking about some of those ways to do creative contract structuring, terms and conditions that provide that assurance to the customer, instead of making salespeople go and ask for permission every single time they want to grant an exception or flex a term or condition in a contract.

PH:  It feels like everything we watched and learned from Glengarry Glen Ross ‘always be closing’ is actually wrong. It’s turned on its head, Matt.

MD: Although I will say I will say Alec Baldwin did have a point. You do want to get the customer to sign on the line, which is dotted.

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