Innovation & Strategy Surrounding the Customer Experience

people will buy into change and buy into
Innovation faster when they see their
role in that outcome and they have a
voice and they contribute to it welcome
to Unexpected Journey the show where
each week top professionals Share work
wisdom and life lessons about their
careers and what they have learned about
human experience in the workplace
I'm your host Anne Bibb today we're
joined by Paula Kennedy an industry
leader with a 25-year career in customer
experience
she's currently serving as the Executive
Vice President of innovation and product
strategy at InTouch CX
Paula has been recognized for her
transformative contributions to the
field including the 2022 innovator of
the Year golden bridge winner and the
2022 Stevie's Innovation woman of the
year for industry Awards Beyond her
professional achievements Paula is a
passionate advocate for women in
leadership mentorship and diversity
programs as showcased by her involvement
as a founding member of the UK's Chief
Network for executive women in business
before we begin
don't forget to subscribe and leave your
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now let's get started
welcome Paula thank you for having me
delighted to be here I am so excited
that we get to spend this time together
because you have all of this CX
background and you are not just a
well-respected CX evangelist but you are
a respected evangelist for women in
leadership in the business at the
international level not just you know in
Ireland or in emea but around the world
and that is such a great thing to hear
and to see so I am excited to talk to
you about that
but I would love to hear about how you
ended up where you are today because
this is you know
Unexpected Journey we're all about how
did you get to where you are today and I
know that you didn't you know wake up in
in the kindergarten in preschool and say
I want to be an EVP
at an Outsourcing organization how did
you get here
you know I don't think we even ever say
I want to be in a contact center let's
face it right
it's not an industry that we navigate
into
um but you know I think I am like so
many that just happen to be starting out
in my career at the time that this
industry was taking off and I'm I'm here
for that that's not a bad thing to
happen you know I had a degree in
languages I was trying to figure out
what to do next and I fell into contact
centers just trying to make some money
as I decided where I wanted to travel to
next and what I was going to do with
this big degree
um and so it was very serendipitous to
be in an industry that was just starting
to absolutely reshape what customer
experience would be never mind what it
would become
so and and with that it meant that you
had
many many doors open huge doors to kind
of take your career in a direction that
you probably even hadn't thought about
and I reflect a lot on that now and
because I think we're in a similar
position for lots of new people coming
through the reichs into this industry
and how it's changing with technology
there is a future we have yet to Define
right and so these new doors are
constantly opening for the next
generation of leaders and that happened
for me I I worked in the operational
sphere of contact centers for so long
um but I'm I am ridiculously curious so
I was interested in well hang on a
second how does that work what makes
this happen how can it be better and
that that allowed me to move around the
industry into account management
Professional Services a little bit
technology sales and so I have actually
very intentionally over the years
built up that generalist portfolio which
in sometimes was looked on a little bit
negatively don't be a generalist be very
specific have a skill set and I argue
against that I think without having
intentionally done that in my career I
would not have the ability to sit in an
innovation role today and connect the
dots and ask the questions right so to
me that's that's served me well it's
interesting that you say that because
you're right being a generalist in the
past was like a dirty word you needed a
specialist you needed a very direct
skill and you need it honed and you
needed to stay in your lane but now it
very similarly you and I have a wide
range of skills we are generalists yes
we are cxs experts we I'm a remote work
expert because I've honed very tight
skills in those areas however
I also have worked in operations and
Workforce and other areas very similar
to you so generally can pull in skills
from those areas and can get it to a
certain point before having to pull in
certain others to help
that's it and I mean and the further you
go in leadership you you effectively
surround yourselves with teams you have
lots of experts there will always be
Specialists and experts there and they
will be really bring into what they do
in their swim Lane what I think I can
bring to the table is to have those
awkward moments and questions where we
go is that good enough
let's not accept mediocrity how can we
be great not just good and how can we I
guess my job is to look around corners
as well and start to think what else is
happening out there and how we make it
relevant to the CX industry and that's a
really privileged and exciting position
to be in so here I am never had an
intention of getting into this industry
and I love it right and I can now attest
to all of those other women who are out
there that there is such a great future
that you can carve for yourself and you
know I always always say your North Star
will find you the thing that you love
most will get you through this journey
and I think this industry opens up more
doors than I think maybe other specific
Industries might do
you know
let's talk about moving up into
leadership in the CX space yes you've
kind of called out you know looking
around corners finding those gaps
and then also having a team around you
that knows more than you do
yeah how important is that I mean you
don't know everything
no are you expected as a leader to know
everything
I think you're expected as a leader to
absolutely give the direction where
things are going but also to recognize
if it isn't going to plan to Pivot and
go in that different direction that's
knowing everything in a slightly
different way right what I want to do
with my team is to write myself with and
even every tiny project I work out in
Innovation or a larger project it'll
start with some size of a tiger team
which is fairly diverse in its skill
sets experience will come right but that
expertise is slightly different and so I
want to be surrounded by people who can
action on the vision that we have but I
want us to be diverse enough that we
challenge each other and we ask the
questions because that's the only way we
can kind of go from a standard to a new
status quo and really challenge what
there is there so I think it's really
important
I don't think I need to have all of the
answers but I do need to have a
collective of people who
together we know all of the answers but
who will also challenge each other and
it's a very premise of what I've been
doing and building in touch next with an
InTouch CX this kind of innovation arm
and program that we're doing is to have
that Collective of
innovators and technologists and
researchers and new thinkers all
together that whatever business
challenge we're going to take on I can
pull down and draw a dine on the
expertise that's needed to make that the
best version that it's going to be
can you give an example of when you did
just that right you pulled in your
Collective you didn't necessarily know
everything but you were able to pull the
team together from that whether it was
an innovation or what have you some sort
of example to explain to our listeners
how that actually worked and came to
fruition
gosh
let's say it I'm sure you heard millions
and now I'm sitting here
there's one right now that I'm working
on which I think is fantastic you know
we're looking at where is where is this
industry headed with this big charm of
of AI and generative Ai and things that
are happening and oh that's an excellent
one yeah you know there's on one side
there's there's lots of noise and hype
around very exciting products that are
happening on another side there's
concern about are we going to
cannibalize the industry that we work in
and in the middle I think I'm here
thinking actually we are at a really
great opportunity we're at the bleeding
edge of AI augmented customer support we
can rebuild CX for the better we can
Embrace this change because it's going
to happen with us or without us right
and we can Embrace this change and we
can start to think about how we design
process differently product differently
what will the role of our agents look
like in the future how do we upskill and
level the entire business up this level
so we're right in that at the moment
where I'm I'm working with you know some
of the in touch next Collective of
Technology partners that I have some of
the incredible brains and Visionaries
within our business and we're all
building out what this new future looks
like that's super super exciting to be
right on the edge of shaping what will
come next and and I think as I live over
past years and things that I've done
it's always been what is that Innovative
new solution what the thing is it's
emerging that tomorrow might be
mainstream but we're at the start of the
adoption and right now this industry is
at a super exciting time
how do you feel like AI you know
speaking of AI you brought up Ada AI
which is like one of my big passions
right now is how AI is going to impact
not just
you know Outsourcing on call centers but
a lot of uh the repetitive work that is
going into businesses right now there's
some people are scared they're falling
into kind of one of two categories right
now right they're either super excited
or they're very scared I fall into the
excited category because I feel like
it's going to take off the repeatable
easy processes
from a lot of the work in order to allow
the humans to come in and put in the
thought that is needed right like let Ai
and the computers take that easy
repeatable stuff off
so that we can use our brains to put in
the human
piece in yeah and you feel like this is
going to come in yes exactly where do
you feel like this is going to come into
play in Outsourcing or even contact
centers in general you know
the absolute premise behind what I'm
leading an in touch next we talk about
we're leading from the future to
revolutionize experiences this is going
to revolutionize experiences for sure
but I think there's always three big
questions that I ask as we look at these
these big waves that are coming through
because we've got to consider the needs
of our clients or employees the business
so that we can all thrive in this
changing industry that we have moving
forward so the first thing that I will
ask is what's influencing the future the
big bucket items that cause the noise so
you know here we go with what's
radically already made massive changes
since what just November with Chachi PT
and often that means polarized opinion
which you've just talked about often
that means fear
um but we want to look at those Trends
and really determine will they have
relevance for our space now or is it
longer term and we pull down on the ones
that we feel will have that and then
we've got to think about more so well
what's the future what's actually going
on in the world and how does that way of
impact with everything else
socioeconomic changes you know what's
happening geographically what else is
going on in the industry that clients
are asking for and that has to have a
lens of the next 12 to 24 months so we
can start to prioritize these things
that and allows us to think about the
Here and Now what's our future ours in
the CX space and we can get a little bit
more strategic around how we create
products and solutions that will serve
us all of those needs so if you think of
that kind of funnel dying words with we
are with generative AI we're already
rapidly at the stage where we're
thinking how will the product work
within our world what impact has it in
CX what impact does it have on our
employee experiences is the technology
and hype possibly moving faster than
what clients are prepared for change
because change takes time and you don't
embed those things in so I think in the
short term we have this wonderful
human machine relationship it's a big
theme that we have as Blue Sky within in
touch next which is and it goes beyond
just CX what how does that relationship
between human machine change as we start
to evolve our own industry
um and and we see very much at the
minute this whole AI piece for CX
critically needing that human in the
loop at this stage for those reasons
you've just talked about then hand
holding the white glove treatment with
our clients to help them get ready for
it the human and the lip being able to
navigate and make changes and teach the
AI to be specialist to every brand so
that you're not losing that brand tone
and voice as you start to roll these
Technologies
um you know into the end stream that we
that we will see very very soon
I think that is very well said now one
of the things that you mentioned earlier
was that you actually originally went to
school and for languages I did and that
ties into me to communication
and how does InTouch CX approach
language equity
oh good question and ensure effective
communication
well you know language
was a thing where for many years we
assumed that we all just needed to
Converse in English and the internet was
in English and everything happens in
English and I'm not saying that that
isn't still the majority of the case but
I think as we are more and more
um
accessible 24 7 with this digital
lifestyle that we all lead it is very
remiss of any brand not to consider the
importance of what language really means
and and y'all provide translation
services as well right Education
Services which is part of it because I
mean I think
I mean unlucky if you study languages
language accessibility and language
Equity is just really close to your
heart you understand the importance what
it means to culture right so I've had
that close to my hearts for a number of
years it's so so important so I've had
this I guess this calling to make sure
language is always front and center
um
translation is a component of that I've
worked with translation partners for a
number of years are are in touch next
Collective includes some of those and it
lies it means that we can we can help
Brands truly deliver globalization right
so if you are going to reach out and
have countries around the world do not
switch your language off at 5 PM because
you have no one available you know do
not only make it available you know not
at weekends when people may be wanting
to get in contact with you don't only
put it into one channel and not the
other so it means you have to start
getting very creative and Innovative
with the solutions that you do for
language and then that's because I mean
at the end of the day it is costly to
run a multilingual operation for every
language in the world and it's costly to
do that 24 7 and you've got different
socio-economic impacts which make it
even just operationally difficult which
is a long early time to hire which is a
higher premium to pay for those services
so I also get the business side offer
but technology means we don't have to
focus only on not any longer so things
that we have in play are
um
translation of course uh video
transcription service speech to text so
there's so much more that's happening in
the language space that enables and
unlocks that ability to make language
much more Equitable and accessible for
everybody and it is a million times more
than it was even six years ago when it
started to come out into the surface so
even a year ago yeah
moving so quickly technology
it's so interesting to watch since the
pandemic started it's like it was moving
right but the pandemic just kind of
almost put like
gasoline on the speed of technology and
it hasn't slowed down since then
but I also think it I think
organizations in general become much
more open to where technology could help
and once you like that torch paper you
can't blow it out and ignore it you
can't go back to the previous ways right
you can you can't put out torch paper
you know there's things that cannot be
unseen but also you know the the mix the
the rising buyers the consumer Market is
changing demographically and we have
much more digital native decision makers
in the mix and and they want things done
in a different way and they demand that
as part of brand so I think these things
become they very quickly have become the
status quo and mainstream and now it's
about keeping up with it so it's no
longer just about a translation
capability it is about having
transcription live voice interactions
and there's such very exciting tools
coming through very quickly
um that will be even raising the bar
further on that
so we did mention about culture and
I wanted to kind of touch on that a
little bit mainly because uh there's two
aspects of this that I want to want to
ask you about one is you know how do you
uh you know when you are you lead the
product and Innovation team how do you
really Foster culture
with Innovation together
I think I'm really lucky that I have a
very captive audience I didn't touch CX
when it comes to innovation
but I don't think
you know can any organization in this
space exist and Thrive today without a
culture of innovation I would say not
um but it doesn't necessarily mean it
exists everywhere I as I say I'm very
blessed we have this entrepreneurial DNA
at in touch
CX and and I think as I met Greg and the
team when they were speaking to me for
joining the organization I could just
see
High we had those synergies right so for
me I was in the business because bear in
mind I joined in touch CX last June
right so gosh I thought you had been
there longer it just feels like you
jumped in there for years and that's my
point I mean within weeks it felt I was
in their months already it was um and
this was me you know working in Ireland
and a lot of the team being distributed
around the world so it was a really nice
natural slot in for me
um and and they embraced this really
insane curiosity that I have so the
energy and passion I have is great but
don't get me wrong and I know my flaws I
know and that can be too fast I know
when to pull it back so the crazy Irish
lady coming into the business with great
ideas and let's do this you know you
also to be successful with Innovation
and create a culture of innovation you
have to do it in a very purposeful way
you have to bring people along on the
journey with you change is a scary thing
right and a lot of what happens in my
world particularly if you think about I
deal with all of the Blue Sky Innovation
it's taking Concepts that don't
necessarily have a solution
and they maybe don't have a case study
and all the things because we love to
measure we measure everything in our
business and we like to touch things and
feel it and I have to start at that very
top kind of those three questions are
those kind of big three questions and
statements I mentioned to you earlier
and drill down and distill what the the
big ideas are into something which is
Meaningful and tangible for the business
so but you have to also get people
excited about those big Concepts and see
where it's headed so it's really
important that you have a vision at that
blue sky side and you can let the
organization and teams of multiple
levels in the business understand the
role they play in all of it right so the
principles become really clear about
Clarity and creating you know goals and
communicating we've talked about that a
few times on this discussion today
communication is so so key
but within the business that piece only
works part of the way
the other side of my job is is solving
problems bringing new solutions to all
problems and when you're doing that then
that means that you actually are
um I'm a member of the rest of the team
I'll lead with blue sky but they come to
me when they need something to fix
problems in a different way so we can
constantly innovate and I'm really
really blessed and in touch CX because
it means that I become a component of
what is the Grassroots Innovation that's
happening from our operational teams and
we do that beautifully with business
hackathons our teams are constantly
looking at what's going on whether it's
client facing or customer facing or just
within their own teams and processes and
so when they get together and say we
think these areas a good opportunity
then we can again and riff that together
and we can just create this incredible
energy where we think about again these
kind of new ideas to to older problems
and bring in new technology and
introduce them to to exciting new things
that they've not had access to before
and so all of a sudden we have all sides
of the business is working together but
you need to do that in a timely way you
create teams
that that have that diverse input and
you then you make them part of the
solution so they all feel part of the
same goal and create those very clear
objectives as you go along that way it's
super exciting
so with this team and what y'all are
doing
you have to collaborate a lot huge yeah
there can't be an army of one you know
um
I think you only really you'll you'll
when you fuse that into your culture you
can only bought reap rewards but no one
person can deliver it on their own and I
think if you look back at like the most
successful and fastest growing
organizations over the last 20 25 years
that they all share that commentary
there's that product culture they've
reimagined how we live how we work how
we play right how we engage and I think
when you can can you can build that and
kind of start creating that new normal
and people see something new and how
they can work
um it lets us think differently about
all of that within our own environment
as well so it requires that
collaboration and and that's really good
we're working in a super exciting
project at the minute called Super Punch
care and we have this great agent kind
of desktop go-to single solution for all
of the things that an agent needs to do
throughout their job and they've got a
difficult job and what we've done is
we've said we need to bring some empathy
and emotion and care and pastorship into
this as well and super punch care is
digitizing Agent well-being and thinking
about that kind of gen Z population that
we have and we have my put
um AI enabled recommendations for
people's well-being which are hyper
personalized to them so if I'm typing
with my team leader and and there is
maybe I'm saying oh you know what and
today that was just a really tough
meeting that we had and I was to do a
presentation and it wasn't done
correctly and I don't feel like I
delivered my best self
the technology that we've designed is
reading those little triggers or
indicators of stress and so it's
penguing on hey Paula doesn't look like
you had a great day today how are you
feeling
and so now I have an AI assistant that I
can talk with and I can say I'm going to
memorably overwhelmed or I feel okay and
it takes me down this beautiful Pathway
to advocate of Lifestyle resources EAP
support
um we have Insight time remeditation
with lots of different solutions in
there that allies me for my needs which
will be different to yours or different
to bulbs or different depauls my needs
take me down to a pathway of a resource
that I can use to help me to feel better
in that day
so that all comes through part of
collaboration and our MVP of that again
had week over week all of our MVP users
tell me what you think what did you use
what were the resources like and so
grind up we get all of that
collaboration and we created this
amazing tool which has got our people
and AI Reddit the core off it and that
comes back to everything that we have as
a heart of a company
now
none of your none of these people that
are collaborating are in the same
location are they
no but they don't need to be again when
you have
I mean it's lovely when you're in a room
I'm not going to dismiss that it is
great there's no one who loves being in
a room with a marker and a whiteboard
more than me try taking it off me like
I'll take you down for it it's like the
rugby title well there's no one here
that jumps and says I'll do it I'll do
the notes I love a pen but you know I
have worked 10 or 12 years remotely and
I have you know the power of this
Collective voice of expertise being
distributed in different places there is
tons of collaboration tools online that
help you do that and so we're incredibly
successful with Innovation and building
this entire New Movement within the
company and the team is distributed the
team is not just distributed around the
world but my Collective of technologists
and and disruptors are also distributed
around the world so you use technology
God forbid if I'm an innovator who can't
use technology to innovate there's
something wrong but there's all of those
tools for us today and yes it doesn't
take away from the ability to help
people in the room but you can also have
it in a hybrid way have your champion
who gets other people in the room to do
the hackathon thinking and the changes
and you be a collaborator from the
outside so you work around it and and
you can get really really great results
but you get those results because you
involve people and you give people a
voice and that's really important people
will buy into change and buy into
Innovation faster when they see their
role in that outcome and they have a
voice and they contribute to it so for
that listener that is watching right now
and
they have not been able to influence the
right people in the organization they're
struggling they have
a great idea they believe that it's data
driven but they haven't been able to get
the right executive sponsors on board
what is your advice talk to that person
directly right now what is your advice
as to how to influence the executive
stakeholders to get them on board
for their project
I think
um so I would say first of all that
don't think that the guiding principles
of getting people on board are any
different if you're doing Big Blue Sky
Thinking like how do we build AI into
the future of call centers to how do I
improve handle time for a client right
the Grassroots in the blue sky still
work on the same guiding principles
um and it is important to put the
legwork in up front to really frame what
your thinking is don't go in with a
concept that's so Willy that people
can't follow it's important to document
there's a couple of three things that I
would say are probably really key
um look at yourself hard in the mirror
first of all and make sure that what
you're wanting to do in your project is
Meaningful make it meaningful to make it
matter when everybody in the business
understands the problems that you're a
change or your new innovation or your
project are going to solve and the
people that it will help it's much
easier to visualize it and align other
people on that journey and on those
goals so it has to have a purpose and it
has to be meaningful and to make that
message really clear and then bring it
to life you know what I talk a lot about
having these weird ideas that are inside
maybe my head the head of one person and
letting it be in the hearts and minds of
everybody else it's that piece about
building up the excitement and the
Curiosity so if you can get
understanding with the teams who are
responsible for taking your idea into
execution because you're just the first
person to think someone else has to
deliver and then someone has to skill
which needs buy-in you can use that with
storyboards and slides and workflows and
building this simple prototype so that
people can really visualize that that
end product because when they feel like
they can touch and feel something it
tends to be a lot easier to truly
understand
and then this thing simplify the
language we use a lot of terminology and
jargon in our industry right but turn
the language of your product into
value what's the value what does it mean
to me so what the impact that the
Innovation will result in again a lot of
the time because we measure so much in
this industry we like to know that it's
going to have a positive outcome and
make sure that value links back to the
north star of the business because if
you can connect the dots there then
there's a much clearer understanding of
the impact that it's going to have and
if you set then some clear objectives
which will change at various stages of
that journey of the of the Innovation
happening then you can provide success
very early and adjust your your
objectives and your kpis perhaps improve
at a different level of success but
the one big thing that I would say
you can't do without his feedback
I always talk about feedback is our
superpower when we're innovating
um so that you do get that 360 income
input from is it hitting your objectives
are you happy with what we're doing and
as the end user be that a customer or be
that say an agent on the front line have
they been included in that feedback
though because if it doesn't work for
them it's not ready yet right so that's
why we do MVPs that's why we do
prototyping Paula if somebody wanted to
get in touch with you
one why would they get in touch with you
and two how would they get in touch with
you I thought you were going to say why
would they want to get in touch with you
oh my god exactly
um listen the easiest route to get in
touch with me is LinkedIn I'm a big
LinkedIn user and I have a wonderful
Network that I'm very privileged with
um so I would think is right there like
right for sure here
and I'm available like just you know pop
me a message and I'm always reachable
for it
responds fast just so you all know like
scarily I think she never turns it off
it's time zone time zone to your
advantage I'm in the UK side don't
forget there you go there you go and ha
and and for what reasons would they
would you encourage people to reach out
to you do you know I think we should not
ever ever ever underestimate the power
of networks network is just fantastic
networks are great because you can
you know you build your network and
knowledge
through the tribe that you have around
you and in today's world where we are
distributed around the world why should
I be limited to what there is within
Belfast or Northern Ireland my network
is global it has helped me grow my
career and it's helped me be smarter and
better at my job and a better leader so
for that reason and I would say get in
touch with me because you can teach me
something
connections are two-way things you might
have a question for me but I can
guarantee you
a 20-minute conversation half on our
conversation I will walk away with as
much as someone who has come to me so I
think networks are fantastic and we
absolutely should not underestimate the
power that they have to build our
personal brand to extend our knowledge
and and just who knows where you're
going to be in the world where you can
reach out for a coffee or someone you've
met randomly through a social media
channel embracing
I love that absolutely
thank you so much for joining us this
week Paula truly enjoyed our
conversation I've had a great time
speaking with you and really really
quickly and um yeah thank you so much
been delighted to join with you
and thank you everybody for joining us
this week on Unexpected Journey we will
see you again next week
as we wrap the episode up we would like
to take this time to thank you for
joining us this week on Unexpected
Journey
Our Guest information will be linked in
the episode description along with a
link to our company website
remotevolution.com and our host's
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we hope to see you again next week for
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