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Learn how Noelle Jones-Ramzy advanced in tech leadership using entrepreneurial thinking, critical skills, and AI-driven support strategies—success without a degree. Leadership, Growth, and Success Without a Degree – Full Conversation Transcript with Noelle Jones Ranzy Welcome to the experience dialogue. In these interactions, we pick a hot topic that doesn't really have a straightforward answer. We then bring in speakers who've been there, seen this, but have approached this in very different ways. This is a space for healthy disagreements and discussions, but in a very respectful way. Just by the nature of how we have conceived this, you will see passionate voices of opinions, having a dialogue, and thereby even interrupting each other or finishing each other's sentences. At the end of the dialogue, I just want to make sure our audience leave with valuable insights and approaches that you can take it to your workplace. And of course, continue the discourse in social media channels. What I wanted to have is there is so many other events and stuff that we will be having, and we will be actually putting that down in the comments section so that you can be engaged in. And welcome to our guest, Noelle. Noelle, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. Noelle, a brief introduction of yourself would be awesome, both from a professional standpoint and a personal standpoint. Well, my name is Noelle Jones-Ramsey, and I am currently living in the East Bay Area by way of Arizona. I spent 20 years in Arizona. Before that, I spent 20 years in Utah. I like the sunshine. So the relationship brought me to California, which I love very much. And I have been in the corporate leadership space for probably 20 years now. I guess it's 2025, so about 20 years. And I am so excited to be able to just meet people like yourself that have the experience and the connections and the insights of the industry that I'm a part of and actually aspire to have the curiosity and aspire to be a part of. So I'm really looking forward to our discussion today. Yeah. Noelle, what's your job role right now? I currently work for a SaaS company as a director of customer support. Excellent. So you're always talking to customers. And I noticed that you pulled in, you know, in one of the previous interviews, you talked about hiring people and what kind of leader you want to be. And you mentioned, you know, you would like to just take the ball, hire people who like to take the ball and just run with it and come up with an entrepreneurial spirit, right? So what does it mean by entrepreneurial? You know, there are so many different backgrounds and levels of experience that I get to talk to when I'm hiring for a role, specifically leadership roles, just because of the position that I'm in. And I really look for people who talk about, you know, I like to ask things about ambiguity and how, how you, how scrappy are you when you don't have the resources or the support that you need to be successful? And when I hear things like, well, I just go to my leader and I tell them that I need help, which is fine. That's what your leader is for. But also how creative are you in those roles? What, what in your entrepreneurial mind comes up to say, if this was my business, this is how I would solve this problem. And those are really things that I, that I look for. I never stayed in my lane, which is why I think I've gotten to the role that I've gotten. And I love it when people just say, hey, I have an idea and it's, it's, it's somewhere completely different from support. Do you mind if I float this by, by you? And I get so excited about people like that. Yeah. And in a way, support itself is such a very creative role because you are never going to face the same situation because of the human element you are dealing with. So every time you're trying to be creative to address different things for the different personalities, even if it is the same kind of technical issue. So I totally get that. And what you're also talking about is that creative thinking that people have to have and critical thinking, I should say, critical thinking that people have to have. So I love that. And another thing that was very interesting for you to have as a guest here is normally in the Bay Area, especially I see people constantly, the Stanford, Google crowd, et cetera. But here you are, you have actually been a very successful executive after getting a GED. And right now you have enrolled in college and you are making honor rolls while you are preparing to weddings. Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about, you know, how did you get here with the GED and then now your journey? I think it's two different questions, but yeah. Yeah. You know, thank you for the acknowledgement and the reminder that I should be going gray and a little nervous right now. You know, I got my GED in 2016 and I was already in a leadership role. I was a manager, a site manager for a contact center. And I wanted to go to Grainger, which is a Fortune 500 company, been around for almost a hundred years. And they have this great reputation and they headhunted me. But I needed some kind of, you know, at least a high school diploma. So as an adult, I was like, oh man, I haven't been in school for so long. And I did, I just, I went, I studied, I got my GED within 30 days and I got hired on at Grainger. And that's when I really thought, you know, I, if people are seeking me out, I could probably go really, really far in my career if I actually had, you know, classical education. But I kept being promoted and I remained successful. And I thought, I don't even, I don't need a degree. And I had these amazing mentors along the way in different places, the VPs and SVPs and one CEO that has amazing TED talk that I watch probably once a month on YouTube. And I remember them saying, you really don't need that degree, but I'll be 50 this year. And it's something, thank you. I appreciate that. It's something that I said to myself, you know what, this is just something that I want to do for me. I've made it to my direct role. You know, hopefully the next stop is, is senior director and VP, and maybe the sky's the limit. But I would feel more accomplished and I would feel better if I got a degree. And my intention is to go all the way, hey, I would love to have a PhD, even if I'm 60 by the time I get it. But in April of 2026, I will have my bachelor's in industrial organizational psychology. So I'm pretty excited about that. Yay, that's wonderful. So just so you know, I have a very good friend. I hope she's watching this, vice president of a very large tech company. She quit her job and went to do pre-med credentials when she was 56. So and then she wants to do medicine. And she has been like me in the tech career for over 30 years. So, you know, anything is possible. It's just a number. So when you're proving that, so that's really awesome. It's a little tough question, but one of the things that you mentioned in terms of your career and differences across the various industries that you have played in, you mentioned that tech has its nuances, right? And because you're here, you are as a person who says, I don't have to be the best person in the room and always bring in the tech person who can talk about tech while you are taking care of that executive presence. But tech always prefers people showing that expertise, number one. Number two, tech also prefers one being technical. So the question is, what did you mean by nuances? That's one. Second is, are you, you know, is that insecurity? Is that imposter syndrome? What is it that makes you think that you're not technical enough? Reality. So I'll say this. I have had, I have felt as a woman of color specifically, you know, living in primarily very conservative states, Utah and Arizona, navigating the corporate world, which is predominantly run by, you know, white men, right? So I have had to become very savvy and have a quiet confidence about myself. Now, obviously, I'm not your conventional suit. You know, you see that I have tattoos and I'm very, very authentically myself when I show up in these spaces. So I have had to learn whether the industry, you know, I've been in water, supply chain, healthcare, whatever industry it is, I have to build relationships. And that is what, that is my superpower. And that's what makes me a good leader is my ability to build relationships. Therefore, I have mentors. I have people that take an interest in me because they decide what they're, there's, there's something there. And I've been fortunate enough to have those people around me to say, I'm going to give you this opportunity. In tech, they do ask you to have, you know, SQL, Agile, you know, have this certificate, have that certificate. And I just wandered my happy self into tech and just thought, I'm just going to show you guys how to do this stuff. And I have, you know, my technical ability is have you turn it off and turn it back on again, right? And that's why, you know, like you mentioned, I had mentioned before, I hire, I don't want to be the smartest person in the room. I do hire people. So while I have battled with imposter syndrome in the past, the fact is I just do not feel that I am technically enough. I'm just technically enough to be dangerous or to carry on a conversation or to be customer facing and inspire confidence and, you know, create that space for, hey, you tell me what you need, tell me what you want, and I'll be able to make it happen for you. But I'm not going to do it. So the way I've navigated the tech space is just by being a very, very strong leader. And I can lead, you know, I've led individual contributors. I now have been a leader of leaders for the past 10 years. And if I can inspire them to do things that I need them to do and hire appropriately, I remain successful. And that's how I've been able to grow in my career. Yeah, so one of the first advices that I got as a manager, this was in the early 2000s, is find somebody else who can do your job better. So you will always find something better to do. That is the best advice that I've gotten. So what you're saying totally resonates with me. But I'm still wondering, how did you navigate that tech career? And is there any advice that you would give for others? When there's so much expectation on tech? Yeah, so I remain curious, as curious as I possibly can be. I dig into cases. I do a lot of, you know, observations. I look at the workflows. I want to see what my people are doing so that I can better understand. And that's what gains me a little credibility, right? So as a leader, if you're a strong leader, you can go into any space. But you might have that respect. But do you have the credibility of, well, does she really know what she's talking about? So coming in green into a tech space, first, my focus was the people. And then once I jumped in with both feet, it really was, let me just tag along. Let me just shadow. Let me just ask questions. And I went to sales. And I went to engineers. And I went to all of my account managers and my customer success teams. And I just observed. And it's a really kind of crude or rudimentary way to be introduced to the tech space. But that is really what gave me a leg up. And right now, our company is providing certifications. And I'm raising my hand. Put me in coach. Because I think with kind of the hands-on and the observation and now the technical testing and assessment piece, I think I'll be in a much better state. You should actually write a blog. I would love to see you write a blog about, here are the things that I learned when I moved to the tech industry. And the lingos and the acronyms and everything that we try and that no other industry thrives in. So yeah. The last question. There are so many mentors who came for you when you talked about them and how they kind of came in at the right step during your career and enable you to rise up or learn or be your sponsor or whatever, right? So what would you do back for the community to be a mentor? Oh, you know, it's something that I do now. Previous Next

Learn how Chief Customer Officers can lead experience transformation with strategic playbooks that align business goals with customer success The CCO Playbook Unlocking Customer Experience Leadership | Transcription Good morning, Jeb, how are you doing? Good morning, great. Kay, how are you? Very good. I'm super excited for this conversation here because this looks like a consolidation of talking to multiple CC OS all at once. Talking to you hopefully. Yeah, I think yes, that's fair. I'll try. So Jeb, you were a chief customer officer at Oracle and one of the even even before chief customer officers was a cool thing to be in and, but you chose a path to actually guide and coach other CC OS. Why did you pick this path? Well, first and foremost, it's, it's easier to coach than it is to actually do the work, which I so there's, there's one small point, but setting that aside, you know, there's a, there's a few reasons. I, I mean, I think fundamentally when I, I've talked to a lot of CC OS over the last several years, as you might imagine. And, and what I, what I found, and I'm sure this is no surprise to you, is that every single CCO goes about their job differently. I mean, literally everyone goes about their job in a different way. They have different focus, different span of responsibility, different way they measure their performance. It's all different. And if I can do a just a little bit to help solve that problem and to make it easier and more effective for people coming into this role to be able to execute quickly, I feel like I'll, I'll have done some good. I also kind of look at it that the situation from the standpoint of, I mean, I would like to help at this point in my, in my work life in a way that I could have used help, you know, so if I, I just kind of look at I, I was ACCCO for 12 years, I guess about that. And if I had somebody that could help me in the way that hopefully I'm helping chief customer officers, that would have been amazing. Also there, you know, there's, there's just this kind of goes to the first point about every CCO having a different approach to their job and different span of responsibilities and so forth. There's no playbook at all. Like if you're, if you're a chief financial officer or CMO or even a chief operating officer, there's at least a playbook that's in your head, you know, that you can use to go about your job and, and really kick, kick into gear with some, some setting of priorities and, and working with people to kind of figure out what needs to be done and what can really make a big difference for the organization. Nothing like that really exists for the chief customer officer. And the last thing is just selfishly, I mean, I, every conversation I have with the CCO, I, I learn a lot. So it's, it's fun to me for, for that reason that I'm just, I'm just constantly learning and if I can share what I learn and, and share, you know, what I've learned in different ways, either doing the job or talking to people who are actively doing the job today, you know, I, I feel good about that. Hopefully, hopefully I've made a contribution. Thank you for that. Actually, you know, I have noticed that some non traditional industries CCO is even called chief experience officers. And I, if I, if I look at the so I run this group called the experience alliance. And if I look at the members of the group today, there's a wide range of people. There are chief customer officers, chief client officers, there's a chief, there's a chief experience officer, there's a, there's a patient experience officer for a healthcare provider. I mean, it runs a broad range of, of titles. So, so even when I look to bringing new, say new members into my group, I, I, I kind of generally sort of focus on those titles, but you have to kind of look beyond that for people that just fundamentally are thinking about CX broadly and thinking about how they can really have a positive effect on their business through CX programs. So that's, that's kind of more, more of the way I think about it. Yeah. So, so it's a good point that the titles are different, the job descriptions are different, the way in which each of the Ccos are approaching their own role is different and how they measure, how they implement what they do, it's all very different. So are you, you know, in terms of what you're achieving from the coaching program, are you trying to bring normality in the sense that are you trying to define this is a standard in which somebody needs to operate? Or are you saying, you know, Jeb as a CCO is doing it this way, how can I make them better and K as a chief experience officer or a patient experience officer is doing it this way and how can I make it better? What is the approach? I, I, I think it's a combination of those things. If, if I had to come down on one side of that or the other, I would say it's more about the latter in the sense that every, every chief customer officer, every chief experience officer, they're all, they're all doing their jobs differently. And so if I can, if I can learn about how they're doing it and try to help them do it better, that's, that's great. You know, I, I do, I do try to create some, some, some commonalities and, and kind of, kind of some best practices or at least some, some frameworks for thinking about how to approach the job. I, I'm, I'm not a big believer in one size fits all for anything, certainly not for CX and CCO work. So, so I try to avoid that. But, but I do think there's some, there are some things that people can learn from others and there are some commonalities, you know, that, that, that I try to, to bring out and, and really try to, to get people to, to think about in their own context. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a little bit like, I mean, I think about the, the commonalities of, of, of the customer experience in the sense of, you know, there's, there's some basic human psychology that underlies the way that customers make decisions and, and, and the way that they perceive their interactions with the business, you know, and there's some, some basic sort of economic principles that underlie the business decisions. And, and so if you can understand those and apply those in, in your own unique business context, I think that's, that's, that's kind of a good way to go about it. So I do, I do try to, to bring some, some commonality to, to what people are doing, but, but I also try to be very respectful of the fact that it's, it's, it's very much a, a, a unique role for each person. And, and if, if I, if I can help them get better, if I can help them sort of really drive some results in the business, however they go about their job, then, then, then I've done something useful. Previous Next

Speaker: Ifeanyi Nwoke Experience Dialogue Cultural Changes that we see within CX in the African continent Speaker: Ifeanyi Nwoke May 27, 2022 Previous Item Next Item Does your client portfolio include international customers or do you expect it to in the future? If so, it’s important to bring cultural awareness to every aspect of your customer Journey. Failing to incorporate cultural diversity into your CX strategy can cost your business and result in lost sales potential. According to Symantec's "State of Privacy Report 2015,"💡 👉 On average 57 percent of Europeans feel uneasy about the security of their data. 👉 78 percent of Spaniard respondents reported feeling insecure. 👉 Germany came second at 62 percent. 👉 In contrast, UK-based customers reported feeling relatively comfortable about their data with less than half of the respondents being wary. This dialogue will cover: 1. Cultural changes that we see within CX in the African continent 2. How are we preparing our youth to be part of the CX role? Where are the opportunities? 3. How can teams tap into the talent coming from this community? A lot of people believe that when it comes to customer experience that's generally where people come in. Quality service and time taken for their queries are expected by customers in Africa too. But, as you know, a lot has changed in the last 1-2 years, especially with the advent of covid, consumer customer expectation as well. In the case of customer campaigns, people generally no longer rely on responsive service alone. They expect, you know, brands of businesses to be active with the savings. Brand experience and being comfortable with the endorsement approach are also essential. People are trying to identify areas where they have challenges and you know, practically solving those issues and also, how the customer journey breaches the ax approach. So customers have certain expectations and then when it comes to that choice point, customers also expect personalization. There isn't just one common approach to reaching customers during selective torture. For example, send a blast email to each customer and say, look, we have this update, trying to personalize conversations from support to general communication, making sure customers feel valued, fueling value. People in Africa say that I want to talk to the people of my country. Brands appreciate it when they recognize their looks and Mr. Social, so they'll appreciate Bronze. Try to personalize the approach to the interaction and interestingly also the customer. Also, customers are brand innovators and are thinking very fast in terms of their products for services, and support. Not only that, the deployment program chain is where we are and will continue to improve and then they are not seeing improvements. Customers come to you now to say, look, we need this. They know what they want and what is demanded of them. So they expect brands to be very innovative in their product offerings. And then one last thing in terms of data security. There are scenarios where customers feel hesitant to use their card, your cartoon mobile app, or maybe your web application because they are afraid of losing their money. So there is a need for trust, they need to increase, in terms of their approach, telling customers about them, they are on top of the data. protection policy, ensuring that they are keeping their data secure and that any information entered into the system. When you say global sales operations, you are talking about many countries like Africa and India, etc. Africa is a regional culture, and we have to serve a diverse culture. Africa also has diverse cultures and people from different countries, including those from South Africa and Nigeria. In Africa slightly different people value their religion, people should remember that you may want to deploy new corporations to enforce it. They value religion out there, and people take it seriously, even if it is a global sales operation for special needs, it has to be ensured. From your CRM, if the walk-in is very thorough, then automated all triggers are setting the correct properties and constantly updating those properties and ensuring that you can make sense of getting noticed for it. is required. What are the major issues and challenges? Which our customers are facing or user experience issues. It could be this poor support, the dissatisfaction matrix, it could be product stability. This could be anything, so would have to constantly look at the data and see what data it is telling you, and then it could be handled internally for the engineering and product team to meet and see. Different users should be able to achieve our goal and have different tags. And then a week or two weeks later you go through the profile on the portal and just choose to review the performance of your customers, and then find out what the customers are performing today. Then there has to be proactive, know-how, and customers need to engage more and look for new ways to understand why they haven't turned up on any given challenge and see how to help them achieve it. , and thus they will be able to achieve their objectives. So this is how most of the expectations are constantly changing, what you knew yesterday may not be met today? So you have to keep updating yourself. We know about the strengths of the current industry, so you need to engage with CS people, constantly. Join those workshop webinars, try to learn new strategies, and new approaches to CX, and sustain yourself. Ifeanyi is a seasoned CX leader based in Africa. In addition to his accolades in CX, Ifeanyi has helped empower African youth to get into CS.

A comprehensive guide to install Ascendo application within your Slack workspace with no code. Previous Next Slack Implementation guide Read Guide A comprehensive guide to install Ascendo application within your Slack workspace with no code. August 30, 2022 at 10:00:00 PM Resolve issues as they arise. Know what questions come from customers, how agents are responding. Connect with existing Knowledge base or automatically create new knowledge from conversations. Improve only the knowledge that is required to meet your Self Service and agent quality goals.

Speaker: Maureen Azzato Discover how AI is revolutionizing the future of field service with Maureen Azzato Speaker: Maureen Azzato April 2, 2025 Previous Item Next Item This episode of the Ascendo AI Experience Dialogue Podcast explores the transformative role of AI in field service operations, focusing on how service leaders can leverage AI to drive profitability, efficiency, and customer-centric solutions. Maureen Azzato, Producer of Field Service USA, discusses the evolving trends in service management, the integration of AI across the service lifecycle, and the innovative AI Advisory Lab, a hands-on forum for practitioners to engage with technical experts and real-world use cases. Key takeaways include the shift from internal AI optimization to customer-facing solutions, the importance of starting with targeted AI use cases, and the growing recognition of service teams as profit centers. About the Speaker: Maureen Azzato is the Portfolio Director at Worldwide Business Research and the Producer of Field Service USA, where she designs industry-leading programs based on deep research and practitioner insights. With years of experience curating events for service leaders, she is a driving force in advancing AI adoption and innovation in the field service sector.

Speakers: David Leighton, Niharika Srivastav Experience Dialogue How to Attract and Hire Diverse Talent Speakers: David Leighton, Niharika Srivastav April 7, 2022 Previous Item Next Item Whether it is a small or a larger organization, diverse talent or hiring should be important for real growth. Diverse hiring helps to gain a global perspective within the organization. Also, with hiring different age groups, cultures, and genders, we can provide diversity to different clients with different ideologies, social values, and work culture asterisks. Diversity Hiring is one of the factors that reduce the monotony in the business workflow. By doing so make your business more effective and attractive. Diversity helps to develop the organization not only on an international basis but also on an international basis. An overall improvement can be found in quality and efficiency in the organization when people with different experiences and skills come together to accomplish a specific objective. When a group of talented people and a diverse team present their ideas in different ways, then the result is also successful. Start promoting diversity in the workplace! When you get options of different thoughts on the same subject, then the depth of the subject emerges. This will help in increasing the business revenue of your business simultaneously. Top Reasons why Diverse talent is important. 1. To target the global market, a diverse workforce would be your strength. 2. With diverse hiring, get a multilingual task force. 3. It will help to boost business's success. 4. Promote innovative thinking skills in organization through diverse hiring. 5. Get different ideas and think together at a single workplace. In any organization when people with different ideologies, ages, gender, culture, and values work on the same team, it will give rise to a small competition that can motivate the employees to work harder. After all, good and healthy competition has always been the driving force behind the success of the organization. So, the question is- “How to Attract and Hire Diverse Talent?” Here is an Experience dialogue that Ascendo AI is trying to facilitate! Our speakers for the dialogue- David Leighton and Niharika Srivastav engage in an insightful conversation to bring to you their unique take on several topics related to Hire Diverse Talent .

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Explore how AI can be used to improve service operations. Anne, a medical device leader, discusses a project where AI was used to analyze service data to optimize maintenance schedules. She highlights the importance of using a data-driven approach and getting stakeholder buy-in for successful AI implementation. Using AI to Drive Service Improvements | Transcription Kay - Good morning, good afternoon. Good evening. Welcome to the experience dialogue. In these interactions. We pick a Hot Topic. That doesn't have a straightforward answer. We then bring in speakers who have been there and seen this but approached it in many different ways. This is a space for healthy. Disagreements and discussions. But in a very respectful way, just by the nature of how we have conceived, this, you will see passionate wiser of opinions friends. Having a dialogue and thereby interrupting each other or finishing each. The sentences. Our mission is at the end of the dialogue. We want our audience to leave with valuable insights and approaches that you can try at your workplace and continue the discourse in our social media channels with that. It's my pleasure to introduce the topic of today. Which is AI and how to use AI to drive service improvements. And for this, we have several Eight. She is aum global medical device leader. And then, what interested me about Anne's background, is she has done everything from, our organizational strategy program management sales marketing field operations and she is ranked huge field service operations within Philips and Baxter in many many, many capacities and has grown. The business has considerably And she has a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Washington University with that. She focuses on the patient. Experience is fabulous and it fits in this conversation today. We're and will be taking us through a framework of how to introduce data science to improve service operations. Including how to identify a proof-of-concept project. So how do you start with a Concept and how do you determine AI is the right for your organization for this? She will be sharing a practical example of, how she and her team used AI data-driven insights. To drive improvements in service processes at large medical device companies and teams with that welcome and welcome to the discussion. Anne - Thank you. Okay. I'm excited to be here and speak with you and those who are Watching this experience dialogue today. Very excited to discuss this topic. Kay - Yeah, I know this is the first LinkedIn life for you. So it's a good experience and we had a lot of interest from service leaders who are in medical devices and outside of the medical device, backgrounds, who are in the show watching today, which brings me to the first question, what led you to impart down the AI Pack. Anne - Yeah. So you know, in the years that I've been managing service organizations but the one thing that you have a lot of within Services, data tons, and tons and tons of data so much that, you know, it leads you to wonder how best to mine. It how best to make conclusions from it and how do you, you know, improve, you know, over time and so what intrigued me about AI, you know, we had started. Are working with you through the R&D group, you know, looking at some futuristic kind of applications and reviewing log files and things like that, and as you and I were discussing with the team. Well, what can we do today? You know, so certain improvements have to be made over time. You have access to log files and increase the information that's available in them. But is there anything we can do today? That would practically help solve some of these issues. And that's where we started to discuss. Do you know what kind of information is available and then what can we do with it to help Drive improvements within These large organizations? Kay - Yeah, and usually what we have seen companies, look at implementing IoT on edge devices, digital twins data, lakes, and all of that, all of it was important. But I remember the first conversation we were having and you were like, what can we do with the service circuit data? Because we have very, you know, details of and what more value can be reaped from the existing service record data so we can improve service operations. And that's how I believe we started down the service record data path. Anne - Absolutely. Yeah. And I had in parallel but having a discussion within my organization that the Service Experts and the service leaders across the globe around you know some potential you know needs that they had that they saw. Right and so just to give an example in this, this is related to the project that we ended up working on together. Many medical devices require some sort of annual maintenance schedule, right? Whether it's an annual preventive, maintenance work by annual, you know, And this is a huge driver of overall service cost because it's a predictable service event that has to happen at a certain frequency and requires a field service engineer to go out and look at the equipment. Well, most companies are looking at, you know, what is the optimal p.m. schedule for any given piece of equipment? It's not always assessed when the product is originally designed, it is sort of assumed. Well we need to do something annually, right? And so with this, Particular device that we were working with there was a biannual p.m. that was pretty detailed and involved parts replacement and several things that were kind of required to keep the equipment up and running.However, there was also this annual on-the-off years kind of a p.m. light, you know. So it was an electrical safety check and some you know some basic things that India decided years and years and years ago were required to make sure that the equipment Moment was running and functional and so our regional leaders and our Service Experts were sorts of asking the question, what is this p.m. Am I doing? You know, is it reducing the incidence of corrective maintenance later? Excuse me. Sorry. Yeah. And there wasn't a good way for them to prove that so they had gone to R&d. And said can we look at this and Hardy said, well it's always been there.It's going to take a lot of time and money to assess that we're going to have to run devices and do testing. And, you know, let's just leave it for now. We've got other stuff we're working on and so it kept coming up and that's when we started our conversations around. What is it that we could do with the existing data? And we realized we do have these service records, right? We have a history of what has occurred on these devices now Now, the question was, how do you know if you took away a p.m. light, for instance, versus keeping it in? You know, what would happen to the devices? And that's where we had a bit of a fortuitous occurrence that had occurred as well. This is that just like within all large medical device companies, occasionally there are some misinterpretations or inaccurate interpretations of requirements which had You know, within this device in a certain country for many years and that's a compliance risk. But you know we run into it all the time within service that these things happen and you have to look at it and then make a decision. How do you remedy that? But in this case, we had a country that had not been doing the p.m. light events for some time, and then we had the rest of the world where they had. And so basically we had a test Population. And then, you know, the control that we could look at the service records and compare amongst them and say.So in these groups where that wasn't done what happened were there more Service events that were required. The problem was. And so we knew this but the problem is the amount of data, right? I mean, we're talking thousands, thousands of service records, you had to track it over time from one device to the other. There was also manual information entered, right? So sometimes when you do a PSA, You know, they have to replace something that wasn't part of that p.m. schedule and we needed to document all of that. And so that's exactly the kind of thing that AI is designed to help solve, which would require a massive amount of people to do a project like that.And so that's where, you know, your team and our team partnered up and spent probably good two to three months, right? Figuring out how best we Analyze that information. And what are we looking for? And what do we do with the information that comes out of it? So, that's, that's kind of just in a nutshell, the project that we embarked on and we can talk a bit more about, you know, the results if you'd like. Or if there are more details around that, if you think that the audience might like to know, I'd have to be happy to answer questions, too. Kay - Yeah. You know, what intrigued me is the path on which Your team embarked on it, right? So there was a hypothesis. Hey, we needed to evaluate it. And you question some of the assumptions that have been there for a long period. That's the one-second thing you want to make sure that there is data, so substantiate, whatever hypothesis that we come up with, and that has to be cost-effective from a service angle optimized and quality based does. Snot impact patient experience and has to make sense of the data has to make sense, such that going forward. The teams can operate with this new normal and that's a perfect you know, a data-oriented project that you are describing here, you know to be able to do something like that with existing data and two to three months is awesome. And we also mentioned a little bit about humans.Into data and humans enter data. I should say so which means there will be some level of algorithm inconsistencies and any should factor into that level of data cleansing to see which ones to take and which ones to ignore and where to put the emphasis on and all of that. Anne - Yeah. And it really required close collaboration between your team and then our team, right? Because you have to understand the process and the equipment and what's needed to be able to tell, you know, if we're seeing something a year later was that related to the fact that you know, the p.m. wasn't done or was it completely unrelated, right? And so the data can help tease that out but we wanted to look at that in detail together as a group because, you know, your team is the expert in the data. I didn't how to how to, how to develop those models and interpret the information that comes out of them and then you need the company to be the expert on the equipment right? To help point you in the right direction. Kay - Yeah, absolutely. And that also means doing a lot of change management internally across the geographies with the product teams. Getting a lot of product feedback from service data and then driving product Efficiency through service data is not normal in this industry and you have spearheaded some of it. And we see that with a lot of other Med device companies that we are working with, is this a trend that you see continuing? How did you embark on the change? Anne - Service is a huge cost driver for medical device organizations. Ask the globe, right? So it's a requirement, it's absolutely necessary. It provides a lot of value for customers as well. And so there's your huge attention on how to capitalize on that value while also reducing the cost, right? And that's true for the companies themselves, but also customers, right? So there's a lot of customers that do self-service on these, on these pieces of equipment, and they want to be able to manage how to do that themselves. And so the Question is, can they do it at the level that you know, an organization like Baxter Phillips does? You know, has that kind of knowledge and that kind of expertise within their group? Well you know the only way to do that is to provide them with the right data. The right tools. The right information to be able to service that equipment at the right level.And so I see organizations large medical device organizations are very interested in AI-based solutions for service because it is, it is a way to improve efficiency for them, as well as for customers, and to create more value over time as those insights and that information can be fed back to improve devices. Number one and also to help customers understand how to maintain their equipment better. So yeah. Yeah, please continue. Oh no, I was just going to say I mean, I think you know, AI is being used all over and every industry. But in particular in medical device service, Isis is one of those areas that can benefit the most from AI because of the massive amount of data and information that is running through a large organization every single day. Kay - We are so happy to have been popped off that Journey with you and your team. And what benefits do you see from doing this project? Anne - Yeah so I think, you know what What comes to mind first and foremost is always returning on investment, and what is the fine? What is the potential financial benefit? Right? And so, if we look at the example that we talked about with, you know, potentially removing this annual p.m. light, because the data showed that it didn't really, it didn't reduce the number of Service events that were happening with these devices over time. That alone and that example would have saved the organization a million dollars. Just to and that's every year, right? That's an annuity over time. So that's the kind of you know, what are relatively small projects that you can work on that have humongous Roi overtime right now. It's not just about Finance though. Service is all about customer experience and so you have to be able to prove that whatever change you're making first of all it doesn't degrade the customer experience in any way or another quality and compliance. Those are huge. Those are always number one and then beyond that. Is there an improvement? You know, for instance, in this case, if we tell customers will you don't, you don't have to do these p.m. lights either. If you're going to do self-service, right? That saves them time and money. They don't have to pull that equipment out of service for out of use for a day to do this. So that's a huge benefit to them and you can imagine and that's just in this example, but say that you Had access to service record data beyond this, and could look at Trends and patterns and see that certain devices are failing more frequently than others. For some reason, then that becomes a huge indicator of a customer experience issue or you might, we might need to pull the device out and then replace it or, you know, somehow determine which devices are functioning at the right level and not. And you could also avoid field actions, and narrow the scope of a field action if you could figure it out. For instance, it's only devices that were manufactured in 2015, that all of a sudden have these issues, that's the kind of power that I can give it can give that kind of insight. And ultimately, you know, help all of the metrics that a service organization is tracking, as well as, you know, improving the financial side as well. Kay, - You bring up a very good point. Most of the teams are used to looking. In meantime, between failure, and them tbf failure characteristics alone in service what you are bringing up is that alone is not enough, there is a lot more color to it which is when it was installed. What is geography? Who was the supplier?Do you know which teams worked on it? What are the human element and I can keep going? Can you think of some more failures? Chicks that you can add to what we were just talking about. Site of alone, MTBF Anne - Customer use patterns, it could be a chemical thing as well. That the way that they're using the equipment is somehow different in one region or another.It could be that the service process is not ideal in one country or, you know, with one set of tools. I mean there are so many variables and unfortunately, the tools to be able to assess all of that have been Limited. Did you know, for organizations and so they've had to embark on very large projects, to look at that information to try to narrow down the scope of field action, or to figure out the root cause or put together a Kappa, you know?So, these are ways that, I could speed up all of those various categories, Kay - each one is a problem in itself, right? So neat. On that. You're pointing out can drive service improvements significantly on its own.um, So can you expand a little bit on the other things that you mentioned here? You know you said it fast. You can. Please expand on it, Anne - sure.So, you know, if we're looking at some devices that let's say, you know, a piece of equipment was designed for an average use of Three times per day by a customer. But you're not, you're installing devices in a large high volume. A dialysis clinic is an example and they're doing 15 procedures per day. So most of the time, you know, the requirements that a device was built under our, then how it is tested, right? So for a device that's on average used three times a day, there's a certain service interval and frequency, and there's an Acted failure rate of certain Key Parts which are all within the acceptable range of how the product was originally designed for the customer requirements. But when you install those devices then and start using them just like you would a car, you start driving it. A lot more we have to do to get new tires, more frequently of to get the oil changed more frequently, and up until now, most companies haven't had the tools to be able to assess what is it that we need to do to make sure that that equipment. Payment is still delivering at the level that that customer expects. Right? And, do we need to modify the customer's expectations? Yes, we told you. It's only going to need one p.m. a year, but you're using it five times more than we expected. And so we need to do p.m. at least two or three times a year. Those are the kinds of insights that I think AI could help provide because of its real-time use. So it's unrealistic to design a product to Encompass all of the In areas, in which, it might be utilized in the field, they try, but it's very difficult to do, right? And so, the question is, once it's out there and they have real information about what's happening, how do we utilize that to then feed back into our service processes? Our data, our design requirements for the future to improve and I think that's where you know the types of Tools that Ascendo developing and putting together around a, I could benefit organizations in that effort. Kay - Yes, Anne what you did within the, you know, your team is, you're getting information from the product into service, but you close the loop going in from service, back into the product into the design of the next generation of the product, giving them insights. What you see in the field. So, in a way, you have alleviated, not just the service experience for the patients, and our customers, but you elevated the service experience for the R&D teams to absolutely. Anne - And I think it also has, you know, one of the challenges that a med device companies run into is that that feedback loop isn't always there as you just mentioned but even if it is there and it's getting into the next product, you still have 10 or 15 years of use of the existing product that you have to figure out how to optimize and it's unrealistic to read design the products that are out there, right? If there's a very large installed base there there there, and we need to figure out what to do with the ones that are already out there. And again, I think that's where I can help. So that's, that's sustaining engineering piece is huge for a lot of companies. It's a Strain on R&D, resources, and investment, it's necessary. But if there's a way to sort of provide better data around, what are the top opportunities? Because I think it gets hard, there's a laundry list of items that, you know, as a service organization, you want to see improved in the devices that are out there but R&d and sustaining engineering rightfully ask well, which ones are we going to go after? Because I can't work on 50 things. And so that's where having better data. Helps. You build out a case for which ones can require sustaining engineering resources, which ones are a process issue that could be solved within the service itself, or which ones do we just literally need to replace the devices because they're just not functioning at the level that was intended, you know? Kay - Yeah. And that's, you know, the beauty of using something like a simple AI is As you said, we can get that pretty much real-time information back from service as a voice of the customer into the product. And that gives a lot faster feedback back from the field into the product. And like you said, it's for sustaining, how do you manage and continue? The experience of the existing products is as much as the new products, right? So, getting this real-time, Input is hugely beneficial.um, Do you have anything else on the topic? Otherwise, I was going to switch it. Anne - Be only the only thing I think that you're hitting on probably transitioning into our next topic a little bit but that data piece is how you then convince stakeholders right.That this is an important initiative, that requires investment and that will generate the kind of return on investment that every organization is looking for. And so, that's huge. That's a huge piece of the change management part as well. Kay - Yeah. Can you speak about change management before and after AI because even after AI, it still affects the business processes before doing AI? It's a lot of convincing and looking at the data and being able to substantiate it. Yeah. Can you speak a little bit more about it? Anne - Absolutely. Yeah. So I think you know if we look at the example that I gave earlier you know it's It started with a team, you know, the team of experts, whether it's your Regional experts or your service engineering kind of expertise, experts on the hunches that they have, right? So they have these questions. Is this the p.m. cycle that's been redefined? Is it the one that is optimal for the device? Is it doing what's intended? Right? Is it reducing the number of Service events later and I think just starting with that, question knows, And was that had been in place for a long time? Hadn't gotten the right level of attention or investment. Because again R&d didn't have any data to say, why would we believe this? You know, this is what was predefined? Why change, what's working? You know we might introduce more issues, we don't want want to do that and those are all valid concerns, right? And so what is needed then is to get that data, right? And we ended up in a fortuitous situation where we Had a compare group and a control group that we could look at and basically, and I think any company could do that if they could create their own, their compare group, right? If you could take their requirement away in one area and then wait a year and then see what the data showed. We happen to have historical data, which was helpful. And so we were able to pretty quickly in two to three months. Compared those groups and take a look at what is the data show. And with the Data. Then you have evidence to go back to the right, stakeholder groups within R&D and it's going to be leadership, right? Because that's where the investment is required, both in terms of time from their teams and then also the return on investment. And so you want to show compare those two things and say this is, does this make sense to go after most of the time within service it will because even if you don't generate the returns in one year if you look at the lifetime of that equipment, You're going to generate it into, or multiple five years, right? And it will pay off and so. So that's kind of the direction that we looked and luckily in this case it was very clear well if we remove this p.m. light and here's the implication of that I think with some other types of interventions in might be a little more complex to say, well what do we do about this problem? If it's one particular part that seems to be failing more than another does that require Design, or does that require a replacement strategy? I think that could be a little more complex with some of the other problems. But the returns could be even greater right for something like that. And so, that's kind of how we moved that particular project forward. It had a pretty clear outcome, the data was convincing. And so the question just became like when can we do this, right? Not should we be doing this? Kay - Yeah, that's perfect. So essentially what you have given for any leaders, service leaders is a framework to do our think about AI Projects based on our joint experience together. So if I me summarize the kind of steps that you have been guiding us through, you started with a hunch you looked at what is the data that we have to substantiate that. Conch and where are the most efficiencies that can be improved and what information do I need? So it's also coming up with a clear deliverable at the end that needs to be convinced for the change management portion. There was a so that determined a clear outcome for the project and then ongoing, how do you continue that change management and the steps that need to happen? To create, you know, come up with that review and do this periodically. So did I summarize this correctly? Anne - Yes and I think, you know what you would like to do with the proof of concept. Like, this is convincing the right people within your organization of the power of this kind of approach, right? So that then it becomes something that the next time it's more Blessed. Right? There's less convincing that needs to be done around the model and the data and things like that. If you can get some buying early on and show the proof that that project worked, then that creates kind of a framework and a roadmap to continue this type of improvement down the road. Right? And so that was the vision for us let's pick something very tangible that we can use to develop a model. Internally how to use AI insights to improve service the fish. Kay - That's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you so much for your time. I think this is very very helpful from a service standpoint, for leaders to be able to start implementing AI within their teams and create that feedback loop and that voice of the customer to the R&D teams. Thank you for your time and for continuing. The Discussion and look forward to sleeping more benefits. Anne - Thank you for the opportunity. Previous Next

Speaker - Ramki Pitchuiyer ChatGPT and the future of Customer Support Speaker - Ramki Pitchuiyer December 20, 2022 Previous Item Next Item There is excitement on many tech and business channels on ChatGPT from Open.AI. We have been following Open.AI and GPT-3 for some time. We have discussed the technology and explored its impact on the customer support experience space, possible limitations, and opportunities. We brought up many more informative points, to learn more Join Ascendo AI for this Experience Dialogue on ChatGPT and the future of Customer Support. At the end of each dialogue, we want you and our audience to leave with valuable insights and approaches that you can try at your workplace - and continue the discourse in our social media channels! Introduction to the speaker. Ramki Pitchuiyer is the Co-Founder and CTO at Ascendo.AI. Ramki comes with a deep data science and support background. He ran managed services for Oracle Cloud, created a proactive support platform for NetApp’s multi-billion dollar business and is respected for his mathematical and business thinking in data science. At Ascendo, his mission is to give meaning to each and every customer interaction, and elevate the experience of customers and support agents. About Ascendo Ascendo is addressing optimization of Support Operations within enterprises so that they can serve their customers better, optimize workflow for their agents and provide dashboards for insights on risk, churn analysis and visibility for the senior managers. We are revolutionizing SupportOps in the same way that DevOps and RevOps have transformed other areas of business. In the last 3 years we have created a G2 category and are ranked #1 in user satisfaction.

Kami Vision, a leading computer vision company, transformed its overwhelmed customer support with Ascendo's AI-powered platform. Self-service rates skyrocketed from 0% to 83%, freeing agents for complex issues and boosting customer satisfaction. Download Case Study: Kami Vision Supercharges Customer Support with AI-Powered Self-Service Boosting Efficiency by 83 percentage Kami Vision, a leading computer vision company, transformed its overwhelmed customer support with Ascendo's AI-powered platform. Self-service rates skyrocketed from 0% to 83%, freeing agents for complex issues and boosting customer satisfaction. Please enter your business email ID Please enter a valid name with alphanumeiric value Kami Vision, a pioneer in edge-based AI solutions, faced a familiar battle: a tidal wave of customer support tickets. Their existing system, while reliable, couldn't keep pace with their rapidly expanding customer base. Agents were swamped, training new ones took months, and critical tribal knowledge remained untapped. Ascendo's intelligent engine understood customer questions like a whisper, instantly recommending accurate solutions for a whopping 83% of issues. That meant less tickets for frustrated agents and more time for complex problems. Plus, Ascendo empowered agents with real-time guidance, boosting response speed and accuracy. But the magic went beyond speed. Ascendo unlocked Kami's "tribal knowledge" by surfacing hidden trends and valuable insights from past interactions. This knowledge goldmine fueled a continuously improving knowledge base, ensuring even more self-service wins. Ready to ditch the support ticket nightmare? Ascendo is your AI-powered escape route. Unlock self-service, knowledge sharing, and quick triaging. Download now Case Study: Kami Vision Supercharges Customer Support with AI-Powered Self-Service Boosting Efficiency by 83 percentage Ready to learn more? Contact Us