We put our customers first.

For many organizations, this is just a motto without any real meaning behind it. At Coveo, it comes into everything we do, and especially how we approach our annual conference, Coveo Impact 2019.

In fact, one attendee shared on LinkedIn that it was “one of the best conferences” and reiterated that the event is focused on customer success, not a sales pitch. “It seemed to me that it was comradeship, not vested interest that pulled everyone together. I loved the humor, the willingness to share, the climate of innovation and the I’m-already-looking-forward-to-next-year sentiment.”

One of the areas this came through was at our “Voice of the Customer” Lunch. We’ve held some version of this every year because we want to hear what’s on our customers’ minds, and how they view Coveo as part of achieving their own strategic goals while having a Coveo expert engaging in a discussion with them. We assigned a topic to each table and invited customers to choose the topics that most interested them.

#1 Trust is important.

Trust came across in two conversations. First, some of our customers discussed how “let Coveo do its thing” often felt uncomfortable for teams who had grown accustomed to the control that they had with enterprise search. Trusting that the machine learning will do its job is not as easy.

Second, trusting your teams when adopting Knowledge-Centered Service methodology. KCS® thrives on having an active and engaged team that is creating content and investing the experience of agents and customers. You’re trusting your agents to share their knowledge and then again to use it where it matters for your customers.

#2 “Fail fast, fail forward.”

This mantra came up quite a few times and it’s one we also embrace here at Coveo in our own work. It’s not the fact that you failed that matters – it’s that you’re upfront about the failure, learn from it and move on.

Many of our customers are leading major projects with major and far-reaching implications for their organizations. And as difficult as it may be, failure is a part of it.

#3 Executive buy-in makes a difference with change management.

Understanding the “why” of the decisions made is crucial for executives making the major changes that come with implementing a new community or adopting KCS, for example. Executives need to be able to explain and sell the new process or project effectively and easily if questions arise.

#4 Customer value and results matter more than clicks and actions.

This gets back to the point above. Everyone not only needs to understand the “why” of the changes you are trying to make – you also need to measure the “why.” Clickthroughs, case deflections, conversions are all pointing to a north star that should guide your decisions: your overall customer and employee experience and satisfaction.

Too often, it’s easy to focus on the datapoints that you have and lose sight of this north star.

#5 Managing the knowledge of your organization is getting more and more important.

The workforce is changing – and with older workers retiring, retaining their “institutional knowledge” is crucial to every organization. Having a process in place to capture and use the knowledge of retiring workers is at the top of many of our customers’ minds.

#6 It’s not just about the customer experience. The employee experience makes a difference too.

Organizations are very focused on improving the experience that their customers have with the brand – but overlooking how their employee experience affects their key metrics. Happy employees, happy customers.

Thanks to everyone who attended Coveo Impact 2019, and especially those who shared their thoughts at our Voice of the Customer lunch! The planning has already started for Impact 2020, and you can subscribe for updates here.

In the meantime, head over to Coveo Connect to keep these conversations going!

*KCS® is a service mark of the Consortium for Service InnovationTM