DR2023 Fionna Yao & Anna Lee Anda - Beep Boop! Are bots better for consumers and the agents...

Ever wondered how tech companies like Zendesk conducts research for to help determine future directions, particularly in new product areas like bots and automation. In the realm of customer service, automation is often thought of as deflection. We don’t often think of opportunities for people to help themselves and having customer support specialists get really hands-on and unblock more complicated situations. This talk covers how we collaborated with a global team and customer base to drive the direction and the future of customer support. We will cover some of the challenges faced when researching green-field products and share how we handled: * How to position and get buy-in with strategic research when the stakes are high & pressure to deliver is high * Coming to an agreed outcome when there are opposing and diverse viewpoints from the stakeholders. * Getting consensus on what is the most important thing to tackle next using an evidence based and data-driven approach.