Understanding the world through data

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In this episode of Engati CX, we are joined by Bob E. Hayes to talk about how to understand the world through Data.

Bob E. Hayes is the president of  Business over Broadway. He conducts research in the area of customer experience, data science, customer feedback, and provides consultation to help clients improve the way they use their customer data.

He has over 25 years of consulting and research experience in enterprise and midsize companies, including Microsoft, Oracle, Agilent Technologies, and more. 

Bob has published numerous articles in both scientific and trade journals and presented at national and international conferences as a keynote speaker on various topics. 

This section will contain a quick summary of our interview with Bob. But, if you’d rather hear it, we’ve got our Spotify podcast embedded below.

The current algorithms, as a result of machine learning, it’s everywhere, according to Bob. If you’re not using this data, if you’re not looking at these algorithms, then you’re already behind. Data helps businesses in two ways-

So Bob is a huge fan of data, so he takes a data-driven approach at all times. One of the things he likes to do is conduct customer surveys, collecting feedback from customers. He enjoys linking up survey data with more objective measures. He encourages everyone to quantify and to understand that customer touchpoints, wants, and needs are the best predictors for loyalty.

Firstly, Bob prefers looking at AI as Augmented Intelligence, over Artificial Intelligence. He does not think we should completely replace employees with automated systems. He personally strives for using AI to help current employees with solving simple problems for customers. When a chatbot cannot handle a query, it should be transferred to the appropriate person. Whether it’s a customer service representative, or someone from the support team, or HR.

First, define what problem you want to solve. You have to have a goal. Then based on the problem, figure out what you want to do. If it’s a small problem, start small and hire a team to address that particular problem. For example, if your issue is related to not having enough people to handle clients for customer support, a tool like Engati can help by offering support via Chatbots 24/7. 

AI Chatbots and conversational intelligence are going to be super useful in the future, according to Bob. He’s not sure if we’re at the level to rely on chatbots to handle everything, but it’s a good way to triage incoming calls. Once things get complicated, a live agent should take over.

There’s no limit to imagination. Even with the rise of new technologies like sentiment analysis, natural language processing, etc. As algorithms become more complex, there’s no end in sight. So even though we have a long way to go, that doesn’t mean we should stop trying. 

Digital transformation has accelerated because of the pandemic. Work from home requires all of us to become digital, to use new technologies. So if we haven’t embraced new technologies yet, we must. Necessity is the mother of invention, so he’s excited for what’s to come.  

Bob encourages all of us to become learned in data literacy. We all should learn about statistics and the language of data. Otherwise, we’ll be lost, and we will get left behind.