Driving a better customer experience

CSIA was delighted to recently talk to Kieren King, Talkdesk’s Chief Customer Officer and hear her thoughts on what drives her customer service team to deliver outstanding results, the importance of diversity and why Talkdesk founder and CEO Tiago Paiva’s belief that customers must be at the heart of every conversation and interaction is just as important as ever.

Please tell us about your role as Chief Customer Officer.

Talkdesk partners with customers to help design their CX vision, enable the implementation of that vision into their organisations and measure the results, and I am responsible for looking after that customer journey. It’s an honour to look after this responsibility and it's the client services teams at Talkdesk that are the true difference-makers.

How has your career journey to date put you in good stead to develop such exceptional client service teams?

I’ve spent my entire 25-year career in client-facing roles. Working at a global level, I have had the privilege of consulting with companies across various industries and continents. The work itself has been inspiring – helping brands facilitate digital transformations and each experience has been full of learnings and best practices. The most significant of which is how to listen intently, apply balance to decisionmaking and how to ‘channel the chair.’ This technique fosters empathy where you put yourself in the customer’s seat.

Talkdesk disrupted the customer service space when it launched a decade ago. How does it continue to transform the customer experience?

Talkdesk was founded as a company of innovation. Our founder comes from an engineering, product development background which accounts for our heavy R&D focus. Over 50% of the global Talkdesk headcount is dedicated to engineering or product development ensuring new products or features are rolled out on a continuous basis. In 2020, the company filed over 200 patents and launched 20 new products including Virtual Agent, Agent Assist, and the latest, AI Trainer, which leverages the power of AI to assist agents with getting to the right answer faster.

How has Talkdesk been able to help businesses to deliver better customer service experiences?

There are two sets of metrics which define the quality of customer experiences. Internally, the metrics include abandonment rates, hold and resolution times which ultimately drives higher external KPIs such as higher CSAT scores, increased revenues and improved customer retention. The ability to measure these KPIs internally and demonstrate business impact externally is how Talkdesk drives better customer experiences. We consult with customers using our proprietary value hierarchy and CX maturity model to identify what the organisational priorities are which, in turn, shapes our partnership plan.

As Executive Sponsor of Talkdesk’s Women in Technology Employee Resource Group, you are an advocate for gender balance. How important is diversity and equality in building a positive workplace culture at Talkdesk?

Immensely important. We have a global workforce representing people from a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures. What this brings to the business is a range of unbiased ideas which helps in arriving at better decisions faster. We operate as a “wirearchy” which means all levels have a seat at the table in voicing their ideas. We seek out diversity by hiring the best talent across the globe; different cultures, background, demographics and experience help fuel our pace of innovation.

What are some of the attributes of Talkdesk’s leadership team?

Courageous innovation, customer obsessed, diversity and inclusion, trust and transparency, and community and environmental giving are the Talkdesk core values. They are truly embodied by the Talkdesk leadership team.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned about customer service?

Humanising the experience is everything. When you sincerely understand a customer’s priorities, challenges and desired outcomes, it creates partnership meaning. When you demonstrate kindness, respect and gratitude as you interact with client stakeholders, it fosters mutual influence.

About Talkdesk:

Talkdesk is a Cloud Contact Centre as a Service (CcaaS) that assists organisations to create better customer experiences, resulting in higher customer satisfaction, cost savings and profitability.

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