CXChronicles Podcast

Accelerate Your AI Strategy With Amazon Web Services | Pasquale DeMaio

Adrian Brady-Cesana Season 8 Episode 262

Hey CX Nation,

In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #262, we welcomed Pasquale DeMaio, Vice President at Amazon Web Services (AWS) based in Seattle, WA. 

Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) began exposing key infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services -- now widely known as cloud computing.

Today, Amazon Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world. 

With data center locations in the U.S., Europe, Singapore, and Japan, customers across all industries are taking advantage of our low cost, elastic, open and flexible, secure platform.

In this episode, Pasquale and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that his team at AWS think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.

**Episode #262 Highlight Reel:**

1. How AWS thinks about team-building strategies 
2. Leveraging Amazon Connect's Unified AI Engine 
3. Streamlining customer service & success to fuel growth
4. Investing & supporting employee-driven innovation & cross-team collaboration
5. Building customer-centricity into the DNA of your engineering team

Click here to learn more about Pasquale DeMaio

Click here to learn more about Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Huge thanks to Pasquale for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer success space into the future.

If you enjoy The CXChronicles Podcast, stop by your favorite podcast player hit the follow button and leave us a review today.

For our Spotify friends, make sure you are following CXC & please leave a 5 star review so we can find new listeners & members of our community.

For our Apple friends, same deal -- follow CXCP and leave us a review letting folks know why you love our customer focused content.

You know what would be even better?

Go tell one of your friends or teammates about CXC's content,  strategic partners (Hubspot, Intercom, & Zendesk) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation!

Want to see how your customer experience stacks up to others, ask us about the CXC Healthzone, an intelligence platform that shares benchmarks & insights from companies across the world. 

Huge thanks for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!

Reach Out To CXC Today!

Support the show

Contact CXChronicles Today

Remember To Make Happiness A Habit!!

Summary

AWS Connect: From Concept to Success

Pasquale de Mayo, Vice President at AWS, discusses his career journey and the development of AWS Connect. He explains how he joined Amazon to build web services, specifically focusing on creating a customer service platform. Initially designed for internal use, Pasquale and his team pitched the idea to transform it into an AWS service. After approval from Andy Jassy, then CEO of AWS, they launched the first version at Enterprise Connect in 2017. Since then, AWS Connect has become one of the fastest-growing services in AWS history, driven by strong customer engagement and feedback.

Amazon Connect: Team Building Strategies

Pasqual discusses his approach to team building and management at Amazon Connect. He emphasizes the importance of enabling individuals to do great work as a group and focusing on the human aspect of teams. Pasqual explains that he reviews team resources quarterly, conducts annual operational reviews, and makes significant changes every 2-3 years to prevent stagnation. He also highlights the critical role of communications in their contact center solution, mentioning that they have integrated with around 40 carriers worldwide to ensure rock-solid performance. Pasqual notes that Amazon's philosophy is to tackle hard problems and operate at a level that others cannot match, often leading to improvements that benefit entire countries.

Amazon Connect's Unified AI Engine

Pasqual describes Amazon Connect's unified engine that powers all customer interaction channels and workflows. This engine enables quick development of automation capabilities and AI integrations, allowing agents to easily build experiences across different modalities. The system also provides unified analytics, moving beyond traditional metrics like average handle time. Amazon recently introduced an all-inclusive AI package for Connect, offering AI capabilities at every touchpoint for a single price. Pasqual notes that customers range from sophisticated companies like Doordash, who build their own AI models, to less tech-savvy businesses like Traeger Grills, who benefit from pre-built AI solutions within Connect.

Amazon Connect: Streamlined Customer Service Solution

Scott Pasqual discusses the advantages of Amazon Connect, a customer service platform developed by AWS. He emphasizes that Connect is designed as a centralized, integrated solution to address the challenges of managing complex tech stacks and integrations. Pasqual highlights the platform's ease of implementation, stating that customers can set up a fully functional, AI-enabled contact center in just one day. He also notes that Connect's pricing model incentivizes customer success, as users only pay for what they actually use, with a free tier available for experimentation.

Streamlining Processes for Efficient Development

Pasquale discusses the importance of minimizing unnecessary processes in software development and team management. He emphasizes making the right actions obvious and easy to perform, reducing friction in daily tasks. Pasquale advocates for employee ownership and accountability, encouraging team members to address issues directly or seek help when needed. He also stresses the importance of regularly reviewing and questioning existing processes to ensure they continue to add value, rather than becoming burdensome over time.

Employee-Driven Innovation and Cross-Team Collaboration

The discussion highlights the importance of employee empowerment and cross-functional collaboration in improving business processes. An AWS employee took initiative to analyze and streamline security checkpoint questions, resulting in a 30% reduction in redundant inquiries. This improvement was subsequently implemented across AWS, demonstrating the value of bottom-up innovation. The conversation then shifts to the benefits of integrating voice of customer (VOC) and voice of product teams, emphasizing how aligning these groups can lead to more efficient communication and product development, regardless of company size.

Customer-Centric Engineering and Feedback Approach

Pasqual emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs and empowering employees to work on meaningful projects. He encourages engineers to interact with customers and speak up if they feel their work doesn't benefit users. Pasqual discusses AWS's approach to customer feedback, which includes analyzing usage data and having in-depth conversations with clients to understand their desired outcomes. He stresses the importance of asking "why" to uncover the true needs behind feature requests and aligning projects with customer value.

Data-Driven Customer Experience Evolution

Pasquale discusses the importance of combining data with anecdotes in customer feedback, emphasizing the value of personal stories in understanding customer needs. He argues that traditional metrics like NPS and CSAT may become less relevant as companies shift towards more personalized, conversation-based approaches to customer experience. Pasquale suggests that AI will help synthesize and optimize customer interactions, but human agents will still be crucial for understanding context and addressing complex issues. He emphasizes the need for new tools and metrics to predict customer behavior and improve engagement, highlighting Amazon Connect's ability to analyze interactions and provide valuable insights.


People on this episode