In our new “CX One on One” series, we’ll meet the dynamic and talented team members behind the scenes at NICE representing all the facets of the world’s #1 cloud native customer experience platform. We recently sat down with Laura Bassett, Vice President of Product Marketing, to chat about what a typical day is like, as well as the origins of her passion for seamless Customer Experience Interactions (CXi) and why she says more organizations should be empowered to meet customers wherever their journey begins, enable resolution through AI and data driven self-service and prepare agents to resolve customer issues.
Ask Laura Bassett what a typical day is like – and NICE CXone’s Vice President of Product Marketing quickly draws from a metaphor to describe her role behind the scenes.
“A typical day is absolutely, as you would expect, making sure the wheels on the bus are turning and that we’re continuing to deliver on the day-to-day needs of our clients and their customers. The way I think of it is we’re the engine working to make sure that we've got the right knowledge out to all the tentacles of the business,” she said.
Bassett is focused on those key drivers of innovation and growth in marketing strategies that can connect businesses and customers with solutions to make their experiences—and ultimately their day-to-day lives—easier.
She leverages collective insights both from the market and customers to strategize and develop a roadmap, spearheading growth internationally and across segments to deliver a product that positively impacts businesses as well as their end customers. In addition, she’s regularly sought after for her expertise for webinars and industry publications.
In breaking it all down, Bassett says there are three core areas at the center of her daily activities driving the momentum for the above-mentioned wheels on the bus:
- Ensuring the strategic direction aligns with the evolution of the market
- Fueling the “engine” with content insights from subject matter experts with product marketing and thought leaders with segment and competitive intelligence
- Listening and learning – and staying engaged in the real-time market needs of businesses and customers, such as looking at how consumers are behaving and what kind of technology they’re adopting
“When I think about other things that are critical to the function, it’s ensuring that I have a finger on the pulse of the market, understanding where things are going and collaborating across the teams to ensure our strategic direction is on point,” Bassett continued.
She’s always eyeing a way to tell the market “where we’re headed and explain why you want to go along with us for that journey.”
Key to that strategy is highlighting how NICE CXone’s innovation and brand are founded on the investments that we've made in our platform over the years, Bassett says.
In her more than four years at NICE, she has cultivated a talented team with strengths that complement each other. Of course, that is completely by Bassett’s design.
“I learned a long time ago that you hire people who are smarter than you are. And that’s what makes a successful leader—to not be afraid to do that. I’m very fortunate to have a great team,” Bassett said. “What I really like about the team is they’re willing to go outside their comfort zone and learn and grow, even if it’s not their thing. That’s the right mindset to have in a large organization: ‘What do we need to do and—hey, let’s team up and get it done together.’”
Being part of an industry that gives back
From her earliest industry role working for a small entrepreneurial company that did computer telephony integration (CTI), Bassett quickly recognized a passion for improving the customer experience “because as a consumer, I knew it could be miserable.”
She also identified with the CX industry mission to help people. Bassett explains CX is working to help the lives of consumers interact with businesses they have a relationship with, noting there's a personal aspect to it that she recognizes and appreciates.
Another reason she’s passionate about CX is that it’s an industry that’s dedicated to giving back as well.
“After Hurricane Katrina, I was directly involved in gathering donated equipment and getting it to airplanes that that flew into New Orleans to set up communication so people in need could contact relatives and start calling for the emergency resources they needed. Making these impacts —beyond my day job—makes it personally rewarding as well,” Bassett said.
As a company, NICE has a long standing-commitment to volunteering and giving back to the communities in which its employees live and work, and annually holds a Global Community Month (GCM) to encourage employees to organize as teams and donate time with local organizations. Earlier this year, NICErs packed and delivered hundreds of bags with essential supplies for Ukrainians.
Most notably, the CX industry’s role during the pandemic was to make clients’ employees feel safe, Bassett explained, helping them continue to work while staying safe at home. “I've been fortunate enough to be with a company with such great technology that we can just say, ‘Turn the button, flip the switch.’ I would say, it's more the reason I'm here than the reasons I started in the industry. I have a passion for it because I can see that it’s a way to help make everybody’s lives easier,” she said.
From left to right, Paul Jarman, CEO, CXone, Barry Cooper, President, CX Division, and Laura Bassett, Vice President of Product Marketing, CXone, at Interactions Live 2022
Walk a day in the life of your consumer
When speaking at presentations and with customers, Bassett’s go-to question is, “Have you ever walked a day in the life of your consumer?”
She asks herself that question, too. And the answer is a resounding, “yes.”
With two children under 10, Bassett’s hours quickly fill up with back-to-back work meetings as well as multiple activities layered in the evenings and early mornings, such as homework, paying bills, soccer, dance lessons, horseback riding and more.
In many ways, it feels like we emerged from the pandemic trying to make up for lost time with even busier schedules, she says.
Like many other consumers, it may be as late as 10 p.m. before Bassett has a spare moment to reach out for customer service. Companies need to be ready, she notes, with omnichannel customer service that provides inbound and outbound, digital and voice channels to deliver extraordinary customer experiences, making CX convenient for consumers whenever and wherever they need it.
With as much innovation as is taking place in the industry, there’s still room to grow, she says. Bassett notes marketers can better evolve and improve SEO, website content and website UI to improve the overall customer experience. Most customers start seeking help on their own, relying on self-service to find the solutions before contacting a brand.
According to NICE’s 2022 Digital-First Customer Experience Report, 81 percent of consumers say they want more self-service options yet only 15 percent of consumers expressed a high level of satisfaction with the tools provided to them. Businesses believe 53 percent of consumers are very satisfied with their self-service—despite 95 percent of companies reporting a major increase in self-service requests in 2021.
Which companies are doing CX right? Bassett points to a few corporate success stories that can serve as a model:
- Disney has found success in its roll out of Disney+. Since the launch of the service in late 2019, Disney has been extremely successful in scaling and training their CX to meet customer demand. For example, Disney uses Interactive Voice Response (IVR) to help customers in a streamlined manner and uses status updates to let customers know if their issue has been resolved before they reach an agent. Leveraging cloud-based contact center operations allows Disney to centralize operations while allowing for remote deployment to keep up with the evolving workforce.
- Another example of successful end-to-end CX is Fifth Third Bank, which recently overhauled its CX to better understand the Voice of the Customer (VOC). Instead of using customer satisfaction surveys alone, Fifth Third Bank can better understand its customers by analyzing customer sentiment through direct and indirect channels. The financial services company also has implemented accessible self-service options, helping consumers gain quick assistance in completing simple tasks, such as resetting a password.
What’s next
In the ever-evolving CX industry, NICE CXone continues to be a leader in anticipating where the market is going. Laura Bassett and her team play a significant role in this trajectory, as they lead efforts to boost the profile of these innovations to strengthen the ongoing relationship between businesses and consumers.
It all goes back to the overarching goal of removing friction in people’s day-to-day lives.
“As we work to make people’s lives easier, we have to be a little bit more creative in the way we engage the consumer so they can get the answers they need,” she said. “That’s where we come in as a business. We make it possible for businesses to meet the consumers and dive into omnichannel in an even easier way, without having to go through an upheaval or major disruption in how they do what they do.”
So, what’s next?
We can expect a greater adoption of digital first by companies ready to go to the next level of CX, Bassett says. Increasing the level of convenience for consumers so they can choose the engagement model that’s perfect for their situation and schedule, and creating a framework that lets them seamlessly move across channels for a true omnichannel experience will meet market demand and position businesses ahead of their competition. In a lot of ways, she says that’s more a necessity at this point—or they risk losing business.
“They can’t just sit and wait because the customers aren’t going to wait for them to get to that next level,” Bassett said. “Companies should want to make it easy for customers to engage.”
And that doesn’t have to be a heavy lift; it’s just about making it simple for a customer to access the information they need, she says.
Professional and personal mantra: ‘We don’t do give up’
Bassett’s then-toddler daughter once coined a saying to encourage her brother in the backseat of the car during a routine day, and now it’s become a personal mantra for her family: “We don’t do give up.”
It’s stayed with her ever since, and she notes, “By the way, that doesn't mean not knowing when to say ‘no.’ It’s more we don't give up just because it’s hard.”
One can hear Bassett beam as she shares how she feels proud to work in an industry that’s making a difference in people’s lives—from her first job in CX for a small entrepreneurial company to her role today at the world’s #1 cloud native customer experience company.
If you weren’t in CX…
As a closing question, we asked Laura Bassett what she would be doing if she weren’t in CX. She says she loves watching sports, especially football and baseball, so she’d love to be a TV sports announcer.
After that, another career she would choose would be one to allow her to pursue her love of the outdoors such as a whitewater rafting guide. “It’s so adventurous,” she said.