Humanization of Digital Customer Experience

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(upbeat music)

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- Hey, welcome everybody.

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We got a great session today.

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I'm excited to be talking about this.

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We're gonna be diving a little bit into this idea

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of humanization of the digital experience,

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data AI technology.

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To do that I brought on a newer friend of mine,

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Shashank Singh.

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He's currently the CEO and co-founder

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of a cool company called Backstage.ai.

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We'll be hearing a little bit more about that

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as we dive in today.

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But Shashank, thanks so much for joining

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and how the heck are you?

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- I'm good.

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I'm glad you're doing this on a great day.

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- Yeah, yeah.

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You know, never bad to get this kind of start the weekend

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with something like this.

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So excited to get into it.

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We'd love to hear just a little more about your background

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and kind of what you guys are doing over there

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at Backstage.ai.

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- Definitely.

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I'll just briefly give my background.

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I've been in the super more than 20 years.

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I was born and bought up in India.

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I did my undergrad in the

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Science and Engineering India.

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Worked there for a couple of years

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and then I moved to US, the land of opportunity.

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And was in the course of working mostly in the banks

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initially, like banks like Bank of New York Mellon, UBS,

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from the Xhamanan majority of the time in Goldman Sachs.

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Also did my MBA for NYU Stern in the entrepreneurship

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and finance that made me move away from finance

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and actually go go to for the tech companies.

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So I joined the startup called Flurry.

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Just pretty exciting.

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We were doing one of the,

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we had the biggest largest mobile analytics company out there

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and we got bought by Yahoo.

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So I worked with all the ad exchanges across the world.

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So got a deep insight into like how brands are leveraging

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data to target and read out customer

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and showing the relevant ads at the right moment of the time.

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From there, I moved on to another startup I run at,

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got bought by Publicis.

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That was another great run.

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It was VP of Indian there to build a lot of data

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engineering pipelines and let their data science team

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to build some really amazing products out there.

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And then I saw the world moving towards privacy

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and my bet was that privacy is gonna play a bigger role.

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So I moved away from Publicis and joined the startup

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for data maths where we are building some really cool

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private data bank where consumer can deposit their data

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and earn some cool rewards and money.

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And from there, COVID happened and we were like,

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had some great ideas.

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So I thought like why not start something called Backstage.

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What we are doing there is like we,

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from all my experience, I saw that the customer experience

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field right now is very, very kind of very static.

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And if you look at all the websites across the world,

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it's giving one size fit all experience for everyone.

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Like a 16 year old person going over there

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versus a 30 year old versus a 60 year old.

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Everyone gets the same experience on the website.

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While if you see the world has evolved so much

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that you need to personalize it

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and you need to give what much better experience

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to everyone on the website.

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So on that fundamental and along with the technology changes

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with AI coming into the picture,

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which privacy playing a much bigger role,

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people are getting aware about their data.

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We thought why not focus on something,

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create a cool product out of all these video AI

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and human touch and change the whole digital experience

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on websites today.

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>> I love it. Yeah, I love it.

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And I want to hear a little bit more about this,

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some of the problems you found in the solutions you guys

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are now kind of recommending to customers.

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So let's dive in just a big picture

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around this humanization of the digital customer experience.

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Like why is that a problem?

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What was broken?

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What made you guys start to think about like,

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wow, we got to do something here.

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This isn't working.

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>> So it was not one single moment

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that when we realized that,

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hey, there's something like this,

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there's a period of time when you see,

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so let's roll back.

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Like let's talk when there was no internet,

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like how the customer experience was.

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Like when you go to a walk into a store,

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there would people know you.

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How do you buy your first name?

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Like, hey, Shashank, how are you?

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Welcome to my store.

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And what are you looking for?

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I will help you out there.

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And we used to have great shopping experience.

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People would love to go to shops

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and have that experience,

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not just because of the product,

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but also the experience they were getting.

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Then came internet and everything became online.

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Everyone started investing in having a website,

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doing e-commerce and stuff.

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And at the end of the day, what happened was,

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it became so generalized,

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every experience became so generalized

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that there's no personalization and such.

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When you go to an online store,

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nobody's there to welcome you.

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Nobody's there to say, hey, Shashank,

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what can I do for you?

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And while in the store,

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you're getting much different experience.

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So why there's so much difference

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between a digital, a physical experience

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in a physical world versus a digital experience?

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So that's where we thought,

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like why not change something about it?

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Why not make it a little more humanized?

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When you go to a website,

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imagine somebody, a real human being there

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and saying, hey, welcome to buy a site

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and let me know how can I help you.

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That's one of the things,

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all different kinds of community experiences

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where every online store almost becomes

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like a community experience where you're going,

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walking in, looking at the product.

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There are people who are demoing the products out there.

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They're talking about it, like when you go to Costco,

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you see people actually brand showing their products,

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demoing without doing unboxing event,

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all those kinds of stuff that can happen on a brand website.

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And that was the mission we went after.

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Yeah, I mean, the fundamental thesis, again,

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when I spoke to you the first time I just loved it,

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'cause it is just true.

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I mean, there's something about walking

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into the neighborhood Starbucks.

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Or, and that's now.

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I mean, when I grew up in this small town

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and there was this grocery store called the Alpine Market,

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I won't say the gentleman's name, but to your point,

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I mean, you just walk in there and you'd say,

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you know, hey, Gabe, and how's the family?

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And, you know, and we, he knew the community, right?

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And we knew him.

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And yeah, now when I'm on the internet, it sucks.

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(laughs)

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And we are there to change that.

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Like I also want to highlight the fact,

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I highlighted the fact that the technology has moved on,

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privacy and stuff is linked to the,

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but another bigger factor is like,

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the consumer behavior has also changed a lot.

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If you look at digital natives, the Gen Z millennials,

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they, there are a lot of data around that.

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They want more and more interactions with the brand.

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And if you look at most of the newer brands

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are actually coming out of these social media,

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where they are, like these influencers are creating,

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they're becoming a brand because they are so much,

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they are so much closer to their customers,

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they know their needs, they understand who their fans

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are and what kind of product they can launch

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and they launch a product and then they take on the market

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and they look, I mean, Sabis has done that.

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Like Kim Kardashian has done that.

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You look at these new age brands,

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their traditional natives love that kind of thing,

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experiences they're getting from them.

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- Yeah, yeah.

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I mean, again, the concepts, right?

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Let's dive a little more into the details.

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Do you feel that there is for this,

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like you were kind of just going through,

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but this lends itself to more of a,

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maybe a B2C type audience,

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maybe not as much B2B.

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Is that something you'd say is true

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and you're like, honestly,

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I think this could be applicable for kind of anybody doing any,

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you know, anybody with the website

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should be thinking about how to do it differently.

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- No, it applies to, I mean, obviously B2C,

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it's a little more wider application

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and you're talking to billions of people out there.

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But B2C is actually, I think it's much more important there.

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Now you, because all those B2B says,

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you can look at their work,

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sometimes six figures to seven figures of contract,

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they come discover your product on the website

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and now you leave them on the mercy

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of your website experience that they are,

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obviously they are smart people

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and they will read all the videos,

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all the text, description and everything

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and they will decide based on that,

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whether they want to subscribe to your service.

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- Ah, what do you feel like is the,

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and again, this is just an interesting topic,

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so I'm gonna keep rapid fire in that you hear us hushing,

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but what do you feel like is,

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or maybe you're finding this,

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what are people liking the most about this?

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I'm gonna call it modern experience, you know,

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is it seeing the unboxing?

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Is it joining live webinars?

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Is it chatting with people?

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Is there certain things or behaviors that you feel like

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is being now kind of validated?

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Or is it so different in a, in a, in a game?

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I, a lot of people are like, oh, I,

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they got so used to not interacting

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with anybody on websites, they're like,

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they don't wanna, they don't wanna have a part of this.

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- I think like what's standing out

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and what people like, especially the newer generation

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is appreciating is about the authentic view of the brand,

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when they see these kind of experiences

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and special inferential doing unboxing

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and looking at the review and everything.

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It doesn't have to be, I mean,

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if you look at a lot of content has moved towards

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from a production Hollywood style videos

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to very authentic video, very authentic experiences.

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And people can resonate with it.

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It brings up loyalty, it brings up a lot of like retention.

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Like this is the way you retain your customer's teeth.

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And very interestingly, like I was reading one article

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like two days back, my co-founder shared it with me

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and it's pretty amazing where it's completely changes

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the whole funnel, the way you think about the funnel

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that the top down funnel.

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Lot of new age customers are buying the product first

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and then they're experiencing the product, the brand

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and then they are building the loyalty.

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So you may be able to sell one product,

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but you may not be able to sell them back again

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if you're not having.

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- Yeah, like that, the concept of building a brand

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with now doing like it's just becoming part and parcel.

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The interesting thing I think is for, you know,

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we work with a lot at customer,

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we work with a lot of B2C brands.

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So it feels so relevant to them as they do that.

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I think it's interesting to B2B, you know,

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I think you're gonna see more of that type of concept

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which it meaning like the brand is mattering more

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than just your direct marketing activity capability.

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But the one follow up I had is, you know,

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as I think about this concept of personalization,

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you know, do you feel like based on some of the things

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you guys offer, is it, are you seeing some more things

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that are working better?

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And again, this might be by industry or by type,

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but is it the live streaming of this or that

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that is kind of capturing people the most

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or is it recommending certain things

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when people jump onto the website?

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Is it, you know, is it personalizing the landing page

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when they're coming on and again,

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I don't know all the things you guys have tested

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and played out, but what types of things

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are driving that increased engagement in your mind

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from a tactical activity standpoint?

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Personalized web pages, videos, live streaming, demos,

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unboxing, what is it?

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Interactive content, what's kind of working?

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- I think like the biggest factor right now is like

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when we are doing some kind of influencer marketing,

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you have already an influencer who's using your product

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and you get them live on your website.

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And that drives a lot of traffic also engagement

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and people start seeing your product in a way

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associated with those subject-to-text experts.

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So we have worked with some of the like health

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and wellness companies where they get doctors,

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they get site characters, they get other influencers

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live on the website and you host that AMS sessions.

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And what we have built is like two way license,

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not just one way of licensing,

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where people are just watching things,

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they can raise their hand and become a speaker,

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that kind of stuff.

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Chats are going on interactivity.

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So it's like you connect to the level

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where you start assuiting that brand

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with that particular subject.

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So customer education plays a huge role

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in what we are talking about.

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It's like you're educating the customers.

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In return, data and insights play a big role

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that you know your audiences

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because you did like 50 different kind of live streams, let's say,

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and you with each live stream,

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you can associate, create an audience segment

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and you understand, hey, Sushank is into sports,

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this guy is into something else

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and that person is into something else

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and then you can tag along, you get first quality data

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because now you're doing those kinds of engagement

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which you were doing anyways on YouTube's

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or the world Instagram's or the world TikTok's or the world

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and you're not getting any kind of data from the consumer.

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What you were getting was vanity metrics saying,

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hey, 5,000 people join my live stream

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and what do you do after that?

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Like you can pat your back,

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hey, I was able to grab a tension of 5,000 people

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but then you cross your fingers

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and hopefully some of them will come to my website.

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And I'm saying like, let's say not 5,000,

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like if you're getting 500 people on your website,

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that's much important, much bigger.

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And I'm not saying you're banned in Shoshan, we have to do that.

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That's a great way to discover, get your brand discovered

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but then draw those niche customer

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who are really interested in your product

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to your website and engage with, understand them.

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All they are interacting with more kind of content.

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- Yeah, look, I mean, ultimately,

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your point you want to buy.

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To one more click on that,

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I mean, how do you find,

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'cause I think some people,

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when they hear something like this might just say,

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"Gabe, look, we already are live streaming on TikTok."

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You know, we're already doing this social media platform.

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Like, now you want me to live stream on my website.

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What's the connection?

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Like, do you, it sounds like you're not saying abandoned social

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like you're saying.

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- Yeah, we are.

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- Like, but how do you bring the two together?

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Do you live stream on all of them or do you?

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- So we can connect.

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We can connect all the platforms

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and it can just go live from your website.

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I believe your website is your primary field.

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That's your pitch.

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Put the best effort out there.

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Do not abandon social media.

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Get the engagement there.

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Draw people to your website.

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So when they say, "I'm live,"

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I got the best influencer live on my website.

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And if they say, "Hey, I'm also live on the website."

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If you want to talk to me,

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you want to ask a question,

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you want to raise your hand and become a speaker,

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come on my website and you get that experience.

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So you can do that.

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You can drive a lot of traffic from different social media

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to your website.

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So that's one of the way.

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So do not abandon your social media

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because that plays a big role in our strategy

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because that's a ocean.

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But then you get those really niche customer

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to your website based on those engagements there.

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And you can ask them to come over on my website.

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It can incentivize,

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if you join my website in this conversation,

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ask a question, get 10% off,

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special codes or something like that.

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You can reward your customers.

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And in turn, you're getting the first body data also.

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- Yeah, yeah.

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I like it.

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I like it.

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It's such a fun talk track and a great idea.

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Again, just in principle,

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I think it's as you originally started.

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Like we've got to humanize this digital experience more

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and more, we're all looking for it.

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Maybe we don't need to have the John at the coffee shop

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or whatever saying hi,

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where's you planned on a website?

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But I don't know, there seems like

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we've lost some of that balance.

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Is you kind of think,

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we need a wrap here, Loba.

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Although I love to just hear about some of the fun things

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you've discovered and experienced.

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So thanks, Sushank for taking the time.

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But for companies trying to get down this journey

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and find this idea of humanizing the digital experience,

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what would your advice for people trying to kind of

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start down this path?

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What would you leave us with?

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I think it's a long journey.

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It's not going to be like,

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whether you use backshade or something else for that,

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immunizing your customer experience is going to be,

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you have to take the step first step.

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And that first step is actually making your website

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much more interactive and much more fun place to be.

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It should not be just like an online catalog of products.

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Because today all the websites are online catalog of products.

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I can see, I can, it's a directory.

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I can go through products and delete the digital experience

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description that's about it.

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Make it more, more engaging and fun place to be.

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And build a community.

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Community is the key where your customer can relate to you

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and they will walk.

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They are looking for a certain kind of information.

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You've become that leader in that space.

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They look at you not just for product,

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but also for learning and educating themselves.

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Yeah.

16:53

Love it.

16:54

I think that's a great talk track.

16:55

Appreciate you taking the time.

16:57

If someone wants to learn a little more about BackStager,

16:59

you know, connect with you.

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What's the best way to do that, Sushank?

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I'm on LinkedIn, backshade.ai is our website.

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So Sushank, saying, "Backstage on LinkedIn."

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You can find me over there.

17:10

Sushank, add.

17:11

Go ahead.

17:12

All right.

17:13

We appreciate you jumping on it for the audience.

17:15

Have a fantastic day.

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