We proudly support the top 3 platform leaders on the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Intranet Packaged Solutions report. Learn more here.
June 21, 2023
From June 12-15 2023, our team had the privilege of attending and sponsoring Verint Engage23. This customer engagement conference brought together a diverse community of attendees, including customers, partners, and industry experts. All eager to immerse themselves in a world of knowledge, collaboration, and cutting-edge solutions for crafting exceptional customer experiences.
One of our main focuses at the conference was supporting the Community Track, a series of eight sessions dedicated to the Verint Community platform. This platform is a powerhouse collaboration tool, designed with the flexibility and features that enterprise clients need to meet their customer experience, marketing, and client engagement needs. We were thrilled to dive deep into the Community Track and explore all the exciting possibilities that the Verint Community offers.
During the week, we were delighted to connect with many of our long-term clients who have successfully migrated to Verint Community from other platforms, as well as welcoming new faces seeking to explore its potential. We also had the privilege of engaging with the talented team at Verint, exchanging insights and best practices with industry peers, and re-connecting with Verint Community partners.
Throughout the event, we embraced the vibrant atmosphere and actively contributed to discussions, shared our expertise and learned from others. Verint Engage23 was an incredible experience, and we're excited to share the highlights and key takeaways that made this conference truly memorable. So, grab a cup of coffee, get comfortable, and join us as we relive the excitement of Verint Engage23!
_____
On day 1 of Verint Engage23 the energy and enthusiasm was palpable as attendees gathered to begin an eventful day.
The conference kicked off with an electrifying start as we heard from the Verint leadership team on the innovation they are delivering to customers - including AI. The keynote address delivered by Sandra Douglas Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders, was nothing short of inspiring and set the tone for the week.
Verint Community's Jon Allen,VP, GTM Strategy, took the stage to unveil the future of communities in an insightful session. We discovered exciting updates and upcoming features in Verint Community that will shape the way Verint Community owners engage with their customers.
Key Takeaways:
1. Integrate your social media and your community.
2. “Community everywhere” - Is the ability to interact in the community from any channel. Including slack, teams, email, phone etc.
3. Version 2023 R1 - Launching soon with new features and enhancements.
4. Email Studio - Allows a business user the ability to edit without code, and provides more capabilities and enhancements.
5. Coming soon! Additional dynamic widgets for better communication and enhanced user experience.
6. Group member export - Allows community managers and administrators to export members for other business initiatives such as: email campaigns, announcements, and membership archival.
A Look at Leading Communities: A panel discussion featuring Lisa Allison from Analog Devices, Tammy Eck from NISC, and Kim Blanck from The Conference Board highlighted the importance of crafting engaging user experiences within communities.
“Your community is more than just a platform—it's an extension of your business, representing your organization's unique DNA.”
Analog Devices
Lisa Allison shared the UX best practices followed by Analog Devices. Emphasizing the importance of simplicity, intuitive interface, accessibility, and personalization in community design.
Key takeaways:
1. Follow UX best practices and above all, know your users. Solicit feedback and ask them about their most pressing needs. Do not design in a box.
2. Amplify self-service internally and externally. When you build out your UX create methods for internal teams to be self-sufficient.
3. Small changes can make a big impact. Verint widgets such as “generic content” provide a wide range of flexibility and use cases. Read the Verint widget documentation so you can leverage the OOTB functions to implement changes that elevate your UX. Browse the marketplace for new widgets that will influence member behaviors such as the Profile Completion widget by Social Edge.
NISC
Tammy Eck shared the must-haves for NISC's new employee community homepage and showcased what’s to come! She then delved into insights on using colors to distinguish different user groups, highlighting main links on group pages, and empowering subject-matter experts.
Key takeaways:
1. NISC uses one Verint Community instance for three audiences. When users log in, they are directed to one of three roles, giving them access to the appropriate homepage and top navigation (Social Edge Mega Menu) with permissions to view groups specific to their role.
a. NISC employees (Official employee communications)
b. NISC Member/customers (Support, Collaboration, Training)
c. Guests (With limited access appropriate to their use case)
2. NISC is a software cooperative serving utility and broadband organizations. Community groups are organized around their products and are intended to be a one stop shop for all information members need.
3. All group layouts are consistent, and color coded by product.
The Conference Board
Kim Blanck shared the success The Conference Board has had with their new Mobile App. From delivering news and insights to members and maintaining consistency across devices. It’s “Engagement at your fingertips” for community users.
Key takeaways: The “Why’s” for building Community Apps:
1. Foster instant engagement at your fingertips.
2. Drive global connections through member chats & cross-regional content.
3. Boost return visits through featured push notifications.
The community track attendees then jumped into the Community Client Round Table where topics ranged from: engagement, reporting, user experience, content management, global community challenges, and technical talk.
Finally, Lisa Allison from Analog Devices hosted this session, which brought together community managers from diverse industries and focused on exploring best practices for engagement, ROI, and governance, offering valuable insights, strategies, and success stories.
On the second day of sessions, the momentum continued to build as participants gathered to dive deeper into the content and engaging discussions.
During the Community Deep Dive; we learned from SugarCRM's innovative best practices. Alex Nassi demonstrated how they effectively utilize the Verint Community to engage customers, foster brand loyalty, and drive outstanding outcomes. The three guiding principles of their Community—Engage, Learn, and Explore—became the foundation of their success. A notable quote from Alex,
“We consider {community} to be a living and breathing thing. It’s a representation of our company, it’s the face of our company for our customers. We want to make sure its dynamic, engaging, and staying current with everything we’re doing. To do all of this, we don’t need an army, we don’t have a huge team. It’s just a small, focused, effective team, good planning, and figuring out where we’re going to go next.”
Key takeaways:
1. Cross-functional alignment – Your company needs to support the idea that the community is important and everyone is invested in your customers’ success. This should be shared from the top-down, get your executive team on board.
2. Reinforce the use of the community, internally and externally, making sure it is essential to everyone’s success. Everyone needs to use the community to find information.
3. Make connections – Connect your community to other systems, but also get involved yourself. Learn from others in your network, fellow community professionals, fellow CX professionals, partners, and vendors. Find information to expand your use cases.
Led by Robert Nash, founder of 4Roads and Social Edge Consulting’s VP of Technology John Reynolds, this session provided a fascinating exploration of integration possibilities.
Robert Nash captivated the audience with a demo of the 4Roads Ticket Application, showcasing the seamless integrations it offers. This powerful application serves as an extension for Verint Community, empowering organizations to efficiently manage support tickets within the community platform. Members can easily raise public or private tickets, while representatives can seamlessly handle and respond to them, bridging a crucial gap for communities with a support function.
John Reynolds highlighted how AI can enhance the community member experience. By generating summaries for long-form content like wikis and articles, AI technology provides valuable assistance to community members, saving time and improving engagement. Furthermore, the integration also showcased how Community Managers can improve their community's content performance with search engines by generating useful SEO metadata tags.
Key takeaways:
1. Integrations should complement existing functionalities rather than replicate them.
2. The focus should be on delivering real business value and continuously exploring new possibilities for integration.
3. With easily configurable and low-risk AI integrations, the potential for increasing the value and performance of the Verint community becomes limitless.
Next up, Kristen Sensabaugh from Agilent Technologies shared their self-service journey with Verint. Starting with the Verint Community, they expanded their knowledge base with wikis and articles, accumulating an impressive 13,000 content pieces. To further enhance workflow and content support, they integrated Verint Knowledge Management. Today, Agilent efficiently delivers self-service knowledge through an integrated design, automating processes, and delivering an elevated customer experience.
Key takeaways: Agilent's success story emphasizes the importance of leveraging Verint's solutions and collaborating with partners to achieve a digital-first strategy and elevate the customer experience. 🌐
Finally, to end the Community Track, Verint welcomed customers to share their thoughts, ideas and insights on what’s important to them for the future direction of Verint Community.
Key takeaway: Your voice matters! Join the conversation, share your thoughts, and be a part of driving continuous innovation. 🗣️
_____
As the Verint Engage23 conference drew to a close, our team reflected on the incredible experiences and valuable insights gained. From engaging speakers to informative sessions, thought-provoking panel discussions, and networking opportunities, Engage23 truly delivered on its promise of fostering knowledge, innovation, and collaboration. We are grateful for the opportunity to connect with our customers, partners, and the Verint team. Until next time, let's continue to harness the power of community and cultivate meaningful connections that shape the future of customer engagement!
