Latest / The Tech Matchmaker / How ServiceNow Is Transforming Workflows with AI | John Badstubner on The Tech Matchmaker
Transcript
- Gina Gibson: Hello, today we are chatting with John Badstupner, who is an enterprise account executive for nonprofits at ServiceNow. Welcome, John. I'm very happy to help you on the podcast. Welcome to the Tech Matchmaker, the show where contact center challenges meet their perfect tech match. I'm your host, Gina Gibson, and in just 15 minutes, we serve up the smartest, coolest innovation shaking up the contact center industry. Whether you're searching for your next solution or just love staying ahead of the curve, we've got the insights to keep you in the know. Let's dive in and discover what's next. I promise you it's going to be fun. Thanks for hanging out with us on the Tech Matchmaker. I hope today's spotlight sparked some fresh ideas and real solutions for your contact center. Want to dive deeper into the tech we featured? Hit up the show notes for all the links and extras and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if there's a challenge you want us to tackle, don't be shy, reach out. I'll catch you soon with more innovation, more use cases and more ways to keep your business moving forward. John Badstubner: Yeah, it's great to see you, Gina. Thank you so much. Really appreciate the opportunity. Gina Gibson: Excellent, so let's start with the basics. John, tell us a little bit about yourself. John Badstubner: Yeah, well, I'm John Badstubner. I lead our nonprofit practice for the West Coast. I'm based in California, pretty much serve nonprofits as far north as Alaska and far south as Hawaii. I do have a handful of states that are not touching the Pacific as well. I've been here for two and a half years. ⁓ to joining ServiceNow, I was with salesforce.org, where I also serve nonprofits, helping with their technology and... Gina Gibson: Stay curious, stay bold, and keep exploring what's next. John Badstubner: using tools to drive their mission forward and was there for four and a half years. So coming up on seven years of total experience in the nonprofit sector and the Tech for Good space, prior to all that, I was actually in Health and Human Services and worked as a mental health counselor and a youth mentor. So bringing all the things together in my prior experiences in Health and Human Services, I saw firsthand how technology can be a conduit to helping you do your mission and get back and do more work with the people that need it. And when you don't have that, it's really, you know, holds you back with manual long winded processes. So great to be here and really happy to talk more about what we're doing at ServiceNow. Gina Gibson: I love that. you know, John, I didn't realize you were at Salesforce before ServiceNow. So you really do bring a view for customers that many don't have, right? Because you actually know both platforms really well. So that's a really unique feature that you have. ⁓ John Badstubner: Yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah, I'm learning every day. These platforms are huge in terms of what they can do, but I try to, you know, I never want to be a master of none. So I try to focus on some specific areas that I think can bring the most value. in that way, I can be an advisor and a trusted person to help organizations make an impact. ⁓ Gina Gibson: That's fantastic. And John, do you guys consider yourself a CRM or how do you define your platform for those people listening? John Badstubner: Yeah, absolutely. So ServiceNow, we define ourselves as a digital workflow platform. So what it helps do is like manage, automate, and connect work across all teams and departments. So we centralize everything in this platform so that you're not having a swivel chair between systems. It's really like the single pane of glass, so to speak, where you go in, you can get what you need, you can complete tasks. know, think of things like ⁓ tasks, finance, IT help, And so we're really empowering employees, as well as constituents on the outside of the organization to engage with the that they need help from. And it's really just meant to bring everything together, streamline those processes so that people feel like they can have a place to go that's not only efficient, but just a good user experience overall. Gina Gibson: Excellent. And what does set ServiceNow apart from the others in the field? John Badstubner: It's a great question. There's a lot of point solutions that I'd say that are out there that do different parts of what we do as a platform. So what I'd say that sets us apart is that we're truly a platform. So what that means is we have different modules for every business department you could think of within an organization. So instead of having to buy a bunch of different point solutions and other tools, we're able to consolidate tech and be that one place, that one vendor. that you can work with to do everything that your business needs. I'm seeing a lot of is organizations, especially over the pandemic, they purchased so many different tools for various needs when they went digital and ⁓ from home and remote. And now they're trying to cut costs, consolidate, instead of having, you know, all these different tools that they're to jump between to do what they need to do, they can have one single place that they can go. ⁓ it may connect to those systems in the backend. You know, I think ServiceNow's integration with OpenAPI and we have over 200 pre-built integrations with various partners help just bring that all together and ⁓ that quickly. So the goal is to make workflow better, reduce manual tasks, and help organizations deliver services faster and more consistently. Gina Gibson: And are there any kind of unique features within ⁓ different modules that your customers are like, I don't know how we did, I don't know how we existed before we had this or things that they really rave about that you'd want people to know for sure that ServiceNow can deliver? John Badstubner: Yeah, I really think it's connecting those siloed systems. So in my segment, you know, with nonprofits, they usually have a lot of scattered systems and they're using spreadsheets and all types of stuff. So ServiceNow integrates all these things together and really creates that single source of truth. So that helps leaders make better decisions, you know, have a good view of what's going on with the organization, where the challenges are. But for the employee, it's a better experience because they have the ability to get the information they need. whether that's for self-service or knowledge articles or whatever it may be, so they can get what they need quickly. So I think in that way, it's really by bringing everything together is what's helping organizations the most from their current state, which again is all these different tools for various things. Gina Gibson: And manual for sure. You hit the nail on the head there. One of the things that I've kind of noticed as you know, I'm involved in the nonprofit sector as well. they're definitely a group that's behind in the adoption of AI. And I think a lot of that has to do with budget constraints, but what are you seeing from ServiceNow? Like ⁓ capabilities or AI capabilities do you have within the nonprofit platform for ServiceNow that are really helping nonprofits ⁓ that leap ahead? John Badstubner: ⁓ yeah. Yeah, definitely think it's like the customer service and case management capabilities. You can think like when you go and let's take a bank, for example, right? You try to get on with the bank to talk to somebody, but then you're on the phone going through, you know, all these different punch-ins and it doesn't get you where you need. And I know for me, at least I'm like zero, connect me with an agent, zero, connect me with an agent. And with AI, you know, you're able to have actually conversational dialogue with. Gina Gibson: Thanks. John Badstubner: a virtual agent essentially, and that can actually help get, say you do need to connect with a real person. It can get all the information that, you know, that, that person that you're going to connect with ultimately needs to know so that you're not having redundant conversations. can't tell you how many times I've, you know, gone on the phone with somebody and it's like, then they ping me over to somebody else. And then I have to say everything over to that next person. And it's like, aren't you collecting this information? Aren't you like getting this? in your system so you know how to best serve me. And it seems like in my experience that a lot of organizations don't have that capability. So AI from a customer service perspective, I think is huge because it's able to chat with me to get what it needs for me to be able to best serve me. And then the people on the back end have that information so they can best help resolve whatever it is I need in a quick and ⁓ timely manner. And again, without that, it's a lot of redundancies. ⁓ just... collecting information because it's not over and over again, because it's not being provided upfront. And that's very challenging for not only the people that are receiving services, but as well as the staff too, because then they're having to talk with angry customers that are very annoyed and not super happy by the time they get to them. So yeah, hopefully that answers the question. mean, there's so many different use cases, but that's just one that I see as being really impactful. Gina Gibson: Yes. NUD! Absolutely. Do you want to tell us about a success story that you've had with ServiceNow in the nonprofit sector and kind of maybe what you walked into, what their situation looked like and once they implemented you, how it improved maybe their ability to deliver service or whatever that you guys measured. John Badstubner: Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ There's a great research organization in the Northwest, ⁓ in Washington actually, what they were doing is very much, you know, that manual case round, say you need help and support. It's coming through email, it's maybe a walk up to a desk, ⁓ place, you know, a service area within the organization, or calling in. And what we were able to do for them is, in that portal where employees can go and get the resources they need, they had that AI chat bot right there on the bottom right. And so with that, they took all their knowledge articles and all the information that they normally would provide to somebody to help them resolve whatever it is. And they made it so that the chat bot could then effectively bubble those things up and help the people seeking support with just doing it themselves and self-resolution. So. They've seen an over 20 % drop in tickets that need to actually end up with a live agent because people are able to actually get what they need and not have to actually even talk to somebody. So they're still in early days and we expect to see that percentage of case deflection go even higher. with a small, you know, a lot of nonprofits have small teams. They're pretty bootstrapped, you know, and people are wearing multiple hats. So to reduce the level of Gina Gibson: Yes. John Badstubner: know, asks and support tickets is huge for them. And getting back to other pieces of work that may be more important. Gina Gibson: Definitely. And so what are stepping outside the nonprofit sector for a minute? Is there any vertical that service now doesn't address? Like, I know we've talked about nonprofits, but healthcare, financial, public, like, I'm guessing there's an application everywhere. John Badstubner: There is, yeah. Any type of business, there's tailored solutions for that business. I can't think of any that we don't serve at this point. The first thing that comes to mind is some space, outer space. Although I think NASA's maybe a client. I don't quote beyond that. But regardless, I can't think of any organization that doesn't have really the nonprofit. Gina Gibson: Yeah. John Badstubner: sector for, so we launched service now.org two years ago. So I guess I would say before the launch of service now.org, there really wasn't a dedicated arm for nonprofits. So this is the latest and greatest, part of our company that's been developed to serve the unique needs of this sector. So I guess prior ⁓ two years ago, we didn't really have a nonprofit dedicated team and nonprofits were just pretty much managed as, ⁓ alongside other small medium businesses. ⁓ And I think that was challenging for our clients because they didn't have staff or people that really knew their industry and could help empathize, put themselves in their shoes. And nonprofits have a lot of nuances with how they get budget approvals and the way that they go through like fiscal year planning. so now that we have this department at ServiceNow, I really feel that we're filling a void that perhaps was there prior. And I'll also say, that by doing this, we're reducing the barrier of entry as well. So prior to servicenow.org, there wasn't really a pricing model for nonprofits. It wasn't, you know, something as attainable as it may be now for their smaller budgets. So we've done really great things around making our pricing ⁓ more competitive for them, easier to digest, and so effectively reducing that barrier of entry for allowing them. to get the best in breed of technology. we can help empower people to get the best technology in their hands, then they're empowered to do their best work. And so I'm really proud to be a part of this. And I think it says a lot about the company overall that they're focusing on this sector and to help these amazing organizations are doing so much for communities in the world that we can help them with ⁓ the best that exist. Gina Gibson: I couldn't agree with you more. And on that same vein, what kind of emerging technologies or trends are you seeing that are going to help take nonprofits and your offering to the next level? John Badstubner: I definitely, you know, it's like AI, AI, AI, but at a certain point, you know, and I think everybody's on a different trend of like where they're at with using AI, but for me, I use it pretty much every day. And what's cool about ServiceNow is that we've built AI into our platform. That's really like an internal AI system. It's not going out and, you know, talking to all the resources in the world. It's just within your instance. So. It's much more secure. It's, I think it's easier for people to actually use because they know that there's some guard rails around it. You know, it's only pulling data with their, within their own system rather than various data points all over. so with that said, I think AI is going to be more easily utilized with a system like ServiceNow because it's baked into the platform and it's, ⁓ it's got guard rails around it because it's only using the customer's information and the things that they've put into it. I that many people are, ⁓ are kind of afraid about jumping into the world of AI because it's kind of like a black box and you don't know what going to get from it. But when you have that wall around it to keep it internalized, I think then that makes it lot safer and more focused and impactful for the organizations that ⁓ use it. I'm really excited to see clients actually starting to get their toes in the water with AI by the way of ServiceNow and us being a conduit to helping them on that ⁓ looking ⁓ that they would upon. Gina Gibson: Yeah, and you know, think ⁓ trend I'm kind of noticing too, and I love your input on it, is that ⁓ you said, it's kind their own LLM, so to speak, right? That they're creating in there. That that is definitely the trend we're seeing. That it's, you know, yes, you can pull from ⁓ different LLMs use different ones, but I'm really seeing that having your own ⁓ LLM is more popular. Is that what you're noticing with your customers as well? John Badstubner: Yeah. Yeah, that's where I think it feels safer. It feels ⁓ more attainable because when you're looking at things like using open AI for work on a day-to-day basis, it's great, but it's pulling information from a lot of different places. And a lot of times the information's incorrect or the system will have hallucinations. And so it's not super predictable or accurate. And, know, when you have that built, you know, we call it now assist, which is our Gina Gibson: Hmm. John Badstubner: native AI capability that now assist module again is using data within your system and therefore is more likely to be accurate. It's more likely to be relevant and helpful. So I think the caveat there, the biggest thing is organizations getting a good data strategy and handle on their data, right? And so before you turn these light switches on and you know, start turning these things on, You want to make sure that your data is clean, that your organization's healthy. Because when you have, and quite frankly, people are using AI to do this as well, ⁓ actually clean up the data and find these ⁓ discrepancies that could cause errors. So they're able to use AI to get the data in a good standing and then leverage that data their benefit, whether it's predictive intelligence or just summarizations what they're working on. ⁓ Gina Gibson: Thank you. John Badstubner: a lot of great use cases and definitely where the future's headed. And I see it helping people a lot of different ways. Gina Gibson: Absolutely. way ⁓ typically wrap up our podcast, John, is I've always been a big fan of James Lipton, so we do a few little rapid fires. ⁓ is your favorite word? John Badstubner: Okay. success. Gina Gibson: What is your least favorite word? John Badstubner: sadness. Gina Gibson: What excites you the most? John Badstubner: being able to help people. Gina Gibson: And if somebody wants more information about using ServiceNow, not just in the nonprofit sector, but any kind of sector, John, who should they reach out to? John Badstubner: Yeah, you can just go to our website, servicenow.com, and then depending on what you're looking for, you can easily fill out your information and get in touch with somebody. For any nonprofits, I'm always happy to help. I think we could share my email or something like that in the post, but yeah, I'm here to help. ⁓ would love to get people connected with the right parties, no matter what sector they work in, but definitely our website will be a good place to get you in the right hands. Gina Gibson: Excellent. Thanks so much, John, for joining us today and for sharing your insights and for all that you and ServiceNow do for the not-for-profit sector. We really appreciate it. John Badstubner: Thank you so much, Gina. It's an honor and a pleasure. You too. Gina Gibson: Have a great day.