Latest / Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders / 274: Don't Automate the Relationship

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274: Don't Automate the Relationship · Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders

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Welcome, revolutionaries, for another episode of the Customer Service Revolution
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podcast. And today I have an old young friend of the DiJulius group,
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Jess Pischel, is the founder of Human First AI Consulting,
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a Cleveland-based firm that helps small and mid-sized businesses put AI
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to work in practical, people-first ways.
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Love that.
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Before starting Human First AI Consulting,
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Jess spent more than five years as a senior customer experience consultant
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at the De DiJulius Group. And I believe she was ~ what were you Jess of CXEA,
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the
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Dean.
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Dean, Dean of our Customer Experience Executive Academy.
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And we loved Jess. Our clients loved Jess.
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today, Jess helps leaders cut the mundane mundane tasks that drain their team
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so people can focus on.
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And work that makes an impact,
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including the customer experience.
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Jess holds an MBA, completed AI coursework through MIT,
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and is an approved Ohio Tech Cred,
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which will explain what that is,
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AI training provider. She also serves on the boards of ATD,
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Greater Cleveland, and Believe in Dreams.
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welcome, Jess.
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Yeah, thanks for having me. This is so exciting.
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I know. You've probably were you ever on the podcast as a guest or only or yeah.
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Yes. Yes. Yes.
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And you were and you're a host,
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right?
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Yes. Went right way back when we first started the podcast.
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Yeah. God, Jess, how old were you when you you you joined the TDG team?
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was I like twenty seven? I think so.
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Were you? Whenever you finished
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at Cleveland State, right? Master's degree?
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It was after that, a little bit after that.
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~
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it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was talking about you yesterday because there
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was a we have CXEA going on this week,
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and there's a young girl in there and she's like 23 and she's really bright.
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But we were talking about the lack of credibility that she will have
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in corporate America. And I used you as an example of like,
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you know, ~ you know, it's hard.
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for you because it's it's you know corporate america wants to see some gray hair
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and you didn't have it yet maybe you do now that you have three kids but I
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Ha ha ha.
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always say you know ~ credibility to just demonstrate credibility
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is in the questions you ask, not in the answers you give.
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And, you know, and and you were great at that.
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And you know, as soon as you start speaking and talking,
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it erased any fears or stereotypes.
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So love that. All right.
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Thank you.
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let's get into it. All right. Jess,
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you spent years in customer experience.
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what made you made the transition from CX to AI?
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Yeah, so I spent a little over five years doing customer experience consulting with
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you and the DiJulius group team.
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And the thing I saw over and over again was that people wanted to deliver
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a great experience, but sometimes buried in the busy work would hold them back
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or lack of training. So, you know,
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they're doing data entry, they're chasing paperwork,
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they're answering the same email for the tenth time.
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So by the time they get to the customer,
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they're tired or then they don't have the energy.
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And so when I started using AI myself,
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I realized that I could take a lot of that work off of my plate so I can
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get back to focusing on what I really enjoy doing,
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which is building relationships versus taking care of the busy work.
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So that's really when it clicked for me.
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~ and I don't look at AI as a tech project.
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~ it could be a customer experience project or an employee experience project that
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uses technology. So I really started diving all into AI to help small
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to midsized businesses do that themselves.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I just I think it's so confusing AI.
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~ you know, there there was the,
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you know, the hype and it's gonna eliminate jobs and now the scariness
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of what the tech bros are saying that it's could eliminate,
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but I'm also reading and writing a lot of blogs about how,
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you know, it's cost more, it hasn't saved jobs.
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So there's all this uncertainty of if you're jumping on the bandwagon for no reason.
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I even saw a video the other night,
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and it was someone that has credibility.
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I can't remember who, but you know,
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someone pretty smart. And he said,
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you know, in five years, people are gonna look back on AI
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as the biggest disappointment as,
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you know, because what we all think it's gonna do.
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I don't know how do you how do you clear all this and get down to the root of
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how AI can help a company.
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Yeah,
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I think one of the challenges with AI is that it works really well if
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you know how to use it. But if you're just expecting to wave a magic wand
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and it to fix all of your troubles,
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that's not what it's for. So yeah,
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And eliminate payroll and yeah.
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I mean,
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you still have to have a human in the loop,
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which is why I named my company what I named it,
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human first AI Consulting. I don't think it's going away.
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I think it's here to stay. But what I do think is that.
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A lot of organizations want it as a magic tool and don't wanna look
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at their workflows first. Like garbage in,
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garbage out with AI. You only get out of it what you put into it.
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And that's the same thing with training,
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right? If you go to a training program and you're bored
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or daydreaming or multitasking and you're not in it,
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you're not gonna get anything out of it.
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And if you're the opposite, you're gonna reap the benefits and the rewards.
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So I think
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A lot of organizations don't want to take the step back and look
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at their systems and their SOPs because that's not sexy,
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that's not fun, no one wants to do that.
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But you don't want to automate a messy system because that's just going
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to make it even more messy. And I think that's where a lot
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of companies aren't feeling like they're getting the benefit.
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Like they paid all this money and it doesn't work like they expected it to.
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It's like, well, did you take a step back and look at what it could do better,
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not just what it could do faster?
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And I think that's the challenge,
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right? Everyone wants it to fix something,
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but you really have to do the work and roll up your sleeves and
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fix it yourself before you can figure out what you can automate.
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And that takes time and and time is money.
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You know, Jess, I just saw something that you're familiar with that
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how it could help like our clients i i after a workshop.
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So we just did you know the journey mapping,
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the you know, where you each stage,
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~ not telling you, I'm telling our audience.
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So you have each stage, you know,
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of of contact and and then you know,
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you got this workshop where people visit the the sheets and write down what should
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happen, SOPs, ~ experiential
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Yeah.
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standards, blah blah. And as you
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know and and did you know hundreds of times at the end of the workshop
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you have twenty thirty sheets with everyone's ideas on it.
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And then you know that project lead would have to go back and transfer
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and and and type it all up, which was very time consuming.
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Now they take pictures of it and put it in an AI ~ app and that does it in seconds.
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So is that like an example of what you're talking about?
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It's
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yeah, it's really great at summarizing material and data.
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And I think a lot of companies probably have data that they're
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not maybe using because they can't interpret it.
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Or it takes so long to interpret it,
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but that by the time you understand the way forward,
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it's dated. So it's it's really good at summarizing material.
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~ it's really good at doing again that mundane work,
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that note taking, that ~
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It's not the fun part of the job,
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recording and transcribing. Yeah.
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right? Yeah.
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Yeah. What are you what are you seeing though as like areas
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of opportunity for improvement with the clients that that you're working with when
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it comes to AI and opportunities to automate?
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Well, first from the DiJulius Group end,
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like discovery when we start working with a client,
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right? Now we could type in you know,
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negative reviews on a brand and start,
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you know, you know, and and start getting that and saying,
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All right, you know, are you guys aware of,
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you know, these types of complaints?
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Which they probably are, but it helps us,
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you know, and then also, you know.
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You know, from presentations to ~ proposals,
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~ and this is probably across any industry,
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you could submit w you know, what your your draft is and and and and have
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it point what you're missing or what someone else might be bringing to the table.
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Yeah, ~ a good one too is to have it be your thought partner,
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but also
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Yeah.
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challenge your thoughts. So, you know,
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poke holes in this presentation from my most critical member in the audience or
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Yeah.
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poke holes in this onboarding experience.
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what are the frequently asked questions of a new hire that they wouldn't want
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to ask, but they would because they're too afraid to ask?
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But help me answer those.
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Right.
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So we can improve our onboarding.
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So like having it take on a character or persona to challenge your your products.
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Yeah. All right. So what are you seeing?
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~ how AI improves. ~ you know,
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it probably most of our listeners are are executives,
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but they're also probably listening because of their attention to CX and EX.
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So what have you seen it help in those areas?
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So
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one of my clients right now came to me knowing exactly what they needed
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and just basically asking, can AI solve for this?
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So those are my favorite because the answer is either yes,
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they can, or no, it no, it probably can't do what you're expecting it to do.
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So they have a lot of really old systems.
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And he said, I need numbers and data from all of these systems.
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Right now I have to pull the reports manually,
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which takes time.
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And then I have to summarize them and I have to do this all for every single board
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meeting. And by the time I figure out the numbers,
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they're basically dated and it takes
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Outdated, yeah.
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yeah, and it takes forever. So he's like,
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Can AI pull and scrape from each of these different providers that we
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use and put together a dashboard that
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That's why I wanna ask you. My biggest challenge,
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sorry. ~ like when we do discovery,
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is that like with the banks we've been working with,
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they have three places you have different places they go for certain things.
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Yeah.
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And they don't talk to each other.
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And so like, yeah, that that's where you're going.
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Is there a way to you know, make them talk to each other so you don't have
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to do it manually?
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Yeah, there sure is. And there was some,
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you know, private health information in the system that that they wanted
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to make sure was secure. And so basically what we did was we put
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a computer within their, you know,
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within their organization, within their server,
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within their security parameters,
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and data gets scraped and pulled from each of those different places,
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and then the dashboard lives there.
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So it's their product, it's their tool,
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they own it.
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we just put it together and build it so that it can collect that information.
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And it sits and hosts on their on their servers.
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So it's protected under their security measures.
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So that makes IT departments usually pretty happy when they hear that,
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Yeah.
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that it's not a separate that it's not really a separate entity owning that
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information. But that's been a big time saver for that for that particular client.
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And I can see it being for others too.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. what's what do you think people are doing wrong with ~
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AI and and as it relates to customer experience?
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so I have a funeral home client and they are getting pitched basically every week
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an answering service and you know,
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an automated system to answer their phone calls because people pass away
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at all hours of the day. So you need someone answering those phone calls
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all hours of the day. So staffing can get pretty expensive and so they're trying
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to figure out what that looks like.
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they're a pretty progressive client.
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especially in that industry. And but I s but but I just don't think that that
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audience is ready yet. Like when you're grieving,
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that's the most critical phone call you probably ever have to make,
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if one of them, if not the most.
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And do you really want to be talking to an automated recording at that moment?
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Like no. Do I think eventually we're gonna get there for everything?
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P probably, but right now we're just not there and it ruins,
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you know,
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the relationship building opportunity that that's the the first phone call that
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they're likely making. And so that that's their safe space,
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right? And and they're looking for answers and comfort.
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And I just don't see that being possible right now.
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play this podcast five or ten years from now and it'll feel dated
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and that'll probably be the future.
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Well, and I
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think some of it, Jess, is the younger generation is always gonna
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be more digital friendly. And that but still you're talking about
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a unique experience that, you know,
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maybe should never be dealt, you know,
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with a self-service thing. I I I used to ~ or I wrote about this that
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how all companies today compete with Google.
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and Amazon and you know all all those ~ different types and and what I mean
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by that yeah you know you don't sell well you know you know a place doesn't
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the salon doesn't sell books or you know they don't do what Google does
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but Google has reduced our patience right like
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Sure. Yeah.
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if we want to know if Tom Cruise ever won an Oscar right we you could literally find
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out in 10 seconds
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If I tell you about a great book,
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you could literally have it in on your phone or iPad within 30 seconds.
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And so how that translated, you know,
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this is years ago, but remind me what you're talking about.
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There was a woman, a bride to be,
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called ~ our salon and left a message that she's getting married in
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18 months and she wants to know if we could handle their bridal party of,
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you know, 10, 12, 13.
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She left a message on Friday. It was,
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you know, probably after our bridal coordinator had left for the weekend.
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Bridal coordinator calls her right away Monday morning.
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She booked someone else. Like the anxiety,
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Mm-hmm.
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and and
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we're not talking about funeral here,
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but it's still anxiety of she just needed to get that off her checklist.
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Like, and even though we had 18 months,
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that was just one less thing she had to,
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and it's that speed that that we're just not used to waiting anymore.
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So
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I I think that might tie into what you're saying.
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Sure, yeah. I mean, everyone has the instant gratification because
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of the environment, right? Like people just expect that.
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Amazon has probably contributed to a lot of that and just
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Yeah.
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the immediate gratification. I I had to delete Amazon app from my phone
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and I because I was just everything.
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And it's like, do I really need this or do I just want it because
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I saw an influencer post it? Like
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Yeah. Yeah.
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I was like, I think I do I have a shopping problem?
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I might have a shopping problem.
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So, you know, I had to delete it and we've saved a little bit of money
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in the last week. This is new,
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so who knows? I might get it back ~ soon.
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But yeah, it's just that instant gratification attitude.
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And I think people think think that about AI too,
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because it is an answer right away.
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Yeah. Yeah. ~ I had something happen to me ~ this past week.
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I I needed my four one K balance for my financial advisor.
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So I went on and I went to the bot and said I need my four my my up to date four
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one K balance. And it says go to the menu and find retirement services,
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click on that and you'll get it.
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And I couldn't find retirement services and I'm I'm not I'm pretty good around
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the website, so it wasn't that.
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So I got I I s you know
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I told the bot and finally it said,
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I'm gonna get your representative,
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which was great. But what was frustrating is the representative gets on and says,
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How can I help you? And that's
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Right.
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what's frustrating, right? I they should have picked it up.
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I understand you're looking for.
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And so I don't know if you have,
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you know, any advice for that.
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But I'm fine with using the chat bot,
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you know, to, you know, if it could solve it really quick,
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but when it can't, I don't like starting from scratch.
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It's like giving, you know, the credit card company when you call in your
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sixteen digit account number and then they transfer you and then you gotta give
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it to the next person you talk to.
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Yeah, some of that is for verification purposes,
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right? But yeah, it's very frustrating.
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And we used to, you know, talk about that all the time in the DiJulius group when
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we would talk about never cold transfer,
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always warm transfer, because yeah,
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you don't wanna have to, you don't wanna have to have the customer tell their
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frustrating story for the fifth time because then they're gonna
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Yeah.
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be even more frustrated when that when that ~ you know ~ employee picks
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up the phone and has to solve that issue now.
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So yeah, I think ~ I think that
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It's just the speed in which everyone's used to working
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and receiving information now.
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But it also has to reduce redundancy for
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Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
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the customer. Yeah. ~ Jess,
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all right. So there's a lot of news,
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and I don't know, you know, who knows how accurate it is,
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you know, out there of, you know,
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it's it's it's it's the job apocalypse.
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So employees probably aren't jumping up and down,
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you know, wanting AI because they're thinking it's it's just gonna lead
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to their demise. ~
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Mm.
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leaders.
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are are probably scared out, you know,
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I'm I'm I'm an entrepreneur of of a couple of different companies and like
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I don't want to, you know, go down that rabbit hole and then find out it was,
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you know, you know, a a wasted investment.
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So how do leaders bring it in AI properly?
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~ and a key to it is not scaring if you don't have your employees bought in,
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you know, they can they can, you know,
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what's the word? you know, throw a wrench into the system,
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right?
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So how do you
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Yeah.
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how do you help your clients with that?
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So implementation and change management is always a challenge
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for any new product, new feature,
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new process. so I think it's always important to be very,
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very intentional. Lean on those early adopters,
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but focus on starting small. Like you don't have to deploy a
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six figure, five figure AI tool at all at once.
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Like you can you can start small.
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And a lot of tools that you are probably already using have an AI component within.
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So you may not even have to pay that much more for it.
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So don't try to solve for a problem until you know that it's not already
19:16
a solution built in some of the
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tools and systems that you're already paying for.
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You don't have to to start from scratch most of the time to to solve for
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the pro for the problems. but I also think it's important to start small
19:29
and gain confidence in the group.
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Don't try to boil the ocean and,
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you know, roll out something that is so intimidating that people
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are going to reject it. ~ I think it's
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And when you say people,
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you mean employees. Yeah. And and it could be customers too,
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Employees, yeah. Yeah, you sure.
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because you're forcing me
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to do something different that I've never had to do before.
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And I don't like that. You know,
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people don't like change.
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Yeah, it's hard. And this is a big one,
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right? Like there's still politically and ethically,
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like a lot of information out there that people either love it or they hate it,
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~ for whatever for whatever reason.
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And so it's still really new.
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But I think starting narrow and starting small and gaining confidence,
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also for leaders to talk about how it has failed.
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Like
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always make sure it has a spot on the agenda now.
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And it could just be very casual,
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personally or professionally, how have you used it this week or this month
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and what did it look like? And did it work well or did it not work well?
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And being able to to talk about h the challenges that have come from
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the implementation. You know, if you tried to use it a certain way
20:37
and it didn't work, being vulnerable enough to talk about,
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you know, it did th it this did not work and that and this is likely why.
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~ I was help I was asking
20:46
Claude to help me build a presentation a couple weeks ago.
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And it gave me some data in my opening slide.
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And I like raised my eyebrows on one of the pieces of information.
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And I said, well, where did you get this?
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Like where is that statistic coming from?
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Because, you know, if someone in the audience asks you,
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you ought to be able to defend it.
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So it came back and said, I actually made that up.
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And I have the screenshot of that because yeah,
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My God.
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it's like, ~ wait a minute. And and you'll hear like the term hallucination,
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Yeah.
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but it could totally it, and that just basically means it's pulling from information
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and and it doesn't have the accurate,
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you know, information, but it will sound confident.
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They are designed to sound confident and to to be agreeable.
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So I always say force pushback,
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ask questions. ~ anytime I ask it to help me create something,
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I always end with.
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Ask me any clarifying questions before you before you build this,
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because I want to make sure it knows exactly what I want and exactly what I need.
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And then challenge it, right? It's whatever it whatever it creates for you,
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you still need a human in the loop.
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So I think that's just so important,
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so critical, is that you don't always take you take it for face value
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and you make sure you're you're looking at what it creates and what it generates.
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So do have any recommendation on when a company is getting more aggressive with
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AI and implement how they don't scare their employees that this is,
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you know, the beginning of the end of their tenure working here?
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I think help helping them understand and be a part of the conversation of okay,
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if it saves us best case scenario,
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this saves us five hours a week.
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What are we gonna do with that additional five hours?
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Like letting them be a part of the conversation and seeing what they
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can come creatively come up with.
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Like, maybe we're gonna think about going above and beyond even more
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for our customers. we'll have more time to relationship build,
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we'll have more time for creative,
22:41
strategic.
22:42
product development that we maybe wouldn't have thought of before.
22:45
~ so let them be a part of the conversation of what we're doing with the time saved,
22:51
how we're reinvesting it into the business,
22:53
into ~ you
22:55
You made me think of a great
22:55
know, your colleagues.
22:56
exercise that you probably already do,
22:58
but saying, all right, J employee Jess,
23:01
what's the least favorite part of your job?
23:04
Right. And then you're probably gonna
23:04
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
23:06
listen. It's gonna be the mundane,
23:07
you know, maybe research or transferring their answers,
23:11
you know, and typing it and all that stuff.
23:13
Well, we can we can eliminate that for you.
23:16
So what's your favorite part of the job?
23:18
Relationship building, giving,
23:19
you know, my expertise based on the data.
23:21
You know, I don't, you know,
23:22
Mm-hmm.
23:22
you you'd know that better than me,
23:23
but
23:24
if you're doing more of what you love and less of what,
23:27
you know, doesn't, you know, make you jump out of the bed in the morning,
23:30
that's a win win. Yeah.
23:32
Right, right, absolutely.
23:34
Yeah. And bringing them into that conversation,
23:36
I think, allows them to feel like they're a part of the solution and then
23:39
Yeah.
23:40
they're more interested in the change that's going to be coming,
23:44
you know, when they know and when they understand the why and the what's
23:47
in it for them. I think that that can kind of contribute to them being,
23:52
you know, less fearful or resentful or ~ just against it.
23:57
all right, you named your company Human First AI Consulting dot com.
24:02
Well, that's not part of your name,
24:03
but human first
24:03
Mm-hmm.
24:04
AI Consulting dot com is where you can find this.
24:07
Why human first, Jess?
24:08
Because I don't want the human touch to ever go away and I don't think it will.
24:13
It means that every decision starts with the person and not a tool.
24:17
You know, really making sure that they're involved in the process and that,
24:21
you know, they're able to help make the d decisions and that they're able
24:26
to have their stamp on their the final product or the outcome
24:31
or whatever that whatever that AI implementation looks like,
24:34
that there's always a human developing it.
24:36
And all right, so what what when should when should it not be w w when
24:43
w should a business not allow AI to handle situations?
24:47
Do you have like ~ you know, huh you know,
24:50
that that's just don't do that.
24:51
Yeah, so if a task can be or is repeatable,
24:57
then it may be a good candidate for AI.
25:00
If it follows a pattern and happens often,
25:03
and if a mistake is easy to catch and cheap to fix,
25:06
I think people get caught when,
25:10
you know, a final decision and if you're allowing it to let's say like send
25:15
an email without your approval.
25:17
If that mistake can't be isn't easy to fix,
25:20
then it's probably not a good use case for AI.
25:25
So I think yeah, you gotta pay attention,
25:28
you gotta answer those three three questions.
25:29
Does it happen often? Does it follow a pattern?
25:31
And if A got it wrong, AI got it wrong,
25:34
will we catch it before it matters?
25:36
And you gotta be able to answer yes to all three.
25:38
And that's how you know it may be,
25:40
it may be a good candidate for AI.
25:42
So I'm I I'm pro hopefully the examples I'm gonna give are obvious and don't need
25:47
to be said, and I think they're on the opposite end of the spectrum.
25:50
But the things I don't want communicated with me,
25:54
not by a human, is that, you know,
25:57
I got declined for a loan, a mortgage,
26:00
a business loan, or, you know,
26:02
medical you know, ~ test results that
26:06
could be, you know,
26:07
Mm-hmm.
26:08
unfavorable. All right. I I hope that's obvious and that doesn't need to be said.
26:12
And most businesses that you know that aren't maybe delivering stuff that that's
26:17
sensitive. But what else? Are there anything that come to mind just
26:20
in day-to-day businesses where that should not be communicated via,
26:25
you know, ~ a chat or an auto response?
26:29
Pick up the phone. You know, you that needs to be communicated ~ one on one.
26:34
Yeah, I think ~ like when you're thinking about employee experience,
26:38
you know, upskilling your your managers,
26:41
I think still needs to be done by a human and like having disciplinary type
26:47
conversations or like performance improvement plans,
26:50
like hiring, firing, discipline,
26:53
all of those things should always have that human judgment and also that human
26:58
accountability component.
27:00
I would
27:00
also think on the opposite end of the spectrum,
27:02
the kudos, catch you doing something right,
27:05
right? Like me reaching out to you saying,
27:05
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
27:07
Josh,
27:08
you cr versus it being automated.
27:10
I don't think you'd feel the same way.
27:12
No, yeah, yeah, right. Totally.
27:12
Yeah. Yeah. Like that, like
27:14
I agree with that.
27:15
I I could see it like in our world back in in in your day,
27:18
you got, you know, we got a you got a 10 out of 10 or you know,
27:22
for your workshop you did, or you got a nine point seven in your keynote.
27:27
And then it automatically triggers a congratulations to you,
27:31
but that's you know, that doesn't feel right.
27:33
Yeah, it's it's maybe a more sentimental or emotional moment that
27:37
you would just rather have that personal touch.
27:40
A high
27:41
five coming from someone that,
27:42
you know, i their their ~ whatever means a lot to you,
27:46
right? Yeah.
27:47
yeah. Yeah.
27:48
I think anytime like the process is broken,
27:51
I think requires a human touch to it,
27:55
just to explain you know, what what happened or what went wrong and that
27:59
can save a relationship with the customer.
28:01
Service recovery, you know, because I'm
28:02
Yep, service recovery.
28:04
upset and I'm probably getting a little irrational.
28:08
~
28:08
Mm-hmm.
28:09
and I I I don't feel or hear or sense empathy
28:14
Mm-hmm.
28:14
in a in a auto response, right?
28:17
Yeah. Yeah.
28:17
Versus, you
28:18
know, the human could.
28:20
you know, feel so bad or make me feel like they feel so bad that
28:24
I'm actually talking them down saying it's not as bad as your you know,
28:28
I don't want you to lose sleep at night tonight over this.
28:31
Yeah. So yeah, anything that needs empathy,
28:34
accountability, judgment, I'd say keep to a human.
28:38
It can maybe do the busy work for you to get you prepared for those situations,
28:42
but those are the moments that that require and I think always will a human element.
28:47
I know you're what just celebrated a year anniversary.
28:51
Yes, my company is one year old.
28:53
Congratulations. That's huge. I mean,
28:54
Yeah. I know, yeah.
28:55
you know,
28:56
that's huge. I'm not surprised,
28:58
but it is huge. what's been your biggest victory?
29:00
What are you, you know, do you have case studies or just,
29:03
you know, something that just,
29:04
you know, ~ is better than a the paycheck?
29:07
Yeah, I think I think I told you this actually,
29:10
you know, all of my clients are word of mouth referrals or people
29:15
who knew me before. And I I said,
29:18
I I will I will know I made it officially when someone randomly finds me and chooses
29:23
Mm.
29:23
to hire me. And so that just happened a couple
29:26
~
29:27
months ago. Yeah. So that was ~ like that was the that was a big win.
29:31
Mm-hmm.
29:32
That's great. That's great.
29:33
and what's it like to be an entrepreneur?
29:35
Was it everything you and and good and bad,
29:38
everything you thought, and I know I warned you without trying to maybe maybe
29:41
Yeah. ~
29:42
I tried to scare you a little bit,
29:44
but
29:44
you know, told you that, you know,
29:45
there's there's, you know, you have to I told you that you have to
29:49
be okay with uncertainty, right?
29:51
Because that's
29:51
Yeah. Yeah.
29:52
all it is, and most
29:53
people aren't. besides all the other things that
29:56
you know, you you realize that,
29:58
my God, if I just would have stayed at my last company initially
30:02
and worked the hours I work, I'd,
30:04
you know, be making so much more money or whatever.
30:06
And, you know, I I know when I started,
30:09
and we weren't taking a paycheck,
30:11
but then you'd hear an employee in the back room saying,
30:14
you know, they're cheap. They don't pay us enough.
30:16
You wanted to kill because they got paid this week and I didn't,
30:19
right? ~
30:19
Yeah, yeah.
30:21
but that's not their fault, right?
30:22
But
30:23
What was what surprised you and what what you know was were you prepared for?
30:29
Yeah,
30:30
I think when it comes to being an entrepreneur,
30:35
you have to get used to like riding the wave of there'll be weeks where
30:40
I'm just so busy. I'm like, my gosh,
30:42
I need to hire someone. And then the next week it'll be so quiet.
30:46
Crickets.
30:47
And I'm like, do I need to go back and find a W 2 job again?
30:50
Right, right. Get your resume out.
30:52
Yeah. And so
30:52
Yeah, yeah.
30:55
That is something that I don't know,
30:57
do you ever get used to that?
30:58
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's it it's kinda like I I I grew up literally living
31:02
on Mayfield Road, which you you know,
31:04
for our listeners, it's a five lane street that's just traffic.
31:09
And people used to say, How do you you know,
31:11
how do you sleep? And you know,
31:13
that noise just becomes, you know,
31:15
like yeah, like anything. It just you just it you becomes your routine.
31:18
~
31:19
Mm-hmm.
31:19
you still you still can panic at those times,
31:22
but then you start realizing they're temporary.
31:25
I I've
31:26
You know, it it it it's I've had ~ a dozen times before.
31:29
you know, it'll get better next week and and then vice versa.
31:31
Yeah. And then when you're busy
31:32
You
31:33
that next week you wanna go back and like shake yourself for not enjoying the quiet.
31:37
Right, right. I always say
31:37
But you when you're in the quiet,
31:39
you can't enjoy the quiet for some reason.
31:41
Yeah, I don't know if you remember ~ you know,
31:44
my busy time every year is Labor Day to Thanksgiving.
31:48
And you were, you know, from keynotes,
31:51
that's when everyone has their ~ thing.
31:52
Conferences, yeah.
31:53
Consulting,
31:54
I think, was a little bit more,
31:55
but I'm sure you were busier at that
31:57
Mm-hmm.
31:57
time too. But it's like it's one of those things,
32:00
be careful what you wish for because you know,
32:03
I love it, but then I'm like, my God,
32:05
I just need a day off. I need,
32:06
you know, so it you
32:08
another great quote is ~ you know,
32:10
I don't complain about the life you dream to have.
32:14
Right. And
32:15
Yeah, it's a good one.
32:15
yeah, it's like, so if my f you know,
32:18
if you had told me 25 years ago this,
32:21
you know, this would be where I would at,
32:23
how busy I'd be, but I'd be bitching about flight delays and this,
32:28
that I'd be like, no way. Like if you're
32:29
Mm-hmm.
32:30
telling me I'm gonna be book solid and that's what I'm complaining about.
32:33
So I try to remember that.
32:35
when I mean this is the life I asked for,
32:36
so you know, it comes
32:37
Mm-hmm.
32:38
with those little things.
32:39
I also give kudos to anyone who started a business before they had AI to go and ask.
32:46
Because think
32:47
Yeah.
32:47
about it, you know, when I started my business,
32:50
AI made it really easy to get my questions answered immediately.
32:53
Right.
32:53
Prior to five years ago, you know,
32:57
I would have had to rely on people who've gone through it before.
33:00
Reaching out to someone
33:01
Yeah. Right. Right.
33:01
saying, Can you meet me at Starbucks in a month?
33:04
And yeah.
33:05
So you yeah. And
33:07
then I'd have to, you know, compare your opinion versus my neighbor's opinion versus
33:12
someone who ran a totally separate business and a different industry.
33:16
So I think the opportunity is a lot and the window is a lot shorter
33:21
to education and understanding.
33:23
when you think about like a lot of AI experts.
33:27
Many
33:28
of them, not all, many of them have a computer engineering degrees.
33:31
They have, you know, they've they've been a software developer for 25 years.
33:36
and and I I don't have that. I don't have either of those things,
33:40
but it's a but AI has allowed anyone to learn basically anything.
33:46
And so it's shortened the gap,
33:49
but allows more people to have a seat at the table and to
33:53
learn things that maybe would have required a four year degree in the past.
33:56
And now you don't you don't need that,
33:56
Yeah. Well, the other thing that's really good about where
33:58
right? You can kind of figure it out.
34:00
you're at, Jess, and that's why so many people,
34:03
like Steve Jobs, was famous to saying,
34:05
you know, he wouldn't hire or work with a consultant.
34:08
And the reason is those consult most consultants have never owned a business,
34:13
maybe never worked in corporate America,
34:14
which was you, right? When you work at the De
34:16
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
34:17
DiJulius Group. And so it's easy to say,
34:19
why don't you do this, this, and this?
34:21
And then you leave, you know, you leave the the place.
34:25
be you know, you you don't necessarily know what it's like.
34:27
Well now you you you you you you you have besides your background
34:31
at the DiJulius group, you're a business owner.
34:34
So you know what it's like and you can relate to it.
34:37
So you really, you know, connect with the day in the life of your customer
34:41
and how scary it can be and how it's not just,
34:44
you know, why can't you just write a check and,
34:47
you know, well, you're trying to make payroll,
34:49
you're trying to, you know, keep things afloat.
34:51
You're in your
34:52
not your busy season, which means you're hoarding cash during this time
34:56
and all those things. So that really helps your credibility too.
34:59
Mm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think so. All of your experiences,
35:03
I think,
35:04
Yeah.
35:04
are, you know, and I think you've shared this quote with me before,
35:08
like you're the you're the average of the top five people you spend
35:12
the most time with, or,
35:13
Yeah.
35:13
you know, ~ and that could be,
35:15
you know, your colleagues, your family,
35:17
your friends, but all of those experiences and interactions lead
35:21
you to where you're, you know,
35:23
supposed to be and what you're
35:25
what you're supposed to be doing.
35:26
So
35:27
All right, Jess, a lot of information.
35:29
It's confusing to non technical people.
35:33
if a business owner or leader wants to start this week,
35:37
what's the first thing they should do?
35:39
So
35:39
I have an assessment tool that's on my website,
35:42
and we can drop the link, but it looks at areas of opportunity that would
35:47
be your best ROI situation if you were going to implement AI.
35:53
But I do recommend starting small.
35:57
The little wins matter when it comes to AI.
35:59
So if it's something as simple as recording and transcribing
36:03
a meeting and summarizing those notes and
36:05
Publishing those, you know, that used to take maybe an hour or two.
36:09
Now it takes 20 seconds. Like,
36:11
and that's a win. So I think ~ you know,
36:14
just start starting small is probably the the the biggest piece of advice that
36:20
I would give to business owners that are looking to implement it.
36:24
And also don't try to be an expert.
36:26
Don't chase the new flashy shiny tool that is being sold in your
36:32
whatever industry you're in. I think it's take that,
36:35
take, take a breath. Like it's moving so fast.
36:38
You cannot be an expert in everything.
36:40
Nail down like one or two tools that you're really confident with
36:44
and master those before you move to anything else.
36:48
because that's where you're going to gain your confidence.
36:51
And don't be afraid to ask questions.
36:53
I think like use use the
36:55
tools that you have and and ask questions and just have the t take the time
37:00
to learn it where you can and when you can because it is changing so
37:06
so quickly that it's it's almost I mean it's impossible to keep up with everything.
37:10
So, you know, that shouldn't be what you're achieved striving to achieve.
37:14
I what if they wanna ~ work or explore working with human first AI consulting?
37:20
What what would you recommend?
37:22
So
37:22
I would recommend let's start with the discovery call.
37:25
Let's talk through the areas of opportunity.
37:27
I typically break it down into f into four areas.
37:30
I'd say let's look at marketing,
37:32
let's look at sales, let's look at admin,
37:34
let's look at your operations.
37:35
Which of those areas do you want to start with?
37:37
and then asking them a series of questions in each of those categories
37:41
and then identifying, you know,
37:43
an area of that AI can help improve.
37:46
And so it really breaks it down.
37:48
in not trying to do everything at once because that's where I see a
37:52
lot of projects typically fail is when you try to take on too much at one time.
37:56
Any project, not just AI, any project.
37:58
All right. So what we're gonna drop in the show notes is your website,
38:03
human first AI Consulting dot com.
38:06
~ talk to us about this the the collective,
38:09
what's the collective? H ~ the HFAI collective
38:13
Yeah. So I I developed
38:13
dot com. What's that? Did you already say it?
38:16
Sorry.
38:17
the collective community for my target audience there is mid-level managers that
38:22
know they need to use AI, but have to,
38:25
you know, don't know where to start or you know,
38:27
really want to cut through the noise,
38:29
want to stay up to speed without having to read every single article that's
38:32
published on LinkedIn or watch every YouTube video out there.
38:35
so this group meets three times a month and everything is recorded.
38:40
So if you can't meet,
38:41
You know, you can catch the recording.
38:42
But in these sessions, I train on a specific AI topic that they can use right away.
38:48
And then we have two more informal casual coffee chats to help talk through what
38:53
worked, what didn't, ~ where you got stuck.
38:56
And those are those are much more casual,
38:58
but each person is able to walk away with something that they
39:01
can implement month over month.
39:02
And again, that's starting small and gaining confidence.
39:05
So
39:05
It allows people to kind of keep up with AI without having to be totally consumed
39:10
by it. So that's the AI community.
39:12
That's my collective community.
39:13
And then, you know, I do AI consulting,
39:18
which is more of an engagement where we'll go through an entire discovery process
39:21
and identify areas of opportunity,
39:23
which I talked about. And then another piece that Ohio employers
39:27
can take advantage of. If you are an Ohio employer and you have W 2 employees,
39:32
You can apply for a state grant called Ohio Tech Cred.
39:37
And the process for that is just submit your application by October 30th.
39:42
So it's a tight, it's a bit of a tight window,
39:44
but you submit your application.
39:46
They take about a month or so to approve that.
39:48
And then you would enroll your team in the AI training.
39:52
and it's basically free AI upskilling for your team.
39:56
And
39:56
then you get reimbursed by the government once your team completes that training.
39:59
So yeah.
40:00
And that's something that we're doing.
40:01
my
40:01
employees are going through it and and they love it.
40:04
And like like you kinda said, you know,
40:07
we crawl walked and run. We, you know,
40:09
had one employee do it. She absolutely loved it.
40:12
It's made a huge difference and now everyone else wants to do it.
40:16
Yeah, and it's I mean, every organization is going to have to upskill their team
40:21
in the AI arena. And so this just if you are an Ohio employer,
40:27
you can take advantage of this grant funding and have your team through the course.
40:30
No other states are doing it right now.
40:32
You know, they probably are, but it's probably looks a little bit different
40:35
in every state. And mine my course is particularly for ~ that program,
40:40
Ohio. All right,
40:41
yeah.
40:42
~ others can take it. Others can take
40:42
so we're gonna put a link we're gonna
40:44
it but it's not reimbursed, right?
40:45
So
40:46
We're gonna put a link in there for the tech cred,
40:49
that they can do it. And you th there's a webinar sign up on October fourteenth.
40:54
What's that?
40:54
So I'm just going to host a webinar to give everyone the information,
40:58
to tell everyone
40:58
Okay.
40:59
what the application process looks like.
41:01
I know there's a lot of questions that come up when you're dealing with kind
41:04
of government funding and grants and reimbursement.
41:06
So I'm just gonna talk through the details of what that looks like,
41:09
who qualifies, ~ what the training program entails so that people
41:12
can have more information.
41:14
That's awesome. Anything else I'm missing,
41:16
Jess, that you want to share with our listeners?
41:18
no, I am doing a a score webinar.
41:20
We can drop the link to that. ~ I'm doing that on I think it's October twenty-ninth.
41:26
So that score webinar is called Marketing in the Age of AI.
41:31
And I also did that for I did that same keynote for ~ like a tour
41:36
~ with a company called Spectrum.
41:39
And it was really, really well received.
41:41
So marketing in the age of AI is a good one.
41:43
It's a free webinar put together by score.
41:44
Well, that's huge. I mean, you know,
41:46
Yeah.
41:46
it's
41:46
different from SEO. and I know w you know,
41:49
it's something that you know, we're all worried about making sure that we're
41:53
it positioned right for when people instead of maybe using Google today,
41:59
they're going to chat GPT or Claude and asking for customers,
42:04
you know, service consultants.
42:06
Are we gonna show up like
42:08
we invested so much to do in SEO,
42:11
right? So that's kind of what that is.
42:11
Right. Yeah, yeah. Covers all
42:12
Good. Good.
42:15
of that, covers some low hanging fruit areas of opportunity there that anyone
42:19
can implement. and that's on October twenty ninth at eleven AM Eastern time.
42:25
All right, we'll have those links,
42:26
as well as how you can follow Jess on social media,
42:30
human firstai consulting dot com,
42:33
the tech cred ~ webinar and and links to all that.
42:37
I know a lot of our listeners are are excited for you because you you had such
42:43
a big impact in their life. You had a big a big impact on the De DiJulius Group
42:47
~ evolution. you were
42:48
Critical you know, ~ team member and consultant.
42:52
And ~ without sounding I don't know,
42:54
patronizing, I'm I'm just couldn't be more proud of you,
42:57
Jess.
42:57
Thanks, that means a lot.
42:59
All right, revolutionaries, thank you for joining us for another episode
43:03
of the Customer Service Revolution.
43:05
We'll see you next week.