In our “CX One on One” series, we will meet the dynamic and talented team members behind the scenes at NICE representing all the facets of the world’s #1 cloud native customer experience platform. We recently sat down with Aaron Rice, General Manager, CXone Expert, our comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI)-powered knowledge management solution. Rice shared more about his passion for knowledge, why organizations need to value knowledge management, innovations he anticipates in the future and how NICE is bridging CX and knowledge.
Aaron Rice exudes an entrepreneurial spirit, as he speaks about knowledge as if it’s currency.
After all, the value that knowledge brings to CX is immeasurable.
“My proudest achievement is being an architect of the future evolution of something that's been with us for thousands of years,” Rice said. “We’re coming at knowledge management via outside-in, customer-first design thinking, leveraging new technology and new ways to help companies improve experiences for customers and their employees.”
Rice wishes more companies would realize the worth of knowledge for CX excellence.
“If they haven’t already, many companies need to grasp the concept that the most important thing to customers is not a product,” he said. “Rather, it’s the experience of ownership that is a satisfaction driver. Our knowledge management platform is designed to deliver that kind of experience so companies can better increase customer lifetime value and gain a major competitive advantage.”
Knowledge is power
As the saying goes, “knowledge is power,” and CXone Expert brings the power to knowledge.
Rice is General Manager of CXone Expert, which is the critical knowledge management piece of the CXone cloud native platform. Previously, he served as CEO and COO of MindTouch, where he and his team built a cloud-based knowledge management software for customer experience that became part of NICE’s offerings in 2021.
As he marvels at how technology is reinventing knowledge, you can hear the passion the Irish native has for his work.
In breaking down a complex topic, Rice eschews a professorial tone for one that’s conversational.
“What we do is really fundamental to bridging a divide and encouraging understanding. By connecting people who have knowledge with those who don’t yet—we’re enabling a novice to be an expert,” Rice said.
Day in the life
Ask Aaron Rice about a typical day and he goes straight to the big picture.
He and his team are focused on explaining the value proposition of knowledge management for potential clients. They help the NICE sales and marketing teams succinctly distill the value so they can better communicate how it makes the customer journey easier. In a literal sense, he and his team are working to make them experts on knowledge just as CXone Expert does for customers.
“A primary role for us is coaching the wider NICE teams to understand how knowledge can help them position CXone and round out the value proposition to customers so we’re enabling the external team,” Rice said. “Another major component of what we do is staying in touch with the marketplace, tracking the overall conversation on knowledge management so we maintain our competitive edge.”
He's quick to call his team the “best in the world of what they do”—from innovative engineers to a customer success team that thrives on customer success.
“Our success is intertwined with our customers. If we're not actually improving our customers’ KPIs, we feel like we’re failing,” Rice said.
Rice is often sought after for his insights, most recently leading a session at our Digital CX Week 2022 where he highlighted a customer who discussed how CXone Expert transformed its website, taking a technical product and making it accessible to the public.
As a result, the site saw new year-over-year user growth of 4,000 and returning growth of 15,000. The site uses CXone Expert to crowdsource content from an estimated 1,000 within the customer success organization.
There was zero interruption to its self-service center despite turnover within the Splunk content team during this time.
“The thing that I love about knowledge is that it can be a stable buffer in the storm of whatever goes on,” Rice said during the session. “As you move forward, you're going to continue growing, and your customers on the front end don't feel any of that turnover happening. They've got the stable self-service resource out there that's always on, that they can always go to no matter what's happening internally or externally ...”
What keeps you up at night
When we posed the question of what’s top of mind for Rice, his answer implied, “EVERYTHING.”
What’s currently consuming Rice’s thoughts is an abundance of opportunity within knowledge management for CX.
“We’re spoiled a little bit for choice. There's so much opportunity in this space, and we’re currently strategizing where to go next,” he said.
Professional mantra
Rice’s professional mantra mirrors his career path as a visionary in tech.
After hearing it attributed to Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford, he held fast to the saying: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
He says it perfectly summarizes what he and the CXone team do.
“The way you make your customers successful is looking beyond what they want—or even have a clear view of yet,” Rice said. “We bring the vision to them.”
If you weren’t in CX…
Though he has worked in varied industries throughout his career, Rice’s role has been consistent. He loves a challenge and finds inspiration in creating new ways to help organizations improve their processes.
(Fun fact: he started his career at one of the Big Four accounting organizations.)
When asked what he would be doing if he weren’t in CX, Rice quickly returns to that core passion of a desire to leave something better than when he arrived.
“I would gravitate to an industry that is in need of innovation, like packaging, waste management, public transportation, healthcare or education,” Rice said.
What’s next
Rice sparks when asked about the future of tech, specifically knowledge management.
Overall, Rice anticipates a greater adoption of the service model that’s crossing industries. Look for a continued shift from one-time value transactions to a subscription service, he says.
Gone are the once-ubiquitous Blockbuster stores, where we now rely on streaming services for home entertainment.
The desire for a “companion” for various customer journeys will drive additional growth in other industries, Rice predicts. In fact, the model is already emerging in new ways.
“Rather than paying a one-time fee to see a doctor, there’s a school of thought that providers can get ahead of a customer’s problem by making available a continuous subscription to services that essentially serves as a companion throughout the health journey,” he said.
He considers the “why” behind such disruptions. Why do people seemingly prefer ride sharing services Uber or Lyft to taxis?
“You have a relationship with that app. It recognizes you, it knows your preferences, it makes things easy for you. It offers things that you want to experience,” he said. “I think mobile technology, personalization, the ease of use and the understanding of that distinction between what is transactional and what is building a relationship is continuing to disrupt industries—and will continue to disrupt industries.”
In general, Rice sees companies recognizing and acknowledging that people want instant satisfaction.
“We’re witnessing the end of people having to wait in lines to get service, either in person or on the phone. Companies are waking up to the fact that people will continuously come back to them if they find immediate help,” Rice said. “AI technology is going to continue to be a force. The benefit is twofold, helping agents and customers avoid the mundane, and allowing them to better use their time and tap into a creative wellspring.”
An AI shift will only help create more opportunities.
“People have always feared that technology was going to erode jobs. And all it's ever done is create more avenues for more interesting careers,” he said.
Rice might as well be talking about his own career, woven between knowledge and tech, combining AI and creativity.
What is CXone Expert?
CXone Expert adds what could be called a clarity funnel to an organization’s content to help customers access the most relevant content for self-service success and do so in a faster turnaround. It makes the entire process faster, and more accurate without the need for unnecessary agent transfers and callbacks.
It’s a comprehensive artificial intelligence (AI)-powered knowledge management solution that eliminates friction by delivering personalized content to customers seeking self-service. CXone Expert infuses AI and data to transform bots into smart AI-based agents, and ultimately take customer frustration out of the mix.
In fact, leveraging knowledge to improve the self-service experience to make customers feel like experts can:
- Eliminate frustration with today’s self-service experience by delivering knowledge and convenience to customers on their preferred channels and devices. Turn bots into smart AI-based agents.
- Deliver knowledge (or answers) on demand, in product or at their fingertips so customers can self-solve or self-diagnose before reaching out to an agent.
- Create customers for life. Positive customer engagement with product (or service) leads to more successful product adoption. More adoption and less churn lead to more upsell and overall higher customer lifetime value (CLTV).
- Boost CX for less to improve customer experience with self-service through low-cost automated channels vs. high-cost human channels.