One on One Interviews

I have the honor of co-chairing CRM Magazine’s annual event, CRM Evolution, alongside friend and leading independent CRM analyst Paul Greenberg. The conference takes place next month in Washington, DC, and features a host of influencers and thought leaders in areas like customer engagement, artificial intelligence, blockchain, conversational interfaces, and other key technologies and strategies.

One of the keynoters of the conference is Brian Solis, whose talk is entitled Designing Customer Experiences that Matter to a New Generation of Accidental Narcissists. So, with a title like that, I had to ask Brian for a sneak peek of what he’ll be discussing. And I also asked Paul to join me in the conversation.

When many think about artificial intelligence (AI) today it’s usually centered around headline grabbing examples of it addressing the futuristic type issues and challenges. And because the media lens focuses on those “eye-catching” use cases, many small businesses don’t feel like AI is really something that they would benefit from. But, according to Jon Lee, founder and CEO of CRM platform ProsperWorks, AI can help businesses of all sizes make better, more timely decisions that can help create more successful outcomes.

Lee shares how automating the data entry process not only frees up sales professionals from having to enter and maintain contact and account records, but also provides CRM apps with the data it needs to feed AI and uncover important relationship-building insights.

Subscription business models have been gaining traction over the last five years, particularly with small business startups. But what impact are technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning having on subscription business models? Stefan Pretty, CEO and founder of Subbly, an all-in-one subscription eCommerce solution, shares how he sees AI/machine learning shaping subscriptions, as well as how the combination of subscriptions and ecommerce are helping more entrepreneurs get off the ground.

Michael Trabold joins Ramon Ray for his latest Smart Hustle Report.

iQor, a global provider of customer care and interactions, and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) solutions, released the results of their “Customer and Product Experience 360” survey focusing on early adopters of connected devices like smart refrigerators, thermostats and speakers. Autumn Braswell, iQor’s Chief Operating Officer, shares a few of the key findings of the survey, and how growing expectations for using connected devices are forcing companies to up their game and provide better customer experiences and journeys in order to keep them excited about the potential these devices have.

Ramon Ray chats with Michelle Weinstein, The Pitch Queen for his latest Smart Hustle Report.

Vistage, a business advisory and executive coaching organization designed exclusively for CEOs, business owners and key executives, boasts having a membership of more than 21,000 expert leaders. And each month they partner with The Wall Street Journal on a small business confidence index that covers a lot of ground on what’s on the minds of small and midsize businesses.

Joe Galvin, Vistage’s Chief Research Officer, shares some of the key takeaways from the latest survey, including why theirs is so much optimism among small business owners, why they’re looking to add employees, why 2018 will be a year to increase investments in their businesses, and why there’s more to leadership than providing motivation and inspiration.

Small Business Trends Uli Nasibova chats with Ramon Ray for the latest Smart Hustle Report.

It’s been way too long since my last conversation with SugarCRM CEO Larry Augustin for this series. But with artificial intelligence, smart speakers, blockchain and so many technologies capturing our collective attention, I was happy to catch up with Larry to ask him how CRM/customer engagement will be impacted by any or all of these areas.

Below is an edited transcript of our conversation. To hear the full interview check out the video or Soundcloud embedded player below

Small Business Trends Ramon Ray chats with Chad Corzine of The Urban Agriculture Company.