“A customer service conference? That must be filled with some of the kindest, coolest people ever.”
A friend told me that. Rings true!
Zendesk Relate 2018 was held in San Francisco at the Fairmont Hotel. A 3-day adventure into the world of customer service and experience, you can take flight on a session that most aligns with your interests – from omnichannel support to data driven customer experiences to trends to handling customer conflict to the employee experience…and SO much more.
No doubt everyone who attended walked away from Zendesk Relate with a new creative idea, stellar network connection or simply a new appreciation for your day to day job in customer service and experience.
The conference room was impressive, with giant chandeliers and lights of blues and greens. Sarah Stealey Reed is a rockstar on stage. Mikkel Svane in his golden suit talking about the release of Zendesk Sunshine, the developer friendly CRM platform. Levi’s Brady Stewart, SVP, LSA & Global Ecommerce talking customer experience (and wearing the cutest jacket). Max Luthy from Trendwatching talking about trends (duh) from such an authentic, human perspective.
With so many different sessions, I can’t say I got around to as many as I would have liked, but I will say I loved What Women Leaders Bring to the Contact Center and Navigating Conflict in Customer Service. Check out other sessions held at Zendesk Relate here.
I had the honor of speaking about self-care in the workplace and the importance of taking care of yourself in order to take care of others.
Peek through my Zendesk Relate scrapbook of memories below:
Exploring San Francisco
Despite being born and raised in California, I have been to San Francisco once before and I was a wee 12 years old. The ZenDesk Relate conference gave me an excuse to revisit, explore, meet with friends and eat some really good vegan food. Shizen, anyone?
Spreading the self-care word
I am humbled to have my ZenDesk Relate interview featured in the Relate Magazine, given to all attendees at the conference. I love this opportunity to spread the word about self-care at work and how it impacts the lives of others around us, including our customers. I also can’t wait to frame this article and hang it on my wall.
More than just a talk
Talking about self-care is one thing but diving deeper into your own life, really looking at what you have going on and defining priorities is another. In the session, Supporting Your Support Team Starts with You, I guided attendees through a short breathing exercise as well as a Discovery Circle activity to slice up different elements that make up our overall well being. Would you like a how-to guide on this workshop exercise? Sure, you got it. Just send me an email.
Inspired by others
The sessions at Zendesk Relate were filled with realistic takeaways that anyone in the industry can use as soon as they land back at their office. On a personal note, I really loved the focus on female leaders from a variety of industries.
“If all of your dreams came true, would they change you or would they change the world?” ~Cleo Wade, artist, poet and author
“Be your own hero.” ~Molly Bloom, entrepreneur, speaker and author
“Really good customer service makes everyone feel like they are famous.” ~Mindy Kaling, actor, writer, producer, director
Building relationships
The luckiest gal in the world I am to work in an industry with some of the coolest, smartest customer focused people around. From communities like CX Accelerator to Support Driven to #ICMIChat, I’ve connected and learned from so many pros. Meeting them in person feels like meeting a celebrity!
Badass CEO Emna Ghariani of Veamly and I before the keynote begins.
Adele Simor of Geckoboard sharing their awesome self-care reminder cards with me
Loved running into my friends Jacob Shields and #ZenDeskFamous Monica Norton
Missed Zendesk Relate this year? No worries! Save up for their South Beach event in 2020. No, they didn’t pay me to say this. It really is just so good – you’ve gotta check it out.
Hope to see you there in the future!
