ConvergeOne is proud to congratulate Kathy Sobus, our Director of Customer Experience, who was recently included on CRN’s annual Women of the Channel listing which recognizes influential women leaders with extraordinary expertise and vision. This is Kathy's second consecutive year on this prestigious list.
Here's why Kathy is a Customer Experience Rock Star!
Kathy's passion lies in helping customers enhance their contact centers to more effectively respond to ever-changing needs. As an expert in her field, Kathy regularly develops and shares thought leadership and strategy, and is a staple at industry tradeshow and events. Kathy has been awarded thirteen patents, mainly in the area of identifying, routing, and reporting on events that happen within a business. She has also held roles that included global contact center lead, contact center strategist, and inventor.
We sat down with Kathy and asked her to share a few insights from her journey in customer experience so far. Here's what she had to say.
What interests you most about the technology industry?
Early on, I realized that customers drive all business. It was apparent if I could help shape the customers’ experience, companies would operate more profitably and more streamlined at the same time. Companies that truly operate and believe this statement are the leaders in business.
We are at the beginning of an experience revolution. This space is so exciting and ever changing. There are so very many new technologies available which can really transition how customers are being helped today into something quite remarkable.
I really just enjoy studying the customers’ experience, and use many of my day to day examples while shaping how things could be better!
What is the most rewarding thing about your job?
Definitely working with everyone. My position is so varied and allows me the opportunity to work with our clients throughout their organizations in finding novel ways to create differentiated customer experiences. I also have the pleasure to work across ConvergeOne in cross functional, collaborative groups to create and evangelize our customer experience strategy and our voice in the marketplace. This includes our executives, to our sales force, our designers, installers, Day 2 support, and our cloud groups.
In addition, my position allows me the opportunity to work with leading vendors in our industry to understand the new technologies they are offering, to influence and help shape their product roadmaps and determine joint go to market strategies.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Personally, I have to say my children are the accomplishment I’m most proud of. It is so incredibly rewarding to see young people grow into adults, showing a true work ethic, taking care of others, and succeeding. There is no greater reward.
What are some of your hobbies?
I spend time golfing, on the water, and enjoying my family.
What do you think your industry will look like in 2030?
There is so very much shaping our industry today, that it is difficult to pick one area. The Internet of Things and connected devices will play an enormous part in our industry. We will know so much more about where people are located, how they are feeling, how transportation, and buildings react to this knowledge, and how we will interact with others. This level of connectivity and interoperability between devices will shape where we go, what we do, who we work with, and how we transact. As a result how businesses care for customers will need to adapt just to keep up!
I believe by the year 2030, many of the routine tasks will be automated either partially or completely. This means that human interaction will be at a level that requires intuition on the company and the needs of the customer, good problem solving skills, and the ability to converse at high levels.
If you could retire tomorrow, what would you do?
I would donate my time to working on some of the problems that we face today as a society. Giving back and helping others using the skills that I’ve been fortunate to gain along the way.
What advice can you impart to young women pursuing this profession?
Enjoy yourself and adapt. Being flexible and enjoying what you do along the way provides an enormous advantage in this ever changing world (especially in technology). Technology is a field full of creativity and passion for enhancing communication among people, globally. The world has become more accessible than ever before, and in more ways than ever thought.
The infrastructure continues to show improvements that enable technologies and the transport of communication which provides more information to each of the parties; however, it is the richness of the applications that really inspires me. I would hope that our young women would explore this space as a possibility for their future, and for the future of all communication.
CX Insight Series with Kathy Sobus
Stay close to the ConvergeOne blog for our upcoming thought leadership series with Kathy where she will explore topics like automation and personalization in the enterprise, bots and intelligent agents, and the power of analysis in your data.
Take the Next Step
Whether you're interested in a customer experience workshop, an assessment, or a proof of concept, ConvergeOne is the one partner who can bring it all together. Learn more about our customer experience offerings.
Topics: Customer Experience
