Katie Carroll00:02 — I think there's a few different ways that I look at personalization, but I think when we came up with this whole concept, it's just acknowledging that personalization is still reactive.
Ben Ard00:39 — Welcome back to another episode of content amplified today. I'm joined by Katie, Katie. Welcome to the show.
Katie Carroll00:44 — It's great to be here.
Ben Ard00:45 — Yeah, Katie, I'm excited. This is going to be a fun subject. I think the audience is going to really latch on to what we're talking about. It's pretty cutting edge. I'm really excited to learn more about it from you. But before we dive into that, let's get to know you, your background, work history, all that fun stuff. So the audience knows who you are.
Katie Carroll01:02 — Yeah, for sure. So I'm Katie. I'm the VP of product strategy at Businessolver And Businessolver is a benefits administration tech company. So great way for me to tell this to, you know, my family who's like, what do you do for a living? It's like when you go and enroll in your benefits, we sell that platform where you go to enroll in benefits. I've been in the tech world my whole career.
I started in consumer tech at companies like eBay. So I have a kind of different background between B2C and B2B.
Ben Ard01:37 — love it. That's so cool. And the benefits platform, believe me, there's plenty of frustration there. So anyone solving problems in that space, I'm all for it because that is a big deal. So I love that, that there's good technology out there for it.
Katie Carroll01:51 — Yeah, I feel like everyone in America has some sort of story about how the healthcare system or the process has let them down. And this is kind of my personal effort to help in that space.
Ben Ard02:03 — I love it. That's awesome. So today, Katie, what we're going to talk about is the shift from personalization to anticipation for creating better user experiences. Okay. So let's start with personalization. You know, everyone thinks that it's the same thing. It's the variable tags and the emails and all that kind of stuff.
Where is personalization actually falling short today? Even when teams think they're doing it well, they're using those variable tags. They're putting that stuff in there. Where is it actually falling short?
Katie Carroll02:32 — Yeah, I mean, I think there's a few different ways that I look at personalization, but I think when we came up with this whole concept, it's just acknowledging that personalization is still reactive.
So whether I think of an email marketing campaign or an app user experience, we are using data to get to that person that is inherently reactive, whether that's like behavioral data, claims data in the medical world, is still reactive, right? What we're trying to do is to push everyone to move into this. I know so much about Katie that we're going to anticipate what she's coming to and companies like an Amazon do a great job at this already, right? I log into Amazon and they're like, Hey Katie, we think you would really like this. I'm like, how did they know at Dakar? Right? Like, and we're trying to everything to that.
Ben Ard03:28 — I love that. So you've done like a report and a study on this. Talk to me about the report. What did it find, especially when it comes to using anticipation, AI, all that kind of stuff. What did it show?
Katie Carroll03:42 — Yeah, so at Businessolver, we put out a benefits insight report every year. We are on our eighth year of publishing it. And what's really unique about this company and organization is we have a huge access to proprietary data. So we're able to anonymize it completely, look at it, and really just look at it from a data standpoint and see across all of the millions and millions of people using our platform to see what trends we're seeing in there.
And so for us, we're in the human resources, HR tech space. So we're seeing a lot of interesting things like generationally, which generations are struggling the most or what are signs of success? I would say historically in this marketing world and same in this benefit spaces, clicks, engagement, that is not success anymore, right? Just because someone clicks on something or even engages with it doesn't mean they actually got help. So we're looking at things like one interesting thing that came out this year was this concept of quiet. If there is no clicks or engagement that means that everyone's fine and they didn't need help with their benefits. Like maybe should be tracking the concept of just being quiet. Like no noise is good noise.
Ben Ard04:58 — Right. No news is good news. Exactly. Very cool. And so in it, so I have in my notes, it shows things like 91 % instant resolution with millions of minutes saved Like what's driving that? Like where does that come from?
Katie Carroll05:00 — Yeah.
Yeah, so when I think about that, and again, this isn't just a chatbot. know, especially as marketers, we've all been in this chatbot world and self-help, throw it on websites, throw it in apps. It's not about like getting them the answer in that moment. It's about all of the systems on the backend that are connecting everything together. And what we are trying to do and what I'm encouraging everyone in the technology space is really how can you figure out how to act before someone has to ask. So if I, let's say in our industry, I know, let's say Katie has a four year old and we know that she went to the doctor. So I'm gonna send her a little reminder like, hey, did you use your HSA funds or hey, did you submit that? Cause it's like just helping them, which is not a groundbreaking thought. It's kind of going back to the basics of you're trying to just help people.
before they know what to ask. So when we think of 90 stats, like 91 % of chats resolved instantly, that is just saying that our AI that we have built in-house is able to see what path they are on and what they may need help with and really guiding them to that right answer right then. They're not having to keep digging and digging. We just give them the answer right away.
Ben Ard06:33 — I love that. So it's less reactive. It's not after the fact. It feels like it's also shifting away from like a search base system where I have to look for the answers. You know, how do I apply my HSA to a wellness visit for my four year old rather though it's, Hey, Ben, you just went to the doctor. Make sure you use your HSA for this kind of an idea.
Katie Carroll06:57 — Yeah, exactly. Or maybe you, maybe I tell our AI like, hey, I'm having a lot of prescriptions that I'm taking right now. It's like, how do I keep track of this? well, did you know that your employer offers a prescription management program? Here, we signed it up for you. Like you'll get auto enrolled in it. It's like a lot of times, not even in just our space, you don't know what you don't know, right? Go back to the Amazon example. I don't know what I'm shopping for.
Like there's too much, we're in this age of just information and content and things to buy everywhere. That's like, that's where AI is gonna come in is like, we're going, we know what you want. We're gonna suggest that to you, which is marketing in itself, right? That's marketing and selling.
Ben Ard07:41 — I love that. Okay. I'm going to throw you a little bit of curve ball. Yeah. I'm curious. How does this anticipation and I'm going to say anticipation. Cause for some reason I can't say anticipatory. I think it's awesome, but I'm to be open to the listeners anticipation. Is this going to affect actual product development as far as roadmaps and things like that? Have you started to see that outside of the marketing space where you're learning and anticipating needs in a new and better way to develop new products and features.
Katie Carroll08:12 — Yeah, definitely. mean, and this again has been building since, you know, open AI, like we were talking about, cloud code earlier today of no longer is it enough to say we've built an app or we've built a website like anyone has that now it's a human wants the ability to just open up their phone or whatever their device on and just get the help they need. So if I think of my airport experience. travel a lot. I have to open the Delta app and then I have to open the Uber app and then I have to open the Marriott app. Like I'm so over it. I just want to like go about my day and let technology figure it out for me. So I think we're we swung really heavily into this like an app for everyone, a website for everyone. I think we're going to swing all the way back and it's just going to go back to like us interfacing with an AI taking care of it for us. So I think if I think of product development, that blows it all up, right? Like what are we building?
Ben Ard09:13 — Yeah, a hundred percent. Okay. That's fascinating. Now I'm a marketer and let's say I'm listening to this podcast. I'm like, okay, I love this idea of working in anticipation. How do I start? Like, where do I go to transition away from a reactive kind of personalization standpoint and start to build the foundation of anticipating what people need from a marketing perspective.
Katie Carroll09:38 — Yeah, I mean, we could go into that in so many different ways. I think it depends on what side of the marketing house you're in, so many marketers have the ability to influence if you're in a tech company what you're building. Right. So I think being the voice of the customer in the room is a great first point of like your you can influence a product roadmap if you're at a tech company of like, that voice of the customer and be like, everyone is so tired of getting this like personalized AI created email. No one's engaging with that anymore. Right? So what are you going to do to reach your buyer and how are you going to do that? I mean, whether that's there's this huge surge now of how are we showing up in AI search? That's the new hot topic. Use a lot of code, build something. So I think you have to just be thinking about how do you reach your buyers but also creating less friction for them? That's the whole thing of like, who is the easiest to interact with and buy? Like that's who's gonna win.
Ben Ard10:38 — So when it comes to being able to be like on this cutting edge side of things, it feels like the marketing team needs access to even more data. They need access to the tools. They need access to the data. The example you gave, someone just made a, you know, had a wellness visit for their child. Okay, well let's trigger this or that. Have you found like marketers need to access that information even greater? How are you getting access to that kind of information and using it on the marketing side of things.
Katie Carroll11:07 — Yeah, think gone are the days of marketing's over here and your data analytics team or data science team is in the other room. think I am really encouraging all of my marketers on my team to lean into data analysis, especially with AI. AI will teach you how to do that. You have unlimited resources and education at your fingertips.
If I'm encouraging them to, you want to take a data analytics class, a data science, data science course? And every single one of them is like, yes, please. Yes, please. That is the hot topic right now this year is how can marketers who are traditionally journalists or writers or creatives, they're recognizing that the people who can understand the data and do something with it, that is adding value, right? Because the, they used to lean heavily on adding value via writing or design or video editing and so much of that is being taken away by AI. So it's like, I'm encouraging and how are you going to provide value? And that is really leaning into the data side.
Ben Ard12:10 — Okay, I love that and honest like hats off to you. That's incredible. Offering the classes, letting people go do courses. That's like the dream. Like for anyone getting those opportunities to take advantage of those. That's incredible. I love it. So where, you know, as people are trying to really anticipate people's needs on the marketing front, you've probably seen a few mistakes along the road, like a few hiccups of like, maybe we shouldn't do this or that.
Do have any recommendations or ideas of where people might be able to avoid a little bit of heartache on this pathway?
Katie Carroll12:39 — Yeah, I think a lot of it is just being realistic that we're in this time of change right now. There is no magic trick or silver bullet, however you want to say it, of like, do this and you will reach your buyer. Like, I think last year the hottest thing was AI SDRs or BDR is whatever you want to call them. Like the people that was like the latest thing last year, like AI is going to replace all of them. And I was on, I worked for companies and consulted for companies where they got rid of their whole team, replaced it with an AI bot and there was no results. And now they're hiring all those people back. So I think it's just be in the stance of I'm here to learn, like just be in that learning and curious mindset and know like you're going to have ups and downs and just like Do the test, see how it worked and be curious and figure out what to do next. think just leaning into that mindset is really gonna help.
Ben Ard13:37 — I love that. And it's interesting you use the SDR example, because I think that's fascinating. Odds are the business wasn't seeing success with the normal SDRs and thought for some reason an AISDR would fix it all of a sudden. When you're doing the anticipation marketing, are you doing more manual tests to say, okay, hey, let's look at the data manually, let's try maybe a one or two opportunities. Okay, that works. Now I'm going to systematize it. Is that kind of how you experiment your way into it? Or do you have other ways of kind of coming to these ideas?
Katie Carroll14:04 — Yeah, no, that right now is how we're doing it. Cause if you think, right, it is all marketing, whether it's a B2B system outreaching to you, those it's push notifications, it's emails, it's texts, that is marketing campaigns, right? What we've been doing as marketers for years, but it's figuring out how to use the data and different data sets. So it's having to be, again, going back to the data and understanding it's having to look at a data set and be creative of, if I think,
Another way we're looking at this is there's this whole thing, I'm not sure if you've heard of it, it's called SDOH, Social Determinants of Health. And it's this way for you to look at individuals and determine what they might need help on based upon their geographical area. So let's say Katie lives in this zip code and we've highlighted that there is not that much access to childcare. And we know she has two small children, so we're gonna connect her to care.com, right?
It's just looking at data creatively to help people. So a lot of that right now is manual, right? That's just like human intelligence thinking of all the different human examples. But that's of course where AI can come in and help too.
Ben Ard15:14 — I love that. I love that. And it's so cool that your foundation here is what are people actually needing? Yes. And you try to anticipate that and how do I help them? And I think for any marketer, if that's your genuine objective, think you're going to win. I think you're going to do really well because you're really genuinely trying to help people, even if it doesn't relate to your product, your business, your services, whatever it may be. If you're trying to help.
Katie Carroll15:30 — Yep.
Ben Ard15:41 — this is a more powerful way to do it. And I think that's really cool.
Katie Carroll15:44 — Yeah, it's not about crafting the perfect message. It's about helping someone or pointing, getting them to your product or your service, like at that right moment, which to your, that is what marketing and sales and advertising has been, that is not a new concept, right? But it's just using the data that we now have access to, to get to that person at that exact right moment.
Ben Ard16:06 — I love that. Katie, this is incredible. I have loved the conversation. Unfortunately, we have run out of time. Need to let people get back to their daily activities and all that fun stuff. But Katie, for anyone who wants to reach out and connect with you online, how and where can they find you?
Katie Carroll16:20 — Yeah, no, I would love to connect with anyone in the industry. I always love to connect with fellow marketers and brainstorm and banter. You can definitely connect with me on LinkedIn would be the best spot.
Ben Ard16:32 — Very cool for everyone listening, scroll down to the show notes of whatever platform you're on. We will have Katie's LinkedIn profile right there. Go ahead and click on it. Connect with Katie right there. Say you came from the podcast, all that fun stuff. Katie, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for the time and everything that you've shared today.
Katie Carroll16:49 — Thank you.
