I went to Channel Talk's festival, and it made my heart swell.
As most of you know, Channel Talk (Korea's most widely used business messenger for customer chat) is the cute, hardworking chat service you'll run into on just about any Korean website.
Beyond the online-store customer support features everyone knows, you can mix and match features like 'sales', 'marketing', 'phone', and 'meetings'.
I'd heard rumors that Channel Talk, the all-in-one chat solution that gets better the more you know it, was planning a huge conference this April, and when I actually got there, it was obvious they had gone all out.
Nearly 5,000 people applied, and 1,000 of them were selected 👀
9 a.m.: arriving at Channel Con, and the hour before kickoff
From the moment I stepped off the elevator on the 5th floor of COEX (Seoul's big convention center), Channel Talk team members I'd only ever seen on LinkedIn and Facebook guided us to the venue.
It felt like they had designed even the staff placement around the attendee flow 🤔
Oh! I've always enjoyed the writing and illustrations of Marie, a CX manager at Channel Talk, and meeting her in person felt like meeting a celebrity.
Somehow I ended up doing an interview in front of the venue too..! Ha
As I rambled through my answers, I got to think about what makes 'Channel Talk' so appealing.
Suddenly I thought of my mother, who handled customer service at a natural cosmetics online store for almost 10 years. Back then, I was my mother's Channel Talk support bot. 🤖
I used to organize answer templates for different situations so she could get some time to rest, and now Channel Talk can play that role 😄
To the last question, about where marketing is headed, I answered like this:
"Marketing is deciding whom to help. Channel Talk, which helps customers, will make a big contribution to the marketing of the future too" - a startup marketer named Jo
10 a.m.: opening keynote, Half and Half 🍕
The quality of a conference's content usually comes down to the morning talks.
Since this was Channel Talk's own event, the keynote was delivered by co-CEOs Josh and Red.
Afterwards I realized I had listened intently for an hour and a half.
Maybe because I sat in the front row, the immersion never broke 👍
First course: Channel Talk, from past to present
First, Channel Talk's Josh (yes, another Josh) walked us through the company's growth story so far and the day's lineup.
After several pivots, they launched Channel.io, a chat service connecting the inside and outside of a company, and within five years hit an inspiring ₩36 billion in annual recurring revenue.
The revenue is impressive, but what struck me all over again was that they retain 150,000 customer companies in Korea.
Second course: within three years, the CX industry collapses.
In the next part, Channel Talk's Red laid out a forecast: with the working population shrinking while the number of customers who need help keeps growing, a major crisis is coming to CX work before long.
They had dropped hints about AI-powered support automation at a few events since last year, and this time they unveiled it in earnest.
According to Channel Talk's findings, in online commerce, simple, repetitive inquiries like expected ship dates and order cancellations make up 70% of all customer support.
So the direction they proposed: automate the simple inquiries with AI and let agents focus on more important work, raising the quality of customer support overall.
What helps make this happen is ALF, their generative AI agent, and a command feature like the one you see on Discord was announced as a key feature coming this year.
The most important thing, I think, is that from the end user's point of view, the chat experience feels seamless whether they're talking to an agent or to ALF, and I'm curious to see whether this really pans out 👀
After that, we got to see the lineup of speakers who would light up the conference.
Not a weak spot in the batting order; my heart swelled again.
1 p.m.: networking for an introvert 🤝
Unfortunately I couldn't attend every talk, so after a quick lunch, the teammates who came with me each went off to do their own thing.
I spent some time on the 5th floor with my laptop open, writing emails and following up on work.
But as expected, I'm someone whose productivity drops 80% outside the office, so halfway through I just went around meeting people.
I chatted with Channel Talk members I've known for a while, and also with CEO Seungjin Lim of Wingeat, my favorite brand (a Korean food brand).
Meeting the CEO of a brand I'd eaten for dinner just the night before! It was surreal.
"There is something moving about Wingeat's traditional sundae-guk (Korean blood-sausage soup)" - J, an office worker living in Seoul
But true to my introvert nature, my energy started draining as time went on.
After taking photos and hanging out, the session I'd been looking forward to was coming up.
2 p.m.: e-commerce strategy from Japan, the advanced nation of hospitality
Online stores basically operate like 'unmanned stores', but in Japanese e-commerce, that's not acceptable.
How well you serve customers online, and how faithfully you recreate the offline experience is what matters, apparently.
That was the message in the talk by Jun, a director at a fashion company with ₩600 billion in annual revenue.
Listening to the talk, I realized Channel Talk's decision to go to market in Japan was a really good call.
Most consumer trends in Japan run 3 to 5 years ahead of Korea, so looking at the Japanese market tells you a fair amount about Korea's future.
I couldn't stay until the end of the director's talk, but I got to hear some good stories that focused on the essentials.
3 p.m.: team play in B2B sales, The Model
Next, I attended one of the sessions I'd been most looking forward to at Channel Con: a talk by Yasutaka Fukuda, who pioneered B2B sales at Salesforce Japan and Oracle.
In a short time, he shared his know-how on everything from building a sales team around a CRO (Chief Revenue Officer) to running it.
Two points stood out.
Of these, what I found most interesting was how, when a new team member joined, he assigned missions in the order of SDR, SMB sales, then enterprise sales, coaching them to build up each capability in turn.
Succeeding with this approach in Japan, of all places, is truly impressive 👍
Sadly the bookstore was out of stock of The Model, so I got his autograph on a business card and took a photo with him. I'm grateful he was gracious even with my clumsy Japanese. I'll definitely buy and read it next month!
After work: hoping for a 'world where CX takes center stage'
On the subway ride home, I thought about things like this.
What if Channel Talk's story were made into a movie?
Or a documentary or film about the growth of an e-commerce brand?
I feel like I've often seen content where the CEO, marketer, or designer is the protagonist, but I don't think I've seen anything with a 'customer service specialist' as the lead (if there is one, please recommend it).
If the division of labor in Channel Talk's roadmap comes true, AI handling simple inquiries and professional CX managers handling the detailed care, it would be entirely possible 😃
And the CX manager role also fits what I think of as the linchpin, the talent of the future.
My mother was one back then, and I'll wrap up this Channel Con 2024 recap hoping for a world where CX managers, who talk directly with customers and contribute to their success, take center stage.
Thanks for putting on a great event and inviting me, Channel team~
P.S.: If you search for Channel Con right now, 'Hyosig Jo' shows up? Wild
