Brent Peterson sits down with Michelle Donnelly, Chief Revenue Officer at Crescendo, to explore how AI-native customer experience solutions are transforming the way brands interact with their customers. The conversation covers everything from autonomous digital agents to the critical role humans still play in customer support. Michelle brings a wealth of experience from her time at Salesforce and the AI chip industry, and she shares fascinating real-world examples of how Crescendo's approach is turning traditional cost centers into profit centers. If you care about customer experience, this episode deserves your full attention.

Key Takeaways

AI agents must work seamlessly with human agents. A digital-only approach without a human fallback creates frustrating loops that drive customers away.
Customer support is becoming a revenue channel. By combining personalization, memory, and business context, AI agents can turn a simple support interaction into an upsell opportunity.
Speed to value matters. Crescendo deploys in under four weeks, a dramatic improvement over traditional SaaS implementations that can take months.
Outcome-based pricing changes the game. Rather than selling seats, Crescendo charges based on outcomes, aligning their success with the customer's success.
Multimodal interactions let customers choose. Whether through chat, voice, WhatsApp, or email, the customer decides how they want to engage, and the AI adapts accordingly.
Quality assurance reveals powerful patterns. Analyzing interactions across the customer base surfaces product issues and opportunities that brands would otherwise miss.
Knowledge bases improve over time. The AI learns from every interaction and actually enhances the brand's existing knowledge base rather than relying on static content.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Crescendo and Michelle's Journey
03:53 The Role of AI in Customer Experience
09:30 Seamless Integration of Digital and Human Agents
15:02 Multimodal Customer Interactions
18:52 Quality Assurance and Content Relevance
22:26 Transforming Customer Support into Profit Centers
28:22 Democratizing AI for All Businesses

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelledonnelly/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/crescendocx/