2902: The Tech Enhancing The Trevor Project's Lifeline for LGBTQ+ Youth

[00:00:01] Welcome back to another episode of The Tech Talks Daily Podcast. I'm your host

[00:00:06] Neil C Hughes and today I'm coming to you live from the Genesis Experience

[00:00:11] 2024 CX event here in Denver Colorado and it's been an incredible day here

[00:00:19] filled with insightful discussions, groundbreaking innovations and a real

[00:00:23] sense of community amongst tech enthusiasts and professionals alike. But

[00:00:29] before we dive into today's episode I want to take a moment to express my

[00:00:32] heartfelt gratitude to a few extraordinary individuals because

[00:00:37] earlier today I had the privilege of moderating a panel with some of the

[00:00:41] industry's finest minds. So a big thank you to Dunia Sanoi, Chief Commercial

[00:00:48] Officer at Deloitte for sharing her wisdom on maximizing client ROI through

[00:00:52] expertise trust and exceeding expectations and also for sharing her

[00:00:57] insights into client relationships. Truly inspiring because I was moderating

[00:01:03] a panel here today and joining Dunia was Dan Laver, Vice President of Customer

[00:01:09] Service Tech at eBay. Dan and his philosophy of putting a customer

[00:01:13] experience first and emphasis of understanding the problems before

[00:01:17] applying technology deeply resonated with me and I know everyone watching and

[00:01:22] his approach to technology and customer service nothing short of transformative

[00:01:27] and also another shout out to Jonathan Heil, Global Head of Tech Operations

[00:01:32] Workplace Engineering at Vanguard and his dedication to creating seamless and

[00:01:37] friction-free computing experiences for end users is just testament I think to

[00:01:43] the commitment to enhancing client satisfaction and his vision of making

[00:01:47] technology work effortlessly for the end user is something I think we can all

[00:01:53] learn from and last but certainly by no means least my spirit animal in this

[00:01:57] world is Henry Followder, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Alorica. Harry's

[00:02:04] contributions to our discussion on digital transformation technical

[00:02:07] leadership were invaluable and there was an incredibly powerful story about

[00:02:11] accessibility and for me it was just a real pleasure to explore the future of

[00:02:16] customer experience through his innovative lens and if you were watching

[00:02:21] that panel please come say hi email me techblogwriteroutlook.com I'd love to

[00:02:27] connect with you more and hear your thoughts on today's discussions and if

[00:02:31] you want to share your story I invite you to do that as well. As for the event

[00:02:36] as a whole well today I dive straight into the heart of Genesis Experience

[00:02:40] 2024 and Genesis unveiled multiple innovations to accelerate the impact of

[00:02:46] AI in customer experience and as a global leader in AI powered experience

[00:02:52] orchestration it was quite clear very early on that Genesis is almost pushing

[00:02:57] the boundaries to help organizations scale personalization elevate employee

[00:03:02] performance and drive continuous optimization and in the current

[00:03:07] landscape I think navigating AI hype economic challenges and declining

[00:03:12] consumer loyalty is no easy task so Genesis stepping up these challenges by

[00:03:19] combining generative conversational and predictive AI across the cloud platform

[00:03:24] some incredibly cool things happening there but one of the most inspiring

[00:03:28] stories I encountered today was from Emmett Truxell director of contact

[00:03:34] center technology at the Trevor project now the Trevor project is the world's

[00:03:39] largest suicide prevention and mental health organization for the LGBTQ plus

[00:03:45] young community and as you know I'm passionate about how technology

[00:03:49] transforms areas and communities and indeed the world that you don't

[00:03:54] associate with technology so I invited Emmett to join me on the podcast share

[00:03:59] how the organization is evolving its services into a single platform for

[00:04:04] better support of the community and manage each unique staffing needs and

[00:04:08] with integrations into social media platforms on the horizon they seem set to

[00:04:12] provide even more accessible support to those that need so buckle up and hold on

[00:04:17] tight because no matter where you're listening in the world right now I'd

[00:04:20] like you to join me I'm gonna beam your ears all the way to Denver Colorado

[00:04:23] where you can join myself and Emmett in conversation about all this what we're

[00:04:27] hearing on this show floor and much more so a massive warm welcome to the show can

[00:04:34] you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do

[00:04:38] absolutely my name is Emmett Troxell I use he him pronouns and I'm the director

[00:04:43] of contact center technology at the Trevor project for people not attending

[00:04:47] what are people talking about here experience 2024 any conversations that

[00:04:52] you can share from the show floor about I suspect it's gonna be AI but is it

[00:04:56] that or something else it's all AI and the the different steps of orchestration

[00:05:00] it was really interesting to see that sort of the future that Genesis has

[00:05:05] around making an empathetic AI experience so it's it's all been a bit

[00:05:11] about that orchestration I think now we will have people listening all around

[00:05:16] the world so for anyone listening hearing about the Trevor project for the

[00:05:18] very first time can you tell me a little bit more about it and the story behind

[00:05:22] it too sure so the name the Trevor project comes from an Oscar winning short

[00:05:27] film called Trevor it was about a young queer man who had in a suicide attempt

[00:05:31] and so when that was aired on television on HBO they wanted to put up a number

[00:05:38] of a suicide hotline for LGBTQ plus young people and they looked around and

[00:05:46] they realized there was none and so the film decided to create the Trevor

[00:05:52] project as a result of that we opened the night that the film premiered on

[00:05:58] television we received a thousand calls that night and we've been open ever

[00:06:03] since Wow fantastic and I would imagine in the

[00:06:06] very beginning there was no technology right it was it how was he managed from

[00:06:10] the beginning and then what made you then go from there to what we need to

[00:06:13] scale this we need the help of tech yeah that was 26 years ago so I not exactly

[00:06:19] sure what technology it's evolved a lot over the years as as contact center

[00:06:24] technology has evolved so but certainly gone through many iterations and talking

[00:06:29] about the work that you were doing in this transition to a unified platform

[00:06:33] what were the specific challenges that prompted the Trevor project to

[00:06:37] consolidate all your services onto this single platform and how's that

[00:06:40] transition improved also the organization's ability to support the

[00:06:44] LGBTQ plus community so prior to our transition and by the way this is

[00:06:49] pretty new we've been on Genesis in Mexico for about three weeks and on the

[00:06:55] US for a week yeah but I can certainly talk around sort of the reason behind

[00:06:59] that in terms of why we moved to Genesis we used to be on several different

[00:07:06] technology stacks I think I counted about 15 technology stacks when I

[00:07:10] started and so if you can imagine we had one stack for voice one stack for SMS

[00:07:16] one stack for web chat one stack for whatsapp and that was and we were also

[00:07:21] building custom development custom dashboards for our supervisors and that

[00:07:27] from a custom development model and just like a maintenance model didn't really

[00:07:32] work for us we're not a technology company we're in crisis service you know

[00:07:36] organization and so we went to a more of a buy versus a build model and what's

[00:07:43] that what that's allowed us to do is make sure that we can have more of a

[00:07:50] unified reporting we can have unified workforce engagement management really

[00:07:55] have more visibility into not only what our counselors doing counselors is what

[00:08:00] we call agents yeah so what are our counselors doing how can we best

[00:08:03] support our counselors why are young people contacting us that is greatly

[00:08:08] improved since we've gone to to Genesis even in the first few weeks we've seen

[00:08:12] some benefits on that and so that was primarily the reason that we moved over

[00:08:16] and we're also able to to deploy improvements and enhancements in a much

[00:08:22] quicker fashion so we can be more responsive to the needs of the young

[00:08:25] people that contact us. You do have a real diverse work workforce of

[00:08:31] full-time staff and thousands of volunteers too so what tools or

[00:08:34] approaches have proven to be most effective in managing and aligning their

[00:08:39] skills to meet your organization's unique needs? We're very happy to not be

[00:08:43] scheduling in Excel anymore so what we're really excited about the workforce

[00:08:49] management piece it's really going to help us gauge our real-time adherence

[00:08:54] and all you know our efficiency and really make sure that we can forecast

[00:08:59] accurately make sure that we have the right counselors in at the right times

[00:09:03] and what that's going to do is prevent burnout for our counselors. We're also

[00:09:07] really excited about all of the flexible scheduling options that Genesis

[00:09:11] workforce management offers because you know if you think about a volunteer they

[00:09:14] have a full-time job some of them maybe want the same shift every week maybe

[00:09:18] they'll want to work every Tuesday some some of them might want to do a sort of

[00:09:23] a pickup model so with Genesis workforce management we're really able to meet our

[00:09:28] volunteers where they're at and be able to also be available for the young people

[00:09:33] that contact us. How do you at the Trevor project structure your formalized

[00:09:37] training programs especially in ensuring all staff and volunteers are prepared for

[00:09:42] things like voice and digital interactions and how does technology

[00:09:45] play a role in that? Sure so they go through a pretty intense 10-week

[00:09:50] training course and that really allows our volunteers and our full-time staff

[00:09:55] mostly the focus is going to be on the support model how do you you know how do

[00:10:02] you respond to young people what are the things that you want to say to them so

[00:10:06] really most of the training is around the conversations and not the technology

[00:10:11] and so how Genesis has helped with that is that we have actually for our

[00:10:16] volunteers and counselors there's actually less of an emphasis on the

[00:10:20] technology they don't really have to worry about it as much they're really

[00:10:24] more focusing on those conversations. And what would you say the impact has

[00:10:29] especially around real-time supervision and and listening what impact has that

[00:10:34] had on the quality of interactions between staff volunteers and indeed

[00:10:38] those young people you support? Well very early so it's hard to quantify that I

[00:10:42] will tell you that there's been some great enhancements that we've been able

[00:10:46] to do with Genesis integrating with for example Slack that really open up the

[00:10:51] lines of communication between a staff counselor and a volunteer or and a

[00:10:56] supervisor for that matter so it's hard to say right now what the impact is but I

[00:11:01] can say that in the future we're really excited about seeing what improvements

[00:11:05] we can make. And how will upcoming integrations especially with social

[00:11:09] social platforms how will that enhance the Traveller's projects ability to provide

[00:11:14] that crucial support on platforms where LGBTQ plus youths are spending that time?

[00:11:19] Yeah I think we're always looking for ways to make sure that we connect with

[00:11:23] young people where they're at and I know in terms of you know Genesis that those

[00:11:28] integrations are possible so we're always looking for ways to make sure

[00:11:32] that we can capture those interactions where they're needed most. And how do you

[00:11:38] create that supportive safe environment for LGBTQ plus youth? What

[00:11:43] challenges or maybe even opportunities as well arise from managing such an

[00:11:47] expansive social networking platform? So I think one of the biggest ways that we

[00:11:52] are able to support our young people is through making sure that our counselors

[00:11:59] feel safe and supported as well. So we have a lot of supervisors who are able

[00:12:06] to really dial in and when there's a difficult conversation that supervisor

[00:12:10] who's really trained and seasoned is able to monitor that interaction, talk to

[00:12:15] that counselor, walk them through it you know provide any support, any wellness

[00:12:19] time and so I think that is one of the ways that we really can help that

[00:12:26] support. And we're always looking at you know quality management to make sure

[00:12:30] that our policies are being followed, that the support model is being followed

[00:12:35] and that we're assessing the risk in the correct way. And I've got to ask are

[00:12:40] there any trends or technological advancements that are proving to be

[00:12:43] transformative for suicide prevention and crisis intervention? Because on this

[00:12:49] podcast every day I try and get people thinking differently about ways that

[00:12:52] technology can help outside of the conventional ways and ways that you

[00:12:55] don't imagine technology making a big difference. And you're clearly doing this

[00:12:58] and I always say at the end of every episode technology works best when it

[00:13:02] brings people together. And again you just you're doing just that. So how are

[00:13:06] you doing that and is there anything else you can share about how you're harnessing

[00:13:10] some of these latest tech trends to strengthen that mission and help more

[00:13:14] people? I think for me one of the biggest opportunities out there is understanding

[00:13:18] why young people are contacting us right. So you know they're contacting us because

[00:13:24] they're in crisis but LGBTQ young people have a number of challenges in today's

[00:13:27] society. You know there's many many anti-trans, anti-queer legislation

[00:13:32] out there and what I really want to be able to do is use the data that we have.

[00:13:38] Of course you know we're anonymous service we don't capture actual

[00:13:41] information about our young people but you know sort of those high topic

[00:13:45] trends for example if there's a an anti-trans legislation that's in

[00:13:49] Alabama can we look at contacts who said that from Alabama why are they

[00:13:53] contacting us? There was a ruling from the NCAA saying hey we're not going to

[00:13:59] let trans people participate in college sports anymore. And so we're trying to

[00:14:04] can we capture how many of those young people are calling us as a result of

[00:14:08] that legislation and how can we use that in our policy and advocacy work to

[00:14:13] prevent those calls and for those interactions from happening in the first

[00:14:16] place. We've been here a couple of days now but on the way home we don't get

[00:14:20] conference hangover you're gonna be all these conversations that you've been

[00:14:23] having there'll be a lot of things you're thinking about what will you be

[00:14:25] thinking about on that plane ride home? I think I mostly am going to be thinking

[00:14:29] about how we can use things like agent copilot to streamline that experience

[00:14:36] for our counselors. I think that for me is the biggest takeaway that and you know

[00:14:41] the journey flows that they were presenting because really understanding

[00:14:45] is there anything we can do to smooth out the process from that young person

[00:14:49] reaching us to make sure that there's the least amount of friction possible and

[00:14:53] they can just get the support that they need. Well I can't thank you enough for

[00:14:56] joining me and sharing the story with me today but before I let you go for

[00:15:00] anyone listening anywhere in the world that would just want to find out a bit

[00:15:02] more information how you might be able to help or just have a look or contact

[00:15:05] you or your team where would you like to point everyone listening? I encourage

[00:15:09] everyone to go to the travelproject.org that has all the information about our

[00:15:14] organization including ways that you can give, you can volunteer and also if you

[00:15:22] need to contact a counselor there's a young person in your life that needs to

[00:15:25] contact a counselor because they're experiencing crisis that's where you

[00:15:28] would go. Well as I said a few moments ago every day of this podcast trying to

[00:15:32] people thinking differently about technologies and the positive impacts it

[00:15:35] can have so thank you for sharing your story today. Thank you, thanks for having me.

[00:15:39] Inspiring story there and I think meeting individuals like Emmett and

[00:15:42] hearing about the impact that work being done by organizations like the

[00:15:47] Trevor Project that's why I travel to these conferences it's about connecting

[00:15:52] with real people sharing real-world stories and learning how technology is

[00:15:56] making a difference in their lives and the lives of others. But as always if

[00:16:00] you've got a story you'd like to share email me now techblogwriteroutlook.com

[00:16:05] Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram just at Neil C Hughes easiest guy in the world to find

[00:16:09] so just let me know if you're here at the event send me a DM on the social

[00:16:14] channels now and maybe we can meet and grab a beer or coffee water whatever it

[00:16:19] is you like to drink let me know but that's it for today's episode so thank

[00:16:24] you for listening as always and until next time don't be a stranger