My amazingly creative team rallied as we moved our workstations into bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens around the world, all the while keeping our focus on how we would continue to showcase Poly\u2019s ease of use. \u201cSimplicity and flexibility\u201d became our team mantra. When I wrote the blog about briefing demonstrations from home<\/a><\/span> in April, I thought, \u201cThis is temporary \u2013 we\u2019ll be back in the office any day now.\u201d That was almost nine months ago.<\/p>\n However, it hasn\u2019t been all bad. As we opened the virtual door for customers to join us in our homes by video, we were taken aback and relieved by how much they loved the virtual experience. Words like \u201chonest,\u201d \u201crefreshing,\u201d and \u201csurprisingly effective\u201d were sent to us email after email. Additionally, we found that there is no better place to demo our work from home technology than from our homes!<\/p>\n Recently, some of my briefers have started hybrid working \u2013 returning to the office (alone) so they can host virtual experiences in a formal office setting. As the stay-at-home ordinances fluctuate, my team has embraced flexibility as they seamlessly bounce back to their home set-ups as needed \u2013 inherently demonstrating the flexibility and agility of our products.<\/p>\n So, you can see this year has been a wild ride with ups and downs, but I believe it has created momentum and prepared us (and the briefing program industry as a whole) to be even more flexible in the years to come.<\/p>\n Here are my top predictions that will help briefing teams and their guests strategize for success in 2021 and beyond.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. The need for customer briefings will increase.<\/strong><\/p>\n Eventually, workers will return to the office and they\u2019ll be looking for guidance on how to make it easier for office-based workers to easily collaborate with colleagues and external parties who are still working remotely. Our briefing program is in a unique position to help customers see the possibilities, as we\u2019ve set up dozens of demonstrations across multiple platforms that show how people can work more flexibly and be more productive with enterprise-grade products and solutions.<\/p>\n 2. Virtual briefings are here to stay \u2013 and so are full Experience Centers.<\/strong><\/p>\n There is a need for both formats, today and in the future. Does the customer need a quick and short demonstration? Then it makes sense to host a virtual briefing. But when it\u2019s time for executive teams to talk strategy and full solutions, it is best to conduct a full experience tour in-person.<\/p>\n 3. In-person briefings will take more time \u2013 and that\u2019s a good thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n The trend we\u2019re seeing is that as more customers take the time to travel for briefing demonstrations (when possible), the duration of those briefings is extending. Prior to 2020, in-person briefings ranged from an hour to a full day. Now, nearly all of them are in the 4+ hour range. Why? Traveling to in-person meetings, even local travel, takes more planning and sometimes more resources, so customers are mindful about extracting the full value of their in-person interactions. The conversations are deeper, and the attention is more rapt.<\/p>\n 4. Empathy-led briefings for deep customer understanding.<\/strong><\/p>\n It took a year like 2020 for many companies to see the value in empathy-driven services. I see it as yet another silver lining, as it has shone a light on an opportunity for all of us to spend more time walking in each other\u2019s shoes. Next year, and for many years to come, we\u2019ll see more companies doubling down on creating briefing tours that are less show and tell\u2019 and much more \u2018experience with.\u2019\u00a0This trend may have been discussed in the past, but it has become the standard in a short period of time.<\/p>\n At Poly, our consultative empathy-led conversations often evolve around employee workstyle personas and preferences, so that our customers can plan for better deployments and see higher technology adoption rates. We\u2019re rolling out some fresh persona research findings early next year \u2013 stay tuned for more.<\/p>\n As more briefing programs embrace virtual formats and lead with empathy, we\u2019ll all be better equipped to navigate a new world together in 2021 and beyond. I look forward to seeing you, whether on video or in-person. For more information or to schedule your own personalized demonstration today,\u00a0contact<\/a>\u00a0your Poly Account Manager or\u00a0Partner<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ren\u00e9e Niebylski is a leadership representative with the Association of Briefing Program Managers and the Director of Poly\u2019s Global Experience Program.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At the beginning of the pandemic, I was laser-focused ensuring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":4678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1724,525,536,548,526],"tags":[1896,202,1897,1898,238,367,1899,122,1900],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/image.png\")
Before 2020, our program was focused by \u2018theater\u2019 (aka geographical location). The silver lining of shifting from a theater-based program to one that is focused on providing a robust virtual experience has been that now we can meet with and provide services to more people \u2013 folks who hadn\u2019t used our services previously due to their distance from a briefing center began booking us for virtual briefings. So, in the end, we\u2019ve been able to help more companies and individuals find a bit of stability in the way they work amidst all the chaos. It continues to bring us joy to interact with colleagues and customers we\u2019d never have had the chance to meet with before.<\/p>\n