In this episode, Taylor Backman, Senior Evangelist at Zoho, discusses the beginnings and evolution of Zoholics, Zoho’s global community of customers. The conversation highlights the importance of building trust with customers, the unique culture of Zoho, and the value of experimenting with events to continually improve the customer experience.
Insights from Taylor Backman:
- The first Zoholics started on March 26, 2012, as a humble one-day event with 175 attendees at a hotel in San Francisco.
- Zoholics was created as a way for us to connect with our customers in person and build trust while helping them solve their business challenges.
- At Zoho, trust and accountability are at the core of everything we do—if a customer has a problem, it’s our job to help them solve it.
- Every event we host is an experiment, a learning opportunity to make the next one better and more valuable to our customers.
- Our goal is always to be genuine, service-oriented, and down-to-earth, which is why Zoholics has resonated so deeply with attendees.
- We want our events to feel intimate, not like a concert or a party, but like a place where customers come to connect, learn, and grow.
- One of the most surprising things we’ve found is that many of our attendees return year after year simply because they love being part of the Zoho community.
- My personal goal for every Zoholics event is that nobody eats lunch alone—we want everyone to feel connected and supported.
