CX Decoded By CMSWire (Dom Nicastro)

The need to understand customer behaviors may never be as great as today. Customers are proliferating digital channels thanks to the digital acceleration that began in 2020 and extends today. And companies need help. 

In fact, only 11% of organizations say they currently understand customer behavior well, according to the CMSWire State of Digital Customer Experience. About 56% say they moderately understand customer behavior, and 33% say they either understand customer behavior poorly or that they haven’t started to understand customer behavior yet.

Customer journey mapping is one tool to help understand customers better. But it's more than creating a map. It's defining truly those customer moments that matter. Jeannie Walters, chief customer experience investigator and founder at Experience Investigators, invests in making customer journey mapping work.

It's a verb, and not a noun, she says. Walters shared these and other tips and strategies around customer journey mapping and CX best practices in our latest episode.

Google's made some big moves regarding third party cookie tracking and one organization that has been an outspoken critic of Google's post third-party cookies plans is Marketers for an Open Web (MOW). In this episode, James Rosewell, director of MOW, shared his thoughts and his group's concerns with the tech giant's plans and offers alternatives to support what his group feels is a more open web.

We explore the delicate balance between enhancing customer experiences and empowering employees at LinkedIn. Hear from Sam Stern, senior manager of customer experience, about the innovative ways LinkedIn prioritizes trust, extracts valuable insights from vast amounts of data and ensures both customers and employees feel valued and heard.

This episode of CX Decoded, brought to you by CMSWire, features Karan Thaker, a specialist in customer experience and design strategy from Northwestern Mutual. Karan shares his extensive background in enhancing digital and physical customer experiences across various industries, focusing on creating seamless cross-channel experiences.

The conversation dives into the nuances between UX design and experience design, emphasizing the importance of integrating service design and journey management to improve financial wellness through better customer journeys in insurance and investment products.

Travis Trembath, vice president of fan engagement for the PGA Tour, is passionate about golf, customer experience and customer engagement. Having to the best golfers in the world compete under his company's brand? That's the easy part. Fan engagement, and digital customer experience, however, remains a moving target.

In this episode, Trembath shares some of the ways the Tour is engaging fans through data, such as data lakes and data warehouses. He also discusses using omnichannel approaches to get in touch with the PGA fan base, how he sees the future of the metaverse and other customer experience topics, including how a PGA behind-the-scenes documentary can build the organization’s fan base.

Plus, you get an inside look into life behind the scenes at the PGA Tour, a prestigious global professional sports brand. We caught up with Trembath for our latest CX Decoded podcast. 

Customer experience professionals often turn to surveys to measure customer feedback. But what are your surveys telling you? Multiple-choice answers provide data, for sure, especially when scaling feedback from hundreds of customers.

But do you know how customers truly feel when they leave an interaction with your brand, no matter the channel? Luis Angel-Lalanne, vice president, Customer Voice for the Global Services Group at American Express, told CMSWire in the latest episode of CMSWire's CX Decoded podcast that his teams are undergoing a transformation in how they measure customer sentiment.

The gist: They've gone from transactional surveys to driven by modeled sentiment using Natural Language Processing and machine learning. Angel-Lalanne said this now serves as the scorecard metric for the financial giant’s front-line care professionals.

Angel-Lalanne discussed this and other insights on how his teams at American Express view customer experience and Voice of the Customer (VoC). He joined CMSWire Editor-in-Chief Rich Hein and Managing Editor Dom Nicastro in this episode of CX Decoded.

There is a lot going on in the world of B2B marketing and a growing list of challenges. If you’re a marketer, there’s a clear delineation between your target audience, you’re either marketing to another business or to a consumer. And those segments comes with some extraordinarily different needs and approaches.

Tim Greulich, managing director at Deloitte Digital, has been laser-focused on B2B marketing strategies, producing research on the topic and, with his colleagues, coming up with some key pillars for effective B2B marketing. Today he joins the team at CX Decoded to share his insights.

A recession can be like preparing to go backpacking. You have to decide what you need, what’s unnecessary and what might potentially weigh you down. 

CX leaders have to make similar decisions to successfully trek the current economic landscape. They too have to pick and choose needs, cull waste and protect the integrity of their teams — all while serving their customers flawlessly. 

Tina Dobie is the chief customer officer at Calendly. In this episode, she discusses how to think about doing more with less while still driving marketing leads, keeping customers close and your customer support agents inspired.

We caught up with Tina in our latest CX Decoded podcast.

In this episode of CX Decoded, voice-content expert, author and CMSWire contributing author Preston So joins us as we explore how marketers and customer experience professionals are leveraging and embedding voice content experiences into their digital experience programs?

Michelle Morris, customer experience leader for Verizon Connect, shares insights on customer satisfaction, loyalty, the necessity of cross-department collaboration and best ways to achieve data-driven success.

According to the CMSWire State of Digital Customer Experience 2021 report, there is a growing body of research and anecdotal evidence to suggest the positive impact good employee experience (EX) has on customer experience, particularly in high-touch sectors.

Around three quarters of respondents view digital employee experience as being “very important” or “moderately important” for digital customer experience, but this rises significantly to 91% for respondents with tools “working well," according to CMSWire researchers.

Enter Katrina Taylor, who is living this reality day to day in her role as head of user experience and product design at Armoire, which provides shoppers with opportunities to rent clothes and personalized their closets from designer brands. Taylor is not only laser-focused on creating digital customer experiences for visitors seeking new outfits but also closely watches the connection between customer experience and employee experience.

CX Decoded hosts, Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro, caught up with Katrina to discuss this vision and how she and her teams apply it into a practical reality.

Sri Narasimhan, vice president of Enterprise Consumer Experience at CVS, discusses the importance of establishing a customer-centric culture. Narasimhan emphasizes the need for a multifaceted approach that includes igniting a culture focused on customer feedback, empowering frontline employees and strategically integrating consumer centricity across all business operations.

In this CX Decoded podcast, Jim Tincher, founder, CEO and journey mapper-in-chief at Heart of the Customer and author of the book "Do B2B Better," discusses the importance of talking to customers after a transaction has taken place. He uses his experience as a product manager for health savings accounts to illustrate how a disconnect between the company's understanding of its customers and the actual customer experience can lead to high churn rates. He also addresses how to measure customer experience and the role of inventory in business. 

In his book “Do B2B Better,” Jim highlights four actions that separate successful customer experience programs from those that don't work. These include showing how customer experience is improving financial outcomes for the organization and proactively creating a better outcome for the company. Jim also brings attention to the issue of silos within organizations and how they can lead to a disconnect between different departments and their understanding of customer experience. 

Podcast key takeaways: 

• Talking to customers after a transaction has taken place is important for understanding their experience and identifying areas for improvement.
• A disconnect between a company's understanding of their customers and the actual customer experience can lead to high churn rates.
• Successful customer experience programs show how customer experience is improving financial outcomes for the organization and proactively creating a better outcome for the company.
• Many organizations struggle with silos, which can lead to a disconnect between different departments and their understanding of customer experience.

We caught up with Jim to discuss these topics.

Thinking about getting the latest CX and marketing tools for your customer service agents or possibly investing in some artificial intelligence? Are you wondering whether the pandemic ended up hurting or helping digital customer experience? And just how is the recession impacting what CX decision-makers are focusing on? Or perhaps you're wondering whether interest is growing — or diminishing or even stalling — for certain CX tools or strategies. Or maybe you just want to know if others really don't know what headless CMS is or does.

Meet Sarah Kimmel, vice president of research for Simpler Media Group, which runs CMSWire.com. She tells us what the numbers are saying by diving into the findings of the 2023 State of Digital Customer Experience Report. Sarah's got the gift for wrangling meaningful findings that indicate where we're headed. She's based in Chicago, aka the Windy City. If you really want to chew the fat with her, try getting on her good side by bringing up volcanoes or tornadoes.

In this podcast episode, Sarah Kimmel, the vice president of research at Simpler Media Group, casts a discerning eye on "The State of the CMO" survey, offering a rare glimpse into the shifting landscape of chief marketing officers (CMOs) and the competencies they must cultivate. The study's revelations place creative thinking at the top of vital skills, trailed by strategic management, leadership prowess and executive aptitude. The CMO's role has been undergoing a remarkable metamorphosis, marked by heightened collaboration with sales divisions, mounting demands for enhanced customer experiences and active participation in digital transformation initiatives. Intriguingly, CMOs say only 59% of leadership expect measurable outcomes from them, indicating not all undertakings lend themselves to direct ties to the bottom line. Kimmel sheds light on the turbulent journey of CMOs as they navigate a perpetually shifting sea of expectations and responsibilities.

We caught up with her recently to discuss the survey. 

The metaverse is certainly all the rage in 2022. Facebook changed its name to reflect this future of digital, after all, and all things digital starts with Facebook. Ok, maybe not so much.

Some are even talking trillions when considering the potential of the metaverse, where physical and digital worlds combine to support an alternate reality to life on the actual planet Earth. Instead, in this next iteration of the internet, life will exist in the world of augmented and virtual reality where dialogue, games, commerce and business is conducted in this alternate reality. The market opportunity for the metaverse ranges from $3.75 trillion to $12.46 trillion, depending on the share of the digital economy that shifts to the metaverse and market expansion, according to Statista reporting.

What does this all mean for the world of marketing and customer experience professionals? What are the opportunities for customer experience design and brands who want to stay connected to their customers — whether they live on the actual Earth or in the metaverse?

CX Decoded caught up with, Dirk Lueth, co-founder of Uplandme, Inc., a Metaverse provider. Lueth, an entrepreneur and early adopter of metaverse and blockchain technologies will share his thoughts on the Metaverse and where the potential opportunities lie. 

In 2021, 44.5% of organizations worldwide revealed that they perceive customer experience (CX) as a primary competitive differentiator. But are they really customer-centric? Are they building out experiences with that central focus on customers?

Debbie Qaqish watches these company trends in how they treat customer experience closely. The principal and chief strategy officer with the Pedowitz Group authored the book From Backroom To Boardroom: Earn Your Seat With Strategic Marketing Operations. She helps companies reimagine and rearchitect the role of marketing to drive revenue, growth, customer centricity and digital transformation.

Qaqish lays claim to the term “revenue marketing” in 2011 and six years ago, she shifted her focus to marketing operations as the enabler for how marketing gains that seat at the table.

CX Decoded Podcast co-hosts Rich Hein, CMSWire editor-in-chief, and Dom Nicastro, CMSWire managing editor, caught up with Qaqish to discuss customer-centricity in the latest edition of CX Decoded.  

In recent years, organizations have increasingly turned to digital experience platforms (DXPs) to improve their online presence and engagement with customers.

In this episode of CX Decoded, we sat down with Sitecore’s Dave O’Flanagan, Optimizely’s Deane Barker and Contentstack’s Nick Barron to discuss DXPs and a shift to composable platforms and related concepts such as content management systems (CMS) and content marketing platforms (CMP). The participants Dave, Deane and Nick each gave examples of common use cases for DXPs and focused on the need for omnichannel capabilities that enable consistent messaging across various channels and touchpoints. They also emphasized the importance of being open and flexible with architecture to allow customers to plug and play different products depending on their business objectives. 

In this episode of CX Decoded, Dom Nicastro and Michelle Hawley of CMSWire discuss the evolving roles of chief marketing officers (CMOs) with insights from CMOs Gurdeep Dhillon of Contentstack and Kathie Johnson of Sitecore.

In this episode of CX Decoded, Dom Nicastro, editor-in-chief at CMSWire, and Michelle Hawley, senior editor at CMSWire, explore the intersection of employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) within the marketing landscape. The episode features insights from Gautam Pantakar, GM of Oldfield, and DeLu Jackson, executive VP and chief marketing officer at ADT.

Gautam covers the importance of cultivating a strong organizational culture to enhance both employee and customer experiences. DeLu shares his approach to fostering innovation and emotional connections with customers, emphasizing the vital role that employees play in the overall customer journey.

In the world of digital CX software, Tom Wentworth's been there, done that. Wentworth, now the chief marketing officer for cybersecurity company Recorded Future, Wentworth caught up with the CX Decoded Podcast to discuss marketing tactics, marketing leadership and his view on the evolution of the digital customer experience software space.

Amy Shioji, SVP of strategy and customer experience at Strategic Education, the parent company of Capella and Strayer Universities joins the CX Decoded podcast to talk about her multi-pronged approach to customer experience is helping students meet their goals.

The use case for Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace is there. For marketing and customer experience, in particular, organizations are using AI and machine learning to improve internal business processes and workflows, automating repetitive tasks and to improve customer journeys and touchpoints, among other use cases.

Joining the CX Decoded podcast this episode is CEO of the Marketing AI Institute and PR 20/20, Paul Roetzer, to discuss the ways marketers are successfully implementing AI into their marketing campaigns and workflows.

This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio.

Jason Ferrell, Capital One’s managing vice president of experience design, is a designer at heart.

Designing experiences in the current day comes with challenges related to customer experience, employee experience and constantly connecting experiences to top-level business objectives. 

Ferrell believes in design experiences through a personalized approach that involves art and science, working across department silos and ultimately connecting experiences with business outcomes.

Poor and failed brand, marketing and service experiences can naturally make or break a brand in what many call the experience economy. Customers can be creeped out as a function of personalized online marketing. Customers can have perceptions of dark/negative brand personalities.

Brands need to consider being authentic and sincere and engaging in storytelling as a premium service. Not just for the sake of storytelling, but because that's backed up by your internal mission where employees buy into that story as well.

Mansur Khamitov, assistant professor of marketing at the Kelley School of Business in Indiana University, shared those and other brand strategy and marketing tips based on his in-depth research in the latest CX Decoded Podcast with co-hosts Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro of CMSWire.

Building a mobile-first mindset didn't start with the pandemic, however, the past year has accelerated mobile usage and forced brands to be mobile-ready. Add to that Google's mobile-first search strategy and it becomes clear that having a mobile-first mindset should be top of mind for all of those paying attention.

Our latest CX Decoded podcast guest is Francisca Hawkins of Philz Coffee. She'll talk mobile-first culture and the brand-customer connection.

Scott Brinker has had his eyes on the marketing technology landscape for decades. As author of the Chief Marketing Technologist blog and creator of the Martech Supergraphic, Brinker often notes growing trends in martech.

One of his emerging trends is low- and no-code tools. Gartner estimated that enterprise low-code application platforms will be 65% of all app creations within the next five years, and the worldwide low-code development technologies market was projected to total $13.8 billion in 2021, an increase of 22.6% from 2020.

Brinker, VP Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot, joined CX Decoded Podcast co-hosts Rich Hein, Editor in Chief at CMSWire, and Dom Nicastro, Managing Editor at CMSWire, to discuss the rise of these no- and low-code tools and address some of the healthy skepticism in the market.

Most organizations strive to have an excellent customer service program. Or we hope, at least. But it's one thing to talk about strong customer experience, and it's certainly another to act on it and measure it, especially in terms of how it adds value to the company proving ROI. Measuring CX and its return on investment still remains a challenge today.

According to data from CMSWire's State of Digital Customer Experience 2021 report CX leaders are not satisfied with their ability to quantify the impact of CX on business metrics and outcomes. It's incredibly challenging to provide bottom-line results and value for CX programs.

CMSWire's CX Decoded podcast co-hosts Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro caught up with customer experience practitioner Katrina Schiedemeyer, senior engineer of supplier development engineering at Oshkosh, to discuss proving ROI and the impact of CX metrics.

In this episode of CX Decoded, Brianna Langley Henderson, a seasoned CX practitioner, delves deep into the implications of introducing generative AI into business organizations. She acknowledges the transformative potential of AI and its capacity to fundamentally alter the landscape of various industries. At the same time, she highlights the resistance this technology faces from certain quarters. The discussion extends to exploring the ethical conundrums posed by AI, emphasizing its potential to disrupt traditional job roles and intensify the fear of human downsizing, a concern particularly felt for creative roles. Henderson underscores the urgent need for organizations to establish their own codes of ethics in this nascent and rapidly evolving field, where concrete legal and ethical guidelines are yet to be standardized. She advocates for a proactive approach in embracing this technological advancement, emphasizing that the strategic integration of AI can secure a business's place in the future of customer experience and other creative endeavors.

We caught up with Brianna recently on the topic.

In the dynamic field of customer experience (CX), professionals need to develop and hone particular skills to navigate its challenges successfully.

Cary Cusumano, an expert in CX management, has mastered this domain. Emphasizing the importance of traits like curiosity and persistence, Cusumano understands the need for continual growth and innovation in this industry. In this podcast, Cary explores these pivotal elements, setting the groundwork for achieving excellence in customer experience management.

In this first episode of CX Decoded, we explore the challenges and priorities of CX professionals as we delve into our annual research report, the State of DCX.

Hosts Rich Hein, head of content for CMSWire, and his colleague, Sarah Kimmel, VP of research at Simpler Media Group, do a deep dive on CMSWire's State of the Digital Experience survey research during this CX Decoded podcast by CMSWire.

They are joined here by special guest Annette Franz, CCXP, founder and CEO of CX Journey, Inc. The podcast was recorded in December of 2020.

Report: State of the Digital Customer Experience

In this edition of CX Decoded, we discuss how large language models are enabling more natural and efficient customer interactions, reshaping the way contact centers operate. Learn about the importance of meeting rising customer expectations, the shift from cost-cutting to prioritizing customer service excellence and the rapid acceleration of digital transformation spurred by the pandemic.

Marketing like many other disciplines went through a year of duress in 2020. COVID-19 had a major impact on businesses everywhere: brand loyalty, marketing strategies, budgets, brand messaging, striking the right tone. Everything was up-ended, not to mention the move to remote work and job losses for marketing teams. And on top of that, simply worrying about the health and well-being of family, friends and co-workers.

There's hope, though. Global vaccinations are in effect. And marketers are showing signs of optimism, according to findings in the 26th annual CMO Survey, run by Christine Moorman, Austin Finch, senior professor of Business Administration at Duke University and a CMSWire contributor.

In this episode, Christine stops by the show to share her thoughts on the state of marketing and why marketers are optimistic about the future.

This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio.

The convergence of customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) is more than a trend; it's a strategic imperative. Organizations are recognizing the symbiotic relationship between how they treat their customers and their employees, understanding that a holistic approach can drive significant improvements in performance and satisfaction. Bridging these two domains requires a nuanced understanding of both the internal and external dynamics of organizations.

In a story that echoes the classic American dream, media mogul Oprah Winfrey started out working at a grocery store where she was forbidden to talk to customers, a move that left her feeling unfulfilled.

However, she soon found a job at a radio station where her talents for communication and engagement were allowed to flourish, leading her down the path to becoming a cultural icon with her own talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. This raises an important question about the role of employee-customer interactions in creating a successful business.

In this episode of CX Decoded, Diana Brown, senior vice president of sales operations and customer experience at XPO, discusses the crucial link between employee experience and customer experience in the service industry. Drawing on both her experience at XPO and her previous experience as head of customer success for Amazon Business, Brown emphasizes that important changes often arise from employee feedback about the customer experience. She goes on to explain that XPO was able to improve its billing process after finance team members who worked in collections shared the difficulties customers were experiencing in paying their invoices. Brown underscores the importance of listening to both employees and customers in order to make meaningful changes in the service industry.

Every company in the history of the business world likely would benefit from listening to their customers. The challenge today? Customers talk. A lot. And in many different ways and in many different media platforms.

It’s on their brands to listen — and act. If it were only that easy.

Voice of the Customer (VoC) technology has become a billion-dollar business for vendors. And it seems like a billion-dollar challenge for customer experience practitioners: how do I manage my VoC data, programs and, most importantly, make it actionable for better customer experiences? How do I create strong feedback loops? What impact did COVID-19 have on VoC in 2020 and what will be the priority for CX professionals in this arena in 2021?

Co-hosts Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro of CMSWire and special guest Stephanie Thum, CCXP, founding principal of Practical CX, on this CX Decoded podcast discuss the latest strategies to boost VoC programs and thrive in a rapidly changing world economy.

While positive employee experiences can enhance customer experiences, negative employee experiences can have the opposite effect. A famous SNL sketch parodies the frustrating experience of trying to cancel cable service, with a customer being repeatedly put on hold, transferred to different departments and subjected to aggressive sales tactics from customer retention specialists.

The sketch highlights the all-too-common problem of customer service employees who are not engaged or motivated to provide good service, resulting in a negative customer experience. To avoid this scenario, businesses need to prioritize employee engagement and create a positive workplace culture to ensure that employees are motivated to deliver exceptional customer service.

CMSWire Contributors Nichole Devolites, principal consultant of LYSI Holding Company and Justin Racine, director and lead commerce strategist at Perficient, emphasize this point and provide real-life examples to illustrate the impact of positive workplace cultures on customer experiences in this CX Decoded podcast. They also discuss the use of chatbots and artificial intelligence, the power of invoking nostalgia in branding and creating a sense of community in the customer experience.

In this special edition of CX Decoded, recorded live at the JW Marriott in Austin, Texas this week during the CMSWire CONNECT Conference, CX Decoded hosted Karna Crawford, a distinguished marketing and digital strategy leader with a proven track record of innovation and tangible results.

Throughout this episode, Karna, former head of US marketing at the Ford Motor Company, shares her invaluable insights on customer experience and its evolving landscape. She brings a wealth of experience from working with iconic brands and leveraging data-driven insights to shape customer experiences.

Karna's unique perspective as a trailblazer in the industry sheds light on the best strategies and practices for CX professionals, whether seasoned veterans or those just starting their journey. One of the key takeaways from our conversation with Karna is the importance of strategic alignment between brand innovation and customer loyalty. She emphasizes the need for organizations to prioritize their innovation efforts and ensure they align with the overall brand strategy.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, a Swiss educational reformer, is widely regarded as the father of modern education. Despite his relative obscurity today, Pestalozzi made major contributions to the field of education in the 19th century, pioneering new methods that were a stark departure from traditional European schools of the time. 

Pestalozzi emphasized real-world learning experiences and a student-centered approach to education, rejecting rote memorization in favor of group recitation and personalized instruction that highlighted each student's strengths. He believed that the role of the instructor was to facilitate and guide learning, rather than simply imparting information.

One notable student who benefited from Pestalozzi's approach: Albert Einstein. At the age of 17, Einstein attended a school in Germany based on Pestalozzi's philosophy, where he was encouraged to use imaginative visualization in his studies. This approach proved to be a defining moment for Einstein, and would later play a significant role in his groundbreaking work as a physicist. The right kind of education can make all the difference. And we now know a lot more about our universe in part due to Pestalozzi's influence.

Continuing this tradition of innovative education is Tom DeWitt, the director of the Customer Experience Management program at Michigan State University. DeWitt, our CX Decoded guest this week, leads a team-based real-world learning approach, fostering an environment of equality, inclusiveness and encouragement to explore. He acts as a guide to students from all walks of life, helping them to fully grasp the complexities of customer experience. 

Google Analytics has more than 85% market share, according to numbers reported by W3Techs.com. However, it has not been without its controversy this year, and big changes are coming.

As of July 1, 2023, Google's Universal Analytics Platform properties will stop collecting data, and historic data will be deleted six months later. This forthcoming change has users all riled up.

CMSWire's CX Decoded caught up with Brian Clifton, co-founder of Verified Data, author and former head of analytics Europe, Middle East Africa for Google to provide perspective on the major changes and how to prepare. Clifton was the first head of Web Analytics for Google in Europe, and he helped launch the original Google Analytics in November of 2005.

This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio.

Shri Nandan, VP of AI Experiences at Comcast, tells us how the implementation of AI, particularly chatbots, in contact centers has not only streamlined operational efficiencies but also enriched the quality of customer interactions. Shri shares her firsthand experiences in driving AI projects, emphasizing the importance of a customer-centric approach and cross-functional collaboration. 

This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio.

The delicate interplay of customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) forms the backbone of today's hospitality management, where understanding and valuing the contribution of each employee translates directly into enhanced customer satisfaction. 

Embodying this principle is Gautam Patankar, chief experience officer at Bobby Jones Links. With a rich background that blends a love for golf with a keen insight into hospitality management, Gautam stands as a testament to the power of aligning CX and EX.

In this episode of CX Decoded, host Dom Nicastro, editor-in-chief of CMSWire, dives into the future of AI in customer service with insights from three leading experts in the field. This episode brings together discussions from two separate CMSWire TV "Beyond the Call" interviews, featuring Barry Cooper, president of NICE’s CX Division; Tom Laird, CEO of Expivia; and Keith Farley, SVP of Individual Voluntary Benefits at Aflac.

Melissa Henley, an experienced CX leader at Luxion, the company behind KeyShot 3D software, explores the vital aspects of both customer and employee experiences. In this latest podcast with CMSWire's CX Decoded, Melissa, a CMSWire Contributor, identifies two core metrics that CX leaders should prioritize: churn and net revenue retention (NRR). Melissa elaborates on the significance of these metrics in evaluating customer satisfaction and cultivating a loyal customer base, emphasizing the importance of a keen focus on these numbers for a company's success.

Additionally, Melissa addresses the crucial role of data in CX leadership. She asserts that proficiency in working with data is essential for success in the CX field. And just as Archimedes needed to perfect his measurement techniques to resolve the king's quandary, in the world of customer experience, mastery of the right metrics can lead to those elusive, yet sought-after "Eureka!" moments.

According to the Marketing Technology Landscape 2022, marketers have nearly 10,000 solutions from which to choose. OK, so maybe that's not exactly how it works. Marketers won't be browsing 10 aisles with 1,000 solutions per aisle.

Fact is, though, there is an abundance of choice when it comes to deciding what powers your marketing and customer experience outcomes. Many marketers and customer experience professionals arrive at organizations when the stack's fully operational. Others have to buy pieces to fit their stack, and some even build from the ground up.

Chris O'Brien is one of those professionals who lives all these realities. He's the VP of digital marketing technology for M&T Bank. He sits at the intersection of marketing technology and customer experience within the financial services industry, which is a highly regulated industry. O'Brien caught up with CX Decoded to discuss the challenges of managing the marketing technology stack. He shares his thoughts on how the role of marketing technologists have evolved, how he keeps up with the pace of new technology and what's coming next.

"I really do work cross-functionally, cross-departmentally, as well as with a ton of external partners, whether they be, you know, system integrators, agencies, or some of these platform and data service vendors," O'Brien told CX Decoded hosts Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro of CMSWire. "So really trying to be kind of the hub that pulls all of that together into a cohesive roadmap and strategy for us."

Leonardo Da Vinci revolutionized the way people were painted during the Renaissance, and his "Mona Lisa" is the most famous painting in the world and is a cultural icon for beauty, in part due to what is usually described as her alluring and mysterious smile. What has made the "Mona Lisa" so popular for more than 500 years? It can be boiled down to one word: innovation. 

Da Vinci was an innovator his entire life. He saw possibilities everywhere. The painting is a culmination of his curiosity and studies he undertook during his lifetime. Leonardo was interested in just about everything. One thing he was interested in was human anatomy, and he made many anatomical studies of the human body, including the facial muscles used for smiling. He discovered the complex system of muscle movement needed to produce a smile, and the data he collected during dissections he performed helped him produce the world's most revered painting.

This week’s CX Decoded podcast guest knows about innovation, data collection and omnichannel approaches when it comes to beauty as well. Michelle Pacynski, vice president of digital innovation at Ulta Beauty, has led Ulta through much of its digital transformation in the past 10 years, a time in which the company revolutionized how beauty products were assembled and marketed to enthusiasts.  

We caught up with her to find out what brands can learn from the beauty industry about a host of topics, including the high level of engagement of beauty enthusiasts.

According to a recent Statista report, the economic impact of 5G on the U.S. gross domestic product will hit $484 billion by the year 2030. 5G is faster, more reliable, has more capacity and less latency than the previous 4G wireless technology — and has the capability of completely changing how brands and consumers will think about the internet in the future. 

But what exactly is 5G, how does it work and what type of impact will it have on gaming, shopping, business and customer experience? 

Frank Boulben, the chief revenue officer of Verizon Consumer Group, has watched as each new wireless generation has come into being, and he caught up with CX Decoded to help us drill down how 5G might be used in consumer and B2B cases. 

According to Deloitte, 88% of senior executives think that blockchain technology will eventually achieve mainstream adoption. Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to top $17.9 billion by 2024 and will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46.4%, according to data from IDC. With that said, we’re seeing a lot of hype around the evolution of Web3 and how Web 2.0 will be a distant memory. 

So how do you sort the truth from the hype? 

In this episode of CX Decoded, Travis Wright, devout follower of blockchain, NFTs and the intersection of Web3 and marketing and the co-host of the Bad Crypto podcast join Dom and Rich to spotlight the practical applications of blockchain and Web3 as well as, what marketers need to understand, as we get ready to usher in Web3. 

Digital transformation is a journey, not a destination...

That said, never before have we seen the type of acceleration of digital transformation efforts to modernize business processes, supply chains and workflows like we saw over the past year. And digital business is still evolving.

While the workplace saw large-scale adoption of remote work, brands saw huge shifts in customer behavior that had all organizations playing catch-up. With so much behind us, its time to look back, reevaluate and refine the year's efforts.

And to help us explore the digital transformation topic, former Starbucks CDO Adam Brotman joins the team at CX Decoded to discuss digital transformation journeys, the acceleration over the last year and reigning it all in.

In the latest episode of CX Decoded, Jessica Austin Barker, the chief digital and client experience officer at TIAA, unveils the intricate tapestry of TIAA's journey in transforming digital and client experiences in the financial sector. This episode delves deep into the nuanced approach TIAA has adopted, moving beyond mere technological advancements to a more holistic integration of digital innovation with a human-centric approach.

Want some sobering statistics for your call center? Customer service representatives between ages 20 and 34 stay on the job for an average of just over one year, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Further, the average call center turnover rate is as high as 45% — and that's at least twice the average turnover in other departments, according to the numbers.

Call centers are going through a revolution, however. Tools like AI and predictive analytics are driving automation and cost reduction. Are these innovations enough to save the call center and improve retention?

Jonathan Brill, HP's former global futurist and author of "Rogue Wave," helped us try to crack the retention conundrum while also discussing call center innovations now and what the future looks like.

We caught up with Brill for our latest CX Decoded Podcast.

All relationships are built on trust whether you're talking about the people you meet in the course of your life or the brands and the relationships they build with their customers.

In this latest edition of CX Decoded co-hosts Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro discuss building customer trust with customer service and customer experience expert Shep Hyken, chief amazement officer at Shepard Presentations.

Sean Albertson, head of client experience measurement and analytics with Charles Schwab, began his CX journey on the front lines in contact centers in the mid-1990s. He managed service teams, quality and training programs, and created knowledge management tools early in his career.

Moving into this century, Albertson began to place a focus on surveys, analytics and market research. He continued to expand his influence through the early 2000s to improve customers’ experiences in roles across marketing, product and pricing, and even spent some time in IT translating CX concepts into technology and digital solutions. 

Albertson caught up with CMSWire Editor-in-Chief Rich Hein and Managing Editor Dom Nicastro of CMSWire's CX Decoded to discuss his approach to measuring CX success.

In this episode of CX Decoded Podcast, Stephanie Moritz, chief marketing and communications officer at the American Dental Association (ADA), talks about the challenges and opportunities brought on by the pandemic. And now, the hard work begins again, as marketing leaders take on the new challenge of leading teams in a hybrid working world that is still on many levels grappling with the pandemic.

The challenges for the marketers in the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic have been many: striking the right brand tone, dealing with trimmed budgets and, most of all, staying relevant and keeping their jobs.

Forrester predicted 469,000 marketing jobs would be lost in the US by the end of 2020 in one forecast. Marketers maybe more than ever need to prove their worth. They need to shed bad habits, reduce inefficiencies and nail it when it comes to submitting the right tone in brand messaging.

In this episode of CX Decoded, we caught up with Nicole France and Liz Miller from Constellation Research. While they may be analysts and researchers now, they are marketers at heart, having served in marketing roles in the past. They'll share their thoughts on overcoming the bad marketing habits and processes we are all dealing with today.

The concept of transformation has been center stage for businesses around the world for some time now, but taking a moment to reflect on what transformation actually means could radically change organizations seeking new life in turbulent times. 

The specter of a looming recession makes the notion of transformation even more enticing — and terrifying — to many business leaders now — especially customer experience leaders. But how do they go about analyzing where silos are blocking transformation, harming customer experience and leaving organizations in a perpetually “frozen” state?

Hank Brigman, senior vice president practice lead for Service Journey Strategies, helps shine some light on the most challenging aspects of customer experience transformation and discusses the inevitable and painful consequences of non-action.

Marketers are at the forefront when it comes to taming the martech chaos and ensuring tools support business objectives and positive business outcomes. But there are so many questions. What's the right toolset? Should we have a marketing cloud at the center of our martech stack? Should we build with a best-of-breed approach? Is a homegrown stack the right approach?

Anita Brearton, founder, CEO and Co-CMO of CabinetM, a marketing technology discovery and management platform joins the CX Decoded podcast crew to discuss the best ways to get your arms around your organization's martech stack and tame the chaos.

GDPR, CCPA, CPRA … it’s enough to make a marketer’s head spin. At the time of this recording, three US states have enacted comprehensive consumer data privacy laws, and more are likely on the way. And that’s not to mention the possibility of a US federal privacy law.

Are you tech ready? Is your marketing staff trained to handle personal-data requests from your customers and prospects who trust your brand to be compliant? How do your customers stand to benefit from your practices around these new laws?

In this episode, we’ll help marketers cut through the data-privacy haze when digital policy and data privacy expert Kristina Podnar, joins CX Decoded hosts Rich Hein and Dom Nicastro. 

When it comes to CX leadership, or leadership in general, its always good to lead by example, but equally good to incentivize the behavior you want from your team.

We cover today the convergence of humanity and technology in today’s marketing landscape, featuring insights from Karna Crawford, CMO at Marqeta, and Tom Wentworth, CMO at Recorded Future. 

In this episode, Karna shares her insights on how to bring a little bit of humanity into B2B marketing — while still getting all the benefits of modern-day technology. And Tom takes us through his strategic use of in-house media to build trust and credibility in the cybersecurity space.

Content is king... That was the saying marketers repeated to themselves for years. And while that sentiment still rings true, there's something more important brands must pay attention to, something that content ultimately feeds into: customer experience.

Modern consumers have high expectations, and brands go to great lengths to meet — and surpass — these expectations. But that task becomes more and more challenging as we continue to market in a VUCA environment — one that's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. 

Kathleen Schaub, writer, advisor and CMSWire contributor, has some advice for leaders looking to navigate these rough waters and deliver exceptional CX. She caught up with CX Decoded's Dom Nicastro and Michelle Hawley to discuss navigating customer experience and marketing through constant change.

Avoiding unhappy customers is what everyone wants to do, right? But listening to our most vociferous critics is not always easy because they're not going to pussyfoot around with you. According to this episode’s guest, it’s our angry, enraged customers who are our Golden Tickets to success.

Shaking down happy customers about why they like you won’t help you understand areas you need to improve, says Tomas Haffenden, head of service design at Torrens University. You want to cozy up to the grumps, the crazy mad and the fire-breathing fit-throwers instead — cause boy-howdy — will they ever tell you what the !!*@%&*! is wrong. 

The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a survey of 500 CMOs and found that 86% of participants believed that they would own customer experience. Six years later, has it happened? Not quite. It hasn't exactly been a full takeover of customer experience by marketing leaders.

What has emerged is the concept of marketing-led customer experience. It's something Rhoan Morgan believes is and should happen in organizations. Morgan is the co-founder and CEO of DemandLab, an agency she launched in 2009. She's also a CMSWire contributor, and she caught up with CX Decoded to discuss marketing and CX leadership.

In this episode of “CX Decoded,” Michelle Hawley, senior editor at CMSWire, takes a look inside the nuances of brand evolution in today’s digital word, featuring Amber Holm, CMO at Winnebago Industries and Ranu Coleman, head of marketing at PatPat.

In this episode, both leaders delve into the importance of customer insights in keeping brands relevant — and the challenges that come with repositioning in the consumer space. They also share strategies for maintaining brand integrity, including keeping existing customers happy while reeling in new audiences.

Through in-depth interviews originally aired separately on the CMSWire TV show “The CMO Circle,” Holm and Coleman offer a deeper understanding of how established brands can stay ahead through change and innovation. 

Like all other customer experience practitioners over the last 20 months, Holly O'Neill has faced her share of challenges in her role as Bank of America's president of retail banking.

Today she joins the CX Decoded podcast to share the lessons learned while delivering highly personalized experiences for users both online and in-person.

Traditional linear customer journeys are being transformed into endless decision loops. This creates big challenges for marketers, and Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are one answer to that complex situation.

According to reports in the CMSWire CDP Market Guide, the CDP industry was projected to reach $1.55 billion in revenue by the end of 2021. It’s a 20% increase over 2020 revenue. CDP vendors based in the Americas account for 47% of companies in the industry, 59% of the industry workforce and receive 74% of funding.

In this episode of CX Decoded, Tony Byrne, founder of Real Story Group, takes us into the world of CDPs and shares his thoughts on CDPs and the challenges getting that customer data machine running smoothly. He also shares some real practical use cases for organizations.

Do you really want to live in a cookie-less world? Digitally, anyway, that’s the reality for marketers.

The impending demise of the third-party cookie will take one big bite out of a marketer’s tried and true go-to strategy. Marketers have used third-party cookies for decades to inform digital advertising and user experience by tracking information about visitors and their behavior when not on their actual websites.

But it’s a new world when it comes to data privacy. And the tech giants are taking action. Apple and Google are making moves to support the termination of this type of data tracking on the web.

How can marketers adjust? Is the demise of third-party cookies actually a good thing for marketing strategy?

Customer experience teams at Intuit, owners of TurboTax, get inspired each day to iterate, test and create customer experiences for their thousands of customers. The key ingredients? Agility, adaptability and continuous learning.

Principal CX leader Marietta Silva Allison takes us behind the curtain for all of it in this episode.