The Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show (Jeanne Bliss)

There's so much to learn about successfully implementing a program through your own trial and error, but what would success look like without mentors or help from others? I've always found learning from successful individuals to be helpful, which is why I love asking my guests, "what do you know now that you wish you knew then?" This episode features a compilation of answers to the pay-it-forward question I ask in every episode with tactical advice that you can apply today. Find more information at customerbliss.com/podcast.

Our work as CX practitioners is to put the customer first and think about how we can positively affect their interactions with our brand and organization. Today, we're revisiting some of the answers from previous guests to the pay-it-forward question, "what do you know now that you wish you knew then?" These answers will be helpful to both current and aspiring CCOs. Guests in order of appearance are: Claudiu Coltea (Citizen's Financial Group), Parrish Arturi (Fidelity Investments), Scott Dille (Northern Trust), Brian Lille (Equinix), Rachael McBrearty (Cisco), Catherine Courage (Google), Karen Quintos (Dell). Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb95.

In order to move from where you are, you need to all agree on where you’ve begun. “One version of the truth" is critical. In this episode, I share an exercise you can do with your team to start the process of understanding your organization’s experience reliability.

How do you transform a bureaucracy that was generations in the making? In today’s episode, I speak with Greg Derwart, Managing Director, Administration & Customer Experience at Maryland Department of Commerce. We explore transforming customer and employee experience within a state government agency, and how this work is managed across multiple departments and agencies. Get more information and show notes at customerbliss.com/cb109

Starting many years ago as a customer service rep, Camille has been in the “service” lane her entire career.  In our conversation we discussed her successive roles, and why, in particular, the Chief of Staff role prepared Camille for the Chief Customer Officer role.

Duygo Cibik has a robust history in operations and change management and transformation.  So when she took on the role of the Chief Customer Success officer at Reval, she knew she needed to create a very deliberate path to gaining understanding, acceptance and traction in her role.

In today’s episode, we’re going international with Rekha Weerasooriya, General Manager of Customer Experience Management and People Development at Dialog Axiata, the number one telecommunications provider in Sri Lanka. At Dialog Axiata, Rekha is in charge of customer listening, customer experience management, and employee experience development. Rekha shares tactics that I think you’ll find valuable, and pieces together a story that shows just how complex running CX within a competitive telecommunications industry can be.

In today’s episode with Amy Shioji, Head of Customer Experience at USA Today Network, we talk about how she advocated for a more holistic view of customer experience and loyalty at a media company. Facing challenges from the disruptive nature of the media industry, we talk about how she’s worked to break down internal silos, improve the digital aspect of the USA Today experience, and improve the employee experience as steps to put the customer at the center of their work.

As conversations around sustainability and corporate social responsibility continue to increase, I think you’ll enjoy this timely conversation with Michael Bair, Senior Director of Member Experience at Inspire, a clean energy tech start-up. Inspire uses technology to bring clean energy sources to businesses and the homes of everyday Americans.

With over 10 years of experience under his belt, leading customer-facing teams, Michael sheds some insight into how he breaks through some of the challenges to get customers to think differently about their energy options. 

Are you leading customer experience in a global organization? In this episode, I speak with Troy Barnes, the CCO of Pizza Hut for the Asia Pacific region. This is Troy's second CCO role, and his background is in Lean Six Sigma and change management. Our conversation around change management and leadership is valuable, and you'll especially find Troy's advice helpful if you're in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry and work with franchises.

As we head into the new year, I ask that you revisit this podcast episode, where you’ll find many more valuable gems from my friend, Curtis Kopf. Your business—and your customers—will thank you.

In my conversation with Curtis Kopf, the Chief Experience Officer at REI, we discuss thought processes and strategies that go into navigating successful CX transformations. Curtis is a seasoned leader and CX practitioner who’s worked across a few different industries during his career. He has spent time at Amazon in the early 2000s, Microsoft, Alaska Airlines, and Premera Blue Cross. Curtis definitely knows a thing or two about how to develop a customer-first strategy.

Continuing to explore customer experience leadership in many different sectors of business, my podcast today is with Dave Nelson, the Chief Customer Officer at Armstrong Relocation & Cos, a very large family owned business that provides moving and relocation services - as the agency for a national moving company brand.

In our conversation, Dave and I discussed how he leads customer experience in a family owned business, and as an agency to a larger corporate entity.  

He details his very rigorous approach to culture development and employee engagement,as well as accountability - which i found to be very refreshing and clear and actionable. 

In a conversation we recently had on my LinkedIn Live, I chatted with Dr. Philip Zimmerman, life coach, founder of Engineering Leadership Design Company, an author of Unleash the Millennials: and Save the World. We spoke about the millennial desire for purpose-driven work that aligns with their personal values, the need to understand why the work is done, and how to best come together in the workforce. We then explored his “C4” categorization of aspects that every workforce should pay attention to: communicate, cooperate, collaborate, and co-create.

Stephen Ingledew has held the customer experience leadership role multiple times.  And is now determining his next CX role, maturing his previous role and work so that it is ready to run by the leaders whom he developed.  In our conversation we discuss how Stephen developed his skills, and his path to continue to improve the financial services industry - leaving a legacy of improvement.

In this conversation with Andy Clement, the CCO at Kimberly-Clark Professional, who has been with the organization for over 30 years, we discuss how digitizing the sales operations has impacted this B2B business in the post-pandemic world. Those of you in the B2B industry will enjoy this chat, especially if you’ve been in a legacy industry that had to adjust to the digital-first world.

How do you define the chief customer officer role and lay a framework for your success in the role? 5-year CCO Milista Anderson of FIS Global, the world’s largest provider of financial solutions joins me to answer these questions.

Claudiu is a perennial customer experience leader.  Accessing his ‘right brain/left brain’ skills so necessary for this role, he calls upon his background at Gallup, healthcare and his operational roles to lead customer experience as a transformation.  This is a distinction that we see in leaders who have successfully led operations along their path to leading global customer experience change management - and it greatly impacts the success of the work and the role.

“That's one of the things that I'm a huge believer in is skill sets. Early jobs with skill sets, because skill sets traveled. And I think those are things that I think it's incredibly important to me, as we think about workforce development,” says Lambert Walsh, the Senior Vice President of Customer Success at DocuSign, in our recent Linkedin Live conversation.

While chatting with Lambert, we discuss the importance of developing the skill sets that help set you up for success in a customer-oriented leadership position. We also explore the ways in which the pandemic affected this digitally-focused organization, and how they managed both employee and customer experience during this high-intensity period.

This is the 100th episode of the Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape show, and I have YOU to thank for it! In this episode, I speak with Amanda Sachs, General Manager, Customer & Partner Experience, at Microsoft. We discuss how she created a path for her global role leading customer experience across all of Microsoft, and how she has engaged with the organization to translate CEO Satya Nadella’s mantra of “customer obsession” into its operating model, engineering and culture.

“I am a bridge builder and I really like that aspect of my role,” says Yamini Rangan, chief customer officer at Dropbox, a SaaS company that offers file storage and collaboration solutions to both individuals and companies. Yamini shares that when you connect with your customers' true needs, you’re able to offer better help and provide value to them.

Yamini offers strategies that she has employed within Dropbox, that keeps her leaders and C-Suite aligned to the same goals of customer-centricity.

Kevin Bury had a very successful career as the CEO of several technology start ups before he took on the senior customer experience leadership role at the very large technology company, SolarWinds.

Do you lead your business by thinking about your customers' wants and needs? Are you putting the customer first? In today's episode, we’re revisiting two conversations with CX leaders representing global organizations about defining customer obsession. You’ll hear from Tamar Cohen, VP of Customer Experience at Zoetis and Amanda Sachs, the General Manager of Customer and Partner Experience at Microsoft. Both women are leading customer experience in these organizations with a “customer-obsessed” mantra. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb119.

In today's episode, I chat with CCO Lisa Henken Ramirez, about implementing customer experience Netspend, a young, a finance-related company. Netspend is a leading provider of prepaid Visa^® and Mastercard^® cards for personal & commercial use. Lisa shares with us how she used her background in consulting and change management to help lead the company’s CX efforts and get Netspend employees to connect more authentically with customers.

In this interview, I am joined with none other than Simon T. Bailey. Simon is a breakthrough strategist who goes beyond feel-good content and provides real-life deliverables that truly impacts lives. He has also authored 10 books, his latest being Be the Spark: Five Platinum Service Principles for Creating Customers for Life. Simon drops a bunch of gems for us in this interview so get ready to take some notes!

In today's conversation with Guy Kawasaki, entrepreneur, author of 15 books, marketing expert, and Silicon Valley venture capitalist—we discuss some of the tactical ways that entrepreneurs and CEOs can navigate leadership during the uncertainties of the pandemic. This includes shifting business models, trying new things, and most importantly, simplifying processes for both your customers and employees.

How do you build a new customer-focused initiative within an established public sector? Barbara C. Morton, who joined the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2016, was brought on board to be the organization's first-ever Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer and has been working diligently to bring a human-centered-design approach to her CX strategy. She shares how her vision in creating a veterans-focused experience has helped improve client relationships and satisfaction. 

In today’s conversation with Dr. Oleg Konovalov, who is a thought leader, keynote speaker, author, business educator, and consultant with over 25 years of experience operating businesses, we discuss some of the concepts in his latest book, Leaderology, which tie back to what I like to call, leadership bravery.

In today’s show, we’re joined by the New York Times Bestselling author and guru, Seth Godin, who's written over 19 books. He's the founder of Akimbo, and author of the popular, marketing-oriented, Seth's Blog.  Seth and I have a great conversation about leadership as he breaks down some of the "alphabets of humanity" from his book, V is for Vulnerable: Life Outside the Comfort Zone. We discuss how some of the principles from this book can be used to guide and grow an organization with humanity and purpose.

How do you take insights from customers and drive better decision making and better product delivery? This is one of the many questions that Eric Smuda, VP of Customer Experience & Loyalty of Hertz car rental service had to ask when he joined the company to transform customer and employee experience. In this episode, we chat about improving the employee experience for good CX and how do we build a learning organization in a culture of continuous improvement? Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb106.

As a CCO at a young company, how do you assess the work that needs to be done to begin the CX transformation? In today’s episode, we’re revisiting conversations with two CCOs who have implemented CX programs from the ground up: Chelsie Rae Lee of SnackNation and Allison Pickens of Gainsight.

Both women became CCOs of their companies during a time where no formal CX work had been instituted.  

Southwest Airlines has a wonderful approach elevating people inside the organization.  Starting with Colleen Barrett, President Emeritus,  who joined Southwest in 1978, who rose to that rank after previously working for several years as founder Herb Kelleher's executive assistant at his law firm.

“It is no longer just about the product. It is all about the customer experience, the way we make customers feel when they use the product. That makes a huge difference,” says Yamini Rangan, HubSpot's first Chief Customer Officer. In today’s conversation, Yamini and I discuss the importance of storytelling and of unifying teams within an organization to work towards a common goal. She also shares some of the ways in which HubSpot has handled the disruption of COVID-19.

How does a legacy organization learn how to integrate digital technology in a way that facilitates a meaningful customer experience? Todd Unger, Chief Experience Officer and Senior Vice President of Physician Engagement at the American Medical Association, shares insights and lessons learned along the way, while leveraging his background in marketing and advertising, and product development, to transform a 170-year-old company’s communication methods into the world of digital.

Scott Dille, Senior Vice President of Customer and Partner Experience at Northern trust bank fearlessly shares his path for leading an experience transformation.  You will learn about the human centered listening videos they built to engage the C-Suite and board and the inventive way that they built and deployed their customer room.  Scott also shares their approach to the human-centered design lab that guides their customer and partner experience improvement process, and how they are focusing on the millennials banking experience.

In my recent vlog, Jeanne's Daily Dose...Of Reality, I discuss the importance of journey mapping and how you can use it to break down silos and unite your leadership team. In today's episode, we're continuing the conversation around journey mapping by revisiting two conversations I've had with previous guests on the show: Kathy Tobiasen and Sami Nuwar. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb118

The LEGO brand has been a part of the legacy of all of our childhoods and according to Simone Sweeney, Vice President Global Retail Development at LEGO Group, the already popular LEGO has seen a resurgence as families spent more time together during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In my recent conversation with Simone Sweeney on my LinkedIn Live, we discuss how she and her team are currently navigating the retail landscape due to the shift in shopping behaviors, and we explore what impact the shift in E-commerce behavior has had on their customer experience and strategy.

What I know is that everybody needs a little pixie dust.

When you do things that are unexpected for your customers, they remember you and it bonds you to them. So I want to share some of my favorite pixie dust moments back from my days at Lands’ End.

How does the diversity of your team affect their output and synergy? In today's episode, I chat with Leslie McNamara, who is the Chief Marketing Officer and Managing Director in workforce development at Citi Retail Services. In this insightful episode, Leslie and I chat about team development and the importance of getting your house in order to bring the utmost value to your clients and partners.

"At the end of the day, what we realize is, we all unite under the same thing, which is to drive the customer experience, get the patient what they need,” says Corrie Quaranto, Vice President of Northwell Health, regarding a patient-focused experience at their facilities.

In my discussion with Corrie, we discuss how Northwell has been taking the time to focus on customer care in a way that reduces stress and confusion for the patient during their healthcare experience, especially when it comes to the billing and financial responsibility.

Mark Slatin, SVP, Director of Client Experience for Sandy Spring Bank describes in detail how he engaged the leadership team and the organization over four years to win TWO coveted Customer Experience Innovation Awards. And most importantly, improve the customer and company experience with the Bank.

As we continue to revisit conversations with CX leaders who were previously on the show, today we're going to explore strategies implemented by two CX leaders at global corporations: Scott Allison, CCO at DHL Supply Chain and Jon Herstein, CCO at Box.

Both leaders share great tactics and strategies that they implemented when asked the question, "how did you first assess the work that needed to be done?" Considering they both work at established, global corporations with hundreds (and thousands) of employees, it's interesting to see the scope of the work they chose to tackle

What I know is that customer experience is floundering. We are focusing on the mechanics instead of the meaning of the work. At the end of the day, customer experience is about leading. It’s about leadership. It’s about finding a way to guide your people and your organization to rise to show up as a different kind of company in the marketplace. Customer experience does not belong in a silo.

Doing customer math rallies your team not only to ask, “Did we earn more customers than we lost?” But it pushes everybody to care about the why. Find out why in this video.

Karen Quintos is the Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at the newly formed (since late 2016) Dell Technologies; a merger of Dell and EMC.

We spoke about four key areas in our conversation that defined how Karen approached the role appointed by Michael Dell and how she’s faring in this first year within the role.

In today's episode, we're revisiting some important takeaways shared by 4 customer experience leaders in the SaaS industry who were previous guests on the show. You'll hear thought-provoking insights, as well as lessons learned by these leaders who've lead transformations in their organizations. Additionally, you'll hear their responses to my pay it forward question, "what do you know now, that you wish you knew then?" which I know is a favorite for some of you! Enjoy the show.

In today’s episode, we take a look at how Lucy Norris, Executive Vice President, Chief Customer Success Officer at Genesys and Daniel Coullet, Senior Vice President of Customer Success and Experience at PTC, handled the first year in their role. Both CX leaders represent tech companies but share advice that can be relevant to CX leaders in other industries.

Nathan and I discuss some of the principals behind BILT’s success, one of them being that they measure it by their own customer’s success. BILT is a customer experience platform. It operates as an app that provides a 3D assembly experience for customers who need to build a finished item like a grill or bed frame. BILT has worked with companies such as Weber, IKEA, and the Home Depot, to help empower customers and give them the confidence needed in order to complete their project.

In a recent LinkedIn Live conversation I had with Zvi Baida, CCO at Shufersal, one of Israel’s largest grocery retailers, we spoke about how he and the C-Suite handled the shift in consumer behaviors and demands during the pandemic. During the time of lockdown where folks were worried about access to food, water, and medical supplies, Zvi and his team faced new challenges. They had to think through how to handle increasing supply demand without sacrificing the quality of their customer experience.

In our recent Linkedin Live conversation, Aparna and I had an in-depth discussion about the holistic approach that she and the C-Suite have taken to better understand and meet the needs of the organization’s various stakeholders. You will really enjoy this conversation as Aparna shares how Verizon is working hard to evolve in a world where human and consumer behaviors constantly shift. 

A goal map starts with the goals your customer wants to achieve and shifts your KPIs. By measuring the things that your customer cares about, it transforms how you do work. Find the show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/whatiknow.

Today’s podcast is with Alison Circle, who is the Chief Customer Experience Officer in another unexpected industry:  the Library System.  The work that Alison and the leadership team at Columbus Metropolitan Library has in fact been heralded around the world (insert link) in their innovative approaches in this industry many might think is moving toward retirement.  At Columbus Metropolitan Library, they are doing the opposite and revitalizing what it means to be a library. Starting with the lives of their customers and the responsibility for a community of learners, they are rethinking the library experience, from how they define their customer, the design of their buildings, how they unite leadership to a higher purpose and what and how they enable young minds to read and establish community.

There’s a certain skill that comes with taking the knowledge you've gained and pulling it together for the organization in a way that will help leaders make financial, cultural, and leadership decisions. Rosalyn Curato, CCO of Allovue, a startup EdFinTech (education financial technology) company, knows how to get this done. In today's episode, Rosalyn shares how her background in finance and education consulting contributes to success in her CCO role.

Allovue is a B2B2C SaaS company that builds software solutions to help school districts around the country interact with their financial data more strategically.

Tish Whitcraft is what we call a “serial” Chief Customer Officer type.  She has held a version of this role in over four technology driven and internet companies, including Yahoo!, Myspace, and OpenX

In our conversation, Tish walks us through her expanded version of the CCO Role, which is for her, a combination of the CCO and Chief Operating Officer role.  

She walks us through her process for vetting and taking on a CCO role, and how she determines when it’s time to go.

“Customer experience is about leadership. It's about the blueprint for how you run your business, and how you want to show up in the marketplace,” says Andy Schulkind, the vice president of customer experience at Domino, North America. Domino is a B2B company which specializes in the development and production of various printing technologies used for coding and marking.

Domino North America prides itself on its customer service, and it’s this commitment to customer experience as a whole, that has helped Andy succeed in his role. In our conversation, Andy and I chat about setting the foundation in order for the work to be successful.

Dave Mingle is the General Director of Global Customer Experience Execution and Planning for for General Motors.  In our conversation, Dave and I discuss the multi-year path that GM has been on to first evaluate and establish the need for customer experience, through the execution stages they are in now. We discuss how Dave and his team used a journey map to clarify and focus the work and how he identified and engaged with early adopter leaders to prove the approach and gain adoption.  We discussed the importance of the CEO modeling the behavior that is so critical to this type of transformation taking hold throughout the organization.

In this compilation episode, I'm revisiting conversations with Sherif Mityas, CXO at TGI Fridays, and Troy Barnes, Chief Customer Officer at Pizza Hut Asia Pacific. Their high-level positions had them entrenched in work in which they oversaw CX strategies that impacted numerous restaurants.  Sherif talks about how he assessed the work that needed to be done while in the role, and you’ll hear Troy discuss the ongoing journey of level setting expectations and uniting the C-Suite around improving efforts. 

We recently learned that a good friend of ours, Diana Helfinstine, VP of Customer Experience at Essilor, the world's largest manufacturer of eyeglasses has passed away. In tribute to Diana, we're revisiting this podcast episode in which Diana shared how she implemented customer experience strategies that further differentiated Essilor's services, creating greater value for their customers and patients. Find more information in the show notes at customerbliss.com/cb89

How does your organization keep its "special sauce" as it grows? This is the challenge that Daniel Brousseau, senior vice president and head of client experience at City National Bank, experienced while leading the bank's new CX transformation.

In this episode, Daniel shares that City National was acquired by a bigger bank and was therefore expected to grow. He was stepping into a role that hadn't previously existed, but also into a company that was extremely client-focused and supportive of improving the customer journey. 

Lynda Firey-Oldroyd, CCO of Topgolf speaks on previous career successes at blue chip companies and details the importance of employee and customer experience at TopGolf.

This episode is a replay of a popular conversation I had with Leslie Stretch, the President and CEO of Medallia about leveraging customer data to understand and anticipate customer needs. Leslie talks about how the pandemic has become “digital disruption at massive scale,” and the positive impacts this can have on the customer experience.

"The thing is, you're never done learning," says Michael Kuenne, in our conversation about aligning to meet customer expectations, improving quality assurance, and the importance of hiring. Michael is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Extended Stay America, a hotel chain across the nation that offers guests the opportunity to book their stay for a day, a week, or a month. Though Michael has only been in this role for a year, his exposure to different facets of work in financial services and technology consulting had a profound impact on the way he currently views his work. We talk about how he helps the hotel improve its operational excellence.

In my conversation with Will Kingston, Incoming Director & Head of Financial Services (USA) at CLEAR - M&C Saatchi, we talk about how he developed a passion for CX. As a lover of FinTech, his goal has been to modernize financial services in a way that revolves around customer strategy and customer centricity. 

Will shares plenty of great tactical advice in this conversation and I think you’ll find some actionable items that you can bring to your team.

Darryl Speach is a serial Customer experience practitioner and change agent. With experience leadership roles at New York Life, with the Disney Institute and at Greystone and company, in our conversation together he shares his hard-earned and joyous wisdom with us.

Jenn Oyler and I discuss CX strategies that impact both the employees and customers in a B2B2C organization. We also explore some finer details of the work when we chat about the various CX KPIs that Jenn measures against, how they determine ROI, and her leadership style. Jenn is the vice president and head of customer experience at Principal Financial Group and has experience at State Farm.

In this conversation, you’ll hear from two leaders who have led transformative customer-centric initiatives at organizations that have global reach: Catherine Courage, VP of Consumer UX at Google and Darryl Speach, who at the time of our conversation was Chief Customer Officer of Greystone & Company. Darryl’s prior experience at Disney and New York Life Insurance gave him plenty of insight regarding people-centered work, and Catherine’s experience with human-centered design and UI gave her an advantage in terms of thinking through the customer’s end-to-end experience.

"Start by being humble and you will inspire your team to be humble," says Denis Drossart, global vice president of Culture & Experience at Selina, about leadership behaviors enforced within this lifestyle, travel and hospitality brand.

Denis shares some tactics and strategies regarding how they’ve shaped the purpose and culture of this hospitality-disruptive brand. With a focus on leadership and creating authentic connections, Denis and his team have created an essential framework to create the ultimate experience for guests and employees. 

Did you know that government agencies are working hard to embed customer experience strategies in their operating plan and mindset? In this episode, Anahita Reilly, Chief Customer Officer for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), walks us through her customer experience maturity map and actions to unite the leadership team, map the customer journey and drive transformation.

How are you taking steps to deliver what you do? Are you willing to step outside the bounds of what everybody else does? And take an ADMIRABLE action in how you do it?

"I was really looking to achieve an experience that was elegant. I'm a big believer in that," said Eleanor O’Neil, regarding her decision to create a customer success forecasting system. Eleanor is the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Workshare, a B2B company that manages document productivity and security software for legal firms.

Eleanor knew she could scale the business and focus on how Workshare's services can truly benefit the customer. Her goal was to figure out a system that would improve customer success while also lifting some of the burdens off of the sales team.

I’m sharing excerpts from previous interviews with two experienced C-Suite leaders who successfully implemented very tactical steps with a focus on uniting the C-Suite and understanding their needs to advance their CX work. You’ll hear from Brian Lilie, CCO and Head of Technology at Equinix, the world's largest IBX data center & colocation provider, and Isabella Lau, CCO and CMO at Manulife, a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider.

We know how difficult it can be to unite silos within your own organization, now imagine you had to unite silos across 17 different state agencies! That's right, when your customers are the employees within a group of government agency partners, you've got a lot of work cut out for you. And today, we'll hear from William Chumley, the Chief Customer Officer for the Governor’s Office of Information Technology for the state of Colorado, who has been uniting leaders, the C-Suite, and silos across 17 executive branch agencies, in efforts to improve IT functions and streamline CX for these agencies that serve the citizens of Colorado. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb112

“I see leadership as a deeply human endeavor,” says Alain Hunkins, speaker, leader, and author of the new book, Cracking the Leadership Code: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders. In today’s episode with Alain Hunkins, we discuss some of the easy-to-understand and implement concepts in his book and how great leadership is really at the core of customer experience. We’ll explore his three concepts of connection, communication, and collaboration, which work in tandem to cultivate a united view of the life of customers and employees. 

"Our customers' lives and our lives are made up of moments," says Dan Heath, co-author of The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact in today's episode. Do you think about how you can create remarkable moments for your customers? Dan and I talk about what a power moment is, the recipe for creating one, and how these experiences affect us in our personal and business lives. Get more information and show notes at customerbliss.com/cb91.

I’m so pleased to share this conversation that I had with Horst Schulze, Founder, Chairman & CEO of the Capella Hotel Group, and Co-founder & Former COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and author of Excellence Wins.

Horst and I discuss the steps leaders can take during this pandemic to help ensure that their businesses survive. We also explore the ways these actions can spread optimism and hope throughout their organization while retaining employees and showcasing humanity. This is a great conversation with some extremely timely advice you can use to help you navigate as a leader who moves with purpose.

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Parrish Arturi. Parrish is the SVP of Retail Service and Experience Delivery at Fidelity Investments. He's a visionary leader in our space, and here we talk a lot about building customer experience across the business. That's a key area that many new and emergent CCOs struggle with -- they know they 'own' their silo, but they need to embed their silo and the overall idea of customer experience across the business. How can you do that? Parrish offers a couple of distinct ideas in this episode.

In this episode, Aurelia Pollet, the Vice President of Customer Experience at Exemplis, tells us about the company's impressive culture, and how she's been supported in her role to lead the company's CX into the future. Exemplis is a B2B2C, which makes custom chairs and lounges for offices. 

Aurelia shares different approaches and strategies that she implemented in order to improve processes and better understand their customers (the furniture dealers), and ultimately, the end consumer.

In this conversation with Leslie Stretch, CEO of Medallia, Leslie and I chat about what he's been seeing from his conversations with hundreds of CEOs. Now that we've had to rapidly adjust to a new way of life, technology is helping us reshape the world and the future. As Leslie said, “it’s digital disruption at massive scale,” and this disruption has an impact on customer experience. It affects how we interact with customers and clients, how we communicate with them, and how we can gather feedback.

In this replay episode, we revisit a conversation with Yamini Rangan, Hubspot's first CCO and a 24-year industry vet, who shares how the company improved their customer and employee experience by becoming internally unified. She also talks about how the company adjusted during the pandemic while continuing to put the customer first. 

I'm closing out the year by replaying some of my most popular episodes from 2018. Today's episode, which many of you seemed to enjoy, features Amanda Sachs, General Manager, Customer & Partner Experience at Microsoft.

This is such a multi-faceted interview because CX for Microsoft involves numerous partners and employees that span the world, so not only do we discuss CX at a local level, but we talk about how to make an impact with teams that operate in different cultures and speak different languages.

“We are seeing less of a reliance on cold metrics and more on the people,” says Chip R. Bell, regarding the shift in leadership behaviors since the pandemic. In my recent interview with Chip on LinkedIn, we discussed his 5 main tenets to approaching customer service in his latest book, “Inside Your Customer’s Imagination: 5 Secrets for Creating Breakthrough Products, Services, and Solutions.” The five attributes that keep coming up are: curiosity, grounding, discovery, trust, and passion.

In this episode, Rob Markey, leader of customer strategy and marketing practice at Bain & Company and co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0, How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World chats with me about the evolution of both customer experience as a holistic experience and of the chief experience officer and chief customer officer roles over the past few decades. Additionally, we chat about what we look forward to seeing in the future of CX and the work that can still be done to improve organizational transformations. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb112.

On this episode of Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show, I chat with Ross Garretson, Vice President of Customer Experience at Hunter Douglas North America, about how he builds out both the business to business and business to consumer experience for the worldwide leader in custom window treatments and architectural products.

Mark Weinstein is the Senior Vice President of Customer Engagement, Loyalty and Partnerships for Hilton Worldwide. Like many customer experience executives, he searched for a career path that matched his skills and passion for helping customers comprehensively across the business. We discussed his multiple roles at Hilton International, which I found most interesting.  He began with running Hilton Honors, which gave him a footing operationally in delivery of value for the organization.

There is as much confusion about just exactly “Customer Success” is as “Customer Experience.”  In this fascinating conversation with Jose Vergara, Chief Customer Officer of MkKesson Medical Imaging, he debunks not only his role but the actions that define a successful customer success driven transformation and movement. 

In this conversation, Christopher McShane, the senior vice president of customer experience at Serta Simmons Bedding chats with me about how he helped his team understand weak points in their operations. We spoke about a 90-Day plan he implented and how to develop a plan to improve both the employee and customer experience.

In today’s episode, I chat with Thales Teixeira, a Lumry Family Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School. Thales has been in this position for about nine and a half years and teaches in the marketing unit. He shares that over the past few years, he’s taught intro to marketing, digital marketing strategy, and E-commerce to his MBA students. Additionally, Thales works with business executives, teaching them about digital disruption and transformation—which is what we’ll be touching on today.

Jim and I have crossed paths over the years like many of us in this space.  We are a community. We share fearlessly with each other… which is what this podcast is all about.

In the past year, Jim took on a role of a much bigger community which I am (yes I’m that old!) am also a part of: AARP.  AARP is the world's largest membership organization- with 38 million members.  

So I was keen to chat with Jim to let you all know about his background and the work he’s doing now.

In our session, Natalie Schneider, Vice President of Customer Experience at Anthem, Inc. describes the transformation she is leading for one of the largest national healthcare providers.  From assessing the many operations and variations of service to uniting the C-Suite and CEO focus, Natalie walks through her detailed plan with practical advice on how to ensure the work from getting too big, and ensuring the work goes on.

If you're leading CX work within an organization, one of the keys to success is to listen to others. Whether you've been doing this work for years or are just starting, listening and gaining feedback has to be an ongoing part of the process. The CX leaders who have been guests on my podcast, always stress the importance of maintaining relationships with internal and external stakeholders in order to advance the work. In today's podcast episode, you'll hear from six customer experience leaders in the B2B industry who share advice about the things they know now, that they wish they knew before they started their work. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb96

Chris Kollas is the Chief Customer Officer at TCS World Travel. TCS World Travel is a unique company that has hosted guests on all-inclusive, private jet adventures for over 25 years. Chris and I chat about how he and his team of roughly 100 employees focus on the customer, the integration of marketing and sales, and how they maintained connections with their customers during the pandemic––a time which was incredibly rough on the travel industry. 

Today’s compilation features excerpts from two interviews: Christopher McShane, SVP of customer experience at Serta Simmons Bedding, and Jon Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting. Both my guests speak on the importance of establishing an internal system to improve employee and customer experience. These are two great conversations which dig deeply into the processes and cultural considerations needed to truly change your organization's approach to driving experiences worth having. Enjoy!

I had the pleasure of speaking with neuroscientist, professor, speaker, author, and cofounder of Immersion Neuroscience, Dr. Paul Zak. Give this episode a listen for invaluable wisdom on deepening your customer connections, generating long-term customer value, optimizing employee performance through immersive training, and much, much more.

Media is a business vertical that is beginning to engage Customer Experience Leaders.  The New York Times has a leader of Customer Experience (who we will soon be interviewing), and I was pleased to see that the UK is also embracing this role.

Robert Bridge is the Chief Customer Officer of Telegraph Media Company.  A role which he came to after many years building up to this role from digital roles across multiple industries, including Yahoo.

We discussed the importance of clarifying what the role means and how Robert was a part of defining his role and responsibilities and how his role got expanded as part of the interviewing process.

Robert, like many emerging CCO’s runs many parts of the customer experience, in addition to leading business transformation efforts

Rhonda Basler and I discuss how Hallmark Business Connections is helping companies build bonds with their customers - by extending their products and services.  A very intriguing dimension of a company we all know so well - you’ll be intrigued to hear how customer experience is a key part of how they help companies grow.

This is Donna Peeple’s second time in the Chief Customer Officer role, having held the role previously at AIG.  Her role now as CCO at Pypestream is with a much smaller company, in start up mode...but according to Donnna the path for her is the same, regardless of the size of the company.   The only variables she says are the scale of the work, and the legacy and culture of a larger established company that often makes the work more challenging to navigate.

Peloton is a mission based company that deliberately crafted every element of its experience, from the build of the bike to its delivery, usage and even helping people move their bike from one home to another.  Our conversation charts Brad’s path from consultant to Bain, to Starwood hotels and his groundbreaking work at Peloton.

How do you define patience experience in a hospital? Alan Dubovsky, Chief Patient Experience Officer at Cedars-Sinai, talks about how he defined his new role at the hospital and how he's been able to lead a patient experience transformation. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb92

Dr. Adrienne Boissy, a neurologist and the leader of the patient, care giver and family experience at Cleveland Clinic and I share the path to embedding experience into a healthcare organization. We chat about what it takes to sustain the philosophy, mindset, and operational priorities to keep this work going. We also discuss how the left brain / right brain skillset helps her succeed in this role. Find more information and show notes at customerbliss.com/cb88

Rachael walks us through her path to provide Cisco with the foundational information that created insights around Cisco’s customer base, and how she is building capabilities inside the organization to value customers, show impact, and focus on their priorities. Her work is connecting directly to Cisco’s “The Network Intuitive”