The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin (Mark Slatin | The Agile Brand)

The Science of Sticky Ideas: Crafting Memorable CX Strategies

We revealed some powerful insights from "Made to Stick" by Chip and Dan Heath on my latest podcast episode with Megan Burns! We explored why some ideas thrive while others fade away, and how leaders can apply these principles to make a lasting impact.

From the death of traditional buttered “movie theater popcorn” to flip the pyramid when making your point, this episode is loaded with practical insights to help you tell stories that stick.

In this episode:

👉 How can transitioning from a "know it all" culture to a "learned all" culture foster genuine curiosity and continuous learning in your organization?

👉 What role does emotion play in B2B decision-making, and how can recognizing and incorporating it lead to more effective solutions?

👉 How can storytelling and envisioning future scenarios help in making more informed and impactful business decisions?

👉 What strategies can make your ideas sticky, memorable, and easily communicable within your team and to your stakeholders?

Tune in to gain insights from Megan Burns as she shares her expertise and experience! 📈✨

Megan Burns is a customer experience strategist, author, and keynote speaker who partners with Fortune 500 companies to build world-class customer experience programs.  

A world-renowned expert in CX transformation, Megan led ground-breaking research as a Vice President at Forrester for more than a decade. The architect of two of the most well-known CX frameworks—the Customer Experience Index and the Outside In Maturity Model—Megan’s insights have been featured in books like “The Power of Moments” by Chip and Dan Heath and dozens of publications like The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, AdAge, and CNBC.  

Megan has helped hundreds of corporate executives at companies like Microsoft, Workday, Akamai, FedEx, Verizon, and AT&T use CX to stay competitive, build loyalty, and accelerate growth in a customer-obsessed world. Her portfolio spans dozens of industries including B2B tech, financial services, healthcare, travel, logistics, manufacturing - even farming!  

Her wit and wisdom make Megan a popular speaker at events like the Wall Street Journal’s Experience Management Forum, CXPA Leaders Advance, the Chief Experience Officer Summit, and the Qualtrics X4 Summit. As a CX pioneer, she is regularly invited to judge industry awards like the CXPA Innovation Awards and World Customer Centricity Awards and to appear on popular podcasts like Voices of CX and CX Luminaries. After interviewing Megan, one host said: “I’ve never seen anyone with customer experience so deeply in their blood.”

Resources The Delighted Customers podcast website:https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/ Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/ The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Ania Rodriguez was trained as an engineer.  She is Founder and CEO of JourneyTrack and a self-made entrepreneur. Ania's insights into modernizing journey mapping and reducing customer churn offer groundbreaking, actionable strategies for any organization interested in elevating customer experiences.

Ania shares how journey mapping has evolved into a powerful tool for leaders to drive business outcomes:

• Discover how Ania Rodriguez transformed the CX landscape by moving from outdated manual methods to efficient journey management and how this shift can significantly reduce customer churn.
• Learn about the surprising, low-cost quick wins Ania shares that can immediately improve customer retention and satisfaction.
• Get inspired by Ania’s insightful analogy comparing journey mapping to creating a movie and how it changes your perspective on customer experience....and so many more gems!

We welcome Ania and her team at JourneyTrack as new sponsors of The Delighted Customers Podcast!  

Meet Ania:

Ania is a self-made entrepreneur who has made a name for herself, serving as a CX/UX advisor to Fortune 500 companies around the world for over two decades. Known for her focus on actionable results and quality, 

Ania’s leadership has resulted in double-digit growth for her first company, Key Lime Interactive, over the past decade. The company has emerged to become one of the leading user experience research firms in the United States. Her work as a CX/UX strategist and researcher demonstrated to her the need for a platform that could take her journey mapping vision to the next level. JourneyTrack is the tool that meets that vision.

The race to digital transformation was accelerated by the pandemic. Many organizations have invested time and money and have little to show for it. Jaya Sudarshan shares the secret to blending the right combination of digital improvements to an improved customer experience.

She also emphasizes the importance of designing experiences with an awareness of different country cultures. From the difference in dust levels, electricity portals, and personal applications, she shares how experience design plays out at HP.

Jaya also shares her mountaintop moments and pothole realities that help appreciate the journey of delivering outstanding experiences consistently.

Meet Jaya

Jaya currently leads customer experience initiatives for the CS F&C organization across Greater Asia and India. She has been with the HP family (HP/HPE/HPI) throughout her 18 year old career.

She serves as a Board member for the Global Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) - a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and cultivation of the Customer Experience profession. A passionate Inclusion & Diversity advocate, she has holds office as the communication chair for the global CS F&C DEI council. As a certified #IamRemarkable facilitator, she furthers her volunteering efforts towards building a better, inclusive world. During her free time she enjoys travel, food and books!

Jaya can be reached by email at jayalakshmi.sudarshan@hp.com .

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

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Greg Kihlstrom is a speaker, author, advisor, and strategy expert.

With a background in digital marketing, Greg brings experience from that background along with his experience in the customer experience world to help companies up their game.

Some of the gems Greg shares:

• Understanding intrinsic and extrinsic motivators to unlock discretionary employee effort
• Why everyone must have a line of sight to the customer
• 4 qualifiers for meaningful measurement

…and a whole lot more.

Meet Greg

 Greg Kihlström is a best-selling author, speaker, and entrepreneur, currently an advisor and consultant to top companies on marketing technology, customer experience, and digital transformation initiatives as Principal and Chief Strategist at GK5A. He is also the host of The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström podcast. He is a two-time CEO and Co-Founder, growing both companies organically and through acquisitions, and ultimately leading both to be acquired (one in 2017, and the other in 2021). He has worked with some of the world’s top brands, including Adidas, Choice Hotels, Coca-Cola, Dell, FedEx, HP, Marriott, MTV, Starbucks, Toyota, and VMware. 

He earned his MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology and is a member of the School of Marketing Faculty at the Association of National Advertisers. He currently serves on the University of Richmond’s Customer Experience Advisory Board and the Workhouse Arts Foundation Board as Chair of the Marketing Committee. Greg was the founding Chair of the American Advertising Federation’s National Innovation Committee and served on the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business Marketing Mentorship Advisory Board. Greg is Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certified, is an Agile Certified Coach (ICP-ACC), and holds a certification in Business Agility (ICP-BAF). 

Greg has had multiple best-selling books, including his Agile Brand Guides series on marketing technology platforms and practices. His eleventh and most recent book, House of the Customer (2023) discusses the 1:1 personalized customer experience of the future, and how brands can organize the people, processes, and platforms that enable it. Meaningful Measurement of the Customer Experience (2022), provides guidance on how to create a customer-centric culture that prioritizes customer needs while aligning internal teams around a common goal. His award-winning podcast, The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström, launched in early 2019, discusses brand strategy, marketing, and customer experience with some of the world’s leading experts and leaders.

Greg is a contributing writer to Fast Company, Forbes, MarTech, and CMSWire, and has been featured in publications such as Advertising Age and The Washington Post. Greg has been named a 2022 Top 10 Marketing and Customer Experience Thought Leader by Thinkers 360, was named one of ICMI’s Top 25 CX Thought Leaders two years in a row, and a DC Inno 50 on Fire as a DC trendsetter in Marketing. 

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A Five Step Model to Earn Customer Loyalty with Mark Slatin

I’ve interviewed some of the legends in customer experience on The Delighted Customers Podcast but this episode will be a twist!

In this episode, Patty Soltis, CCXP, and a leader of Patient Experience at The Moffitt Cancer Center, turns the tables and interviews ME! 

It was fun to be on the other side of the table and share why CX is the growth engine for businesses.

In this episode:

• What does it mean to empower my clients?
• Why consistency is so important for business results like referrals, retention, and cost reduction
• The often underestimated cost of customer friction (and how to reduce/eliminate it)
• The 5 Step Model I take to empower my clients and my “why” for serving them

Meet Mark

Above all else, I'm passionate about customer experience because I've learned that when we serve others well, we positively impact their lives and make the world a better place in the process.

I help clients by listening to them and really understanding their goals, vision, and challenges. Whether you are just launching or ready to take the journey to the next level, I leverage my "real world" experience that only comes from serving as a CX practitioner in the financial services industry.

​

My focus for the last decade has been leading an award-winning CX journey from launch to maturity at Sandy Spring Bank . During that time, the Bank received numerous awards including The CX Innovation Award (2X), Great Places to Work, Forbes America's Best Bank, and American Banker Best Bank to Work For, The Washington Post Top Workplace, among others.

​

I currently serve on the Board of Directors of the Customer Experience Professionals Association and Chair the Higher Education Subcommittee. I designed and taught a Customer Experience Management Course in Loyola University's MBA program where I held an adjunct professor position. I have served as a judge for the CX of M Awards, and have been featured in the book Chief Customer Officer 2.0 and Customer Experience Magazine.

I have been a guest on numerous industry webinars and podcasts and have been a featured speaker and panelist. Prior to my CX leadership role, I served as a management consultant for companies in a variety of industries dramatically improving their business results. I helped them craft their vision, mission, and core values in addition to designing their revenue growth strategies.I spent the first two decades of my career in sales management working for Fortune 500 companies like Boise Cascade and Standard Register. I hold a BS in Marketing from the University of Maryland, and an MBA from Loyola University Maryland.

When I'm not working, you might find me enjoying time with my kids and grandkids, tinkering with home projects, and chasing a little white ball around. 

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Michael shares his impressive career journey that spans over 20 years in customer-facing roles, from the banking sector to an energy startup, and his impactful time as the SVP of Customer Experience at Figs, a notable direct-to-consumer e-commerce company specializing in medical apparel.

Michael shares the impressive story behind Figs—a company founded by two women who revolutionized the medical apparel industry and took the business public on the NYSE, all while growing to a $500 million enterprise paralleling athleisure brands like Lululemon.

We discuss the necessity for CX to be a unique differentiator in competitive markets, emphasizing the value of a superior customer experience in driving retention, referrals, and overall business growth. The discussion also touches on strategic planning for 2025, with a focus on justifying investments in technology and human resources in CX.

Michael offers practical advice on managing customer expectations, delivering consistent service, and creating memorable interactions through low-cost "surprise and delight" programs. He also dives into the challenges of subscription-based models and stresses the importance of educational opportunities for customer retention.

Listeners will also appreciate Michael’s personal anecdotes and wisdom, including financial strategies and life perspectives.

Tune in to this episode for a blend of professional expertise, actionable insights, and personal reflections that can help elevate your approach to customer experience and business growth.

Meet Michael:

Michael is a customer experience executive who cares deeply about wowing customers, exceeding goals, and developing future leaders. He is the Founder of Bair Consulting. He helps e-commerce and SaaS founders build customer experiences they are proud of and their customers love. Before starting his consultancy, he worked at diverse organizations from startups to Fortune 50 companies, including B2B SaaS, B2C subscription, and DTC e-commerce. He has been a senior leader on 3 exits including a 2021 IPO. He has managed customer success, inside sales, customer support/service, and quality assurance teams. He has built teams from scratch to 100-plus people. He loves leading organizations with a customer-centric mentality and has been consistently recognized as a leader of people, culture, and values.

'Duh' was a common phase when I was an adolescent.  Kids used it in a not-so-nice way to let the other person know that what they were stating was obvious. 

In all of my years in customer experience management, it never occurred to me to consider the impact of partnerships on CX.

If you think about it, it's a 'duh.'

On today's show, I'm excited to introduce Theresa Caragol, who has authored  Partnering Success: The Force Multiplier to Achieve Exponential Growth.

Theresa shares powerful insights on how to move beyond “random acts of partnering” and build intentional strategies that drive meaningful business outcomes.

We explore Achieve Unite’s three-part framework—talent development, ecosystem strategy, and profitable growth programs—and its role in fostering successful partnerships.

Other key topics include:

• Why strategic partnerships are essential to delivering exceptional customer experiences.
• Common misconceptions leaders have about partnerships and how to uncover gaps in their strategies.
• The concept of “partner lifetime value” versus “customer lifetime value” and the unique benefits of prioritizing it.

Tune in to learn how to create partnerships that not only fuel growth but also elevate your customer experience to the next level!

Show Notes:

• 2025 Partnering Trends: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2025-partnering-success-trends-theresa-caragol-bc7mf/?trackingId=O%2F4Y2pViSJa%2BFsYtopOTpw%3D%3D
• Link to what we would tell our younger selves: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/letter-our-younger-selves-theresa-caragol-czzoe/?trackingId=01m35CVRRhuwhlMSwAbtyQ%3D%3D
• All the partnering success monthly editions https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6932307608557010944/
• Partnering Success book for order: https://theresacaragol.com/partnering-success-book/
• Press release Partnering success book: https://www.einpresswire.com/article/739586771/theresa-caragol-s-new-book-shows-how-strategic-partnerships-drive-today-s-business-success

Meet Theresa

Theresa Caragol is the Founder and CEO of AchieveUnite Inc. A visionary leader with over 20 years of experience in global partnerships and strategic alliances valued at $500M+. She has driven business growth across 50+ countries through innovative collaboration. Theresa is passionate about empowering leaders through growth, trust, and collaboration.
With expertise in leadership development, emotional intelligence, and partnerships, Theresa has trained thousands in leadership, channel, and partnering best practices. She also designs programs for companies, associations, and universities.

A sought-after speaker and author of Partnering Success: The Force Multiplier to Achieve Exponential Growth (Amazon #1 New Release and best seller in 20+ categories), Theresa has held executive roles at Extreme Networks, Ciena, and Nortel. She holds an MBA, an Executive Master’s in Leadership, and an executive coaching certification.

Sami Nuwar got his start as a researcher and evolved to a CX leader at Verizon before shifting to Medallia, a VoC software company that designs solutions for businesses. 

It won’t take you long to recognize the depth of Sami’s wisdom.

With all the talk about AI and machine learning, Sami talks about a very straightforward approach to using data to drive customer loyalty. 

In this episode we discuss:

• The rational and emotional sides of data
• Why loyalty overall has dropped and how data can reverse the trend
• How AI can be used to scale up customer data in a few clicks
• Why you should never rely on one metric

Meet Sami

Prior to joining Medallia, Sami led experience management programs in global B2B environments, with a diverse background that includes large telecom service & consumer goods manufacturing.

With a deep background in insights, process improvement, and governance, Sami has helped drive customer-centric transformational shifts, aligning execution toward desired experience outcomes.

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Do you remember the shock ending of The Sixth Sense? The film taps into that mysterious sixth sense—something beyond our usual perception.

Similarly, in the world of taste, umami goes beyond salty, sweet, bitter, and sour to create a richer, more memorable experience. But what if businesses could apply this concept to customer experience?

In this episode, Aga Szóstek, PhD—author, CX leader, and design expert—shares a powerful framework that parallels umami, helping brands forge deeper emotional connections, stand out in the market, and drive lasting loyalty. Drawing from her work with companies like Google and Philips Lighting, Aga delivers invaluable insights, including:

•  How to avoid the "syndrome of averaging out" and create a truly differentiated experience
• The core principles of an Umami Strategy that enhances emotional connection and loyalty
• How pragmatic values and emotional engagement work together to build lasting customer relationships

This conversation is packed with actionable wisdom you won’t want to miss!

🎧 Subscribe to The Delighted Customers Podcast for more expert insights. 

Show Notes:
📖 The Umami Strategy: Stand Out by Mixing Business with Experience Design
📖 Leadership by Design: The Essential Guide to Transforming You as a Leader
🌐 www.catchingthenextwavepodcast.com
🌐 www.agaszostek.com
📖 Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon

MEET Aga!

Aga Szóstek, PhD is the author of "The Umami Strategy" and "Leadership by Design" and an expert in strategy and leadership.

Over the last two decades she has worked with leading companies combining design, technology and business. She has worked with brands such as Google, Philips, Samsung, Play, Allegro, EY, Santander, ING, Orange and many more, bringing a strategic experience design approach to design teams and boards.

Aga also supports her clients in leadership development based on key leadership challenges anchored in their organisational culture. She offers unique leadership programmes delivered in the form of an unforgettable experience.

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• Website: https://www.delightedcustomers.com
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-delighted-customers-podcast-with-mark-slatin/id1635863804
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/67hea1Hnu0fFjMA6ZSKTkX

Keith Ferguson brings his wealth of experience as an entrepreneur along with his career in academia (MSU and FSU) to share his wisdom on customer advocacy. Keith defines customer advocacy and then we talk about the financial impact of having customers who truly advocate for your brand. Keith shares some common mistakes about consumer behavior through a visualization of the customer lifecycle and provides 3 actionable steps leaders can take to create more advocates for their business.

Resources

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Today I talked to Bruce Temkin, speaker, thought leader, and a customer experience legend.

Bruce co-founded the Customer Experience Professionals Association in 2011 and currently serves as the Head of the XM Institute.

Bruce shared his thoughts on some important topics that can help empower your customer experience efforts:

• Bruce’s transition from submarine engineer to CRM researcher at Forrester and the early days of the customer experience movement.
• A true story of Bruce enlightening two Australian retail executives on why CX is a must despite their current success.
• The ROI of CX explained philosophically and pragrmatically-
• Common pitfalls of CX leaders
• Demystifying this relatively new term: Human Experience

Meet Bruce

Bruce Temkin is an Experience Management (XM) visionary and is often referred to as the “Godfather of Customer Experience.” He leads the Qualtrics XM Institute, which provides thought leadership and training to help organizations around the world master XM and is also building a global community of XM professionals who are radically changing the human experience. Prior to Qualtrics, Bruce led Temkin Group, which provided research, advisory, and training that helped many of the world’s leading brands build customer loyalty by engaging the hearts and minds of their customers, employees, and partners. He is also the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Prior to Temkin Group, Bruce spent 12 years with Forrester Research during which time he led the company's B2B, financial services, eBusiness, and customer experience practices and was the most-read analyst for 13 consecutive quarters. Bruce has a mechanical engineering degree from Union College and a master’s in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Qualtics XM Institute

https://www.xminstitute.com/team/bruce-temkin/

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I caught up with Brittany Knox at MSU’s CXM 360 Conference. Brittany is a graduate student in MSU’s Masters of Science in Customer Experience Management. She’s also a Project Consultant at BCBS of Michigan.

In this episode, she shares:

• The benefits of walking in the shoes of the employee who is serving BCBS members

• The importance of looking at customer pain points holistically to determine root causes

• Why she was led to background enroll in the MSU CXM program although she was a researcher at Johns Hopkins

Brittany Knox

Brittany Knox is a Michigan State University graduate student in the inaugural cohort for the Customer Experience Management program; however, she is not a novice in the CX field. 

For the past six years, she has been obsessed with the customers of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. As a consultant, her primary focus is tracking and reporting key initiatives that make a significant impact on the customer experience. Prior to that, she coordinated research studies in asthma, ovarian cancer, and autism. 

Brittany is passionate about helping minority owned businesses deliver on their brand’s promise. 

Through CX, she’s able to tap into her superpower -- connecting with the customer through empathy and building an employee culture that supports the company’s customer experience goals. 

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

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The Do’s and Don’t of an Impactful Customer Experience Discipline with Bob Azman 

Bob is a CX veteran. 

He’s been around long enough to know what works and what doesn’t. 

In this episode he helps you accelerate the path to delighting customers as we discuss:

• His mountaintops and potholes
• The difference between behavioral vs. skill training
• The importance of a strategic envelope around technology
• Where corporate social responsibility intersects CX

Meet Bob

Bob Azman is the Chief Customer Service Officer and Consultant for Innovative CX Solutions, LLC. Innovative CX Solutions is a Customer Experience Consulting firm specializing in CX Design and Execution, Sales and Service Experience Design and Talent Development. As a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Bob is a thought leader, practitioner, podcaster, educator, and business partner helping organizations become more customer focused and easy to do business with. Bob is an Emeritus Chair of the Board of the Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA.org). 

He is the former Vice President, Traveler Experience, Americas and Global responsible for all customer operations in Canada, the United States and Latin America as well as global sites located in Poland, Manila, Bogota, and Costa Rica as well as related experience in India and Australia. In this role, Bob transformed the customer experience for clients and travelers of Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Prior to joining CWT, Bob was Chief Experience Officer, at Avtex Consulting Solutions, LLC. In that role, he consulted with companies in a variety of industries on developing and implementing strategies to improve their overall customer experience and service operations. Bob also brings a wealth of diverse, general operations and business background as an executive at large corporations such as Thomson Reuters, Ceridian, and Deluxe Corporation. 

Bob earned both his MBA and bachelor’s degrees from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. He is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management’s Supply Chain and Operations department and at the Rutgers University School of Business Executive Education programs.

He is a frequent speaker on developing effective customer experience and service strategies at industry forums and conferences where he receives top ratings on his interactive approach and unique ability to combine academic principles with real life experiences. 

Email: bob@innovativecx.com

Website: www.innovativecx.com

Podcast: https://linktr.ee/AllThingsConsideredCX

Twitter: @innovatve_cx

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Customer Experience Management takes on an entirely different context when you or a loved one gets a cancer diagnosis. As you'll hear from my guest on this episode, the healthcare system is broken in many ways. UNC is starting with a better way to listen.

Loretta Muss, coordinator of the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) at the North Carolina Basnight Cancer Hospital, recently retired after advocating for patients, families, hospital staff and administration for the past 14 years.

Muss started in her role with the PFAC in 2009 with the hope of strengthening the relationship between patients, caregivers and their cancer care teams.

On this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast, Loretta talks about some of the realities stressing our healthcare system and the impact on patients. She shares the immensely successful PFAC she launched for UNC's Cancer Hospital and we talk about how the model can be used to help businesses inside and outside of healthcare.

Here are three pivotal questions she answered, which we believe can reshape how we view healthcare:

1. How can caregivers' inclusion in advisory councils transform patient care?

Caregivers play a crucial role in the patient journey, often providing the most consistent care. Understanding their perspectives can lead to more holistic and effective healthcare solutions.

1. What strategies can be employed to prevent burnout among healthcare providers while maintaining high standards of compassionate care?

Burnout is a critical issue affecting healthcare providers worldwide. Addressing it is essential to ensure that providers can continue delivering the high-quality, compassionate care that patients need.

1. In what ways can personalized patient interactions improve overall healthcare outcomes?

Personalization in healthcare can bridge the gap between clinical efficiency and patient satisfaction. Exploring this can lead to better health outcomes and a more humane healthcare experience.

Curious about Loretta's insightful answers? Tune in to our latest podcast episode and discover how these questions and their answers can drive significant improvements in the healthcare sector. 

On the latest episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast, Roxie Strohmenger, CCXP, an acclaimed CX strategist and Board Chair-Elect of CXPA, shares valuable insights on the power of data in customer experience. Roxie has shaped industry standards, from co-defining Forrester's CX Index to leading award-winning CX initiatives at UKG, and is now a principal strategist at Heart of the Customer.

In this episode, Roxie introduces the “web of data,” a groundbreaking concept for accessing and integrating diverse data sources to accelerate decision-making. She explains how CX leaders can leverage this approach to give executives real-time, actionable insights supporting strategic business goals.

Roxie also examines the repercussions of limited data access, which often results in CX being seen as a cost center rather than a strategic partner. She offers practical strategies for CX professionals to foster collaboration with IT and data teams and overcome technical and regulatory barriers to streamline data integration.

Finally, Roxie highlights the importance of aligning CX metrics with key operational and financial metrics. This alignment helps CX professionals communicate their value effectively to executives, fostering buy-in and elevating CX as a strategic asset.

• Listen in to discover actionable strategies to navigate data challenges and make a compelling case for CX at the executive level!

Meet Roxie

Roxie Strohmenger is an innovative, determined, and passionate award-winning CX Change Maker who believes great things don't happen in your comfort zone. With over 20+ years of experience, Roxie has a passion for designing and executing innovative CX transformation initiatives that are linked to operational metrics and financials to create differentiated, high-quality emotion-focused experiences that create, sustain, and expand customer loyalty. Roxie is currently a Principal Strategist at Heart of the Customer partnering with CX Leaders to deliver solid ROI and also serves as the Vice Chair on the board of directors for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). Her expertise has also been featured in podcasts, webinars, and in the book, “Do B2B Better: Drive Growth through Game-Changing Customer Experience."

Cyndi Lyon is the VP of Customer Experience and Strategy at Otava. She's a Certified Customer Experience Professional and earned her Master of Science in Customer Experience Management from Michigan State University. In this episode, she broke down some of the key barriers that get in the way of building a successful customer experience management practice and offered some actionable ways to overcome them.

In this episode Cyndi answered these questions and more:

• Do You Have a Clear Vision and Plan for Your Organization? Cyndi underscores the importance of having a clear roadmap for your organization’s future. It’s not just about the big picture—breaking it down into manageable, actionable steps that employees and stakeholders can understand and support is crucial for long-term success.
• Are You Iterating and Celebrating Small Wins? Cyndi believes that even the best plans will fall short without iteration. Starting small and making adjustments along the way allows for steady progress. By breaking long-term strategies into smaller, achievable milestones, you not only keep teams engaged but also create momentum by celebrating each victory.
• Is Your Approach Employee- and Data-Centric? Cyndi highlights the power of linking CX metrics to business data and effectively communicating these insights to stakeholders. She emphasizes the importance of understanding who owns the data and engaging champions within the organization to propel the CX strategy forward.

Meet Cyndi!

CYNDI LYON, CCXP

With nearly 30 years of industry experience, Cyndi Lyon is a trailblazer in the realm of customer

experience (CX). As the Vice President of Customer Experience Strategy at OTAVA, she is

leading a transformative shift towards a customer-centric model, ensuring that the customer is

always at the heart of every strategy through relentless focus on continuous improvement and

operational excellence.

Cyndi's dedication to CX is unparalleled. Recently, she earned her Master’s in Customer

Experience Management from Michigan State University, marking her as a pioneer in this

evolving field. Her expertise spans creating exceptional customer experiences, operationalizing

CX strategies, drive continuous improvement and fostering a customer-centric culture that

permeates every aspect of business operations. For Cyndi, the cornerstone of every successful

business is a deep understanding and genuine appreciation of the customer.

Cyndi's career spans product management, technology operations, professional services,

marketing, and more. This breadth of experience fuels her passion for delivering top-notch

customer experiences. Her drive for enriching product and service delivery is realized through

innovation, collaboration, process improvement, and organizational development.

Since joining OTAVA in 2018, Cyndi has built a legacy of success, leading the company’s

product, marketing, and business strategy, and heading the operations team to streamline

processes and systems. Her ability to build and inspire teams, coupled with her strategic

foresight, has been instrumental in OTAVA’s growth and customer satisfaction.

Outside of her professional life, Cyndi is a proud wife and mother of two teenage daughters. She

holds the prestigious CCXP certification and enjoys regularly participating in half marathons and

spending quality time with her family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Transforming Workplace Culture Through Employee Experience

Dr. James Killian is an expert in the field of employee experience. He has held high-impact global leadership positions at Qualtrics, SAP, IBM, Hogan Assessment Systems, and led several startups to record growth, and he’s a professor in the Masters of Science CXM program at Michigan State University.  

From exploring the significance of breaking down organizational silos to hiring a chief experience officer, we'll discuss how these strategies can uplift your team's experience and ultimately benefit the customer. 

Our conversation also examines the pitfalls of disengaged leadership and the misconceptions CEOs often have about the value of HR and employee programs.

Dr. Killian and I will share personal stories, including an eye-opening experience at Starbucks, highlighting the direct link between employee satisfaction and a brand's reputation. 

Lastly, we'll tackle the challenges organizations face, from supply chain issues to tech problems and ineffective engagement surveys, and offer actionable advice for leaders navigating these turbulent waters.

James Killian, Ph.D. is Managing Director of Growth & Innovation at HSD Metrics, leading the category creation of Employee Experience Process Outsourcing (EXPO). He previously held high-impact global leadership positions at Qualtrics, SAP, IBM, Hogan Assessment Systems and led several startups to record growth. In his role as an employee experience leader, Killian consults with highly complex global customers to help them navigate candidate attraction, employee retention, the criticality of technology in the future of work and collaboration, the importance of addressing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at work and other drivers of employee engagement and experience. He is also a pioneer in "CrossXM" helping organizations successfully connect their EX and CX programs to make better data-driven business decisions.

Dr. Killian is also a professor in the Master of Science in Customer Experience Management (MS-CXM) program in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, and the author of over 50 published articles, conference presentations, and book chapters on the topics of leadership, assessment, employee engagement, and employee experience. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a serious fitness fanatic, foodie, and outdoor enthusiast.

Resources The Delighted Customers podcast website:https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/ Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/ The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

The Role of Perception and Expectations in Customer Experience

This episode is definitely different!

Gary David, PhD, is a professor of sociology and a conversational analyst. 

On this episode:

• What his dissertation research at an immigrant-owned liquor store in downtown Detroit taught him about making emotional connections despite contentious social constructs
• We take a look at the role expectations play in the customer experience and how those expectations are not just formed by a customer’s experience with your brand.
• We look at “the collective,” how our experience gets shaped differently when we experience things with others. 
• We consider Gartner’s definition of customer experience that underscores the importance perceptions and feelings play in CX. Gary has a slightly different spin on that.

A fascinating episode that will definitely provide some new learnings.

Meet Gary

Gary David is a Professor of Sociology and Experience Design at Bentley University. He also is a professional speaker and consultant focusing on creating workplace communities and connected environments, DEI & Belonging, and experience design and alignment. He is co-host of Experience by Design podcast, where he and co-host Adam Gamwell “explore experience designs of all kinds.” He also livestreams on Twitch as “ProfessorEXP”, where he leads discussions on current events, culture, business, digital entertainment, and design.

https://www.experiencexdesign.com/episodes

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

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Dr. Judy Wolfe, who still practices as an ER doctor, talks about the transformative power of patient experience in healthcare. We dive into the critical role of trust, and how reimagining job titles and communication training can revolutionize caregiver-patient interactions. Dr. Judy highlights the urgency of embracing change management and the dire consequences of stagnation in patient care. Dr. Judy prescribes helpful tips from "shift hacks" to loyalty driver tips to "teach backs." Tons of gems in this episode from one the top medical care facilities in the world.

Resources

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Jon shares gems from his new book: From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers an Employees Into Lifelong Fans. Excellence is never an accident. Jon brilliantly pulls the curtain back on proven methods to fundamentally change the way you think about creating a successful, beloved business.

Jon Picoult shared practical and proven principles from his new book From Impressed to Obsessed in this episode. We talk about real world challenges for CX leaders and what cognitive science implies about where organizations go wrong and what leaders can do about it.

Meet Jon

Jon Picoult helps companies impress their customers and inspire their employees, creating “raving fans” that drive business growth. He is the founder of Watermark Consulting and a noted authority on customer and employee experience. A sought-after business advisor and public speaker, Jon’s insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Forbes.com (where he is a regular contributor). His landmark study on the ROI of customer experience is one of the most widely cited pieces of research in the industry, referenced by firms such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture, Forrester, SAP, and Oracle. Jon is also the author of the new book, “From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans” (McGraw-Hill, Nov. 2, 2021), which debuted as an Amazon #1 New Release and has earned praise from business luminaries such as Horst Schulze (co-founder of Ritz-Carlton Hotels), Hubert Joly (former CEO of Best Buy), and Marshall Goldsmith (world-renowned executive coach). Jon has advised the C-suite at some of the world’s foremost brands, including companies such as AT&T, Allstate, ADT, Generali, and Becton Dickinson. He’s helped these and other organizations capitalize on the power of loyalty – both in the marketplace and in the workplace. Prior to establishing Watermark in 2009, Jon held senior executive roles at Fortune 100 companies – leading service, operations, distribution, technology, sales and marketing. Early in his career, at the age of 29, Jon earned the distinction of becoming the youngest executive officer in the over 150-year history of a leading global insurance and investment firm. Jon received his A.B. in Cognitive Science from Princeton University and his M.B.A. in General Management from Duke University. Learn more at Jon’s website: https://watermarkconsult.net/ ​

Contact me if: - You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast - You would like to be a guest on the show - You would like to book me on your show Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

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When you think of combinations who comes to mind?

👉 Jobs and Wozniak?

👉 Proctor and Gamble?

👉 Hewlett and Packard?

When it comes to customer experience and one-to-one marketing, hands down, it's Don Peppers and Martha Rogers. They are the individuals behind the Peppers and Rogers brand.

Don has authored or co-authored eleven different business books, collectively selling more than a million copies in 18 languages. 

In 2022 Peppers and Rogers released the greatly revised and updated Fourth Edition of their graduate-level textbook and desk reference, Managing Customer Experience & Relationships (Wiley, 2022).

I had the chance to pick Don's brain about the intersection of AI and customer experience management. It was a lesson in how to think about the value customers expect and the value companies desire.

There were so many powerful insights including:

👉 Transforming Customer Interactions with AI:

Don highlighted how AI, especially generative AI, can revolutionize real-time, individualized customer interactions by analyzing emotional sentiment and providing empathetic, immediate responses.

👉 Rethink Success Metrics:

Don emphasized the importance of measuring success through customer-centric metrics like customer lifetime value (CLV) and proposed the innovative concept of 'Return on Customer (ROC)' as a more accurate gauge of business performance over traditional Return on Investment (ROI).

👉 Fostering Trust for Long-term Value:

A significant part of his message was about building trust with customers. Don stressed that maximizing customer value inherently requires businesses to always act in their customers’ best interest, nurturing trust and long-term relationships.

Don's vision and experience provide a roadmap for leveraging AI in creating truly personalized customer experiences. For more pearls of wisdom from Don Peppers, tune into the full episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast!

Meet Don Peppers

During the course of his career, Don has authored or co-authored eleven different business books, collectively selling more than a million copies in 18 languages. 

His first book, The One to One Future: Building Relationships One Customer at a Time (Doubleday, 1993), coauthored with business partner Martha Rogers, kick-started the Customer Relationship Management discipline (“CRM”), which has evolved over the years into the “customer experience” field. 

This is near and dear to my heart because I’ve had the blessing to teach customer relationship management at Michigan State in the first CXM Masters Degree program in North America.  

So you’ll have to understand, this is an extra special episode for me. To have the Tom Brady, the Wayne Gretzky, the Babe Ruth, and the Michael Jordan the GOAT on the show is a big deal.

Finally, In 2013 Don and Martha were inducted into the Data & Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame, along with their business colleague Seth Godin (Don wrote the foreword for Godin’s 1998 breakthrough book Permission Marketing). 

In 2022 Peppers and Rogers released the greatly revised and updated Fourth Edition of their graduate-level textbook and desk reference, Managing Customer Experience & Relationships (Wiley, 2022). As an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Menlo College, Don teaches from this very textbook, and when time permits he Harvard Business Review articles:

• World Class Bull (May 2009), an HBR Case Study commentary, with Martha Rogers

• Is Your Company Ready for One-to-One Marketing? (Jan-Feb 1999), with Martha Rogers and Bob Dorf

• Do You Want to Keep Your Customers Forever? (Mar-Apr 1995), with Martha Rogers and B. Joseph Pine II  

In celebration of CX Week this episode features Nancy Porte, Chair, Board of Directors, CXPA. 

Nancy discusses 3 important topics:

1. Why gaining the support of executives is critical and how you might go about achieving that.

2. Why CX professionals and those considering the profession might want to join the Customer Experience Professionals Association. 

3. On a more personal note - Nancy shares her work in support of disadvantaged children and teens where she serves on the Board of the Children's Village. She also talks about how she applies customer experience principles to help operationalize CX. Meet Nancy Nancy is an Executive leader experienced in building corporate revenue through a loyal and reference-able customer base. Expert in developing Voice of the Customer programs, transforming organizations and increasing satisfaction and loyalty through differentiated customer experience. Experience in Board of Director membership and leadership including professional association and community organizations. Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP). Nancy is the immediate past-Chair of CXPA.

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

This week on The Delighted Customers Podcast, I’m thrilled to welcome Jeff Dickshinski, a Senior Product Designer and Design Lead at Microsoft. With a career spanning digital product development, creative management, and UX design for public-sector and Fortune 100 companies, Jeff brings a wealth of knowledge to the table.

At Microsoft, he leads the creation of mission-critical products for U.S. government and enterprise customers, leveraging human-centered design and UX research.

In this episode, we examine the shift from engineering-focused solutions to user experience-driven design. Here are four key takeaways:

👉 Embracing User Experience Design: Learn how to foster a cultural shift from engineering-centric to customer-centric solutions, including strategies for educating teams and securing leadership buy-in.

👉 Microsoft’s UX Journey: Gain insights into Microsoft’s UX maturity levels, diverse design groups, and the integration of UX into product development.

👉 Tools and Methodologies: Discover the “jobs to be done” framework and traditional personas, emphasizing the importance of understanding customer goals and emotions.

👉 Building a User-Centric Culture: Explore the value of cross-functional collaboration in creating a culture that drives better product outcomes.

Whether you’re a designer, developer, team leader, or CX professional, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to elevate your UX game.

Meet Jeff

Jeff Dickshinski is an award-winning product design professional with extensive experience in

digital product development, creative management, and visual design, for public-sector and

Fortune 100 companies. Currently, Jeff is a Senior Product Designer and Design Lead at Microsoft,

where he creates mission-critical products for U.S. government customers and internal enterprise-

level products, leveraging human-centered design, UX research, and ideation for innovative, end-

to-end experiences.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Jeff led the UX design consulting practice at LMI. He has also worked at

Marriott International and IBM. He holds a BA in psychology, from the University of Maryland at

College Park.

Join us for a compelling conversation with Bruce Temkin, a true pioneer in the world of customer experience (CX) and the co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), the founder of the XM Institute at Qualtrics, and now, head of Humanity at Scale. In this episode, Bruce shares his journey from shaping the foundations of CX to launching a bold new initiative focused on helping leaders drive sustainable success by putting people first.

We dive into Bruce’s unique approach to making “squishy” concepts like customer experience concrete and actionable, including the creation of the Temkin Experience Ratings and the importance of accessible, meaningful data. Bruce offers candid insights on the evolution of CX metrics, the limitations of traditional surveys and NPS, and why emotion is the most powerful driver of loyalty.

Discover how Humanity at Scale expands the conversation beyond CX, challenging leaders to rethink the false tradeoff between business success and human-centric leadership. Whether you’re a CX professional, business leader, or simply passionate about making organizations more people-focused, this episode is packed with practical wisdom and inspiration from one of the industry’s true thought leaders.

Meet Bruce

Meet Alek

Alek Catlett is a manager in EY's AI & Data consulting practice, where he has worked for the past 4 years. Alek helps his clients solve complex problems where the customer and data meet. Prior to EY, Alek spent 6 years at Tailored Brands, parent company to Men's Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, and Moores. Alek is also a graduate of the first Masters of Science in Customer Experience Management in North America from Michigan State University.

A Conversation with Lou Carbone, the Father of Experience Management, Part 1 of 2

In this fascinating two part mini-series, Lou Carbone distills decades of thought leading ideas that cut through years of misled efforts to delight customers. 

In Part 1 we cover:

• The difference between customer driven vs. customer centric
• The shift from the industrial economy to the experience economy
• Why we are “inhaling exhaust and expecting to get oxygen afterwards"
• Why CX leaders understand the power of unconscious need

Be sure to listen to Part 2 for more great gems from Lou

Meet Lou

Lou Carbone is the founder, president and chief experience officer of Experience Engineering, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm dedicated to customer and employee experience management. He is widely regarded as the father of the experience management movement. Founded in the late 1980s, Experience Engineering helps companies discover what really makes customers tick and offers solutions to help them increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and repeat business.

A frequent college lecturer, writer and inspirational speaker; Carbone is the author of “Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again” (Prentice-Hall, 2004), which won the Fast Company Reader’s Choice award.

Companies that Carbone and Experience Engineering have worked with include Pizza Hut, KFC, Avis, H&R Block, General Motors, IBM, Taco Bell, Progressive Auto Insurance, John Deere, Blockbuster, IBM, La Quinta, Time Warner Cable, Deluxe Financial Services, Office Depot, Audi of America, Royal Bank of Canada, and Boston Children’s Hospital.

Carbone has lectured and has taught at many leading educational institutions including the Harvard Business School, Columbia, The Cornell School of Hospitality, Haas School at the University of California at Berkeley, Texas A&M’s Center for Retail Studies, Carlson School of Business at the University of Minnesota, Boston University, UNLV and Parsons School of Design.

Prior to starting Experience Engineering, Carbone was an advertising executive with major agencies in New York, Detroit and Minneapolis. While with Campbell-Ewald Advertising, Grey Advertising, and Manoff Geers Gross, he worked with wide array of companies including American Tourister Luggage, National Car Rental, Walt Disney World, Eastern Airlines and Howard Johnson.

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

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Ok, this one is a bit different.  

I've been asked many times over for a sampling of The Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class and really couldn't share a nice condensed slice of it...until now.

It was quite by accident.  

I used an AI tool that automated two virtual hosts, I'm calling them Abe (A) and Ivy (I), who took much of the material from a recent asynchronous course and with a press of a button, converted it into an 11-minute podcast episode! 

I thought, 'Wow, this is so interesting...maybe others will think so too."

The episode starts with a personal failure of mine that illustrates why the hero's trap is so easy to fall into and so devastating.  

The hosts capture the essence of the Master Class section on this topic in a fun way.

I hope you find it entertaining and insightful.  

I'd love to hear your feedback!

Tom Shimko, a seasoned expert in customer experience (CX) and marketing, to discuss the ROI of CX. Tom highlights the necessity of treating CX as a strategic imperative rather than a mere nicety. He unpacks the IDIC framework by Peppers and Rogers, emphasizing identification, differentiation, interaction, and customization as key steps.

Tom shares insightful case studies, including work with 1800 Flowers, AIG, and Prudential, demonstrating how targeted CX improvements can significantly enhance customer value and reduce attrition. He underscores the importance of aligning CX initiatives with senior leadership’s goals and understanding customer needs at every lifecycle stage to justify continued investment in CX efforts.

1. What are some misconceptions about proving the value of customer experience?
2. Addressing misconceptions helps CX leaders understand the critical elements that often go overlooked or misunderstood. Tom highlights the importance of measurable metrics in customer experience, which are essential for justifying investments and making informed decisions. It also helps shift the view of customer experience from being a "nice to have" to a strategic necessity.
3. How does the IDIC framework relate to the customer lifecycle?
4. Tom discusses the IDIC framework, which includes Identification, Differentiation, Interaction, and Customization. Understanding this framework allows businesses to segment their customers effectively, address their needs more precisely, and measure the impact of their strategies. By relating it to the customer lifecycle, Tom shows how this framework can be applied in real-world scenarios to enhance customer relationships and drive business growth.
5. Can you walk through some use cases from your experience to give leaders a blueprint for how they might identify opportunities to calculate the ROI of CX?

• Real-world examples and use cases provide practical insights and a blueprint for CX leaders. Tom's examples from 1-800-Flowers, AIG, and Prudential show how specific strategies can have a significant impact on business metrics like customer retention, revenue, and cancellation rates. These use cases offer actionable steps for leaders to follow and adapt to their unique contexts.

Meet Tom!

Tom Shimko brings a background of 20+ years of experience leading marketing, customer experience, and strategic planning in both senior management and consulting roles. 

These have included building and leading the consulting division as a Senior Managing Partner at Peppers & Rogers Group, Director of International Marketing at Prudential, Head of Marketing Intelligence and Customer Experience at GE Capital, SVP, Customer Retention and Loyalty at AIG, and as the Chief Marketing Officer at Pitney Bowes, Danbury Health Systems, and the DMA. 

His consulting clients cross B2B, B2C and Nonprofit sectors, and include organizations such as Acxiom, Oracle, 1800Flowers, Space.com, Jaguar, Wolters Kluwer, Rodale Publishing, the American Cancer Society, and the Young President’s Organization. 

Tom currently leads Shimko1to1.com, where he helps organizations to increase customer acquisition, improve retention, and grow customer value, by focusing on customer needs, potential value, and by improving the customer experience. 

Known for driving transformative growth, Tom excels in crafting innovative customer-centric strategies and leveraging data-driven insights, with a focus on action, impact and results. 

Fred Reichheld is an expert on customer loyalty and a legend in the world of customer experience management. 

He and his "co-pilot" Rob Markey, created Net Promoter System, arguably one of the most used loyalty metrics in the world.

He shared so many gems in our conversation that I decided to produce this edited version as a sort of "greatest hits" episode.

In this episode:

1. Why did Fred feel a sense of urgency to write his book, "Winning on Purpose"?

   • Fred shares a personal story about receiving a cancer diagnosis, which spurred him to focus on writing the book to correct misconceptions and realign the philosophy behind Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer experience with genuine customer love and improvement.

2. What is the core message of "Winning on Purpose"?

   • Fred emphasizes that the central message is that customer love and referrals should be at the core of a business’s purpose. Companies need to prioritize customer satisfaction and loyalty over other metrics to achieve true, sustainable success.

3. They key metric that most companies don't measure but should be

   • Fred discusses the importance of tracking and measuring customer referrals to drive business growth.

4. What is the "earned growth" model and why is it important?

   • Fred introduces the concept of "earned growth," which focuses on measuring how much business growth comes from returning customers and referrals. 

The Intersection of Customer Success and Customer Experience with Adrian Brady-Cesana, CXO, CX Chronicles

Adrian spent his early years in Manhattan, helping launch Saas startups in a fast-paced environment. He learned a lot of valuable lessons through the school of hard knocks and he shares some of that wisdom with us on this episode. 

We cover a lot of ground and some of the highlights include:

• Customer Success vs. Customer Experience
• What’s the biggest side benefit of investing in CX?
• Why is adoption so critical after a sale?
• What are the unexpected benefits of connecting the dots between EX and CX?
• What it means to build “team pods” to ensure customer success and attract the best employees

Meet Adrian

I have been working in Customer Experience, Customer Success, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing and Sales Operations Management and Consulting for 15+ years.

I've had the pleasure of working in New York with ACV Auctions, Hometeam, onefinestay, H.Bloom, and a plethora of other venture capital backed executive leadership teams.

I've been starting, building and scaling companies and internal customer focused teams my entire career. I've developed an in-depth understanding and appreciation for what it takes to succeed in growth phase businesses as well as the importance of understanding the power of implementing a cohesive business strategy focused on the The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback.

Today I spend much of my time working with our amazing clients at CXC helping them optimize the Four CX Pillars within their businesses. I'm also the host of of a top 10 CX/CS Business podcast called The CXChronicles Podcast, a weekly show that interviews customer focused business leaders from across the world. Lastly I have a book on Amazon, check it out now to learn more it's called "The Four CX Pillars To Grow Your Business Now -- The Customer Experience Playbook".

Building businesses and finding new customers to serve has always been one of my greatest passions. I've started several of my own companies over the years including; RPM Marketing, Property Armor, Simply Travel, Maids of Manhattan, American Buddha Co, WNYCatering, WNYBnB & most recently CXChronicles, as well as the CXChronicles Podcast. I love building teams and working with customers, it's my favorite part of the game, hands down.

Please feel free to reach out to me today -- I'm always open to meeting and discussing new business opportunities and finding new connections for the future!

CXC Bio: 

CXC believes that customer experience & success is modern selling + a team sport that must be prioritized in any business or industry as you grow and scale!

We help our growth focused clients navigate the jungle of CX/CS/RevOps by helping them optimize The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. We do this by working with customer facing teams to ensure that your investments in customer experience & customer success are yielding positive ROI & leading to revenue growth & retention.

CXC provides our clients with a variety of Fractional CXO & CX/CS/RevOps focused managed services including; CX Scorecard assessments, customer journey mapping, curating living playbooks & FAQs, constructing your Voice of Customer Dashboards & providing you with CXC certified leadership support by leveraging the "CX Nation" our community of over 12K+ customer focus

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

Raj Sivasubramanian has served as a CX leader in great brands like AirBnB, eBay, Verint, and Bain and now leads the journey management practice at QuestionPro. He's a Professor of Practice at Michigan State University in the CXM Masters of Science Degree program. He’s worked with some of the most successful brands and joined us to share insights about how great companies differentiate on customer experience.

In this episode:

1. What do we do about the metric trap?

This question is essential because many organizations fall into the trap of over-focusing on metrics like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) without necessarily improving the customer experience. Raj provides strategies and insights to avoid this trap, which can help organizations focus on actionable insights rather than just numbers.

1. How does operational data play into customer sentiment data?

Understanding how to integrate operational data with customer sentiment data is crucial for gaining a holistic view of the customer experience. Raj's explanation helps organizations realize that customer feedback alone isn't enough; it should be supplemented with operational metrics to drive meaningful actions that improve the customer experience.

1. What approach works best for making organizational change happen from a CX leader's standpoint?

This question is critical for anyone trying to drive customer-centric changes within their organization. Raj discusses different strategies like looking for quick wins, connecting insights to key corporate initiatives, and the importance of having allies. His advice provides a roadmap for CX leaders to effectively influence and implement changes that can significantly enhance customer experiences.

Join us for an engaging conversation as Raj shares practical tips and actionable insights.

Brad Smith, CCXP, who brings his extensive experience from working with major companies like Symantec, Yahoo, and Sage. Mark and Brad delve into the future of customer experience (CX) management and explore a variety of valuable tools that can be applied to enhance CX.

Brad shares actionable insights on hidden value, value realization versus value erosion, and introduces the concept of value mapping. He also discusses the importance of having a clear brand promise and how it plays a crucial role in delivering a cohesive customer experience.

Key topics covered in this episode include:

• The importance of leveraging a comprehensive CX toolkit, including techniques like empathy maps, journey maps, and value mapping.

• A detailed discussion on identifying and unlocking hidden value within a company by examining areas with high customer traffic, and differentiating between value realization and value erosion.

• A fascinating case study on Brad's work with AARP, showcasing how to diagnose and rectify systemic issues that lead to customer churn and operational inefficiencies.

• The concept of value mapping, its significance, and how it helps in uncovering friction points in customer experiences.

• The critical role of brand promises and how they should guide every interaction to ensure consistency and memorability.

• Insights into the symbiotic relationship between marketing and CX in delivering on the brand promise.

Meet Brad

Brad has had the privilege of leading organizations in their
customer-centric transformation at Symantec, Yahoo!, and Sage as
their CCO/CMO. Across his 30+ years of leadership, Brad has led
global support and service functions for Oracle, Openwave, and
Verisign as well as small start-ups. Leveraging decades of experience
and insights gained from over 50 client engagements, he knows how to
quickly identify, unlock and realize the trapped value concealed across
any organization.

Currently, Brad is the President & Chairman of the Board of the
Consortium for Service Innovation and through the work of the
Consortium, has helped 100’s of customer service organizations
innovate better business models to deliver deep value to their
customers while better engaging their employees to grow their
businesses. He is also one of their recognized Innovators.

Brad is also a Co-Founder and Tribal Advisor at TribeCX Ltd, an alumni
member of the Forrester Chief Customer Executive Council, and the
Chief Customer Officer (CCO) council, and a alumni Board Member
(2018-2021) & recognized Innovator of Customer Experience
Professional Association (CXPA). He is also a Certified Customer
Experience Professional (CCXP).

He is a recognized thought leader in the Customer Experience and
Service Innovation space and has published dozens of articles for
various online publications including Forbes, New York Times, Fox
Business, and Entrepreneur. He is a frequent keynote speaker across
the CX and Customer Service industries.

Brad is home based in Irvine CA and is the Founder/President of Vector
Business Navigation, Inc. – A customer experience/customer success
transformation consulting provider - committed to mentoring inspired
leaders to successfully navigate their CX ecosystems since 2015.

You can learn more about Brad here:

All things CX Considered Podcast with Bob Azman

The Conversational Podcast with Julie Roehm

Reasoned Podcast with Sabrina Meditz

Trust in CX: Lessons from the Executive Assistant to Ronald Reagan

In the latest episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, Peggy Grande shares her fascinating journey from a regular middle-class family to becoming the executive assistant to President Ronald Reagan. From her unlikely selection to be the executive assistant for Ronald Reagan to her touching farewell to the 40th President of the United States, her stories provide invaluable lessons in building trust, particularly through the lens of the trust equation. 

Here are some key takeaways:

Credibility: Peggy’s story emphasizes the importance of intuitive confidence and competence. She recalls, "I was young, yet I had to present myself as a voice of authority, even when I wasn't always completely confident in myself." This highlights that beyond technical skills, credibility is built by speaking confidently and being willing to take on tasks and make decisions quickly.

Reliability: Peggy demonstrated the immense value of dependability by always being present and prepared. She mentions, "I made it a habit to arrive at the office every day about a half hour before the office officially opened." Showing up consistently and anticipating needs is a cornerstone of reliability.

Intimacy: Building a safe space for confidential discussions and knowing when to offer empathy is essential. Peggy recounts a touching instance during Reagan's Alzheimer's battle, noting how she had to step in discreetly to help him finish a familiar story. This exemplifies psychological safety and the delicate balance of being supportive without undermining.

Self-Orientation: Selflessness in serving another's best interests can build profound trust. Peggy showcases this by emphasizing personalization in her tasks, such as learning Reagan's preferences and structuring his day accordingly. Her focus on others' needs over her own effectively strengthened her relationships and trustworthiness.

Show Notes:

Meet Peggy

Peggy Grande was Executive Assistant to President Ronald Reaganfrom 1989 – 1999, after he left the White House. She is author of the book, “The President Will See You Now: My Stories and Lessonsfrom Ronald Reagan’s Final Years.” She served as a Presidential appointee during the Trump Administration and considers it thehonor of a lifetime to have worked for two Presidents of the United States in both support and strategic roles.

Peggy is an international keynote speaker, TV and radio commentator, and widely published opinion writer in the US, UK,

Australia, and the Middle East. She was Chair of World for Brexit and was national spokesperson for a California ballot initiative. She

serves on the Board of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy and the Board of the Center for American Ideas.

Peggy is a graduate of Pepperdine University, mother of four grown children, and has two granddaughters.

LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpeterson/

Website: https://www.questionpro.com/us/?

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The Delighted Customers Podcast is sponsored by Better Help

Imagine walking into a clinic feeling anxious about a possible cancer diagnosis and leaving with all your concerns addressed, feeling genuinely cared for and understood. 

Unfortunately, for too many patients today, that’s simply not the case. The pressure of production goals, burned out and short-handed physicians, and an increase in administrative load are a few of the challenges that doctors and medical staff face day-to-day.   

As a result, patients who are awaited results from diagnostic tests like mammograms have their anxiety rise and are left feeling like a number.

In this illuminating episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast, we dive deep into the art and science of patient communication with Rachel Hitt, MD. 

As the Medical Director of Patient Experience for the Tufts Medicine Integrated Network, and Division Chief of Breast Imaging for Tufts Medical Center, Dr. Rachel sheds light on the pivotal role of efficient care and effective communication in enhancing patient interactions. Discover how active listening, empathy, and breaking down complex medical jargon into digestible information can transform a patient's experience. 

1. Why are effective communication and efficient care essential in patient interactions?

2. How do empathy, active listening, and partnership with the patient contribute to communication in healthcare?

3. What are some strategies for breaking down medical information into understandable chunks for patients?

4. How can meeting patients where they are, including considering language barriers and providing interpreter services, improve patient experience?

The lessons that Dr. Hitt shares on this episode aren't limited to healthcare - after all, humans have the same needs regardless of the environment.

Ken Peterson is the President of QuestionPro’s Customer Experience Division and joined me for an enlightening conversation about the intersection of AI and CX. QuestionPro’s Voice of the Customer platform already incorporates AI in its range of products from basic surveys to complex research, customer experience and employee engagement.

GenAI promises to change customer experience but what are the smartest strategies to create a win for the customer, a win for employees, while delivering on business outcomes?

Ken, a self-admitted geek and mathematician, shares his vision for the future and shared insights on practical applications.   

In this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast, Ken answers these questions and much more: 

• How can companies be proactive in addressing customer feedback to prevent passive customers from looking for alternatives?
• What are some examples of AI tools, like those used by companies such as Target, that empower employees to assist customers more effectively?
• In what ways can AI contribute to customer retention, share of wallet, and add-on sales, as well as improve employee satisfaction?
• Why is it important for content to be curated and actionable when incorporating AI into customer experience, and how can companies ensure that employees are properly trained to use it?

Tune in to discover how integrating AI thoughtfully can revolutionize your customer service strategies. 

Episode Notes:

Meet Ken

Ken Peterson has over two decades of experience in the marketing research, retail, technology, hospitality and transportation industries with a recent focus on Big Data Business Insights, and SaaS deployments. This ties in with his long history of P&L responsibility and detailed understanding of improving business operations. He has had the privilege of helping clients in retail, hospitality, technology, travel, sports and media better understand how to make use of the vast quantities of data that is now available, but often underutilized and misinterpreted. He enjoys delivering relevant insights, fact-based execution and bottom-line results.

LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenpeterson/

Website: https://www.questionpro.com/us/?

Imagine that you’ve been asked to lead a credit union in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. With a rich background in financial and nonprofit marketing, Kristen Heisey has been steering Everence Federal Credit Union towards new heights for the past two years. Under her leadership, the credit union has not only navigated through post-COVID challenges but has also embraced a vision of sustainability and relevance in a competitive market, putting CX at the heart of the change.

Kristen instituted innovative programs like Connect 30, Branch Reimagined, Reach 2030, and Innovation Teams, to achieve breakthrough growth and impact Everence’s culture.

Here are three thought-provoking questions that Kristin's experiences and insights might inspire:

🔹 How can organizations go beyond traditional CX metrics like NPS and CSAT to deepen relationships with their customers?

🔹 What strategies can leaders employ to integrate empathy and genuine care into their customer experience, rather than just pushing products?

🔹 In what ways can financial institutions leverage unique offerings, such as charitable credit cards, to differentiate themselves in the market?

Tune in for a conversation filled with actionable strategies and inspirational leadership perspectives!

Show Notes:

Contact info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristenheisey/

website : https://www.everence.com/

One of the major problems that data visualization solves is the need for quick and clear communication of complex insights, particularly to time-constrained executives. 

It’s about storytelling with data…but how?

With her extensive expertise in data analytics and digital transformation, Katie Manty, a professor at Michigan State University’s Customer Experience Management Master’s program and a leader at Omnicom Health Group, offers unparalleled insights into this crucial aspect of business strategy. 

In this episode of "Delighted Customers Podcast," Katie shares compelling strategies and best practices for utilizing data visualization to enhance customer experience and drive executive buy-in.

Key Takeaways:

1. Customer Experience Improvements:

   - Pain Points in Banking: Katie highlighted how customers in banking and investment sectors often struggle with mobile check deposits and managing dormant 401(k) accounts. The complexity and inaccessibility of instructions lead to dissatisfaction. She shares best practices on how to solve for that.

2. Data Storytelling:

   - Katie's personal advice: Focusing on data storytelling and understanding audience incentives can significantly improve your professional influence. She walks through several illustrations of how to effectively tell stories with data.

3. Effective Data Visualization:

   - Importance for Executives: Visualizing data is essential for conveying insights quickly and clearly to senior leadership, facilitating swift decision-making. Katie shares common missteps and how to overcome them.

Meet Katie:

Katie has a passion for building highly-prized customer experiences. Throughout her marketing technology enablement career, she gathers multiple perspectives, analyzes data sets, forges a business vision and puts the initial concept into production using a test and learn mindset for continuous improvement of the product or process. Katie has been with Omnicom Health Group for three years as a leader in digital transformation and data analytics capabilities in the health care sector primarily supporting biotech and pharmaceutical marketing teams. 

Katie services clients with Omnichannel marketing solutions based on a framework and capabilities that she derived from years of marketing and data strategy experience. She is a Thought Leader enabling colleagues to upskill and speak marketing acumen underscored by data, data visualization and technology integration concepts. She shares a regular Data Coffee Talk with colleagues on all topics data in marketing including how AI is changing the advertising business.

She began her career at Ernst & Young leading application development, business analysis, roadmap visioning and emerging technology teams. Katie earned an MS degree from MIT in the Management of Technology. Her undergraduate degree is from Smith College with a BA in Computer Science and Economics double major. 

Katie is an active alum with both of her alma maters. She spends her free time soaking up the sun as an avid beachgoer, consuming fiction and shuttling her teenage daughter to activities. 

Additionally, Katie is a Faculty Instructor for MSU’s MS in CXM degree. She teaches Data Analysis, Data Integration and Data Visualization as part of the program.

In the episode, Guy Shalom, the CEO of Glassix, shared the personal story behind the company's inception. Glassix began as a solution to a personal challenge: both of his parents have the same disability, which made effective communication challenging. 

This experience inspired Guy to develop a solution that could improve communication not only for his parents but also for customers facing similar difficulties. Over time, this idea expanded and evolved, ultimately becoming Glassix—a company dedicated to improving the customer experience through advanced digital channels and messaging platforms. This journey from a personal challenge to a broader mission encapsulates the company's commitment to making customer interactions more seamless and accessible.

Guy was joined by his Head of Product, Yoad Rashti and his CTO, Boaz Katan as I stretched my podcasting limits with three guests at one time!

🔹 AI-Driven Efficiency and Personalization: Glassix is revolutionizing how businesses interact with customers through AI-driven features like conversation summaries, chatbot AI answers, and mood interpretation. These advancements allow for real-time personalized responses, significantly improving both customer satisfaction and agent efficiency.

🔹 Cross-Channel Communication: With integration capabilities across multiple platforms like WhatsApp, web chat, Facebook, and Apple, Glassix provides a seamless communication experience. This multi-channel approach ensures that customers can reach out through their preferred platform, making interactions smoother and more effective.

🔹 Customization and Security: Glassix's platform is not just powerful but also customizable and secure. Offering flexibility for various industries and compliance with standards like PCI DSS, the platform ensures that user data is protected while allowing teams to tailor solutions to their specific needs.

Catch the full episode for an in-depth discussion on how AI is shaping the future of customer experience and how you can leverage these innovations to boost your business! 🎙️

-----------------------

Show Notes

• Guy Shalom

CEO & Co-founder, Glassix

Guy Shalom is the CEO and Co-founder of Glassix, a leading software company revolutionizing

customer service with its omnichannel interactive communication platform. Under Guy's

visionary leadership, Glassix has become a pivotal player in the SaaS industry, providing

leading-edge digital solutions tailored to the needs of modern contact centers.

• Yoad Rashty

CTO& Co-founder, Glassix

Yoad Rashty is the Chief Technology Officer at Glassix, where his expertise in driving

• technological innovation and his deep understanding of customer experience technologies empower leading companies to deliver exceptional customer experiences. With a robust background in software engineering and a keen focus on integrating leading-edge artificial intelligence technologies, Yoad leads his teams in developing advanced, scalable, and a secure platform that enhances customer interactions for businesses globally.

• Boaz Katan

Head of Product at Glassix

Boaz Katan leads the development of an advanced omnichannel messaging platform designed to enhance customer experiences. With over 10 years of experience as a product designer in both startups and large corporations like NICE and NetApp, Boaz has a proven track record of designing complex B2B systems.

Contact Info:

For guest contact information, I recommend checking out the multiple platforms mentioned in the episode. You can reach out to the business through their:

- Website

- Web chat

- Facebook page

- WhatsApp account

- Apple account

If you prefer more direct contact information, you might want to visit the Glassix website or their social media pages for further details. 

www.glassix.com

A 34-year-old man fighting for his life in the intensive care unit is on an artificial respirator for over a month. Could it be that his chance of getting off the respirator is not how much his nurses know, but rather how much they care?

A 75-year-old woman is heroically saved by a major trauma center, only to be discharged and fatally struck by a car while walking home from the hospital. Could a lack of compassion from the hospital staff have been a factor in her death?

Compelling new research shows that health care is in the midst of a compassion crisis. But the pivotal question is this: Does compassion really matter?

In Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference, physician scientists Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli uncover the eye-opening data that compassion could be a wonder drug for the 21st century.

This episode is packed with practical insights and ROI evidence for customer experience investment.

Join me and my guest, Dr. Stephen Trzeciak, author, Ted Talk speaker, and, oh yeah, Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Healthcare.

In this episode:

• Evidence-Based Compassion: Compassion in healthcare isn’t just a moral imperative; it has measurable, impactful benefits. Studies show that even a 40-second compassionate intervention can significantly reduce patient anxiety.
• ROI of Compassion: Compassionate care doesn't just improve patient trust and outcomes; it also positively affects hospital revenue, reduces staff turnover, and enhances overall service quality. Compassionate hospitals achieve better patient loyalty and team cohesion.
• Combatting Burnout: Dr. Trzeciak highlights the inverse correlation between compassion and burnout. Genuine, compassionate relationships are key to fostering resilience and well-being among healthcare providers, ultimately improving team retention and reducing costs related to high turnover.

Meet Dr. T

Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH is a physician scientist, the Edward D. Viner Endowed

Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Health Care, and Professor and Chair of

Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey. Dr.

Trzeciak is a practicing intensivist (specialist in intensive care medicine), and a clinical

researcher with more than 100 publications in the scientific literature. His scientific

program has been supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health

and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, with Dr. Trzeciak serving as

Principal Investigator. Dr. Trzeciak is the co-author of two books, Compassionomics:

The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference (2019), and

Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine

for Yourself (2022). Broadly, Dr. Trzeciak’s mission is to raise compassion globally,

through science.

Karl Sharicz is back with his follow-up to CX-PRO, featuring advanced insights from a global lineup of 16 CX thought leaders. (Yes, I’m thrilled to be one of them!) This book highlights the power of collaboration in the CX community, bringing together practitioners, consultants, and educators. It emphasizes human-centered design, a commitment to quality, and the lasting impact of genuine human connections. The book celebrates employee-driven insights as key drivers of innovation and dives into the diverse career paths that fuel the CX ecosystem.

In this episode:

• Why this book offers CX leaders a fresh perspective on customer experience management
• How the contributing authors were selected
• A closer look at standout chapters with exclusive excerpts
• A teaser on my chapter about change leadership

This book is an essential resource for CX leaders and anyone passionate about advancing their understanding of customer experience management.

-----------------------

Show Notes:

Meet Karl

Karl brings over thirty years of skills and experiences gained in high-tech research and manufacturing B2B environments along with proven business acumen. Throughout his career, he has served in a broad range of roles within marketing, sales, training, and training management—developing internal and external customer relationship skills and building a decided customer-centric focus along the way. As the Founder and CEO of HorizonCX, Karl offers professional services to organizations in two general categories.

• Small to medium-sized businesses aiming to begin the Customer Experience journey
• Large enterprises on the Customer Experience journey aiming to bring it to the next higher level

​

In his former corporate role within Tyco SimplexGrinnell, a leading fire and life-safety provider doing business throughout North America, Karl served as Customer Experience Lead where and his team focused on driving those elements of the customer relationship and experience that increased customer satisfaction, reduced customer churn, and increased customer lifetime value.

​

Karl is steeped in the Customer Experience Management discipline, including developing customer-centric cultures; determining the voice of the customer and deriving insights and understanding; fostering organizational adoption and accountability; creating customer experience strategies, designing approaches that will achieve customer experience excellence, and setting up metrics and measurement systems that help drive organizational return on investment.

Books: CX-PRO - Beyond the Basics: Advanced Insights for Customer Experience Professionals Paperback – September 10, 2024

by Karl Sharicz (Editor)

https://www.amazon.com/CX-PRO-Advanced-Insights-Experience-Professionals/dp/B0DD9L8BKC

Jon Picoult, bestselling author and CX thought leader was my first guest in 2022 when The Delighted Customers Podcast launched. He was gracious enough to come back for episode 100 to talk about his His landmark study on the ROI of customer experience is one of the most widely cited pieces of research in the industry.

Jon sheds light on the groundbreaking CX ROI study he initiated, which highlights the tangible and economic benefits of a great customer experience. We'll explore the challenges CX leaders face, particularly in getting executive buy-in, and how Jon's research demonstrates the outperformance of top-rated CX companies versus their lagging counterparts, even amid the pandemic's impact.

If you’re a CX practitioner, you should have this study in your toolkit and understand the trends over the 16 years of research. Spoiler alert - CX leaders outperformed laggards by 5.4x over 16 years!

In this episode:

• What’s the purpose and methodology of the CX ROI study?
• What makes it different from other studies?
• How can CX leaders use it to make the business case for CX?
• What are the DO’s and DON’T of applying the findings?
• How should business leaders approach the use of AI when it comes to CX strategies

-----------------------

Show Notes:

Meet Jon

Jon’s insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fortune and Forbes. His landmark study on the ROI of customer experience is one of the most widely cited pieces of research in the industry, referenced by firms such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture, Forrester, SAP, and Oracle.

Jon is also the author of the Amazon bestseller, “From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans,” which was featured in The Wall Street Journal as a top reading pick, and has also earned praise from business luminaries such as Horst Schulze (co-founder of Ritz-Carlton Hotels), Hubert Joly (former CEO of Best Buy), and Marshall Goldsmith (world-renowned executive coach).

Prior to establishing Watermark, Jon held senior executive roles at Fortune 100 firms – leading service, operations, distribution, technology, sales and marketing. Early in his career, at the age of 29, Jon earned the distinction of becoming the youngest executive officer in the over 150-year history of a leading global financial services company.

Jon received his bachelor’s degree in cognitive science from Princeton University and his M.B.A. in general management from Duke University.

• Watermark’s Customer Experience ROI Study:  www.watermarkconsult.net/cx-roi
• Watermark’s Website:  www.watermarkconsult.net
• Jon Picoult’s Speaker Website:  www.jonpicoult.com

Books: https://www.amazon.com/Impressed-Obsessed-Principles-Customers-Employees/dp/126425878X

What does football (soccer) have in common with Customer Experience? 

Greg Uglioni, CCXP, Head of Business Transformation / Digital Transformation at Kantonsspital Winterthur connects the two in a very innovative way.

Greg was voted a Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Customer Loyalty 2022 Thinkers360

Greg joins us all the way from Switzerland, to share wisdom from his experience in both financial services and healthcare including:

• Creating value centers vs. cost centers
• Lessons from soccer that apply to CX
• How to win a championship by applying football (soccer) principles

Meet Greg

Gregorio Uglioni is a specialist in Business Transformation, Innovation and Customer Experience.

Thanks to his strong leadership skills, Gregorio has successfully led several transformation programs achieving great results, creating a positive customer impact while relentlessly nurturing a positive innovation culture.

His cross-industry engagement for the development of the customer experience discipline (e.g., with his podcast “CX Goalkeeper”, as a Judge at several international events, as a co-author of the global best-sellers “Customer Experience 3” and “Customer Experience 4”) and his in-depth know-how allowed him to be recognized and awarded several time in Customer Experience Community.

Gregorio holds two masters from the University of Zurich. He is a CCXP and the world’s first certified ACXSPlus.

He started his career at Accenture and is now the Head of Business Transformation at the Cantonal Hospital of Winterthur in Switzerland.

Gregorio’s battery charger is his family

2023 Recognitions:

CXM STARS #8 TOP CX INFLUENCER by CXM

ICMI’S TOP 25 THOUGHT LEADERS FOR 2023 by ICMI

World’s Top 200 Business & Technology Innovators by Engati

Top 50 Global Thought Leaderss and Influencers on Customer Loyalty 2023

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Digital Transformation 2023

Top 25 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Customer Experience 2023

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on Leadership 2023

2022 Recognitions:

CXM STARS #10 TOP CX INFLUENCER from CXM

“Influencers to follow” from the UK Customer Experience Awards 2022

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Customer Loyalty 2022 Thinkers360

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Digital Transformation 2022

Top 10 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Customer Experience 2022 Thinkers360

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on Leadership 2022

2021 Recognitions:

TOP INFLUENCER 2021 by ENGATI

Customer Experience World Games 2021: Overall Star Player Recognition, 30 July 2021

Thinkers360: Top 50 Global Thought Leaders on Customer Experience, October 2021

Survey2Connect: Featured in the list of the 100 CX Thought Leaders Around The World That Are Changing The CX Game

Some quotes:

“my family is my battery charger”

“When I wake up in the morning, I want to create value, to have an impact and to serve others to achieve our goals together”

“Yes, it is possible to create value for employees, customers and shareholders. At the end, they are all human beings!”

“blending agility & CX will be a key success factor in future”

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

In celebration of CX week, my special guest, CXPA CEO Greg Melia talks about how he ended up becoming the first full time CEO of CXPA and why the organization helps CX professionals differentiate their careers by joining and engaging in the organization.

He also shares the new CX Book of Knowledge and shares a "sneak peek on what's on the horizon that will be a significant benefit to members.

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

The Customer Chair: The Power of Storytelling, Richard Dorfman, MBA, Vice President, Customer Experience, Eastern Bank

Influencing decisions in the C-Suite requires an appeal to both the logical and emotional sides of the brain. Sure you have to have data to support big decisions, but emotions are always linked to influence. Stories are a powerful way to engage leaders to get your ideas accepted. 

Rich Dorfman, the CX leader at one of the largest Boston-based banks, shares his real world experience as a CX practitioner and how he used the power of storytelling to influence key decision-makers. In my opinion, there’s nothing like hearing from someone who has learned real life lessons to lead a customer centric culture.

Some of the highlights of the episode include:

• The Customer Chair - How Rich borrowed an idea from Clint Eastwood to influence senior leaders
• The “Axle-breaking Moment” - the power of knowing your audience
• Building relationships with key stakeholders
• Partnering with key stakeholders to create allies

Meet Rich

For more than nine years, Rich has led Eastern Bank’s customer experience efforts managing all aspects of this strategic initiative from program design to Voice of Customer (VOC) measurement and management to analysis and reporting to being the “customer-first” catalyst of the company. The result of Rich's relentless pursuit of this critical outside in perspective has focused and aligned the bank around customer-centric behaviors and attitudes. Key accomplishment include:

> Created a Customer Experience (CX) governance council empowered to identify and repair CX pain points, which then communicates these customer and institutional “wins” to all impacted stakeholders

> Designed customer feedback programs in every line of business with robust closed loop management processes

> Integrated VOC insights into business plans to drive CX enhancements

> Developed a comprehensive and actionable CX financial linkage analysis that strongly correlates customers' sentiments to their banking business and profitability

> Embarked on a CX maturity benchmark assessment to uncover a defined strategic roadmap for future CX improvement initiatives

Prior to Eastern, Rich’s banking career included strategic marketing positions at Chemical Bank/Chase in New York, Shawmut Bank/Fleet Bank in Boston and as principle of his own strategic consulting firm focused on delivering differentiated value to high-revenue small business segments.

Connect with Rich:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richdorfman/

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

Ritz Carlton is not just a brand.  

It’s a brand that sets the bar for customer experience.

It was an incredible honor to host one of the icons in customer experience, Horst Schulze, the co-founder and former president of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company.

We talk about his new book, Excellence Wins, and he shares insights that transcend the hospitality industry.

👉 What lessons did Horst learn from his early experiences in the hotel industry that he applies to his business practices today?

👉 The concept of “We are, ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen” is central to Horst's philosophy. How has this idea shaped the service standards in the hotel industry and beyond?

👉 What role does leadership play in creating an environment where employees are motivated to meet and exceed customer expectations, according to Horst?

👉 How does employee orientation contribute to the overall vision and success of an organization?

How Horst overcame a terminal cancer diagnosis that led him to a newfound faith and deeper appreciation for life and relationships.

From the legendary 24 principles, to “my pleasure” (Chick-fil-A got it from Horst), to a $2000 customer happiness fund for every employee, Ritz is the gold standard for CX excellence. 

A must listen for anyone who wants to learn from a true master.

🔊 Listen now and subscribe for more insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Resources The Delighted Customers podcast website:https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/ Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/ The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company, https://qrcd.org/5b23

In today's fast-paced networked economy, professionals (especially CX pros) must work harder than ever to maintain and improve their business skills and knowledge. But technical mastery of one's discipline is not enough and that’s why Charles H. Green co-authored the Trusted Advisor (and the recently published the 20th Anniversary edition).

The key to change leadership is the ability to earn the trust and confidence of key stakeholders.  

The stakes are even higher for CX leaders who typically have constrained budgets, small teams and limited positional authority.

Charlie returns to the show and shares some fresh insights that leaders can use immediately to boost their impact on change on this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast.

Highlights include:

• Why trust and trustworthiness are critical to any change leadership role
• How trust plays into the decision-making process
• Busting myths about trust - like it must take time to build or rebuild
• Lessons from Lincoln: The strategic importance of perception

Resources

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Lessons from Taylor Swift About How to Create Superfans with Brittany Hodak

Have you ever wondered why some celebrities create a swarm of superfans that become lifelong advocates for them (and others, not so much)? 

My guest on this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast worked her way up from radio station mascot to the head of a marketing agency that promoted the biggest name stars from Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Dolly Parton along with some of the biggest brands like Walmart, Amazon, and Disney.

Now an author and speaker, Brittany Hodak and I explore her book, Creating Superfans: How To Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates.  

Highlights from the show:

• What lessons can leaders take from Taylor Swift’s incredibly loyal fanbase?
• The power of “common lessons”
• How to cultivate customer loyalty
• Understanding personal brand influence

And much more…

Resources

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Jennifer Ashman is a CX thought leader and experience design expert. She has been in the field for over two decades and is a Professor of Practice at Michigan State University, where she teaches Experience Design in the Master's Degree program in Customer Experience Management.

Jennifer shares some real world examples to help make the conversation easily relatable.

Content Highlights:

- **Deep Dive into Qualitative Research**: Jennifer unpacks the myriad ways this research method informs decision-making to avoid costly missteps and enhance customer engagement.

- **The Art of Human Interaction**: Discover the irreplaceable value of human-led research methodologies in drawing out the rich, personal details that AI tools often miss.

- **Journey Mapping Mastery**: Learn about the art of crafting journey maps from the customer's perspective with actionable insights, as Jennifer shares her hands-on approach to customer-centric problem solving.

- **Real-World Impact**: Be inspired by stories of organizations that transformed their practices and customer relationships through the actionable intelligence gained from qualitative research.

Resources

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Have you ever wondered how digital experience and AI can transform your customer interactions?

Andrew Carothers, CCXP, a senior digital experience leader in the CX area at Cisco Systems, shared insights from this multinational leader's industry-leading portfolio of technology innovations, including networking, security, collaboration, and cloud management.

🎧 Check out the latest episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast where Andrew answers these burning questions:

👉 How can businesses seamlessly transition from digital to human interactions to meet customer needs?

👉 What are the challenges and benefits of expanding the digital component in customer experience?

👉 How can companies leverage AI to not only enhance the digital experience but also create growth opportunities?

Andrew’s expertise in building and scaling customer experience teams is unparalleled. Tune in to get actionable insights and drive your business forward! 

About Andrew Carothers, CCXP

Andrew Carothers, CCXP, is a senior Customer Experience leader helping companies build and scale organizations that increase customer adoption and retention, improve renewals rates, and drive growth. A founding member of Cisco System’s CX function, Carothers has built extensive strategic and tactical CX knowledge, including digital CX, partner programs, voice of the customer, customer-centric culture, and journey mapping. An eight-time International Customer Experience award winner, he frequently writes and speaks on CX topics, and co-authored The Publicity Handbook (McGraw Hill), a Fortune Book Club selection. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for the University of San Francisco’s School of Management Strategic Artificial Intelligence program.

Resources This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/DELIGHTED and get on your way to being your best self. The Delighted Customers podcast website:https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/ Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/ The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

This episode is part 2 of a 2 part series featuring a very special guest, Professor of Marketing from the Wharton School of Business, Dr. Peter Fader. We will talk about how his new book may revolutionize the way Wall Street looks at what a company is actually worth based not on traditional financial metrics alone but the overall health of it’s customers. At some companies, it’s already starting to happen. 

He challenges leaders who spend countless hours looking at traditional financial statements without understanding the health of their customer base. In this episode we will break down The Customer Base audit with real world examples from his book and from my experience as a CX practitioner and other practical applications. I hope you will keep an open mind as we dive into some groundbreaking concepts that could change the way organizations think about their business.

Meet Peter Peter Fader is the Frances and Pei-Yuan Chia Professor of Marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His expertise centers around the analysis of behavioral data to understand and forecast customer shopping/purchasing activities. He works with firms from a wide range of industries, such as telecommunications, financial services, gaming/entertainment, retailing, and pharmaceuticals. Managerial applications focus on topics such as customer relationship management, lifetime value of the customer, and sales forecasting for new products. 

Much of his research highlights the consistent (but often surprising) behavioral patterns that exist across these industries and other seemingly different domains. In addition to his various roles and responsibilities at Wharton, Professor Fader co-founded a predictive analytics firm (Zodiac) in 2015, which was sold to Nike in 2018. He then co-founded (and continues to run) Theta to commercialize his more recent work on “customer-based corporate valuation.” Fader is the author of “Customer Centricity: Focus on the Right Customers for Strategic Advantage” (2020) and co-authored “The Customer Centricity Playbook” with Sarah Toms (2018). A third book, “The Customer-Base Audit,” will be published in Fall 2022. He has won many awards for his research and teaching accomplishments. Among these achievements, he was named by Advertising Age as one of its inaugural “25 Marketing Technology Trailblazers” in 2017, and was the only academic on the list. The Customer-Base Audit

The First Step on the Journey to Customer Centricity

Peter Fader, Bruce Hardie, and Michael Ross As a leader in your organization, you will be very familiar with your organization’s key financial statements and monthly management reports. You may have spent countless hours discussing budgets and expenditures. But how much time have you spent reflecting on the fact that these revenues are generated by actual customers—the people who pull out their wallets and pay for your products and services? In The Customer-Base Audit: The First Step on the Journey to Customer Centricity, experts Peter Fader, Bruce Hardie, and Michael Ross start you on the path toward really getting to understand your customers’ buying behavior as well as the health of your overall customer base.

To order the book: https://www.amazon.com/Customer-Base-Audit-Journey-Customer-Centricity/dp/1613631618

Contact me if: - You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast - You would like to be a guest on the show - You would like to book me on your show Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

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The Delighted Customers Podcast trailer describes who the show is for (business leaders and CX leaders) and how it can help listeners delight their customers to achieve sustainable growth...consistently. 

You can get all the podcast episodes at Empoweredcx.com/podcast.

https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Please subscribe so you don't miss an episode.

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

How can leaders support their teams effectively without falling into the trap of fixing everything themselves?

Leah Marone is a psychotherapist with expertise in treating anxiety and mood disorders. She also works with athletes on performance anxiety issues, demonstrating her ability to understand and manage high-stress situations.

If you can relate, there are a ton of gems in this show, including:

1. What are some of the problems or ways that leaders lead that is the opposite of creating authentic spaces and solving?
2. How can leaders balance the need to control and deliver results with the approach of validating and empowering their employees?
3. What are the steps involved in transitioning from being a solver to a supporter as a leader, and how can these steps be applied in real-world scenarios?
4. How can leaders effectively inquire and motivate their employees while ensuring that they maintain ownership of their tasks?

And hey, did you catch our role-play experiment? That was like a masterclass in what not to do—Leah's advice saved the day by turning a "Ron-ian disaster" into a pathway to peace. 

Meet Leah

Leah Marone, MSW, LCSW, is a seasoned psychotherapist and corporate mental wellness consultant based in Charlotte, NC, with over 20 years of extensive experience. Leah received her Master's degree in clinical social work from the University of Texas at Austin, a top-ranked institution in social work education. She has conducted over 20,000 therapy sessions and contributed articles to reputable publications such as Psychology Today, The Atlantic, and Newsweek, earning recognition for her expertise in mental health.

Leah's personal journey as a former anxiety-ridden Division 1 basketball player fuels her passion for working with high-achieving individuals, often described as type A go-getters. She specializes in addressing internal pressures, imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and performance anxiety.

In her dual role as a mental wellness consultant and board member, Leah collaborates with both companies and nonprofits. Her areas of focus include anxiety and stress management, burnout prevention, boundary setting, mindfulness practices, effective communication, and emotional intelligence. Leah's holistic approach involves a thorough assessment of company culture to tailor her services, meeting organizations where they are and addressing their specific needs.

 Leah's innovative 5-step initiative underscores the significance of mental wellness organization-wide, identifying areas for growth and connection. This initiative aims to prevent high turnover, address burnout, and enhance overall collaboration and productivity.

 Leah has facilitated dozens wellness workshops for educators, leaders, and healthcare providers and has presented her acclaimed "Support, Don’t Solve" framework on prominent stages. Her inspirational keynotes provide practical tools for self-awareness that can be seamlessly integrated into busy schedules. Renowned for her expertise in boundary setting and resilience, Leah is a sought-after speaker for leadership groups. She addresses individuals navigating perpetual burnout, often fueled by relentless inner critics and the challenges of people-pleasing. Her insights offer a transformative guide for cultivating resilience and establishing healthy boundaries in demanding professional environments.

Beyond her professional commitments, Leah enjoys traveling, hiking, exercising, and working on her upcoming book slated for publication early next year. Additionally, she actively contributes as a coach for her daughter's club soccer team, showcasing her dedication to both personal and community well-being.

https://www.leahmarone.com/

The Science of Brand Love

What makes brands like Apple and Nike not just recognized, but truly loved.

Dr. Ahuvia’s book, The Things We Love, explains the psychology behind brand love, and it has been named by Amazon as a “best business book.” He conducted the first scientific studies of brand love some 30 years ago and continues to lead research on this topic. His research on dating sites led to an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.  

On this episode of 🎙🎙🎙The Delighted Customers Podcast we explore the science behind “brand love” and strategies companies can use to drive customer advocacy.

Highlights of this episode include:

👉 Understanding Brand Love**: Learn how 'brand love' evolves from mere satisfaction to deep emotional connections, much like human relationships. It's not just about the quality of products but how brands make consumers *feel* that determines loyalty and advocacy.

👉 Strategies to Cultivate Brand Love**: Discover actionable strategies such as anthropomorphism (think Siri or Alexa), connecting brands to relatable personalities, and aligning with universal values to foster a closer bond with your audience.

👉 Impact on Financial Performance**: Grasp the clear correlation between brand love and profitability. Brands that achieve emotional resonance with their consumers typically see enhanced financial outcomes.

👉 Warnings of reaching too far** - when deploying brand love strategies

Resources

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Delivering Happiness 2.0 - Behind the Scenes Look at Zappos with Head of Customer Research, Alex Genov

In 2009, Amazon bought a start up shoe company that broke the mold by selling entirely over the internet . 

It differentiated solely on customer service. The legendary stories of their obsession with #DeliveringHappiness (CEO Tony Hsieh's bestseller) shifted paradigms.

Amazon paid for $2.1billion for Zappos. 

Zappos is very much thriving today and poised for the next stage of its adventure.

Join us for a fascinating peek into the world of innovation and "meaningful culture" in this episode with speaker, author, PhD, and wicked smart...

Alex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, as he shares: - Reflections of working with the legendary CEO, the late Tony Hsieh .- Developing a culture of meaning. -Zappos' scrappy beginnings and how that translated to results down the road - The shift that's Zappos is undergoing right now from customer. service excellence to customer experience excellence - Zappos adaptive, which underscores Zappos is commitment to diversity and inclusion.  - His new book called, Forget the Customer, See the Person. 

All that and a sneak preview into a little standup comedy from Alex, which should be a lot of fun. : )

Meet Alex

Alex Genov, Head of Customer Experience Research, Zappos.com

Alex is an experienced customer research professional who applies his Experimental Social Psychology background and his passion for research, design, and innovation to solving important customer and business problems. His professional goal is to help teams create remarkable products and services which make people's lives easier and more enjoyable.

Currently Alex is leading Customer Research for the Zappos Family of Companies. In previous positions, he was responsible for research and usability of the products and services for companies like TurboTax (Intuit), State Farm Insurance, and the Active Network. Alex has a PhD in Experimental Social Psychology and over 25 years of relevant experience – 5 years of academic research and over 20 years of customer research in the software industry.   

Alex’s areas of expertise include: defining and measuring emotions, the psychology of individual differences, usability, market research and consumer segmentation, customer experience research and strategy. 

Here's a link to his new book:

Forget the Customer, See the Person: A business guide to deeper customer empathy in uncertain times and beyond

https://www.amazon.com/Forget-Customer-See-Person-uncertain/dp/B0B14MBQRZ

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at mark@empoweredcx.com

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

Do we make buying decisions as individuals or individuals who are part of a group?

 The answer may surprise you.

Gary David, PhD is a Professor of Sociology and Experience Design at Bentley University. Dr. David has been researching sociology and its intersection with the business world for several decades.

His findings challenge the status quo when it comes to drivers of consumer behavior and how CX leaders should think about engaging customers.

We discuss how consumers perceptions of their social identities impact their brand loyalty, and ultimately, bottom line results.

In this episode we explore: 

👉 How social identity impacts buying decisions

👉 How to design experiences that connect with consumers social identity

👉 Where most companies get it wrong

👉 Strategies on how to understand social identity and design experiences that earn customer loyalty

Resources

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class Special Podcast Offer Valid through June 5, 2024 here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delighted

The Delighted Customers podcast website: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Sign up for The Trusted Guide newsletter here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/newsletter

Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markslatin/

Register for the next Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class here: https://www.empoweredcx.com/

The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Navigating the Power Core: A Strategic Approach to Customer Experience

Join us as we dive deep into the world of customer experience with Shelly Chandler, a seasoned CX strategist with 25 years of experience across B2B and B2C industries. In this eye-opening episode, Shelly shares her journey from banking to diverse sectors, offering unique perspectives on leading CX transformation from within the product realm.

Discover why aligning with your organization's "Power Core" is crucial for CX success, and learn how to navigate C-suite expectations by connecting CX initiatives to business objectives. Shelly also addresses common pitfalls in the CX profession and provides invaluable advice for practitioners looking to make a lasting impact.

Shelly answers these questions:

• What is considered "product" in different industries, and why is it important?

• How has the role of customer experience within organizations changed in recent years, particularly in relation to the "Power Core"?

• What advice does Shelly give to CX professionals when starting in a new role or trying to drive change?

Whether you're a CX novice or a seasoned professional, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you elevate your CX game and drive meaningful change in your organization. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from one of the industry's most versatile experts!

Meet Shelly

Shelly Chandler is a senior customer experience strategist and leader delivering proven results that increase revenue, reduce costs and solidify customer loyalty. In the specialized profession of Customer Experience that that spans all organizational functions, her career as a customer catalyst has helped companies to drive action within organizations that are ready for customer growth.

Shelly especially enjoys transforming blue-sky visions into tangible, executable programs, creating strategic change with others to enhance customer experience. Shelly has worked in many different industries, adding strategic value and broad understanding of the CX profession over the past 25 years. Key verticals include B2B and B2C, Hospitality, Retail, Automotive, Transportation, Manufacturing, SaaS, and Financial Services, with brands such as PNC Bank, Wells Fargo, Moen, Penske, Walmart, Forsta, and American Tire.

Specialized Skills:
CX Strategy, Insights Development and Metrics, Customer Journey Mapping/Orchestration, and
Experience Design are Shelly’s areas of expertise, along with public speaking, coaching and
volunteering.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shelly-chandler-cxleader/
shelly@evolvecxconsulting.com
704-995-7939

One of the most challenging jobs is to change a culture that achieved success with legacy thinking. It all starts with trust, especially if you are a CX leader. Stuart Gilchriest is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) who has worked in CX for 10+ years across multiple industries .

After starting his career in the hospitality industry in his native England, he transitioned into Customer Experience roles in the travel industry and became a respected voice on VOC program management, CX Strategy and Experience Design. He is most proud of helping Hertz achieve their only JD Power Customer Satisfaction wins in the past 20 years, in 2019 and 2020.

Stuart shares some practical applications in this episode including:

1. Community Support: Stuart emphasizes the importance of reaching out to communities for support when facing challenges.
2. The Forgetting Curve: Stuart discusses the "forgetting curve" by Ebbinghaus and the importance of reinforcing information through repetition. How can this concept be applied effectively within an organization to improve stakeholder engagement and information retention?
3. The Role of Repetition in CX: How do you ensure that key information and messages are consistently reinforced with your stakeholders to foster deeper relationships and ensure effective communication?
4. Change Management and ADKAR: The episode touches on change management models like ADKAR.
5. Building Trust: Stuart speaks about building and maintaining trust through practices like listening tours and the "emotional bank account" concept.
6. CX Roadmap: Stuart emphasizes the importance of a CX roadmap that addresses both short-term and long-term goals while aligning with stakeholder metrics.

This episode is packed with gems

Meet Stuart:

Stuart Gilchriest, a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) has worked in CX for 10+ years across multiple industries including hospitality, education, travel, vehicle rental (Hertz), and HR technology (UKG). He is currently Director of Sales Experience at Mercury Insurance, a mid-sized P+C insurance carrier based in Los Angeles, CA. He is passionate about the CX discipline and helping turn customer and agent insights into financial and operational success for Mercury.

After starting his career in the hospitality industry in his native England, he transitioned into Customer Experience roles in the travel industry and became a respected voice on VOC program management, CX Strategy and Experience Design. He is most proud of helping Hertz achieve their only JD Power Customer Satisfaction wins in the past 20 years, in 2019 and 2020.

Stuart holds a BA in Economics from the University of Nottingham in the UK, an MBA from Hult International Business School in Boston, MA, and a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) designation. He currently lives in Naples, FL with his wife Mayra, son Nicolas (21), daughter Mariana (5) and dog Chewy. He is a sport fanatic and has watched live sports on 5 continents (and counting), is an avid traveler (Colombia is a favorite destination), and is currently working on perfecting his homemade Indian curry recipes (the spicier the better!).

Are you on LinkedIn?

Ever wondered how LinkedIn keeps its users engaged and loyal?

Join us for an insider's view of the platform that drives business networking.

Unpacking Value Creation:

Sam Stern delves into the importance of distinguishing between LinkedIn users—members versus customers. He explains how this differentiation impacts the value each group gets from the platform, ensuring a balance between the needs of paying customers and non-paying members.

Continuous Evolution:

LinkedIn is committed to continuous research, aiming to understand user pain points and iterating solutions based on direct feedback. This approach helps uncover underlying issues and experiment with ways to enhance user experience.

Aligning with the Power Core:

Drawing on Jeanne Bliss's Power Core concept, Sam illustrates how aligning with LinkedIn's core strength as a product-driven organization has revolutionized their ability to influence change and elevate the customer experience. This alignment underscores the importance of understanding and working within the organizational power structure.

This episode promises a deep dive into the strategies that make LinkedIn a powerful networking tool!

Meet Sam:

Marbue Brown believes companies that focus on Customer Centricity are missing something. In his new book, Blueprint for Customer Obsession, he highlights why customer obsession strategies are what excel sustainable business results.

In this episode he shares: The difference between Customer Obsession and Customer Centricity The benefits of adopting customer obsession as a strategy If and how Southwest Airlines can recover from their recent troubles

Marbue Brown Bio: Marbue Brown is an accomplished customer experience (CX) executive with a track record of thought leadership and signature business results at some of the most iconic companies on the planet, including JP Morgan Chase, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corporation, and Cisco Systems. As a CX leader, he guided the Chase Consumer Bank to record performance in the JD Power Retail Banking Study, NPS and branch satisfaction. 

He transformed the Andon Cord mechanism at Amazon.com from a primarily manually triggered to system to a primarily automated system triggered by machine learning and statistical models. The Andon Cord is one of Amazon.com’s most significant mechanisms it uses to personify its Customer Obsession culture. 

Marbue devised and codified the NSAT Improvement Approach at Microsoft, which was widely used by business units to dramatically improve CX as well as international subsidiaries who won nationwide awards in the process. He co-authored seminal articles about customer experience measurements that are widely cited in industry. He is a sought after speaker and published author on customer experience, business strategy and economic policy.

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

How did a neighborhood drugstore, founded in 1901 and measuring just 50 feet by 20 feet, become the pharmacy all others are measured by and one of the most respected American corporations?

Charles R. Walgreen, Sr took a job at Horton’s Drugstore in Dixon, Il because an accident left him unable to take part in sports when he was 16. 

After working in several drugstores, he grew increasingly knowledgeable - and increasingly dissatisfied with what he saw as old-fashioned, complacent methods of running a drugstore.

Walgreen saw a clear way to differentiate back in the late 1800’s: “...the most dramatic change Walgreen instituted was a level of service and personal attention unequaled by virtually any other pharmacy in Chicago.”

Today Walgreens has over 13,000 locations across the U.S., Europe, and Latin American with over 325,000 team members. 

Recently, Walgreens has formalized their Customer Experience Management efforts and Danielle Wipperfurth, CCXP, Director of Customer Experience at the storied retailer joins me for a fascinating discussion on The Delighted Customers Podcast.

She shares some practical tips and stories including:

• The same as Coke vs. Pepsi? How does Walgreens think of their brand differently from CVS and other competitors
• The evolution of CX at Walgreens
• The Power of in-store visits
• Idea Testing 
• Preparing for a health clinic from a CX perspective

Meet Danielle

Danielle Wipperfurth serves as Director of Customer Experience at Walgreens. Her background includes leadership roles across sectors and internationally in organizations as diverse as an incubator for social impact startups, a creative agency serving the White House, and a luxury outdoor kitchen company.

Danielle’s expertise includes healthcare customer experience, the relationship between employee and customer experience, and the power of aligning experience with your brand promise. She is deeply committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, serving on the Diversity Advancement Committee for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA).

Danielle earned her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and her bachelor’s degree from Davidson College. In 2020, she was recognized as an inaugural Emerging Leader in Customer Experience by the CXPA, and now invests in the next generation of CX leaders as Chair of the program.

You can reach her at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniellewipperfurth/.

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

What Leaders Must do Today to Compete in the Future 

Bill Staikos is a CX thought leader and futurist. 

Bill shares his thoughts on the big misses and the right path for business leaders when it comes to building the customer experience as a part of their culture.

Bill talks about the intersection between technology and customer experience. He shares what will separate the future winners.

In this episode we cover:

• Avoiding the survey break-fix trap
• Embedding empathy into your culture
• Democratizing insights throughout the enterprise
• Re-thinking the ROI of CX argument
• Common CX pitfalls
• What to do now to prepare for the future

Bill uses a number of real world examples to support his points. 

This episode is full of gems!

Meet Bill

Bill Staikos is the Senior Vice President of Industry Solutions with Medallia. 

With more than 25 years in financial services and a primary focus on driving customer and employee experience excellence, Bill is a recognized client advocate with proven expertise in envisioning and executing holistic customer-centric strategies. 

Staikos previously served as the Head of Customer Experience at Freddie Mac where he was responsible for the creation, execution, and measurement of the Customer Experience strategy across Freddie Mac’s $2.3 trillion single family guarantee portfolio. Prior to Freddie Mac, he was Head of Customer Experience Analytics & Strategy for Chase’s Home Lending business, and he held senior-level, global positions with Credit Suisse Group AG and American Express.

He hosts an award-winning podcast, Be Customer Led, with listeners in nearly 80 countries, and is also co-founder of Monday Mentor Meetup, a LinkedIn group dedicated to helping Customer and Employee Experience practitioners accelerate their careers.

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

Tanya Thomas is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and VP of Client Experience Management and UX Design at Experian Health. She's brings years of experience in the CX world at one of the largest organizations in the world, Experian. Known as one of the big three credit bureaus, Experian Health is a major player in the healthcare market.

In this episode Tanya shares some great gems including:

• Customer Intelligence and Market Trends: Tanya emphasized the importance of gathering deep customer intelligence beyond just basic operational feedback. By understanding user behaviors within software tools, monitoring market and industry trends, and exploring customer pain points, organizations can better anticipate and meet evolving customer expectations. This intelligence is crucial for staying ahead in the market and continually disrupting sectors like healthcare, where incremental improvements can significantly enhance user experience.

• Mobilizing Action with Customer Insights: Tanya underscored the necessity of converting customer insights into actionable plans. It’s not enough to gather data; organizations must ensure it permeates throughout the company and drives accountability. One effective approach she highlighted was prioritizing key pain points and integrating them into the strategic priorities discussed by the executive leadership team. This ensures that actions are taken on feedback, and systematic improvements are made to enhance customer experiences.

• Collaborative Leadership and Influencing Change: Tanya discussed the importance of partnership and collaborative leadership in driving CX initiatives. Instead of trying to be the hero, it's more effective to be the guide. She shared how cultivating relationships with key stakeholders, including finance teams and executive leaders, and deeply understanding the business can help in getting buy-in for CX initiatives. By using data to support the narrative and speaking the language of business success, CX leaders can influence positive change and ensure that improvements are not only implemented but also aligned with the broader organizational goals.

Meet Tanya:

She is a strategic experience management leader driving customer focus and impactful change for over 15 years in roles spanning the retail and entertainment industry, financial services, and healthcare. She aspires to ignite those around her with a sense of purpose and to be an example of authenticity and integrity.

She has had a natural inclination toward creating seamless and delightful experiences, as well as an entrepreneurial spirit, for as long as she can remember. She would be the kid that wanted to pass out fresh fruit at garage sales or bring her own creative activities and supplies to babysitting gigs to ensure repeat business.

When she was old enough for "real jobs," she set her sights on companies like Nordstrom and Disney, which further fueled her relentless dedication to the customer and her curiosity for what makes some brand experiences stand apart from the rest. Along the way, she picked up an obsession with optimizing technology to increase efficiency, and she is addicted to the rush of collaborative problem-solving. Her greatest joy, however, comes from inspiring and motivating others toward their best work and being a force of positive momentum in everything she does.

We’ve all taken surveys. 

Clearly some are better than others.

Well designed and implemented surveys can provide business leaders with actionable insights that improve retention, reduce cost to serve, and drive customers loyalty - if acted upon.

They can help companies serve their customers better and provide them with more value. Poorly designed surveys do just the opposite.

Martha Brooke is an expert when it comes to customer research. 

Martha shares some of the secrets of best in class survey design with power and passion.

In this episode we discuss:

• What’s the primary problem with surveys today?
• What are the 3 areas of differentiation for scientific research
• How to ask provocative questions to increase market share
• The art and science of surveys
• The problem with most CX programs 
• The power of 3rd party surveys

MEET MARTHA

Martha Brooke is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and holds a Blackbelt in Six Sigma. To dramatically improve the Customer Experience, Martha founded Interaction Metrics, a Customer Experience (CX) Consulting Company in 2004.

Clients such as Yaskawa America, Bosch, and Synchrony Financial choose Interaction Metrics for its pairing of scientific CX research with software such as Power BI, Alchemer, and Qualtrics. 

With her team of Analysts, Martha uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to pinpoint customer experience gaps and improvement opportunities. Methods include Text Analytics, Surveys, and Customer Service Evaluations.

To spur dialogue about the Customer Experience, Martha leads top-rated conference sessions and workshops. Some of the organizations where Martha has been asked to speak include Project Management Institute (PMI), American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), HDI, The Score Conference, Customer Solutions Expo, American Marketing Association (AMA), NICSA at the Harvard Club, Operations Summit, Association of Support Professionals, and SOCAP International.

Prior to Interaction Metrics, Martha worked for two dotcoms, Lucy.com and Food.com, where she drove improvements into the customer experience. And she held operations positions in areas that touch on aspects of CX such as quality assurance and customer service.

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

What are the biggest obstacles to successful change initiatives?

Amanda Schmoldt has the expertise and experience that only comes from successfully leading change management initiatives at some of the most respected brands in the world like USAA and Neiman Marcus. 

Not only is she the President of the Association of Change Management Professionals, but she’s also the Senior Director of Change and Transformation Enablement at Halo Branded Solutions. 

Customer Experience Management (CXM) and Change Management (CM) are kindred spirits and have a lot in common.

We explore the intersection of both professions as well as some other practical advice for leaders such as:

👉 Why CM initiatives fail

👉 The intersection of CX and CM

👉 How she helped change the culture at Neiman Marcus

👉 What USAA did right when it comes to cultural transformation

👉 Using behavioral metrics to measure success for change initiatives

Meet Amanda

Amanda Schmoldt, CCMP, has more than two decades of experience in organizational change management, human resources, communications, and organizational effectiveness. Amanda is President of the Association of Change Management Professionals and serves as Senior Director of Change & Transformation Enablement for HALO Branded Solutions. In her current role, she leads a team that is dedicated to building enterprise change capabilities and supporting the people side of the company’s change and transformation efforts. Before joining HALO, Amanda held various leadership roles at Neiman Marcus Group, USAA, Caterpillar, Archer Daniels Midland, and the State of Illinois. She lives in San Antonio, Texas. 

You can reach her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-schmoldt/

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Augie Ray is a foremost CX thought leader, speaker, and research at one of the world’s most respected research firms, Gartner. He’s had a leadership role in CX practices at CX leading brands such as USAA and American Express.

This episode is loaded with gems for business leaders who know the importance of putting the customer experience at the center of your corporate strategy.

In this episode (we covered a lot so there are a lot of gems):

• Common obstacles that hijack customer centricity
• How Amex used NPS to make the business case for CX
• Keys to USAA’s recognition as a CX leader
• Why employee onboarding is so critical to successful CX organizations
• The ROI of CX - What the research says
• The financial benefits and “secondary benefits” of CX
• Why do CX practices struggle?
• Latest Gartner Reserach: The 3 Primary Drivers of CX Success

MEET AUGIE

Augie Ray is a VP, Analyst covering customer experience at Gartner. He advises clients on CX strategy, Voice of the Customer programs, CX organization, personas, customer journeys, and the ROI of CX. 

Before joining Gartner, Augie was the Director of Customer Experience Action at American Express, Executive Director of Community and Collaboration at USAA, and managed an experiential marketing agency in his hometown of Milwaukee, WI. 

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Leah Marone, Mental Wellness Consultant, Psychotherapist, Keynote Speaker, Author competed at the top level in Division 1 basketball. She brings all of the highs and lows of a top tier athlete to her professional role as a psychotherapist. As a board member and external consultant, Leah has been able to leverage her clinical background to develop solutions that prioritize both the bottom line and the well-being of team members and leaders. This is one of my favorite episodes because it sheds light on customer experience from a different perspective. In this episode: 👉 What’s the post-Covid “emotional hangover?" 👉 Why the “urgency culture” produces burnout. 👉 What’s the business risk of burned out employees? 👉 What’s the “full balloon” dilemma? 👉 What are the signs leaders should listen for? 👉 How can leaders improve employee engagement and retention through wellness? MEET LEAH Leah Marone, LCSW, is a psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience based in Charlotte, NC. She has facilitated over 20,000 therapy sessions, writes for Psychology Today, and is an expert forum contributor for Newsweek. Leah was a former anxiety-ridden Division 1 basketball player which has led to her passion for working with athletes and coaches on combating pressure, imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and performance anxiety. As a mental wellness consultant, Leah works with companies and nonprofits on topics such as; anxiety & stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, productivity, effective communication, and emotional intelligence. She offers a number of supportive services and fully assesses the company culture in order to meet an organization 'where they are' and address its needs. Her 5-step initiative not only reinforces the importance of mental health within an entire organization, but also identifies areas where growth and connection are needed to prevent high turnover, address burnout, and improve productivity. Currently, she partners with Equitable and facilitates a three-part wellness series for teachers and administrators that focuses primarily on boundary setting and resilience for the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System in NC. Outside of work, Leah enjoys traveling, hiking, exercising, and writing. She also loves being a coach for her daughter’s club soccer team. Contact Leah on LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahmaronelcsw/ Or visit her on Leahmarone.com

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Most companies don’t suffer from a lack of data.

They struggle getting the right data and to know specifically what changes they need to prioritize.

The key is know what levers to pull and exactly how far to pull them

Jason’s work with NPS Prism is nothing short of game changing.

In this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast we explore:

• The risks of digitizing everything
• The discrepancy between a company's internal measures of success and customer perception
• The dangers of buying share through discounting
• The importance of competitive benchmarking 
• The risks and challenges of digitization: when human touch is non-negotiable
• How NPS Prism was created and how it helps companies improve customer experiences 

Meet Jason

Jason Barro is a leader in Bain's Customer Strategy & Marketing practice, specializing in the Net Promoter System® and customer-driven transformations. He is also the lead partner and founder of NPS Prism, Bain’s customer experience benchmarking service that provides actionable insights to grow loyalty and sales.

He has more than 14 years of consulting experience with Bain.

Jason has extensive experience leading customer transformations across a wide range of industries, including media, cable, retail, banking, credit cards, restaurants and healthcare. He has advised both business-to-consumer and business-to business companies.

Prior to joining Bain in 2004, Jason was an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School from 1999-2004, where he performed research and taught courses on microeconomics, corporate governance and health economics. 

Jason earned his PhD, Masters and Bachelor of Arts degrees in economics from Harvard University.

Connect with Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-barro-b25a8a/

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“Scale creates problems that empathy alone can’t solve”

Megan Burns unlocks the key to how leaders can differentiate their brands based on the experiences they deliver to customers on this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast. She ought to know...she spent more than 10 years as vice president principal analyst at Forrester Research where she developed ground-breaking research on how brands like Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, and Salesforce deliver great customer experiences at scale in the face of constant social and technological never-ending disruption. In this episode we discuss the underlying problems leaders need to solve and why so many companies miss the target, plus:

• What’s the biggest challenge delivering an outstanding experience today?
• Why leaders should think about themselves as being in the experience delivery business 
• Understanding the shift from “Pay Attention” to “Believe” to “Care”
• Why getting key stakeholders to care isn’t enough
• The Activation Challenge: Why is it critical to customer loyalty
• Why making the business case is not the entire solution

Meet Megan

Megan Burns is a customer experience strategist, author, and keynote speaker who helps companies build world-class customer experience programs that accelerate growth and drive strategic advantage. A former Vice President at Forrester Research, Megan has advised hundreds of corporations over her 20+ year career, including Microsoft, Workday, Akamai, FedEx, Verizon, and AT&T. As the architect of two of the industry's most well-known frameworks - the Customer Experience Index and the Outside In Maturity Model - Megan is considered one of the world's foremost experts on leading experience transformation at scale. Her insights have been featured in dozens of publications like the Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, AdAge, and CNBC, and Megan is a popular speaker at events like the Wall Street Journal's Experience Management Forum, CXPA Leaders Advance, the Chief Experience Officer Summit, and the Qualtrics X4 Summit. As a CX pioneer, Megan is regularly invited to judge industry awards like the CXPA Innovation Awards and World Customer Centricity Awards and to appear on popular podcasts like Voices of CX and CX Luminaries. After interviewing Megan, one host said: "I've never seen anyone with customer experience so deeply in their blood."

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Joe Pine is on my Mount Rushmore of Customer Experience. He shares the exact moment, quite by accident, that the concept of "experience" as the next economy after the service economy was hatched. In 2020 Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore re-released in hardcover The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money featuring an all-new Preview to their best-selling 1999 book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. Joe believes that goods and services are no longer enough; what customers want are experiences—memorable events that engage each individual in an inherently personal way. Join me on The Delighted Customers Podcast as Joe shares a vision for business—a world focused on human flourishing, where individuals become better people and achieve their goals. Discover how understanding your customers' wants, needs, and desires can help you create greater value and make a positive impact. Joe shares practical insights and real world stories of how you can drive business outcomes. Here are some highlights:

• The concepts of mass customization and the experience economy
• Creating robust, cohesive, personal, dramatic, and transformative experiences
• Comparing work to theater and the importance of intentional and engaging experiences
• Changing the world of business to focus on human flourishing
• The importance of not wasting customers' time and aligning value with what customers value
• The concept of "customering" and the individualization megatrend

Meet Joe B. JOSEPH PINE II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups alike. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. In December 2019 Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore re-released in hardcover The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money featuring an all-new Preview to their best-selling 1999 book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. The book demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way. It further shows that in today’s Experience Economy companies now compete against the world for the time, attention, and money of individual customers. The Experience Economy has been published in fifteen languages and was named one of the 100 best business books of all time. Mr. Pine also co-wrote Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value on the Digital Frontier with Mr. Kim C. Korn, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want with Mr. Gilmore, and in 1993 published his first book, the award-winning Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition. His latest article in the Harvard Business Review is “The ‘New You’ Business” (January-February 2022), coauthored with Lance Bettencourt, Jim Gilmore, and Dave Norton. In his speaking and teaching activities, Mr. Pine has addressed the World Economic Forum, the original TED conference, and the Consumer Electronics Show. Today he is a Lecturer in Columbia University’s Master’s Program in Technology Management in the School of Professional Studies. Sign up for the newsletter https://strategichorizons.com/contact/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joepine/

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"Why Reinvent the Wheel?" That popular expression was taken seriously when the founder of woom was about to buy their child their first bike and realized something was wrong. So the idea to consider the experience from a kids perspective and design a bicycle that wasn't just a smaller version of an adult bike was born. Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and Austin, Texas, woom has expanded globally and now has over 240 employees and has sold over 1,000,000 bicycles all over the world. On this episode I talk to April Obersteller who leads their employee and customer experience efforts. Hear a fascinating story of the problem they were trying to solve and why they view their role as something much bigger than bicycles. In this episode: - Founding story of two brothers and a best friend creating a high-quality children's bike - The connection between customer experience, design, and employee experience - Importance of quick reactions and direct customer feedback - Commitment to putting employees at the center of retention and engagement strategies - Creating "magic moments" and valuing practicality based on customer feedback - Innovation as a core value and dedicated future-focused team Meet April April Obersteller’s 15-year career in the service industry has been rooted within purpose driven companies that are in the fast and courageous stage of start-up to scale-up. Her passion for the human experience is combined with her appreciation for how data and technology can be powerful in identifying how-to make the most meaningful human impact. At woom, she is the Vice President of Global Experience, in which she leads a global team that supports both the Customer Experience and the Employee Experience with a focus on the full internal and external customer journey. Company Overview: woom is a globally-acclaimed kids’ bicycle company, originally founded in Austria in 2013, and expanded to the United States one year later. woom has disrupted the kids’ bike category across Europe and North America, as the largest and fastest-growing direct-to-consumer brand in the space. Its award-winning bikes include options that are 40% lighter than conventional kids’ bikes, making woom bikes the lightest series-production kids’ bikes in the world.

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Joe Wheeler, international bestselling author, technology innovator, consultant, and speaker. Joe has recently written a groundbreaking book called "Digital First Customer Experience: Seven Design Strategies From the World's Leading Brands." Throughout this episode, Joe shares valuable insights and practical tips on how companies can leverage digital strategies to create highly scalable and repeatable experiences for their customers. Joe also highlights some remarkable success stories from companies like Lemonade, Amazon, Starbucks and Nike, demonstrating how they have revolutionized customer experiences through digital design strategies. We delve into the importance of personalization, with Spotify serving as a standout example in the field. But it's not just about technology and digital solutions. We explore:

• the importance of understanding customer loyalty drivers 
• the significance of addressing customer problems
• the potential pitfalls of falling in love with the product instead of focusing on customer needs
• The future of technology, including the imminent arrival of 6G and the convergence of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and edge-based computing

Join us as we dive deep into the world of digital first customer experiences, uncovering the secrets to delighting customers and turning them into loyal fans. Get ready for a thought-provoking and informative conversation with Joe Wheeler on this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast! Meet Joe Joe Wheeler is an internationally recognized best-selling author, speaker, and consultant. He is the CEO of CX/Digital a subsidiary of The Service Profit Chain Institute (SPCI), a Boston-based consulting firm he co-founded with Professors Len Schlesinger, James Heskett and W. Earl Sasser of the Harvard Business School. In 2002, he and Shaun Smith co-authored the best-seller: Managing the Customer Experience. He followed it up in 2008 with The Ownership Quotient, co-authored with James Hesket and Earl Sasser, Jr. His latest book, The Digital-First Customer Experience will be released in July of 2023, and describes the design strategies of leading brands including Nike, Amazon, CEMEX, Starbucks and others. Mr. Wheeler has delivered keynotes to clients and at conferences around the world on topics including, customer experience, digital leadership and corporate culture. Joe has worked with AT&T, Bank of America, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Digital Realty, Equinix, GoDaddy, Humana, Irving Oil, Maersk. NetOne, Panera Bread, World Fuel Ser- vices and many more. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Bluemvmt, a company with a mission to protect, restore and harness ocean resources for both commercial and conservation outcomes. Prior to co-founding The Service Profit Chain Institute, he held executive roles at Bank of America, The Forum Corporation and earned an MBA from Edinburgh Business School. He lives in both Massachusetts and Nova Scotia when he is not on his way to or from a client event. Time Stamps [00:03:11] Grew up in family business, wrote books. [00:07:21] Controversy around technology replacing frontline staff. [00:12:51] Digital-first challenges for legacy companies summarized. [00:15:20] Key loyalty drivers revealed through research. Be wary of misinterpreting customer feedback. [00:20:58] Culture, climate change, technology, and 6G speed. [00:22:58] Six G will be 30 times faster. Competition and digital asset linkage are key. [00

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Change management is a critical profession that focuses on the human side of change, utilizing various sciences and art to support successful projects and initiatives. Working alongside project management, change management ensures that individuals are prepared and equipped for transitions, driving long-term success. Doug Flory serves on the Board of Directors of the Association of Change Management Professional and describes himself as a Changeologist. In this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast, we discuss:

• Implementation of five levers for effective change management
• the different levels of change management maturity and the role of trust in effective change implementation
• he highlights popular methodologies, such as Prosci, ADKAR, Kotter's Eight Steps, and Lewin's Stages
• the intersection of change managment and customer experience

Meet Doug

• We first met at the ACMP Summit in Charlotte and the topic was the Intersection of Customer Experience and Change Management
• 20 years of experience leading the way change works in Change Management & Transformation, Corporate Culture, and Ways of Working
• Background includes a multi-disciplinary approach towards a people-centered solution
• Currently, Doug serves on the Board of Directors @ ACMP and is an Executive Consultant
• His office colleague is a Yorkshire Terrier who is still how to trying to make copies

Timestamped overview

[00:01:01] Podcast host empowers leaders to delight customers.

[00:05:01] Change management: a profession focusing on people.

[00:10:05] "Steps to implement change in organizations"

[00:13:13] Understanding and applying different methodologies is crucial. Popular examples include pro size, ad, car, and model. They are taught in classes, followed by exams and certificates.

[00:16:30] Professional credentials like CCMP and CCXP.

[00:21:37] A global electric utility company faces challenges with change management. A consultant failed to handle the transition well, causing issues with HRIS system and employee trust. A new change management expert was brought in to rebuild trust and communication. The expert emphasizes the importance of identifying stakeholders, understanding change impacts, effective communication, training, and long-term sustainment. These levers are key to successful change management.

[00:31:41] Trust is core to many challenges faced.

[00:37:18] Impact of employee satisfaction on customer experience

[00:42:06] Customer and employee voices drive engagement, trust.

[00:43:53] Online retailer's bot miscommunication resolved by human.

[00:47:25] Hard question, unexpected path, successful career.

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Amazon has been on my wish list for podcast guests. 

Dr. Francis did not disappoint in a powerful and thoughtful insider perspective of what makes Amazon a consistent CX leader.

We will dive deep into the world of generative AI and its potential impact on customer interactions, as well as how Amazon harnesses this technology to stay ahead of the game. 

Dr. Goh sheds light on the unique culture and principles that have made Amazon a global leader in innovation. As we explore the fascinating intersection of technology, customer obsession, and the ever-evolving business landscape, get ready to be inspired and discover new possibilities.

In this episode:

- Amazon's journey from a bookshop to a tech giant

- At least half of Amazon's leadership principles focus on innovation

- Generative AI in customer experience and contact centers

- Caution against technology-driven strategies

- Amazon's efforts to help customers use generative AI

Meet Dr. Francis

Francis Goh is the Digital Innovation Leader, for Amazon, leading

innovation engagements with key clients of Amazon in the region. In

2016, he founded Hehsed Consulting, which specializes in Corporate

strategy, innovation, CX, Agile and leadership strategies. He was also a

mentor at NTU Nanyang (MBA) Business School. Prior to this he was the

CEO at the global HR consulting firm, Mercer and President CEO at

Fujitsu Singapore.

Francis has 28 years of international experience in the technology and

energy industries, having had numerous P&L and high impact

leadership roles with global leaders such as Accenture, SAP, HP,

Microsoft and ExxonMobil. During this time, Francis has lived and

worked across Asia, Europe and the United States.

Francis specializes in the areas of emerging solutions, breakthrough

business models and innovation. He has a proven track record in

building #high-performance teams and overachieving both revenue

and profit targets consistently. He has a strong reputation for

developing and deploying new business go-to-market strategies across

sales, operations and resource management. He establishes core

innovative business models which further enhanced brand positioning

and grew both topline and profits as a result. Francis is a hands-on

leader with deep solution and value-selling expertise across a broad

spectrum of clients in the Asia Pacific region across industries such as

Oil &Gas, FSI, telco, manufacturing and the government sectors.

Time Stamped Overview

[00:02:56] Passionate innovator shares Amazon's story and techniques.

[00:08:24] Excited to have Amazon on our podcast.

[00:11:09] Amazon's culture is centered around innovation. Innovation is crucial for organizations to avoid stagnation and competition. Amazon started as a bookshop and evolved into a successful ecommerce platform. Customer obsession is a core value and drives their innovation process. Starting with understanding customer needs before considering technology solutions is important.

[00:16:04] Start with customer and reverse engineer: avoiding technology-driven strategy trap. Customer obsession key in all aspects. Understand customer journey and priorities. Amazon's success: started as digital bookstore, applied principles to expand into diverse businesses like AWS.

[00:21:40] AI, specifically generative AI, is gaining popularity. It can generate new content and have various application

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We have a special treat for you as we kick off a three-part series on earning customer trust and loyalty. In this episode, titled "The Fisherman's Dilemma and Three Types of Customer Loyalty," I will explore the deep connection between customer experience and elements such as emotion, trust, loyalty, and value. 

• What's the connection between trust and loyalty?
• What are three different types of loyalty and why is it critical to know the difference?
• What does the data say about repurchase, customer referrals, forgiveness, and cost to serve?
• Why should customer loyalty matter to the C-Suite?
• What are some real world examples of customer loyalty?

Join me for this three part series. Next time we will delve into trust, both interpersonal and institutional and how it can be earned by individuals and by organizations.

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Trust is the currency of leadership.

The most effective leaders don’t power their way through initiatives. They are masters at building trust as a way of influencing.

Businesses that cultivate trust with their customers and employees outperform their competitors.

We explore the Trust Equation, which originally appeared in The Trusted Advisor (now in it’s 20th Anniversary Print Edition). 

We’re going to explore the four variables of trustworthiness:

• Credibility
• Reliability
• Intimacy
• Self Orientation

...and provide some practical tips on how you can become more trustworthy.

Join me for part 2 of a 3 part series called “Trust and Loyalty Depend on CX” on this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast.

To Register for the 4 Keys to Leading Change as a CX Pro: https://www.empoweredcx.com/4keys Seats are limited so sign up today!

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How do companies like Ritz-Carlton, Apple, and Starbucks earn the trust of their customers? Building upon the trust equation introduced in the Trusted Advisor book, we explore the four variables that contribute to trustworthiness: credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation. Through real-life examples, such as a heartwarming story about a lost stuffed animal at the Ritz Carlton Resort, we uncover the power of trust in creating loyal customers. In this episode:

• Credibility: Showcasing professionalism, expertise, and trustworthiness through branding, communication, and online presence can instill confidence in your customers
• Reliability: Consistency is key. Consistently delivering on promises and providing a valuable, predictable experience builds trust with customers. 
• Intimacy: Establishing psychological safety, discretion, and a personal connection with customers can be challenging on an organizational level, but it's not impossible
• Self Orientation: Are you more focused on the sale than the relationship? Asking that question through the customer's lens could help identify areas to become more trustworthy

Don't miss out on these valuable insights. Tune in to the Delighted Customers Podcast episode on "The Secret to Building Trust with Customers" and start creating amazing customer experiences that lead to loyalty and advocacy. Timestamped Overview [00:01:44] Elmo stays at fancy hotel, sends book.

[00:06:25] Workers must pass rigorous training, be screened. Trust through credibility; website appearance, navigation, testimonials, certifications matter. Online presence instills buyer confidence. IRS experience eroded trust, opposite of Terminex example.

[00:09:23] Hotel creates special book for lost Elmo. In the hospitality industry, personal connections matter. A hotel went above and beyond when they understood a guest's attachment to a lost stuffed animal. Instead of just returning it, they involved the entire staff in creating a picture book to assure the guest that Elmo was safe and cared for. This kind of personal touch can make a big impact, whether it's in business meetings or online interactions. Tesla even automates settings for different drivers, and Starbucks' mobile app saves your orders to Siri. It's all about making things personal.

[00:12:16] Embedding trust in your organization is key.

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In many ways, the Customer Experience leader has the most difficult job in the organization. Typically serving with a thin staff, a constrained budget, and limited positional authority, they need to get things done through influencing others. But how? Numbers along aren't enough. There's one powerful tool that CX leaders can and should become masters in, that's storytelling. On this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast, Dennis Geelen, author of The Zero In Formula and The Accidental Solopreneur, joins me to talk about why storytelling wins over stakeholders and he shares a framework on how to tell stories that inspire change. In this episode: - The unique challenges faced by CX leaders in gaining approval and support - How stories can help convey the urgency and consequences of neglecting customer experience - Using powerful illustrations such as "The Kodak Story" to make the business case for change -Avoid the mistake of assuming that data alone will be enough to make an impact on senior leaders Special Note: This episode sets the stage for the next episode which features a filmmaker who breaks down how he crafted his story, currently a Top 10 Amazon Prime documentary. Spoiler - yours truly is in the film sharing a secret of his own : ) Meet Dennis Dennis Geelen, is the Founder and Chief Difference Maker at his solo consulting company, Zero In, that he founded in 2018. Through Zero In, Dennis helps companies ‘solve indifference’ by implementing strategies to build a brand customers love and culture where people are passionate to work. Author of the best-selling book ‘The Zero In Formula’, Geelen has worked with companies in several industries, spoken at countless events, conferences, workshops, webinars, with dozens of guest appearances on international podcasts. And now? Dennis also helps other solopreneurs get started. With his latest book, ‘The Accidental Solopreneur’, providing a playbook for success and told through a riveting and relatable parable that is getting rave reviews from entrepreneurs around the globe. Catch is weekly newsletter, Happy Accidents, for a new story each week about some of the most famous people, products, or companies who found success through serendipity. Timeline Overview: [00:02:52] Solo consultant turned author and coach for solopreneurs.

[00:05:09] Fascinating background; inspired to write differently.

[00:10:25] Key elements of great stories: relatable characters, clear theme, humor, emotional connection, life lessons, conflict.

[00:12:35] Editor assists writer in crafting effective story.

[00:15:14] Show, don't tell: Use stories to engage.

[00:21:12] Analytical person likes numbers, struggles with storytelling.

[00:23:58] Use stories to relate and inspire action.

[00:26:11] Balancing CX and security to retain customers.

[00:30:58] Start team meetings with customer stories, positive and negative.

[00:33:58] Self-publishing saves money and boosts credibility.

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Storytelling is a critical skill for any leader but most of us struggle with how to do influence others. This episode will be unlike any other for several reasons: 1. Filling in the Blanks filmmaker, Jon Baime shares his secrets of applying the art and science of storytelling with the CX leader in mind 2. The documentary Jon shares is both shocking and captivating and reveals a long held family secret of his. 3. It also reveals a long held family secret of mine - yes, I'm in the film. Jon breakdown how he crafted the story and how you can use practical tips to master your own storytelling to make change happen! Listen to the podcast. Watch the film on Amazon, Apple, Vudu and on demand on most cable networks. Meet Jon Jon's new documentary, Filling in the Blanks is currently ranked in the top 10 of Amazon and has been featured in numerous film festivals. Jon Baime is an Atlanta-based independent producer with a specialty in non-fiction projects.

Jon’s work encompasses reality series and lifestyle programming on one end and science, environment, and socially conscious content on the other. Over the past 20 years, some of Jon’s work as a producer has included the nationally syndicated travel TV series “Small Town Big Deal” and the motorsports series “Caffeine and Octane.” He has also edited training videos for the Centers for Disease Control and a series of web videos called “Science Nation” for the National Science Foundation. Jon also produced segments for “This American Land,” a PBS series covering environmental issues.

Prior to being independent, Jon worked for TBS’s Environmental Policy unit, traveling the world, producing and editing the long-form documentary series “People Count” hosted by Jane Fonda focusing on climate change and population issues. He also served for two years as a producer on "Real News for Kids," a weekly children's news show produced by CNN and syndicated to television stations in over 200 markets. Jon started his career in television at CNN in 1987.

Jon originally hails from South Orange, N.J., and is a 1986 graduate of Ithaca College.

Filling in the Blanks is available on Amazon Prime, Apple Plus, Vudu, and more other cable and streaming outlets.

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“Focus on what you tend to neglect” Andrea Howe, CEO, Author, Guest on The Delighted Customers Podcast Trust is the centerpiece of influencing others, of making real change happen. There's no one better to learn from than Andrea Howe, who is not only a trust expert, but she’s the co-author, The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook and the CEO of The Get Real Project. She’s led learning programs and consulted with big companies like Accenture, Deloitte, and Price Waterhouse Coopers, as well as boutique firms. Andea shared some powerful insights on why trust is so critical to change and she offers some practical tips on how leaders can become more trustworthy on The Delighted Customers Podcast. In Part 1 of a 2 part series, this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast includes: 👉 How leaders can lead with trust in today’s remote/hybrid environment 👉 Explanation of the trust equation and its four variables 👉 Why empathetic listening builds deeper trust than active listening In Part 2 we'll talk about a real world case study of a SaaS CRM company that broke trust and how that works through the lens of the trust equation. We'll also talk about what happens when you get ghosted and how to respond from a trustworthy lens. Meet Andrea A recovering information technology consultant with nearly 30 years of experience, Andrea P. Howe previously worked for the $1B IT consulting firm American Management Systems (AMS), where her roles included client project manager, client relationship manager, and later, Director of Leadership Development. 

Andrea is the co-author, with Charles H. Green, of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust. She is the founder of The Get Real Project which has one simple mission: to kick conventional business wisdom to the curb and transform how people work together as a result. 

Andrea’s focus for the past 15+ years has been teaching people in consultative roles how to get better results by getting relationships right. She has designed and led learning programs for companies like Accenture, BNY Mellon, CGI, Deloitte and PwC, among many others. She has spoken to executives, leaders, and teams throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Mexico, Brazil, Europe, Russia, and the Asia Pacific region—both in-person and virtually. 

Described by audiences as pragmatic and engaging, Andrea provides a toolkit to increase trustworthiness in any stakeholder relationship that is both practical and provocative. Andrea addresses topics such as how to: 

- Develop business/sell with trust 

- Promote customer intimacy and client loyalty

- Apply the dynamics of influence to achieve results 

- Improve business relationships using all four variables of the trust equation 

- Deal with conflict in a trust-building way. 

When Andrea’s not working, you can find her in her art studio (aka the basement) taking far too long to finish her latest mosaic project, or looking forward to a future opportunity for partner dancing somewhere near her current home town of Annapolis, Maryland, USA.

 contact her: www.thegetrealproject.com

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The Virtues and Values of Trust in Business, Part 2 of 2 with author Andrea Howe

In Part 1, Andrea introduced the Trust Equation and how we, as leaders, can apply it to become more trustworthy. 

In this episode we delve in to some real world examples to consider how the values (applied individually) and virtues (applied institutionally) to earn trust and deepen loyalty.

In addition, this episode includes:

- The story of a SaaS company breaks trust and how to avoid the same pitfalls

- How building trust is highly paradoxical

- What to do when you get ghosted (and still be trustworthy)

- Trust "Values" and "Virtues" and how leaders can align to build a trustworthy organization

So many great gems in here you won't want miss!

If you haven't already listened to Part 1 with Andrea, I highly recommend you do!

Meet Andrea

A recovering information technology consultant with nearly 30 years of experience, Andrea P. Howe previously worked for the $1B IT consulting firm American Management Systems (AMS), where her roles included client project manager, client relationship manager, and later, Director of Leadership Development. 

Andrea is the co-author, with Charles H. Green, of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Leading with Trust. She is the founder of The Get Real Project which has one simple mission: to kick conventional business wisdom to the curb and transform how people work together as a result. 

Andrea’s focus for the past 15+ years has been teaching people in consultative roles how to get better results by getting relationships right. She has designed and led learning programs for companies like Accenture, BNY Mellon, CGI, Deloitte and PwC, among many others. She has spoken to executives, leaders, and teams throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as in Mexico, Brazil, Europe, Russia, and the Asia Pacific region—both in-person and virtually. 

Described by audiences as pragmatic and engaging, Andrea provides a toolkit to increase trustworthiness in any stakeholder relationship that is both practical and provocative. Andrea addresses topics such as how to: 

- Develop business/sell with trust 

- Promote customer intimacy and client loyalty

- Apply the dynamics of influence to achieve results 

- Improve business relationships using all four variables of the trust equation 

- Deal with conflict in a trust-building way. 

When Andrea’s not working, you can find her in her art studio (aka the basement) taking far too long to finish her latest mosaic project, or looking forward to a future opportunity for partner dancing somewhere near her current home town of Annapolis, Maryland, USA.

 contact her: www.thegetrealproject.com

Timestamps

[00:02:03] Signed up for unused product, auto renewal, disputed charge.

[00:05:19] Missed opportunities, screw ups, transactional, low intimacy.

[00:08:27] Challenge self, beware of scarcity mindset, prioritize service.

[00:10:54] Trust challenges in business relationships and ghosting.

[00:14:46] Break the pattern, be daring, get noticed.

[00:20:45] Charlie's framework delves into building trust. 

[00:24:18] Rich, instructive content for CX leaders. Opportunity to emphasize core values, personalize offers.

[00:27:34] Trust is personal; build human connections.

[00:30:09] Personal risks build trust and credibility.

[00:33:35] Trust instincts, don't ignore unconventional ideas.

[00:35:33] Don't miss out, subscribe to our pod

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In order to design customer experiences that earn their trust and loyalty, companies must have a listening strategy. While a wide range of philosophies around customer listening, my guest has a theory that he's built a business on. What are some potential consequences for businesses if they fail to address current customer issues effectively? Matt Selbie believes that the gap business leaders are missing, that's costing them customer defection, is responding real time and closing the feedback gap immediately. He identifies the downturn in customer experience levels across industries and has a solution that can help and help now...and all customers need is their mobile phone. In this episode: - Hostile business environment and its impact on CX - Importance of quick feedback in CX strategy - High defection rates due to failure to address current issues - Customers ability to provide real time feedback at any point in their journey - Opiniator technology for real-time feedback using mobile phones Meet Matt Matt Selbie is the President and Founder of Oberon3 Here's a summary of his background:

• 20 years of international experience in the energy, retail, and software businesses.
• Successful strategic marketer with proven ability to grow revenues and brand equity. Managed internationally and domestically (US and Europe), services and product marketing, B2C and B2B, start up and mature businesses.
• Strong functional competencies, including market segmentation, brand positioning, customer feedback, consumer insights, product innovation, advertising development, media planning, financial analysis, P+L management, promotion effectiveness, go-to-market execution, and customer marketing.
• Managed a startup from inception, secured funding and brought to market.
• Was Managing Director for ConocoPhillips in Malaysia, developing our JV relationship and managing all Government affairs.
• Extensive operational experience in Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and USA, together with staff experience directing strategic brand development at a global level.

Website: https://opiniator.com/about-us-opiniator/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewselbie/

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I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to interview Tom DeWitt, the creator of the groundbreaking MSU CXM Masters of Science program, on my podcast. This program is the first of its kind, offering a comprehensive and in-depth curriculum for professionals in the field of customer experience management. Key Takeaways from the interview:

1️⃣ Bridging the skills gap: The MSU CXM Masters program was created to address the fragmented nature of the industry and provide professionals with the broad skill set necessary to effectively manage the customer experience. With 15 courses and 15 different faculty members, including industry practitioners and specialists, this program offers a comprehensive learning experience.

2️⃣ Team-Based Learning: Unlike traditional lecture-based teaching, the MSU program emphasizes interactive and engaging team-based learning. Students work on real-world case studies, collaborate with classmates, and learn from each other's expertise. The strong bonds formed among students create a supportive and enriching learning environment.

3️⃣ Access to industry leaders: With a faculty comprised of experienced practitioners, including VPs of CX, students in the MSU CXM Masters program have unparalleled access to professionals who have been there and done that. Learning from their insights and experiences adds immense value to the program.

If you have a passion for customer experience and are looking to enhance your skills, I highly recommend considering the MSU CXM Masters program. It's a game-changer in the industry, providing the knowledge and credentials needed to thrive in the field of customer experience management. For more information about the program, interested applicants and companies should visit https://broad.msu.edu/marketing/cxm/.

Here's some interesting research that supported the creation and launch of the new degreed program at MSU:

According to a survey conducted in the summer of 2020 with 160 decision makers that were provided with a description of the proposed MSU MS-CXM degree program, 87% indicated that it is important to hire employees that are experts in the field of customer experience management (CXM); 80% said they would be likely to give a raise to current employees who have obtained the degree; and 78% of US companies and 89% of international companies would be likely to hire students graduating from the program.

Similarly, a survey of 338 professionals working in CX conducted at the same time found that 87% of respondents indicated that CXM is critical to success; 85% were interested in a master’s degree in CXM; 63% would be likely to apply if the MSU MS-CXM degree were offered; and 44% of respondents that are extremely likely to pursue a master’s degree in the next 5 years would be extremely likely to apply to this MS-CXM degree.

Meet Tom DeWitt, Ph.D

Tom DeWitt, Ph.D. is the Director of CXM@MSU, an entity dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management (CXM), and a fixed-term faculty member in the Department of Marketing of the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. As the Director of CXM@MSU, Dr. DeWitt has created North America’s first academic program in customer experience management (Masters of Science in Customer Experience Management - MS-CXM) and hosts industry conferences twice each year for organizations to share best practices in CXM. 

For more than a decade Dr. DeWitt has also provided customer experience management

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Ian Golding ought to know a thing or two about the CX profession. He was a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and the very first Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP). He's the author of Customer What?, Keynote Speaker, and writer. He's written over 600 articles on CX and hosts International Customer Experience Awards all over the world. This episode is different because we didn't have any set agenda of what to talk about. We just explored some hard realities about the CX profession head on. I provides some deep insights about what CX leaders need to know and why they need to know it including:

• Problem: The 1st Step - Admit you have a problem
• Direction: Customer-led vs Product-led organization
• Trust: It's role in the corporate world
• Empathy: Why it's lacking in the CX profession
• Skeptics: Dealing with them in the "acknowledge phase"
• Facts: The importance of not basing CX on opinions
• Responsibilities: What CX leaders are 100% accountable for

And so much more! Contact info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iangolding/

Meet Ian Ian Golding is a Certified Customer Experience Professional and Customer Experience Specialist. A certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Ian has spent over twenty years in business improvement, working hard to ensure that the businesses he works for are as customer focused as possible. Ian spent 17 years working in a variety of corporate organisations, including The Royal Bank of Scotland, GE Commercial Finance, GE Reinsurance and Brake Brothers Foodservice. In his last permanent role as Head of Group Customer Experience, Ian developed and deployed the Customer Experience strategy for one of Europe’s largest online retailers – Shop Direct. In 2012, he became an independent consultant, delivering projects in over 50 countries worldwide in the automotive, financial services, logistics and utilities industries. Ian has continued to work with a plethora of businesses across several sectors, including the pharmaceutical, banking, professional services, retail, manufacturing, education and technology industries. Ian has published more than 600 articles on the subject and delivered keynote speeches globally. Ian also served on the inaugural board of Directors of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), of which he was a founder member. Ian was also the first person in the world to be authorised by the CXPA to teach the Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) accreditation. He is also the Course Director, Customer Experience for the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Ian hosts Customer Experience Award ceremonies around the world, including the UK, European, US, Turkey and International Customer Experience Awards. Ian’s first book was published in April 2018 – ‘Customer What?’ The honest and practical guide to Customer Experience’ – is already being well received by professionals around the world. In 2021, Ian was awarded the title of the number 1 influencer in Customer Experience in the UK by Customer Experience Magazine. Examples of companies Ian has worked with are:

• Pfizer
• AbbVie
• Alexion (Astra Zeneca)
• Boehringer Ingleheim
• Volvo
• Nedbank
• KCB Bank
• Erste Bank
• Budapest Bank
• Old Mutual Group
• Tata Steel
• Toyota
• General Electric
• Tetra Pak
• Weleda
• Cisco
• Thom

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Did you know that trusted companies outperform their peers by up to 400%? That customers who trust a brand are 88% more likely to buy again? And that 79% of employees who trust their employer who trust their employer are more motivated to work(and less likely to leave)? The importance of trust is at an all-time high - just as our inclination to trust is at an all time low, Join me and my special guest, Deloitte Digital Principle and co-author of the new book, The Four Factors of Trust for this episode of the Delighted Customers Podcast. We discuss the link between trust and customer loyalty including:

• How her scientific research unveiled four trust factors
• Why despite being universally recognized by employees as important, it's still a gap in most companies
• The tool that she and the co-author created, Trust ID and how it helps benchmark the 4 factors
• Interventions needed for low trust scores

PS - Yes there is a family relationship to the other Reichheld in the CX world : ) Meet Ashley Ashley is deeply passionate about making the experiences people have with companies feel more human and has spent nearly 20 years helping her clients reimagine brands and experiences. Ashley believes that building trust is the single greatest opportunity to create a competitive advantage. So she created the TrustID™ –a groundbreaking measurement tool poised to become the gold standard for evaluating organizational performance—to help companies measure, predict, and build trust with their customers, workforce, and partners. Ashley is the Wall Street Journal Best-Seller author of The Four Factors of Trust. After graduating from Wellesley College, Ashley has lived, worked or visited nearly every continent and over forty countries, building a strong sense of global citizenship. Ashley’s work and ideas have been featured in many publications and conferences, such as HBR, Bloomberg TV, SMR, The Wall Street Journal, AdWeek, Dreamforce, CES, and Fortune's Most Powerful Women, amongst others.

 Contact: areichheld@deloitte.com 

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Customer loyalty is the currency that sustains growth in almost any company. It means better business outcomes in key metrics like:

• Increased Revenues
• More Referrals
• Lower Cost to Serve
• Fewer Complaints
• Greater Forgiveness
• and much more.

The question Valerie Peck, long time CX luminary, thought leader, and Managing Director of SuiteCX and I explore is what role do loyalty programs play and what role should they play in earning customer loyalty that's more than transactional. In this episode, we explore some important questions such as: 1. How do loyalty programs impact customer behavior, and what are the emotional components at play in these programs? 2. What are the potential downsides of loyalty programs, and how can companies navigate these to maintain customer loyalty without negative impacts? 3. In what ways could companies strategically design loyalty programs to drive repurchase and revenue, while also maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty? Meet Valerie! Valerie is the Managing Director of SuiteCX by QuestionPro. She is a senior executive with several start ups under her belt. She has deep experience in the CEM space as well in developing new products/practices at companies such as Pacific Bell, KPMG, PwC and StorageTek. In 2022, under her leadership, SuiteCX was merged into the QuestionPro Group as a wholly owned business. Her focus as managing director remains as the main evangelist, cheer leader and deal-maker for SuiteCX. She has over 25 years experience in building new businesses and making them profitable. Contact info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-peck-4b143

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Dr. Stephanie Thum knows a thing or two about red tape. In fact, she just got her PhD in Red Tape Theory! In this episode, she provides a fresh perspective, discussing the pros and cons of red tape, and its elusive cousins, green and pink tape. Using these insights, we explore how these nuances can greatly impact customer experience and employees' engagement. In this episode:

• Red tape holds complexities: It has both its virtues, such as providing structure and thwarting fraud, but it can also lead to unnecessary impediments and sludge, ultimately leading to employee disengagement and customer dissatisfaction.
• Handling red tape: Increasing customer experience and reducing friction should be top priorities. Practices like human-centric design, tapping into the voice of the customer, and intensive data monitoring can help manage the burden of red tape efficiently. 
• Role of leadership: As roles change and evolve, leaders need to tune into the needs and perceptions of their followers. This could involve managing the negative effects of red tape, and ensuring effective communication to avoid potential blind spots.
• New buzzword in business: Sludge! It's about those friction-filled administrative processes that eat up time and money. Want to fight the sludge? Steph shares valuable insights 

Don't miss this insight-packed episode Meet Stephanie! I'm a senior professional with a proven track record as a customer experience practitioner and consultant, now part of SAP's global executive/board communication team. With roots in professional services business development, account teams, broadcasting, and content development, I've developed an expertise in customer- and business-oriented communication, leadership, and project management. My journey isn't limited to the global technology corporate world; I'm also a small business founder with experience in the non-profit and federal government settings. I recently completed a lifelong goal--to obtain a Ph.D. My research focused on global government administrative leaders' experiences with red tape frictions in their work. As a student I produced multiple pieces of peer-reviewed, published scholarship. These academic pursuits deepened my understanding of the intricacies of the human experience, organizational management, and extremely complex global leadership that I continue to apply to my professional endeavors.

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Colin Shaw is one of the original CX thought leaders and podcast host. He brings a fresh perspective to what drives customer loyalty and the "why" behind loyalty. He predicts memory maps will replace journey maps because of the difference between our experiencing-self and our remembering-self. This episode is packed with insights that leaders can use immediately including:

Colin Shaw is one of the original CX thought leaders and has authored seven bestselling books on customer experience. 

He brings a fresh perspective to what drives customer loyalty and the "why" behind loyalty. He predicts memory maps will replace journey maps because of the difference between our experiencing-self and our remembering-self. 

This episode is packed with insights that leaders can use immediately including:

1. Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Customer Experience by understanding and responding to customer emotions

2. Reorientation of Loyalty Perspectives - The criticality of emotional attachment over rational decision-making in driving loyalty

3. Memory & Experience in Customer Decision Making- Evaluation of past experiences and memories in shaping customer decisions

4. Why the implications of the peak/end rule should impact experience design 

5. The significance of designing customer experiences for evoking desired emotions

Meet Colin! Colin Shaw is an original pioneer of Customer Experience. LinkedIn has recognized him as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers‘, where he has over 292,000 followers and is one of the exclusive Top Voices which is the official LinkedIn influencer program. Colin’s company, Beyond Philosophy, LLC, has been recognized by the Financial Times as one of the leading management consultancies for the last four years. He is the co-host of the highly successful business podcast The Intuitive Customer, rated in the top 5% of all podcasts by BuzzSprout. He has also authored seven bestselling books on the subject of customer experience. Colin’s LinkedIn newsletter has over 70,000 subscribers.Colin is also a keynote speaker and commentator on CNN, BBC TV, NPR, LBC, and other media publications.

Before this, Shaw was a senior executive in one of the world’s largest telecoms companies, where he led 3,500 people in sales, marketing, and customer service.

Colin Shaw founded Beyond Philosophy in 2002 as one of the world’s first customer experience consultancies. Under his leadership, Beyond Philosophy has helped many of the world’s most prestigious organizations improve their customer experience, including American Express, FedEx, and Caterpillar. Using Beyond Philosophy’s methodology, the world’s largest container shipping company Maersk Line improved its Net Promoter Score®* by 40 points in 30 months, which gave a 10 percent rise in shipping volumes. 

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One of my favorite stories is The Fisherman's Dilemma. It's a tale of an angler who wants to bring a treasure trove of fish home to his loving wife and family. Although he uses every strategy and tactic, he discovers a whole in the bottom of the net. Regardless of his harvest, the hole stole his bounty. Customer acquisition is an important first step for organizations to prosper. But much like the fisherman in the story, unless you've got a strategy to engage customers beyond their initial onboarding, they will slip through the hole in the net. Join the CEO and Founder of SuiteCX, and CX thought leader Valerie Peck as she shares some insights on how to engage customers throughout their lifecycle including:

• The Importance of Customer Engagement
• Consistency across different customer touchpoints
• Influence of departmental and channel silos on engagement
• Importance of engaging and enabling employees
• Technology as an Enabler, Not the Solution

Valerie was featured in this Creating Emotional Connections: The Power of Loyalty Programs with Valerie Peck: https://qrcd.org/42Mn

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What if you 1 in 4 Americans relied on the experience you led? 60,000,000 Americans rely on AAA for their roadside assistance when things don't go as planned. Bryan Sander, CCXP MBA, leads customer experience for AAA and joins me on the Delighted Customers Podcast (episode will drop tomorrow). Bryan's advice for CX leaders interested in strategies for growing credibility? He's assembled a CX team of over people helping AAA deliver outstanding and consistently good experiences to their members. Bryan is one of the sharpest minds among CX practitioners who I've ever met. You will not want to miss a minute. Tons of practical insights from one of my favorite CX leaders including: 👉 Use of ROI models and financial tooling to show the CX impact 👉 Understanding how the Rider and the Elephant metaphor can help you influence decision-makers 👉 The Alien and Clark Kent 👉 Bryan's opinion of Fred Reichheld's Earned Growth Model Powerful!

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Elizabeth's professional journey is a tapestry woven with innovation, creativity, and dedication to enhancing the customer experience. With a career spanning over 18 years, including a significant tenure at the esteemed Chick-fil-A, Elizabeth's expertise has been sought after by illustrious brands such as Disney, Gap, and YMCA, as well as the Cooper Aerobics Center. As a serial entrepreneur, Elizabeth couples her business acumen with her artistic flair, notably stepping into the world of fashion as a pajama designer. Her passion for customer service culminated in authoring "The Power of Customer Experience," where she illuminates her insights through five pivotal elements designed to leave a lasting impact in the business sphere. Some of the practical tips from this episode include:

• How Chick-fil-A operationalizes CX
• The importance of care and Empowerment to business outcomes
• Leadership's role in building a customer-centric culture
• A victor mindset vs. a victim mentality
• Insights from her new book, The Strength of Purpose
• Lessons from cheerleading flops
• The power of "repotting"
• Her new line of comfy sleepwear

What a classy individual who has a seemingly endless amount of energy and inspiration! Meet Elizabeth Making the Daunting Doable

Elizabeth Dixon is an engaging business leader and serial entrepreneur connecting with executives and their teams, integrating strategy, innovation, leadership, and personal development in speeches that ignite conversation and inspire purposeful action.

She shares secrets to creating exceptional customer experiences for audiences world-wide at live events and through virtual video resources, consulting, and The Power of Customer Experience, her debut book outlining proven elements for lasting impact in what has become the most crucial component of business success.

Blessed to work for extraordinary brands including Disney World, Gap, YMCA, and Cooper Aerobics Center, mentored by renowned leaders including Dan Cathy and Horst Schulze, Elizabeth brings almost 20 years of experience as a leader at the Chick-fil-A Support Center, where she served in Service & Hospitality, Strategy, Research & Development, and Human Resources. She has also collaborated with the great brands of Southwest Airlines, Drury Hotels, Zappos, and Wegmans.

Always growing, always creating, Elizabeth’s current role is Executive Director of Trilith Foundation, reporting to Dan Cathy, Chairman of Chick-fil-A. She has founded, operated, and sold several small businesses while coaching emerging entrepreneurs toward success in achieving their business goals.

In her leisure time, Elizabeth enjoys being a student of cooking with her daughter, an average backyard soccer player with her son, a vigorous reader, and an adventure enthusiast with her family. https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethdixonspeaks/ Elizabeth Dixon bio - https://qrcd.org/45Oe www.slumbersleepwear.com https://vimeo.com/889308776

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Eckhart climbed through the ranks at Microsoft leveraging his background as an industrial engineer turned customer experience maestro. He sheds light on the transformative "jobs to be done" concept and how understanding the true gains, pains, and solutions can revolutionize how we approach customer satisfaction. We’ll also hear how Eckhart's method veers away from traditional journey maps to dissect the full 360-cycle of customer progress. With a deep dive into a real-world case study, we'll see how his process not only saves companies from costly missteps but also propels them towards delivering profound customer-centric solutions. In this episode: - What does it mean to focus on customer "jobs to be done" - Importance of understanding customer gains, pains, and solutions - Utilizing the "wheel of progress" for structured data capturing - Conducting and consolidating customer interviews - The five-step process to understand and prioritize customer jobs This outside-in approach to understanding customer desires to design and deliver improved experiences that connect to customers emotions is groundbreaking. Meet Eckhart Eckhart Boehme is the former Curriculum Architect Marketing Excellence @Microsoft Corporation. Eckhart is the founder and managing director of strategy consulting firm unipro solutions and an internationally recognized Jobs to Be Done expert. He was the initiator and co-developer of The Wheel of Progress® Canvas - a tool for structuring qualitative customer research. He is the developer the Customer Progress Design method. He was the subject matter expert to the German editions of the Jobs to Be Done "bible" Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen et. al. and Eric Ries' The Startup Way.

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The Three Dimensions of Customer Value Creation

Rob Markey ought to know a thing or two about customer loyalty. 

Rob was a CX expert and thought leader at Bain long before he and his colleague Fred Reichheld introduced Net Promoter to the world. 

He is a leader in Bain's Customer Customer Strategy and Marketing practice and the co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0 with Fred Reichheld.

This episode was originally intended as a deep dive on customer loyalty through the customer lifecycle for my Michigan State University Master's students but it was just too good to not share in an episode. 

As usual, Rob brings insights and wisdom to empower anyone interested in creating value for their customers starting with the three dimensions of value according Bain uses in their approach with clients. 

Also included in this episode:

👉 The 3 dimensions of value

👉 Examples of differentiating from competitors through unique features and exceptional customer service

👉 How different dimensions of value are weighed differently at various customer lifecycle stages

👉 Focusing on revenue and cost forecasting in a language understood by stakeholders

👉 Copying versus learning and synthesizing from others

👉 Warning against going down a technology or data-led path without clear goals

👉 Empirical evidence on NPS as a predictor of a company's growth rate

and a whole lot more, so much so that we had to break it into two episodes. 

Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss Part 2 and insights from future episodes.

Meet Rob Rob Markey is a leader in Bain’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice. He joined our firm in 1990, and has led assignments in the financial services, telecommunications, retailing, media, professional services, health care, building equipment and food processing industries.

Rob is an expert in customer and employee loyalty, new product development and customer service strategies. He has extensive experience with direct marketing, new customer acquisition and cost reduction for clients in the retail banking, credit card and insurance businesses. 

Rob leads the NPS Loyalty Forum, a group of approximately 35 senior executives from loyalty-leading companies around the world, such as The Vanguard Group, American Express, JetBlue, Telstra, TD Bank, LEGO, Progressive Insurance, PwC and Intuit. He has published numerous articles on various aspects of customer experience and loyalty in publications such as the Harvard Business Review. He is the co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World, by Harvard Business Review Press, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Rob is also the host of The Customer Confidential Podcast.

He formerly served as head of the firm’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice.

Prior to joining Bain, he developed competitive strategy, led business development and served in product marketing for LEXIS/NEXIS and the IBM Corporation.

Rob earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a graduate of Brown University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. 

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What are some of the most common mistakes that leaders make when it comes to customer loyalty? Join customer and employee loyalty expert, NPS co-inventor, co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0, and world renown CX thought leader, Rob Markey in Part 2 of our conversation on value, loyalty, and loyalty programs. In this episode: - Common loyalty pitfalls - The impact of broken trust on loyalty - Where Southwest and Delta Airlines misstepped and broke loyalty - Link between rational, experiential, and emotional aspects of customer evaluation - How the three lens we use to assess value work together If you haven't already listened to Part 1, I highly encourage you to do so. Meet Rob Rob Markey is a leader in Bain’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice. He joined our firm in 1990, and has led assignments in the financial services, telecommunications, retailing, media, professional services, health care, building equipment and food processing industries.

Rob is an expert in customer and employee loyalty, new product development and customer service strategies. He has extensive experience with direct marketing, new customer acquisition and cost reduction for clients in the retail banking, credit card and insurance businesses. 

Rob leads the NPS Loyalty Forum, a group of approximately 35 senior executives from loyalty-leading companies around the world, such as The Vanguard Group, American Express, JetBlue, Telstra, TD Bank, LEGO, Progressive Insurance, PwC and Intuit. He has published numerous articles on various aspects of customer experience and loyalty in publications such as the Harvard Business Review. He is the co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World, by Harvard Business Review Press, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. Rob is also the host of The Customer Confidential Podcast.

He formerly served as head of the firm’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice.

Prior to joining Bain, he developed competitive strategy, led business development and served in product marketing for LEXIS/NEXIS and the IBM Corporation.

Rob earned an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is a graduate of Brown University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. 

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Imagine a world where AI not only understands but acts on unsolicited customer and employee conversations, tapping into a treasure trove of data — from contact center chats to doctor's scribbles. Leslie Pagel is a CX thought leader who led organizations across industries in CX strategy during her 20 plus years at Walker. Now she's helping healthcare organizations provide better experiences by empowering them to tell stories with data. We talk about ways that AI can be used to tell stories that simply couldn't be captured without the technology that's available today. In this episode:

• Utilization of machine learning to identify customer care frictions
• Processing of unstructured data like doctor notes and health records
• The Role of Storytelling in Data Presentation
• AI's role in improving healthcare strategies
• The Future of Surveys in Customer Insights

Hear Leslie share her mission of leveraging AI to help humans understand humans. Meet Leslie Leslie Pagel is the Chief Evangelist of Authenticx – a conversational AI company dedicated to improving the way healthcare companies engage with patients and customers. In this role, she creates awareness, across the healthcare industry, of more efficient and effective ways for healthcare organizations to leverage the authentic customer voice to achieve the desired health and business outcomes. With over two decades of working with customer and patient experience teams, Leslie helps clients actualize the voice of the customer to show how these voices prompt meaningful action. Here’s a link to Conscious Capitalism: https://www.consciouscapitalism.org/

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How could you leverage AI to earn growth from customer referrals? Andy Cockburn, CEO of Mention Me, took his knowledge and experience of working with Bain and with Fred Reichheld during the infancy phase of NPS's launch to create an AI tool that does just that. The Earned Growth Model, advocated by Reichheld in Winning on Purpose, posits a very specific point of differentiation from other growth models. It states that the customers who love you the most are where you can mine the most future growth. But how? Andy unveils how he pioneered a model to translate into customer love into earned growth. In this episode: 

• Importance of Earned Growth and Referral Programs
• Leveraging earned growth as a vital metric for success
• Optimizing Customer Journeys for Advocacy
• Insights gained from referral networks about customer behavior
• The Concept of Extended Customer Revenue
• Using AI to assess customer propensity to refer and predict revenue
• Relying on advocacy for organic growth and stronger business relationships

...and so much more This episode is packed with gems! Meet Andy! Andy Cockburn is CEO and Co-Founder of Mention Me, the Customer Advocacy platform empowering brands to turn fans into a powerful growth driver. Since co-founding the business in 2013, he’s scaled Mention Me to employ more than 120 advocacy experts who have delivered over USD $2.2bn in revenue for more than 500 clients, including Puma, Charlotte Tilbury, Michael Kors and other major brands worldwide.

Prior to Mention Me, Andy was the UK Managing Director of VRBO, the world's largest market-place for vacation rentals (that floated on the NASDAQ for $3bn), and formerly the founder and CEO of Wigadoo, a technology start-up in the social payment space. He has an MBA from INSEAD and MA from Cambridge University. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andycockburn/

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How would you rate your emotional intelligence? It turns out that the core of any successful customer experience initiative is deeply intertwined with the capacity and willingness of employees to communicate effectively. Emotional intelligence is a fundamental skill when it comes to communication. Sandra Thompson is an EI expert and ranks as a top 10 Emotional Intelligence leaders on LinkedIn. She joined me on The Delighted Customers Podcast to help leaders navigate EI and understand the very real impact EI has on the customer experience, and ultimately employee and customer engagement. "You have to put in the work!" Sandra says. "Some may be able to do it (improve their EI) on their own...while others may need an accountability coach to hold the mirror up and ask them tough questions." Sandra shares practical suggestions that business leaders can implement right away to lift their emotional intelligence personally and organizationally. Here are some of the highlights included in this episode:5 tips for improving emotional intelligence 

• 5 Tips to Improve Emotional Intelligence
• Emotional intelligence and it's connection to CX
• The Jellybean Game and the importance of visceral customer experiences
• The impact of bad customer experiences and the inflection point for loyalty
• The practice of gratitude and its impact on starting the day positively

This episode is rich with ideas and insights and I love the British accent! Meet Sandra! Sandra Thompson is the first Goleman Emotional Intelligence Coach in the UK. She started out as a Customer Experience consultant in 2010 when she founded Exceed all Expectations, a management consultancy focusing on improving customer and employee experience. Sandra rebranded as The Ei Evolution in Jan 2021 because she believes that the skill of emotional intelligence can transform the way businesses behave, improve the relationships between customer and employee and between colleagues too. She is still working in the field of customer experience but the new brand enables Sandra to work more with schools – she believes that teaching young people how to become more emotionally intelligent could help them thrive. 

Sandra has been fortunate to work with clients such as: Vodafone, Arsenal Football Club, Waitrose, Open University, Battersea Dog & Cats home, and Network Rail. She gives keynotes and frequently presents on webinars and podcasts to an international audience on all matters CX, EX and EI. Sandra has been fortunate to lecture part-time at a Business School in London on the topics of People Management and Leadership and Professional Behaviours and Customer Management and she runs a series of postgraduate courses in Customer Experience and Emotional Intelligence. She presented her first academic paper in 2019, TEDx in 2020, and intends to start a PhD in 2025. It’s true to say that she’s a lifelong learner. 

Recommended Book: Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl - https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl-ebook/dp/B009U9S6FI Here is the reference to the cards:

https://www.ridersandelephants.com/the-emotional-culture-deck-pdf-download

 Lisa Feldman Barrett link for her publications: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com 

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Listen for some insights that provide a fresh perspective on how to overcome the challenges CX leaders face. We uncovered why being a trusted guide is more impactful than a heroic leader and how to prove your value through a winning CX roadmap. My guest, Patty Soltis, shared priceless insights on gaining influence, and I revealed my own journey of overcoming stakeholder resistance. If you're a CX leader looking to elevate your game, you'll hear useful tips and get a sneak peak at The Trusted Guide Roadmap™ Master Class. In this episode, Patty Soltis, CCXP and I explore:

• The roadblocks that impede and often derail customer experience efforts
• How lack of trust is a silent killer to real change 
• Why some stakeholders may be resistant to your recommendations
• The 4 keys that help CX professionals and other change agents overcome common obstacles: 
• Earning Trust
• Becoming a Guide
• Building Your CX Roadmap
• Proving the Value

Patty Soltis is a Senior Customer Experience Manager at Upwork, the world’s work marketplace that connects businesses with independent talent from across the globe. Patty's experience includes a CX leadership role at The Moffitt Cancer Center, Neiman Marcus, Lord and Taylor and more. Patty can be reached here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pattysoltis/

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Employee experience and customer experience outcomes are inextricably linked. That data (going back to the Service Profit Chain) provides evidence of that correlation. But there's a lot of confusion about the difference between employee experience and employee engagement and the impact that each has on CX. Employee Engagement is too often overlooked in terms of it's importance to the customer experience and financial performance. In this episode with Employee Engagement expert, Mary Poppen, President, Employee Experience Division, HRizons, and Professor of Practice, CXM Master's program at Michigan State University, unpacks how to get to the magical state where "contagious enthusiasm and customer intimacy live." Also in this episode:

• Defining and differentiating employee experience and engagement
• Avoiding Engagement Pitfalls: Learn how to navigate common mistakes like uniform incentive structures and insufficient listening channels that undermine true connection with your workforce.
• Building Virtual Bridges: In a remote work era, one-on-one meetings are more than just touchpoints; they are lifelines that foster support and connection amidst isolation.
• The Intimacy Factor**: Explore how trust and understanding in professional relationships enhance recognition and nurture a supportive work environment.

Meet Mary Mary Poppen is President of HRIZONS Employee Experience and Professor of Practice at Michigan State University teaching in the Customer Experience Management (CXM) Master’s Degree program. She is also a CS Angel investor. Prior to her current focus, Mary was Glint’s Chief Customer Officer at LinkedIn and Chief Customer Officer for SAP’s Global Cloud business before that. Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and has over 20 years of customer delivery, business consulting and executive leadership experience. She is a well-recognized customer and employee experience thought leader, speaking at global events and authoring several publications in this space. She recently published a book entitled “Goodbye, Churn. Hello, Growth!” In addition to her current roles, Mary enjoys serving as a Board Advisor and executive coach, and has a passion for giving back through female mentorship programs. In her spare time, Mary enjoys traveling with her husband and two sons, playing Pickleball, and wine-tasting with friends.

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