Often Imitated: CX Stories from History: Recent Episodes
Caspian Studios
What can history’s unique experiences teach us about modern customer experience? On this podcast, we examine moments from the past – from Woodstock in 1969 to Edison’s first light bulb to the Pringles can – that have been often imitated but never duplicated.
Sunset Boulevard is considered to be one of the best movies of all time. But it was almost an abject failure. What ended up being a saving grace to the creators Billy Wilder and Charles Bracket was going directly to their viewers and hearing their feedback. And in their case…it was brutal. But going straight to their customers was their saving grace—and it might be yours too.
Today’s guest, Ruben Harris, is the CEO of Career Karma, and he knows the secret to great CX is engaging directly with customers. In this episode, he’ll share how Career Karma is revolutionizing people’s lives, building trust with users, prioritizing customer input, and much more.
“If you're trying to rehaul your CX, you have to take calls yourself and actually talk to your users.” - Ruben Harris
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Lights, Camera, CX
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(5:12) What is Career Karma?
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(7:54) How Career Karma helps people
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(10:31) Putting trust at the center of CX
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(14:24) The importance of speaking with customers
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Ruben on LinkedIn
Check out Career Karma
The cupholder is an often-overlooked feature of a vehicle. But what else will willingly hold a drink, your phone, garbage, a perfectly-sized burrito, or your wallet? That’s right, your local cupholder. Now taken for granted, it was once a novel idea that came directly from customers. When CX leaders at Sears realized the weight of their customers’ opinions mattered a bit more than the C-Suite, they changed the cupholder game forever.
Our guest today, Dakota Semler, Co-Founder and CEO of Xos Trucks, dives deep into the importance of weighing customer feedback. He and his team have completely revolutionized the trucking industry, and it’s because they put the customer first.
“You don't need to make engineering, product decisions, or customer experience decisions by committee, but you need a committee to listen to that feedback and incorporate it back into your processes.” - Dakota Semler
Time Stamps
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(0:00) How cupholders changed the world
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(5:49) What is Xos Trucks?
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(7:38) The modern-day fleet operator experience
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(10:54) Decarbonizing transportation
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(12:35) Designing CX for your end user
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(13:52) Approaching weighted feedback
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Dakota on LinkedIn
Check out Xos Trucks
Baseball has been at the heart of American culture for almost 150 years. Giving us icons like Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and most importantly, Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. But behind the bravado of men in capris, is a marketing powerhouse. Today we’re doing a deep dive into baseball marketing. Starting with Charles Finley from the 60’s and 70’s to today’s guest, Adam Grossman, CMO of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports. He shares how social media has changed sports marketing, how to be bold and change centuries-old institutions, how to experiment with your marketing, and so much more.
“You have to push yourself to be a little bit nervous and push the envelope, because if you play it safe the whole time—you're just going to have safe results.” - Adam Grossman
Time Stamps
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(0:00) What a donkey can teach us about CX
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(8:20) An inside look at what the CMO of a major league baseball team does
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(11:41) Social media’s impact on CX
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(15:58) Tackling the green monster
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(18:05) Experimenting with the City Connect Jersey
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Adam on LinkedIn
Check out the Red Sox
We all love a guilty pleasure. From reality TV to Britney Spears to a 1am trip to your favorite fast food restaurant. Maybe you enjoy all three of those! There’s nothing wrong with that and here at Often Imitated we will always be team #FreeBritney.
What all of these have in common is that they form consumers' experiences and emotions into creating lasting memories. No one understood that more than Pete Harman when he coined the phrase “Finger-Licking Good!” for KFC except maybe today’s guest. In this episode, we’re speaking with Bob Kraut and he has been the mastermind behind all of your favorite guilty pleasures. As the former CMO of Arby’s, Pizza Hut, and Captain D’s, he has revolutionized the way we as customers interact with fast food. Today, he’s the CMO of Billy Jealousy and will help us get our brands locked into the minds of our customers. So pull through that drive through, click play, and enjoy!
“The key to excellent customer experience is to create behaviors and experiences for customers that build memories.” - Bob Kraut
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Finger-licking good CX
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(6:45) Background on Bob's extraordinary career
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(8:35) Promising a great CX and how to follow through
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(12:04) How Bob revolutionized Arby's
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(15:00) How your brand outweighs your product
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Bob on LinkedIn
Check out Billy Jealousy
His Airness. Mike. MJ. All names that represent the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. When he rocked the now infamous Air Jordans in the 1985 Slam Dunk Contest, he changed the shoe game forever. His sneakers had been banned from the NBA, and subsequently became the world’s next obsession. How he turned wearing shoes into an entire empire and one of the best customer experiences of all time, is something else all together.
Someone else who’s turned the mundane into a one-of-a-kind experience is today’s guest, Andy Pearson. He’s the Vice President of Creative at Liquid Death, and he and his team have changed how the world drinks water. From selling your soul to tattooing your face…their CX might make a customer say, in the words made famous from Micheal Jordan’s hit film Space Jam…”I believe I can fly.” Today, we’ll find out how.
“Our customer experience is the brand. From the moment you interact with us, you’re in the ecosystem.” - Andy Pearson
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Michael Jordan: the king of CX
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(7:00) Liquid Death explained to those who haven’t sold their souls
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(10:13) How hating marketing builds exceptional CX
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(12:37) Making CX your brand
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Andy on LinkedIn
Check out Liquid Death
This podcast was produced by the team at Caspian Studios. Learn more at Caspianstudios.com
Few rooms offer more emotional support than the modern bathroom. Bad date? Excuse yourself to the restroom. Need to make friends with other people in your college dorm? Funny enough, bathroom. Went a little too hard at the company offsite? Better hope you’re not running into your VP in the loo.
But the bathroom used to be far less thrilling. Hundreds of years ago, it was a pot in the corner. And before that? Idk…a bush? But one man decided that pots were gross and he was going to add some dignity back into going to the restroom. John Harington took the world of plumbing by storm and invented the flushable toilet. But why haven’t you heard of him? All that and more in today’s episode.
Today, we’re talking with Dave Fink about how he too took on a thousand year old industry. As Co-Founder and CEO of Postie, Dave changed the way modern marketers approach direct mail. In this episode, he shares how mail can take your marketing campaigns to the next level, how to leverage modern technology on ancient mediums, how CX can improve your marketing, and much more.
“If you take a CX approach to your entire marketing stack, then you end up building a deep understanding with your prospects and customers.” - Dave Fink
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The troublemaker, the Queen, and their toilet
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(8:03) What is Postie?
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(10:55) Why CX leaders shouldn't underestimate direct mail
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(12:28) Modernizing ancient history
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(14:17) The Postie Customer Experience
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(18:15) Taking a CX approach to marketing
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Dave on LinkedIn
Check out Postie
Title: A Guide to Simple CX with Joe Burton, CEO, TeleSign
Tagline: Put your CX on the elevator to success.
Episode Summary Field/Episode Notes Field (Simplecast)
Maybe you’ve noticed a common thread in every elevator you’ve ridden. They often seem to have a single name branded on the inside: Otis. Now, maybe you weren’t a child fixated on elevators and your caregivers didn’t ask you to stop pointing this out. But on the off chance you were, do we have the episode for you. When Elisha Otis entered the elevator industry in the mid 1800s, they were novel and dangerous. So he invented a way for them to become simple and secure: the elevator brake. From there, the world would be changed forever.
When it comes to simple and secure, no one understands it better than Joe Burton, CEO of TeleSign. Putting in the extra work to make sure his customers are more protected than ever is the perfect recipe for a simple CX. And today, he shares those insights with us. It’s a ride you don’t want to miss.
“If you go the extra mile, they'll stay at your website the extra minute.” - Joe Burton
Time Stamps
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(0:00) How the elevator impacts your CX
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(6:36) What is TeleSign
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(8:24) How peace of mind betters CX
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(11:18) Safety and simplicity in the gaming industry
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(16:11) The intersection of technology and humans
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Joe on LinkedIn
Check out TeleSign
The Space Race was a time of exciting development in science and technology. Did Neil and Buzz actually land on the moon? Who are we to say? (Kidding!) But what we do know is that the push to leave Earth’s atmosphere drove huge advancements in the technology of the time. One of the key lessons we can learn from The Apollo Missions is that with wildly important goals come impressive feats. And that extends to your customer experience philosophy.
Today, we’re hearing from Abakar Saidov, Co-Founder and CEO of Beamery, about how huge goals can launch your organization’s CX into the stratosphere. He shares insights on how to reframe talent acquisition, having data-backed CX, addressing CX fringe cases, and much more.
"What our business has been doing is not just building much better workflows for the organization, but actually equipping them with the AI and the skills to be able to do that." - Abakar Saidov
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Neil’s one small step for CX
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(5:13) Beamery’s north stars (not a space pun)
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(7:09) Talent acquisition during the pandemic
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(8:20) A new way to look at hiring
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(11:35) Beamery’s stance on data-based CX
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(14:20) Focusing on the CX outliers
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(15:34) Transforming your company’s CX
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Abakar on LinkedIn
Check out Beamery
Listen to The Talent Blueprint Podcast
Arrested Development. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Firefly. What do these three shows have in common? Well, for starters, people apparently are pretty fed up with hearing correct opinions on how superior these shows are to everything else on TV! And secondly, they were famously canceled. Low ratings are fear of all creative projects (please leave a 5 star review below!), and the grim reaper in charge of delivering them is the all powerful Nielsen. A revolutionary during the Great Depression, Arthur Nielsen pioneered the data surrounding ratings as we know them today. He’s allowed companies to make data-based decisions regarding their work for nearly a century, and that’s just what your CX needs.
Today’s guest, Jodie Jansen, is the Chief Customer Officer of Mediafly. She brings data to the forefront of CX and helps her team and customers make data-based decisions. And today, she’ll teach you how to do the same.
“Don’t guess about the health of your customers, quite frankly, don’t guess about the health of your team. Don’t take for granted or don’t take at face value that a deal is going the right way or a customer is healthy because someone said it was. Rely on the data to be able to give you those insights.” - Jodie Jansen
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Arthur Nielsen’s guide to data-driven CX
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(6:31) What is Mediafly?
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(7:39) Making CX the heart of your business
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(9:13) The secret to data-driven CX
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(13:55) How to find the right people to work with
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Jodie on LinkedIn
Check out Mediafly
When Peter Roget was faced with tragedy he did what all of us hope to do—he turned it into triumph. When life gave him lemons he didn’t just make lemonade. Instead, he invented a water filtration system to make all of London’s lemonade more hygienic. From mastering medicine to inventing a pocket chessboard Peter was one of the original “jack of all trades”. But one of his biggest accomplishments, successes, and achievements was creating the first ever thesaurus.
When it comes to creating opportunity out of adversity, Peter did it more than anyone. A company doing the same today is Birdeye. David Lehman, the President and COO of Birdeye, joins us to talk about how your biggest struggles can become your company’s greatest successes. And how CX is the first step in that journey, expedition, and endeavor.
“Happy customers are so much better at promoting my brand than anybody else can be. ” - David Lehman
Time Stamps
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(0:00) History of the thesaurus, wordfinder, wordbook
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(7:19) What is Birdeye?
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(9:07) Utilizing bad reviews
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(11:09) The secret to referrals
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with David on LinkedIn
Check out Birdeye
Left-handed people have spent their lives adapting to a right-handed world. Some were forced to switch to their right hands others were cursed with a life of uncomfortable scissors and smudged writing. But in 1970s San Francisco, a hero emerged. Pier 39 had a new store opening called Lefty’s. It would meet all the needs of this niche (niche?) customer group. But then one day…it all disappeared.
In this episode, we’re tackling some major subjects. First, how to correctly pronounce niche. And second, how to find your target audience who’ll become obsessed with your company. Our guest, Ineta Jekabsone-Kempela, Global Customer Service Director at Printful, brings insight into finding the perfect customer, creating subtle yet effective CX, and what reality TV can teach us about customer experience.
“Only one third of CX is actual physical experience—the other two thirds are about emotions.” - Ineta Jekabsone-Kempela
Time Stamps
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(0:00) A left-handed utopia
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(5:06) What is Printful?
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(6:11) Who’s your target audience?
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(7:45) Printful’s CX
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(10:22) How to find your niche
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(12:03) Creating an undetectable CX
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Ineta on LinkedIn
Check out Printful
The phrase “return to work” sparks up a lot of emotions these days. We’ve all grown accustomed to pets on video calls, taking meetings in pajamas, and rogue child interruption. Giving that up to go back to the office can make us feel a bit conflicted. Especially if you have to return to a dreary, gray, dull, cubicle. When Robert Propst invented the Action Office back in the 1960s, he had no idea they’d devolve into corporate melancholy.
Today’s guest, Amy Yin, Founder and CEO of OfficeTogether, is battling the sadness of cubicles everyday. She and her team work tirelessly to make offices fun and engaging again. In today’s episode, you’ll learn how the office has evolved over the years, and how it’s impacted the way we interact with customers.
“Companies are walking a very fine line right now between too much choice and flexibility and not enough camaraderie and fun.” - Amy Yin
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The intersection of Dilbert and CX
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(5:30) What is OfficeTogether?
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(7:45) The nuances of going back to the office
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(10:10) Their Customer Experience
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(12:44) How to keep in touch with customers
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(14:53) What makes a great customer experience
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Amy on LinkedIn
Check out OfficeTogether
Humans have cared for dogs for over 30,000 years. Are puppies universally the best? Is Caspian Studios staunchly positioned as “dogs are better than cats”? Yes, to both. But it wasn’t until the 1920s when the human/dog relationship exponentially changed. When Morris Frank first met Buddy, he knew his life was forever changed. As The Seeing Eye program brought guide dogs to thousands of people, CX leaders saw a lesson to be learned.
CX leaders try to get ahead of their customer’s problems and face them head on. Today’s guest, Ty Smith, Founder and CEO of CommSafe AI, makes a living off of protecting customers before things escalate. To learn more about how he and his team can protect you too, click play.
“You should be glued to your customer’s hip.” - Ty Smith
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The CX Buddy system
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(7:57) The story of Ty and CommSafe AI
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(10:04) Why this work is important
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(13:06) The pros of robotic reporting
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(14:05) How to deliver great CX solutions
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Ty on LinkedIn
Check out CommSafe AI
It’s Friday night, the work week is over, and you’re looking to unwind. Do you want to be the type of person who orders whiskey? Sure. But at the end of the day nothing will get you in the party mood like a Mai Tai. Here at Caspian Studios, we advise that you drink responsibly…we also advise that you find your closest Mai Tai and let your hair down.
Just like the perfect mixtures of a cocktail, your customer experience is a delicate balance. Our guest today, Jake Reichert, VP of Engineering at Yotascale, has the secret ingredient to making CX perfection: engineers. In this episode, he shares how bringing engineers into your customer experience improves metrics across the board.
"Get engineers on customer calls as much as possible. It leaves a lasting impression and makes engineers care more about their product." - Jake Reichert
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Mai Tais are your secret CX ingredient
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(7:17) What is Yotascale
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(10:11) The engineering behind your CX
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(14:35) Shifting to your customer's perspective
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(18:28) Making engineers your secret ingredient
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Jake on LinkedIn
Check out Yotascale
When it comes to buying a new computer, there’s a checklist we use to see if it’ll work for us. We think about all the different components that come together to build the final product and figure out if it has the right CPU, processing power, and RAM. But at the end of the day…does it really matter if you’re just using it to send emails and watch cat videos? Well, Andy Grove and Dennis Carter at Intel think so. When they launched the “Intel Inside” campaign in 1991, suddenly people started caring about microchips and what their computers ran on. And that ingredient branding campaign continues to influence buying decisions today. Can our marketing campaigns do the same?
Today’s episode features an interview with Kimberly Shenk, Co-Founder and CEO of Novi Connect. She works to make brands more transparent with their customers and is a champion of ingredient branding. She shares all the secrets of why in order to have a successful brand you need to be more open with your customers. Click ‘play’ and find out how.
"Telling authentic stories to your consumers isn’t a trend—it's a requirement." - Kimberly Shenk
Time Stamps
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(0:00) How ingredient branding changed how you burn the midnight oil
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(8:53) The story of Novi Connect
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(10:34) The secrets to getting your customers to trust you
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(12:41) The data behind ingredient marketing
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(14:24) Novi Connect’s customer journey
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(17:42) Why you need ingredient branding
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Kimberly on LinkedIn
Check out Novi Connect
When it comes to focus groups—we’ve seen it all. From testing out yogurts to reacting to political campaigns, focus groups come in all shapes and sizes. However, they weren’t always the bastion of a free bag of chips and low quality bottled water that they are today. The first ever focus group was done to study the effectiveness of propaganda to enlist more Americans in the fight against the Nazis. And it was…rough to say the least. Luckily, it provides us with a helpful lens into what makes an effective focus group, and so does today’s guest.
Javier Santana, Co-Founder of Launch, shares how you can best leverage research and focus groups to your advantage. He dives into what priorities you should have, how you need to evolve with your customers, and much more.
"If you don’t listen to your customers—you have the opportunity to fail." - Javier Santana
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The dos and don’ts of WWII propaganda
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(7:16) What is Launch?
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(8:27) How to evolve alongside your customers
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(10:46) Your guide to successful research
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(12:48) How to improve your customer relationships
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(16:13) Identifying what your priorities should be
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Javier on LinkedIn
Check out Launch
We’ve all had moments where we’ve been a little too obsessed with a movie, celebrity, or sports team. A moment when we take a step back and go “wait…did I really think dressing up like Hannah Montana for a week at school would make Miley Cyrus notice me?” (not based on true events!!). Obsessing over our passions has been a staple part of pop culture for centuries, and Berlin in the 1840s was no different. Franz Liszt was taking the world by storm, and people were losing their minds. But how did he capitalize on their fandom? And more importantly, how can we capture that same energy and dedication as it relates to our customers? Today we’ll find out.
In this episode, we’re talking with Doug Neil, Chief Marketing and Branding Officer at Chronicle. He’s revolutionizing the world of NFTs and helping you put them in the hands– well, computers– of your customers. As the previous Executive Vice President of Global Digital Marketing and Media at Universal Studios, Doug has been giving fans what they crave since Jurassic World and Fast and the Furious. And today, he’s sharing all his secrets.
"We are at the precipice of a revolution in the collecting world." - Doug Neil
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Lisztomania: not just a hit single from 2009
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(5:54) What actually is an NFT?
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(7:21) Chronicle’s story
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(9:01) What makes an NFT special?
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(10:34) Why your brand should get into NFTs
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(21:32) How you can enter the NFT world
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Doug on LinkedIn
Check out Chronicle
Santa Claus stops by the studio to share his best advice for a successful CX (Christmas Experience). Have a great holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year!
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at
Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Does your dog lose its mind when Saturday morning rolls around and you start vacuuming your home? Is your cat in an endless power struggle with your Roomba? Well, turns out you have two people to blame for that...and today we’re finding out how much their vacuum wars sucked.
In the battle to create the first vacuum, it was actually a battle of accessorizing. Who could help you reach high places? Could this attachment reach under the couch? Are there different settings for hardwood or carpet? Accessories are everything when it comes to creating the perfect vacuum. But that’s true for products across the board. Accessories can bring your CX to the next level, and today’s guest knows exactly how to do it. Christopher Maiwald, Founder and Managing Director of Wasserstein Home and Lectron, does a deep dive into accessories and how you can give your CX the extra boost to delight your customers.
"Rarely do people come out with a hit product the first time around, so get comfortable with failure—get comfortable with iterating many, many times over." - Christopher Maiwald
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The vacuum wars
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(5:50) The genius of Wasserstein Home and Lectron
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(7:58) What makes accessories crucial to CX?
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(8:41) The secret to understanding negative feedback
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(9:51) Working with Google Nest
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(11:58) Making accessories accessible
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn
Check out Wasserstein Home
Check out Lectron
Before 1959, little girls played with baby dolls to prepare them for motherhood and caregiving. But Ruth Handler knew girls needed a doll that could challenge their imaginations to dream bigger. And so Barbie was born. Whether she’s rocking an astronaut’s suit or a business power suit, the infamous Barbie is always confident and poised to take on the world. With over a billion Barbies sold, her confidence has empowered millions of children over the past 60 years to go after their dreams.
Giving our customers confidence is one of our most important charges as CX leaders. Barbie’s makers at Mattel knew this, and so does Ron Schneidermann, CEO of AllTrails. He and his team work to empower everyone, from “indoor people” to outdoor enthusiasts, to take on the outdoors. What can we do to harness that empowering energy for our own customer experience? Let’s find out.
"The key is using technology to find the right trail for you, then to go out and explore with confidence." - Ron Schneidermann
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The unmatched impact of Barbie
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(8:13) The beauty of AllTrails
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(12:06) Handling virtual trail upkeep
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(14:59) A terrifying board meeting
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(19:09) How to best connect with your users
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Ron on LinkedIn
Check out AllTrails
When Joe Sutter was faced with a difficult problem, he got to do what all of us dream of doing...he got to assign his problem to someone else. He was approached by his bosses to create the world’s first jumbo jet, and he was stumped. So he went against his basic instincts and approached his fellow Boeing engineers, customers, and stakeholders, and asked for help.
Joe put trust in others, and innovation ensued. And that’s what we need to facilitate with our customers as well. Danielle Harris, Managing Director of Engagement & Innovation at Elemental Excelerator, is doing just that. She and her team work with climate startups to address climate change—which automatically demands a high level of trust. Let’s find out how she does it.
"The reality is climate change is coming and we need climate solutions." - Danielle Harris
Time Stamps
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(0:00) What it took to get the first jumbo jet off the ground
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(5:46) What is Elemental Excelerator?
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(9:04) Who are their cohorts?
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(13:08) The nuances of customer relationships
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(16:18) The technological valley of death
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn
Check out Elemental Excelerator
Telethons are an iconic part of the TV experience. Seeing the donation total rise while a whole variety show plays out for hours on end is a unique form of entertainment. But putting the gimmicks aside, telethons do a great job of depicting the delicate balance of chaos and order when it comes to managing multiple calls at the same time. And that’s a balance CX leaders work to navigate every day in their contact centers.
Today, we’re doing a deep dive into contact centers. We’re going to find out what the biggest pain points are in managing one, and how to successfully run yours. Tim McDougal, Managing Director of Deloitte Consulting, and Contact Center Offering Leader at Deloitte Digital, shares how they’re leading the way in creating the best contact centers in the industry. And luckily for us, he shares all his insights in today’s episode.
"Contact centers are the face of your organization." - Tim McDougal
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Stage lights and turkey legs
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(6:54) Deloitte’s view of contact centers
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(10:26) The Global Contact Center Survey
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(13:42) Personalizing your contact center CX
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(17:59) How to have the best customer experience at your contact center
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn
Check out Deloitte
Returning a purchase can be incredibly frustrating. Whether it’s printing off a return slip or driving back to the store—it’s just annoying. But in a remote locale like Fairbanks, Alaska, returns are even more of a pain. So, in 1975, when the not-so-local Nordstrom was faced with a bizarre return, they had to decide what to do: refuse the absurd request, or go above and beyond for the customer?
Today we’re learning about what makes a great return policy, and the impact it has on CX. We’ll hear from Nathan Hecht, Founder and CEO of Rodo, who shares his philosophy on refunds and why your return policy can make or break the sale.
"The vocal customers are the customers that you're going to learn the most from. Whether they're telling you good or bad news—listen to them." - Nathan Hecht
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Nordstrom: the ultimate Arctic Circle fashion retailer
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(4:55) The Rodo experience
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(14:32) Creating stress-free CX
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(16:45) The value of a robust return policy
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn
Check out Rodo
Is there any better feeling than trying on a new pair of jeans and finding the perfect fit? Of course not. We have a whole movie franchise based on how great of a sensation that is (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, for those looking for a movie recommendation)! When it comes to staple wardrobe items—a good pair of jeans is at the top of the list. And surprisingly, we have the Gold Rush to thank for that.
When Levi Strauss moved to California in the 1850s, he found a community of men bonding over the hard labor of mining for gold and the constant chafing of their thighs. Though gold could be found in the river, Levi realized that an empire could be built on land. He started a general store and his blue jeans took off. Strauss provided a service that supported the community of miners, and he created something that could bring them even closer together. Our guest today is doing much the same.
Michael Gasiorek is the Head of Marketing at TrustToken, where he’s created an entire community that’s bonded over the only thing more powerful than chafing: cryptocurrency. He’s mastered how to foster a close-knit community between CX leaders and their customers, and he’s sharing how we can do the same.
"Change is coming and it's going to ripple out through every possible financial sector. Money as we know it is going to change...I think it's going to increase accessibility to financial opportunity for all. It's going to chip away a little bit at the calcified centers of power. And it's going to really create more of a meritocracy around money.” - Michael Gasiorek
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Eureka!
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(7:16) Understanding crypto
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(8:54) How to build a digital community
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(11:22) Navigating the customer flywheel
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(15:46) Crypto is eating finance
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Michael on LinkedIn
Check out TrustToken
Check out Truth Cartel
Unfortunately, less-than-stellar CX is commonplace. It’s a problem as old as time. Even back in 1750 AD, merchants were scamming their peers out of quality goods and running off with their money. Artifacts still exist today that show shipping merchant Ea-Nasir was notorious for some of the worst customer experiences in Mesopotamia. His reviews are in...and they’re abysmal.
As CX leaders, we’d rather not have our legacy be 3,000 years of terrible reviews. So it’s important to hear what our customers are saying and act accordingly to correct our course. To learn more about how to value customer feedback, we talked with Craig Walker, Founder and CEO of Dialpad. He’ll share how to incorporate feedback into your product and improve your CX across the board.
"At the end of the day, you're not just selling to a business customer—you're selling to a person." - Craig Walker, Founder and CEO, Dialpad
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The hottest gossip of 1750 BC
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(5:10) The inspiration behind Dialpad
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(10:27) Prioritizing user feedback
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(12:37) What Dialpad does today
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(16:10) How AI can help improve your CX
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(19:08) Turning hold music into a delightful experience
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Craig on LinkedIn
Check out Dialpad
Picture a winter vacation in the mountains. You’re probably imagining a wood cabin, sitting by a fire in a cozy blanket, skiing, and a deep denial of hypothermia. You’re probably not picturing bunches of bananas and trains to Omaha. And yet, that’s the exact ahem train of thought that led James Curran to the invention of the chairlift at America’s first-ever destination ski resort in 1936.
James challenged the industry standard when it came to skiing transportation. He pushed technology so far that people had to confront how they’d done things in the past. And, as often happens, he encountered some serious resistance. What can we do when our products put us in a similar position? That’s what we asked Ian Andrews, Principal & Co-Founder of Power Pro iPad Leasing. He shares how to address your customers' fear of change, get them on board with revolutionary technology, and make their life a breeze.
"A huge part of customer experience is really identifying what works for the person that you're interacting with." - Ian Andrews
Time Stamps
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(0:00) How bananas saved your winter vacation
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(7:48) What is Power Pro iPad Leasing?
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(13:30) Traditions worth breaking
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(17:31) How to show your customer the ropes...or should we say...slopes
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(21:51) Letting your customer explore the mountain
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
Check out Power Pro iPad Leasing
There’s a lot of lore surrounding the invention of the lightbulb. But regardless of who’s side of history you’re on, Edison’s legacy is staggering. His contribution to bringing electricity to the masses is unmatched. What can CX leaders today learn from his story? Let’s find out.
Today, we’re talking with Shawn Olds, Co-Founder, and CEO of boodleAI on usage-based pricing and how it can revolutionize your entire customer experience. Edison adopted it back in the day. Should you?
"It's easy to build something and be convinced everybody's gonna love it, but you need to make sure that you're not putting your own bias over what customers are saying." - Shawn Olds, Co-Founder, and CEO, boodleAI
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Can someone turn on the light, please?
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(6:21) What’s boodleAI?
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(11:57) Lamborghinis and lightbulbs
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(14:14) The pros of usage-based pricing
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(16:44) How to listen to your customers
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn
Check out boodleAI
When it comes to products being endorsed by celebrities, we don’t often think of tea sets. Pottery as a whole doesn’t tend to get a lot of time in the spotlight. But in the late 1770s, the world was a different place, and Josiah Wedgwood was a household name. His tea sets were so exquisite that Queen Charlotte’s love for them skyrocketed his career. Even today, the influences of his work can be seen in tea sets around the world.
But how does someone like Josiah get recognized by Queen Charlotte? How do we get our products in the hands of the right people to get noticed? Today’s guest, Krishna Subramanian, has the answers. As the Co-Founder and CEO of Captiv8, Krishna knows how to get the right influencers connected to your brand and give your customers an aspirational CX because of it. And fortunately for us, he shares all the tricks of the trade.
"Every brand that is looking to reach millennials and Gen Z should definitely be working with influencers." - Krishna Subramanian, Co-Founder and CEO of Captiv8
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Why the Queen of England is the ultimate influencer
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(4:53) What is Captiv8?
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(12:59) Finding the right influencer for your brand
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(17:40) How to figure out if your campaign is successful
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Krishna on LinkedIn
Check out Captiv8
When you think of the comedy greats, who comes to mind? Dave Chappelle? Tina Fey? The producers of Often Imitated? Well, there’s someone else you should be adding to that list, someone who paved the way for women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community: Moms Mabley.
Moms started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1910s and her career lasted nearly 60 years. She had a specific style of dressing and speaking that kept people enamored with her. In her unassuming day dresses and sun hats, people were shocked when she shared her edgy jokes about love, race, and politics. She knew how to communicate and keep her audience engaged. Which is all that most of us want when it comes to good CX. So we set out to find an expert who could help us learn how to communicate well with our customers. And that’s Grad Conn, Chief Experience Officer at Sprinklr. He knows what it takes to have successful communication as a brand, and a comedian. Let’s find out how he does it.
"Shift from thinking your product is the center of the universe to thinking about your customers as the center of the universe." - Grad Conn
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Your mom: the queen of comedy
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(8:40) What is Sprinklr?
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(10:16) Who’s a better communicator, your marketing exec or a stand-up comedian?
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(14:25) Is being an online troll worth it?
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(17:25) Prioritize your customers over your product
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Grad on LinkedIn
Check out Sprinklr
Baking soda has been a key background character in most of our lives. It’s the ingredient you forget that ruins a batch of cookies, or you accidentally knock it over in your fridge, and you might even brush your teeth with it. And when it’s not being googled over whether or not it’s interchangeable with baking powder, it’s doing the work to keep our lives clean and odorless. Baking soda...kind of does it all? And the thing is, when we learn it does something new—we believe it. How on Earth did Arm & Hammer figure that out?
Well, it’s because they mastered positioning. From cooking to laundry, baking soda is infinitely useful. And once that was discovered, Arm & Hammer went into full force dominating several industries. But how can the rest of us do the same with our products? April Dunford, Founder and CEO of Ambient Strategy, knows how. And lucky for us, she’s sharing the secrets of how to become champions at positioning and getting customers to obsess over our products.
"Customer experience is not the thing that brings you through the door. But it is absolutely the thing that keeps you there." - April Dunford
Time Stamps
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(0:00) Wait...what even is baking soda?
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(7:11) What is positioning, and why does it matter?
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(10:05) Your customers are changing, and so should your positioning
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(15:40) The differences between strategy and positioning
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(16:51) Lawyers—they’re just like us!
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(19:39) Branding’s role in positioning
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with April on LinkedIn
Check out April's book "Obviously Awesome"
Fake news and disinformation: these are new terms for age-old ideas. Even back around the turn of the 20th century, marketers were telling half-truths, bending and twisting narratives to influence perception. And believe it or not, it all started with tuna.
The fishing industry had been canning salmon for decades and wanted to build a market for other fish. So, turning to tuna and its mild “chicken of the sea” flavor, a cannery executive came up with a single line that pit tuna against salmon. Though it was a true statement, in just a few words, the executive was able to make canned salmon seem like an inferior product. Though the story is likely apocryphal, it’s an example of the power of disinformation. But you’ll have to listen in to find out what that one line of advertising was.
Now, in our developing media landscape where people have free rein to say whatever they want about your brand, it’s important to have some insurance against disinformation. That’s where Wasim Khaled, CEO of Blackbird.ai, comes in. We’re learning from him about sifting through potential risks to determine which ones are important, building reputational resiliency, and getting ahead of the game to prevent threats in the first place.
"Executives come to us confused about the conversations they are being dragged into online. They don't understand why they're being targeted. Often, a large organization or a CEO is the perfect medium to spread a message further and faster by a threat actor. And that threat actor could be a nation-state, it could be a competitor, it could be a fringe group or some other entity that's trying to take down that organization.”
“These types of methodologies and hit jobs are mutating daily. When they hit, they really spread like a virus and they can drastically shift the public's perception about an organization, leader, politician, or even policy. And it's really something we think about as a cyber attack on human perception. Leadership today is simply not prepared.”
“The only difference between today's misinformation around anti-vax or any of the misinformation that used to spread around the world in the past is that today the power of social media to move messaging at immense speed and scale has made this instant and global. If there was one thing I could say about disinformation, it's not just about what is true or what is false, it's about narrative manipulation. And it's about manipulating people's beliefs based on their fears.”
Time Stamps
*[0:03] How canned tuna took over the market
*[2:38] The catch
*[2:59] Intro
*[3:55] The growing sea of disinformation
*[5:49] Enter Wasim Khaled, CEO of Blackbird.ai
*[8:04] A CX leader’s worst nightmare
*[10:48] Getting ahead of the threat
*[14:58] What’s in it for the threat actors?
*[17:05] How misinformation can destroy a reputation
*[19:41] To respond or not to respond?
*[24:17] How Blackbird.ai does CX
*[28:41] Teaming up against disinformation
*[30:37] Outro
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Wasim on LinkedIn
Check out Blackbird.ai
These days, it’s hard to avoid headlines on what the world’s billionaires are up to. How long was Jeff Bezos in space? Is Elon Musk going to Mars? Will Rihanna ever drop that album? But one issue always tends to be front and center: how billionaires navigate donating to charity.
Now, the expectation for the richest among us to donate money wasn’t always in place. In fact, it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that George Peabody became the first self-made millionaire to start giving back to his community. George had grown up in poverty and was passionate about giving children access to better education and housing, so he created the world’s first-ever non-profit: The Peabody Education Fund.
Finding a cause that resonates with you can be easy. But finding a way to authentically support that cause with your company and CX can be tricky to navigate. To find out how to do it well, we reached out to Laura Barbieri, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Relations at LG. She shares how LG’s Experience Happiness program is helping kids around the country improve their mental health, and how you can find a cause that’s aligned with your brand’s values.
"In order for corporate social responsibility to take center stage, it has to be the lifeblood of the company." - Laura Barbieri, Manager, CSR & Community Relations at LG
Time Stamps
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(0:00) The world’s first non-profit
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(7:24) What is LG’s Experience Happiness program?
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(8:51) The current state of the global mental health crisis
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(12:21) How to start giving back
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
Check out LG's Experience Happiness Project
In a list of most helpful inventions and discoveries, you probably wouldn’t think to put domesticated cows at the top. But it turns out cows have saved millions and millions of human lives over the last 200+ years, and we think they deserve a little more recognition.
The smallpox epidemic had raged on for thousands of years, killing hundreds of millions of people, until a milkmaid in 1796 realized that her cowpox was protecting her from contracting smallpox. Edward Jenner, a surgeon and zoologist, took notice and got to work. Shortly after, the smallpox vaccine was created. Then, the hard work began to get people to actually take it. Convincing people to do something that’s good for them can be difficult. And no one knows that more than Varun Krishna, SVP and Head of Consumer Finance at Mint. Let’s find out how he manages to get people to change their habits and enjoy their experiences along the way.
"The core of any good product is three fundamental things: it's useful, usable, and desirable." -Varun Krishna, SVP and Head of Consumer Finance at Mint
Time Stamps
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(0:00) How cows saved the world
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(6:00) What is Mint?
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(8:19) Identifying your financial pain points
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(10:19) Making your product useful, usable, and desirable
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(16:52) FinTech in a post-COVID world
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Links
Connect with Varun on LinkedIn
Check out Mint
In the 1800s, America was generally seen as a land of abundance and endless resources until Gifford Pinchot saw the truth. That the trees, water and nutrients of the land were being used faster than they could naturally replenish. He saw that future generations faced bare, corroding soil rather than vast wilderness if those resources weren’t used sustainably.
This same concept of sustainability can be applied to CX. When crafting a customer experience today, we may only be thinking about immediate customers. But what if we could create an experience that would impact future customers for generations, to create an experience that would last, use fewer resources and be re-used?
Today we’re taking a deep dive into sustainability in CX with Holley Chant, Director of Sustainability at Lendlease, a construction, property and infrastructure company based in Australia. Holley knows how to use environmental and social sustainability as key drivers to CX. Let’s talk about how to create a sustainable experience for customers now and generations to come.
Experience: Creating a sustainable experience to serve customers now and in the future
Inspiration: Gifford Pinchot, the father of forestry
Modern Day Execution: Holley Chant, Director of Sustainability at Lendlease
Three Takeaways
[16:57] Customer experience now will have implications for future customers.
[7:44] Environmental and social sustainability can become key drivers for an amazing experience.
[11:25] Sustainability has to be quantifiable with data.
Key Quotes
- “Customers today want a sustainable solution. They want a sustainable product or experience or home or community. They want to feel great about it and not feel like that in any way that their customer experience in that moment is someday leading to a negative customer experience for people down the line due to greater environmental problems.”
- “When we just tack sustainability on at the end, instead of using a front-loaded integrative design process, it costs more. There's this triangle of sustainability - and I believe that that's also the customer experience triangle - of people, planet and profit. If you tack it on at the end and then it costs more, you've totally failed people and planet.”
- “For Lendlease as a company, our business is totally devoted to the creation of an awesome built environment. A great customer experience would be that they use a building in such a way that it literally changes their life for the better. We've all been in a building at some point where we learned better. We healed better. We were more joyous. And that is the ultimate sign of great customer experience in a built environment.”
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
By flying above the clouds, Jacqueline Cochran also broke through the glass ceiling. During WWII, she brought women’s aviation to the forefront of the war effort. She taught women to be as good if not better at flying than the men — redefining aviation education at the time.
In aviation, understanding your product can make the difference between life and death. Though the stakes aren’t as high for a lot of us, customer education is a crucial part of CX. Ben Kovalis, Co-founder and CMO of Art AI has become a pro and fierce advocate for customer education.
Experience: Educating your customers
Inspiration: Jacqueline Cochran and the WASP
Modern Day Execution: Ben Kovalis, Co-founder and CMO, Art AI
Three Takeaways
- Educate your customers and they’ll be your best advocates.
- When your product is ahead of its time, educating your customers is critical to your success.
- The more you educate your customers, the less fearful they’ll be.
Key Quotes
- “When you have something that is unique, it gives you this opportunity to introduce something new to other people's lives.”
- “The product that we're offering is not just beautiful, it is intellectual.”
- “When you are in tune with the new developments in technology and AI, you have a strong understanding of how the future is going to look like. And then you're not afraid of it.”
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
When it comes to thrilling CX, few can compete with what was once the ultimate viewing experience: the battle between gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Between the towering walls, packed stadiums, exotic animals, and fearsome warriors, it wouldn’t be the worst way to spend a day (unless you happened to be in the show).
With that level of entertainment still striking awe nearly 2,000 years later, we had to dive deep into what it takes to create a lasting CX impression. Luckily, Chris Hsu, Co-founder, and CEO of Zibo, knows what it takes to make your customers obsessed with your product. Let’s figure out how to make your CX the champion of your company (hopefully with a little less drama than the Romans).
Experience: Building for the needs that your customers don’t even know they have
Inspiration: The Roman Colosseum
Modern Day Execution: Chris Hsu, Co-founder, and CEO of Zibo
Three Takeaways
- Allocate money for deep customer research.
- Figure out your customer’s Top 10 pain points, and start working towards resolving their concerns.
- When you focus on innovating your product, you can find solutions to problems your customers haven’t even noticed before.
Key Quotes
- “Everything starts with deep customer insight.”
- “If we just did our customers' Top 10 needs, we would find ourselves with a platform where we've optimized for everything that everyone has asked for, but we haven't innovated and created opportunities they don't know exist.”
- “Trust is the number one most important thing”
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
In 1940, four boys wandering the hilly countryside of rural France discovered a cave filled with prehistoric paintings depicting charging bison, stags, and horses. Despite being 17,000 years old, the images were not only identifiable, but powerful.
Images have been used throughout history to convey profound meaning in an instant. From Egyptian hieroglyphs to emojis,it’s like the saying goes: “a picture is worth a thousand words.” So we talked with Daniel Sines of Traitify about how he’s putting pictures to work to enhance the customer experience.
Experience: A picture is worth a thousand words
Inspiration: The Caves of Lascaux
Modern Day Execution: Daniel Sines, CEO and Co-Founder of Traitify
Three Takeaways
- Pictures can be used instead of text to convey meaning quickly.
- Giving candidates feedback on their job application ensures a positive experience as well as positive brand association.
- Give candidates an application you wouldn’t mind completing yourself.
Key Quotes
- “What we help companies to do is reduce turnover and increase performance in their workforce by aligning the right candidate with the right role. And that is really to the benefit of both parties. We're trying to create happiness in the workplace, which is a real challenge.”
- “At the core, we need to treat candidates like customers. That's been a problem that has not been solved in the entirety of the recruiting experience over years and years. We often treat these people as more of a commodity than a customer.”
- “The truth is that for every one of these brands, your people are your most important part of your business. They should be the area that you invest the most in if you want to have the best results for your company.”
Links
Traitify
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Few things are more exhilarating than watching cars speed past you at over 200mph. It’s been said that car racing was invented as soon as the second car was built. So how can you compete in an industry full of turbocharged incumbents?
Today we’re going to learn about how outsiders have been able to breakthrough in Formula One racing. From the mavericks who invented a new kind of car in the 1950s, to how Red Bull Racing turned the entire sport on its head. Oliver Hughes, CMO, Red Bull Racing Honda, joined us and shared how Red Bull does what no one else will, and quite literally laps the competition.
Experience: Doing what nobody else will
Inspiration: Origins of Formula One Racing
Modern Day Execution: Oliver Hughes, CMO, Red Bull Racing Honda
Three Takeaways
- If you make everything surrounding your product irresistible, then customers will become fans in no time.
- You can find creative ways to push the boundaries of your marketing campaigns, regardless of budget.
- Engage with potential customers in exciting and unique ways through a variety of channels.
Key Quotes
- "Most people think we’re totally crazy. But for us, it's all about doing it because no one else would, and it makes us stand out and connect with the world. It's that simple."
- “You have to design—whether it's a product or a marketing campaign—around both the current and future fan base.”
- “If you go into something and plan everything around metrics, then you end up killing the creative process.”
Links
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/redbullracing
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Harry Houdini has terrified and excited people for over 100 years. From escaping a water torture cell to being buried alive, he did it all. Though his shows changed over the years, one thing stayed the same: his audiences were entranced.
But where can we find that magic today? Las Vegas, of course! We wanted to find out how eating a great steak dinner can be just as enthralling as watching Houdini escape a straightjacket. So we asked our friend Derek Tadashi Morishita of Sahara Las Vegas to tell us how focusing on the little things can make for a magical customer experience.
Experience: Focusing on the little things
Inspiration: Harry Houdini
Modern Day Execution: Derek Tadashi Morishita, Director of Restaurants, Sahara Las Vegas
Three Takeaways
- Constantly re-evaluate your CX and see which little things you can improve.
- Managers need to lead by example, then their employees will be motivated to work harder.
- Find a way to make each customer interaction go from good to great.
Key Quotes
- "Just because you've been doing something for the last five years and you've been successful doesn't mean you shouldn't change it going forward."
- “A lot of companies don't talk to their employees. They just try to make changes because they think a change is good, or a higher-up told them to do this versus that.”
- “There's nothing too small that we can't fix, change, or adapt.”
Links
Derek Tadashi Morishita LinkedIn
Sahara Las Vegas
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
With the invention of the phone came drama, controversy, and innovation. A phone call went from a trusted source of communication to spam calls that never end. Today, we’re going to learn about how it all started back in the day with Alexander Graham Bell. Call your friends and tell them you’ll be late, because you won’t want to miss this one.
In this episode of Often Imitated, Erik Nierenberg talks about the world of email, and how trust plays a key role between a purchase and an unsubscribe.
Experience: Trust is earned
Inspiration: The invention of the telephone
Modern Day Execution: Erik Nierenberg, CEO, Litmus
Three Takeaways
- Identify your end users, and figure out how they want to be interacted with.
- The more personalized you can make your outreach, the better your customer’s experiences will be.
- You earn your customer’s trust by sharing meaningful and individualized content.
Key Quotes
- "Trust is earned and we have to earn the right to email you by engaging you with something you care about."
- “Every piece of email is an extension of your brand.”
- “The more you can leverage email and at least one other channel in the customer’s journey, the more effective and innovative your marketing team will be.”
Links
Erik Nierenberg LinkedIn
Litmus
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Being honest is scary enough. Doing it with your customers is a whole other ball game. From investment banking to digital consulting, radical transparency has a way transforming industries. Let’s see how it can transform your CX.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we talk to Aurimas Adomavicious about how he brings radical transparency to the tech industry.
Experience: Radical transparency
Inspiration: Ray Dalio
Modern Day Execution: Aurimas Adomavicious, President of Devbridge
Three Takeaways
- Being radically transparent with your clients allows there to be a healthier and more realistic relationship.
- Failure is inevitable. Train your team to handle it with honesty and practicality.
- The more transparent you are the better your customer’s experience will be.
Key Quotes
- "The moment you create a level of transparency and the moment you educate the client in a level of accountability, failure becomes a much more tolerable experience."
- “Failure is the by-product of innovation.”
- “The value that a client gets should be more than the value they paid for.”
Links
Aurimas Adomavicius LinkedIn
Devbridge
The Secret Source
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Fantasy Football has changed the way football fans engage with what used to be a casual weekly event. It turned an entire industry on its head, and has driven engagement with its parent product, the NFL, to new heights. But how did it become such an integral part of sports culture? And how can others create content that will be similarly engaging? Let’s find out.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we talk to JJ Zachariason about how he’s making the best content for his customers at FanDuel.
Experience: Use unique data to create incredible content
Inspiration: The origins of Fantasy Football
Modern Day Execution: JJ Zachariason, Editor-In-Chief at FanDuel and numberFire
Three Takeaways
- Quality over quantity is essential to sharing great content with your customers.
- When your content is backed by data, customers will keep coming back for more.
- The more specialized and substantial your content is the more your customers will trust you.
Key Quotes
- "If you instill a process in a customer and they see that it works, then they're going to continue to come back to you."
- “When you go into producing content it's really important to not go in with a narrative. You need to go in and let the data speak for itself.”
- “Find one or two things that you can do really well. Because once you're able to hit on those things, then more people notice.”
Links
JJ Zachariason LinkedIn
FanDuel
numberFire
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
The Great Wall of China has been the source of lore, wonder, and mystery for thousands of years. And it turns out it also marks the beginning of mass communication.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we talk to Erica McMannes about how she’s creating an exceptional remote work communication ethos at Instant Teams.
Experience: Develop a communication ethos
Inspiration: Smoke signals on the Great Wall of China
Modern Day Execution: Erica McMannes, Founder and COO of Instant Teams
Three Takeaways
- Your team needs a communication ethos, which is a philosophy and strategy for how you talk to customers.
- As you hone in on what makes your customer experience team exceptional, you need to find out what works best for your cx philosophy.
- Get everyone on your team on the same page in terms of how you communicate.
Key Quotes
- “If you can treat communication just like you would any other process flow at a very high level, it really makes all the difference.”
- “While customer facing, be sure to over-serve versus overshare.”
- “The more successful we've become and the bigger we've grown is because we've niched down.”
Links
Erica McMannes LinkedIn
Instant Teams
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Welcome back to Often Imitated!
We have a really exciting announcement, Season 2 is coming!
Thank you to all of you for listening. We have had over 50,000 people listen to Season 1 and it’s been fun exploring the world of cx from the past to the present.
And we want to hear from you!
Do you have stories you want us to tell?
Do you know someone we should feature?
Email team@caspianstudios.com.
We have some amazing guests coming up so stay tuned.
If you have any other thoughts, ideas or questions, email us at team@caspianstudios.com
We will start releasing episodes soon and you can continue listening wherever you get your podcasts. A big shoutout to our sponsor, Oracle. You can learn more about them at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives. Thanks again for listening and we will talk to you all soon!
History is full of stories where people have committed their lives to helping vulnerable communities. Louis Braille did it 200 years ago, and his impact is still monumental today. Today’s guest is creating a similar experience for entrepreneurs navigating the American immigration system.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we talk to Nitin Pachisia about how he’s empowering immigrant founders to do their best work at Unshackled Ventures.
Experience: Never take ‘no’ for an answer
Inspiration: Louis Braille
Modern Day Execution: Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner of Unshackled Ventures
Three Takeaways
- Make sure your CX helps remove roadblocks from your customers.
- The best way to serve your customers is to walk a mile in their shoes.
- Once you identify a problem, pull the thread until you come to the root problem. Then form your solution.
Key Quotes
- “Make sure that you are working on a customer audience that you either understand really well or you've done the work to get to understand really well.”
- “Stay focused on who your customer is and the real problem. Not just the symptom and not just what you believe is the problem, but really listening to your customer.”
- “The best way to learn what experience to build is living the life of your customer. ”
Links
Nitin Pachisia LinkedIn
Unshackled Ventures
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Super Bowl 55 was full of excitement and fanfare, but did you know that in its first year, viewers weren’t all seeing the same thing? In this episode, we’re taking a look at how getting on the same page transformed the Super Bowl, and how getting everyone looking at the same data can change CX.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we talk to Mickey Miller about how he’s transforming CX of live experiences all across the world at Vislink.
Experience: Getting everyone to look at the same data
Inspiration: Super Bowl 1
Modern Day Execution: Mickey Miller, CEO Vislink
Three Takeaways
- The more immersive your cx; the happier your customers will be with your product.
- Figure out your customer’s needs, then build your company around it.
- Unite your team, centralize your data, and get everyone on the same page.
Key Quotes
- “We focus internally on the processes to make sure that when we do introduce new technology or products, it solves their problem and solves them in a way that's super easy for them to implement.”
- “Try to get everything on one system, so the entire organization is seeing the same data. So there's no time spent on arguing what's real and what's not real. You have it all there.”
- “Design your whole business from the customer back.”
Links
Mickey Miller LinkedIn
Vislink
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
AI is the technology of the future, so let’s explore its past. From manual human computers to the sensors on your car, AI has done it all. So let’s find out how it was invented in a British lab during WWII and lead to us being able to avoid parallel parking.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we hear from Wendy Gonzalez about how we can best incorporate AI into our CX.
Experience: Using AI to amplify your CX
Inspiration: Alan Turing and cracking the Enigma Code
Modern Day Execution: Wendy Gonzalez, CEO of Sama
Three Takeaways
- Incorporating AI into your customer success can bring out a transformative change in your CX.
- Finding the right customer partners can elevate both of your businesses.
- Try to become a one-stop-shop for your customers.
Key Quotes
- “At the end of the day, once you build that AI, it doesn't go away. You need somebody who can work with you through thick and thin.”
- “I want every client to be able to say ‘wow, these guys are like hitting the easy button. These guys were so easy to work with.”
- “The best partners are transparent. They seek to add value and they act with integrity.”
Links
Wendy Gonzalez LinkedIn
Sama
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
What does peanut brittle and freight travel have in common? They’re both a little bit more complicated than you’d think. And they already sound pretty complicated. So let’s figure out how to simplify the complex, and thrive with our cx.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we hear from Susy Schöneberg about how CX during a crisis is more important than ever.
Experience: Handling CX in a crisis.
Inspiration: Charles See and See’s Candies
Modern Day Execution: Susy Schöneberg, Founder and Head of Flexport.org
Three Takeaways
- Don’t compromise your product during a crisis. Find other ways to cut back costs.
- A crisis is a time to elevate your CX.
- Focusing on partnerships with your customers allows you both to grow.
Key Quotes
- “Create situations where everyone is winning by working together.”
- “Every crisis is also a logistics crisis.”
- “What we're building for is not only the direct product that we are offering to our customer, but that our product actually enabled them to fulfill their missions and that our reach goes far beyond what we offer immediately to them.”
Links
Susy Schöneberg LinkedIn
Flexport
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
There are few customer experiences more discouraging than reading the minibar prices in your hotel room. One of them being finding out you failed a test. What does the ritzy and glitzy world of hoteliers have in common with test taking? Let’s find out.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we hear from Mike Murphy about how the customer always being right is not only critical to your customer support, but also amping up your cx.
Experience: The customer is always right
Inspiration: César Ritz and his hotel empire
Modern Day Execution: Mike Murphy, Founder and CEO of ProctorFree
Three Takeaways
- Identify what trends are coming up when your “customer is always right”. Work to address those to proactively avoid them in the future.
- Customer support is the gateway to long lasting relationships.
- Deescalating situations quickly will positively increase both trust and cx.
Key Quotes
- “If someone reaches out to us with a question or they're having an issue, it's our job to understand and triage the issue, and help them.”
- “I think about customer service from a point of we're all consumers. We have positive and negative interactions with companies and brands. Do you want to be on the side of the ledger where it's negative or do you want to be on this side of the ledger where it's positive.”
- “Customer service and technical support is one of the easiest things to overlook, but also one of the easiest wins to develop long-term relationships.”
Links
Mike Murphy LinkedIn
ProctorFree
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
How can Mario be both a seemingly indestructible plumber and a masterclass of digital adoption? What lessons can cx learners get from 80s video games? Stay tuned because it’s about to get tubular.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we hear from Rafael Sweary about how digital adoption is bringing WalkMe to the forefront of every industry.
Experience: Using tutorials to help your customers get the most out of your product
Inspiration: Mario and the Game Genie
Modern Day Execution: Rafael Sweary, Co-founder and President of WalkMe
Three Takeaways
- Empower your customers by giving them control over their customer journey.
- Digital adoption and digital transformation make it easier to walk your customers through new features and updates.
- Identify what your customers need to enhance their cx, then zero in on how to best equip them with the information necessary to enjoy your whole product.
Key Quotes
- “If somebody expects something and you give him exactly what he expected, he will be happy, but they wouldn't be ecstatic. You get into this wow factor of an experience once it's over your expectations, once it's something that you haven't thought about.”
- “Customer experience is not static. The standards are moving higher with every day that goes by with every customer that joins.”
- “Digital adoption is becoming critical. It's a basic need. ”
Links
Rafael Sweary LinkedIn
WalkMe
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
From Shakespeare to Edison, the Golden Age of Hollywood to the streaming wars, the world of entertainment has been closely linked to vertical integration. What can cx leaders do to emulate Shakespeare’s success? Let’s find out.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we hear from Eren Bali about how vertical integration is helping him and his team at Carbon Health disrupt the healthcare industry.
Experience: Apply vertical integration for end-to-end control of a great customer experience
Inspiration: The entertainment Industry
Modern Day Execution: Eren Bali, Co-founder, and CEO of Carbon Health
Three Takeaways
- If you are in a position where you can apply vertical integration, a great customer experience is likely to follow.
- Tightly integrated strategies will increase accessibility to your product.
- Vertical integration can help you disrupt industries.
Key Quotes
- “When you do the right thing for a customer consistently, then you get rewarded financially.”
- “You don't have to always have a commercial explanation for doing the right thing. If it's the right thing for the customers, just do it.”
Links
Eren Bali LinkedIn
Carbon Health
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Toys play an integral role in our childhoods, and the holiday season is a time when those memories are the strongest. How have the concepts of scarcity and demand played into the successes of the world’s biggest toys? How can we apply them to our cx strategies? And most importantly, what does our production team think are the best toys of all time?
In this episode of Often Imitated, we learn about the production team at Caspian Studios’ favorite toys and what they teach us about customer experience.
Experience: Scarcity, demand, and the best childhood toys.
Inspiration: PlayStation 5 Release
Three Takeaways
- The holidays are the perfect time to create a special customer experience.
- Having a product linked to a significant event can produce a positive memory for your customers.
- Mindfully balance scarcity and demand and you can build a phenomenon,
Key Quotes
- “It is our job as CX leaders to capture the magic.”
- "The holidays hit home how special of an experience a product can create."
Links
Caspian Studios LinkedIn
Caspian Studios
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
The USAA has spent nearly 100 years being the unassuming support of millions of military families, and then in 2009, they changed the world of banking for everyone. How did the trust they placed in their customers lead to a worldwide phenomenon and how can we do the same? We asked Alex Lofton, Co-founder of Landed.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we learn how Alex is helping teachers and essential workers achieve what they thought was impossible: becoming homeowners.
Experience: Helping your customer do something they didn’t think was possible
Inspiration: USAA
Modern Day Execution: Alex Lofton, Co-founder of Landed
Three Takeaways
- Ensure that your team empathizes with your customer, especially when your customer is from a group of people that is generally underserved.
- Having employees who have shared industry experiences with your customers will improve trust and their cx.
- The earlier you invest in cx the better off your customers will be.
Key Quotes
- “Being customer journey or customer experience focused is about not just the moment in the customer journey, but also what's going to make it sustainable. What's going to make it scalable and how do I hold all the different interests in mind at the same time?”
- "It takes time to build. To get the product right. To focus on the people you want to serve, build real deep value, and then figure out how to operationalize and scale that. But once you start, once you get to that point the fruits of your labor really are there for you to gather"
- "It's important for folks to realize that they may have more resources and assets at their fingertips to become home buyers and have a stronger sense of financial security than they realize."
Links
Alex Lofton LinkedIn
Landed
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
A trip to Disneyland is full of excitement. But even once we’ve seen it all, we still go back to experience the magic year after year. How can we have a similar impact on our customers? We asked Jacob Smith to find out.
In this episode of Often Imitated, we explore how Jacob is putting his best people to work to make successful and lasting relationships with customers.
Experience: Getting a great first impression by putting your best people to work
Inspiration: Disneyland
Modern Day Execution: Jacob Smith, Co-founder, Packet, and VP of Bare Metal Strategy & Marketing, Equinix
Three Takeaways
- When it comes to figuring out where to put your best consumer-facing employees, it’s important to do an assessment of where in your customer experience cycle they need you the most.
- Once you find an avenue that your customers are engaging in, it’s critical to adjust resources to strengthen that connection.
- Identify what makes your product magical, and figure out how to sell that idea to your customers.
Key Quotes
- “And if you go in there talking speeds and feeds and saying like, here's the best server you've ever had to someone who doesn't care about servers, which by the way, is most people you're going to lose. But if you can go in there with something more value-based and more like an experience that’s different...that’s sort of magical.”
- "How do we find and make connections with these people, but importantly, you have to also decide how you gain their trust, right? And sometimes that means you have to go through some bad stuff together."
- "Your values being upfront really helps you find the right customers and for them to be attracted to you."
Links
Jacob Smith LinkedIn
Equinix Metal
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Skydiving tends to be a pretty intimidating pastime. We can’t all be Tom Cruise who seemingly jumps out of airplanes on his off days. Most of us need to tandem jump, so that the person behind us can give us the nudge we need. PepTalkHer is doing the same thing in preparing women to close the wage gap.
On this episode of Often Imitated, we explore how Meggie Palmer is nudging thousands of women to get the raises and promotions they deserve.
Experience: Giving your customers the nudge they need to succeed.
Inspiration: Skydiving
Modern Day Execution: Meggie Palmer, Founder and CEO of PepTalkHer
Three Takeaways
- When you push your customers a bit out of their comfort zone, they’ll be empowered to succeed in ways they might not have expected. As you give customers a little nudge, they’ll build confidence and have a better experience with your product.
- Finding ways you can nudge your customers might take a bit more brainstorming, but the payoffs in their experience is worth the extra work.
- On average, women make 20% less than men. That jarring level of inequality is deeply problematic. Instead of waiting for someone else to fix it, Meggie started PepTalkHer to empower women to fix it themselves.
Key Quotes
- “There are three major things that contribute to the pay gap: The choices of careers that women make versus men, the time out of the workforce for caring responsibilities that men and women take, and unconscious bias and discrimination.”
- "We hear from a lot of women in the PepTalkHer community who were sacked while they're pregnant or haven't had a raise in six or seven years. And with inflation, that means they're literally going backwards. And so when I came to realize the data and the trends that were happening, the fact that it's going to take a couple of hundred years for equality to come into play, I just wasn't willing to accept that."
- "Founders often don't think about ‘how do I want someone to feel when they interact with my product?’ But actually, if we all started from that premise, I think it would really change the way that we designed products."
Links
Meggie Palmer LinkedIn
PepTalkHer
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Some deserts are easy to spot on a map. Others reveal themselves by exclusion. In the 1860s, the small towns without access to news relied on The Pony Express. In 2020, information is everywhere, but one particular kind of life-saving information is incredibly hard to come by. That's what Ann Holder is trying to fix.
On this episode of Often Imitated, we explore how Ann Holder is using data to give pregnant women the quality of care they need, and flood maternity deserts with the information they deserve.
Experience: Serving the underserved
Inspiration: The Pony Express
Modern Day Execution: Ann Holder, CEO of Odonata Health
Three Takeaways
- The rising tide of technological advancement in medicine should lift all ships. But, it hasn't and that's inexcusable. Instead of waiting for a data-oriented, technologically-adept wave of innovation to reach maternity care, Ann is doing that work herself.
- Informed customers are more invested in both their success and your business. By providing customers a clear roadmap of what to expect in their journey, and giving them data that acts as clear checkpoints along the way, you can give them a better experience.
- Finding the "information deserts" in your field takes a shift in perspective. You need a diversity of viewpoints and opinions to spot the customers that go underserved by your company.
Key Quotes
- "We should know more. The reality is, is the technology is there. It's just really putting these great minds together to further develop that technology so that we can use it for fetal monitoring and give more information and data to physicians."
- "My passion is to really help bring to market something that doesn't exist that is badly needed. There are areas around the world where we have a pretty significant opportunity to really help drive technology and improve outcomes worldwide."
- "We all think that technology is so advanced, but it's just not in this area. If you stop and think about it, 5% of the world's population at any one time is pregnant. That's huge. 5% of the population that really doesn't understand what's going on with their body."
Links
- Ann's LinkedIn
- Odonata Health
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Oracle CX helps you build lasting customer relationships, by making every interaction matter. From acquisition to loyalty, and everything in between.
Build, protect, and differentiate your brand with Oracle. Learn more at oracle.com/cx
It’s hard to classify a superhero cape as business-appropriate attire. But, there’s something to be learned in the pages of our favorite comic books. Confidence, and the ability to instill it in others, is a tremendously powerful tool, almost like a superpower. On this episode of Often Imitated we explore what it feels like when you find that superpower.
Experience: Building software that unlocks marketers’ potential
Inspiration: Stan Lee’s superheroes
Modern Day Execution: Kristine Steuart, CEO of Allocadia
Three Takeaways
- Marketers can’t keep it all in their heads. Top marketers document every dollar they’re budgeting and every demographic they’re targeting and make a plan before a single cent is spent. The days of guessing outcomes are long past.
- CX leaders have to broaden their scope of focus. Instead of solely thinking about a customer’s experience as they’re live chatting your business, or on a call with a rep, leaders need to think about which channels they’re investing in and which drive business impact.
- Don’t let new bells and whistles distract you from your goal — improving customer experience. It’s easy to get lost looking at metrics that only affect one small part of your customer experience. Instead, you need to look at the whole customer journey.
Key Quotes
- “We've had so many new innovations over the last few years to help us there as we've moved as a world online. But, we've lost sight of this other piece of the equation that is so critical to what the marketer does day-to-day and has such a big impact on the customer experience.”
- “If you think about the core lever that we have at the beginning of our planning process and where we can really drive. Some of the biggest business impact is when we allocate those investments and plans at the beginning of our planning life cycle.”
- “A confident customer is absolutely an advocate of the business. They are a long-time customer who is also continuously engaged with the company, in the brand, and in your business.”
Links
- Kristine’s LinkedIn
- Allocadia
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Experience: Taking a new approach to health care construction
Inspiration: LEGO
Modern Day Execution: Grant Geiger, EIR Healthcare
Three Takeaways
- We're familiar with technical debt in building software. But, smoothing out the mistakes of the past isn't so easy in construction. Building hospitals and emergency rooms that both adapt to and thrive in the future takes tremendous care in design and careful engineering.
- Old expectations die hard. When you're popularizing a new way to approach design within a legacy industry, nothing beats a visceral, tangible experience to wash away outdated assumptions. The more you can immerse your customer in your vision, the better.
- It's okay to not know everything right now. The beauty of modular construction and circular design is that both allow for flexibility, for the unexpected or unpredictable. When you're approaching any project, build for what's in-front of you and what's ahead.
Key Quotes
- "For healthcare in the future, it's Moore's law. The technology is going to get smaller, and better, and hopefully it will reduce the footprint of what it takes to build healthcare systems as well."
- "You really have to see it to understand the implication, how modular building and circular design can really change things in healthcare."
- "We want to open their mind or change their opinion on how healthcare can be delivered, and create new opportunities for how they feel health care can make a difference."
Links
- Grant's LinkedIn
- EIR Healthcare
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Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Experience: Creating two-way conversations with your customers
Inspiration: In-n-Out Burgers
Modern Day Execution: Kyle Lacy, CMO of Lessonly
Three Takeaways
- Organizations need to have two-way conversations with their customers and their employees. The best customer experiences are those that allow customers to feel heard.
- Your employees are your most valuable resource in generating conversations. Companies with great customer experiences invest in their employees.
- Create simple, great experiences that allow customers to grasp the environment in which they are working.
Key Quotes
- "If you make an experience simple and you make it great, I think you're winning."
- "There's a huge difference between lecturing and coaching. Coaching is working with someone and helping them do it. That's where real training and development happens."
- "You should be thinking about the prospect experience all the way to the first purchase, all the way to the second, third, and fourth purchase of the customer lifecycle."
- "It's easy to make something that's beautiful by eliminating constraints. What we're after something that's deeper than beauty. We're after something that transcends. "
Links
- Kyle's LinkedIn
- Lessonly
Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Insight: The power of constraints and limitations
Inspiration: Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham
Modern Day Execution: Stephen Kieran, Partner at KieranTimberlake.
Three Takeaways
- The best creatives have a dialogue with both their audience/users and the materials they use to create. Instead of sprinting towards the finish line, they’re keyed into their work and constantly assessing its progress at every step.
- Whether you’re building a business or a building, keep context in mind. What you build doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s in constant conversations with customers and other stakeholders.
- Doing the prep work makes it easier to produce creative work. When you come into a project with a deep understanding of the challenge, and its context, you can get more creative and operate on instinct.
Key Quotes
- “We wanted to ask elemental questions, assume nothing, and build a practice of a culture of inquiry that was with us on our first day.”
- “The design process becomes really simple when complexity fades and what you’re making talks back to you and tells you what to do and what not to do.”
- “It’s easy to make something that’s beautiful by eliminating constraints. What we’re after something that’s deeper than beauty. We’re after something that transcends. ”
Links
- Stephen’s LinkedIn
- Kieran Timberlake
- Cellophane House
Thanks to our friends
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
There's an invisible art to incredible customer experiences. When it's done well, the customer gets what they need before they ask for it. To master that art, you have to anticipate the tiny details that make or break a customer experience, all while keeping an eye on the rest of your business.
On this episode of Often Imitated we explore how great leaders make anticipating customers' needs a key pillar in their success.
Experience: Building a customer-first business
Inspiration: Lee Iacocca's automotive empire
Modern Day Execution: Ali Diab, CEO and Co-Founder of Collective Health
Three Takeaways
- If you have a nuanced understanding of your customer's journey, you can use that information to build a better product, a better health platform, or even a more family-friendly minivan.
- Customer empathy is absolutely essential to your business. If customers feel they're in a one-sided relationship with your business that's purely transactional, they'll move on to a company that cares.
- You need well-engineered software to upgrade your customer experience. Without the ability to gather customer data, make sense of it, and make changes to your product, you'll fall behind the competition.
Key Quotes
- "Your customer is the most important thing. Your profit is not the most important thing. Without your customer, you've got nothing."
- "Through that unexpected anticipation of a customer's needs, you really leave a mark in their mind and show them that spark of magic."
- "In legacy healthcare, we don't understand what things cost, why, or how to control it. Everything seems to be architected in a way to keep people at bay, or keep people from trying to unpack how the system works."
Links
- Ali's LinkedIn
- Collective Health
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This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Pricing and cost are always sticking points when it comes to CX. But what if there was a better way? How can CX leaders build a win-win experience? To get an answer, we looked at the experience of Madam CJ Walker and spoke to Tonio DeSorrento, CEO of Vemo. Tonio is doing something unheard of in student loan financing. He's building with students in mind.
Experience: Designing experiences for overlooked communities
Inspiration: Sarah Breedlove aka Madam C. J. Walker
Modern Day Execution: Tonio DeSorrento, CEO of Vemo
3 Takeaways
- Don't ignore the idea that won't go away. When you feel in your gut you have an opportunity to make an impact by doing something differently, whether that's founding a new business, or serving a new community — lean into that.
- Aligned incentives are the key to building and maintaining quality customer experience. When businesses view their customers as a means to an end, they overlook opportunities to make them successful.
- Stay close to your customers. The best way to know if your business is truly designed for your end-user is to ask them yourself. Instead of relying on high-level theories when you're designing, turn to tangible customer experience.
Key Quotes
- "It's a partnership concept rather than a loan concept. A school partners with a student and they share in their success."
- "First, pick the right customer, Second, meet the customer's needs. You have to love that customer and build an experience around them."
- "Don't be afraid to be very high touch. Use great people in your company to understand your customers and their pain points intimately, and then build or automate off of those learnings."
Links
- Tonio's LinkedIn
- Tonio's Twitter
- Vemo
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This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
When insiders get wrapped up in the way things are, it takes an outsider to see how they could be. On this episode of Often Imitated we explore how outsiders find new and novel ways to win -- and create great customer experiences.
Experience: Building an outsider's mindset and designing CX from scratch
Inspiration: The 1936 US Olympic Rowing Team
Modern Day Execution: Dustin Cohn, Head of Brand & Marketing at Goldman Sachs Consumer and Investment Management
3 Takeaways
- Transparency is key to a quality customer experience. If your customers have to spend valuable time and energy parsing through fine print, you're not setting them up for success.
- It's okay to go against the tried and true way of doing things. When you see an opportunity to meet customers where they are, lean in to your customer-first strategy rather than trying to match the movements of the rest of your industry.
- A small, focused team can produce an outsized impact when that team has a clear mission.
Key Quotes
- "We start with simplification and transparency. That is absolutely fundamental to everything that we do. So, you won't see any jargon or any asterisks in any of our messaging."
- "What inspires us day in day out is being on the side of the consumer. That means constantly improving. Any sort of signals that shed light on an opportunity, we will absolutely take advantage of that."
- "It has to be the consumer voice at the table that is the loudest. Sometimes that's going to require really hard decisions in terms of shutting down certain technology, or revamping a particular product, or redesigning an experience that may be a heavy lift for an organization. But, ultimately that consumer should be all of our guiding light."
Links
- Dustin's LinkedIn
- Marcus by Goldman Sachs
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
In 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. A little less than a year later, someone had the bright idea to put wheels on the bottom of luggage. How could such a seemingly obvious UX improvement remain undiscovered for so long?
On this episode, we also speak to Zach Scheel, Co-founder and CEO of Rhumbix about how he’s doing something similarly revolutionary: Ditching the fax machine and digitizing the construction industry.
Experience: How to build an experience tailored to your customers' needs
Inspiration: The invention of wheeled luggage
Execution: Zach Scheel, Co-founder and CEO of Rhumbix
3 Takeaways:
- You have to walk a hundred miles in your customers’ shoes. It’s not enough to do a study or casual analysis, you have to know the customer experience inside and out.
- Always put the end-users' interests first. Great customer experiences come from a commitment to serve the user, no matter what.
- Understanding how to provide a solution is important, but before you can get to that step, you have to understand the problem.
Key Quotes
- “‘Workers first’ is one of our core values. And so that's something that is on the minds of everyone at the company.”
- “There's a social contract where you have to deliver value in exchange for the right and privilege for us to be able to collect this data that is needed by management to help better manage cost and schedule on the project. “
- “You always have to reinforce those core values as part of the culture to make sure that it is something that everyone in the company is always, always thinking about.”
Links
- Full show notes and script
- Rhumbix
- Zach Scheel on LinkedIn
- Travelpro
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
What unique experience did Benjamin Franklin create by founding his Junto and how can we replicate it today? To find out, we talked to Shari Johnston, founder of Women in Revenue about how she's leading an organization that drives real impact and creates invaluable experiences for its members.
Experience: How do you build a community?
Inspiration: Benjamin Franklin's Junto
Execution: Shari Johnston's Women in Revenue
3 Takeaways:
- You need to lead customer experience with cohesive conversations and relevancy. Too often, companies try to introduce themselves while essentially bragging about themselves. It's like introducing yourself on a first date by saying "I was at the top of my class at Harvard." That doesn't describe how you'll fit with a customer. It only describes you.
- Shari saw the glass ceiling at the executive level. She realized even if it wasn't formed out of malice, and was simply male executives recruiting from their circles of other male executives, it needed to be changed to create a space for women. She drove that change with organized
- You need to drive action in Diversity and Inclusion - not just form a policy. To keep a community thoughtful and vibrant, action has to be prioritized. She drives that action in Women in Revenue. To do that, you have to provide relevant content, foster a sense of camaraderie, and make sure every member is heard.
Key Quotes
- "That's the core of customer experience, really having that empathy and understanding of your customer and not selling to people who are not going to be a good fit."
- "We're helping elevate women's careers on a daily basis by just having a community full of advice and support."
- "I thought that as a society we had gone beyond it, but I realized that the executive glass ceiling was very much there."
Links
- Full show notes and script
- WomenInRevenue.org
- WinningByDesign.com
- Shari's Twitter
This podcast is presented by Oracle CX.
Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives
Often Imitated is a podcast about incredible experiences from the past, and how they inspire great customer experiences today. The experiences that are envied, talked about, and, well, often imitated.
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So sit back, tap subscribe, and get ready to hear about some of the great experiences in human history. Welcome to Often Imitated.
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