The CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker | A resource for customer experience leaders: Recent Episodes
Walker Information
The CX Leader Podcast with host Steve Walker provides insights for customer experience (CX) and experience management (XM) leaders to improve their business results by unlocking the potential of their customer experience, helping their customers and prospects want to do more business with them. Steve is CEO and Chairman of Walker Information, a experience management consulting firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success.
It’s a great time to be a CX leader and we here at Walker have had a fun time producing this podcast. But after over 330 episodes speaking with fantastic people from across the globe, covering topics to help you get the most from customer experience, it’s time to put away the microphones. This is the last episode of The CX Leader Podcast, at least for now. And the reason is not complicated: we here at Walker have shifted our marketing strategy and are devoting resources to other activities. All the great content we’ve produced from the podcast will still be available at cxleaderpodcast.com, and you can always rely on Walker as the authoritative source for customer experience and experience management.
Host Chris Higgins welcomes former hosts Troy Powell, Sara Walker, Pat Gibbons, and Steve Walker for a look back on their favorite guests, topics, and what CX leaders should look forward to in 2025.
Find a transcript for this episode on our show note page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/all-good-things/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpocast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Change is hard. And that’s not the first time we’ve said those words on this podcast. When it involves breaking through entrenched practices within a company, it can be especially difficult - but not impossible. With a little buy-in, some quick wins to demonstrate the possibilities, and some awareness to the importance of customer centricity, you can create a culture that views CX as a game-winning strategy. Host Sara Walker welcomes Talar Ozcanian, director of customer experience business aviation and helicopter aviation training at CAE, an aviation simulation and technology company, and winners of the digital transformation category at the 2024 US CX Awards, to discuss their digital transformation.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/a-soaring-transformation/
Learn more about CAE on their website: https://www.cae.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
While it might not seem significant at first, securing a place to park your car is an important event. Sure, it’s not life or death, but during large events it can be time sensitive. Sometimes it’s the first experience people have when attending a concert or a large conference, so when the logistics are not working efficiently, it creates a frustrating experience for someone just looking for a safe place to park their car. But work to create a great employee experience and give them the tools to foster a customer centric mentality, you might have the recipe for an award-winning program. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Andrea Cedillo, head of customer support at ParkHub, to explore their award-winning CX program.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/a-space-for-customers/
Learn more about Parkhub at https://parkhub.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Today’s marketing playbooks put social media at the top of many strategies, but regardless of its prevalence, your website is still your business hub and a vital extension of your brand. But when your customers say your site is not friendly or functional, it’s time to rethink your online experience. And in once such case we’re exploring on this episode, the result was award winning. Host Sara Walker welcomes Rajesh Sankaran, Senior VP of eCommerce for A-Max Auto Insurance, for a discussion about their award-winning approach to improving how customers interact with their website.
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/take-the-transaction-out-of-the-interaction/
Learn more about A-MAX Auto Insurance at https://www.amaxinsurance.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Think of some of the best experiences you have had as a customer. What made it great? Did you feel like the experience matched the company’s identity? Did any of it feel like it wasn’t meeting the company’s brand promise? Great experiences are consistent: you know what to expect when you interact with an organization that reflects their brand through their CX efforts. Host Sara Walker welcomes Chelsea Reynolds, marketing manager for YuMOVE, for a discussion on keeping experiences consistent with your organization's brand.
For a trascript of the episode, please visit the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/consistency-is-the-key/
Learn more about YuMOVE at https://yumove.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It’s not easy changing people’s minds. But we’re approaching a season in which customer experience professionals are working hard to convince executives and peers on the value of adopting a customer-centric mindset. WE as CX pros know the value of our efforts, but sometimes we have to convince others of its advantages. And sometimes data isn’t enough. We have to balance the data with storytelling to build confidence in others about the value of customer experience. Troy Powell hosts with guests Pat Gibbons, SVP at Walker, and Megan Burns, a customer experience expert, author, and keynote speaker.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-cx-conundrum-of-changing-minds/
Learn more about Megan at https://megan-burns.com/
Download Walker's Storytelling Workbook at https://walkerinfo.com/cxleader/cx-storytelling-workbook/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Listening to your customers is the “window” to knowing how well your organization is performing in its customer experience efforts. Whether it’s an online support chat, a voice of the customer through employee program, or a CSAT survey, each of these touchpoints provide a metric to how your customers view your company. But HOW you create these listening opportunities matters, and keeping them consistent with your company’s brand is important. Pat Gibbons welcomes Joe Chiew, senior manager of consumer insights and voice of the customer at The Guitar Center Company, for a discussion on creating consistent listening experiences.
Find the transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-harmonious-experience/
Learn more about Guitar Center at https://www.guitarcenter.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's note: this episode originally dropped on October 11, 2022. While some details may have changed since it's original publication, we think Dan Silvert's insights on the importance of healthy relationships between employees is a great example of create excellent employee experiences.
Many companies use them: personality tests or evaluations - ways to help employees discover more about how they and their colleagues work with others. Some might roll their eyes at the mention of them yet others find them very useful in trying to connect to other people in their company. Regardless of how you feel about them, the goal is ultimately a better-working team. And employees working well together means there’s better potential for excellent customer experiences. Host Steve Walker welcome Dan Silvert, a partner and president of the Velocity Advisory Group, a strategic consulting company.
Read more about Velocity Advisory Group: https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/
More about Dan's book, "The True Competitive Advantage: A Practical Guide to Achieving Extraordinary Success through Deep Relationships": https://www.amazon.com/True-Competitive-Advantage-Extraordinary-Relationships/dp/1619618567/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
As consumers we’ve all interacted in different ways with companies. Sometimes an automated system, online chat, an app on our phones, or even a live human being. But as customer experience professionals, how do we know which channel is the best option and the most preferred by consumers? And how will AI fit into all this? Host Sara Walker welcomes James Scutt, a principle XM strategist at the Qualtrics XM Institute for a look at what their 2023 Global Consumer Study reveals about consumer channel preferences.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ai-is-it-hype-or-helpful/
Read the 2023 Global Consumer Study: https://www.xminstitute.com/research/consumer-channel-preferences-2024/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
What’s the first thing you think of when asked, “how well do you listen?” Many CX professionals might think of their listening systems: surveys, close-loop feedback, listening architectures. Some may say they interact with clients on a regular basis. But what about actively listening? Talking less and letting others express themselves, and then reassuring them that the conversation was worth it. Host Sara Walker welcomes Marisa Schwartz, senior regional medical director for St. Luke’s University Health Network, to discuss the importance of active listening.
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/talk-less-listen-more/
Learn more about St. Luke's University Health Network at https://www.slhn.org/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It's human nature to compare what we do professionally – and even personally – with others and CX leaders are no different. So Walker, along with the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), launched The CX Leader Pulse as a way to give customer experience professionals a look into what companies are, and are not, doing within their CX programs. The results of the first study are in and host Pat Gibbons welcomes Walker’s own Troy Powell, Vice President of Strategy & Analytics, and Greg Melia, CEO of the CXPA, to discuss what was discovered.
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-results-are-in/
To participate in The CX Leader Pulse, visit https://walkerinfo.com/pulse
List to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about the Customer Experience Professionals Association at https://cxpaglobal.org/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
CX leaders have become increasingly effective at taking action on customer feedback. Today many organizations have effective closed-loop programs that efficiently route insights to the right person for timely action. However, there’s a blind spot – the vast majority of customers never provide their feedback. Actually that’s more than a blind spot. It’s a black hole! This episode's guest has built an impressive early warning system that addresses this problem. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Maddie Clark, Customer Experience Insights Senior Manager at ServiceNow, for a discussion on how she built an early warning system that addresses the problem of identifying dissatisfied customers that don't provide feedback.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-black-hole-of-cx/
Learn more about ServiceNow at https://servicenow.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
In today's consumer world, we are inundated with advertising from countless online and offline mediums, and too often companies think that's what really drives their brand. But if you're a customer experience leader, you know experience has possibly become the most prominent ingredient in a company's brand. So how do we make it work? How do CX leaders ensure an experience that influences the brand and reputation of their organization in a positive way? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Keith Farley, senior vice president for individual benefits at Aflac, to discuss the experience of directing CX at one of the world's most famous brands.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/your-brand-and-cx-theyre-connected/
Learn more about AFLAC at https://www.aflac.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
If you go back in time 10 or 15 years you'll find it was common for a market research function within a company to send out a single survey each year to all customers asking about their satisfaction with the products and services they interacted with. The field has since greatly evolved as what we now call customer experience regularly receives customer feedback from multiple surveys and unstructured data, and we get that data from across multiple channels. But we still have a lot of evolution left if we want to keep up with the changes our companies are dealing with. Host Troy Powell welcome Isabelle Zdatny from the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the evolution of customer experience and experience management.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/its-moving-really-fast/
Learn more about the XM Institute at https://www.xminstitute.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: This podcast was originally released on April 4, 2023. As always with our encore episodes, please note that some details might be different, but the advice from Stacy Sherman regarding inclusiveness in CX and EX is still valuable.
People in general want to do good things for others. But it’s easy to assume that everyone sees the world with similar eyes. We live in a diverse world with people that have different needs, so it’s important that CX professionals plan and accommodate so the experience is accessible and meaningful for all their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacy Sherman, a customer experience and marketing keynote speaker, content creator, and host of the podcast "Doing CX Right", for a discussion on creating inclusive experiences for customers and employees with different needs and abilities.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-inclusive-experience/
Read more about Stacy on her website: https://doingcxright.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
We'll bet you've heard this one: you call customer support and encounter an automated system. Despite your best efforts to speak clearly, the voice on the other end of the line can’t understand you. Or, how about when you’ve finally reached someone and they need to transfer you to another agent. After waiting on hold for a while, the second agent finally answers the phone but asks you to explain the problem all over again. That is s a particularly frustrating experience, and you’re not alone according to a recent study by RingCentral and Opinium Research. Host Sara Walker welcomes Jim Payne, director of product marketing at RingCentral, a provider of AI-first cloud-based communication and collaboration solutions, for a discussion about the report's findings and how AI can help ease those customer support pain points.
You can read more about RingCentral and Opinium Research's report here: https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/can-ai-fix-bad-customer-service/
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/can-ai-save-customer-support/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
In this bonus episode, Pat Gibbons describes his experiences at the Qualtrics X4 event in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 1-3. With thousands of experience management professionals in attendance, Pat had an opportunity to discuss the top challenges facing XM professionals within their own organizations. Hosted at the Walker exhibit booth, professionals were asked to participate in an unique exercise that demonstrated the concerns experience management leaders are facing.
Read more about X4 and details results from the exercise on our blog: https://walkerinfo.com/top-xm-challenges-results-from-x4/
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/bonus-2024-x4-results/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It’s common today that, as consumers, we receive a survey after all kinds of experiences – shopping, travel, home repair – you name it. You fill out a survey with the hope that it might change the next outcome to be better. But what about the here and now? As experience management improves consumers are demanding action during the experience. Now think of yourself not only as a consumer, but as a patient and the timeliness of feedback and action becomes that much more important. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Laura Anning, Chief of Patient Experience for Washington Hospital Healthcare System, and Liz Wallshield, Senior Technology Consultant at Walker, for a discussion on using patient rounding as a way to quickly action on feedback.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/rounds-and-rounds-we-go/
Learn more about Washington Hospital Healthcare System at https://www.whhs.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Maybe it’s a concert headlining Beyonce, U2, or Taylor Swift? Or perhaps your favorite NFL team is playing their rivals this weekend? Perhaps you prefer events that allow for some more personal creative expression like GenCon or Comic-Con? While we have our personal preferences, few things compare to meeting up with thousands of like-minded people or fans for live events. But those gatherings don’t just happen out of the blue, and just like any other business, the experience matters. And ASM Global just released a new study that highlights what audiences are demanding in regards to live event experiences. Host Sara Walker welcomes Alex Merchan, chief marketing officer for ASM Global, a venue management and live event production company, to discuss their recent study on global audience trends.
Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/give-the-audience-what-they-want/
Learn more about ASM Global at https://www.asmglobal.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusiveness have been happening in many companies in the U.S., and healthcare is no exception, especially when it comes to the care patients receive. And listening to patients’ needs and concerns is vital to providing doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and leadership with the insights required to providing equitable care for all their patients. But what does it mean to be “equitable” versus “equal” in the care providers give to their patients? Host Sara Walker welcomes Ariel Davis, head of healthcare provider solution strategy for Qualtrics, and Nicole Richendollar, vice president in our client services at Walker, for a discussion on providing equitable care to patients.
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/equity-in-healthcare/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
We’ve all experienced it: that nagging, frustrating, and sometimes maddening feeling we get when something collides with our productivity. And while it can sometimes feel trivial, that type of friction adds up and affects our interactions with customers, thus affecting the customer experience. So how do we minimize those points of friction in the workplace? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Christophe Martel, CEO and founder of FOUNT, a software platform designed to help reduce friction and improve productivity and employee experiences, for a discussion on reducing workplace friction and it's effect on customer experience.
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/work-friction-less-is-more/
Learn more about FOUNT at https://getfount.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Bonus content are audio clips of interviews that we couldn’t include in an episode but still contains great advice for our listeners, and this content is only available to those that follow the show through their favorite podcast provider.
In the episode " The Empathetic Frontline" (episode #307) released back in March, guest Victoria Stephens from Flywire discussed the importance of employee experience as it relates to providing the best possible customer experience. Host Sara Walker asks how Flywire balances the advantages of automation versus live interactions during support calls and how the data from those interactions helps improve the CX/EX balance.
Listen to the original episode at: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-empathetic-frontline/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: This episode originally released on March 7, 2023. Natalie Onions discussed how she became a customer experience professional and offered some great advice for newer CX pros on how to grow their careers in customer experience. Please note that this was recorded back in March of 2023, so some parts of the discussion may be outdated.
There have been many guests on this show, each with unique stories and backgrounds about their path to becoming a customer experience professional. But we haven’t often discussed how YOU can develop your own professional life. So how is your career growth going? Are you new to the profession and need some tips, or are you a seasoned pro that could use some ways to spark new creativity? How do you keep your career batteries charged? Host Steve Walker welcomes Natalie Onions, vice president of customer experience at Customer.io, a marketing automation platform, to discuss way to help develop your career as a customer experience professional.
Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/your-cx-career/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It's an often-misunderstood industry that exists between healthcare and hospitality and includes all the complexities of strict regulation and event management. And to add more complication, it includes an element of emotional support. Funeral homes and cemeteries walk a fine line of making the final arrangements of a loved one as frictionless as possible, all while knowing there are no second chances at delivering a positive experience. Host Sara Walker welcomes Walker expert Hannah Warren for a discussion on managing experiences within the death care industry.
For a transcript of this episode, visit the show notes page at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-death-care-experience/
To listen to more episodes, visit https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
To learn more about Walker, go to https://walkerinfo.com/
Just like any other business process, customer experience programs can sometimes get a little stale or outdated. As CX leaders, it’s our responsibility to pay attention to the customers’ needs and expectations, and adjust accordingly. But sometimes it’s best to take a step back and look at the entire customer journey and, if needed, redesign the journey from start to finish. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Jaya Sudarshan, a customer experience manager for HP, the global technology company, for a discussion on building a differentiated experience from start to finish.
Find the transcript on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/redesigning-from-start-to-finish/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
What are some of the more common challenges you encounter with your CX program? Have you noticed a particular common problem among CX programs when you converse with fellow CX pros? Benchmarking is an often-tackled problem for customer experience professionals and is not as simple as comparing your numbers with another company's scores. This episode is the inaugural show of a new series we’re calling “CX Conundrums,” where we’ll address common CX challenges and possible ways CX leaders can address them. Host Troy Powell dives into this conundrum with two seasoned CX professionals that have a great deal of experience in benchmarking: Sean Clayton who has 20+ years working with a wide range of companies and James Bampos whose background includes CX at various tech firms as well as leadership on a recent benchmarking initiative with the XM Institute.
Find a transcript on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-cx-conundrum-of-benchmarking/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
There are many companies today that have embraced customer experience as a key strategic practice, working hard to put the customer first. But there’s often a part of the customer’s journey that is overlooked: when it’s time to pay the bill. Even in a recent episode, our host Pat Gibbons gave an example of a company dismissing customer feedback that identified invoicing as a pain point. So why do companies often adopt this mentality? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Philip Rürup, founder and CEO of troy, a customer experience focused collections company based in Germany, for a discussion on why CX professionals often overlook the payment process, and why it's worth their attention.
Find a transcript on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/dont-forget-your-invoice/
Learn more about troy at https://www.troy-bleiben.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Great customer experiences comes from great employee experiences. It’s something we’ve discussed in several past episodes of this podcast and you can listen to our CX plus EX episodes on cxleaderpodcast.com. But how can you improve employee engagement for a large group of front-line employees, say a call center or large customer support operation? Host Sara Walker welcomes Victoria Stephens, director of client and payment experience at Flywire, a global payment software company, and a CXPA 2023 Emerging Leader award winner, for a discussion on equipping frontline employees for customer experience success.
Find a transcript on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-empathetic-frontline/
Learn more about Flywire at https://www.flywire.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: March 8th, 2024 is International Women’s Day. This global event celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, and serves as a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. To join in this celebration, we’d like to encore an episode that originally aired back in August of 2022 when Sara Walker hosted to highlight the wisdom of women CX leaders that were guests on the show. If you’d like to know more about International Women’s Day, you can go to internationalwomensday.com. Some information in this episode might be out of date, but it’s a great way to celebrate the phenomenal women CX leaders that have been on the show, and those that continue to drive customer experience excellence in organizations across the globe.
Women's Equality Day is celebrated in the United States on August 26, commemorating the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. In honor of that event, and in honor of her great-grandmother Tommie Walker, who founded Walker in 1939, Sara Walker guests hosts to highlight words of wisdom from women who have been guests on The CX Leader Podcast.
Learn more about International Women's Day at https://internationalwomensday.com
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
If you're a CX professional then you've read your fair share of customer feedback comments. While most CX leaders love to read great comments from customers, there's always feedback that isn't so flattering, and your instinct may be to spring into action to fix whatever it was that caused the less than stellar review. Customer insights can be a powerful change agent, so leveraging feedback can be a great way to influence change within your company. What if we had some advice from someone on the operations side of the business; people who are responsible for implementing the changes that CX leaders suggest? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Darren Byrne, vice president of global professional services at Wolters Kluwer, a global software solutions company, for a discussion on how CX feedback can be a driver of change within an organization.
Find a transcription on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-data-that-drives-change/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It goes without saying that designing any kind of product is no easy task. And in the case of software, balancing the engineering needs versus customer expectations can be daunting. Simple things like moving a button from the place it’s been for several versions can cause confusion and frustration. So it’s important to understand customers’ needs and communicate those needs to product designers. Host Sara Walker welcomes Naina Tahnilramani, a senior customer experience manager at Intuit and winner of the 2023 CXPA Emerging Leaders Award, for a discussion on the customer experience when launching new or updated products.
Learn more about the CXPA Emerging Leaders Awards at: https://www.cxpa.org/advance-your-career/awards/emergingleaderawards
Listen to more episodes at: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Ever see the old classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds”? There’s a famous scene when a flock of crows attack a group of fleeing school children, swarming without mercy and terrifying everyone in their path. It sometimes feels like that with A.I. - people pecking and swarming at you to try and integrate it into your business in any way possible. And many CX pros are feeling pressure to find ways of incorporating artificial intelligence into their programs. So how can we approach this technology in a way to have it meaningfully contribute to our CX efforts?
Host Pat Gibbons welcomes back Mike Miserendino, founder and president of GravityDrive, an experience design consultancy group, for a discussion on how customer experience professionals can take an objective approach in effectively incorporating A.I. into their CX programs.
Learn more about GravityDrive at https://www.gravitydrive.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Bonus Content! We interview many great customer experience professionals and they have a ton of great advice to share. But sometimes we have leave some of the interview out of the final episode in order to keep our podcasts a reasonable length. So you're not left out of hearing all the wonderful content our guests provide, we'll occasionally release material that was left out of the final episode as bonus content. This content is only available to those that follow the show through their favorite podcast provider.
In our episode "Becoming Customer Obsessed" (episode #302), guest Marbue Brown discusses the importance of being creative when it comes to anticipating customer needs. During the interview with host Pat Gibbons, he told a touching story about a company that when above and beyond to help a customer in need. The story didn't make it in the original episode so we're releasing it as bonus content.
Listen to the original episode at: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/becoming-customer-obsessed/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Chances are, if you're a regular listener to this show, you at the very least have a healthy respect for customer experience and the value it brings to your organization. But there are a few brands out there that have a following like none other brands like Apple, Costco, Trader Joe's, Chick-fil-A, and, one of our host's personal favorites: Chewy, the online pet supply retailer. These companies are obsessed with customer experience, but what does that mean? And how can you get your company to adopt that mindset? Host Pat Gibbons welcome Marbue Brown, founder of The Customer Obsession Advantage and author of “Blueprint for Customer Obsession,” for a discussion on his new book and why companies need to engage personally, deliver exceptionally, and connect emotionally to their customers.
Connect with Marbue at https://www.customerobsession.net/
Learn how to get Marbue's book, "Blueprint for Customer Obsession" at: https://www.customerobsession.net/resources/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Bonus Content!
We couldn't fit everything from this episode into the final edit but you can listen to bonus content by following our feed through your favorite podcast provider. Follow The CX Leader Podcast today to not miss out on a great story from Marbue on a customer obsessed company that anticipated their customer's needs and delivered a exceptional experience.
Producer's Note: This episode originally dropped on February 14, 2023. Steve Walker interviewed Justin Zalewski on how CX professionals can take an ordinary journey mapping process and do more than just find problems and build empathy - instead, Justin describes how to turn your journey mapping process up to "11". Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not necessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
Most CX pros are familiar with customer journey mapping – the process that identifies the path customers take when interacting with your company. We’ve done a few episodes on it already and you can check those out on cxleaderpodcast.com. But what if we did a little more than just pinpoint problems and build empathy for our customers? What if we included the customer in the process and they help design improved experiences? In other words, we turn the journey mapping process up to eleven! Host Steve Walker welcomes Justin Zalewski for a discussion on service design.
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
That’s right - 300 episodes! Walker has been producing this podcast since January of 2018 and collected over 150 hours of content, discussed trends and events that included everything from COVID to artificial intelligence, and met some amazing customer experience professionals along the way. And at the beginning of each year we like to take a look at what to expect in CX over the next 12 months. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Walker experts Sonya McAllister, Sean Clayton, and Tanner Smith, to reminisce on 2023 and make some predictions about trends moving into 2024.
Read more about Walker's experts at https://walkerinfo.com/who-we-are/our-people/
Listen to more podcast episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
The famous quantum theory thought experiment called "Schrodinger’s Cat" imagines a cat is placed in a box with a vial of poison. Schrodinger suggests that until you open the box and observe the fate of the poor animal, it is simultaneously alive and dead – its fate isn’t determined until you’ve observed its condition. Leaders in a company can sometimes feel that way about the benefits of customer experience, and the fault really doesn’t lie with them – as a CX pro, you need to open the box and prove the value to your organization. Host Troy Powell welcomes Topher Mitchell, manager of the value advisory group at Qualtrics, for a discussion on the importance of customer experience professionals proving the value of CX.
Connect with Topher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tophermitchell/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Let’s face it: not every person is well-suited to be, quote, “customer-facing.” Whether it’s their personality, their specific job requirements, or just their preference or personal talents, some people do better on the “behind the scenes” aspects of the company. And it’s easy to assume a mentality that they don’t necessarily need a customer-centric focus in their work. But an organization’s employee experience can impact not only their perspective of why they do what they do for the company, but also the customer experience. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes AJ Schneider, president of Wheaton World Wide Moving, for a discussion on why it's important all employees - regardless of their interactions with customers - know they are important to CX.
Learn more about Wheaton at https://wheatonmoving.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Most customer experience pros know about transactional and relational surveys, but did you know there's a third kind of survey you may need to use? Add the confusion of which surveys are best sent often or once a year, versus how long they should be, it can get frustrating for you - or your customer - on deciding what survey to use when. Walker expert Heather Koiro clears up the "survey confusion" with her Quick Tip Minicast!
Listen to more Quick Tips at http://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/
Explore more episode of The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Think about a time when you visited someplace that’s meaningful to you: a special museum, the distillery of your favorite beverage, a presidential library – you walked away from that exhibit or tour with a heightened understanding and appreciation for that particular interest. Or possibly gained a deeper understanding of something new. That experience was likely designed to better connect you with the product, person, and/or brand. Host Troy Powell welcomes Christian Lachel, chief creative officer at BRC Imagination Arts, for a discussion of discovering the interests and needs of your audience and designing experiences that tell your brand story.
Read more about BRC Imagination Arts at https://www.brcweb.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
While there is some historical debate on this, Aristotle is widely recognized as one of the early inventors of the scientific method – the way in which we observe, hypothesize, experiment, and gather data. Experimentation is key to logically understanding our world. And just like any other business practice, experimenting with CX can help you gain insights on what works best for your organization in delivering an amazing experience. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Gabs Dracopoulos, head of global customer success at Intuit, for a discussion on CX experimentation.
Connect with Gabs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielledracopoulos
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It’s a subject on which we’ve dedicated several episodes: employee experience. And we’ve even covered how to effectively combine CX and EX, a subject for which Walker released a report that you can find on walkerinfo.com. But we haven’t really explored the value of combining employee and customer experience – is it even worth it, and what challenges can I expect? Host Steve Walker welcomes Suzanne Scharer, a product scientist at Qualtrics, for a discussion on why it's worth the effort to combine your customer and employee experience data.
Learn more about Suzanne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannescharer/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Companies often struggle with knowing their customer's needs and why they actually stay customers. Are they happy? Are they looking elsewhere for their needs? Why are they not happy? Segmenting these customers into a loyalty scale is common, but not necessarily actionable. On this episode of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Michelle Buretta, a vice president at Walker, shares how the Walker Loyalty Matrix™ provides businesses with a practical means to leverage the voice of the customer for improved business performance.
Learn more about Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleburetta/
Read more about the Walker Loyalty Matrix™: https://walkerinfo.com/solutions/loyalty-matrix/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, the majority of workers in the U.S. say that focusing on DEI in the workplace is “a good thing.” With so many organizations adopting ways to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, it seems that we, as CX professionals, should explore ways we can incorporate this important work into our efforts of improving customer experiences. And my guest on this episode has already made progress in incorporating DEI into CX and EX programs. Host Sara Walker welcomes Victor Udoewa, service design lead at the CDC, for a discussion on diversity, equity, and inclusion in CX metrics and programs.
Learn more about Victor via his LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/udoewa/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
There’s so much talk about artificial intelligence these days. With stories of how it is changing the world on so many fronts, customer experience professionals can’t help but explore its impact on their organization’s CX program. And when we think about another common struggle with CX – linking the work of customer experience back to revenue – a little bit of help from machine learning might offer a solution. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Nikhil Nadiminti, senior program manager ISG for worldwide customer experience at Lenovo, for a discussion on proving CX's value through machine learning.
Learn more about Lenovo at https://www.lenovo.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
There's an adage that implies designers and data scientists sometimes don't always see eye to eye. Designers look for esthetics and the functionality while developers and researchers lean towards the data. Why is that? We can all get along and there's no reason why we can't work together! You can use data to create usable and esthetic designs that support excellent customer experiences. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Caroline Quinlan, digital CX manager for Electric Ireland, for a discussion on how data combined with design thinking can create amazing customer experiences.
Learn more about Electric Ireland at https://www.electricireland.ie/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
We must warn you: the podcast episode you're about to listen to is filled with frightful tales of deliveries gone wrong, misdirected concert tickets, terrible website engineering, and rental cars that won't start. This can only mean one thing: it's another blood-curdling episode of CX Horror Stories! Hosted by Sara Walker and Gary Szeszycki, guests include Diane Skirvin (Walker), Bill Daughtery (Gibson Teldata), Tyler Morris (Walker), and Kerri Meyer (Qualtrics).
Listen to more horror stoires (if you dare!) at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/series/cx-horror-stories/
Listen to other episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
In 1989, Evered and Selman put forward the idea that looking at managers as “coaches” creates a better culture for employees. They say, “coaching focuses on discovering actions that enable and empower people to contribute more fully, productively, and with less alienation than the control model entails.” We take the same view here at Walker, where our team leads take the role of coaches to develop CX teams. A lot of those skills translate to leading a CX team in a company – or guiding a whole organization to get onboard with CX initiatives. Host Pat Gibbons welcome Walker expert "Coach Drew" Hall for a discussion on the value of CX coaching.
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
You're ready to get going on gathering customer feedback, but there's always that looming question: what will we ask them and how much is too much survey? On this edition of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Walker expert Molly Work gives helpful advice on how to determine the right amount of questions to ask in a survey.
Listen to more Quick Tips at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Managing your money is already a stressful task, and it's sometimes difficult to intentionally think ahead about what happens when we retire. Luckily, there are some very smart people in the world of personal finance who can help with that aspect of life. But what does the customer experience look like in that field? Continuing our look into the winning programs at the 2023 US Customer Experience Awards, host Pat Gibbons welcomes Jenny Schmidt, vice president for strategic initiatives at Prudential Financial, to discuss their many awards from USACXA, including the 2023 CX Team of the Year.
Learn more about the Prudential Stages for Retirement at: https://stages.prudential.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Here's a situation you might have heard about, or even experienced: you’re ready to get going on this CX “thing” – you’re going to revolutionize your company. But you don’t quite have executive buy-in, or you’ve got the buy-in but you just can’t get people to do what needs to be done. It’s a common problem with companies new to customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Megan Burns, CX pioneer, keynoter, and advisor, for a discussion on how to active customer experience in your organization.
Download Megan's Project Pyramid Worksheet: http://megan-burns.com/cxprojectpyramid
Learn more about Megan at https://megan-burns.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Every first Tuesday of October, CX pros take a moment to celebrate their profession and bring awareness to the benefits of a great customer experience, and we hope you’re celebrating with us as well! Since 2011, the Customer Experience Professionals Association, or CXPA, has been dedicated to the advancement of the CX profession and continues to provide support for customer experience professionals throughout their career. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Greg Melia, CEO of the CXPA, for a discussion on why we should take time to celebrate all things CX.
Learn more about the CXPA at https://www.cxpaglobal.org/
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You've planned a great program for gaining customer feedback, but there's just one problem: a low response rate. On this edition of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Walker expert Drew Hall has some advice on how to manage your lists to encourage a healthier response rate, therefore gathering a better quality of customer feedback.
Listen to more Quick Tips at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
When did customer experience come into existence? If you’ve listened to this show for a while, you’ll know there was no definitive “big bang” event for CX. It evolved from various other disciplines into the “ethos” of customer centricity that it is today. And there’s no stopping it – customer experience is here to stay, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Megan Burns, a world-renowned author, keynoter, and CX expert, for a discussion on the past, present, and future of customer experience.
Learn more about Megan at https://megan-burns.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
You’ve heard us promote the US Customer Experience Awards several times on this program. If you’re not familiar with them, we recommend you check them out at usacxa.com. In this episode, host Steve Walker had the privilege of welcoming a CX leader that helped earn their company the Overall Winner of the 2023 Customer Experience Awards, in addition to winning gold and silver awards in several other categories. Steve welcomes Riccardo Porta, the Global Director for CX at Dow, the materials and science company, for a discussion on their program and a look into the Advanced Manufacturing CX Consortium (AMCX).
Learn more about Dow at https://www.dow.com/
Learn more about the Advanced Manufacturing CX Consortium at https://corporate.dow.com/en-us/seek-together/cx-benchmarking-for-b2b.html
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Respondents to your surveys are like notes in a symphony of data: if the right notes are played, you have a musical masterpiece. But if some are playing wrong notes, a dissonant chaos of sound can confuse the listeners. In the inaugural edition of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Walker expert Tanner Smith discusses how CX experts can make certain they're playing the right notes so they have clear insights into their customers.
Listen to more Quick Tips at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Data is flying everywhere and CX pros are always striving to gobble-up whatever insights they can get about their customers. It’s easy to look at an average support call time, or NPS scores to get an idea of how things are going. But what about the things that are more difficult to quantify? How do find a hard number for something like customer service? Host Steve Walker welcomes Nathan Bobay, director for Consumer Service at Delta Faucets, for a discussion on quantifying the value of service.
Learn more about Delta Faucets at https://www.deltafaucet.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we've been re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode originally dropped on November 6, 2018. Shep Hyken is an award-winning keynote speaker and renowned expert in customer experience. Shep discussed how he started in CX and how customers are no longer comparing you with competitors, but with “the best service they ever had, from anyone.” Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
Continuing the “CX Luminary” series highlighting the “rock stars” of customer experience, Steve welcomes Shep Hyken to the podcast to discuss how he got his start in CX and how making convenience can bring your company a competitive edge.
Learn more about Shep at https://hyken.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on July 19, 2019. Guest Jay Baer has always been a fun guest to welcome onto the show. He is compelling, funny, and an engaging speaker. He’s also a world-renown expert in customer experience. We love this particular episode as he directly addressed the needs for companies to adapt to changing customer needs (e.g., a global pandemic!) Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
It’s been said a countless number of times on this show: customer experience has never been more important for companies today. The pandemic has changed not only how businesses operate, but how consumers are make purchasing decisions. This has provided CX programs an opportunity to make a huge impact on how companies navigate their way through new territory as we start to see the world emerge from the pandemic. Host Steve Walker welcomes back bestselling author and CX expert Jay Baer to discuss how CX has - or can - make an impact.
Learn more about Jay Baer at: https://www.jaybaer.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on July 19, 2019. Guest Roberta O'Keith did a great job describing how to start a CX program from scratch – it’s a great “CX 101” episode for anyone looking for ways to get a program off the ground. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
It might sound like more work but sometimes building a CX program from the ground up has its advantages. Steve welcomes guest Roberta O’Keith of Murphy-Hoffman Company, a full-service truck dealership, to discuss how she started customer experience programs in companies that had no such efforts in place.
To listen to more episodes, go to https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
To learn more about Walker, go to https://walkerinfo.com/
Almost immediately after the first horseless carriages appeared on America's roads, motorists began organizing automobile clubs. AAA formed in 1902 with 1500 members. AAA continues to save the day after a breakdown and making dream vacations a reality for more than 63 million members. The logistics of that aren’t easy, but this episode's guest will provide a glimpse of how the AAA National Office coordinates a complex customer experience program. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bryan Sander, managing director of member experience at AAA and a member of the CXPA board of directors, for a discussion on getting CX work done in a complex environment.
Learn more about AAA at https://www.aaa.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on November 10, 2020. Guest Seth Fritz, manager of the design futures team at the Delta Faucets Company, gave us just a glimpse into the practice of human-centered design, utilizing techniques that allow designers to discover how people will interact with objects, and how the CX program at Delta helps the creative team better design products. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
Customer experience is about people: your customers or clients, your employees and colleagues, your business partners – people make the experience. So, it goes without saying that designing any experience should include the perspective of those involved, and human-centered design can help inform that process. Host Steve Walker welcomes Seth Fritz, the manager of the Design Futures team at the Delta Faucets Company, for a discussion on human-centered design.
Learn more about Delta Faucet Company at: https://www.deltafaucet.com/
Listen to more podcasts at: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at: https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on October 19, 2021. Guests Jennifer Pursifull and Sharon Bislich did some wonderful work with the company Medxcel in tying customer and employee data together, which helped empower their employees to create better experiences. That’s why we loved this episode – it beautifully demonstrates the powerful advantage of putting your CX and EX data together. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
The advantage of experience management (or "XM") is the holistic view of experience across the company. By leveraging customer and employee data together, companies can take their experience programs to the next level. But what companies are applying this practice and how’s it working out for them? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jennefer Pursifull, VP of marketing and sales, and Sharon Bislich, director for marketing, communication, and engagement – both from Medxcel, a healthcare facilities management company - to discuss how they successfully built their program to empower their employees to create better experiences for their clients.
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on August 24, 2021. We loved how our guest is passionate about connecting employees with the customers and brand through the use of storytelling. He and Steve discussed ways this can build empathy and understanding, which is vital to the overall culture of being a customer-centric organization. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
When we talk about “experiences” it’s often from a holistic point of view – through the lens of “experience management”, or “XM.” But how do you connect the customer with the employees, or the employees with the brand? One way is through the use of storytelling, which can be particularly effective in building empathy and understanding. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bruce Temkin, head of the Qualtrics XM Institute, for a discussion on how storytelling can build customer empathy and lead to better customer experience.
Learn more about the Qualtrics XM Institute at https://www.xminstitute.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
For some people, getting excited about a new project means diving right into the “fun stuff.” Working to fix up that cool classic car you just bought, or painting a landscape that inspired you. The temptation is to pick up the wrench or paint brush and dive in. But even artists and mechanics need a plan, and so do CX experts. And a critical area of planning for customer experience is communications. It’s important to know your audience and why you’re collecting data in the first place and planning your communications should be one of the first things you do. Host Steve Walker welcomes Molly Work, associate vice president in client services at Walker, for a discussion on the importance of communication - internally and externally - to improve customer experience.
Read more about this from a blog article co-authored by Molly, "Effective communication can elevate your CX program" at: https://walkerinfo.com/effective-communication-can-elevate-your-cx-program/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on December 8, 2020. We loved how our guest highlighted the importance of creating a “change mindset” throughout the company to move the customer experience team beyond the label of the ”survey people.” Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
The practice of customer experience must permeate the entire company. But that can be difficult, and CX pros are sometimes not take as seriously as they should. So how do you, as a CX pro, change that mindset - how do they move beyond the label of "the survey people?" Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Roxie Strohmenger, vice president of customer experience strategy at UKG, for a discussion on how customer experience professional should market themselves within their organization.
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode originally dropped on April 20, 2021. We really liked this episode because our guests highlighted how well some local, state, and federal government have embraced CX principles as a way to connect to communities and commercial businesses. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
In the United States, people typically don’t think of themselves as “customers” to the government. However, governing bodies from the local, state, and federal levels have been embracing customer experience as a way to connect to the community, and commercial businesses can learn from their efforts. Host Steve Walker welcomes Qualtrics experts Chelsie Bright, global head of government, and Sydney Heimbrock, chief industry advisor for government, for a discussion on understanding how CX works in government at all levels.
Read the original episode's show notes page here: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/cx-for-the-people/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode originally dropped on November 12, 2019, and we loved the creative way in which IU Health immersed themselves in the patient's journey. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released.
Immersive experiences can be a powerful tool to demonstrate the customer experience, but for patients at a hospital, it can be impactful – and emotional – for the leadership of an organization. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes guest Karen Cernock from Indiana University Health to discuss how an immersive experience for their board developed into a program throughout the organization.
Read the original episode's show notes page here: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/wear-comfortable-shoes/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
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In the grand scheme of things, customer experience is still a newer practice. While it’s growing as companies and organizations realize its potential, there are still few options for formal education and training in CX. And that can make things difficult for CX pros trying to engage the entire company in customer experience efforts. So how do you raise the level of expertise across your organization? Host Steve Walker welcomes back Drew Hall, vice president and team lead for advisory and managed services at Walker, for a discussion on expertise building.
Read the blog article by Drew Hall and Elliot Moran at: https://walkerinfo.com/explore-the-value-of-cx-expertise-building/
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Starting a CX program in any organization can be difficult. And one of the more challenging aspects of spinning up a new program is getting your company – especially leadership – to make it a priority. And to make things even more complicated: what areas of customer experience do you prioritize? Do you start with surveys? Closed loop feedback? Journey mapping? Host Steve Walker welcomes Adam Shapourian, vice president of experience at United Educators, for a discussion on how to determine your customer experience priorities.
Learn more about United Educators at https://www.ue.org/
Listen to more podcasts and subscribe at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
We’ve mentioned the Customer Experience Professionals Association more than once on this podcast. The CXPA offers excellent resources and networking opportunities for CX professionals, and one of those opportunities includes the CX Leaders Advance Conference which was recently held in Orlando, Florida. The event offered CX pros an opportunity to discuss the most “pressing challenges faced by CX leaders.” Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes back to the podcast Walker experts Sheila March and Dr. Troy Powell who participated in the conference and provides a recap of the events and the most pressing topics on the minds of CX professionals today.
Learn more about the Customer Experience Professionals Association at https://www.cxpa.org/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Producer's Note: this is an encore presentation of Episode 219, originally released on May 31, 2022.
One of the best institutions to learn leadership skills is the military. Veterans often become some of the best business leaders in their fields. So how does military life translate into becoming an effective customer experience leader? Host Steve Walker welcomes Michelle Buretta, a vice president and CX strategic advisor at Walker, for a discussion on how her service in the Army prepared her to be a customer experience leader..
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Combining your customer experience and employee experiences can have a tremendous impact on your overall experience efforts. But what does that look like from the data perspective – how do they link and why would it be advantageous? Host Steve Walker welcomes Tanner Smith, senior analyst at Walker, for a discussion on linking CX and EX data and how it benefits the organization's experience programs.
Download Walker's free report "Effectively Combining CX and EX": https://walkerinfo.com/cxleader/effectively-combining-cx-and-ex/
Listen to the episode "Effectively Combining CX and EX": https://cxleaderpodcast.com/effectively-combining-cx-and-ex/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
It's safe to say that most people are feeling the effects of today’s economy. Dealing with financial issues can create a great deal of stress. Families are penny-pinching and, in many cases, grappling with ways to help ease the burden. And many financial companies don’t make that process easy. But there are ways in which companies can make that experience better and promote what our guest refers to as “financial health.” Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Rochelle Gorey, co-founder and CEO of SpringFour, a Certified B social impact fintech company, for a discussion on ways to make it easier for people achieve financial health.
Learn more about SpringFour at https://springfour.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
As our profession continues to mature and more organizations adopt customer-centric cultures, CX pros often need a way to maintain alignment between their customer experience programs and other company functions. A “hub”, if you will, of CX expertise that the entire company can look to for advice and ideas, so your customer experience efforts align with the company’s mission and vision – a CX Center of Excellence. Host Steve Walker welcomes Greg Chase, an XM catalyst from the Qualtrics XM Institute, for a discussion on how organizations can leverage a CX center of excellence to improve their customer experience.
Read Greg's blog post on "The Three Core Functions of a CX Center of Excellence": https://www.xminstitute.com/blog/three-core-functions-cx-coe/
Listen to more podcasts and subscribe at: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at: https://walkerinfo.com/
Journey mapping: that tried-and-true exercise of discovering your strengths as a company and the places in your customer’s journey where things could be improved. It’s a great tool to identify pain points and create empathy for your customers. But what about employees? Seems like it would be a great practice to build some empathy for your own team, right? Host Steve Walker welcomes Dr. Cecelia Herbert, principal XM catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute for a discussion on mapping the employee's journey.
Learn more about the XM Institute at https://www.xminstitute.com/
Listen to more podcast episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
We’ve been talking more about the patient experience on this show and how CX practices can be applied in the healthcare industry. In fact, Walker just released a report on the subject: “PX: Designing Better Patient Experiences.” Host Steve Walker welcomes Nicole Richendollar, an associate video president, and Emily Chesnut, a senior project manager, both at Walker, for a discussion on how digital surveys can benefit closed-loop follow-up, or as it’s known in the healthcare space, “service recovery.”
To download Walker's latest report, "PX: Designing Better Patient Experiences", visit https://walkerinfo.com/cxleader/px-designing-a-better-patient-experience/
To listen to more episodes, go to https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
To learn more about Walker, visit https://walkerinfo.com/
There are so many times on this show that our guests have described their customer experience efforts as living within their marketing department, and there are good reasons to practice CX in that structure. But what if we made the case that CX should exist on its own: an independent CX practice capable of working with all aspects of the organization, thus improving the customer experience at all levels? Host Steve Walker welcomes Amanda Flashner, Chief Experience Officer at LendingPoint, a financial technology platform, for a discussion on why their company invested in a separate CX function to improve the customer expeirence.
Learn more about LendingPoint at https://www.lendingpoint.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Creating seamless experiences is one of many goals of CX pros. But what should be perceived by the customer as a smooth experience can sometimes create complicated processes for the company – like the hidden part of an iceberg. But if done right, it can benefit both the customer and employees, and we have a guest on the show who heads-up a unique program to make that happen. Host Steve Walker welcomes Andy Netzel, CCXP and the head of the Performance Innovation Lab at KeyBank, for a look at how they work to create seamless experiences for their customers.
Learn more about Key Bank at https://www.key.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
People in general want to do good things for others. But it’s easy to assume that everyone sees the world with similar eyes. We live in a diverse world with people that have different needs, so it’s important that CX professionals plan and accommodate so the experience is accessible and meaningful for all their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacy Sherman, a customer experience and marketing keynote speaker, content creator, and host of the podcast "Doing CX Right", for a discussion on creating inclusive experiences for customers and employees with different needs and abilities.
Read more about Stacy on her website: https://doingcxright.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
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In early March of 2023, thousands of experience management professionals from across the globe gathered in Salt Lake City to take part in the 2023 Qualtrics X4 Summit. Featuring keynote speakers like Martha Stewart, Malala Yousafzai, and Chip and Joanna Gaines, the X4 Summit succeeded in creating a memorable experience, while providing opportunities for XM professionals to connect. Host Steve Walker invites Lauri Jones, Sarah Walker, and Pat Gibbons back to the show to recap what they experienced at this year's X4 Summit.
Learn more about the Qualtrics X4 Summit at https://www.qualtrics.com/x4summit/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
When it comes to your health or the health of a loved-one, it gets personal. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare providers to pay attention to the patient experience (PX). It can be different from customer experience, but there are similarities, and just like B2C experiences are influencing how B2B companies design and execute their programs, there are some things that patient experience pros can learn from the CX world. Host Steve Walker welcomes Kim Gerber, a patient experience professional, for a discussion on better understanding the difference and similarities between PX and CX.
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Attending concerts, sporting events, conferences, and other gatherings is a big part of our culture and could easily be considered the pinnacle of experience design. But there are so many elements that go into crafting the ideal event experience to make it truly memorable – how do you put it all together to exceed the high expectations of today’s consumers? And how do you plan and manage blockbuster events like the Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, Olympics, World Cup, concerts from the world’s biggest stars and the most important conferences and tradeshows on the planet? Host Steve Walker welcomes Alex Merchán, chief marketing officer at ASM Global, a leading venue management and services company who hosted the previously mentioned events, for a discussion on experience management for large events.
Learn more about ASM Global at https://www.asmglobal.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
There have been many guests on this show, each with unique stories and backgrounds about their path to becoming a customer experience professional. But we haven’t often discussed how YOU can develop your own professional life. So how is your career growth going? Are you new to the profession and need some tips, or are you a seasoned pro that could use some ways to spark new creativity? How do you keep your career batteries charged? Host Steve Walker welcomes Natalie Onions, vice president of customer experience at Customer.io, a marketing automation platform, to discuss way to help develop your career as a customer experience professional.
Learn more about Customer.io at https://customer.io/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Healthcare in the United States is a complex, and often a divisive subject. With some healthcare companies focused on the bottom line, family practitioners can get overwhelmed and have little time to develop relationships with their patients. So when a company comes along and says that there IS a way for doctors to spend better time and provide better care – in other words, putting the humanity back into the experience – then it’s definitely worth exploring! Host Steve Walker welcomes Jamey Lutz, managing director of brand and service excellent at ChenMed, for a discussion on how their company puts the humanity back into patient experience.
Learn more about ChenMed at https://www.chenmed.com/
Learn more about Jamey at https://www.jameylutz.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ or check out our blog at https://walkerinfo.com/blog/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Customer experience is a wonderful blend of listening and understanding our customers, while creating the right actions to deliver amazing experiences. But putting all those pieces together is a tall task. How do we set up the right processes to ensure the right information is delivered to right employees, resulting in great experiences for our customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jill Helmle, the senior manager for customer experience strategy at ServiceNow, for a discussion on how to equip employees for success.
Learn more about ServiceNow at https://www.servicenow.com/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Most CX pros are familiar with customer journey mapping – the process that identifies the path customers take when interacting with your company. We’ve done a few episodes on it already and you can check those out on cxleaderpodcast.com. But what if we did a little more than just pinpoint problems and build empathy for our customers? What if we included the customer in the process and they help design improved experiences? In other words, we turn the journey mapping process up to eleven! Host Steve Walker welcomes Justin Zalewski, director of product design and strategy at Studio Science, for a discussion on service design.
Learn more about Studio Science at https://studioscience.com/
Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Customer experience pros know that one of the many indicators of a successful CX program includes how many promoters you have among your customers – often measured using the Net Promoter Score. The more promoters you have, the more likely your customers will recommend you to others, right? And that’s it - we typically don’t think there’s something better than “promoters.” However, there are ways in which CX pros can create “superfans” – customers that not only recommend you to others, but become serious advocates for your business. Host Steve Walker welcomes Brittany Hodak, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and customer experience speaker, to discuss her new book, “Creating Superfans: How to Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates.”
Learn more about Brittany's book, "Creating Superfans" here: https://brittanyhodak.com/book/
Listen to more episodes of The CX Leader Podcast here: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker here: https://walkerinfo.com/
A common business adage states: “fast, cheap, or good – pick any two.” But in today’s world of same-day shipping and self-service technologies, customers are demanding speedy experiences and will not accept excuses for sacrificing quality or price. On the eighth and final episode of our series, “CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution,” host Steve Walker welcomes Sean Clayton for a discussion on why customer experience professionals should keep speed at the top of their list when optimizing their CX programs.
Read blogs and listen to more episodes in our CX Now series here: https://walkerinfo.com/cxnow/
Listen to more episodes of The CX Leader Podcast here: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker here: https://walkerinfo.com/
It's no secret that most companies have different groups of customers with differing needs. And we, as CX leaders, naturally need to able to adapt our programs to account for those differences. Depending on your company, differences between your customer segments might be small. But for businesses where each segment’s needs are vastly different, more complex experience strategies might be necessary. So how does a CX pro design and execute for different customer segments? Host Steve Walker welcomes Leigh Redington, general manager at Potawatomi Carter Casino Hotel in Wabeno, Wisconsin, for a discussion on designing experiences for various customer segments.
Listen to more episodes of The CX Leader Podcast here: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
In the 250th episode of The CX Leader Podcast, we'll continue the series “CX Now - Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution” by discussing adaptability: how companies should maintain an agile mindset in order to provide the best possible experience for customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Drew Hall, a vice president and team lead from Walker, to discuss why companies need to move away from the old-world model of "make and sell" model and adopt a more "sense and respond" mentality.
Find more episodes and blog articles in our CX Now series at https://walkerinfo.com/cxnow/
Find more episode of The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
There are lots of different ways to measure what a customer thinks about your company. But customer emotions can be pretty tricky. How a customer feels can affect other metrics – someone who’s happy with their service will likely provide a high NPS rating. Someone who is angry or frustrated will likely choose “very unsatisfied” in a CSAT survey. So it’s important to understand the emotions of a customer as context for other metrics. But what about more complicated relationships, like a B2B2C channel? On this episode, host Steve Walker welcomes Nancy Flowers, director of customer experience at Voya Financial* and featured in Jim Tincher's newest book, "Do B2B Better". Nancy discusses why CX pros needs to remember that emotions are important for B2C and B2B channels.
Learn more about the book, "Do B2B Better" at https://heartofthecustomer.com/dob2bbetter/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
* Production note: We interviewed Nancy Flowers in November of 2022. At that time she was the vice president for insights and loyalty at Hagerty and discusses her experiences at that company. She has since accepted a position at Voya Financial, and while she no longer speaks officially for Hagerty, we have permission to release this episode since she was working for that company at the time of the interview.
Some organizations collect very little data and some collect a ton of data. But like many other aspects of customer experience, CX pros should be thinking of the end goal when designing programs and integrating their data. A "data diet:" everything in moderation. As part of our continuing series "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," host Steve Walker welcomes Ashley Hicks for a discussion on how CX pros can organize, integrate, and constructivley access their data to make better business decisions.
Read more about the "CX Now" series here: https://walkerinfo.com/cxnow/
Find more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Many have experienced the dreaded "handoff" - that experience where someone calls into support and get transferred multiple times, to the point where frustration compels them to simply hang up. Continuing the series "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," host Steve Walker welcomes Diane Skirvin, vice president and team lead at Walker, to discuss the importance of making customer experiences seamless.
Listen and read more about the CX Now series at https://walkerinfo.com/cxnow
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
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Data is everywhere! And CX pros have structured ways to keep it all organized. But what about all the UNstructured data your customers provide? While there are some challenges in using unstructured data, it has the potential to bring a rich set of insights about your customer experience efforts. Host Steve Walker welcomes Ellen Loeshelle, director of product management, XM Discover at Qualtrics, for a discussion on how customer experience professionals can take advantage of the tools available to extract the value from unstructured data.
Learn more about Qualtrics XM Discover at https://www.qualtrics.com/discover/
Listen to more podcasts and subscribe to the show at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Providing the tools and resources for employee success seems like a "no-brainer," but companies often overlook the systems and processes that can create friction in the customer experience. And if the employees struggle to provide seamless experiences, then you can bet that customers are feeling their pain as well. In the fourth episode of our "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," host Steve Walker welcomes expert Georgetta Parisi, Ph.D., for a discussion on employee enablement.
Listen to more podcasts or read blog articles in the "CX Now" series: https://walkerinfo.com/cxnow/
Listen and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
The data companies collect can be valuable in providing insights into the past and current behaviors of customers. But that data can also be useful in predicting trends and behaviors in the future. Continuing the series "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," host Steve Walker welcomes Dr. Troy Powell for a discussion on how companies can use their customer data to perform predictive analysis using A.I., natural language processing, and other tools to anticipate customer needs and actions.
Find more episode and blog article in the "CX Now" series: https://walkerinfo.com/cxnow/
Find more episodes of The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
One toy that was, and continues to be a popular choice for both parents and kids is LEGO®. So named after the Danish phrase to “play well”, LEGO® bricks and playsets are still a best-selling product today. So you might be asking, “what does this have to do with customer experience?” Host Steve Walker welcomes Sirte Pihlaja, CEO and customer experience optimizer for Shirute, a customer experience research and strategy company, to discuss how she utilizes the LEGO® Serious Play® method to build better customer experiences.
Learn more about Shirute at https://www.shirute.com/en/
Read more about the LEGO® Serious Play® method for CX professionals: https://www.shirute.fi/en/shirute-cxplay/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Speed has always been an important factor in delivering a great experience to customers. And many times "fastest" is best. But there are some situations in which you could almost be too fast, so the trick is to find the right "now." Host Steve Walker welcomes Jay Baer, a keynote speaker and author on customer experience, to discuss his latest research in collaboration with StatsSocial, “Time to Win: the Consumer Patience Study."
Download the study for free at https://www.thetimetowin.com/
Learn more about Jay Baer at https://www.jaybaer.com/
Find more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Designing ways to personalize the customer experience is essential. But there are different levels in which personalization can be executed: reactive, selected customer, and proactive. And customer experience programs that are not fully executing on personalized experience could be dropping the ball. In the second episode of our series "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," Steve Walker welcome Saari Gardner, vice president of advisory and managed services at Walker for a discussion on way companies can take their personalization efforts to the next level.
Find more resources in our "CX Now" series at: https://walkerinfo.com/cxleader/cx-now/
Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
What would the world look like if customer experience simply... disappeared? How would anyone receive support? How would companies know what products work? How would you be able to hire someone to fix your dishwasher? In this special episode of The CX Leader Podcast, producer Chris Higgins assembles a panel of experts from Walker to perform a terrifying thought experiment worthy of an episode of The Twilight Zone: imagine a world without customer experience. Panelists include Walker experts Brett DeWitt, TJ O'Neil, Liz Wallshield, and Job Willman.
Listen to more terrifying stories at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/series/cx-horror-stories/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Closed-loop feedback is not a foreign subject on this podcast; we’ve covered it many times before and you can find those episodes on our website, cxleaderpodcast.com. But in this episode we look at a company that services a complicated insurance market, and how implementing a closed-loop follow-up early in the company’s life has impacted their growth. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stephanie-Marie Sullivan, a customer experience manager, and Kevin McEnery, AVP of customer experience at SageSure, a company that specializes in solving the complex insurance needs of homeowners and small businesses in challenged markets.
Learn more about SageSure at https://www.sagesure.com/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Customers are demanding new ways to connect with companies, ranging from websites to apps, chat support to bots - the technological tools available to CX professionals is growing. In the inaugural episode in our series, "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," host Steve Walker welcomes Elliot Moran, associate vice president in our advisory and managed services at Walker, for a discussion on how digital interactions are driving CX evolution.
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Many companies use them: personality tests or evaluations - ways to help employees discover more about how they and their colleagues work with others. Some might roll their eyes at the mention of them yet others find them very useful in trying to connect to other people in their company. Regardless of how you feel about them, the goal is ultimately a better-working team. And employees working well together means there’s better potential for excellent customer experiences. Host Steve Walker welcome Dan Silvert, a partner and president of the Velocity Advisory Group, a strategic consulting company.
Read more about Velocity Advisory Group: https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/
More about Dan's book, "The True Competitive Advantage: A Practical Guide to Achieving Extraordinary Success through Deep Relationships": https://www.amazon.com/True-Competitive-Advantage-Extraordinary-Relationships/dp/1619618567/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
In a special CX Day Celebration episode and playing of this year's theme "CX Drives Success," host Steve Walker welcomes experts Sean Clayton, Sheila March, and Jack Walker for a fun panel discussion on how racing shares similar traits with customer experience. CX Day is held every first Tuesday in October by the Customer Experience Professionals Association as a global celebration of the customer experience profession.
Learn more about CX Day: https://www.cxday.org/
More about the Customer Experience Professionals Association: http://www.cxpa.org/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
This episode features a more open-ended conversation on one of the host's favorite topics: the differences between B2B and B2C, but focusing on what it is like for a CX professional to transition from B2C to B2B, or vice-versa. Steve Walker welcomes guest Stuart Gilchriest, director of CX strategy at UKG, a technology company providing solutions for HR, payroll, and workforce management technology.
Connect with Stuart on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartgilchriest/
Learn more about UKG here: https://www.ukg.com/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com
Data is important for customer experience. Providing a great experience is certainly a good thing, but it’s not enough to assume that your program is delivering. You must gather the data necessary to either confirm you’re doing it right, or find you need to make some changes in order to improve your CX. Host Steve Walker welcomes Tim Thoman, President and CEO of Performance Services, a company that designs and constructs high performance buildings, for a discussion on how they integrate customer data into their business' decision-making process.
Connect with Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timthoman/
Learn more about Performance Services here: https://www.performanceservices.com/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com
It's an easy tenet to accept that a lack of conflict translates to a productive workplace. The less H.R. puts out personality “fires” the more people can concentrate on their jobs. But a study published back in 2003 by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley found that if the traditional rules of brainstorming, which encourage people to not criticize any presented ideas, are replaced with instructions encouraging debate, and even criticism, productive and innovative thinking may improve. Host Steve Walker welcomes Amanda Ono, vice president for customer experience at Resolver, a risk intelligence platform, for a discussion on encouraging a healthy level of conflict in the workplace can increase production and collaboration within your organization.
Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandaono/
Read the UC Berkley Study “The liberating role of conflict in group creativity: A cross cultural study” here: https://irle.berkeley.edu/files/2003/The-liberating-role-of-conflict-in-group-creativity.pdf
Learn more about Resolver here: https://www.resolver.com/
Listen to more episodes and subscribe to The CX Leader Podcast at https://cxleaderpodcast.com
Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com
COVID required many companies to rethink how they do business. Come companies adapted well, others did not. But some unique challenges crop up when your business is highly regulated, like the aviation industry. Regardless of the pandemic, pilots still need to be trained, certified, and recertified, and if the training of pilots is the core services of your business, then some innovative thinking needed to happen in order to continue the important work of keeping people flying. Host Steve Walker welcomes Kara Gardner, global customer experience manager for CAE a manufacturer of simulation and modelling technologies.
A common subject on the show is the importance of cross-functional collaboration when executing good customer experience. Knowing how other departments and groups work within the company is vital, but not always easy. And yet, CX pros are often left with the task of getting everyone on-board and collaborating so the entire company can help provide the best possible customer experience. Guest Michelle Spaul is a customer experience consultant and leads the Customer Experience Professionals Association’s “Monograph Project”, a project aimed to help organizations "work better together by understanding the level of collaboration needed to deliver the desired customer experience."
A common subject on the show is the importance of cross-functional collaboration when executing good customer experience. Knowing how other departments and groups work within the company is vital, but not always easy. And yet, CX pros are often left with the task of getting everyone on-board and collaborating so the entire company can help provide the best possible customer experience. Guest Michelle Spaul is a customer experience consultant and leads the Customer Experience Professionals Association’s “Monograph Project”, a project aimed to help organizations "work better together by understanding the level of collaboration needed to deliver the desired customer experience."
Women's Equality Day is celebrated in the United States on August 26, commemorating the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. In honor of that event, and in honor of her great-grandmother Tommie Walker, who founded Walker in 1939, Sara Walker guests hosts to highlight words of wisdom from women who have been guests on The CX Leader Podcast.
People love origin stories. And for CX professionals, narratives of customer experience “newbies” growing from humble beginnings into “heroes” can be insightful. Continuing in our series of featuring winners from the Awards International 2022 US Customer Experience Awards, host Steve Walker welcomes Lee Kemp, operations, supply chain, and Customer Experience leader, and Sam Wegman, vice president for customer experience, at Univar Solutions, a global chemical and ingredient distributor. Lee and Sam describe how they built an award-winning program from scratch, having received three gold awards and one silver for Univar's customer experience efforts.
Change is not easy. It’s human instinct to become comfortable with “what you know.” But sometimes a change is necessary – when CX professionals notice a problem, or recognize a way to make the customer’s experience better, their instinct is to find solutions to improve how they interact with customers. And a large global technology company needs a CX leader who can bring people together into a common purpose and inspire them to do what’s best for their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bob McDonald, vice president of global CRM experience for IBM, for a discussion on how Bob made the case to transform their customer experience.
Building CX programs from scratch is never an easy task. And the endeavor usually starts with the vision of a single person that sees the benefits of CX and agrees – or is appointed – to spearhead the project. And that includes a lot: program planning, gaining support throughout the organization, putting convincing metrics in place, and a whole lot more. It’s a daunting task. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Carol Tesarek from Equipment Depot to highlight how they put all the right pieces together to create an award-winning program.
Today’s technology allows for peer-driven collaboration on an unprecedented level. People from across the globe can create knowledge resources on Wikipedia, or develop software on GitHub and share it with the world. There are even ways to create art and music collaboratively online. So it only makes sense that a group of CX pros decided that the customer experience profession needed some sort of playbook that “documents CX terms, tactics, and approaches based on the CXPA CX Framework." Host Steve Walker welcomes Heather Gillbanks, CCXP and Director and Customer Experience & Customer Center of Excellence Lead at Cornerstone Building Brands, for a discussion on how she lead the effort to create this resources for CX pros.
Health is a deeply personal topic and these last few years have pushed healthcare institutions into making unprecedented changes in how they deliver that care. Naturally, this has had an impact on the patients’ experience. XM professionals in healthcare institutions must be mindful that patients are NOT customers, and design programs accordingly to improve the patient experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Sarah Andrews, vice president for advisory services at Walker, and Sarah Gilstrap, a senior consultant for healthcare customer experience and an XM scientist at Qualtrics, for a discussion on trends in patient experience.
If you’re a CX pro for small or medium size company, you already know the challenges in designing and delivering the best possible experience for your customers. But what about companies that have multiple locations? What about a company like Starbucks which has over 33 thousand locations? How do they deliver such a consistent experience across so many countries and cultures? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jim Hardeman, chief marketing officer and chief product evangelist for CMX, for a discussion on how larger companies create experiences consistent across multiple locations.
We’ve had some great guest on the show recently and the importance of the employee experience has started to emerge as a notable topic. Many guests emphasize the need for companies to empower and trust their employees to make decisions that improve the customer experience. In this episode of our “Turn Back Time” take home value series, producer Chris Higgins highlights some of the take home value offered from our guest in regards to employee experience.
Few if any of customer experience pros went to school to be a CX professional, and yet there are thousands in this flourishing profession. So what does it take to be a CX leader? What are the right skills and what is the best career path to take? How do you break into this and how do you determine whether your company will really support customer experience strategies? Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Shelly Chandler, a certified CX professional and as head of customer experience for Delaware North, for a discussion on what it takes to start and advance your career in CX.
There are a number of ways to design experiences for your customers, but you're stuck. You find it hard to think beyond how things are currently done. And even if you had some sort of break-through idea, changing your current processes and getting others on board seems pretty daunting. And yet you constantly wonder, "what if?" Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Jonathan Shroyer, Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer for Arise Virtual Solutions, for a discussion on driving innovation in your CX program.
It's a common practice in customer experience, and a vital one: closed-loop response to customer feedback. Simply put: you need to make sure you respond to customers in a timely and appropriate way. But, like all things in life, it’s not that simple and if not done well it can actually create poor experiences for your customers. This is why it’s critical to get front line employees engaged in CX and understand the processes set in place that provide the best possible experiences for customers. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Greg Chase, an XM catalyst with the Qualtrics XM Institute, for a discussion on closed-loop feedback response.
One of the best institutions to learn leadership skills is the military. Veterans often become some of the best business leaders in their fields. So how does military life translate into becoming an effective customer experience leader? Host Steve Walker welcomes Michelle Buretta, a vice president and CX strategic advisor at Walker, for a discussion on how her service in the Army prepared her to be a customer experience leader.
For many companies the call center (or "contact center") is the frontline of their customer experience. And the past couple of decades have seen the channels in which customers can interact with your company explode beyond the simple phone call: email, live chat, social media... But are we failing to recognize the true value and potential of the contact center? Host Steve Walker welcomes Bruce Temkin of the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the newest technologies that help companies utilize the full potential of their contact centers.
As more companies realize the potential of a customer-centric culture, the discussion around how your employees’ experiences can affect your customers' experiences is becoming more prevalent. Employee experience – or “EX” – has often been siloed in human resources, but how can you connect the customers’ and employees’ experiences? What data do we collect? And how do we activate a CX plus EX culture to make the best use of what we discover? Guest host Pat Gibbons welcome Kevin Campbell, an employee experience scientist at Qualtrics, to discuss how to connect CX and EX data.
In a world that generates thousands of terabytes of data every single day, it's important to be a little picky on what type of data to gather. Customer experience professionals rely on data to understand their customer’s needs. But what data do you collect? How does a CX leader determine what information is meaningful and what is simply noise? Host Steve Walker welcomes Azlan Raj, chief marketing officer of the EMEA service line at Merkle, for a discussion on how a CX pro determines what kind of data to gather.
Steve Walker hosts another Live with CXPA event with guests Mark Slatin, senior vice president and director of CX at Sandy Springs Bank, and Ann Schrader, CX strategist at Farm Credit Service of America, for a discussion on ways for CX leaders to improve their CX program’s visibility and build a reputation as a valuable part of their company’s strategy.
In Part 1 of "CX for Start-ups" guest Jen Batley discussed why it’s so important for new companies to really be in-tune with their customers. Knowing their needs while providing a product or service that disrupts the field is critical for start-ups. But what if you’ve been around for a while and are looking to scale-up? Are you providing what you promised to your customers? How are you listening to your customers while you grow your company? Host Steve Walker welcomes back Jen Batley of Batley Advisory to discuss companies looking to scale-up their business.
New business owners have a lot to think about when trying to get their company off the ground, and hopefully one of the many things in their mental "to-do" list is customer experience. We’ve always maintained that a strong CX program and customer-centric culture is vital in today’s business environment, and that’s just as true for new companies. But how do you get started? What insights should you gather first? And what about scalability? In the two-episode series, Steve Walker welcomes Jen Batley, founder and executive consultant for Batley Advisory, for a discussion on what starts-ups should know regarding customer experience when getting their company off the ground.
With supply chain shortages throughout the globe CX pros are reminded how operational logistics can affect the customer experience. All companies have some sort of operational processes – shipping, legal work, graphics design, as a few examples - so it’s important to consider how the efficiency of your operations impacts the customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Dr. John Olson, professor of operations and supply chain management and program director of the masters of business analytics at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a discussion on why CX leaders should drive the move towards operational excellence.
Many companies rely on partners to deliver the best results for their customers – we here at Walker enjoy the benefits of being a member of the Qualtrics Partner Network. But any CX pro will know that it may not be particularly easy to manage the experience when it’s in another organization’s hands, and it’s natural to want to ensure that any experience your customers have with you or your partner reflects your brand promise. So how do you manage the experience beyond your own walls? Host Steve Walker welcomes Andrew Carothers, senior manager of digital experience at Cisco, for a discussion on delivering exceptional experience to and through your partner channels.
Building a CX program from the ground up can be a challenge, especially in a field such as healthcare. Where do you start? What’s most important to customers? How do we develop a customer – or “member” – centric culture? Host Steve Walker welcomes Gratia Carver, vice president and chief experience officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, or “Blue KC”, for why measurement is such a crucial practice to building a customer-centric culture.
The customer experience profession is evolving to recognize the importance of going beyond the customer. If a company’s culture doesn’t include employee experiences then it will be difficult to mature a CX program. Host Steve Walker welcomes Karyn Furstman, vice president and Head of CX Strategy & Solutions at Designit, for a discussion on building a customer-focused culture through employee experience.
Note: this episode is an encore presentation of the Live with CXPA event, “10 Traits of Effective CX Leaders” which premiered on March 8th, 2022. You can also watch a video presentation of this event on CXPA’s Vimeo channel.
What makes an effective leader in customer experience? On this special episode of The CX Leader Podcast and Live with CXPA, host Steve Walker leads a discussion with panelists Lauri Jones (Walker), Sandra Mathis (Microsoft) and Johnathan Ruchman (Brookdale Senior Living) on ten traits of effective CX leaders. You can also download a free resource on this topic at walkerinfo.com/effectivecxleader.
Just as a car requires regular maintenance, customer experience programs need regular evaluation, leading to small "tune ups" or complete overhauls so they deliver the best possible results for your company. Host Steve Walker welcomes Christine Beishline from Freeman to discuss how they “design for beautiful,” always keeping the end results in mind.
Just like any other business process, customer experience programs need occasional review and scrutiny to ensure it delivers the best possible experience. This is true even if your program seems to be running smoothly. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Luis Angel-Lalanne from American Express to discuss the process in which they transformed how customer sentiment was gathered to help improve their CX.
Live events can also be great way to gather insights into your customers while providing an exceptional experience. More companies are designing events to provide almost over-the-top experiences to help engage with their customers. So how do you design a great event AND gather the insights you need to improve your customer experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes Johnathan Yaffe from AnyRoad to discuss how some companies have become an experiential brand.
CX professionals know that the frontline employees can be a great source of customer insights. And customers often supply feedback in ways they often never realize. Having your employees recognize and communicate that feedback can provide valuable insights, and in some cases, warn you of potentially major problems. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stephanie McFarland from McFarland PR and Public Affairs, to discuss the importance of empowering employees to deliver good experiences.
If your company is not providing a digital experience at some level then you’ve already missed the boat. If you consider the possibilities of personalizing a digital experience, then you have a potentially powerful tool that can differentiate your company from competitors. So, how do you personalize the digital experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes Michael Scharff, CEO at Evolv Technologies, for a discussion on personalizing digital experiences.
Businesses and organizations have had to endure drastic changes in the last two years, and the way business owners manage their office space is no exception. With more employees working from home, business leaders have had to rethink how they use their commercial space, and landlords and property managers are starting to think about their tenants’ experience while they work to adapt to the current environment. Host Steve Walker welcomes Nora Hughes and Lauren Mead from HqO to discuss the tenant experience.
This podcast has always maintained that customer experience is one of the best differentiators you can leverage in driving customer loyalty. And there’s yet another piece of research that is proving this assertion, with customers giving companies a clear warning about 2022: “we won’t tolerate bad experiences.” Host Steve Walker welcomes Bruce Temkin, head of the Qualtrics XM Institute, to discuss the results of their "2022 Global Consumer Trends" report.
In the 200th episode of The CX Leader Podcast, host Steve Walker and guests Sonya McAllister and Sean Clayton reminisce on how customer experience has evolved since the podcast began in 2018, how businesses' views and acceptance of CX have changed in those four years, and what customer experience will look like in 2022.
Fresh into a new year is often a good time to look at how customer experience is progressing within companies. The XM Institute has recently published their report, "The State of CX Management" which examines the CX efforts and maturity of several companies. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Moira Dorsey from the XM Institute to discuss the findings from the report.
Even in an era where self-service options are becoming essential to many companies’ customer experience, the contact center is still a large part of many organizations’ frontline efforts. But how has call center technology adapted to accommodate customer experience, and how aligned is your company's culture to providing the best possible experience for your customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes Steve Bederman from NobleBiz for a discussion on how contact center technology and culture can have a large impact on customer experience.
A new report has found that more people are looking for self-service options to find help with their products and services but many companies' online support and documentation is not able to handle the task. This can create problems for companies offering support and frustration for customers who simple want to find simple solutions for simple problems online. Steve Walker welcomes Gal Oron, CEO of Zoomin, a software company that helps global enterprises turn their documentation into a mission-critical asset that supports every part of the customer journey, for a discussion on why companies should offer self-service options.
The employee experience is becoming more critical in making certain your company has the best possible customer experience. But there’s one department that is critical in establishing and maintaining an effective EX program: human resources. Host Steve Walker welcomes Dr. Cecelia Herbert, a certified experience management professional and a principal XM catalyst for the Qualtrics XM Institute, for a discussion on the importance of building relationships with human resources to improve the customer and employee experience.
It can be argued that small businesses make the backbone of the U.S. economy. According to a study conducted by the Small Business Administration released in 2019, small businesses generated 44% of the U.S economic activity and created two-thirds of net new jobs. Granted those numbers would likely look different given the reality of the COVID pandemic, but it still underscores the importance of small businesses in the U.S. But how does customer experience work in small business environments and given limited resources within small businesses how can they make certain the customer’s journey is as frictionless as possible? Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Rebecca Grimes, chief revenue officer at Ruby, to discuss how small businesses can still have great customer experience.
Note: this episode is an encore presentation of the Live with CXPA event, "Combining CX and EX: Better Together" which premiered on November 9th, 2021. You can also watch a video presentation of this event on CXPA's YouTube channel.
Customer experience and employee experience are typically separate programs run by different departments. However, what if they were more in sync? Join guest host Steve Walker of the CX Leader Podcast along with a guest panelists Troy Powell, Jennefer Pursifull, and Ryan Willis for advice and examples that show how CX and EX can be integrated - all in service of creating more engaged employees and loyal customers.
It’s an unfortunate result of the pandemic that most people have experienced: supply shortages. Everything from breakfast cereal to new cars, jewelry, the newest name-brand mobile phone, and even turkeys. And it’s hard not to feel some sympathy for front-line retail workers as they receive the brunt of consumer anger over things they clearly have no control. But there are tools that can help both customer and employee smooth out these rough times. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Seb Reeve from Nuance Communications for a discussion on A.I. and how the digital experience can help smooth out a rough holiday shopping season.
As a CX leader it is important to better understand and promote the customer experience field within your company. Regardless of profession, there are certain traits and skills common to leaders. But what leadership traits are important specifically to customer experience professionals – what qualities of leadership should you prioritize? Host Steve Walker welcomes Lambert Walsh, senior vice president of customer success at DocuSign, the agreement cloud company, for a discussion on the traits of customer experience leaders.
Relationships are an important part of our lives. Humans are social creatures and it’s important to understand that fact when leading a CX program. But companies sometimes miss the mark on ensuring employees and leaders throughout the company understand how to build and maintain relationships with customers, and each other. Host Steve Walker welcomes John Dijulius, chief revolution officer and president of the Dijulius Group, for a discussion on the importance of building relationships with customers and colleagues.
Countless guests on this podcast have described how their careers were steered into the space of customer experience. It has been a common theme that they never went to college exclusively to study CX because there were no such degree programs. Recently there has been a greater effort to remedy that problem, proving once again that it’s never been a better time to be a customer experience pro. Guest host Troy Powell welcomes Dr. Tom DeWitt, faculty at Michigan State University and director of CXM@MSU who is also spearheading the creation of a degree program in CX management.
Co-hosts Steve Walker and Pat Gibbons take listeners on a frightful journey of terrible customer experiences with plumbing, restaurants, baby supply stores, hospitals, and even vampires in blood banks! Listen, if you dare!
The advantage of experience management (or "XM") is the holistic view of experience across the company. By leveraging customer and employee data together, companies can take their experience programs to the next level. But what companies are applying this practice and how’s it working out for them? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jennefer Pursifull, VP of marketing and sales, and Sharon Bislich, director for marketing, communication, and engagement – both from Medxcel, a healthcare facilities management company - to discuss how they successfully built their program to empower their employees to create better experiences for their clients.
CX pros often need to provide ways for employees across the company to access data from their customer experience programs. This data should be easy to access and quick to interpret on a high level – no time to be downloading tabulated data and fiddling with it in Excel. Dashboards provide a way to aggregate data into a high-level, easy-to-read view, giving CX programs a vital tool in communicating feedback from customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Gary Szeszycki and Mike Grindstaff, both from Walker, for a discussion on how to plan and build effective dashboards.
“Do NOT ruin your customer’s day” sounds like something that belongs at the top of any list of rules for CX professionals. We’ve all had those moments where an employee with a bad attitude ruined your mood, or you’re left waiting on hold for over an hour and steamed about the experience for the rest of the day. But there are ways where you can help prevent “ruined days” for your customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Jeannie Walters, a CX consultant, speaker, podcaster, and CEO and Chief Customer Experience Investigator for Experience Investigators, for a discussion on why it's important to not ruin your customer's day.
Customer experience includes many aspects of how we interact with our customers. One common aspect is the hospitality we afford to them. Some companies will have more opportunities to demonstrate hospitality than others – like hotels, restaurants, theaters, etc. So how can other companies take cues from these markets by putting a “yes” mentality in their customer interactions? Host Steve Walker welcomes Christine Trippi, an award-winning hospitality leader and the author of “Yes is the Answer: How Positivity, Passion, and Pineapples will transform your leadership and your life,” for a discussion on creating a "yes" mindset in your customer experience efforts.
Is your customer loyal to your company, or to your prices? One of the best practices for any company is to create a culture that grows customer loyalty beyond aspects such as price or location. Host Steve Walker welcomes back award-winning keynote speaker, author, and CX expert Shep Hyken, for a discussion about his new book, "I’ll Be Back: How to get Customers to Come Back Again and Again.”
The importance of the employee engagement has been featured on this podcast throughout several episodes. And while there is a strong connection between engaged employees and engaged customers, the two programs are typically separate. Employee experience is run by HR, customer experience is run by CX pros, and the two typically don’t interact much. However, that seems to be changing and experience management leaders are seeing applications for the two to come together. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcome back Troy Powell for a discussion about Walker's new report, "Effectively Combining CX and EX."
In this special encore presentation, Steve Walker hosts the Live with CXPA event "Key Ingredients for Making an Impact with CX."
As the ultimate advocate for customers, customer experience professionals are supposed to be catalysts for change and influential in building a customer-focused culture. However, it’s easy to get caught up in the details of managing a CX program and question if all this effort is really making a difference. In this session, join guest host Steve Walker and special guests Ian Golding, CCXP, Greg Melia, CAE, and Roxie Strohmenger, CCXP, as they discuss how to rise above surveys, dashboards, training, and other program components to really make a difference for your organization.
The concept of CX maturity is a concept covered on this podcast in the past, but what does a "real life" mature CX program look like? Host Steve Walker welcomes Lara Caimi, chief customer and partner officer at ServiceNow, a company that delivers digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity, for a look at how they made customer experience a vital part of their company’s culture.
When we talk about “experiences” it’s often from a holistic point of view – through the lens of “experience management”, or “XM.” But how do you connect the customer with the employees, or the employees with the brand? One way is through the use of storytelling, which can be particularly effective in building empathy and understanding. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bruce Temkin, head of the XM Institute, for a discussion on how storytelling can build customer empathy and lead to better customer experience.
A key element to building any customer experience program is understanding your customers and creating empathy. And there are tools to help with that: surveys, interviews, journey mapping sessions. But what about the process beyond all the discovery that happens? What do you DO with all that “understanding?” Host Steve Walker welcomes Emily Stump of Indiana University Health for a look at how design thinking can be a valuable tool for CX professionals.
Companies regularly hire experienced professionals from outside their organization. But they can’t tell from a resume how good of a culture fit the new leaders will be. And employees frequently find that to grow their skills, they need to go to another company – often leaving a company that is a good fit for them. So how can you solve both problems at once? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jeff Epstein, founder of Onboard.io, for a discussion on creating the right culture for employees which ultimately creates better customer experiences.
Customer experience professionals have an opportunity to help create a genuine and lasting impact on their companies. But like any other aspect of an organization, there are some key elements – or “ingredients” – they need to make the right impact. And each company’s needs will be different, so it's important to know what ingredients are needed for their specific situations. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacey Nevel, director of voice of the customer at Prudential Financial, for a discussion on what ingredients are needs to create an impactful CX program.
It’s been said a countless number of times on this show: customer experience has never been more important for companies today. The pandemic has changed not only how businesses operate, but how consumers are make purchasing decisions. This has provided CX programs an opportunity to make a huge impact on how companies navigate their way through new territory as we start to see the world emerge from the pandemic. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Jay Baer of Convince and Convert to discuss how CX has - or can - make an impact.
Many are exhausted over the pandemic and discussing how it “changed everything,” but it would be a disservice to not recognize its effects on the CX profession. But there are some valuable take-aways in what we’ve learned about the experience management world during the pandemic. Host Steve Walker welcomes Jeanne Bliss, a c-suite coach and global thought leader for CX, the Founder and CEO of Customer Bliss, a co-founder of the CXPA, and host of the podcast The Human Duct Tape Show, to discuss CX trends as world emerges from the pandemic.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 19 million people were enrolled in some level of college education for the fall semester of 2018. And just like any other business, it’s important for academic institutions to pay attention to their customer – or perhaps “student” – experience. But as you can imagine, CX in the higher education realm is a bit different. Host Steve Walker and guest Karla Fisher, chief industry advisor for education at Qualtrics, discuss the unique circumstances that CX pros work under at colleges and universities.
It’s that time of year when producer Chris Higgins likes to take a moment and look back on some of the excellent advice from past guests on The CX Leader Podcast. Having covered a variety of topics from mystery shopping, CX in government, and even how one of the “happiest places on earth” executes their customer experience, there's a vast number of "take home value" segments to choose from, but this episode focuses on four particularly insightful tips for CX leaders.
Between website feedback, social media posts, product reviews, and every other way customers can provide insights, a staggering amount of data is generated everyday. If you’re a customer experience professional trying to make sense of everything your customers are saying about your company, you need a tool to help quantify all that information. That’s where text analytics can help. Host Steve Walker welcomes Matt Braun and Job Willman, both associates at Walker, to provide helpful guidance on using text analytics to quantify your data.
CX professionals tend to get excited about some of the new concepts, practices, and technologies that are available to help companies provide the best possible experience for their customers. But it’s easy to get “swept away” by the excitement of how CX is growing and sometimes forget some of the basics of the profession. Host Steve Walker welcome Luke Williams, a distinguished principle XM catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute, for a discussion on the basics and how the growing field of experience management - or "XM" - fits into the mix.
Hyper-personalization is one of the newer buzz words out in the business world today – a practice that utilizes artificial intelligence to deliver highly personalized content and experiences in real-time at an individual level. It’s another way for brands to connect with their customers and a potential "tool in the box" for customer experience professionals. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Melissa Drew, an associate partner at IBM, for a discussion on how A.I. can take personalization to the next level.
Growing companies often develop complicated and disjointed processes. If business is booming, no one seems to have the time to stop and take a holistic look at how things are working and that can be detrimental to customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Pamela Herrmann, vice president for customer experience for Mortgage Cadence, to discuss how a customer complaint led to a simple question that helped bring together a cross-functional collaboration to remove friction from the experience.
The Qualtrics XM Institute recently released 2021 Global Consumer Trends, a report focusing on how consumer behavior will continue to change in a post-pandemic world. The report takes a look at consumer behavior and attitudes across 18 countries and covers many topics including loyalty, NPS, and post-COVID online behaviors. Host Steve Walker and Moira Dorsey of the Qualtrics XM Institute continue their discussion on the report's findings and the valuable insights it provides for CX professionals.
The Qualtrics XM Institute recently released 2021 Global Consumer Trends, a report focusing on how consumer behavior will continue to change in a post-pandemic world. The report takes a look at consumer behavior and attitudes across 18 countries and covers many topics including loyalty, NPS, and post-COVID online behaviors. Host Steve Walker welcomes Moira Dorsey, a principal XM catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute for a discussion on the insights found in the report.
Mystery shopping: it’s that common practice where companies hire professional “shoppers” to evaluate and report on how your customers experience your business and gain valuable perspective on the customer’s journey. But, like many things today, the pandemic has shifted how customer experience pros approach their practice. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Michael Mills, global vice president of sales for HS Brands International, to discuss why CX pros should consider broadening their toolbox with this practice.
There’s a ton of science behind something as simple as a customer making a decision to purchase a product or service. Behavioral economics is a field that seeks to help us understand the biases and errors in a person’s decision-making process. Understanding this field can also provide CX pros with better insight into customer behavior, thereby finding ways to improve the customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Richard Jordan, CEO of Raggit, a customer-service review app, and one of the contributing authors of a new book, “Customer Experience 3”, to discuss how CX professionals can look to behavioral economics to help improve customer experience.
Many people have experienced a visit to a theme park, but the theme park experiences provided by The Walt Disney Company are arguably some of the best. However, it’s not easy creating the “magical” world that guests have come to enjoy. Ensuring the employees – or “cast members” – provide that magical experience is crucial, which means it’s essential the employee’s experience is high priority. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Francesca Tempestini, a former cast member at Disneyland Paris and one of the contributing authors of the new book “Customer Experiences 3," to discuss how companies can take some cues from "the happiest place on earth."
It’s been over a year since a global pandemic has forced companies and organizations across the globe to rethink how they do work. While not an option for many companies, some began moving their operations to a work from home model, and it’s a trend that most CEO’s think will not go away. So how will this new work trend affect the employee and customer experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes Shanika Ofori, director of key accounts at 5CA, a company specializing in work-from-home global CX, for a discussion on how the work-from-home environment affects employee and customer experience.
In the United States, people typically don't think of themselves as “customers” to the government. However, governing bodies from the local, state, and federal levels have been embracing customer experience as a way to connect to the community, and commercial businesses can learn from their efforts. Host Steve Walker welcomes Qualtrics experts Chelsie Bright, global head of government, and Sydney Heimbrock, chief industry advisor for government, for a discussion on understanding how CX works in government at all levels.
It’s important for those leading a company’s CX efforts to make certain the customer experience delivered by your front-line employees matches the customer’s expectations. And that means your employees need to understand your brand and the expectations it promises. Host Steve Walker welcomes Chris Wallace, co-founder and president of the InnerView Group, for a discussion on how to ensure your front-line employees deliver the experience promised by your brand.
CX professionals understand the difficulties in expanding existing programs: organizational silos, by-in from leadership, sunsetting older programs… It’s a stressful task. However, a recent study by the Qualtrics XM Institute discovered that programs successful at expanding throughout their company have a common “cycle” to how they operate. Host Steve Walker welcomes Ben Granger, the principal XM catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the “XM Diffusion Cycle,” a “set of techniques that allow organizations to strategically expand [experience management].”
An area that is critical for many companies is their product and customer feedback can play a critical role in how designers and engineers develop and improve a product, so it’s important to gather the right data. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Myles Grote from UpperHand, a provider of full-suite sports and fitness management software, to discuss how customer feedback informs product decisions.
Companies often get stuck between the data gathering and discovering meaningful insights into how they can better their customer’s experience. Especially when you’re talking about qualitative data – conversational, open-ended data that can be difficult to quantify. But there are tools that will allow a CX pros to utilize the vast amounts of "conversational data" that companies collect. Host Steve Walker welcomes Matt Dixon, chief product and research officer, and Ted McKenna, SVP for product at Tethr for a discussion on how customer experience leaders can take advantage of the vast amounts of qualitative data typically collected by companies.
There are certain truths within the practice of customer experience that CX pros often observe. But when something becomes a “law”, like the laws of nature, that has a much more fundamental connotation. Host Steve Walker welcomes Isabelle Zdatny, an XM Catalyst and certified customer experience professional at the Qualtrics XM Institute, to discuss “The Six Laws of Experience Management” which helps companies understand the realities of human behavior within the context of XM.
Customer experience pros are often tasked with proving the ROI of CX within an organization. Utilizing experience data – or “X-data” – combined with operational data – or “O-data” – can be an effective tool in proving ROI of your CX efforts. In part 2 of exploring the ROI of CX, host Steve Walker welcomes Troy Powell and Brad Harmon from Walker to discuss practical ways to use X- and O-data to prove the return on your customer experience efforts.
Customer experience pros are often tasked with proving the ROI of CX within an organization. Utilizing experience data - or "X-data" - combined with operational data - or "O-data" - can be an effective tool in proving ROI of your CX efforts. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Troy Powell and Brad Harmon from Walker to discuss the findings in Walker's new report "Deliver More Value with X- and O-data" and how CX pros can make the case for customer experience.
Arguably, healthcare is a unique industry in which lives literally are on the line. So how do healthcare companies and providers plan and execute customer – or in this case, “patient” – experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Patty Riskind, head of global healthcare at Qualtrics, an experience management company, to discuss the importance of gathering feedback to help both the patients and the front-line of the healthcare workforce.
How do you gain the support for customer experience from stakeholders? By proving the value of customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bob Thompson, CEO of Customer Think, , a global online community of business leaders. They discuss the findings in their recent report on “Best Practices to Prove the Business Value of Customer Experience” which highlights how CX professionals can, “show that improving experience will deliver value to the customer and the business.”
It’s no secret that within the social media and marketing worlds, video is a highly engaging medium. If it works to push your company’s message out to the world, why wouldn’t it work in reverse – as a way to collect feedback from your customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jenn Vogel, VP for marketing at Voxpopme, a company specializing in uncovering human insights with video survey software, to discuss using video to gather customer insights.
The CX pro has many tools at their disposal but few are as powerful than the ability to adapt to a customer’s needs quickly and deliver a positive experience. The need for personalization cannot be understated, but how do you develop the relationships required to help deliver a personalized experience that differentiates your company from the rest? Host Steve Walker welcomes Shane Murphy Reuter from Intercom to discuss the importance of personalizing the customer experience.
For almost a year now many companies have had to work remotely - changing the way in which their employees interact and some companies had an easier time absorbing that change than others. Knowing that the employee’s experience can have a direct effect on the customer experience, it’s important to explore all aspects of how CX can be improved. Host Steve Walker welcomes Shelly Langona, president of RJE Business Interiors, and Sam Julka, the president and founder of DORIS research, to discuss their recent study on workforce collaboration and productivity and how it can be affected by the workplace environment.
Customers today have so many touchpoints available to them when interacting with companies: websites, social media, text messaging, call centers… it can be dizzying just thinking about it. However, all that complexity can still come together to create a seamless customer experience and understanding how an omnichannel CX strategy can work for your organization. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Gabe Larsen, VP for Growth at Kustomer and host of the Customer Service Secrets Podcast.
In a regular "check-in" with the Customer Experience Professionals Association, or CXPA, host Steve Walker welcomes Barbie Fink, current chair of the CXPA board, and recent board chair Annette Franz to discuss the organizations accomplishments and challenges during 2020 and what to expect in 2021.
It's important to quickly identify and remedy pain points in your customer's journey - removing friction in the experience and making the necessary changes to provide easier ways for the customer to engage with your organization. On the first episode of the new year, host Steve Walker welcomes guests Mallory Elias-Cvengros is a senior customer experience analyst, and Serena Riley is the Director of Customer Experience, both at Llamasoft, a Coupa software company specializing in decision-making platforms for supply chains, and they discuss how they redesigned how their customers interact through online services to make the experience easier.
Host Steve Walker welcomes colleagues Sean Clayton, Ryne Fanning, Sonya McAllister, and Rahissa Winningham for a look at how the pandemic influenced CX in 2020 and what we have to look forward to in 2021.
The practice of customer experience must permeate the entire company. But that can be difficult, and CX pros are sometimes not take as seriously as they should. So how do you, as a CX pro, change that mindset - how do they move beyond the label of "the survey people?" Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Roxie Strohmenger, vice president of customer experience strategy at UKG, for a discussion on how customer experience professional should market themselves within their organization.
We talk about his often on the show and it can be a problem for companies of many sizes: the difficulty in breaking through the walls of corporate silos when trying to execute effective customer experience programs. So, how do we bring down those silos and get everyone on-board with your corporate CX effort? Steve welcomes guests Steve Cox, VP of digital lifecycle journeys, and Thimaya Subaiya, senior vice president of CX solutions, from Cisco to talk about overcoming barriers within the company to make customer experience programs effective.
It's Thanksgiving week in the United States and The CX Leader Podcast is grateful for all the amazing talent that has offered their insights and knowledge to the greater customer experience community. Producer Chris Higgins shares some highlights of "Take-home value" from Shane Green, Kirsten Allegri Williams, Jake Sorofman, Seth Fritz, and Janelle Dieken.
There are so many ways in which a companies' or individuals' efforts to provide an exceptional and memorable customer experience. It's easy to remember the bad experiences but important we share the good one's as well. In this episode, host Steve Walker welcomes back Shep Hyken, a customer service and experience expert, Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations, a best-selling author, to share stories of exceptional customer experiences.
Customer experience is about people: your customers or clients, your employees and colleagues, your business partners – people make the experience. So, it goes without saying that designing any experience should include the perspective of those involved, and human-centered design can help inform that process. Host Steve Walker welcomes Seth Fritz, the manager of the Design Futures team at the Delta Faucets Company, for a discussion on human-centered design.
Today's technology allows CX pros can spin up a customer feedback survey and start collecting data in record time. But there’s another source of data that is often overlooked – that data is probably already stored in a database or social media account, but simply didn’t know it was there. Host Steve Walker welcomes Amy Brown, CEO and founder of Authenticx, for a discussion on how unsolicited, or unstructured feedback can provide a wealth of insights for companies and CX professionals.
It's another edition of The CX Leader Podcast's annual CX Horror Stories! Hosts Steve Walker and Pat Gibbons endure frightening tales of bad hotel service, poor rental management, ghoulish social media responses, and spine-chilling encounters with government agencies. Guests include Sandra Mathis (HCL Technologies), Brandi Dale (Walker), Johnathan Ruchman (Brookdale Senior Living) and Amy Brown (AuthenticX).
An often-overlooked fact about a customer’s journey is that the experience they have with your company doesn’t always begin with their first interaction with you – customers often become aware of your brand through various immeasurable actions. The creativity of your marketing is often the first impression a potential customer has about your company, so using the science of data to drive the art and creativity of your marketing can be very beneficial. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Kirsten Williams, chief marketing officer for Episerver, for a discussion on how to drive creativity with data.
A driving factor for any business to be successful is the ability to differentiate - setting your company apart from the competition by creating great experiences for your customers. Three ways to do that is with personalization, ease, and speed – and its the first of these three that our guest is going to talk about today. Host Steve Walker welcomes Marcus Hall, president and partner at California Closets, for a discussion about not only personalizing the product, but the experience as well.
There's never been a better time to be a CX professional, and today's episode explores the best the profession has to offer and why customer experience and experience management is critical to a businesses success. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Sandy Mathis, Rosa Carbajal, and Johnathan Ruchman to discuss why they believe customer experience is such a great profession and how CX can be one of the best investments for a company.
Competitive retail electricity markets give consumers a choice of who will supply their electricity. Only 18 states in the U.S., including Washington D.C., have introduced these types of markets, giving consumers a choice in who generates their electricity. This, of course, has a significant impact on how a utility company approaches customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Suzie Dieth and Scott Burns from Reliant Energy, an NRG company and electric utility headquartered in Houston, Texas, to discuss how customer experience works in a retail utility market.
Educational institutions are beholden to a different type of customer: students. Discovering how students experience the education and services they receive from one of the largest community colleges in the nation requires a substantial experience program. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Matt Ashcraft and Meredith Warner from Maricopa Community Colleges to discuss experience management within an educational institution and the differences between higher education and for-profit organizations.
Have you ever been at a business meeting with a client or colleagues and wondered, “should I order wine? What wine do I get? How many should I drink?” Mixing business with alcohol can be tricky and sometimes an awkward subject. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Jim Schleckser, author of the new book Professional Drinking: A Spirited Guide to Wine, Cocktails, and Business Entertaining," for helpful advice on how to keep it fun AND professional.
These past few years have seen some amazing changes in the customer experience space. And these past few months responding to the COVID pandemic has tested and proven the importance of CX. As our understanding of customers’ needs becomes more refined, experience management professionals are finding ways to innovate, setting trends that help further define how we approach customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Dutta Satadip, global head of customer success and operations at Pinterest, to discuss some of today's more prominent trends in customer experience.
In their latest report, "Next-Level CX for B2B Companies," Walker teamed up with the Qualtrics XM Institute to assess the current state of B2B CX. Host Steve Walker welcomes back guest Dr. Troy Powell to discuss the report, highlighting findings of low CX maturity in B2B companies, and how CX leaders can align CX programs and design truly exceptional customer experiences.
Each year on the first Tuesday in October, the Customer Experience Professionals Associate - or CXPA - encourages professionals and companies to take some time to recognize the importance of this practice and celebrate the ways they strengthen the customer experience within their own company. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Gabe Smith and Derik Iverson of CXPA to discuss how companies can celebrate their accomplishments and customers on "CX Day."
Many businesses today use a customer relationship management platform, or “CRM” to help organize how they interact with their customers and prospects. But how customer-centric are these platforms, and do they truly help put the customer at the heart of your business? Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Jake Sorofman, president of MetaCX, to discuss how his company plans to put the “customer” back into “CRM.”
Empowering more people throughout the organization to help with CX strategies can be effective – especially when working with frontline employees that interact with your customers the most. Host Steve Walker welcomes Sue Brady, vice president of marketing and customer engagement at Hughes Network Systems, a global satellite broadband solutions and services company, and a provider of managed network services and applications, to discuss how they implemented a program to gather employee recommendations for improving the customer experience.
The concept of dashboards is probably nothing new to customer experience pros. We use them to help communicate data like NPS and Loyalty. But is your dashboard up to snuff? Is it showing you the data you really need and is it organized in a way that your employees or colleagues can glean from it the right information? Host Steve Walker welcomes data reporting expert Katie Hatch from Walker to discuss some key best practices in making certain your dashboards communicate the data you need.
Chatbot, A.I., customer service through social media... there are a vast number of ways in which customers can interact with companies, but is one method better than the other? In July of 2019, Genesys, a global customer experience and contact center technology company based in Daly City, California, commissioned several surveys in various countries to gather data on consumer opinions pertaining to automated customer experiences. Host Steve Walker welcomes Janelle Dieken, Senior Vice President for Product Marketing at Genesys, to discuss the results of the study and what CX professionals should glean from the results.
Experience management, or “XM”, is more than just a “buzzword.” It’s a holistic approach to experience across the organization that includes customers, employees, products, and brand. The Qualtrics XM Institute recently published a report on how XM is being adopted worldwide. Host Steve Walker welcomes Moira Dorsey, principle XM Catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the findings of the report.
Customer experience is quickly gaining world-wide adoption. Companies around the globe are realizing the importance of providing the best experience possible for their customers. Understanding and empathizing with customers is a critical component to CX, and that includes understanding cultural differences and expectations. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Ian Golding, an influential consultant in CX with worldwide experience in several different industries to discuss CX across the globe.
As the CX industry continues to evolve, we learn more about the importance of a holistic experience across several aspects of the company – the new “experience management”, or “XM”, model. An important piece of XM is the relationship of how the employee experience drives the customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Shane Green, a keynote speaker, consultant, television personality, and author of “Culture Hacker: Reprogramming Your Employee Experience to Improve Customer Service, Retention, and Performance” for a discussion on how the employee experience affect the customer experience.
Moving is stressful, but relocating employees is sometime necessary. Now imagine you’re a company whose expertise is relocating employees for other companies: how does experience management work in that situation? Does your program focus on the company that hired you, or on the employee that is being relocated? Or do you focus on both? Host Steve Walker welcomes Kathryn Cassidy, President and COO of Altair Global, a full-service, global mobility services company, to discuss how they manage the experience from the perspective of both B2C and B2B relationships.
Larger companies can sometime pose unique challenges to customer experience programs. CX leaders often have to navigate complicated business structures and, of course, the ever-so-frustrating “silos” that can exist in organizations. And if a company grows through acquisitions, it can be a challenge to integrate the existing customer experience programs. But it’s not impossible to innovate – regardless of the company’s size or age. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Jen Zamora, Senior Global Director of Customer Experience & Employee Experience at Dow, the multinational materials science company, to discuss how a company the size of Dow manages CX and EX of their size and through corporate change.
Host Steve Walker welcomes back guest Dereck Mobley, associate vice president at Walker, to share some stores of companies that were proactive and innovative in their approach to customer experience as a response to the pandemic.
The customer experience space has experienced a "renaissance" in recent years but now there's a new practice that seems to be taking the spotlight: experience management. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Drew Hall, vice president of advisory services and certified customer experience professional, for a discussion on how experience management - or "XM" - is a more holistic way to view how the customer experience is affected by the experiences of ALL aspects of the organization.
Producer Chris Higgins highlights some of the best "take home value" from guests during the COVID-19 series of podcasts, giving CX leaders advice they can put into practice right away, improving their customer experience.
There can be many cogs in the machine that is customer experience, and making certain they all align is important if that “machine” is to function correctly. Host Steve Walker and guest Ted Bernard, a managing principal at Invantage Group, discuss how making certain the many pieces of CX, like customer support, align with your overall customer experience strategy.
Utilities are a vital part of everyday living in modern times: it’s our power, heat, communication, and, of course, our source of water, which is the only utility consumable by humans. This presents a different level of complexity and challenges for a company preparing and treating water for customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Georgetta Parisi, vice-president for customer operations at Aqua, an Essential utility company that provides water and wastewater services to more than 3 million people across 8 states. They discuss the importance of empathy when providing critical products and services to customers.
Companies around the world are having to adjust their operations in response to COVID-19, and customer experience leaders are finding that you cannot continue in a “business as usual” mentality. CX programs need to adapt along with the overall business. While their toolbox might be fairly well-stocked, these unprecedented times are leaving some CX pro’s and executives frustrated on next steps, wondering how to continue to collect insights and feedback while not appearing insensitive to the current global situation.
Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Brian Stucki, an executive vice president and general manager of Customer Experience Business at Qualtrics, a leading experience management platform, to discuss how companies need to step back from focusing on metrics and look to the "human side" during a crisis.
CX leaders today are having to make critical decisions on whether they should bother customers for feedback or find other ways to gather insights. Luckily there are tools in our CX toolbox that can help CX pros collect feedback, and unstructured voice of the customer is one of those tools. Host Steve Walker welcomes Cary Cusumano, a certified customer experience professional and principal client partner in customer experience design for Verizon to discuss ways to reconstruct the customer journey without using surveys or other potentially intrusive practices.
CX leaders are often tasked with managing change throughout the company in order to create an exceptional customer experience, and building relationships is key to helping manage that change. But when life is disrupted on a global scale, it's critical that everyone in the company trusts each other to make certain the customer's experience is not sidelined. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Stuart Gilchriest, a certified customer experience professional with Hertz, the global car rental company, for a discussion on how taking the time to building relationships within the company can help in times of crisis.
Companies are often hesitant to actively seek feedback during crisis situations and that can affect your customer listen programs. But there are ways in which employees can be a source of customer insights. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Dr. Troy Powell, vice president of strategy as Walker, to discuss how a voice of the customer through the employee program, or "VOCE," can continue to provide a means to listen to customers without actively soliciting feedback from customers.
Businesses and organizations are facing a new operational reality that affects customers and employees, and as a CX professional, you and your company need to be prepared to effectively manage crisis situations. Host Steve Walker welcomes Jennifer Dzwonar, a partner at Borshoff, a PR agency known for their work in crisis and community relations, and discuss how CX professionals can help communicate with customers during difficult times.
“Social distancing” has become the term saturating the news and social media. Experts all agree that the best way to fight the spread of the coronavirus is to keep distance from others, when possible, and practice some basic hygiene, like washing our hands. That makes things a bit difficult for CX professionals who are used to leading exercises like journey mapping and other workshops that require people to collaborate in the same space. Host Steve Walker and guest Kristina Kittle, vice president of advisory services, discuss ways CX leaders can move to virtual workshop experiences.
The ability for computers to adapt and respond to real-time data provides value to companies needing to streamline business processes. And CX pros have not ignored the potential for this technology to provide better experiences for their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Sarah Simon, a CX Design Partner for Verizon Business, and Erin Van Remortel, a strategic account executive with Astute Solutions, for a discussion on when A.I. can help - or hinder - your CX efforts.
What is the role of customer experience during a crisis? Host Steve Walker and guests Jonathan Ruchman, CCXP, and Senior Director of Customer Experience at Brookdale Senior Living, and Michelle Morris, CCXP, a Customer Experience Design Partner at Verizon and member of the board of directors for the Customer Experience Professionals Association, discuss the important role customer experience professionals and other customer-focused leaders play in times of disruption and crisis. They spotlight best practices in previous times of confusion and provide practical advice that can help CX leaders take action to help their companies and their customers deal with important issues in this time of uncertainty.
Online communities are now part of daily in life for many consumers and businesses. Most community interaction happens within larger social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. But some companies are finding the value of having their own online community that focuses customer interaction and experience to their product or services, allowing for the customization of a user’s experience within their platform. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Heather McNair and Dan Reese from Higher Logic to discuss the value of online communities and marketing automation to improve the customer experience.
In the second of a two-part series on the value of customers, host Steve Walker discusses with Rob Markey, a partner at Bain and Company and recently published author in the Harvard Business Review, how companies often overlook the compounding value of customers and instead get distracted by looking too much at the present and not planning for the future.
Your customers are why you're in business but are they loyal customers? How do you measure that customer's loyalty and why do companies so often undervalue their customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Rob Markey, an author, speaker, podcaster, and partner at Bain and Company. They discuss Rob's work on helping develop the Net Promoter Score and how it helped simplify the close-the-loop process in customer feedback.
Several years ago, many companies made predictions on the state of the customer experience industry. Walker was no exception, having published a widely referenced report, “Customers 2020.” Now having reached that milestone year in CX, guest host Pat Gibbons and CX thought-leader and Walker’s vice president of strategy and analytics discuss what was covered in that report, highlighting predictions that came true, those that didn’t, and covering what was missed altogether.
Customer experience professionals sometimes hit that wall of having to handle a high volume of tasks and customer interactions but there isn’t the peoplepower or resources to keep up. Strategically add a little automation to your processes and you could have a powerful CX tool that allows the customer to personalize their experience and relieve strained resources. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcome Ejieme Eromosele, Vice President of Customer Success at Snaps, to discuss the advantages of using automation and A.I. in your customer experience.
Customer experience professionals have an abundance of technological choices when it comes to gathering customer feedback, providing vast amounts of data to use in guiding their CX efforts. But sometimes the “low tech” solution is the best option. Steve welcomes guest Jen Pardi Cusick, senior customer experience strategist at Gogo Business Aviation, to discuss how employees across their company participate in a client callback program to gain better insights into their customers’ needs.
Every company has their own unique set of challenges when it comes to providing an exceptional customer experience, and financial services companies are no exception. Regulatory pressures, compliance, and risk management review are just some of the obstacles CX pros in this industry must maneuver, but according to this episode’s guest, that’s not an excuse to provide anything less than a stellar “client” experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Dan Brousseau, senior vice president and head of client experience at City National Bank, a Los Angeles-based company and subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada, to discuss customer experience in the financial services industry.
On the 100th episode of The CX Leader Podcast, host Steve Walker interviews his friend and mentor Dwaine Canova, CEO of Zynity, a company that provides online tools for organizational Leaders. Dwaine discusses his new book, "Elite Executive Teams," and how executive leadership should be the driving force in making customer experience a priority in your company.
Corporate changes such as spinning off a part of a company or rebranding can have dramatic effects on customer experience, so tooling your CX program for the disruption is critical. Pat Gibbons guests hosts with guests Rafael Chavez and Kory Weisman from Clarios, formerly known as Johnson Controls Power Solutions, to discuss how they navigated their CX programs during big changes within their company.
It's easy for companies to look at data and make assumptions about their customers’ needs, but truly placing the customer central to your business means considering them in all business decisions. Host Steve Walker welcomes back to the podcast the founder and CEO of CX Journey Annette Franz to discuss her new book "Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the 'Customer' in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business).”
As 2019 comes to an end, Steve welcomes Walker colleagues Sonya McAllister, Brad Harmon, and Troy Powell back to the podcast for a discussion on what they felt was significant for CX in 2019 and predictions on trends in customer experience into 2020.
Steve welcomes back Aimee Lucas form the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the six competencies CX leaders need to have to maximize their experience management efforts.
Experience Management, or “XM”, is a newer term in the area of customer experience and CX professionals will certainly be hearing more about how XM will impact their programs. Steve welcomes Aimee Lucas from the Qualtrics XM Institute to provide an overview of experience management and how it impacts CX professionals’ efforts within their companies.
It's Thanksgiving here in the United States and we've dedicated an episode to sharing some short stories of customer experiences that made a positive difference in people's lives. Producer Chris Higgins hosts an episode with stories that include industries such as retail, automotive, restaurants, government agencies, and hospitality.
Like any other profession, CX professionals need to stay up-to-date on best practices, find new ideas for programs, and learn how customer experience works in other companies. Many resources exist to help - including this podcast - but sometimes you need to meet with like-minded professionals face-to-face. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes guests Branden Schossler and Gary Batroff to discuss how they help start local networking groups to help colleagues develop professionally.
Immersive experiences can be a powerful tool to demonstrate the customer experience, but for patients at a hospital, it can be impactful - and emotional - for the leadership of an organization. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes guest Karen Cernock from Indiana University Health to discuss how an immersive experience for their board developed into a program throughout the organization.
Guest host Pat Gibbons interviews author Ali Cudby about her new book "Keep Your Customers," which discuss how companies can create loyal customers and slow customer turnover.
Hosts Steve Walker and Pat Gibbons present another frightful episode of CX Horror Stories - tales of customer experience gone bad. This year's scary offerings include healthcare, travel, and automotive repair.
The Qualtrics XM Institute released their report “The State of Customer Experience Management, 2019” which assesses how companies are doing with their CX efforts. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcome Isabelle Zdatny from the XM Institute to discuss their findings and some of the key takeaways from the report.
With more companies moving to globalizing their business, it can be easy to overlook the implications of not considering cultural differences required for CX programs in different countries. Steve welcomes back Bob Azman, a CX professional with over 40 years of experience and founder and CXO of Innovative CX Solutions, to discuss why companies should consider the customer experience in the context of other countries and cultures.
Companies often hire implementation specialists to help get their customer listening technology up and running, but don't do the necessary preparation required to make the process happen smoothly. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcome Walker technology consultants Liz Wallshield and Charlie Rumsey to talk about some of the step companies should take to make the implementation process happen smoothly and on schedule.
It’s easy explaining how front-line employees directly influence the customer’s experience. But it’s more difficult for non-customer-facing to see how their contributions impact CX. Steve welcomes Maureen Cook, customer experience specialist at Ciena, to discuss the ways they show ALL their employees how they affect customer experience.
Customer experience isn't limited to simply how your employees interact with your clients - it plays a critical role in how products are developed and maintained. Steve welcome Arjan Vilkhu, senior manager of customer insights at Hill-Rom, a global medical technology company, to discuss how their CX program informs how their customers’ experience using their products can be improved.
B2B companies are beginning to move into more subscription-based services, another influence from the B2C space. Steve welcome Musa Hanhan, senior director of customer experience at Genesys, to discuss how subscription-based models impact the customer experience for B2B companies.
Like most professions, CX pros enjoy the benefits and support of an organization that provides resources and ways to network with other professionals. Steve welcomes the new CEO of the Customer Experience Professionals Association - or CXPA - Greg Melia for a discussion on the organization's benefits and future.
It's not easy moving toward a customer-centric mindset, and Steve's guest is concerned that companies too often forget the customer heterogeneity - the differences between their customers. Peter Fader, professor of marketing at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of “The Customer Centricity Playbook,” discusses common mistakes and misperception in becoming “customer centric.”
Building customer empathy is an important aspect to your customer experience program and trying to teach that to your organization is not easy. Steve welcomes Serena Riley, the customer experience senior Manager at LLamasoft, to describe how she used immersive experiences to help employees understand the customer’s point of view within a phase of their journey.
Senior living is much more than simply providing a service to a customer. Families depend on the care and attention living facilities provide to their loved ones. Steve welcomes Jonathan Ruchman and David Pruett of Brookdale Senior Living to discuss how they manage a CX program that includes over 800 living facilities across 45 states.
Creating a meaningful journey map can be a lengthy and expensive process and it's tempting to cut corners. Steve's guest Jim Tincher, founder and mapper-in-chief of Heart of the Customer and co-author of "How Hard is it to Be Your Customer", explains why hastily created journey maps can give you a false picture of your customers.
Producer Chris Higgins blows the dust off the "way back machine" to revisit the take-home value from our CX experts in our "Industry" series of episodes.
It might sound like more work but sometimes building a CX program from the ground up has its advantages. Steve welcomes guest Roberta O'Keith of Murphy-Hoffman Company, a full-service truck dealership, to discuss how she started customer experience programs in companies that had no such efforts in place.
Customer experience professionals work with a ton of data, but often find that they don’t have time to read some of the most insightful sources of information: customer comments. Steve welcomes Joyce Gott, a marketing research manager at Anthem, Inc. for a discussion on the importance and value of bringing customer comments to life within your company.
Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Walker expert Dereck Mobley for a discussion on how customer experiences professionals can plan corporate events around customer feedback to bring better awareness of your company’s CX efforts to the organization.
Continuing the Best Practices series, Steve welcomes the chief customer experience officer for the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Alison Circle, for a discussion on CX within the not-for-profit space and how the organization has adapted to disruptions in the normal model for libraries.
For a discussion on how to move a not-for-profit organization from making decisions based on gut instinct to utilizing customer feedback, Steve welcomes Andrea Krohnberg, senior director of customer experience at the YMCA Twin Cities in Minneapolis. They discuss how she led the effort to make customer insights and data a key decision-making driver in the organization and how it improved their CX efforts.
Finding time and methods to communicate CX efforts across a company with 900+ employees can be challenging. Steve welcomes guest Mark Slatin to discuss how Sandy Spring Bank synchronizes all their CX efforts through an innovative educational program that includes cross-functional activities.
Continuing the series focusing on best practices, Steve welcomes Nick Frunzi, chief customer officer at Esri, a world leader in GIS mapping and spatial analytics software, to discuss the importance of empowering cross-functional teams with your company’s customer experience efforts.
In the first episode of a new series focusing on best practices for CX professionals, Steve welcomes Jessica Gregory, associate vice president for advisory services and analytics expert to discuss how analyzing customer data can bring you powerful insights to help drive your customer experience program.
An episode recapping the 2019 CXPA Insights Exchange with guests Pat Gibbons and Chris Woolard, hosted by producer Chris Higgins.
Producer Chris Higgins takes listeners on another trip in the "way-back" machine to listen to some of our favorite "take-home value" moments in our Luminary series.
An organization's culture is critical to making customer experience work. Steve welcomes Ann Schrader and Denise Hinkeldey from Farm Credit Services to discuss their CX program and how the culture helps motivate employees to keep the customer experience a priority within their company.
In a conversation on customer experience in the healthcare industry, Steve welcomes Robert Tangeman, director of customer experience at Exactech, a healthcare manufacturing company. They discuss the complexity of navigating CX in the healthcare space and how Robert was able to develop a program from scratch.
In a continuing series featuring the luminaries of customer experience, Steve welcomes Bob Azman to the podcast and discusses how he started his CX career, his time leading the CXPA, and his experience in CX on a global scale.
Steve welcomes Kitty Radcliff, vice president at Walker Information, to discuss some of the more notable differences between various industries including health, financial services, and technology.
Customer experience for a global software giant is no small task. Steve's guest Tabitha Dunn, global vice president of customer insights, experience and transformation at software company SAP, describes how she started her career in CX and how she manages customer experience efforts for a global enterprise.
Johnson Controls is a huge company, with over 100 brands in over 150 countries, and managing a global customer experience program is no small undertaking. Guest host Pat Gibbons interviews Johnson Control's Matt Inman on how the manufacturing industry maintains a CX program.
In the inaugural episode of a new series focusing on industries, guest host Pat Gibbons welcome James Bampos from NetApp to discuss customer experience in the tech space.
Steve along with Walker's own Sonya McAllister, Brad Harmon, and Jamieson Prala discuss what they experienced at the Qualtrics X4 Summit in Salt Lake City.
A discussion on the importance of executive support and for your CX program and how the organization’s culture can make or break your CX efforts. Steve welcomes customer experience leaders Brian Daniell and Chris Lawton from Deltek to discuss how they developed and continue to maintain a successful customer experience program.
Producer Chris Higgins takes us on a journey to previous episodes to explore some of the more creative moments in the CX Leader Podcast.
Producer Chris Higgins hosts an episode listening to a few memorable moments from the past year of the CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker.
Steve welcomes back Bob Thompson, CEO of CustomerThink Corporation and is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of CustomerThink.com, to discuss the perception of B2B CX trailing in progress from B2C and how B2B leaders see customer experience as an effective way to differentiate themselves within the market.
Steve welcomes back Walker expert and vice president of advisory services Brad Harmon to discuss the differences in approach to customer experience between B2B and B2C businesses.
In a nod to the Presidential State of the Union address, Steve welcomes back guest Dr. Troy Powell for a discussion on the current state of the customer experience space and trends in the industry.
Steve welcomes to the podcast Kerry Bodine, founder of Kerry Bodine and Company, to discuss the important of user- and human-centered design in customer experience and Kerry’s thoughts on trends and how UX is impacting CX today.
Pat Gibbons guest hosts this episode with guest Jeanne Bliss, founder and president of CustomerBliss, consultant, and thought leader on customer experience. Jeanne and Pat discussion her books, how she began her career in CX, and how customer experience leaders needs to remember the human side to how they approach CX within their companies.
Pat Gibbons guest hosts this week's episode on where the term "CX" originated. An interview with Bruce Temkin, head of the XM Institute, on how the Customer Experience Professionals Associate was formed and how customer experience has evolved.
Steve kicks off the new year with a discussion on how some companies still need to master the fundamentals of customer experience with CX luminary Annette Franz, founder and CEO of CX Journey, Inc.
Steve welcomes Stephanie Thum, chief advisor of federal customer experience at Qualtrics, to discuss how federal agencies are beginning to apply customer experience into government, how legislation is requiring the implementation of CX practices, the imbalance of X-data (experience) and O-data (operational) within agencies, and... Zootopia?
Exploring another topic on intersections with customer experience, Steve welcomes Dave Duke, an expert in customer success management and is the co-founder and chief customer officer of MetaCX, for a discussion on customer success and its relevance in customer experience.
Continuing in our User series, Steve welcomes Sharon Bislich and Carolyn Bodkin to discuss how Medxcel, a medical facilities management company, incorporates customer experience into their training programs.
How does the customer experience practice work with other disciplines? In the inaugural episode of a new series, Steve explores the intersection of CX and UX (user experience) with guests Mike Miserendino and Suzi Shapiro from GravityDrive, a user experience consulting services company in Indianapolis.
In the second episode of the User series, Steve welcomes Gina Jannazzo and Kim Howard from Wild Birds Unlimited to discuss the CX program within a franchise model and how personal relationships with customers are competitive advantages for today's retailers.
Continuing the "CX Luminary" series highlighting the "rock stars" of customer experience, Steve welcomes Shep Hyken to the podcast to discuss how he got his start in CX and how making convenience can bring your company a competitive edge.
It's a spooky edition of the CX Leader Podcast as Steve welcomes back Pat Gibbons, SVP and principal of Walker Information, to listen to scary stories of customer experience failures and discuss how they could have been avoided.
Steve introduces a new podcast series in which he explores how companies implement their customer experience programs. Matt Inman and Matt Sharp join Steve to discuss the CX program at Johnson Controls and how to ensure various regional and product programs remain cohesive within a global company.
Businesses often focus on various types of strategies to get ahead in the market: sales strategy, market strategy, customer experience strategy - but do you have a "word-of-mouth" strategy? Steve welcomes New York Times bestselling author Jay Baer to discuss his new book, "Talk Triggers", and how companies can recruit their own customers into becoming marketing volunteers.
Steve continues with the Luminaries of CX series in a discussion with Diane Magers, the interim CEO of the Customer Experience Professionals Association on what skills make the best CX pros and her views on the future of the profession.
CX Day is celebration of all things CX and Steve invited five CX professionals from various business to discuss their work and what makes customer experience a rewarding profession. Guests include Karen Mangia (Salesforce), Jeffrey Louden (Indiana Farmers Insurance), Sheila March (Ascension Healthcare), Valerie Jones (Calumet Specialty), and Kim Howard (Wild Birds Unlimited).
Host Steve Walker welcomes Megan Burns, CEO of Experience Enterprises, as the next guest in the Luminaries of CX series. The conversation includes how Burns started her career in the CX space and what the future hold for the customer experience industry.
Host Steve Walker welcome the CEO of Customer Think Corporation and the founder and editor-in-chief of CustomerThink.com Bob Thompson to discuss how he started in the customer experience industry and his thoughts on the future of the CX movement.
In the fourth episode of the CX technology series, Steve discusses the perspective from the technology provider with Kirk Baetens who is a global partner manager for Qualtrics, a world-class provider in experience management software and Walker’s technology partner.
CX pros and business leaders rely on technology to provide the data and analysis of customer feedback, but it’s too easy to get stuck in the mud. Steve welcomes Walker technology experts Ryne Fanning and Rich Boits to the podcast for a discussion on how to avoid common mistakes when planning your technology strategy.
In a continuing series on technology, Steve welcomes Mike Grindstaff to the podcast for a discussion on getting the most out of your technology and how to gauge success by defining your goals.
In the first of a series of episodes devoted to technology, Steve welcomes Brian Kovacs, chief information officer at Walker, for a discussion on why it's critical for CX leaders to be knowledgeable about what technology is available to improve the customers’ experience.
The phrase “healthcare is broken” is often used to describe the health services industry in America, but what does that mean? Steve welcome the co-founder and president of OurHealth, Dr. Jeff Wells, and they discuss what it means to provide better experiences for patients and how that compares to the customer experience space.
In the third episode of the Change Management series, Steve welcomes back consultant Jack Walker and first-time guest Britt Kennedy, a director of customer intelligence from Sysco, to describe how the SPRINT process was applied to create a new solution within their CX program.
"Death by meeting” is a popular term, and it’s not uncommon to see businesses attempt to conceive and launch new solutions or products over a period of weeks - or months! But in the customer experience realm, speed is critical. Steve welcomes consultant Jack Walker to explain how the SPRINT process used in software companies can take the time needed to develop new CX programs from months down to days.
CX experts are often on the front-lines of instituting changes to better the customer experience, but it’s not an easy task. Steve welcomes back Walker expert Noah Grayson to begin a three-episode series on change management and how to effectively drive action in your company.
Does your brand make a promise to your customers? Then you need to make certain your CX program can deliver on that promise! Steve welcomes back Jennifer Batley, a vice president and certified customer experience professional at Walker, for a discussion on how to make certain your brand aligns with your customer experience.
Customer journey maps are an excellent resource for companies to refine their CX initiatives, but companies often leave them on the shelf to collect dust. In the third of our series on avoiding the detours that can prevent your journey maps from going the distance, Steve welcomes back CX expert Allison Grayson, a vice president at Walker, to discuss how companies can activate their journey map, taking full advantage of their value.
Companies are always looking to save time and money by taking shortcuts, but don't be tempted to detour around your customers' feedback or you might find your journey map is not accurate to your customer experience. Steve discusses how to avoid this detour with Krista Roseberry, a vice president at Walker, and Tracy DeCarlo, director of performance management, client and member services at ELAP Services.
Journey mapping is a powerful tool in the CX leader's arsenal, but there are some "detours" you should avoid. In the first of a three-part series, Steve discusses how to avoid the process map detour with guests Melissa Meier from Walker, and Sheila March from Ascension Ministry Service Center.
In the third episode of our series on Building Your Listening Architecture, Steve welcomes Dr. Kyle Groff, a senior principal for global CX strategy at Qualtrics to discuss the tools and strategies in gathering customer insights.
How's your customer listening "house"? Do you have that one survey that always gets added to and has now become this monstrosity of your CX listening strategy? Steve welcomes Dr. Troy Powell to the podcast to discuss the dangers of not effectively planning your listening architecture and how you can avoid relying on the "Frankensurvey" to gather valuable customer insights.
Allison Grayson, a certified customer experience professional and vice president at Walker, joins Steve to talk about the importance of an effective listening architecture and how careful planning will benefit your CX program.
Steve interviews Jim Schleckser, a best-selling author and CEO advisor, on how good CEO's manage their time and attention, how the CX professional can speak the CEO's language, and the importance of CX from the perspective of the c-suite.
Read more about Jim on his website, www.jimschleckser.com, and you can purchase your copy of "Great CEOs are Lazy" at Amazon.com.
Steve Walker and Pat Gibbons discuss the importance of customer experience certification through the Customer Experience Professionals Association and how CXPA will play a role in the future of CX.
CX professionals from across the globe met in New Orleans to exchange ideas and learn more about what's happening in the realm of customer experience. Steve welcomes Pat Gibbons back to the podcast to share what Walker associates learned was on the minds of CX pros.
In the second part of this podcast series, Steve continues his conversation with Bill Caskey on how CX leaders can improve their effectiveness in sales. Bill is the creator of the 2X Group and co-host of the Advanced Selling podcast. Learn more about Bill at https://billcaskey.com and download Bill's resource "How to Give Your Customers a Great Buying Experience" at https://billcaskey.com/cxleader
Bill Caskey, creator of the 2X Group and co-host of the Advanced Selling podcast, joins Steve for a conversation on how CX leaders can improve their effectiveness in sales.
Episode 16
Angie's List: Bringing Customer Experience to Home Services
In this episode of the CX Leader Podcast, Steve welcomes guest Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie's List and chief customer officer for ANGI Home Services. Angie discusses Angie's List's beginning and how they became a disruptor to an entire business sector, bringing customer experience to the forefront of the home services industry.
Read more about Angie Hicks at angiehicks.com.
Read more about ANGI Home Services at www.angihomeservices.com.
Learn more about Angie's List at www.angieslist.com.
Steve welcomes Pat Gibbons, a customer experience professional and senior vice president at Walker, and discusses how storytelling can be a powerful addition to the customer experience professional's toolbox.
Steve welcomes back Walker senior vice president Jennifer Batley to review the 10 traits of effective CX leaders and talk about how customer experience professionals rated themselves at the Qualtrics X4 Summit. Jennifer also introduces an eleventh “bonus” trait.
An effective CX leader will utilize the thought process needed to understand the key components of a situation and comprehend the consequences of actions. Steve welcomes Noah Grayson, a CX professional and senior vice president at Walker, to discuss the trait of being a business savvy CX leader.
As CX professionals, we are looking to make a difference, engage our organizations and drive meaningful change on behalf of the customer. The problem is being that catalyst for change in organizations can be difficult. Steve welcomes guest Allison Grayson, a certified CX professional and vice president at Walker, to discuss strategies to help drive meaningful change in your CX program.
Disrupting the status quo can sometimes lead to innovative solutions when it comes to CX, and Steve discusses this trait with Walker senior vice president and customer experience professional Sean Clayton.
CX professional Krista Roseberry joins Steve to discuss what she learned from binge-watching the Olympics: leaders need to be focused.
Steve welcomes back Dr. Troy Powell, vice president at Walker, to discuss how it's not necessary for CX leaders to know analytics, but it's critical for them to think analytically.
Steve welcomes guest Sonya McAllister to discuss how CX leaders need to be influential - persuading other people and teams to engage and join in efforts to create a customer experience that provides a competitive advantage.
Host Steve Walker invites guest Jennifer Batley, a senior vice president at Walker Information, to discuss collaboration as a part of our on-going series on the 10 traits of effective CX leaders.
In the third of the series "10 Traits of Effective CX Leaders," Steve welcomes guest Kristina Kittle, a consultant at Walker Information, to help explain the importance of communication skills as a trait for effective CX leaders.
In the second of this 10-episode series, Steve welcomes back guest Melissa Meier, a certified customer experience professional and vice president of Walker Information, to discuss the importance of being knowledgeable in your field as a CX leader.
This episode begins a 10-part series where host Steve Walker invites guests to highlight the ten traits of an effective CX leader. Lauri Jones, a certified customer experience professional and vice president of Walker Information, discusses the trait of being passionate.
Steve and guest Troy Powell, Ph.D. and vice president of statistical solutions at Walker Information, discuss the importance of speed in your customer experience efforts.
Steve and guest Melissa Meier, a certified customer experience professional and vice president at Walker Information, continue the discussion of the recently published report "Customers 2020: A Progress Report" by describing about how companies can make it easy for their customers to do business.
Steve discusses the importance of personalization from the recently released Walker research, "Customers 2020: A Progress Report" with guest Brad Harmon, a certified customer experience professional and vice-president of consulting services for Walker Information.