Now Brands Talk: Recent Episodes
Ada
Now Brands Talk is a show for leaders who want to close the brand interaction gap and bridge that tricky divide between brands and the people who love them. Our core belief is that brands are only as good as how they interact. To earn favor and build trust, brands must be continuously available, completely consistent, and always helpful, no matter when or where an interaction takes place. Each episode of Now Brands Talk features a conversation with a trail-blazing leader about connecting people with the brands they love. Join our conversation!
It’s been a year since we first started on this audio journey, and in that time we’ve interviewed leaders in sales, support, and customer experience at brands like Square, Carta, Assembled, Salesforce, and many more.
In this episode, our host Perri Chaikof puts a bow around Season 1, and wraps up the year by reflecting on the main themes that came up in our 26 episodes.
Join us as we discuss:
- Empathy
- Empowerment
- A holistic CX strategy
CX is usually thought of as the mandate of the customer success teams, but there's another team that plays a crucial role in delivering an unforgettable customer experience: the sales team.
In today’s episode, Jeff Perry, the Chief Revenue Officer at Carta, joins us to share how the sales team plays a role in the customer experience and the relationship between sales and customer success.
Join us as we discuss:
- The relationship between sales and CX
- The difference between customer success and support teams
- Prioritizing relationship building between customers and employees
The term “customer experience” has become synonymous with “customer support” and this misconception is at the root of most modern CX problems.
In today’s episode, Colin Chow, Global Managing Partner at TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, joins us to pick apart the “customer experience” so that companies can understand what they need to do to transcend siloes, align brand and CX, and start delivering the kind of VIP experiences that keep customers coming back for more.
Join us as we discuss:
- Opportunities to represent the brand
- Creating cross functional leadership teams
- Misconceptions about customer experience and brand interactions
On September 14, we held our first ever in-person conference in Chicago, and in today’s episode, our host Perri Maxwell Chaikof will share insights from the conversations various CX leaders had about the future of the customer experience.
Join us as we discuss:
- Investing in brand experiences
- The customer experience vs the customer journey
- The power that customer care teams have in an organization
88% of customers believe that brand experiences are just as important as the products and services. If your company isn’t already aligned with the future of customer experience, you’re going to get left behind.
Brian Solis, VP, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce, talks about what the customer experiences of the future look like and what brands can do to start designing them strategically.
We also feature a question from one of our listeners who sent in a question to podcast@ada.support
Join us as we discuss:
- Innovating your brand’s interactions
- Developing a strategy to create exceptional brand experiences
- Why the future of business is experiential
To create a real connection with customers it’s important that you speak their language.
In this episode, Kathie Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer at Talkdesk and Winner of the 2022 Women In CX Technology award, joins us to share how she is bridging the language gap with industry-specific offerings that ensures a better experience for everyone.
We also feature a question from one of our listeners who sent in a question to podcast@ada.support
Join us as we discuss:
- Understanding the three phases to verticalization
- Getting out of your brand’s echo-chamber
- The role of an agent in an organization
Employees having free time doesn’t have to mean there is less productivity in the workplace. When you create resources that free up your employees time, it allows them to focus on higher value projects that in turn have a positive impact on your brand.
In today’s episode, Teresa Anania, SVP of Global Customer Success, Renewals and Customer Experience at Zendesk, joins us to share how Zendesk creates positive customer interactions by placing an emphasis on employee experiences.
We also feature a question from one of our listeners who sent in a question to podcast@ada.support
Join us as we discuss:
- Customer support and revenue based KPIs
- Empowering employees to focus on higher value services
- Providing employees with the right tools to help them grow
Maintaining consistent brand experience can be challenging for companies with different customer segments across multiple channels.
In today’s episode, Andrew Witkin, President of StickerYou, joins us to share how he leverages data to address the needs of the various online and in store customer segments while creating unique brand interactions.
Join us as we discuss:
- Leveraging customer data with AI
- Consistent brand interactions for both DTC and B2B customers
- Creating content for different customer segments
Dan Manian, CEO and Co-Founder of Donut, talks with us about the importance of human connection for team-building and brand-building, and the powerful role automation plays in making it happen at scale.
Technology plays an important role in a brand’s ability to interact, and close the brand interaction gap.
Nathan Dawson, the Senior Director of IT for Global Customer Care Technologies at Smile Direct Club, has years of hands-on experience assessing, implementing, and managing brand interaction software for the brand.
Join us as we discuss:
- How to assess and select the right software for your brand’s needs
- Gracefully navigating the perils of change management
- Why you need more than one training method
Is customer experience at your company a transaction or a relationship?
In today's episode, Daron Fowlks, VP Global Customer Experience at StubHub, joins us to share his strategies on how to turn fans into customers and his experience building a team of over 200 people from scratch.
Join us as we discuss:
- Going “plus 2” for customers
- CX leadership
- Expressing empathy with customers
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
The way your employees feel about the internal brand is just as important as how you make people outside of your company feel.
In this episode, we speak to Amrita Gurney, Head of Marketing at Float, about brand interactions that can help a company scale.
Join us as we discuss:
- Where brands are over and under investing
- Aligning your brand’s mission with the internal culture
- How technology can close the brand interaction gap
For the past six months, Now Brands Talk hosts Ruth Zive and Perri Chaikof have conducted interviews with CX and marketing leaders to discover what can be done to bridge the brand interaction gap. One thing they always asked the guests is to share their best and worst brand interactions.
For our first milestone episode, Ruth Zive and Perri investigate the common themes that have emerged in both the “best” and “worst” categories.
Join us as we discuss:
- Our biggest takeaways from the interviews so far
- The common trends for best and worst brand interactions
- What this all means for how your brand interacts
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
Your brand promise means nothing if you’re not influencing the people who truly drive your brand.
In this episode, Megha Narayan, Head of Marketing at Assembled, joins the show to talk about how the expectations for a brand have changed over the years and a new way to measure a brand’s impact.
Join us as we discuss:
- How to enable customer success teams to be brand evangelists
- How to measure a brand’s impact
- Knowing when your brand is ready to evolve
More information about Megha Narayan and today’s topics:
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanarayan/
- Company Website: https://www.assembled.com/
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
An ecosystem is a self-sustaining, self-supporting environment. Your content should be an ecosystem.
In this episode, Justin Gonzalez, Global Head of Customer Empowerment at Square, joins the show to talk about marketing/CX alignment and creating a content ecosystem that supports the entire business.
Join us as we discuss:
- Eliminating tension between the marketing and CX functions
- Redefining content as an ecosystem
- The abiding importance of consistency
- When friction can create a better experience
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
Customer experience is like drinking tequila shots. A couple will increase your happiness, but a dozen will not.
When does brand experience become too much — and therefore detrimental?
In this episode, we hear from Tyler Meema, Director of Client Success at Wealthsimple, about the creation of the client delivery curve framework to track CX equilibrium.
Join us as we discuss:
- Brands and diminishing marginal utility
- Why automation for the sake of automation is bad
- Tracking opposing metrics to ensure equilibrium
- Focusing on business outcomes instead of the “surprise and delight” trap
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- The Effortless Experience by Matthew Dixon
- High Output Management by Andrew Grove
- Setting the Table by Danny Meyer
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
Customer experience and employee experience share the same purpose — to help someone get something done.
And the similarities don’t end there. In fact, there’s a lot that the two can learn from each other.
In this episode, we’re talking to Zach Dunn, VP Customer Experience & Co-Founder at Robin, about the twin worlds of CX and EX.
Join us as we discuss:
- The paradigm shift in CX and EX
- Leveling up EX in a digital world
- The importance of feedback loops
- Why delight is overrated
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
How did a brand in a struggling industry pivot away from traditional into digital so successfully within a single year?
In this episode, we speak with Bayley Clark, Head of Customer Experience at AirAsia, about the brand’s incredible digital transformation strategy — made possible by their brand interaction platform.
Join us as we discuss:
- Executing digital transformation before and during the pandemic
- Principles of proactive communication during automation
- A change management strategy based on people
- AVA’s ability to be a brand ambassador for AirAsia
Check out these resources we mentioned:
- Lonely Planet’s A Year of Festivals
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
We all get that data is important. Where we fail is getting the right data to the people who can use it to make CX decisions.
Today, our newest cohost, Perri Chaikof, Director of Product Marketing at Ada, speaks with Craig Stoss, Senior Program Manager at PartnerHero, about what brands are doing right (and wrong) with their data.
Join us as we discuss:
- Why customer data is so important for brands
- The three types of data that Craig cares about
- What’s preventing brands from using data for better CX
- Turning support tickets into retention data
Check out this resource we mentioned:
- Customer Experience Leaders Chat
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
Positive brand experiences are not only for customers.
How you treat your employees matters just as much — they can be your biggest brand ambassadors!
In this episode, we hear from Anna Skidmore, Vice President, Customer Care at BFA Industries, about the many layers of CX, customer care, and how automation should be a tool to free up more time for human connection.
Join us as we discuss:
- Holistic CX and brand consistency
- Setting clear brand values
- Leveraging data to inform brand strategy
- Using automation as a front line for customer experience
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
People don’t buy products. They buy feelings.
One sweater is more or less the same as another, but the feelings that we have when we buy this sweater versus that one are what will start building a customer community.
In this episode, we hear from Connor Curran, CEO at Local Laundry, about building a community based on authentic, genuine human relationships with customers.
Join us as we discuss:
- Why community is based on long-term interaction, not transactional relationships
- How to scale community without losing intimacy
- The role of feelings in community building
- How to be a for-profit business that prioritizes giving back
Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:
- Anian
- Spanx
- The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
The whole organization needs to be on the same page, and that goes for marketing and sales in particular. How do we do away with the us-versus-them mentality that has lingered so long between two such interconnected teams?
In this episode, I speak with Miguel Adao, SVP Marke ting at KloudGin, about creating tight alignment between sales and marketing.
Join us as we discuss:
- Embracing the realization that we’re all in this together
- Keeping the customer as your North Star
- Leads, KPIs, and meeting frequency
- The role of brand awareness and pipeline
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
Here’s how to create brand consistency when your market is the entire globe:
Determine your North Star that is ubiquitous across all areas, then determine how much latitude teams receive within the boundaries of those core values.
In this episode, I speak with David Resnick, Chief Commercial Officer at A2X, about tackling customer experience now that the market is global, remote, and asynchronous.
Join us as we discuss:
- What role CX plays in brand consistency
- Tips for growing brand presence globally
- The need to prioritize human interaction and empathy — always
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
What if your airline knew that you were traveling for three days, so it made a reservation for your dogs at your pet daycare and initiated paperwork for pet insurance at your bank?
That’s how collaborative commerce could create true loyalty for the airline.
In this episode, I interview Jed Schneiderman, SVP, Industry Practice Lead, Media and Telco at Kognitiv Corporation, about fostering customer loyalty.
Join us as we discuss:
- The full potential of data for collaborative commerce
- The relationship between privacy and loyalty
- Achieving a personalized experience while respecting privacy
- How to understand your customers’ context by asking questions
Check out this resource we mentioned:
- Zero to One by Peter Thiel
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
In the quest to become the world’s most beloved payments brand, two things are needed.
Education and relationships.
In this episode, I interview Rob Park, COO at Helcim Inc., about the dos and don’ts of building long-term relationships with customers.
Join us as we discuss:
- Why technology must not replace human connection
- The big secret to becoming a beloved brand
- The role of education in building customer experience
- Trust, transparency, love, and the merger of sales and support
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
You’re doing a great job adding a lot of new sales, but why isn’t your monthly recurring revenue climbing in proportion? You have a leaky bucket.
Without an ongoing way to measure churn, you’re hurting your customer experience. It’s time to learn about reducing churn.
In this episode, I interview Logan Lyles, VP of CX at Sweet Fish and Co-Host of B2B Growth, about building the runway while you’re taking off, being the dentist, and how to develop a proactive approach to customer relationships.
Join us as we discuss:
- Warning signs of high customer churn
- Intentionality in customer relationships for improved CX
- What it means to be your customer’s dentist
- Owning the expertise in a service-based business
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
When you’re scaling your CX team, it’s even more important to treat your people like the brand ambassadors they are.
In this episode, I interview Ben Segal, Senior Director of CX at Pair Eyewear, about CX best practices for rapidly growing brands.
Join us as we discuss:
- Letting go of one-touch resolution numbers for good
- Investing in infrastructure early so you don’t have to backtrack while you scale
- Training your live agents to be brand ambassadors
To hear this interview and many more like it, subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or our website or search for Now Brands Talk in your favorite podcast player.
Brands invest so much in getting their logo, font, and colors just right. But none of that matters if your brand has bad interactions with customers.
Your brand is your reputation, and the most important brand investment you can make is at the point of interaction with the customer. Let’s start talking about that.
In this trailer episode of Now Brands Talk, producer Jordan Alford interviews host Ruth Zive, SVP Marketing at Ada, about what listeners should expect from the podcast.
Join us as we discuss:
- Our guests: CX leaders from leading digital first brands
- Our theme: blazing a trail in the world of brand interactions
- Our audience: marketers, sales folks, and support professionals who want to perfect their automated end-to-end customer experience
- Our name: inspired by conversations between brands and customers
Stay connected with us by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Visit us online at ada.cx/podcast.