Be Customer Led

Latest Episodes:

Mike Kuenne talks CX, EX and the importance of customer-led culture Oct 29, 2020

Show notes

Mike Kuenne is the Chief Customer Experience Officer (CXO) for Extended Stay America, a leader in the hospitality space. Mike is not only bringing together Customer Experience and Employee Experience at Extended Stay, and that permeates our conversation, but we also talk about relevant topics, including:

How the pandemic is changing the way he and his team think about the customer and their employee experience
How they're approaching culture change at Extended Stay
As a CXO, how Mike is uniting the C-Suite toward achieving their customer goals
Technology his team is using to support their efforts
How Mike sees the discipline evolving

It's a great conversation full of actionable insight. Mike's Operations and Technology background, including across industry, is helping him and his team create meaningful change for their customers and guests.

Alex Allwood talks CX Strategy & Empathy Oct 15, 2020

Show notes

Alex Allwood is the Director, Customer Strategy and Experience at All Work Together, a business consultancy specializing in customer experience (CX) research, strategy and design; their mission is empowering leaders to make their customers’ lives better. Alex is also the author of Customer Empathy and Customer Experience is the Brand.

Alex and I talk about CX Strategy, Governance, and the importance of elevating CX to the executive leadership team. We also discussed why CX leaders and practitioners need empathy training, how to train for empathy at scale, and the empathy scorecard, which is free!

Finally, Alex and I talk about the importance of journeys, embedding emotion in them for optimal impact, and where some of the journey analytics platforms out there are missing it.

It's a packed show full of Alex's insights end-to-end!

Jessica Noble talks CX and about starting her own business Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

Jessica Noble started Magnetic Experiences over three years ago to help small and mid-sized businesses improve operationally and deliver best-in-class customer experiences. Jessica and I talk about:

1:48 Her journey to where she is today leading her own small business

6:50 Why she started Magnetic Experiences

9:58 Her definition of Customer Experience in practice; Jessica also throws the question back at me!

13:13 Why we need to get rid of all the CX jargon and what we need to use instead

19:18 The importance of governance in a CX practice to support the work

21:33 Why CX is plateauing or failing in some pockets; I provide my own view here too

24:17 Jessica's approach to working with clients and why building confidence with wins is so important

25:39 We talk about her book The Five Customer Experience Mistakes (You Don't Know You're Making) That Are Causing Profit Erosion and why she decided to write

27:45 We discuss my personal favorite mistake from the book: Relying On Heroes to Deliver Great Experiences

37:05 Where and why CX teams and businesses are struggling in solutioning and how to fix that

44:12 What's next for Jessica Noble; she is working on a new approach that guarantees 10X results (what?!!?) and a new Business Case/ROI model

49:16 We close out with where Jessica gets her insipiration from

Duena Blomstrom on bringing together Agile, Customer Experience & Employee Experience Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

An amazing conversation with Duena Blomstrom who is an "Agile Anthropologist" and a unique thought leader - a class on her own really - in the Agile and Psychological Safety space. Duena and I cover a lot of topics, and this is the first where I am including time stamps in the show notes. See below for more:

02:30 - Duena outlines her journey, including writing her book and starting her own business

08:43 - Developing culture and if employee and customer experience shoud be a discipline vs. a leadership topic

11:55 - Why the speed of Agile makes it difficult to include CX, and why you need to make the space for EX and CX

16:55 - How Agile leaders are creating the space for EX & CX and are focusing on psychological safety with intent and building this into the Agile process

19:25 - Duena outlines the building blocks of psychological safety

26:20 - Duena and I talk about the genesis for getting her on the show, and her perspective on why CX & Agile are the same discipline

31:25 - Why bringing Agile, CX and EX together isn't easy and the reason we have so much "Human Debt"

33:40 - Why some Agile teams don't have OKRs, or ones that are meaningful, leading to failure

38:15 - Hear about where Duena gets her inspiration from

39:53 - If you want to find out more about Duena and her company, skip to this part of the show!

Ben Eubanks, Principal Analyst @ Lighthouse Research & Advisory Sep 23, 2020

Show notes

In this episode of Be Customer Led, we interviewed Ben Eubanks who is one of the most interesting people I've ever met.

Ben has focused his career on thought leadership around human capital management and helping companies and vendors with strategy, content, and more.

Ben and I talk about some very important topics all companies are facing right now, including: the importance of communication points in nurturing culture, how to maintain and develop a corporate culture in a remote or hybrid work environment, the importance of psychological safety and cognitive friction, the HR tech stack and cutting-edge tech available now that will blow your mind, using analytics to improve the employee experience, and how to change culture.

This is such an important conversation given the systemic change COVID is having on every company, and how so many are thinking about a productive and positive path back to a post-COVID workplace.

You can find Ben and the content he publishes in a number of areas, and I suggest you hit him up on LinkedIn too:

www.lhra.io

www.lhra.io/podcast

http://upstarthr.com

Ben's Book AI for HR - https://tinyurl.com/y5rr8g9c

Chris Collins, Chief Customer Officer at Ellucian Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

Chris Collins is the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) for Ellucian, a company that develops solutions that power the essential work of colleges and universities. The CCO role is different relative to many others out there, as Chris owns all of Delivery, so everything post sales; the model is fascinating and could be the blueprint for other companies looking to create a similar role.

Chris has significant background in technology, operations, services and all from a customer lens; so you will hear him talk about the evolution of customer experience (CX) and its impact on a business, core competencies needed to deliver against a customer agenda, the impact COVID has had on industry, and more specifics around his role and how that is different relative to other CCOs out there.

We also talk culture change from the customer perspective and how CCOs can influence the transformation.

Chris shares so much practical, real-world experience. He is an amazing leader and role model we can all learn from.

Aarthi Murali, Chief Customer Experience Officer at M&T Bank Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

Aarthi is a long-time friend and we had an amazing conversation - she is such a breath of fresh air in the customer experience (CX) space; she is practical, strategic, and knows how to connect CX to business results. This is a monster of a show and we cover a ton of topics. It's a longer one than usual, but you're going to learn from Aarthi throughout the entire conversation.

Aarthi and I talk about her journey to being a CX leader, from her youth being curious about people and their backgrounds, to becoming a Chief Customer Experience Officer (CXO); her view on how CXOs can bring an organization together toward a common purpose; the core tenets of CX; the evolution of CX and the impact COVID has had on her team at M&T Bank; her job as a CXO and what it takes to excel in the role; and the role technology plays in CX.

Aarthi and I also talk about the connection of CX with Employee Experience, and she provides thoughtful, amazing advice for other female professionals, including other women of color, and how that translates into the CX context.

I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I have. I was so impressed that I opened an account with M&T Bank!

Wayne Simmons, CEO of Opptiv LLC Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

Our latest episode where we talked to Wayne Simmons. Wayne is the Principal Owner of Opptiv, LLC - The Service Excellence Company and former Global Head of Delivery for The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center (so, yeah, he knows a thing or two about customer experience and employee experience.

We talk about some heavy topics, including: what differentiates leaders in the CX and EX space, how to develop corporate culture at your company that is focused on your customer, and how CX teams should be thinking about Diversity & Inclusion, to name a few.

Wayne is a friend, an incredible leader, and an absolute class act. If you're not familiar with Wayne or Opptiv, I can guarantee you'll be smarter after spending time listening to Wayne on this episode.

Be Customer Led: Dr. Tom Dewitt Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

The latest episode of Be Customer Led, where we interview Tom DeWitt, Ph.D. and talk about a master's program he is looking to create at Michigan State University! This program would be the first of its kind in the United States and one of only a few programs offered globally today.

I am so excited about the work Tom is leading for #CX leaders and practitioners, and I think it's going to fundamentally change the #cxtransformation game.

Tom and I get into the details of the curriculum he is pulling together and how the program can have direct impact on an individual's or a team's success immediately.

Be Customer Led: Stacy Sherman Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

In this episode we interview Stacy Sherman who is the Director of Customer Experience & Employee Engagement for Schindler Elevator Corp. Stacy is CX Certified, a mentor, author of two books, speaker and blogger on all-things CX.

On this episode, we talk about a ton of different and important topics, including: what got her into the CX game to begin with and how two "wow" moments transformed her professional career from Marketing into CX; the key attributes that can differentiate CX leaders, CX measurement, where the CX function should sit in the org, and what inspires her.

We also talk about our shared love of Shep Hyken. The audio cut out for a min at 48:18, but Stacy shared a personal story about her interaction with Shep.

Visit Stacy‘s website and see all of the wonderful work she is leading - www.DoingCXRight.com

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected