The Trusted Guide Podcast with Mark Slatin

Latest Episodes:

#127 Balancing AI and Human Interactions Mar 21, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Joseph Michelli offers invaluable insights on balancing AI and human interaction in customer experience, drawing from his extensive research and work with renowned brands like Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton, and Mercedes-Benz. His expertise in understanding the emotional drivers behind consumer decisions and the importance of self-reflection for business leaders makes this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in enhancing their customer experience strategy.

Excited to share insights from the latest episode of the Delighted Customers podcast featuring Dr. Joseph Michelli, internationally renowned speaker, author, and organizational consultant! Here are three intriguing questions addressed during our conversation:

How should CEOs approach the incorporation of AI and its intersection with customer experience?
What are some common missteps companies make when balancing technology and human experience?
How can businesses effectively leverage both technology and human touch to enhance customer relationships?

Don't miss Dr. Michelli's upcoming book, All Business is Personal available now for pre-order!

Meet Dr. Joseph Michelli

Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D., C.S.P., is an internationally sought-after speaker, author, and organizational consultant who transfers his knowledge of exceptional business practices in ways that develop joyful and productive workplaces with a focus on customer experience. His insights encourage leaders and frontline workers to grow and invest passionately in all aspects of their lives.

Dr. Michelli is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Nielson BookScan, and New York Times' #1 bestselling author. His books include:

• Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges
• The Airbnb Way: 5 Leadership Lessons for Igniting Growth Through Loyalty, Community, and Belonging
• Driven to Delight: Delivering World-Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way
• Leading The Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting
with Your Customer, Your Products, and Your People
• The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire Engage and
WOW
• Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World-Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System
• The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
• The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary
• When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace co-authored with the owner of the "World- Famous" Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle

• Customer Magic: The Macquarie Way -How to reimagine customer experience to transform your business

Joseph:
• is a Visiting Professor of Service Excellence at Campbellsville University
• is the recipient of the Customer Experience Professional Association's – Impact on the Customer Experience Profession award
• is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP)
• has been inducted into the Customer Experience Hall of Fame
• has been named one of the Top 5 Customer Experience thought leaders for six consecutive years by Global Gurus
• is on the founders' council of CustomerExperienceOne
• has served on the editorial board member for the Beryl Institute's Patient Experience Journal
• won the Asian Brand Excellence Award
• holds the Certified Speaking Professional (CFP) designation from the National Speakers
Association
• is a member of the Authors Guild

He received his master's and doctorate from the University of Southern California.
Having journeyed with a close family member through a six-year battle with breast cancer, Dr. Michelli is committed to social causes associated with curing cancer and abating world hunger.

#126 Conquer Churn with Journey Mapping: Strategies for Customer Retention Mar 13, 2025

Show notes

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

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

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

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

Meet Ania:

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

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

Ania's LinkedIn Email Ania mentioned: sales@journeytrack.io Contact Sales form Book a Demo form JourneyTrack website Journey Impact feature Workshops feature Blog post: How to Get Started with Customer Journey Mapping Blog post: Understanding Journey Mapping, Orchestration, and Journey Management Blog post: How a Journey Mapping Workshop can Drive Business Growth

#125 Inside LinkedIn: Designing Value for Members and Customers Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

Are you on LinkedIn?

Ever wondered how LinkedIn keeps its users engaged and loyal?

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

Unpacking Value Creation:

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

Continuous Evolution:

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

Aligning with the Power Core:

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

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

Meet Sam:

Sam Stern is a customer experience expert with more than 20 years in the field as a speaker, community builder, practitioner, podcaster, and researcher. Currently, he leads the Service Design team at LinkedIn, helping to design and deliver delightful experiences for the platform's 1 billion members and customers. Sam has also created three LinkedIn Learning courses on customer experience, and hosts his own weekly podcast, CX Patterns. In past roles, he started a customer experience team for the footwear company New Balance, and worked in research and consulting roles at Forrester Research. While there, Sam helped launch Forrester's CX Certification training curriculum, and he started Forrester's popular "CX Cast" podcast.

#124 The Secret Ingredient to Customer Delight Feb 27, 2025

Show notes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MEET Aga!

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

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

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

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

#122 Support, Don't Solve: Empowering Leaders to Create Authentic Spaces Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

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

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

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

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

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

Meet Leah

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.leahmarone.com/

#121 Understanding Customer Value Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

I'm thrilled to host Dr. Maxie Schmidt, a principal analyst at Forrester's Customer Experience Practice. Maxie is a global thought leader in CX measurement and value for customers, and she dives into the significance of customer value metrics. From how companies can effectively measure what their customers truly value, to the intricacies of trust and co-creation, Maxie offers unparalleled insights that are sure to challenge conventional thinking and provide actionable strategies for CX leaders.

This conversation stands to be invaluable for anyone eager to foster stronger customer relationships and drive business success through customer-centric strategies.

Why You Should Listen:

Learn about innovative approaches to measuring customer value.
Understand how to build trust and maintain customer loyalty.
Discover ways to co-create value with your customers.
Gain actionable insights from a leading expert to elevate your customer experience strategies.

Key Questions:

What are customer value metrics, and why has measuring them been a challenge for companies?
- Maxie provides a foundational understanding of customer value metrics and sheds light on common misconceptions in current measurement practices.
Can you explain the concept of co-creation of value with customers and provide practical examples?
- Maxie explores the co-creation of value by using real-world scenarios, emphasizing the importance of customer engagement and mutual value generation.
What specific steps can companies take to better measure the value that customers perceive they are getting?
- She discusses methodologies and strategies businesses can implement to accurately gauge the perceived value from the customer's perspective.
Why is it crucial for companies to understand their role in the customer's value network, and how can they identify where they should play?
- Maxie elaborates on the need for companies to identify the right touchpoints in the customer journey, backed by examples like DBS and AARP, to ensure they are adding genuine value.

Tune in to this episode for a transformative conversation that promises to enhance your approach to customer experience and business growth.

Forrester Articles on Value:

How we define value:

Deeper dive into why companies cant "deliver" value: https://www.forrester.com/blogs/the-customer-is-neo-not-you/
And here a recent piece on journeys and value: https://www.forrester.com/blogs/energize-your-journey-portfolio-optimize-journey-value-for-customers-and-the-business/

Meet Maxie!

Maxie Schmidt

VP, Principal Analyst

Forrester

Dr. Maxie Schmidt is a principal analyst in Forrester's customer experience (CX) practice. She leads Forrester's research on CX measurement and value for customer. In her role, she advises leaders on how to build effective CX measurement programs, make the case for CX, and cocreate value with customers. Maxie is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and leads CX workshops at events.

Previous Work Experience

Before joining Forrester, Dr. Schmidt was a management consultant at Simon-Kucher & Partners. She led global engagements with firms across industries to improve products and pricing and to design pricing processes and governance. Prior to that, Maxie was an assistant professor of services management at the School of Business in Ingolstadt, Germany.

Education

Maxie earned her doctorate and taught as the chair of service management at the School of Business in Ingolstadt, Germany. She was awarded an Emerald Literati Best Paper Award for research on the frustration that customers experience in loyalty programs. She also published a book on optimizing the quality of customer interactions in contact centers.

#120 Strategies for Integrating AI in CXM from a Marketing Legend Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

When you think of combinations who comes to mind?

👉 Jobs and Wozniak?

👉 Proctor and Gamble?

👉 Hewlett and Packard?

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

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

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

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

There were so many powerful insights including:

👉 Transforming Customer Interactions with AI:

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

👉 Rethink Success Metrics:

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

👉 Fostering Trust for Long-term Value:

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

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

Meet Don Peppers

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

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

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

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

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

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

World Class Bull (May 2009), an HBR Case Study commentary, with Martha Rogers
Is Your Company Ready for One-to-One Marketing? (Jan-Feb 1999), with Martha Rogers and Bob Dorf
Do You Want to Keep Your Customers Forever? (Mar-Apr 1995), with Martha Rogers and B. Joseph Pine II

#119 The Impact of Partnerships on Customer Experience Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

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

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

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

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

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

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