Steve interviews Jim Schleckser, a best-selling author and CEO adviser, 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.
A resource for customer experience (CX) and experience management (XM) professionals. 
Full Episode Listing
A complete list of episodes from The CX Leader Podcast.
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.
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.
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 consistent experiences across multiple locations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 constructively access their data to make better business decisions.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.