A complete list of episodes from The CX Leader Podcast.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Episode #1001
Released:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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 Jonathan Yaffe from AnyRoad to discuss how some companies have become an experiential brand.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.