Full Episode Listing
A complete list of episodes from The CX Leader Podcast.
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.
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Starting a CX program in any organization can be difficult. And one of the more challenging aspects of spinning up a new program is getting your company – especially leadership – to make it a priority. And to make things even more complicated: what areas of customer experience do you prioritize? Do you start with surveys? Closed loop feedback? Journey mapping? Host Steve Walker welcomes Adam Shapourian, associate vice president of experience at United Educators, for a discussion on how to determine your customer experience priorities.
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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.
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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.
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It's safe to say that most people are feeling the effects of today’s economy. Dealing with financial issues can create a great deal of stress. Families are penny-pinching and, in many cases, grappling with ways to help ease the burden. And many financial companies don’t make that process easy. But there are ways in which companies can make that experience better and promote what our guest refers to as “financial health.” Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Rochelle Gorey, co-founder and CEO of SpringFour, a Certified B social impact fintech company, for a discussion on ways to make it easier for people achieve financial health.
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As our profession continues to mature and more organizations adopt customer-centric cultures, CX pros often need a way to maintain alignment between their customer experience programs and other company functions. A “hub”, if you will, of CX expertise that the entire company can look to for advice and ideas, so your customer experience efforts align with the company’s mission and vision – a CX Center of Excellence. Host Steve Walker welcomes Greg Chase, an XM catalyst from the Qualtrics XM Institute, for a discussion on how organizations can leverage a CX center of excellence to improve their customer experience.
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Journey mapping: that tried-and-true exercise of discovering your strengths as a company and the places in your customer’s journey where things could be improved. It’s a great tool to identify pain points and create empathy for your customers. But what about employees? Seems like it would be a great practice to build some empathy for your own team, right? Host Steve Walker welcomes Dr. Cecelia Herbert, principal XM catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute for a discussion on mapping the employee's journey.
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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.”
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There are so many times on this show that our guests have described their customer experience efforts as living within their marketing department, and there are good reasons to practice CX in that structure. But what if we made the case that CX should exist on its own: an independent CX practice capable of working with all aspects of the organization, thus improving the customer experience at all levels? Host Steve Walker welcomes Amanda Flashner, Chief Experience Officer at LendingPoint, a financial technology platform, for a discussion on why their company invested in a separate CX function to improve the customer experience.
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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.
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People in general want to do good things for others. But it’s easy to assume that everyone sees the world with similar eyes. We live in a diverse world with people that have different needs, so it’s important that CX professionals plan and accommodate so the experience is accessible and meaningful for all their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacy Sherman, a customer experience and marketing keynote speaker, content creator, and host of the podcast "Doing CX Right", for a discussion on creating inclusive experiences for customers and employees with different needs and abilities.
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In early March of 2023, thousands of experience management professionals from across the globe gathered in Salt Lake City to take part in the 2023 Qualtrics X4 Summit. Featuring keynote speakers like Martha Stewart, Malala Yousafzai, and Chip and Joanna Gaines, the X4 Summit succeeded in creating a memorable experience, while providing opportunities for XM professionals to connect. Host Steve Walker invites Lauri Jones, Sarah Walker, and Pat Gibbons back to the show to recap what they experienced at this year's X4 Summit.
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When it comes to your health or the health of a loved-one, it gets personal. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare providers to pay attention to the patient experience (PX). It can be different from customer experience, but there are similarities, and just like B2C experiences are influencing how B2B companies design and execute their programs, there are some things that patient experience pros can learn from the CX world. Host Steve Walker welcomes Kim Gerber, a patient experience professional, for a discussion on better understanding the difference and similarities between PX and CX.
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Attending concerts, sporting events, conferences, and other gatherings is a big part of our culture and could easily be considered the pinnacle of experience design. But there are so many elements that go into crafting the ideal event experience to make it truly memorable – how do you put it all together to exceed the high expectations of today’s consumers? And how do you plan and manage blockbuster events like the Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, Olympics, World Cup, concerts from the world’s biggest stars and the most important conferences and tradeshows on the planet? Host Steve Walker welcomes Alex Merchán, chief marketing officer at ASM Global, a leading venue management and services company who hosted the previously mentioned events, for a discussion on experience management for large events.
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There have been many guests on this show, each with unique stories and backgrounds about their path to becoming a customer experience professional. But we haven’t often discussed how YOU can develop your own professional life. So how is your career growth going? Are you new to the profession and need some tips, or are you a seasoned pro that could use some ways to spark new creativity? How do you keep your career batteries charged? Host Steve Walker welcomes Natalie Onions, vice president of customer experience at Customer.io, a marketing automation platform, to discuss way to help develop your career as a customer experience professional.
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Healthcare in the United States is a complex, and often a divisive subject. With some healthcare companies focused on the bottom line, family practitioners can get overwhelmed and have little time to develop relationships with their patients. So when a company comes along and says that there IS a way for doctors to spend better time and provide better care – in other words, putting the humanity back into the experience – then it’s definitely worth exploring! Host Steve Walker welcomes Jamey Lutz, managing director of brand and service excellent at ChenMed, for a discussion on how their company puts the humanity back into patient experience.
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Customer experience is a wonderful blend of listening and understanding our customers, while creating the right actions to deliver amazing experiences. But putting all those pieces together is a tall task. How do we set up the right processes to ensure the right information is delivered to right employees, resulting in great experiences for our customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jill Helmle, the senior manager for customer experience strategy at ServiceNow, for a discussion on how to equip employees for success.
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Most CX pros are familiar with customer journey mapping – the process that identifies the path customers take when interacting with your company. We’ve done a few episodes on it already and you can check those out on cxleaderpodcast.com. But what if we did a little more than just pinpoint problems and build empathy for our customers? What if we included the customer in the process and they help design improved experiences? In other words, we turn the journey mapping process up to eleven! Host Steve Walker welcomes Justin Zalewski, director of product design and strategy at Studio Science, for a discussion on service design.
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Customer experience pros know that one of the many indicators of a successful CX program includes how many promoters you have among your customers – often measured using the Net Promoter Score. The more promoters you have, the more likely your customers will recommend you to others, right? And that’s it - we typically don’t think there’s something better than “promoters.” However, there are ways in which CX pros can create “superfans” – customers that not only recommend you to others, but become serious advocates for your business. Host Steve Walker welcomes Brittany Hodak, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and customer experience speaker, to discuss her new book, "Creating Superfans: How to Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong Advocates."
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A common business adage states: “fast, cheap, or good – pick any two.” But in today’s world of same-day shipping and self-service technologies, customers are demanding speedy experiences and will not accept excuses for sacrificing quality or price. On the eighth and final episode of our series, “CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution,” host Steve Walker welcomes Sean Clayton for a discussion on why customer experience professionals should keep speed at the top of their list when optimizing their CX programs.
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