A resource for customer experience (CX) and experience management (XM) professionals.
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Full Episode Listing

A complete list of episodes from The CX Leader Podcast.

Empowering Your Customers

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Episode #135

Released: September 29, 2020

Competitive retail electricity markets give consumers a choice of who will supply their electricity. Only 18 states in the U.S., including Washington D.C., have introduced these types of markets, giving consumers a choice in who generates their electricity. This, of course, has a significant impact on how a utility company approaches customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes guests Suzie Dieth and Scott Burns from Reliant Energy, an NRG company and electric utility headquartered in Houston, Texas, to discuss how customer experience works in a retail utility market.

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Enable Your Employees

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Episode #245

Released: December 6, 2022

Providing the tools and resources for employee success seems like a "no-brainer," but companies often overlook the systems and processes that can create friction in the customer experience. And if the employees struggle to provide seamless experiences, then you can bet that customers are feeling their pain as well. In the fourth episode of our "CX Now: Eight Essential Themes Driving CX Evolution," host Steve Walker welcomes expert Georgetta Parisi, Ph.D., for a discussion on employee enablement.

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Experience is Knowledge

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Episode #5

Released: February 6, 2018

In the second of this 10-episode series, Steve welcomes back guest Melissa Meier, a certified customer experience professional and vice president of Walker Information, to discuss the importance of being knowledgeable in your field as a CX leader.

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Experience Management 101, Part 1

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Episode #95

Released: December 3, 2019

Experience Management, or “XM”, is a newer term in the area of customer experience and CX professionals will certainly be hearing more about how XM will impact their programs. Steve welcomes Aimee Lucas from the Qualtrics XM Institute to provide an overview of experience management and how it impacts CX professionals’ efforts within their companies.

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Experience Management 101, Part 2

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Episode #96

Released: December 10, 2019

In the second part of a two-part series on the basics of experience management, or "XM," Steve welcomes back Aimee Lucas from the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the six competencies CX leaders need to have to maximize their experience management efforts: lead, realize, activate, enlighten, respond, and disrupt.

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Flying Cars and Hoverboards

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Episode #104

Released: February 18, 2020

Several years ago, many companies made predictions on the state of the customer experience industry. Walker was no exception, having published a widely referenced report, “Customers 2020.” Now having reached that milestone year in CX, guest host Pat Gibbons and CX thought-leader and Walker’s vice president of strategy and analytics discuss what was covered in that report, highlighting predictions that came true, those that didn’t, and covering what was missed altogether.

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From “Me” to “We”

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Episode #150

Released: January 26, 2021

For almost a year now many companies have had to work remotely - changing the way in which their employees interact and some companies had an easier time absorbing that change than others. Knowing that the employee’s experience can have a direct effect on the customer experience, it’s important to explore all aspects of how CX can be improved. Host Steve Walker welcomes Shelly Langona, president of RJE Business Interiors, and Sam Julka, the president and founder of DORIS research, to discuss their recent study on workforce collaboration and productivity and how it can be affected by the workplace environment.

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From B2C to B2B

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Episode #235

Released: September 27, 2022

This episode features a more open-ended conversation on one of the host's favorite topics: the differences between B2B and B2C, but focusing on what it is like for a CX professional to transition from B2C to B2B, or vice-versa. Steve Walker welcomes guest Stuart Gilchriest, director of CX strategy at UKG, a technology company providing solutions for HR, payroll, and workforce management technology.

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From CRM to CX

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Episode #37

Released: September 18, 2018

Host Steve Walker welcome the CEO of Customer Think Corporation and the founder and editor-in-chief of CustomerThink.com Bob Thompson to discuss how he started in the customer experience industry and his thoughts on the future of the CX movement.

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From Patrons to Customers

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Episode #74

Released: June 21, 2019

Continuing the Best Practices series, Steve welcomes the chief customer experience officer for the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Alison Circle, for a discussion on CX within the not-for-profit space and how the organization has adapted to disruptions in the normal model for libraries.

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From the Ground Up

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Episode #66

Released: April 30, 2019

In a conversation on customer experience in the healthcare industry, Steve welcomes Robert Tangeman, director of customer experience at Exactech, a healthcare manufacturing company. They discuss the complexity of navigating CX in the healthcare space and how Robert was able to develop a program from scratch.

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Get Comfortable Saying “Yes”

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Episode #198

Released: January 4, 2022

Even in an era where self-service options are becoming essential to many companies’ customer experience, the contact center is still a large part of many organizations’ frontline efforts. But how has call center technology adapted to accommodate customer experience, and how aligned is your company's culture to providing the best possible experience for your customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes Steve Bederman from NobleBiz for a discussion on how contact center technology and culture can have a large impact on customer experience.

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Getting over the bump

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Episode #38

Released: September 25, 2018

Host Steve Walker welcomes Megan Burns, CEO of Experience Enterprises, as the next guest in the Luminaries of CX series. The conversation includes how Burns started her career in the CX space and what the future hold for the customer experience industry.

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Globalization and CX

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Episode #88

Released: October 15, 2019

With more companies moving to globalizing their business, it can be easy to overlook the implications of not considering cultural differences required for CX programs in different countries. Steve welcomes back Bob Azman, a CX professional with over 40 years of experience and founder and CXO of Innovative CX Solutions, to discuss why companies should consider the customer experience in the context of other countries and cultures.

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Got data? Dashboard it!

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Episode #187

Released: October 12, 2021

CX pros often need to provide ways for employees across the company to access data from their customer experience programs. This data should be easy to access and quick to interpret on a high level – no time to be downloading tabulated data and fiddling with it in Excel. Dashboards provide a way to aggregate data into a high-level, easy-to-read view, giving CX programs a vital tool in communicating feedback from customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Gary Szeszycki and Mike Grindstaff, both from Walker, for a discussion on how to plan and build effective dashboards.

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Here to Help

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Episode #115

Released: May 5, 2020

Companies around the world are having to adjust their operations in response to COVID-19, and customer experience leaders are finding that you cannot continue in a “business as usual” mentality. CX programs need to adapt along with the overall business. While their toolbox might be fairly well-stocked, these unprecedented times are leaving some CX pro’s and executives frustrated on next steps, wondering how to continue to collect insights and feedback while not appearing insensitive to the current global situation. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Brian Stucki, an executive vice president and general manager of Customer Experience Business at Qualtrics, a leading experience management platform, to discuss how companies need to step back from focusing on metrics and look to the "human side" during a crisis.

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How CX is evolving into XM

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Episode #119

Released: June 2, 2020

The customer experience space has experienced a "renaissance" in recent years but now there's a new practice that seems to be taking the spotlight: experience management. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Drew Hall, vice president of advisory services and certified customer experience professional, for a discussion on how experience management - or "XM" - is a more holistic way to view how the customer experience is affected by the experiences of ALL aspects of the organization.

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Human Duct Tape

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Episode #52

Released: January 24, 2019

Pat Gibbons guest hosts this episode with guest Jeanne Bliss, founder and president of CustomerBliss, consultant, and thought leader on customer experience. Jeanne and Pat discussion her books, how she began her career in CX, and how customer experience leaders needs to remember the human side to how they approach CX within their companies.

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