Full Episode Listing

When we talk about “experiences” it’s often from a holistic point of view – through the lens of “experience management”, or “XM.” But how do you connect the customer with the employees, or the employees with the brand? One way is through the use of storytelling, which can be particularly effective in building empathy and understanding. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bruce Temkin, head of the XM Institute, for a discussion on how storytelling can build customer empathy and lead to better customer experience.

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A key element to building any customer experience program is understanding your customers and creating empathy. And there are tools to help with that: surveys, interviews, journey mapping sessions. But what about the process beyond all the discovery that happens? What do you DO with all that “understanding?” Host Steve Walker welcomes Emily Stump of Indiana University Health for a look at how design thinking can be a valuable tool for CX professionals.

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Companies regularly hire experienced professionals from outside their organization. But they can’t tell from a resume how good of a culture fit the new leaders will be. And employees frequently find that to grow their skills, they need to go to another company – often leaving a company that is a good fit for them. So how can you solve both problems at once? Host Steve Walker welcomes Jeff Epstein, founder of Onboard.io, for a discussion on creating the right culture for employees which ultimately creates better customer experiences.

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Customer experience professionals have an opportunity to help create a genuine and lasting impact on their companies. But like any other aspect of an organization, there are some key elements – or “ingredients” – they need to make the right impact. And each company’s needs will be different, so it's important to know what ingredients are needed for their specific situations. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacey Nevel, director of voice of the customer at Prudential Financial and a member of the board of directors for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), for a discussion on what ingredients are needs to create an impactful CX program.

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It’s been said a countless number of times on this show: customer experience has never been more important for companies today. The pandemic has changed not only how businesses operate, but how consumers are make purchasing decisions. This has provided CX programs an opportunity to make a huge impact on how companies navigate their way through new territory as we start to see the world emerge from the pandemic. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Jay Baer of Convince and Convert to discuss how CX has - or can - make an impact.

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Many are exhausted over the pandemic and discussing how it “changed everything,” but it would be a disservice to not recognize its effects on the CX profession. But there are some valuable take-aways in what we’ve learned about the experience management world during the pandemic. Host Steve Walker welcomes Jeanne Bliss, a c-suite coach and global thought leader for CX, the Founder and CEO of Customer Bliss, a co-founder of the CXPA, and host of the podcast The Human Duct Tape Show, to discuss CX trends as world emerges from the pandemic.

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According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 19 million people were enrolled in some level of college education for the fall semester of 2018. And just like any other business, it’s important for academic institutions to pay attention to their customer – or perhaps “student” – experience. But as you can imagine, CX in the higher education realm is a bit different. Host Steve Walker and guest Karla Fisher, chief industry advisor for education at Qualtrics, discuss the unique circumstances that CX pros work under at colleges and universities.

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It’s that time of year when producer Chris Higgins takes a moment to look back on some of the excellent advice from past guests on The CX Leader Podcast. Having covered a variety of topics from mystery shopping, CX in government, and even how one of the “happiest places on earth” executes their customer experience, there's a vast number of "take home value" segments to choose from, but this episode focuses on four particularly insightful tips for CX leaders.

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Between website feedback, social media posts, product reviews, and every other way customers can provide insights, a staggering amount of data is generated everyday. If you’re a customer experience professional trying to make sense of everything your customers are saying about your company, you need a tool to help quantify all that information. That’s where text analytics can help. Host Steve Walker welcomes Matt Braun and Job Willman, both associates at Walker, to provide helpful guidance on using text analytics to quantify your data.

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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.

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Hyper-personalization is one of the newer buzz words out in the business world today – a practice that utilizes artificial intelligence to deliver highly personalized content and experiences in real-time at an individual level. It’s another way for brands to connect with their customers and a potential "tool in the box" for customer experience professionals. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Melissa Drew, an associate partner at IBM, for a discussion on how A.I. can take personalization to the next level.

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Growing companies often develop complicated and disjointed processes. If business is booming, no one seems to have the time to stop and take a holistic look at how things are working and that can be detrimental to customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Pamela Herrmann, vice president for customer experience for Mortgage Cadence, to discuss how a customer complaint led to a simple question that helped bring together a cross-functional collaboration to remove friction from the experience.

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The Qualtrics XM Institute recently released 2021 Global Consumer Trends, a report focusing on how consumer behavior will continue to change in a post-pandemic world. The report takes a look at consumer behavior and attitudes across 18 countries and covers many topics including loyalty, NPS, and post-COVID online behaviors. Host Steve Walker and Moira Dorsey of the Qualtrics XM Institute continue their discussion on the report's findings and the valuable insights it provides for CX professionals.

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The Qualtrics XM Institute recently released 2021 Global Consumer Trends, a report focusing on how consumer behavior will continue to change in a post-pandemic world. The report takes a look at consumer behavior and attitudes across 18 countries and covers many topics including loyalty, NPS, and post-COVID online behaviors. Host Steve Walker welcomes Moira Dorsey, a principal XM catalyst at the Qualtrics XM Institute for a discussion on the insights found in the report.

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Mystery shopping: it’s that common practice where companies hire professional “shoppers” to evaluate and report on how your customers experience your business and gain valuable perspective on the customer’s journey. But, like many things today, the pandemic has shifted how customer experience pros approach their practice. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Michael Mills, global vice president of sales for HS Brands International, to discuss why CX pros should consider broadening their toolbox with this practice.

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There’s a ton of science behind something as simple as a customer making a decision to purchase a product or service. Behavioral economics is a field that seeks to help us understand the biases and errors in a person’s decision-making process. Understanding this field can also provide CX pros with better insight into customer behavior, thereby finding ways to improve the customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Richard Jordan, CEO of Raggit, a customer-service review app, and one of the contributing authors of a new book, “Customer Experience 3”, to discuss how CX professionals can look to behavioral economics to help improve customer experience.

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Many people have experienced a visit to a theme park, but the theme park experiences provided by The Walt Disney Company are arguably some of the best. However, it’s not easy creating the “magical” world that guests have come to enjoy. Ensuring the employees – or “cast members” – provide that magical experience is crucial, which means it’s essential the employee’s experience is high priority. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Francesca Tempestini, a former cast member at Disneyland Paris and one of the contributing authors of the new book “Customer Experiences 3," to discuss how companies can take some cues from "the happiest place on earth."

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It’s been over a year since a global pandemic has forced companies and organizations across the globe to rethink how they do work. While not an option for many companies, some began moving their operations to a work from home model, and it’s a trend that most CEO’s think will not go away. So how will this new work trend affect the employee and customer experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes Shanika Ofori, director of key accounts at 5CA, a company specializing in work-from-home global CX, for a discussion on how the work-from-home environment affects employee and customer experience.

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In the United States, people typically don't think of themselves as “customers” to the government. However, governing bodies from the local, state, and federal levels have been embracing customer experience as a way to connect to the community, and commercial businesses can learn from their efforts. Host Steve Walker welcomes Qualtrics experts Chelsie Bright, global head of government, and Sydney Heimbrock, chief industry advisor for government, for a discussion on understanding how CX works in government at all levels.

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It’s important for those leading a company’s CX efforts to make certain the customer experience delivered by your front-line employees matches the customer’s expectations. And that means your employees need to understand your brand and the expectations it promises. Host Steve Walker welcomes Chris Wallace, co-founder and president of the InnerView Group, for a discussion on how to ensure your front-line employees deliver the experience promised by your brand.

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