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.
A resource for customer experience (CX) and experience management (XM) professionals. 
Episodes tagged “Steve Walker”
Data is important for customer experience. Providing a great experience is certainly a good thing, but it’s not enough to assume that your program is delivering. You must gather the data necessary to either confirm you’re doing it right, or find you need to make some changes in order to improve your CX. Host Steve Walker welcomes Tim Thoman, President and CEO of Performance Services, a company that designs and constructs high performance buildings, for a discussion on how they integrate customer data into their business' decision-making process.
It's an easy tenet to accept that a lack of conflict translates to a productive workplace. The less H.R. puts out personality “fires” the more people can concentrate on their jobs. But a study published back in 2003 by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley found that if the traditional rules of brainstorming, which encourage people to not criticize any presented ideas, are replaced with instructions encouraging debate, and even criticism, productive and innovative thinking may improve. Host Steve Walker welcomes Amanda Ono, vice president for customer experience at Resolver, a risk intelligence platform, for a discussion on encouraging a healthy level of conflict in the workplace can increase production and collaboration within your organization.
COVID required many companies – including Walker – to rethink how they do business. Come companies adapted well, others did not. But some unique challenges crop up when your business is highly regulated, like the aviation industry. Regardless of the pandemic, pilots still need to be trained, certified, and recertified, and if the training of pilots is the core services of your business, then some innovative thinking needed to happen in order to continue the important work of keeping people flying. Host Steve Walker welcomes Kara Gardner, global customer experience manager for CAE a manufacturer of simulation and modelling technologies.
A common subject on the show is the importance of cross-functional collaboration when executing good customer experience. Knowing how other departments and groups work within the company is vital, but not always easy. And yet, CX pros are often left with the task of getting everyone on-board and collaborating so the entire company can help provide the best possible customer experience. Guest Michelle Spaul is a customer experience consultant and leads the Customer Experience Professionals Association’s “Monograph Project”, which aims to help organizations "work better together by understanding the level of collaboration needed to deliver the desired customer experience."
Women's Equality Day is celebrated in the United States on August 26, commemorating the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits the states and the federal government from denying the right to vote to citizens of the United States on the basis of sex. In honor of that event, and in honor of her great-grandmother Tommie Walker, who founded Walker in 1939, Sara Walker guests hosts to highlight words of wisdom from women who have been guests on The CX Leader Podcast.
People love origin stories. And for CX professionals, narratives of customer experience “newbies” growing from humble beginnings into “heroes” can be insightful. Continuing in our series of featuring winners from the Awards International 2022 US Customer Experience Awards, host Steve Walker welcomes Lee Kemp, operations, supply chain, and Customer Experience leader, and Sam Wegman, vice president for customer experience, at Univar Solutions, a global chemical and ingredient distributor. Lee and Sam describe how they built an award-winning program from scratch, having received three gold awards and one silver for Univar's customer experience efforts.
Change is not easy. It’s human instinct to become comfortable with “what you know.” But sometimes a change is necessary – when CX professionals notice a problem, or recognize a way to make the customer’s experience better, their instinct is to find solutions to improve how they interact with customers. And a large global technology company needs a CX leader who can bring people together into a common purpose and inspire them to do what’s best for their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bob McDonald, vice president of global CRM experience for IBM, for a discussion on how Bob made the business case to transform their customer experience.
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.
Health is a deeply personal topic and these last few years have pushed healthcare institutions into making unprecedented changes in how they deliver that care. Naturally, this has had an impact on the patients’ experience. XM professionals in healthcare institutions must be mindful that patients are NOT customers, and design programs accordingly to improve the patient experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Sarah Andrews, vice president for advisory services at Walker, and Sarah Gilstrap, a senior consultant for healthcare customer experience and an XM scientist at Qualtrics, for a discussion on trends in patient experience.