Episodes
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Sarah Quinn, VP of Global AI/Digital/CX Sales at TELUS International, shares fascinating insights from an impressive career working with household-name brands - from McDonald’s to J. Crew, to Airbnb, and more. In this episode, Sarah discusses how successful (and not-so-successful) brands navigated significant past changes in public behavior, plus why CX teams should embrace AI to avoid irrelevancy.
About The Guest:
Sarah Quinn is the VP of Global AI/Digital/CX Sales at TELUS International and previously has provided a broad range of strategic consulting services for Fortune 500 companies and more. Sarah began her career as a Direct Marketing superstar, going on to become a proven high-impact turnaround sales strategist in the B2B and B2C enterprise space, helping increase both her employer's and client's bottom line.
Key Quotes:
“It's not what people like that's the most important. It's what they don't like that might be the most important…When people love you, they love you. Like political parties, if I'm a Democrat or Republican, I'm going to vote one way or the other. It's easy to find people firmly on this side or that side, but it's not easy to find people that might go on either side. That's also a part of a marketer's struggle. To understand what they don't like, to me, is as important as what they do.”
“When I say the comment, ‘The customer's always right,’ we know they're not always right. But, it's how do you make them feel like you hear them and you understand, and how do you sway them to maybe understand they're not right?”
“If the last two years didn't prove to marketers that you just can't depend on the environment or history or anything, then I don't know what will. Those that come to the top will come to the top, and the two words I keep saying are agility and flexibility.”
Time Stamps:
*[1:15] Sarah’s role at TELUS International
*[3:50] Biggest changes in CX from the past decades
*[6:33] Tools for getting to know your customer better
*[14:57] Outdated CX techniques
*[16:438] Times regression-modeling worked wonders
*[20:57] What’s next for TELUS International
*[21:49] The future of CX trends
*[26:50] Engaging across generations with the same message
*[35:40] Advice to staying agile and flexible during cultural change
Links
Connect with Sarah on LinkedInConnect with Phil on LinkedInFollow Phil on TwitterThanks to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
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We hear so much about the importance of strategic communications, but what does that really mean? Martha Boudreau, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at AARP, helps bring strategic communication to life through relatable stories and concrete examples. Hear her explain what it means to become your customer’s wisest friend and fiercest defender - a core mission to Martha’s team at AARP. You’ll hear some of her globally-recognized insight into topics like aligning strategies, empowering employees, and much more.
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Key Quotes:
“We have to be where everybody is, offering up the same kind of content to everyone - whether it's a mailbox, a digital platform, or through our app. That is an obligation. What it means from a customer experience standpoint, is that it all has to work together. It has to be a sort of an omni-channel experience.”
“For other brands, especially brands that were not created in the digital world, there can be no time to wait. You have to adopt different platforms, but first, you have to have a serious look at who your consumers are and know that moving forward, there will be no excuses for delivering anything that's not a great consumer experience. You know what? Maybe, you never get it perfect - but you create processes whereby you can fix things as you move through.”“Being able to truly listen and then act on the input makes sense for the mission, and for the business model of the organization. That's essential. You can't satisfy everyone, but you can make sure that your processes are top notch, and that you're delivering what your brand promises.”
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Time Stamps:
*[:15] Martha’s role at AARP
*[3:20] How listening to customers benefits CX
*[7:50] Aligning CX strategies across multiple departments
*[12:20] Why customer experience is employee experience
*[15:48] Martha’s go-to tools for productivity
*[19:05] Responding to negative customer feedback
*[22:00] AARP’s Virtual Community Center
*[25:40] The future of CX
*[29:17] Lightning round
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Links:
Connect with Martha on LinkedInFollow Martha on TwitterConnect with Phil on LinkedInFollow Phil on TwitterThanks to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
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This episode features an interview with Lee Becker, SVP and GM of Medallia’s Public Sector. In this episode, Lee talks about the federal government’s cross-agency initiative to improve CX, shares advice for managing CX across several departments, and explains why a human-centered approach sets the stage for success.
Quotes
“We are elevating the human experience of government by putting people's voices at the center of decision making. That is really at the core of what we do. This element of placing the people's voices at the center of everything is something so profound because it’s the missing piece.”
“I think customer experience sometimes can be seen as an audit function, and we've got to make sure it doesn't become that. Customer experience should be seen as a core enabler for everything that organization is doing. It cannot be seen as this special thing off to the side.”
“We actually make sure that the changes we’re making are not just a copy-and-paste. It’s not just a, ‘Hey, we're going to keep the same process and we're going to slap technology on it, and boom, here's our modernization.’ Let's actually take a step back. Let’s make sure that we're putting the people's voice at the center of everything.”
Time Stamps
*[:19] Lee’s journey from Department of Defense to Medallia Public Sector
*[3:08] The scope of Medallia Public Sector’s mission
*[9:09] Team building and organization
*[14:09] Creating a CX focused culture
*[21:27] Cross-department communication and alignment
*[25:41] Tackling complex pain-points
*[34:38] Bigges lessons Lee’s learned in the Public Sector
Bio
Lee Becker is a Navy veteran with more than 20 years of experience in regulated industries and the public sector. Lee joined Medallia in 2020, after spending 10 years at the U.S. Department of Defense in various strategic and operational roles. This included the development of award winning programs in customer, patient, and employee experience at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and co-leading the White House cross-agency goal on customer experience for all of government.
Thanks to our Friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
Links
Connect with Lee on LinkedInFollow Lee on TwitterConnect with Phil on LinkedInFollow Phil on Twitter -
This episode features an interview with Scott Finlow, CMO for the PepsiCo Foodservice Division. In this episode, Scott talks about creating centers of excellence within a large company, operating with a digital-first mindset, and catering to experiential consumers.
Quotes
*”What’s important is to build a comprehensive and dynamic understanding of people, not just as consumers, nor just as shoppers, but in a more holistic way. To understand them as people, what their motivations are, what their behaviors are, not just in a moment, but over the course of a day or a week or a lifetime. And that becomes a more important way to understand people as you seek to build brands authentically and genuinely to help meet their needs, whether it's an individual brand or a portfolio of brands. That's different in different markets and in different contexts. And it's an incredibly dynamic space now more than ever.”
*”You may go to Starbucks in the morning. You may be at 7 Eleven. You may be ordering from from B-Dubs for lunch. You're living in an omni-channel world today. The construct of retail to some degree in food service doesn't really present itself clearly to a consumer or to people. And that's increasingly what we need to contextualize and understand when we do our work, when we understand people, when we build our brands, when we build the experiences. We want to create. ”
*”Retail is looking to create a more experiential environment. And I think the world that you live in in terms of being focused on customer experience and guest experience is incredibly relevant across both. And everyone needs to work hard to understand that guest, and or consumer, and create a better experience for them. What's important is understanding what the nature of a better experience is, right? And there are probably some common underpinnings. Things like convenience, things like depending on the context, something that's maybe unique and special, certainly relevant, is going to be incredibly important. Value is always a constant at a high level and is also dynamic, and very much unique and dynamic across the different contexts as well.”
“In every role I've ever had, CX has been at the root of it. One thing that I think is really important is for everyone in the company to think that way about it no matter what your role is, whether you're in sales or finance. How are you just thinking about the consumer, the user, the customer, and how you build a better brand experience and a better business as part of that? That should be at the heart of every CPG organization. That's for sure.”
“Act like an owner. No matter where you are in the business, be an owner of the brands. Be an owner as it relates to understanding your customers, helping your customers and supporting that business. Don't don't have it be someone else's job. Make it your job. Make it everyone on your team's job to think about that experience and organize at least a part of your work and your mindset to be hyper-conscious about how you can make that a better experience.”
Time Stamps
*[3:36] Making sense of consumer insights
*[9:30] Building a unique brand experience in foodservice
*[12:20] Creating the experiential environment
*[14:12] Understanding the consumer across silos
*[17:13] Taking ownership of your CX
*[18:38] Future-proofing by shaping your brand in context
*[21:09] Adapting CX to COVID
*[23:39] Driving innovation at PepsiCo through IT
*[28:46] The future of PepsiCo and sustainability initiatives
*[33:09] Advice for CX leaders
Bio
Scott Finlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for the PepsiCo Foodservice Division. Scott and his team are responsible for translating deep consumer and customer insights into innovation and experiences that accelerate growth, build brands with purpose and transform the business for the future. Scott has been with PepsiCo for 25 years in a variety of Marketing roles in the US and Asia.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn
Follow Scott on Twitter
Check out the PepsiCo Foodservice Digital Labs
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with Carol Carpenter, CMO at VMware. In this episode, Carol talks about understanding your end user, how CX encompasses what customers see, think and feel, and how to enable customer success through a delightfully simple experience.
Quotes
*”I define customer experience here at VMware as what do we make our customers see, think and feel? What do they see, think, and feel as they experience the company, our products, our people, our support? How do they feel in that entire realm of experience? And that's why customer experience is much more than just a function.”
*”We're in a multi-cloud world. 70 to 80% of businesses are using more than one cloud. As a company, part of our brand promise here at VMware is we're going to simplify and help you decomplexify all the things you need to do across your application and infrastructure stack. It's pretty complicated when you have multiple clouds, you have multiple solutions. And our goal was to be the Switzerland, and frankly, the connectivity to help companies transform and move to the cloud and take advantage of all the cloud offers. So long way of saying that at VMware, we're looking for, how do we create the simplification? How do we make it so that customers have the security, the management, the resiliency, and the ability to move fast?”
*”At VMware, we're really committed to communities. A lot of people don't realize we actually have several open source projects. We have the founders of Kubernetes as part of our team. So we believe in the communities and the bottoms up approach, and that's a different type of experience and engagement that's required. So that's also an area where, as CMO, I have some influence and work with those teams pretty closely. Cause you can't market to those communities. You need to engage with them.”
Time Stamps
*[3:13] Carol’s journey to CMO at VMWare
*[12:08] How to stay ahead of the curve on CX
*[15:30] Partnering with customers to drive innovation
*[22:17] Advice for navigating change as a leader
*[27:07] Deciding what CX initiatives to pursue
*[28:29] Building trust with customers
*[30:25] Getting a 360° view of your CX
*[40:38] Predicting the future of CX
Bio
Carol Carpenter joined VMware in June 2020 as Chief Marketing Officer. As CMO, Carol is responsible for leading all aspects of the Global Marketing organization, which includes Corporate Marketing, Partner, Segment and Field Marketing. She brings to the role more than 25 years of technology sector experience. Most recently, she was Vice President, Product Marketing at Google Cloud.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with Carol on LinkedIn
Follow Carol on Twitter
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with John Boerstler, Chief Experience Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs. In this episode, John talks about improving trust ratings, journey mapping, and reaching underserved communities.
Quotes
“If we're going to create this world-class customer experience for our veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors, then we also have to make sure that we provide a world-class employee experience for 400,000 men and women that serve here in the VA everyday.”
“If we think just not only along the lines of age, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender in general, we have to design for all of these different customer types to ensure that some of the most underserved veterans and their families are out or are engaged and retained as customers and that they choose VA for their care and benefits so that we can fulfill our sacred oath and our commitment to them.”
“The United States military creates the largest number of displaced workers every year. 250,000 young men and women leave active service. And they move from Virginia to Texas or California to Missouri or Missouri to Florida and the professional and personal networks that they have at their duty station that do not translate to the communities that they return to. And so they have a difficult time finding work and finding a new social or that unit mentality, that social net social network, so to speak that we have in the military, that comradery that we so miss. And that can lead to negative health and economic outcomes. So how can we be on the front end of that transition, improve it, negative health and economic outcomes by wrapping our arms around these individuals and their families at that point of transition and then at the same time deliver a delightful customer experience?”
Time Stamps
*[4:09] Shifting to human-centered design
*[6:05] The sacred duty to serve Veterans
*[7:15] How the VA has improved trust ratings by 23%
*[10:26] Leveraging tech to give more Veterans access to services
*[12:50] The birth of the Veterans Experience Officer and the first journey map
*[16:54] The core values of the VA in CX
*[18:46] Using data to increase access and improve outcomes for Veterans
*[20:47] Meeting the unique challenges of Veterans after active service
*[24:14] Learning to meet the needs of LGBTQ and BIPOC Veterans
*[27:31] Measuring the effectiveness of CX initiatives
*[31:58] Meeting Veterans at their point of transition to civilian life
*[32:33] Addressing mental health needs among Veterans
*[39:00] Owning the moment
Bio
John is a native Texan who served honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1999-2007 as a non-commissioned officer and infantry unit leader, including one combat tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2005 and Operation Natural Fire in the Republic of Kenya in 2006. John has also served as the CEO of Combined Arms, Executive Director of NextOp, a program manager with Wounded Warrior Project, the Mayor of Houston’s Office of Veterans Affairs, and as a policy and district staffer for a U.S. Representative.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with John on LinkedIn
Follow John on Twitter
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with Howard Pyle, founder of ExperienceFutures.org. In this episode, Howard talks about the true meaning of digital equality, front-end experience automation, and why there will never be a single solution suited for all users.
Quotes
“The social issue is twofold. One is that all the sites, all the tools you interact with are designed for privilege. They're designed for people who already know how to use technology. They're designed for people who sit in front of a computer all day. They're designed for people who have reference to things like the way design system conventions work. We expect you to know how these systems work...And so if you don't know how to access those sites, suddenly you lose access to the things you need to do in your daily life. You can't access government, you can't access healthcare. You can't access your financial services because you don't know how those tools work. And that's where it becomes a social issue.”
Time Stamps
*[3:27] Understanding the depth of the digital divide
*[6:04] Digital inequity as a social issue
*[10:05] A new way to look at digital equity
*[18:01] The nexus of experience design and automation
*[22:19] Democratization of digital access
*[24:06] Whose problem is digital inequity?
*[25:40] Designers create for privileged audience
*[29:04] Defining CX
*[37:00] Committing to digital equity at the leadership level
*[41:23] Addressing design equity with help from ExperienceFutures
Bio
Howard is founder of Experience Futures and a 20-year design and digital platforms veteran. He was previously SVP of Global Customer Experience Design at MetLife, VP in IBM’s Design Studios, and founder of several startups.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with Howard on LinkedIn
Follow Howard on Twitter
Check out ExperienceFutures.org
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with Kristi Langdon, Head of Customer Experience at Daimler Trucks North America. In this episode, Kristi talks about setting employees up for successful delivery of the customer experience, the importance of connecting every employee with your end customers, and how CX actually starts with LX, or leadership experience.
Quotes
*"Start by listening. You would be amazed at the frequency with which we forget to listen, that we forget to start with voice of the customer. Because oftentimes we make assumptions. We think we know the right way, but if you would just take the time to listen to the customer in the front end and really understand what their pain point is, you would then inform what is the right problem you're trying to solve. Too many times we make those assumptions and it leads us down the wrong path. And we end up solving something that never needed to be solved."
Time Stamps
*[5:43] Extending CX past the sale
*[8:14] Kickstarting your CX transformation
*[9:33] Accepting constructive feedback
*[16:58] Enabling and empowering employees to deliver your CX
*[18:33] CX starts with leadership
*[20:45] Addressing fear of change
*[23:00] Protecting your market share amid change
*[31:15] Encouraging your employees through success stories
*[39:08] Daimler’s CX model
*[42:47] Tech trends incoming to Daimler
*[45:03] Delivering on your brand promise
Bio
Kristi is the Head of the Customer Experience team at Daimler Trucks North America with 20 years of senior leadership experience in manufacturing, technology, banking and energy. Kristi started the first CX organization at DTNA and launched a “voice of the customer” program.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn
Check out DTNA on their website
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with Toby Thorne, Head of Customer Care at bp pulse. In this episode, Toby talks about how social media has put the pressure on to create a flawless customer experience, translating feedback into insights and action items, and managing customer hesitancy on adopting new technologies.
Quotes
*“I think customer service is quite an old fashioned term these days. It's got connotations of being very reactive, and really acting or servicing customers when they contact you. And customers generally contact business when something goes wrong. I think customer experience is more focused on that whole end-to-end customer journey. So every touch point with the customer needs to be slick. It needs to be easy, enjoyable where possible. And I think that's the key difference. It's not just waiting for customers to contact you. It's focusing on every customer interaction.”
Time Stamps
*[6:55] The difference between customer service and customer experience
*[15:33] Tracking changes in customer needs
*[16:03] Helping build customer confidence in new tech
*[22:46] Finding the customer-centric data after a digital transformation
*[24:46] How to turn data into action items
*[26:12] Streamline CX through data
*[31:50] The effect of social media on consumer expectations
*[37:22] Automation and the future of CX
Bio
Toby Thorne is a customer care professional with years of experience within the automotive and retail industry, including managerial roles in financial services, customer care and head office. He has extensive experience within various brand/managing director’s executive teams. He is a natural leader with a customer centric approach, skilled in operational management, process optimisation and stakeholder management.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with Toby on LinkedIn
Check out bp pulse on their website
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with David Duncan, Owner & CEO of Silver Oak Cellars and Andrea Robinson, Master Sommelier. In this episode, they talk about cultivating traditions, meeting guests in the moment, and being the ambassador to a joyful experience.
Quotes
*“My favorite wine descriptor is trust. What we focus on with our entire team is a consistent experience and a great bottle of wine that people can come back to and enjoy again and again.” - David Duncan
*“I'm in service to the customer who's buying the wine and investing in spending their time in my presence, creating that moment, reading what their needs are. But I’m also in service to the wineries and winemakers. They are the artisans. They are the preservers of open space and agricultural land and tradition.” - Andrea Robinson
Time Stamps
*[7:15] Creating a moment for the customer
*[8:55] Aligning employees to provide a great CX
*[14:05] How sustainability as part of CX pays off
*[20:22] Encouraging customers to expand their horizons
*[22:01] Pivoting with changing tastes
*[27.45] Offering diversity initiatives
*[30:11] How the pandemic has changed customer interactions
*[36:16] Measuring customer satisfaction
Bio
David owns four brands: Silver Oak Cellars, Twomey Cellars, OVID Napa Valley and Timeless Napa Valley. Silver Oak’s new winery in the Alexander Valley is first in the world to achieve net positive energy, net positive water status and earn LEED (Leader in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification.
Andrea is one of only 28 women in the world to hold the title of Master Sommelier. She’s a best-selling author, holds 3 James Beard awards and developed a game-changing line of stemware called The ONE.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Connect with David on LinkedIn
Follow David on Twitter
Check out Silver Oak Cellars
Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn
Follow Andrea on Twitter
Check out Andrea’s Website
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
Follow Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with Paul Papas, Global Managing Partner of IBM’s Business Transformation Services. He has led the launch of IBM’s design and CX division called IBM iX as well as their Enterprise Strategy Consulting services. Paul has been named one of the world’s “Top 25 Consultants” by Consulting Magazine, among the world’s top 5 CRM influential leaders, and the “King of Commerce” by CRM Magazine. Before IBM, he was a Partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. In this episode, Paul discusses providing value to customers first and foremost, incorporating agile and design thinking into CX, and getting clients hooked on the customer journey.
Quotes
“We're in the services business, myself and my team. We got into service to be of service to our clients. When our clients are doing any CX initiative, it's for them to be of better service to their customers. And when they live up to that ambition, and that calling, that's where you see great things happen.”
Time Stamps
*[0:15] Intro
*[1:15] Taking ownership of your CX
*[2:03] Interview begins
*[5:25] CX transformation initiatives
*[7:06] Helping big companies solve CX problems
*[8:21] Set your customer as your North Star
*[10:13] Keys to a successful CX transformation
*[18:31] How CX has evolved
*[29:01] Getting buy-in from the C-suite
*[34:12] Rebuilding trust when things go wrong
*[44:37] Quick questions
Bio
Paul Papas is the Global Managing Partner of IBM’s Business Transformation Services responsible for IBM’s Consulting, Design & Experience, Technology & Analytics, and Business Process Outsourcing services. He leads a 50,000 person global team that helps Fortune 1000 CEOs and other C-suite executives reinvent their businesses by leveraging the latest technology innovations.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Find Paul on LinkedIn
Connect with Paul on Twitter
Find Phil on LinkedIn
Connect with Phil on Twitter
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This episode features an interview with Jennifer Lang, VP of Customer Experience, Innovation and Insights at TD Bank. Over her six years at TD Bank, Jennifer has focused on understanding the TD customer experience and how to improve it. In this episode, Jennifer shares the importance of having different perspectives at the table, applying universal design to CX and setting a long-term CX strategy during a period of great change.
Quotes:
“Our work is multidisciplinary. And to be able to excel, we need different perspectives. We are deliberate in making sure we not only have a diversity of cultures, but a diversity of thought and experiences. Then you have to actively ask for different perspectives in your meetings and be okay when people don’t agree with you because it will help you get to a better outcome.”
Time Stamps:
[1:20] Intro
[2:08] Interview begins
[2:57] Background on CX at TD Bank
[8:31] Building a diverse team
[16:20] Accessibility as part of CX
[25:43] Getting company buy-in on investing in CX
[29:13] The secret sauce of great CX
[32:06] The future of CX at TD
[35:40] Recovering from a mistake
[38:52] How COVID has affected consumer behavior...for the better
[44:54] How to expand your brand through proactive outreach
[47:39] Lightning round of questions
Bio:
Jennifer Lang began her career working on the research-supply side at Compass Research and Ipsos. She then switched over to the client side, working on CBC's research team for 10+ years, where she ultimately became Chief of Staff for the Office of the Executive Vice President. Jenn is currently Vice President at TD Bank and oversees the Customer Insights and Experience department, Customer Journeys, and Diversity.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Find Jennifer on LinkedIn
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This episode features an interview with Jennifer Zamora, Senior Director of Global Customer Experience and Commercial Excellence at Dow. Jennifer has spent more than 20 years at Dow, serving in everything from pricing and sales to her current role in customer experience. We talk with Jennifer about getting senior executives on board with customer experience initiatives, improving the company’s response to complaints, and why the role of CX is here to stay.
3 Takeaways:
*Creating change within a company cannot be done by one person. It requires a network of relationships that will help with that transformation.
*Sometimes all it takes to start the process of moving up is curiosity and the courage to volunteer yourself.
*Changes take time and discipline to come to fruition.
Key Quotes:
*“By improving in specific pain point areas where customers have told us, ‘We're frustrated,’ we could see significant improvements in CXI. By staying the course and improving in those specific areas, we were finally able to show the correlation between CX, revenue, and our variable standard margin.”
*“I moved up pretty quickly in my career at Dow. And while I felt good being recognized for my work, I realized that I never had the chance to fully deliver something. So there is balance to moving up while also delivering within that role and making an impact.”
*“We are highly matrixed so there are lots of silos of different people focused on different priorities and scorecards. I would say that CX has really helped bring a visual to why a single scorecard or an aligned scorecard is so critical for us for the future.”
Bio:
Jennifer Zamora’s 20-year career with Dow includes a variety of customer service, financial, and marketing management roles, including assignments in Michigan and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In her current role, Jennifer is accountable for establishing and deploying the long-term CX strategy and disciplines, which includes implementing the customer listening process, institutionalizing a Customer-Centric culture across Dow, and defining and implementing Dow’s transformative customer distinction model and journey-mapping practices. She also ensures alignment and collaboration between the EX and CX practices inside Dow.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Find Jennifer on LinkedIn
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This episode features an interview with Holly O’Neill, Chief Client Care Executive and Head of Consumer Client Services at Bank of America. Holly has spent her entire career of more than 25 years serving Bank of America customers, from wealth management to sales. She talks with us about capitalizing on client feedback, increasing communication during periods of change, and how to personalize the customer experience at scale.
3 Takeaways:
Personalization at scale can be done by providing options for how customers interact with your business.Anticipate times of change or stress by communicating more frequently with customers.Everyone in the company, from CEO to ground level, should be listening to the client to understand their priorities and goals.Key Quotes:
“We felt that that culture of listening to the client not only had to be at the leadership level, but it had to be at the ground level of the organization so that the people who are interacting with clients every day were also receiving the feedback on their interactions.”“On feedback, you want to be prepared to listen to the good, and really be prepared as a leadership team to listen to the not so good. Break down where something goes wrong, and figure out why it went wrong. Be really honest with it. Be comfortable as a team debating it at the table and calling a spade a spade. Be prepared to take the opportunities where you see them and commit to improving.”“Customer experience means first and foremost we’re making sure that no matter what the customer wants, we're delivering it. It's making sure we're making it as easy for them as possible. So delivering an exceptional experience, really being there for them around delivering for their priorities. What's their agenda? What are their life priorities? And how do we enable them to meet and exceed their goals?”Bio:
Holly O’Neill is the Chief Client Care Executive and leads Consumer, Small Business & Wealth Management Client Care at Bank of America. Her team provides financial solutions to more than 66 million clients each year, with a focus on delivering exceptional and distinctive client care with each interaction. She previously served as Chief Operating Officer for U.S. Trust®, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, overseeing strategic initiatives, business management, risk infrastructure and control, enterprise partnerships, and sales and service effectiveness.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Find Holly on LinkedIn
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This episode features an interview with Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting. Janelle is a CX leader and strategist who has authored white papers and articles and spoken at industry conferences like Turing Fest. Before UserTesting, she worked for UX pioneers the Nielsen Norman Group.
3 Takeaways:
It’s not safe to just assume what customers want.It’s not just about tracking NPS or looking at data and dashboards, but spending time with customers.Cultivating a better CX takes experimentation, but you already have some knowledge about what works and what doesn’t from personal experience.Key Quotes:
“One of the most important learnings that I've seen in our own customer base and that I've learned personally in different roles is that whatever you do, tie it to customer experience. Whatever change you're trying to drive or initiative you're trying to get buy-in on, you have to relate it to something that the business cares about.”“The people that I think of as visionary are anticipating needs and solving problems before customers even know their problems. Those are the people that are understanding their customers as human beings, because you need to be able to relate to your customers on a deep enough level to build empathy for them. So you can create the experiences that they need and desire.”“Get inside the customer’s mind. Understand what they care about. What are the words that they use? What's the language that they’re using? Figure out how you show up there to provide value to them that way. It’s taken years of experience to figure that out.”Bio:
Janelle is UserTesting's Chief Insights Officer and an expert research practitioner fascinated by human behavior and intrigued by data insight. She brings over 15 years of experience conducting large-scale customer research initiatives with both B2C and B2B companies across a variety of industries to help them transform their customer, user, and brand experiences.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here
Links:
Janelle Estes' Linkedin
UserTesting Website
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This episode features an interview with Mark Hall, a business leader at Google. He manages partnerships with startups and venture capital firms. Mark is also a contributor to Forbes on the topics of tech, leadership, and venture capital. We talk with Mark about cultivating effective partnerships, shepherding new businesses into being, and leveraging Google’s resources to ensure their success.
3 Takeaways:
Building partnerships means investing more time in relationships and working in a less transactional way.Providing a great customer experience can sometimes be as simple as putting in the effort to engage with the customer.In a partnership, mirroring your partner’s successful work style drives productivity and progress.Key Quotes:
“Every organization, regardless of whether you're in the venture space, whether you're a B2B or consumer company, you have to prioritize customer experience because it becomes the lifeblood of your success.”“In the partnership space, they take a long-term view–that time horizon in terms of how you look at the value of that relationship. I think that's the biggest delineation between a successful partnership versus unsuccessful.”“Prioritize relationships. Periods of give and take on both sides is a natural order of that process and embracing that is key. If you have a dynamic relationship, it allows you to ensure that there's that back and forth and continued building and strengthening.”Bio:
Mark leads Google's west coast partnerships with startups and venture capital firms. He's been at the company for over 8 years and spent a large portion of his tenure in the company's cloud division. Mark is also a contributor to Forbes, writing on the topics of technology, business and culture, and has been featured in Business Insider and Huffington Post.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
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This episode features an interview with Dr. Rachelle Ornan, Director of Cabin Research and Passenger Experience and Associate Technical Fellow for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, specializing in the experience and design of commercial aircraft interiors. Before planes, she worked on spacecraft as a Human Factors Engineer and Industrial Designer for NASA. We talk with Rachelle about idealized design, balancing art and science, and what it takes to create a peaceful space to house the stress of travel.
3 Takeaways:
Customer experience includes elements that reach the end-user on a subconscious or emotional level.Consider all potential users when designing a customer experience.Customers may have generational differences in what they expect from the experience. Up-and-coming generations are often looking to be treated to an aspirational experience they don’t get anywhere else.Key Quotes:
“There is a transformation that happens when people feel part of something – when they actually feel moved by the experience. That's the kind of research that we invest in and those are the kinds of insights and design nuggets that come from a really deep-seated place, an emotional place, a human place. When we translate that into the built environment, you've got a lot of people nodding their heads and getting on board.”“I think that's kind of aspirational – to get treated experientially...being treated to a beautiful interior that’s nice, clean, bright, well lit and people are smiling and happy to be going somewhere. I think that makes everybody feel good.”“I really believe that travel helps economies. It connects us to each other. It pulls people out of poverty...This is the big stuff that I think Boeing connects the world to.”Bio:
Dr. Rachelle N. Ornan, is an Associate Technical Fellow for Boeing Commercial Airplanes specializing in the experience and design of commercial aircraft interiors. Her background includes lighting and concept interior development for the CST-100 Starliner capsule, visual perception research, space hotel concepts for NASA, feature willingness-to-pay, and a comprehensive ethnographic study of interiors. Currently, she directs passenger experience research and bridges communication between sales and marketing, engineering and airlines to ensure a commercially viable, preferred product which maximizes revenue. Rachelle holds a PhD in experimental psychology, and a master’s in Industrial Design from North Carolina State University. She is a dog-mom, an avid skier, backpacker, competitive synchronized swimmer and currently pursuing her boat captain’s license.
Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
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Sharon Mandell, Senior Vice President and CIO of Juniper Networks, joins Phil to discuss why every employee who touches the product impacts the customer experience, the benefits of being a customer of your own company, and how AI can free up employees to offer better customer care.
3 Takeaways:
Elevate each team member to do their best work, because they all influence the product and therefore the customer experience.Take care of the company’s basic needs so you can focus more time on customer needs.Stay connected to every level of employees to understand how each one is adding to the success of the whole.Key Quotes:
“I think if you're a great CIO, you work your way out of a job in many ways, because you get your team to the level where they're really doing all the work.”“Often you'll come into an organization and you'll hear tussles over who owns the system. We don't, no department owns anything. And if somebody new comes in here tomorrow, they might decide that system's not valuable and want to put in a different one. So if your self-worth comes from the tool itself or the particular deployment, or exactly how something gets done, you're probably focused on the wrong area.”"No matter what label they put on you, as you climb up the ladder and you get a C in front of your name, you maintain your humility. Be willing to get down in the weeds with anybody, because the minute you lose your connection to where the real work is getting done, I think you lose your people."Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
Bio:
Sharon Mandell is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer leading Juniper’s global information technology team. In this role, she leads the ongoing enhancement of the company’s IT infrastructure and applications architectures to support the growth objectives of the company. She and her team are also responsible for showcasing Juniper’s use of its technologies to the world.
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Episode Notes:
City National Bank Executive VP and Chief Marketing Officer Linda Duncombe joins The Customer Experience Show to discuss how City National Bank is a little different than the other big name banks, how she deals with difficult situations involving her customers, and how the recent pandemic has affected CNB.
3 Takeaways:
Great CX leaders need to be willing to break bad news to their customers. Doing this in the proper way requires bravery and a gentle touch.Honesty in marketing needs to be more than a buzzword. A commitment to be honest and transparent is a key first step in creating a great customer experience.Creating a great experience for your customers requires thinking through needs from their perspective. CX managers need to be willing to put themselves in their customers’ shoes.Key Quotes:
“The importance of digital to the relationship with our clients has grown and grown and grown over the last 12 months, and we have been very innovative in that way. That we serve our clients. We basically sent home 80% of our workforce within a few days of when it got really serious with COVID last March and we've worked tirelessly to make sure our clients feel that we're still there for them 24 seven.”“We put together a workforce that was more than just the relationship and we had people from operations, from product strategy, from HR, from legal processing loans. So we could get these [PPP Loans] through, so our clients could get the money that they needed to help their businesses. And it was something that everybody from the CEO, Dan got involved in something that we feel incredibly proud about, and we're doing it again with phase two of the PPP program. And it's just what we do, people. Don't question it.”“When Frank Sinatra's child was kidnapped, we were one of his banks and he came to our CEO at the time and said, I need a bank that can open their safe on a weekend. I'm being told that that can't be done. And he'd been told no by another bank. And our CEO at the time said, yes, I can open the safe.”Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
Bio:
Linda Duncombe is executive vice president and chief marketing, product and digital officer of City National Bank. Ms. Duncombe leads a team that is responsible for advancing the company’s brand and digital strategy, articulating its value proposition, and supporting business development.
Ms. Duncombe oversees marketing, client experience, advertising, and communications as well as digital channels, product development, credit cards, and multicultural outreach. She is also responsible for the bank’s technology innovation team, which identifies and deploys fintech solutions for City National and its clients.
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Episode Notes:
Avaya SVP and CMO Simon Harrison joins The Customer Experience Show to discuss how being a product manager has helped him become a successful customer experience leader, what the future of CX looks like as the world transitions into an experience economy, and much more.
3 Takeaways:
Before they can improve the CX experience, CX leaders need to make sure they understand every detail of the customer journey.One key to creating a great customer experience is listening to customers and learning from what they are saying and what they want and need.Trust is an important part of building a great CX. Leaders need to train their employees how to create a great experience, and then empower and trust them to do the right thing.Key Quotes:
“We have a relentless focus. Effectively, if you have engaged and empowered staff, they enjoy great experiences and that directly translates to our customers having great experiences.”“It's whether you decide the ambition to change things is significant enough for you to push on into a role where, it may be out of your comfort zone, but you could make a difference. I took the leap and worked hard to become perhaps somewhat of a success as a product manager.”“As a CXO or someone that's passionate about customer experiences and in a leadership role in a company, I'm really keen to talk about the customer journey and understand more about how to make people feel better. It’s about memorable experiences rather than trying to sell them something.”Thank you to our friends
This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.
Bio:
Simon Harrison is Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, leading the global marketing function to engage new and existing customers and partners, drive adoption of the company’s software solutions and support Avaya as the leading player in a dynamic digital communications market.
Simon joined Avaya in 2020 from leading research and advisory firm, Gartner, where he was research director and lead analyst for the Unified Communications and Contact Center market. In a career spanning over 25 years, he has been a thought leader, product strategist, marketer and consultant in the communications solutions industry. Prior to Gartner, he held leadership roles in Marketing, Sales, Product Marketing, and Product Management for companies like Cirrus, Vocalcom, Siebel Systems, and others.
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