Episodios
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AI is moving fast, but customer trust is moving the other way and that should make every customer experience leader pause. Weâve all seen the rush to deploy chatbots, automate support, and squeeze more efficiency out of service operations. The problem is that customers donât grade you on âAI adoption.â They grade you on whether they can get the job done, feel respected, and leave the interaction confident they were heard.
We dig into why so many people say they âhate AIâ when what they really hate is a broken experience: circular chatbot loops, unclear paths to resolution, and zero way to reach a human. We also talk about the less obvious wins, like AI that helps customers find answers inside an app, makes shopping easier, or offers proactive guidance at the right moment. When AI is designed around the customer journey, it can earn trust the same way humans do by showing up with the right help at the right time.
To make this practical, we share three questions you can use this week to evaluate any AI in customer service or generative AI initiative: Is it working for the customer? What should this moment feel like? Can they always reach a human? We also make the case for human-in-the-loop support for nuanced situations and for transparency as a non negotiable trust signal. If you want AI that scales without sacrificing the experience, start here, then subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a review so more CX leaders can find it.
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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AI agents are already shopping, comparing, booking, and contacting support for the customers weâve spent decades trying to understand. That means customer experience is no longer judged only by what a person feels in the moment, itâs also scored by what an AI can find about your brand across policies, pricing, FAQs, reviews, and the broader web. If that idea makes you a little uneasy, good. Itâs the wake-up call CX leaders need right now.
I break down what âagentic AIâ changes in the customer journey and why it creates a world with no fine print. When an agent can surface your warranty terms, return rules, delivery performance, and reputation signals in seconds, the gaps between your brand promise and real experience become impossible to hide. We talk about the trust signals AI is likely to reward, including transparent pricing, clear and consistent policies, accurate product information, reliable delivery, and responsive customer service. Consistency stops being a nice-to-have and becomes the proof your brand can be trusted.
And we donât lose the human part. Emotions still drive loyalty because people still make the final decision about who they trust. I share why a clear customer experience mission statement matters more than ever, especially if youâre training internal teams and tools around a defined promise of how you want customers to feel. Youâll leave with practical next steps: experiment with AI like a customer, audit your digital experience, remove hidden friction, and tighten the public signals that shape recommendations.
If an AI agent evaluated your brand today, what would it say about your customer experience? Listen now, then subscribe, share with a CX leader, and leave a review.Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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¿Faltan episodios?
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If youâve ever shouted âjust let me talk to a personâ at a chatbot, this oneâs for you. Jeannie Walters is joined by special cohost Brandon McGovern, Senior Director of Customer Experience at HP, to pressure-test the biggest question in AI customer service right now: how do we automate without breaking trust?
We start with a headline that feels like a warning label. Norse Atlantic Airways offers dirt-cheap tickets, but customers say thereâs a catch: customer support is so locked behind tech that getting help can become impossible. We unpack why this isnât simply a âtech problem,â but a governance and leadership problem. When companies remove phone numbers, skip the escape hatch, and ignore high-emotion journeys like refunds and disruptions, they donât just frustrate people, they create financial harm and open the door to fraud.
Then we zoom out to the enterprise reality. Ciscoâs line that adopting AI is âlike surgery without the drugsâ is painfully honest, and it frames the messy middle many CX teams are living through. We talk about why rushing to automate tasks can amplify mistakes, how to redesign workflows around outcomes, and why âfasterâ is the wrong North Star compared to whatâs now possible. Along the way, we dig into authenticity, rising customer expectations, and why AI is killing the illusion of fine print as customers use their own tools to read policies and push back.
If youâre leading CX, contact centers, or digital support, youâll leave with practical guardrails for pilots, measurement, and intent selection. Subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review with the biggest AI question youâre wrestling with right now.
About Brandon McGovern
Senior Director of Customer Experience at HPUnderstanding your customers isn't enough. I build the systems that turn that understanding into outcomes.
Iâm a Senior Director of Customer Experience at HP, leading enterprise-wide measurement, analytics, and operations that enable the company to understand and act on customer sentiment in real time. I oversee a global Voice of the Customer ecosystem capturing tens of millions of signals annually, translating them into product, service, digital, and brand strategy decisions across the business.
My work has delivered double-digit NPS improvements and material revenue impact by shifting CX from a reporting function to an operational and strategic capability - powered by data, automation, and applied AI.
Beyond enterprise implementation, I build with AI hands-on - personal projects in game design, product prototyping, and workflow automation using Claude, Lovable, and other tools. Building outside my domain teaches me where AI actually breaks down, which makes me a better architect of AI-powered operating models at work.
I bring engineering depth coupled with business leadership (MBA, MS in Electrical Engineering, Stanford executive education), and I specialize in building scalable CX platforms, driving cultural change, and aligning executives around customer-led transformation.
Follow Brandon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonmcgovern/
Articles Mentioned:
- Norse Atlantic Airways Offers Dirt-Cheap Tickets. Thereâs a Catch (Wired) -- https://www.wired.com/story/norse-airlines-ftc-complaints-ai-scams/
- Cisco exec says adopting AI is like 'surgery without the drugs' (Business Insider) -- https://www.businessinsider.com/cisco-ai-adoption-customer-service-2026-5
- Dissatisfied: Three-fourths of AI customer service rollouts are a letdown (The Register) -- https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/13/ai-customer-service-bots-get-rolled-back-at-74-of-firms/5239800Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Momentum is the thing every CX leader wants and almost nobody hands you. When youâre staring at a 12-month roadmap but drowning in daily requests, itâs easy to feel like youâre working nonstop while nothing actually changes. We built this conversation for that exact moment, and we keep it practical: seven days, one intentional move, and a clear path to visible customer experience impact.
We walk through a simple three-step framework we use with leaders who are trying to turn CX strategy into action. First, we orient before we act by choosing where our energy belongs instead of reacting to whatever is loudest. We talk through a clear set of focus areas and how a quick assessment can highlight the biggest gap between the experience you want to deliver and whatâs getting done right now. Then we get real about focus: protecting time, avoiding data rabbit holes, and picking an outcome you can actually ship in a week.
Finally, we make one intentional leadership decision that isnât driven by urgency or the inbox. That decision might be defining what success looks like, revisiting a customer experience mission statement, or having the buy-in conversation youâve been avoiding. The goal is not perfection. The goal is momentum you can feel and results you can point to.
If youâre ready to try the seven-day challenge, listen now, share this with a CX peer who feels stuck, and subscribe so you donât miss what comes next. After you listen, whatâs the one move youâll commit to this week?Exclusive for podcast listeners: Get your 7-Day Free Trial of CXI Membership
Other Resources Mentioned:
Learn more about the CXI Navigator⢠framework -- https://experienceinvestigators.com/our-framework/
Take the CXI Compass⢠assessment -- http://CXICompass.com
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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If your CX work keeps getting reduced to dashboards, survey scores, and âplease fix this one issue,â itâs time to change how you lead. We respond to a listener whoâs using Experience Is Everything with their team and wants the clearest path from customer experience ideas to real execution. The big theme is simple: structure creates credibility, and credibility creates the room you need to drive meaningful change.
We start with the most powerful foundation you can build fast: a CX mission statement. It aligns mindset across the organization, helps you stop acting like a feedback narrator, and gives your team language they can confidently evangelize. From there, we dig into customer experience strategy, because too many organizations never actually write one down. We walk through how to define success in a way that supports organizational goals so your CX work becomes proactive, intentional, and business-led rather than reactive.
Then we get practical about culture and discipline. Culture is hard to change, so we talk about scoring where you are today, choosing one area you can influence, and re-checking progress over time. We also cover the CX charter, the document that turns your foundation into coordinated efforts with the right people involved, a clear communication cadence, and shared measures of success.
Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a rating and review so more CX leaders can find it.Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Burnout doesnât come from ânot being able to handle it.â It happens when CX work becomes an endless stream of urgent requests with no clear priorities. In this episode, we unpack why customer experience leaders burn out trying to solve everything at once, and how a clear CX mission and strategy create the guardrails to prioritize, push back, and lead proactively instead of reactively.
We also explore what strategy looks like in practice: focusing on outcomes that matter most, aligning CX work to business goals, and building small habits that keep you grounded. If youâre not sure where to start, we walk through a simple reset: picture what âwinsâ you want one year from now, then work backward into practical next steps. And because CX asks a lot of empathy from you, we close with an essential reminder: show yourself the same compassion you expect your teams to show customers, and build small habits that help you stay centered before taking on one more thing.
If this resonates, share it with a CX leader, subscribe so you donât miss whatâs next, and leave a rating or review to help more leaders find the show.Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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What does customer centricity really look like in fast-growing emerging markets? In this episode, we answer a listener question from a fintech support professional in the Gambia navigating rapid growth, limited resources, and constantly evolving customer expectations. We explore how organizations can build trust at scale by creating a customer-centric culture rooted in leadership, listening systems, and daily operational discipline. We also discuss why frontline support teams are critical in emerging-market fintech, serving as the real-time voice of the customer and a powerful driver of business insight and loyalty.
If this helps you lead customer experience, subscribe, share the episode with a teammate, and leave a rating or review so more CX leaders can find it.Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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AI is loud right now, but the real question is quieter: how do we use it to create a better customer experience without losing the human at the center? From the floor of CXPA CX Leaders Advance, Jeannie Walters grabbed a few brilliant minds and asked one simple prompt: Whatâs the one thing we should be thinking about for the future of CX?
The answers go far beyond any single trend. From evolving skill sets and smarter measurement to human-centered design and change management, this episode brings together a range of perspectives on where CX is heading next.
Youâll hear insights on blending technical and human skills, capturing and acting on customer emotion, grounding strategy in real value, and ensuring teams can actually adopt the changes we design.
If youâre shaping experiences, building journeys, or leading CX transformation, this is a quick hit of perspective to help you focus on what matters most.
Subscribe, share this with a CX leader on your team, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Episode Guests:
Sasha Fard, MBA, CCXP
Director, Omnichannel Analytics, Assurant
Follow Sasha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashafard/
Heidi Taylor, PMP, CCXP
Senior Global CX Project Manager, Lenovo
Follow Heidi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidimtaylor/
Emma Winstead, CCXP
Customer Experience Business Partner, Delaware North
Follow Emma on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-winstead-ccxp-90b815172/
Nicole Aguilera, CCXP
Business System Consultant III, Mutual of Omaha
Follow Nicole on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoleaguilera/
Scott Lee Holloway, CCXP
Head of Customer Experience, APS Bank
Follow Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottleeholloway/
Lauren Wier
Customer Experience Business Partner, Delaware North
Follow Lauren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-wier-17448430/Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Personalization at scale gets pitched like a switch you flip, but the reality is messier and way more human. From Adobe Summit, Jeannie Walters' sits down with IBM leaders to unpack what it takes to deliver customer experience that feels consistent, connected, and genuinely helpful across digital touchpoints even when different teams, tools, and timelines are involved.
First, Betsy Rohtbart, VP, Digital Experience & IBM.com, shares a simple reframing with big implications: start with the task your visitor is trying to complete, then design the experience to make that âpay offâ every time. We talk about why customers often feel the gaps instead of the beautiful moments we intended, how secret shopping your own trial and onboarding flow exposes breakpoints fast, and why chasing problems like a âtoddler soccer gameâ creates more friction. The standard is brutal but fair: customers compare you to their last best experience anywhere.
Then Jay Trestain, EMEA Marketing Transformation Lead & Client Partner, breaks down agentic orchestration in plain terms: AI agents that act as domain experts and work together across an enterprise workflow. We dig into what leaders miss when they rush to deploy AI, how a clear North Star vision sharpens decisions about martech, process redesign, and KPIs, and why agentic technology is changing digital discovery by bypassing traditional web real estate. The punchline: governance is not red tape, itâs the engine for rapid, high-quality decisions that help good pilots scale into real value.
Subscribe for more practical customer experience strategy, share this with a teammate leading transformation, and leave a review.Follow Betsy Rohtbart on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/betsymorserohtbart/
Follow Jay Trestain on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jay-trestain/
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Customer experience can feel complicated fast, especially when youâre working across completely different industries.
In this episode, we answer a listener question about navigating CX in both insurance and luxury retail. Two worlds that seem totally opposite⌠until you realize the real challenge isnât the industryâitâs staying clear on who you are to your customers and the experience youâre actually delivering. Because when you lose that clarity, everything starts to feel fragmented.
We break down what customers really need in each space. In insurance, the best experience is often invisible until something goes wrong. Thatâs when reassurance becomes everything: clear coverage, confidence in whatâs been submitted, and knowing progress is happening without having to chase it. In luxury retail, itâs about high-touch, thoughtful personalization that makes customers feel known and valued. Different context, same underlying goal.
And thatâs the big takeaway: great customer experience isnât about the industry, itâs about how well you deliver on your promise. Weâll walk through what actually carries across both worlds: setting the right expectations, giving customers real choice, and using personalization to make them feel seen, heard, and valued.
If youâve ever felt pulled in too many directions with your CX strategy, this episode will help you refocus on what matters most.
Subscribe, share with a fellow CX leader, and leave a review to help more people find the show.Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Customer experience isnât failing because people donât care, it fails because teams confuse slogans with systems. Jeannie Walters is joined by Larissa Salazar from Brand Builders Group for a special CX Pulse Check to celebrate the launch of Jeannieâs book, Experience Is Everything: Making Every Moment Count In The Age Of Customer Expectations, and to talk about what it really takes for a message to break through in a noisy world.
We get practical about the shift that changes everything: customer service is reactive, but customer experience must be proactive. If you only show up when something goes wrong, youâre already behind. We talk about designing the end-to-end customer journey with intention, choosing how you want customers to feel, and connecting experience design to the outcomes leaders care about. Along the way, we call out a common trap in CX leadership: treating Net Promoter Score like a strategy instead of a measurement you influence through real changes.
Jeannie also shares the mindset strategy discipline framework from the book, including how a clear customer experience mission statement becomes a usable North Star across teams. Larissa pulls back the curtain on what she sees with experts and first-time authors, why your best knowledge is often the âsmall stepsâ you forget to write down, and how templates and frameworks help customer experience change agents take action fast. If youâre trying to operationalize customer-centricity, build a real CX strategy, and move from reactivity to discipline, this conversation is your push to start.
If it helps, subscribe, share this with a change agent on your team, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.
About Larissa Salazar,
Team Lead & Personal Brand Strategist | Brand Builders GroupSalazar is a highly respected personal brand strategist and speaker at Brand Builders Group, an international personal branding firm and an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing company. As one of the youngest and fastest-rising strategists in the organization, she has quickly built a reputation for helping authors and thought leaders clarify their expertise, define their message, and build brands that create lasting influence.
With a strategic mindset and a deep appreciation for storytelling, Larissa has a unique ability to distill complex ideas into clear, compelling messaging. She doesnât just help clients communicate their insightsâshe guides them in developing proprietary intellectual property and signature frameworks that make their teachings memorable, shareable, and scalable. Her approach ensures that thought leaders donât just teach for the moment, but create content and concepts that spread, endure, and position them as industry authorities.
Follow Larissa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larissa-ann-salazar/
Book a meeting with Larissa: https://freebrandcall.com/ls
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Are you drowning in feedback and still struggling for progress? In this bonus episode, we're bringing you more conversations from the Qualtrics X4 Summit 2026 in Seattle. These conversations tackle the same problem from different angles: how to turn customer and patient feedback into real operational change, and how to protect trust as AI becomes part of the workflow. If you collect surveys, run a CX program, or lead a healthcare team, this one is about what happens after you hit âexport.â
First, we talk with leaders from Trillium Health Partners about redesigning their patient experience measurement: Kerry Kuluski, Research Chair in Patient and Family-Centered Care, and Adam Gdyczynski, Senior Corporate Lead, Patient Experience Measurement and Planning. They share how moving from paper and call-center methods to modern digital surveying helped drive an 880% increase in survey responses, plus what they did next to avoid being buried by the volume. We dig into practical tactics like shorter surveys, QR codes on after visit summaries, and using iPads to improve access in areas with lower electronic response rates. We also get into why equitable care depends on knowing who is responding, and how demographic and cultural insights can inform smarter decisions while supporting patient and family centered care.
Then we shift to the trust layer with Qualtrics Chief Security Officer Assaf Keren. We unpack why trust is more than security, why shortcuts create incidents, and why transparency matters when things go wrong. We also get specific about AI governance: third-party risk, building guardrails, managing data access, and keeping a human in the loop when risk is high or confidence is low.
If you want to turn insights into action without losing the human side, listen now. After you finish, subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.Follow Kerry Kuluski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-kuluski-a9791b227/
Follow Adam Gdyczynski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-gdyczynski-mba-che-83100635/
Follow Assaf Keren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/assafkeren/
Resources Mentioned:
Qualtrics -- https://www.qualtrics.com/
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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AI is moving fast, but most customer experience programs still get stuck in the same place: teams chase tools, dashboards, and âshinyâ promises while the real work and the real problem stay fuzzy. We wanted a grounded conversation about customer experience strategy that actually holds up inside complex organizations, especially when trust, risk, and regulation are part of daily life.
Jeannie Walters is joined by Dr. Elizabeth ErkenBrack, Head of Strategy in the Office of the CEO at Qualtrics. They sat down at the Qualtrics X4 Summit 2026 in Seattle to talk about starting with the outcome youâre trying to achieve, defining who youâre designing for, and mapping the work that needs to change before you ever âplug inâ AI. They get specific about where automation helps and where the human touch still matters most, particularly in vulnerable moments like healthcare, financial services, and other deeply personal journeys.
They also dig into the ROI side of experience management: how to shift from CX as a cost center to CX as an investment, how to connect NPS and CSAT to action, and how to tie experience improvements to attributable revenue through churn, retention, conversion, and operational changes. A key takeaway is governance: measurement and execution often sit in different silos, and bringing them into lockstep is an executive decision. If youâre trying to make CX âcountâ in the C-suite, this gives you language and structure that leaders can align around.
If this helped you rethink how youâre framing your next CX initiative, subscribe, share this episode with a teammate, and leave a review so more people can find it.Follow Elizabeth ErkenBrack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-erkenbrack-phd-380b5b30/
Resources Mentioned:
Qualtrics -- https://www.qualtrics.com/
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Some of the biggest CX breakthroughs donât come from bigger budgets, they come from sharper thinking about trust, value, and what people actually feel in the moment. Weâre sharing a special Womenâs History Month collection of insights from Dr. Amy Climer, Ovetta Sampson, Camille Kremer, Neen James, and Brooke Sellas, each bringing a different lens on customer experience leadership, innovation, and connection.
We start with a future-facing question: when AI shows up on the screens inside our cars, is it there to help the driver or to sell to them? Amy challenges us to treat creativity as ânovelty that is valuable,â and to judge value from the customerâs perspective, not the companyâs. From there, Ovetta gets candid about generative AI, chatbot hallucinations, and why âset it and forget itâ is a fast track to broken customer trust. If youâre building AI into customer support, youâll hear why rigorous testing and ongoing oversight are now core CX operations.
Camille breaks down expectation setting as the hidden equation behind loyalty: customers invest, brands deliver or donât, and trust is the outcome. Neen reframes luxury as a mindset where experiences matter more than things, anchored in making people feel seen, heard, and valued. Brooke closes the loop for social media and content marketing: content is the vehicle, emotion is the destination, and connection beats chasing a single âbig win.â
If this sparked new ideas for your CX strategy, subscribe, share this with a CX leader on your team, and leave a review so more people can find the show.Experience Action Episodes Mentioned:
CX Pulse Check â February 2025
CX Pulse Check â May 2025
CX Pulse Check â August 2025
CX Pulse Check â September 2025
CX Pulse Check â November 2025
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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A lot of companies say they âlisten to the customerâ and they do. They survey, they track NPS, they build dashboards, they share reports. But then nothing changes. Today we respond to a sharp question from a listener about what separates organizations that embed customer insights into everyday decision making from those where Voice of the Customer stays stuck as a feedback exercise.
We walk through the mindset shift that turns VoC into real customer experience strategy: using your mission and goals as the lens for what you act on, getting aligned on expectations, and defining a clear customer experience mission statement so improvements arenât scattered across one-off complaints. When teams fix isolated issues without a unified view of the customer journey, customers feel the inconsistency and trust drops fast.
Then we get practical about execution. Customer insights only matter when they influence decisions across product, operations, communication, and the partners you choose. That requires shared ownership, clear governance, and consistent processes for reporting what youâre doing about the feedback and closing the loop with customers. We also address the âshoot the messengerâ trap and how CX leaders can connect the dots to business value so teams understand whatâs in it for them.
If you want to turn Voice of the Customer into decision infrastructure and measurable business outcomes, press play. Subscribe, share this with a CX leader on your team, and leave a rating and review so more people can find the show.
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Customer experience doesnât fall apart because people donât care. It falls apart because the work stays fragmented, the fixes donât connect across the customer journey, and teams end up stuck in a reactive loop of complaints, escalations, and fire drills. Jeannie Walters shares why she wrote Experience Is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations and what she kept seeing after years of working with leaders who genuinely want to do right by customers and employees.
She digs into the real shift that makes customer experience improvement stick: treating CX as a leadership discipline. That means aligning a shared mindset about who we are to customers, building a clear customer experience strategy tied to outcomes, and committing to the discipline that keeps it real day after day. She also read the final page of the book to underline the heart of the message: progress beats perfection. CX gets better when we act, reflect, adjust, and act again, because small intentional decisions compound over time.
She also talks about the pressure of modern work: customers move faster, organizations move faster, and AI is now part of almost everything we design. Without alignment, that speed can accidentally create broken experiences at scale. If youâre the person who notices the gaps, sees the misalignment, and feels a little alone because you care, this is for you. Subscribe, share this with a fellow change agent, and leave a review so more leaders can build better experiences one moment at a time.Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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When AI can move faster than your team ever could, the real question isnât âWhat can we automate?â Itâs âWhat should represent us?â In this CX Pulse Check episode, Jeannie Walters sits down with Deborah Reuben, CEO of Tomorrow Zone and author of Enter the Tomorrow Zone, to unpack how agentic commerce and automation can elevate customer experience only when purpose leads and tools follow.
They dig into the messy middle of AI adoptionâfrom trust gaps and backlash moments to why innovation driven by shiny features often scales the wrong experience. They share a practical blueprint for leaders under pressure to deliver: define a clear CX mission, align success metrics across teams, and identify the high-stakes moments where humans must stay in the loop.
The conversation also explores how organizations can design AI that signals trust through capability, honesty, predictability, and care. As automation expands and bots increasingly interact with bots, they discuss how measurement must evolve beyond traditional engagement metrics to focus on outcomes like resolution confidence, perceived fairness, and clarity of next steps.
If this sparks ideas for your roadmap or raises thorny questions about where humans should stay in the loop, we want to hear from you. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with your team, and leave a review.
About Deborah Reuben, CLFP
Author | Innovation Strategist | CEO & Founder, TomorrowZoneÂŽDeborah Reuben is an innovation strategist, advisor, and the CEO & Founder of TomorrowZoneÂŽ. She works with senior leaders across finance and technology to help them navigate complexity, gain clarity, and design future-ready systems.
Her work is grounded in firsthand experience leading and advising complex, large-scale transformation efforts. Deborah is known for helping leaders see patterns theyâre too close to notice, and for reframing innovation as a human, systemic practice rather than a technology initiative.
She is the author of Enter the TomorrowZone, which examines why capable leaders get trapped in constant reaction, and how stepping back creates clarity to design whatâs next.
Follow Deborah on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Enter the TomorrowZone and Deborahâs work at tomorrowzone.io.
To find out more about the book, visit EnterTheTomorrowZone.com.
Articles Mentioned:
- Own the agentic commerce experience (National Retail Federation) -- https://nrf.com/research/own-the-agentic-commerce-experience
- The 2026 Braze Customer Engagement Review: AI Innovation Meets the Trust Plateau (CMSWire) -- https://www.cmswire.com/the-wire/the-2026-braze-customer-engagement-review-ai-innovation-meets-the-trust-plateau/
- AI Backlash and Public Perception: How AI Strategy Shapes Customer Trust (SupportNinja) -- https://www.supportninja.com/articles/ai-backlash-public-perception-ai-strategy-shapes-customer-trust
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- experienceiseverythingbook.com
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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You donât need a big title to drive meaningful customer experience change. This episode shows how real CX leadership starts in the middle by turning customer friction into business outcomes executives canât ignore. We break down how to connect issues like confusing onboarding or stalled conversions to metrics that matter, including call volume, cost to serve, cancellations, and retention, and how to present that story so leaders say yes.
Youâll learn a practical approach you can use immediately: choose one high-impact friction point, build a simple business case with clear baselines, deliver a focused fix, and share the results. These visible micro wins build momentum, credibility, and influence.
We also cover how to lead across and up by partnering with metric owners, framing ideas around shared goals, and communicating in the language of outcomes. If youâre ready to grow your impact and your career, this conversation gives you the tools to lead without a title.
If you found this valuable, follow the show, leave a quick review, and share it with a teammate ready for their next win.
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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The most practical CX breakthroughs are happening in day-to-day choices by leaders who meet their organizations where they are. From the Medallia Experience 2026 conference in Las Vegas, we pull together no-fluff lessons on turning insights into impact, leading with intent, and using AI to accelerate changeâwithout overpromising.
Jeannie talks with Experience Transformation Award winner Paloma Paraja, Customer Experience Manager at SantalucĂa Seguros, about breaking down silos in a 100-year-old insurer by unifying Voice of Customer, empowering internal champions, and turning feedback into stories teams can act on. She also reconnects with Camille Kremer, Senior Director of Customer Experience at Holiday Inn Club Vacations, for a masterclass in prioritizationâusing driver modeling and smart experiments to separate noise from real impact, and applying AI to speed service and personalization without eroding trust. Plus, we chat about an Experience Is Everything book club with Deborah Bearden, Enterprise Customer Experience Manager at Simmons Bank.The theme: progress over perfection. Choose high-impact actions. Test, measure, and scale what works. Let AI amplify a strategy youâve already defined.
Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share it with a CX friend, and leave a quick review to help more leaders find it. Have a question or story to add? Leave me a voicemail at askjeannie.vip.
Follow our guests on LinkedIn:
Paloma Paraja -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/paloma-paraja/
Camille Kremer -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/camillekremer/
Deborah Bearden -- https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-bearden/Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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Stressed arrivals, missed promises, and long check-in lines arenât surprises. Theyâre predictable flashpoints in hospitality. In this episode, we answer a listenerâs question about training frontline teams for high-emotion moments and share a practical framework for turning tension into trust without burning out your people.
We start by redefining success. Instead of aiming to âmake every guest happy,â we focus on a sustainable goal: guide the guest to a better moment than the one theyâre in. From there, we identify the biggest hot spots in the journey and outline how proactive planning, clear recovery thresholds, and consistent standards across properties create a reliable brand experience.
Then we get tactical with language that defuses tension, micro-habits for staying calm under pressure, and playbooks that remove hesitation when speed matters. We also explore empowerment tools like room moves, credits, and late checkout, plus the well-being practices that keep teams strong through demanding shifts.
If you lead a hotel, resort, or any high-contact service, this episode delivers actionable steps to strengthen service recovery, customer experience, and employee resilience.
Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything --experienceiseverythingbook.com
Learn more about CXI Membership⢠and apply -- CXIMembership.com
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.
Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)
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