InspireCast Customer Experience Podcast

There are two topics you never discuss, we'll we're going to discuss one of them anyways: Politics.... But, what is the connection between politics and Customer Experience you may ask? This time round, the InspireCast features special guest Mostafa El-Bermawy, a startup growth and marketing strategist, who has worked with some of the biggest brands around: American Express, P&G and Ford Motors plus is a regular tech contributor for Wired magazine and BBC Arabia. Mostafa posits that our world view (as seen recently in campaign elections is being "filtered" by Facebook and Google.... The impact on Customer Experience is also undeniable - so tune-in and listen to the entire podcast to understand just how does a filter bubble tunnel-vision your brand's CX approach.

Customer experience is a key competitive differentiator for business today. Now, the battle has gone beyond products, prices, and promotions. Brands must engage with customers thoroughly, on the levels of personal preferences and emotions, in order to keep them coming back for more. In this InspireCast podcast, with our special correspondent in Singapore, Julie Simon, she interviews digital experience expert Rod Strother of Starhub (Singapore's leading info-communications company) where, he shares his thoughts on customer experience, the impact of digital transformation, views on the “customer-first” mindset in light of today’s digital consumers, practical steps on how organizations can evolve their business models to remain relevant to their audiences and finally, views on omni-channel communications. This episode of the InspireCast is a must-listen for any CX professionals wanting to learn from a true CX and digital experience guru.

Antoine Hemon-Laurens discusses three disruptive forces challenging banks' legacy IT systems: AI (artificial intelligence), robotics and Blockchain. AI powered Robo-advising in wealth management is already here. So if AI is the brain, robotics is the muscle and the braun. There are numerous examples of banks using chatbots and within call centers. The blockchain is the last piece of the puzzle and provides knowledge and are soon to become repositories of data. With the above in mind, this is a not-to-miss episode for any banking, tech or CX professional wondering out loud just what impact these new technologies will have on their profession.

This is not your usual episode of the InspireCast, well, we're still talking up customer experience and loyalty, though this time we're throwing in pinball machines, drones and selfie cams into the mix. A great session focusing on the concept of innovation for a product that "no-one needs" according to Founder of Jersey Jack Pinball, Jack Guarnieri. Jack discusses at length the concept of customer loyalty, the power of building trusted relationships, how to embrace new technologies and the value of selling by not selling. A great listen for startup Founders, sales execs and CMO's wanting to understand just how to practically focus on the customer. As Jack puts it - without customers, you don't have a business.

Annette Franz, CCXP, author, speaker, CXPA board member and Founder of CX Journey discusses the rise of the customer experience executive as an equal C-level member within the C-suite. A great must-listen to for any CEO of any business or brand wanting to understand why a company needs a CX executive, be it a Chief Customer Officer or a Chief Customer Experience Officer. Annette further discusses the CX executive's critical success factors plus their biggest challenges to success within this role. All of which can be found in Annette's newly authored book she highlights in this episode: The Rise of the CX Executive, featuring interviews with real life CX executives: Donna Peeples, CCO of Pypestream, Christine Corbett, CCO of Australia Post, Isabelle Conner, CMO/CCO of Generali Group, Nick Frunzi, CCO of Esri and Ingrid Lindberg, former 4-time CCO. Make sure to make this episode part of your playlist if you're an upcoming CX professional or a CEO wanting to focus on CX for their business.

Returning guest, Karthik Ramakrishnan of Element AI discusses the future impact and implications of artificial intelligence on business and society at large. A deep dive into AI for CMOs and CIOs who are focusing on digital transformation, and also somewhat of a correction in terms of our views and perceived myths about AI technology. We've reached a stage where data is readily available, deep learning algorithms are recognizing speech (ex. Siri), AI can see (computer vision) - recognize objects (think driverless cars) and talk back - i.e. speech (Siri responding to you) plus AI research on touch and smell. Add the layer of computing power to process data in milliseconds.... does this all mean that our products and services we provide to our customers will all be automated in the near future? Will the future be all about chatbots? Will we even need to drive a car in the future? What about the future of urban planning? What does this mean for the future of work? 20 hour work-weeks perhaps? Listen to understand where AI and CX are heading over the next decade....

In this episode of the InspireCast, Mukul Ahuja once again becomes the guest host of the show to discuss the 'Retailization in Insurance' movement with Eva Treumuth, customer and marketing strategy leader at Monitor Deloitte. So what do customers want from their insurers? As the very relationship between insurers and customers is changing; today’s consumers have come to expect to get what they want, how and when they want it, and those expectations are spilling into other areas of their life. Savvy insurers have already begun “retailizing” their business, all the better to meet these rising consumer expectations and to get ahead of the competition. This is a must-listen podcast for any CMOs and CIOs seeking to understand why 'retailization' will require insurers and brokers to actively adopt a retailer mindset, perhaps forge new ways of doing business plus the key principles that will allow organizations to design for customer experience and trust first.

This episode of the InspireCast has Mirza speaking with David Quick: CEO Coach. From active duty Naval Surface Warfare Officer to successful CEO, David Quick has spent his entire career spurring people to success by herding them into the right seats.  He achieved his personal transformation from Bull in a China Shop to a Thriving Bull along the way. David has helped 300 CEOs nationwide to thrive by providing focus and coaching on how to build better teams. The Bull’s journey is taking him to stages across the nation to share these lessons with business leaders, including at TEDx and at speaking engagements with Vistage. With leadership experience with companies like Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, and Roche Diagnostics, David grew CCS Medical Holdings six-fold in 4 years by focuses on what he knows best: getting the most out of employees. David is an expert on analyzing employee performance and perfecting employee fit and discusses at length throughout the podcast the parallels between the naval academy and the business world in terms of vision, mission and core values (a core mantra) so that everyone in the organization cares deeply about the customer, the company and their colleagues. This episode is a must listen for any CEO or CMO that wants to instill a focus on the customer into their organization

This episode is a must-listen for any bank, insurance or retail executive that wants to learn how to market to millennials and Generation Z via mobile apps! On this episode Mirza chats with Chaim Sajnovsky, Founder of B7Dev - a mobile app development firm on his view with regards to customer experience on a mobile device and mobile app; the differences between UI and UX; plus the topic of in-house IT security and data assurance. Finally, Chaim elaborates on new emerging technologies on the horizon, in particular: machine intelligence, the new field of AI which blends big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Elodie Miternique nous présente l'édition française du podcast InspireCast. Laurent Ghio, CCXP de GMC Software nous raconte comment il a obtenu sa certification CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional). Dans cet échange, Laurent souligne les avantages de la certification CCXP. Il explique comment ce modèle de pilotage de l’expérience client permet aux professionnels de la banque et de l’assurance de travailler leur image de marque et leur notoriété grâce à la compréhension des parcours de leurs clients de l’acquisition, à la rétention en décrivant l’impact sur leur fidélité à la marque. CCXP est un standard de certification dans le domaine de l’Expérience Client qui 6 axes de réflexion et d’action : la CX stratégie, la compréhension des besoins client, la CX gouvernance, le changement de culture de l’entreprise, la conception de nouvelles solutions et les éléments quantifiables de conduite du changement. Afin de garantir leur croissance, les entreprises se doivent d’offrir une Expérience Client irréprochable et plaisante, d’où l’intérêt d’écouter ce podcast pour tous les professionnels désireux de comprendre comment le parcours client peut aider à améliorer l’image de marque de l'entreprise et accroître la satisfaction de ses clients.

In this episode of the InspireCast, the focus is on technology, in particular GMC Software's launch of Inspire Release 11 (R11). Mirza talks with Scott Draeger, VP of Product and Yarun Nahar from the Product Marketing Management team on the value proposition of Inspire R11 for the CIO, the CMO and the line of business user when it comes to creating consistent, unified and frictionless CX. With so many new features including mobile approval, customer journey maps and Cloud scaling capabilities - this is must-listen podcast for any CX professional thinking about CJM and CCM technologies.

Our third session with Deloitte, this time round with Karthik Ramakrishnan, an expert on AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning plus Mukul Ahuja as this episode's "guest host." A deep dive discussion into what makes an AI construct - the "artificial brain," insight into how we are already surrounded by AI technologies in our everyday lives plus a whole lot of AI myth-busting. A must-listen episode for any C-level executive grappling with whether to use AI in their organization - what you find may surprise you or even scare you and most definitely will educate you on the hard facts of AI for the enterprise and especially the FSI space.

This session of the InspireCast podcast features Matt Ruedlinger, Founder and CEO of Triple R Marketing. Matt discusses at length his observations on millennials, how B2C and B2B is now simply P2P (people 2 people) and asks the pivotal question: what would happen if your company was going to close today? How would your customer react? Would they care or forget about your business as just another Google search result? For every CMO and exec tasked with customer experience, a must-listen to session with a number of real life examples to challenge your current notions of what it means to 'connect with your customer'

Essential listening for any customer experience professional as Annette Franz, CCXP, provides her book review on the first ever 'Authoritative Guide to Achieving CX Excellence.' If you're in marketing, on a digital team or in IT - have been tasked with establishing or elevating your brand's customer experience framework; though have been in search of an operating manual or a how-to-guide...then this session of the InspireCast is a must-listen for any CMO, CIO or CXO now. The authoritative guide eBook is available at http://www2.gmc.net/guide

While in Hong Kong, Mirza interviews Daniel Szuc and Josephine Wong - founders of Apogee, a design research consultancy which focuses on helping clients to "Make Meaningful Work." Dan and Jo elaborate on how the concepts of UX, CX and design thinking or digital transformation should actually be looked at from a people-experience perspective and encourages the audience to "design experiences outside the company." They further expand upon their own experiences with large corporations that have been simply 'sleepwalking' through it all; to helping them transition towards a state of 'sparkle' which all translates into making meaningful work. A must listen to session of the InspireCast that will truly INSPIRE and provide a new point of view to customer experience (CX).

In this episode of the InspireCast, we interview David Daoud, French ambassador to the Hong Kong fintech community and Founder of E-learn2grow. We ask David his thoughts on how to make a digital customer experience for banks better (hint: "think inside the box") and ask him about his experiences with the founder, startup & fintech world both in France and Hong Kong, ending with a mantra to the startup community at large to help one another and create an ecosystem to nurture relationships across continents that span the globe

This time round, Mirza broadcasts live from Mettā in Hong Kong with special guests, founders of FinFabrik: Alex Medana & Dr. Florian M. Spiegl to discuss their take on digital disruption, the ideal customer experience scenario plus the common misconceptions between CX & UX as often misunderstood for UI. They urge our listeners of CMOs, CIOs and Chief Customer Experience Officers to think about technology; all the while not forgetting about the human touch. Delve into AI, machine learning and nudging bots. Provide concrete examples and finally discuss how it all comes down to hearts and minds and creating a little chaos. A must-listen session for anyone interested in the startup space, or want to understand design thinking and especially if you work for a bank - how to create the ideal customer experience.

This time round we chat with Eric Forgy, a former computational physicist at MIT Labs("rocket scientist" literally)working on ballistic missile systems, turned hedge fund manager; now disruptor of insurance, currently in stealth mode. Eric talks up customer experience from his perspective being in Hong Kong, how focusing on disrupting core systems is where the BIG money is and how actuaries pushing excel files to manage risk is no longer a viable option given the impact of AI and Fintech on capital management. A must listen to session of the InspireCast for anyone wanting to understand digital transformation from the unique point of view of a former physicist turned financial services professional.

Matt Dooley, founder and MD of Connected Thinking and an official member of the "Fintech Mafia" (see @FinTechMafia) discusses a range of digital banking and FinTech topics including online 2 offline platforms and P2P payment / lending ecosystems such as WeChat, Taobao, and Alipay. Matt reveals how social media stalwart Facebook is now 5 years behind the overall experience of the likes of Alibaba and Tencent. He then further explains how China's trailblazing tech giants are revolutionizing the overall customer experience across the FSI space and what implications emerging technologies such as Siri 3.0, IoT and AI will have on your personal digital data and privacy. A must listen for Chief Digital Officers, Chief Technology Officers and Chief Data Officers.

As we continue our Discussion with Deloitte series, we chat with Mukul Ahuja, Senior Manager with the Insurance Strategy practice at Monitor Deloitte in Toronto on Sonnet Insurance - Canada's digital direct insurance broker. Mukul outlines what makes Sonnet unique in its digital and analytics capabilities plus what can be expected from the insurtech space over the next 5 years with respect to disruptive technologies. A must-listen-to podcast for any marketing or CX professional dealing with the digital customer experience for their brand or wanting to know how to launch a digital-only brand.

In this episode of the InspireCast, Mirza talks with Mukul Ahuja and Hwan Kim, both Senior Managers with Deloitte Canada in Toronto on the red-hot topic of Fintech, InsurTech and digital banking. A must-listen for any CX professional within a bank or insurance firm wanting to understand how the latest disruptive technologies such as Chatbots, BlockChain, Real-time Analytics, AI and IoT are effecting the consumer customer experience, agent brokers and distribution channels.

For all our CMO, COO and CIO listenership: content is king - CX, are the keys to the kingdom. How do you put it all together then? Technology wise, content development wise, customer-communications wise? Well, enough with the why... this session is a must-listen for the how and a deep-dive into what makes Objectiva such a great delivery partner to tackle these tough questions.

In this episode of the InspireCast podcast, we chat with Kim Kopetz, Senior Director of Customer Experience at Intel. A must listen session for any CMO or Chief Customer Officer. Kim offers great insight on a range of topics from CX currency, voice of the customer (VoC), the science of customer data, the cost of doing nothing and the power of bringing product to market faster. Make sure this podcast is part of your marketing or business playlist.

Rob Findlay, founder of Next Bank presents a real eye-opener on how customer experience (CX) differs in Asia Pacific, technological advancements in China, the power of the WeChat App as an "essential platform of people's lives [in Asia]" and the power of a #fintech product-focused approach to banking. A playlist-must for any CMO or CIO wanting to learn more about China's disruptive tech explosion and its effect on CX.

Special guest Arianna Valentini discusses customer experience (#CX) from a real world example point-of-view, citing a number of great companies doing CX right: Sephora, Oscar Health & TransferWise; along with sharing some very interesting insights on #AI in marketing tech, the Pokémon GO gamification craze and debunks Millennials' current use of print. A must listen to track for any CMO or marketing exec tasked with understanding better customer experience best practices.

In this session of the InspireCast, we talk with Scott Draeger, VP of Product, on the rise of the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Customer Experience Officer, why the C-suite should care about CX efforts for their brand, Scott's strangest travel experience (which involves a personal assistant robot) plus where is the Internet of Things (IoT) headed and its corresponding impact on business. A must-listen session for any marketing and digital professional wanting to take their brand to the next level. #IoT #CX #CMO

CMO, Tamir Sigal, an experienced marketing veteran with over 20 years experience, explains his take on Customer Experience (CX) from the perspective of customer communications: its importance to the brand and a maturity model framework designed to align people and technology to optimize communications and overall customer engagement. A must-listen for any marketing and IT exec alike wanting to up their brand's CX game! #CX #CMO

In this episode of the InspireCast podcast we conclude our chat with Kaspar Roos, ending with the defining question: what are the best CX-related best practices for managing a brand's customer communications. For any and all CIOs and CMOs - this is a not-to-miss episode touching upon, martech, data siloes, digital transformation and customer loyalty.

After the CEO, a COO is usually the 2nd most important c-suite role for any brand and organization, ensuring how the company delivers value; these COOs though now more than ever are being asked to spearhead the company's digital transformation efforts. Do listen to this podcast to find out just how the COO can tackle personalization, collaboration and the omnichannel experience to embed true digital transformation into the heart of any brand all the while creating a sustainable and intuitive front-facing digital customer experience. Featuring Kaspar Roos, founder of Aspire Customer Communications Services, a technology strategy firm and your host, Mirza Baig of GMC Software.

The CIO's days may be numbered as the focus of the C-Suite has shifted towards the customer experience - welcome to the boardroom table, the latest C-level title: the CCO, the Chief Customer Officer. In this episode of the InspireCast, we touch upon the transition of the CIO towards the CCO, shadow IT, Martech (marketing technology) and how LOB (line of business) leaders are the ones steering the IT ship moving forward. A must listen for CIOs and CMOs alike.

In part 2 - we move the discussion forward and learn from Steven on how a brand can better understand their customer outside of a typical NPS or CSAT score, plus touch upon the red hot FinTech space and key takeaways on piloting a successful CX pilot program. Make sure to include this on your business playlist - the InspireCast series with your host Mirza Baig focuses on all things Customer Experience for leading brands.

In this session of the InspireCast for Business and Brands - we talk with Steven Keith, Founder of CX Pilots (@cx_pilots ) and his experiences with implementing a CX framework across an enterprise bank as "small delicate interventions" – baby steps – small wins which lead to employee engagement and inter-organizational awareness of the CX pilot program. A must listen for any brand or business that needs to understand how to successfully execute an enterprise-wide customer experience program. Part One of Two within the ongoing InspireCast playlist, with your host Mirza Baig.

Can banks keep pace with the expectations of today's digital and mobile customer? With the press highlighting the current wave of FinTech darlings - can traditional banks so mired in legacy systems, compete with these start-ups? An in-depth discussion with banking customer communications management expert Antoine Hemon-Laurens and host Mirza Baig on how digital transformation is effecting the financial services sector... a must listen for anyone in the FIS space.

The wrap-up podcast session on customer experience, with your hosts, Annette Franz, CX expert and co-host, Mirza Baig discuss whom within the business would own and execute a customer journey map, what KPIs are used and how often should the map be updated? Customers are the life-blood of any business or brand - so make this podcast a must-listen to finish off this series on customer experience.

In this second episode of the InspireCast - CX expert, Annette Franz and co-host Mirza Baig further explore the importance of focusing on the Customer Experience and introduce a new concept - Customer Journey Mapping: challenges plus best practices. If you're part of a business that relies on customers (and what business isn't?) then this 2nd podcast is a surefire playlist favourite.

CX expert & mentor, Annette Franz co-hosts the first session of the InspireCast podcast with anchor Mirza Baig on the reason customer experience is THE brand differentiator for leading companies, explains the keys to designing a great customer experience plus oultines the risks of not creating a customer journey map for the business. If you want to truly engage your customers - then this podcast series is a must-listen.