The Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show

Today's compilation features excerpts from two interviews: Christopher McShane, SVP of customer experience at Serta Simmons Bedding, and Jon Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting. Both my guests speak on the importance of establishing an internal system to improve employee and customer experience. These are two great conversations which dig deeply into the processes and cultural considerations needed to truly change your organization's approach to driving experiences worth having. Enjoy!

I had the pleasure of speaking with neuroscientist, professor, speaker, author, and cofounder of Immersion Neuroscience, Dr. Paul Zak. Give this episode a listen for invaluable wisdom on deepening your customer connections, generating long-term customer value, optimizing employee performance through immersive training, and much, much more.

As we head into the new year, I ask that you revisit this podcast episode, where you'll find many more valuable gems from my friend, Curtis Kopf. Your business—and your customers—will thank you. In my conversation with Curtis Kopf, the Chief Experience Officer at REI, we discuss thought processes and strategies that go into navigating successful CX transformations. Curtis is a seasoned leader and CX practitioner who's worked across a few different industries during his career. He has spent time at Amazon in the early 2000s, Microsoft, Alaska Airlines, and Premera Blue Cross. Curtis definitely knows a thing or two about how to develop a customer-first strategy.

As you're developing what you develop your products, your services, know that—in your communication, you have a wonderful opportunity to rise above—to show who you are as people in how you communicate shared memories.

In this conversation with Matt Baer—Chief Digital and Customer Officer at the longstanding, iconic retailer Macy's—shares key insights on the importance of getting the fundamental customer experience right before anything else.

In this conversation with Cassandra Crowe, Chief Executive Officer at Sharp HealthCare, Cassandra shares some high-level insights regarding the employee experience transformation at Sharp HealthCare and the ways in which this multilayered process impacted business operations and patient experience.

How are you taking steps to deliver what you do? Are you willing to step outside the bounds of what everybody else does? And take an ADMIRABLE action in how you do it?

Lynda Firey-Oldroyd, CCO of Topgolf speaks on previous career successes at blue chip companies and details the importance of employee and customer experience at TopGolf.

In order to move from where you are, you need to all agree on where you've begun. “One version of the truth" is critical. In this episode, I share an exercise you can do with your team to start the process of understanding your organization's experience reliability.

In this conversation with Andy Clement, the CCO at Kimberly-Clark Professional, who has been with the organization for over 30 years, we discuss how digitizing the sales operations has impacted this B2B business in the post-pandemic world. Those of you in the B2B industry will enjoy this chat, especially if you've been in a legacy industry that had to adjust to the digital-first world.

Doing customer math rallies your team not only to ask, “Did we earn more customers than we lost?” But it pushes everybody to care about the why. Find out why in this video.

To get traction that becomes foundation to the way that people lead, you must understand the cores of power inside the organization. In this episode, I share examples of how to partner—or dance—with the power core.

In this conversation, Christopher McShane, the senior vice president of customer experience at Serta Simmons Bedding chats with me about how he helped his team understand weak points in their operations. We spoke about a 90-Day plan he implented and how to develop a plan to improve both the employee and customer experience.

What I know is that customer experience is floundering. We are focusing on the mechanics instead of the meaning of the work. At the end of the day, customer experience is about leading. It's about leadership. It's about finding a way to guide your people and your organization to rise to show up as a different kind of company in the marketplace. Customer experience does not belong in a silo.

What I know is that everybody needs a little pixie dust. When you do things that are unexpected for your customers, they remember you and it bonds you to them. So I want to share some of my favorite pixie dust moments back from my days at Lands' End.

What I know is that goal mapping not journey mapping is a new way of leading, uniting your organization and earning the right to customer driven-growth. Goal mapping will drive you to reflect on new customer-driven KPIs. Thinking about: how will you operationally measure the outcome metrics that will earn their goals? Not just asking them how we did or how satisfied they are. And also recognizing in a B2B standpoint, what are you doing to help them achieve their goals?

A goal map starts with the goals your customer wants to achieve and shifts your KPIs. By measuring the things that your customer cares about, it transforms how you do work. Find the show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/whatiknow.

Principles shouldn't just be words on a wall. They should be used to lead. In this episode, I share a powerful example from my time at Land's End.

In a recent Linkedin Live conversation, I spoke with Natalie Petouhoff, a senior customer experience strategist and business consultant at Genesys. Her previous experience includes work with brands including Salesforce, Hulu, Marriott, General Motors, General Electric, and many more. Natalie believes we can imbue technology with our hopes and dreams for a future focused on bettering humanity. Natalie addresses some of the ways this can be operationalized in a book she co-authored, "Empathy in Action: How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale." During our conversation, we discuss the notion of blind spots in leadership, and how that affects customer and employee experience.

In my conversation with Curtis Kopf, the Chief Experience Officer at REI, we discuss thought processes and strategies that go into navigating successful CX transformations. Curtis is a seasoned leader and CX practitioner who's worked across a few different industries during his career. He has spent time at Amazon in the early 2000s, Microsoft, Alaska Airlines, and Premera Blue Cross. Curtis definitely knows a thing or two about how to develop a customer-first strategy.

“Connect with people as humans, get to know them a little bit personally, so that you have a connection, so that when times become tough and you've got to challenge them, they feel like they're in a safe zone to do that,” says Holly O'Neill in our recent LinkedIn Live conversation. She and I discuss CX consistency, accountability and metrics, and leadership bravery. Holly's extensive career at Bank of America spans more than 20 years, which has allowed her to refine her strategic thinking in terms of understanding the big picture then digging into the important details.

When it comes to implementing customer experience enhancements across your organization, how do you know if your efforts are successful? In this conversation that I'm revisiting with Barbara C. Morton, Deputy Chief Veterans Experience Officer at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Barbara shares some of the strategies and tactics that she and her team have employed in order to improve the CX within a government organization.

In this conversation, you'll hear from two leaders who have led transformative customer-centric initiatives at organizations that have global reach: Catherine Courage, VP of Consumer UX at Google and Darryl Speach, who at the time of our conversation was Chief Customer Officer of Greystone & Company. Darryl's prior experience at Disney and New York Life Insurance gave him plenty of insight regarding people-centered work, and Catherine's experience with human-centered design and UI gave her an advantage in terms of thinking through the customer's end-to-end experience.

How can we practically put measures in place to improve customer experience for organizations in which the internal and external stakeholders see results? In today's podcast episode, I revisit two interviews I held with women who were leading CX transformation within their organizations: Michelle Musgrove, former Senior VP and VP of Customer Experience Strategy & Governance at AARP, and Kathy Tobiasen, former VP of Customer Experience at The Nature's Bounty Co. Both women share tactical advice on how to unite different departments and teams within an organization to be on the same page when it comes to transforming CX that leads to customer success.

Today's compilation features two brief segments from Raj Sisodia, co-author of The Healing Organization and Conscious Capitalism, and Bob Thomas CCO of YMCA of the North (the Y). Both leaders speak on the importance of connecting purpose to their work. This is a great episode in which we're able to really dig more deeply into the ways you can weave humanity into your business. Enjoy!

“I think the most successful chief customer officers are the ones who realize their job is to make heroes of other people,” says Jon Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting and author of From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans. In this episode, Jon and I explore a few of the principles from his book to improve customer experience and drive business growth.

While I'm on vacation, I want to replay this podcast and leave you with a few valuable gems from Horst Schulze to inspire us in the new year. Horst is the founder and former CEO of the Capella Hotel Group,  Co-founder & Former COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and author of Excellence Wins. He is currently serving as the expert in residence at Arch + Tower, a boutique, organizational strategy consulting firm specializing in customer and employee experience.

Today's episode features a compilation from two leaders in the B2B industry who decided to grow their company through focused CX efforts, while placing a strong importance on team and employee development. You'll hear from Andy Schulkind, the VP of CX at Domino North America, and Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations. Both leaders place a high value on developing a trained, supported, and efficient internal workforce which serves as a strong foundation for delivering great customer experience.

Horst Schulze, founder and former CEO of the Capella Hotel Group,  Co-founder & Former COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and author of Excellence Wins, shares that the phrase, “we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen,” helped set him on his path to success. This was an important phrase that served as the foundation for the company's culture. Listen to this interview replay as Horst talks about the importance of setting standards and creating excellence.

“I preach to people to stop linking net promoter to bonuses and stop making it into a target, which makes it the objective as opposed to a learning process,” says Fred Reichheld, New York Times best-selling author, customer loyalty guru, and creator of the Net Promoter Score management system. Fred and I chat about the hard work that comes with good leadership, and the dedication that's needed in order to live up to promises, to put customers first, and to serve as a beacon of light.

In this compilation episode, I'm revisiting conversations with Sherif Mityas, CXO at TGI Fridays, and Troy Barnes, Chief Customer Officer at Pizza Hut Asia Pacific. Their high-level positions had them entrenched in work in which they oversaw CX strategies that impacted numerous restaurants.  Sherif talks about how he assessed the work that needed to be done while in the role, and you'll hear Troy discuss the ongoing journey of level setting expectations and uniting the C-Suite around improving efforts. 

Nathan and I discuss some of the principals behind BILT's success, one of them being that they measure it by their own customer's success. BILT is a customer experience platform. It operates as an app that provides a 3D assembly experience for customers who need to build a finished item like a grill or bed frame. BILT has worked with companies such as Weber, IKEA, and the Home Depot, to help empower customers and give them the confidence needed in order to complete their project.

As AI continues to be an increasing topic of interest when it comes to customer experience and data gathering, CX leaders should always remember that the human element will always be needed. We need people to create those magic, unexpected moments; to smile at customers, to ask them how their day was, and to know when to go the extra mile.  In my conversations with authors Nathan Foy and Deborah Westphal, both share insights regarding the way a human-focused business model positively impacts growth and relationships.

Do you have support from your fellow colleagues and the C-Suite in managing your CX work? In today's episode, I'm highlighting portions of two conversations that I had with guests during the height of the pandemic: Michael Kuenne, Chief Customer Officer at Extended Stay America, and Aparna Khurjekar, who at the time, was the CCO of Verizon Consumer, and is now, President of Verizon Business Markets. Both of these leaders have unique experiences in terms of managing their organization's customer experience in the B2C realm. Michael and Aparna had the support of the CEO in leading their CX transformations and both shared tactics that helped them build internal partnerships while navigating this work. In these conversations, I think you'll find useful questions to ask yourself and your colleagues, to help you all strategize in a way that puts the customer first.   

While I'm taking a break from recording new podcasts and LinkedIn Live conversations, I'll be sharing a few compilations of previously recorded interviews. We have pulled out relevant insights and chunks of conversation from guests that you'll find useful as you lead or take part in the CX undertakings in your organization. Today's episode features two authors, Alain Hunkins, who wrote Cracking the Leadership Code, and Robbie Kellman-Baxter, author of The Forever Transaction. Both guests share examples and tactics from their books to help you elevate your leadership. Their strategies will help you think through ways to better connect with your audience, your team, and perhaps even yourself! Enjoy!

In this chat with my buddy and colleague, Shep Hyken, we discuss some of the concepts in his latest book, “I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again.” Shep and I talk about measuring a customer's willingness to come back to your business as an important success metric. I often stress to leaders that retention is a critical metric when looking at customer success; it's not only about the new customers you're able to acquire, but who continues to come back to you.

Jenn Oyler and I discuss CX strategies that impact both the employees and customers in a B2B2C organization. We also explore some finer details of the work when we chat about the various CX KPIs that Jenn measures against, how they determine ROI, and her leadership style. Jenn is the vice president and head of customer experience at Principal Financial Group and has experience at State Farm.

Chris Kollas is the Chief Customer Officer at TCS World Travel. TCS World Travel is a unique company that has hosted guests on all-inclusive, private jet adventures for over 25 years. Chris and I chat about how he and his team of roughly 100 employees focus on the customer, the integration of marketing and sales, and how they maintained connections with their customers during the pandemic––a time which was incredibly rough on the travel industry. 

"At the end of the day, what we realize is, we all unite under the same thing, which is to drive the customer experience, get the patient what they need,” says Corrie Quaranto, Vice President of Northwell Health, regarding a patient-focused experience at their facilities. In my discussion with Corrie, we discuss how Northwell has been taking the time to focus on customer care in a way that reduces stress and confusion for the patient during their healthcare experience, especially when it comes to the billing and financial responsibility.

“Customer experience is about leadership. It's about the blueprint for how you run your business, and how you want to show up in the marketplace,” says Andy Schulkind, the vice president of customer experience at Domino, North America. Domino is a B2B company which specializes in the development and production of various printing technologies used for coding and marking. Domino North America prides itself on its customer service, and it's this commitment to customer experience as a whole, that has helped Andy succeed in his role. In our conversation, Andy and I chat about setting the foundation in order for the work to be successful.

In my conversation with Holly O'Neill, Chief Client Care Executive & Head of Consumer Client Services at Bank of America, we spoke about the importance that empathy, communication, and flexibility played in the customer and employee experience during the pandemic. Holly and I chat about some of the customer experience processes involved with how BofA uses storytelling throughout the customer journey, how the leadership team embraces feedback, and some important shifts that needed to be made over the past year.

“That's one of the things that I'm a huge believer in is skill sets. Early jobs with skill sets, because skill sets traveled. And I think those are things that I think it's incredibly important to me, as we think about workforce development,” says Lambert Walsh, the Senior Vice President of Customer Success at DocuSign, in our recent Linkedin Live conversation. While chatting with Lambert, we discuss the importance of developing the skill sets that help set you up for success in a customer-oriented leadership position. We also explore the ways in which the pandemic affected this digitally-focused organization, and how they managed both employee and customer experience during this high-intensity period.

In a recent LinkedIn Live conversation I had with Zvi Baida, CCO at Shufersal, one of Israel's largest grocery retailers, we spoke about how he and the C-Suite handled the shift in consumer behaviors and demands during the pandemic. During the time of lockdown where folks were worried about access to food, water, and medical supplies, Zvi and his team faced new challenges. They had to think through how to handle increasing supply demand without sacrificing the quality of their customer experience.

In a conversation we recently had on my LinkedIn Live, I chatted with Dr. Philip Zimmerman, life coach, founder of Engineering Leadership Design Company, an author of Unleash the Millennials: and Save the World. We spoke about the millennial desire for purpose-driven work that aligns with their personal values, the need to understand why the work is done, and how to best come together in the workforce. We then explored his “C4” categorization of aspects that every workforce should pay attention to: communicate, cooperate, collaborate, and co-create.

The LEGO brand has been a part of the legacy of all of our childhoods and according to Simone Sweeney, Vice President Global Retail Development at LEGO Group, the already popular LEGO has seen a resurgence as families spent more time together during the COVID-19 lockdowns. In my recent conversation with Simone Sweeney on my LinkedIn Live, we discuss how she and her team are currently navigating the retail landscape due to the shift in shopping behaviors, and we explore what impact the shift in E-commerce behavior has had on their customer experience and strategy.

In my conversation with Will Kingston, Incoming Director & Head of Financial Services (USA) at CLEAR - M&C Saatchi, we talk about how he developed a passion for CX. As a lover of FinTech, his goal has been to modernize financial services in a way that revolves around customer strategy and customer centricity.  Will shares plenty of great tactical advice in this conversation and I think you’ll find some actionable items that you can bring to your team.

In this replay episode, we revisit a conversation with Yamini Rangan, Hubspot's first CCO and a 24-year industry vet, who shares how the company improved their customer and employee experience by becoming internally unified. She also talks about how the company adjusted during the pandemic while continuing to put the customer first. 

This episode is a replay of a popular conversation I had with Leslie Stretch, the President and CEO of Medallia about leveraging customer data to understand and anticipate customer needs. Leslie talks about how the pandemic has become “digital disruption at massive scale,” and the positive impacts this can have on the customer experience.

“We are seeing less of a reliance on cold metrics and more on the people,” says Chip R. Bell, regarding the shift in leadership behaviors since the pandemic. In my recent interview with Chip on LinkedIn, we discussed his 5 main tenets to approaching customer service in his latest book, “Inside Your Customer’s Imagination: 5 Secrets for Creating Breakthrough Products, Services, and Solutions.” The five attributes that keep coming up are: curiosity, grounding, discovery, trust, and passion.

In today’s conversation with Amy Shore, EVP and CCO at Nationwide, we’re discussing how one of the nation’s Fortune 100 companies uses customer data and insights to improve and build upon their customer experience. We talk about aligning the C-Suite to a customer-focused initiative, leadership accountability, and the operationalizing of business according to the goals.  

In my conversation with Joseph Michelli, speaker, author, and business consultant, we discuss his recently released book, Stronger Through Adversity: World Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges. Joseph shares that as he was consulting through the pandemic, he was working with leaders who had different approaches to leadership, but a common thread was to lead with humanity. As folks have been “leading from the bedroom instead of the boardroom,” we’ve seen how important it is to be authentic, to be you, during the process.