Voices of Customer Experience

This week, I had the chance to read the blueprint for customer obsession (literally) with the help of Marbue Brown. He's a CX practitioner with years of experience at companies who can more or less take credit for starting the movement toward customer obsession. Amazon, Microsoft, Cisco, JP Morgan Chase… you know, just some mom-and-pop shops. We discuss how the truly customer-obsessed companies out there go to extremes. They do things in their day-to-day operations that would get most people laughed out of the room. And most importantly, they innovate nonstop, because customer expectations never stop changing, either. So get ready to hear an insider's perspective from companies that brought customer-centricity mainstream and learn everything you can. Enjoy!

This week, we got into the weeds of digital content production with A. Lee Judge. Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Content Monsta, a B2B marketing content agency that specializes in podcasting. What really sets him apart is his focus on generating and proving ROI which comes from his own experience as a marketer. There is a multitude of services for B2B marketers to outsource their content generation efforts, but Lee realized there was still a huge gap: a lack of providers who understood the needs of marketing from an insider's perspective. So naturally, that was the need he set out to fulfill with Content Monsta. We get into the nitty-gritty of a content-based growth strategy, and opening the door for authentic marketing creativity from your employees – and in some special cases, customers too. Enjoy!

This week, I talked to fellow podcaster and CX professional Rick Denton. He hosts the CX Passport podcast and believes that the best meals are served outside and require a passport, and I tend to agree with that! He's also the managing principal at EX4CX, a business growth consultancy that wants to help CX professionals stop the “survey & score” mindset to start a “listen & act” one. Also agreed. He's also recently had a change of mindset around where CX is in the pecking order of business goals. He now sees it more as a specialized tool to accomplish a job, and that job has always been creating customer value and business growth. Agree strongly. And that's not to say CX is getting phased out – far from it. In fact, Rick sees countries around the world, particularly in the Middle East, embracing CX with a vengeance by piggybacking on the tried-and-true basics that are already working in the US and EU. Enjoy the show, and get ready to expand your horizons a little bit beyond just CX.

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Kristen Berman. She's a behavioral scientist, CEO, and co-founder of Irrational Labs, helping teams apply behavioral design research to their products and services. We covered multiple ways to think about behavior design, like studying the physical environment in which decisions are made, resolving conflicts with established metrics, and mapping customers' path to your desired behavior using what Kristen calls “getting uncomfortably specific”. Long-time listeners know that any day I get to geek out about behavioral design with an expert is a good day, so naturally, this episode was as fun as it was educational. Enjoy!

This week, I was joined by Mike Kuenne, owner and principal of Kuenne Advisory LLC. We discussed the complex reality of setting expectations in the hospitality industry. One guests' memory-building experience is another's one-star review, and the absolute norm in one region is a completely foreign experience in another. A misalignment in expectations can ruin an otherwise good or even great experience. And hospitality has the huge responsibility of understanding the differences between these guest profiles and, not only accommodating them differently but finding opportunities to set expectations ahead of time so they're not caught by surprise. Without further ado, enjoy the episode!

This week, I had a good friend on the show, Marcela Lay, SVP and Head of Client Strategy at Y Media Labs. Of all her passions, the one she makes her name from is the cultural transformation of companies. She draws a lot from her experience in hospitality, translating her standard of care for individual guests to a company level. She helps Silicon Valley tech companies focus on the customer with that same intensity, creating digital products and apps to make a company's end-to-end experience as customer-centric as possible. Get ready for the most thorough breakdown of design thinking we've had on the show from the company that exports Silicon Valley to the world. Hope you enjoy!

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Genov, Head of Marketing Insights and Customer Research at Zappos. We discussed the tension between academic research and its application in organizations, and how the human aspects of research found in qualitative studies get overlooked. As Alex suggests, the key is fine-tuning the balance between the two, taking the time to understand where your limits and your customer's needs meet. That's where you'll find the practical, scalable solutions, instead of taking a cold average of human experience.

To kick off the Voices of CX Podcast's season 10, we hosted Graham Brown. Graham and I took a good look at the human experience, complete with detours down memory lane. He's a storyteller by trade, helping leaders tell better stories through data and showcasing great experiences. In our discussion, we delved into the human side of business, and how companies get so focused on innovating that they lose the human aspects of business and end up commoditizing themselves anyway. Beyond that, people are afraid of getting replaced in the business world by increasingly sophisticated AI. But we think the reality is a lot more like augmenting humans, rather than replacing them. This was a fun discussion, and a great kickoff to season 10. Enjoy!

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast we hosted Peter Shafer, VP of Sales and Marketing at The Prosper Group. He gets up in the morning to connect the dots between human behaviors and the scientific data analysis that explains the story behind them. It would be hard enough if the fast-paced and unpredictable world we live in hadn't rendered most predictive analytics almost useless, but that doesn't stop him from bringing scientific rigor to every client's market research.

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast we hosted AJ Davis, Founder and CEO of Experiment Zone, to discuss the utility of Conversion Rate Optimization, and how it bridges the gap between economics and human behavior. Understanding what really goes into customers' decision-making is a lot more complicated than simple AB testing; it might get you by, but it won't tell you the whole story. That's where AJ comes in.

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast we hosted Marilyn Mead, VP of Marketing at Winmo. We discussed how applying the authentic voice of the customer throughout the organization (with a focus on marketing) is one of the best ways to put your company on the path to being truly customer-centric.

On this week's CXIC, we unpacked the idea that CX is the backbone of the small business world with Hank Ebeling.

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast we hosted Hank Ebeling, founder and owner of H4 Training gyms, and in a refreshing change of pace, the first small-business entrepreneur we've hosted on this podcast! But as you might expect, CX is no less important to small businesses just because it's easier to manage. In fact, it's even more important when you're face to face with the people you serve. Read the full transcript on VoicesofCX.com:

On this week's CXIC, we took a note from the book of Warren Buffett: 'People will forget what you said, people will forget, but people will never forget how you made them feel'. That's why treating people like people is so important, especially in business.

Welcome to CX In Context! Sometimes, we can't get into as much detail as we'd like during the podcast. On CX In Context, our host Mary takes the timeliest and most thought-provoking concepts from each episode's discussion and puts them into a practical business context; in other words, why they should matter to you. This week on the Voices of CX Podcast, we talked to Jonathan Shroyer, Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer at Arise Virtual Solutions. His passion is for customer service and helping people understand how to create amazing customer experiences in a decentralized way. Listen to the full episode here: https://voicesofcx.com/how-digitizing-and-decentralizing-creates-great-customer-experiences-jonathan-shroyer/

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast, we talked to Jonathan Shroyer, Chief Customer Experience Innovation Officer at Arise Virtual Solutions. His passion is for customer service and helping people understand how to create amazing customer experiences in a decentralized way.

Welcome to CX In Context! Sometimes, we can't get into as much detail as we'd like during the podcast. On CX In Context, our host Mary takes the timeliest and most thought-provoking concepts from each episode's discussion and puts them into a practical business context; in other words, why they should matter to you. This episode, we dive into the wide, multi-cultural and multi-faceted world of hospitality, where there's no easy way to segment customers, let alone cater to every single one based on something as broad as a demographic. Alec Dalton was our customer-centric concierge for this trip, and helped us understand what it takes to keep up with the rapidly changing expectations of modern consumers. Check out the full episode: https://voicesofcx.com/lessons-from-legendary-companies-in-the-hospitality-industry-alec-dalton/

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast, we talked to Alec Dalton, Co-founder & Partner of the Hospitality Leadership Academy about service concepts he's perfected over his decade in hotel operations and global quality management with brands like Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, and Disney. We discuss why approaching exceptional service with an industrial mindset that leaves room for personal agency and empathy is the best of both worlds.

Welcome to CX In Context. Sometimes on the Voices of CX Podcast, we just run short of time and can't get into as much detail during an episode as we'd like. Thus, CX In Context was born, where our host Mary takes the timeliest and most thought-provoking concepts from each episode's discussion and does just that. We hope you learn something new today! This episode, we take some key points from Amelia Dunlop (CXO Deloitte Digital) and her views on the human experience at work. She challenges the idea that feeling love and compassion at work is like breaking down a wall between church and state. Understanding people from a human perspective makes us better people, and by extension, better at our jobs, too.

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast, we talked to Amelia Dunlop, Chief Experience Officer at Deloitte Digital. She talked about her greatest passion, elevating the human experience in the workplace and how love should be part of that conversation.

Welcome to CX In Context. Sometimes on the Voices of CX Podcast, we just run short of time and can't get into as much detail during an episode as we'd like. Thus, CX In Context was born, where our host Mary takes the timeliest and most thought-provoking concepts from each episode's discussion and does just that. We hope you learn something new today! This episode, we take some key points from Matt Fingerhut (Senior VP of GCO, Hootsuite) and break down how to use them to create the best possible structure for your company's social media strategy. 1. Who am I creating this social media for? 2. What do my customers expect from this channel of communication? 3. What are my overall goals as a company with social media?

This week on the Voices of CX Podcast, we talked to Matt Fingerhut, Senior VP of Hootsuite's Global Customer Organization. We'll dive into how Hootsuite teaches brands to serve customers better by wielding social media intentionally and responsibly.

Welcome to CX In Context. Sometimes on the Voices of CX Podcast, we just run short of time and can't get into as much detail during an episode as we'd like. Some concepts are worth elaborating on and putting in a real-world business context to be truly useful. Thus, CX In Context was born, where our host Mary takes the timeliest and most thought-provoking concepts from each episode's discussion and does just that. We hope you learn something new today! On the 100-Episode Special of the Voices of CX Podcast, we flipped the script and put Mary on the hot seat! We had previous guests and even some listeners send in their questions to Mary to really pick her brain on CX.

On this week's episode, we brought on...the host! That's right, Mary Drumond, Worthix CMO and Editor-in-Chief of the Voices of CX blog gets the script flipped and takes the hot seat. Will she survive the onslaught of deep, thought-provoking questions from none other than her previous guests and her own listeners?

For this episode, we curated the best of Voices of CX Season 8 to find the ones that pushed our thoughts on CX in new and exciting directions. Our Picks (full episodes): Chelsea Kim – Pay it Forward with Empathy; a New Way to Bank: https://bit.ly/3Egl2BM Chris Wallace – Scaling Frontline CX Knowledge Throughout Your Company: https://bit.ly/3peZWPI Howard Tiersky – A Customer-Centric Approach to Digital Transformation: https://bit.ly/3sqyVuK Dan Gingiss – What Makes a Remarkable, Shareable Customer Experience?: https://bit.ly/3FcLv4l Leslie Short – Create a Company Culture You Can Be Proud Of with DEI: https://bit.ly/3q8PDMg

On this week's episode, we talked to Chris Wallace about scaling the best of your frontline employee's knowledge, experience and expertise all the way up to the executive suite so that your company can make the most of it.

On this week's episode, we talked to Michael Keplinger about a topic we don't normally get to explore - consumer packaged goods. Which is crazy, because after our conversation, it's hard to imagine an industry that's more about understanding customers, inside and out.

On this week's episode, we talked to Chelsea Kim about why the banking industry (and all industries, for that matter!) need to focus on kindness, and how “paying it forward” can be a business principle.

On this week's episode, we talked to Caroline Buck about her unlikely journey from the world of UX and brand marketing to direct-to-consumer pet food.

On this week's episode, we talked to Nicholas Zeisler about process engineering, and how designing more efficient CX processes doesn't mean more layoffs.

On this episode, we talked to Howard Tiersky, CEO at FROM, The Digital Transformation Agency, whose goal is to bring companies up to speed with customers' expectations of the digital sphere. After COVID fast-tracked digital transformation for everyone, it's even more essential to get it right.

On this episode, we talked to Leslie Short, and how she's bringing the best of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) to big corporations that struggle with or strive to improve their own programs. And she's doing it with a mind for serious, long-term, evolving relationships between employers and their most valuable asset – their people.

On this episode, we talked to Chief Customer Evangelist at Gainsight, Dan Steinman. Dan has been deeply involved in the field of Customer Success before the phrase was coined by Salesforce, then adopted by virtually every major business in the world. He's seen business models shift over the years, from the subscription model to the newer consumption model, and explains how CS has been vital to each of them.

On this week's episode, Dan Gingiss joined the Voices of CX Podcast to promote his new book, The Experience Maker: How to Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can't Wait to Share. Customers are more than eager to share bad experiences - in fact, companies have trained them for it, whether they meant to or not. So, what does it take to get them to share the remarkable ones?

Jill Raff joined us on Season 8 of the Voices of CX Podcast to talk about the full value of the employee experience, how it directly impacts the customer experience, and how the past two years have highlighted just how rough front-liners have had it. Jill Raff is the globally recognized EX2CX™ Expert, amongst the Top 150 Global Customer Experience Thought Leaders and Influencers, who works with executive leadership who recognize the paradigm shift due to the pandemic; the non-negotiable creation of a more humanized culture prioritizing their people. She helps organizations that now acknowledge their people are their greatest asset, but need help creating new systems and procedures to develop the culture which exhibits this core value resulting in higher retention and greater productivity for a true collaborative team. Jill works with organizations to achieve the reward of employee and customer lifetime value through her methodology connecting the employee experience (EX) to the customer experience (CX)- EX2CX™. While many professionals talk about the customer experience – Jill Raff has lived it from day one. Jill grew up working with her parents, owner/operators of one of the first McDonald's franchises in the world, store #150. Her customer service philosophy originated from observing her mother and father's work and their interactions with legendary founder, Ray Kroc. EX and CX is in Jill's DNA. She helps owners and executive leadership Turn Employees Into Advocates and Customer Magnets.

On this week's episode of the Voices of Customer Experience, we talked to Shareef Mahdavi, president and co-founder of SM2 Strategic. As a speaker and consultant, he's on a mission to help doctors be better at their chosen profession by merging the core tenets of patient experience with those of customer experience, and goes in-depth with his new book, Beyond Bedside Manner. About Shareef Mahdavi Shareef Mahdavi is the son of a pediatrician and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. Although he didn't become a doctor, he's been working with them since graduating from the University of Michigan in 1985.

On this week's episode, star speaker, friend of the show and returning guest Shep Hyken rejoins the Voices of CX Podcast to discuss his new book, I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. Shep Hyken is the CSP, CPAE is the CAO (Chief Amazement Officer) of Shepard Presentations. As a customer service and experience expert and keynote speaker, Shep works with companies that want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His focus is on delivering amazing customer service, customer engagement, managing the customer experience and creating customer loyalty. He is a hall of fame speaker (National Speakers Association) and a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author. In 1983 Shep founded Shepard Presentations and since then has worked with hundreds of clients ranging from Fortune 100 size organizations to companies with less than 50 employees. Some of his clients include American Airlines, AAA, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, AETNA, Abbott Laboratories, American Express - and that's just a few of the A's! Shep Hyken's most requested programs focus on customer service, customer loyalty, internal service, customer relations and the customer experience. He is known for his high-energy presentations, which combine important information with entertainment (humor and magic) to create exciting programs for his audiences. For more information about his new book, I'll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again & Again, visit I'llBeBackBook.com. Follow Shep Hyken on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/38SWNw7 Follow Shep Hyken on Twitter: @Hyken Connect with the Voices of CX Follow Worthix on LinkedIn: bit.ly/3tdGx26 Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn: bit.ly/3tcsrxS Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table. Got something to say about CX or want to be featured on the show? Let us know! Email the Producer (steve.berry@worthix.com). Transcript Available on our Blog: https://bit.ly/2X4fqKO

One of the world's leading customer success experts and a Top 100 Customer Success Strategist, Wayne McCulloch works with Google Cloud's entire SaaS portfolio as the Customer Success Leader. He's a keynote speaker and the recipient of multiple industry awards with more than twenty-five years of experience in customer-focused roles. Wayne began his software career at PeopleSoft and Vignette before becoming an SVP at Salesforce, the Chief Customer Officer at Kony, Inc., and the VP of the Customer Success Group at Looker. For more information about The Seven Pillars, including downloadable templates and training and certification materials, visit www.cspillars.com - https://bit.ly/3jDeAxw Follow Wayne McCulloch on Linkedin: https://bit.ly/3n0TRGa Connect with the Voices of CX Follow Worthix on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3tdGx26 Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3tcsrxS Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table. Got something to say about CX or want to be featured on the show? Let us know! Email the Producer (steve.berry@worthix.com).

Megan Burns is one of the world's leading experts on customer experience and culture change. She advises leaders and organizations on how to use the science of human behavior to embed world-class customer experience (CX) practices into operations, IT, customer service, and sales so an exceptional experience becomes the everyday norm. Megan's insights into customer and employee experience come from 20 years of research and consulting. Prior to launching Experience Enterprises, she spent more than 10 years as vice president principal analyst at Forrester Research developing where she developed ground-breaking research on how brands like Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, and Salesforce deliver great customer experiences at scale in the face of constant social and technological never-ending disruption. She is the author of more than 75 research reports on topics such as measurement, the business value of CX, executive engagement, change management, and how emotion drives customer loyalty. As a speaker and consultant, Megan has worked with teams of all shapes and sizes on the journey to experience-driven growth. Her client list includes more than half of the Fortune 50 and spans diverse industries like financial services, healthcare, tech, telecom, manufacturing, retail, and the non-profit sector. Some of the world's biggest companies such as Verizon, FedEx, and Akamai have tapped Megan as their guide to experience transformation. Follow Megan Burns on LinkedIn Follow Megan Burns on Twitter @meganburnscx Follow Megan Burns on Instagram @MeganBurnsCX Check out her site at www.megan-burns.com Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

David Sakamoto brings deep passion and experience in leading customer experiences, developing teams, scaling businesses, and optimizing delivery of products and services to deliver customer outcomes and propel revenue growth. He brings a unique background in customer success, sales engineering, services (professional, managed and support), product engineering and global operations. In his current role as Vice President of Customer Success atGitLab, he is responsible for leading the Customer Success organization, including Solution Architects, Professional Services and Technical Account Management. Prior to joining GitLab, David built and scaled America's Customer Success team at Cisco where he developed the end-to-end engagement approach (high/low touch, digital motion, partner success), doubled the size of the team to over 200 people, managed a $2B book of business and contributed over $350M in expansion. Prior to Cisco, David led customer success, services (i.e., professional, managed, support and training), and cloud operations for EVault's cloud backup and disaster recovery as a service (DRAS). He brings a diverse set of experiences prior to EVault, including Cisco (Sr. Director of Engineering, Global Customer Operations), CITTIO (Vice President of Services and Customer Operations), Genentech, Yahoo, and SGI. Sakamoto holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Follow David Sakamoto on LinkedIn Follow David Sakamoto on Twitter @ Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Ben is the CEO of the experimentation and CXO agency, Speero, by CXL. He combines a decade of academic and research training with UX & business development knowledge to help scope and run experimentation and CXO programs for companies including P&G, Serta Simmons, Codecademy, MongoDB, and Miro. Follow Ben Labay on LinkedIn Follow Ben Labay on Twitter @BenJLabay Check out CXO at Speero.com Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Clare is internationally recognized as ‘the thought leader who did the job' and delivered award-winning commercial results, leading the CX functions for some of the world's biggest companies in hospitality, retail, and B2B, including Whitbread, Sainsburys, and Compass Group. In 2017 she founded CMXperience Ltd., a boutique CX design agency based in London, and traveled the world as a global keynote speaker. During the pandemic turned her hand to digital content as the host of the Inspiring Women in CX podcast, before making the leap into founding the WiCX community, as CEO in 2021. Follow Clare Muscutt on LinkedIn Follow Clare Muscutt on Twitter: @ClareMuscutt Follow Clare Muscutt on Instagram: thecxnomad Join the Women in CX Community Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Sirte Pihlaja (CCXP, Trained Facilitator of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®) is the CEO of Shirute Ltd, the first customer experience agency in Finland. She is an internationally recognised CX/EX expert, coach, keynote speaker, designer and strategist with over 25 years of experience in advising large corporations and brands in various industries and countries. Sirte is the leader of CXPA's Finland network, a member of the International Advisory Committee and one of CXPA's founding members. She was one of the first Europeans to have been certified as CCXP. Sirte was recently recognised as a TOP 150 Global Customer Experience Thought Leader and on the CX Hall of Fame. The CXPA has also awarded her the Extra Mile Award. She has written three books on people's experiences, two out of which are global #1 bestsellers. When Sirte is not playing with LEGO bricks with her clients, she is passionately championing CX in the Nordics, South-East Asia and beyond and is a familiar face in international CX Awards juries and on conference stages around the world. Follow Sirte Pihlaja on LinkedIn Follow Sirte Pihlaja on Twitter @sirteace Check out LEGO Serious Play at www.cxplay.fi Check out Shirute at www.shirute.fi/en Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Scott McKain is a globally recognized authority on how organizations and professionals create distinction to attract and retain customers — and stand out in a hyper-competitive marketplace. Scott’s recent book, ICONIC: How Organizations and Leaders Attain, Sustain, and Regain the Ultimate Level of Distinction,” was recently named on Forbes.com as a TOP TEN BEST BUSINESS BOOK for 2018. The first edition of his book, “Create Distinction: What to Do When ‘Great’ Isn’t Good Enough to Grow Your Business” was named by thirty major newspapers(such as the Miami Herald) as one of the “ten best business books of the year.” Scott’s expertise has been quoted multiple times in USA Today, the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, and International Herald-Tribune. His commentaries were syndicated on a weekly basis for over a decade to eighty television stations in the U.S., Canada, and Australia – and he’s appeared multiple times as a guest on FOX News Network. Arnold Schwarzenegger booked him for a presentation at the White House with the President in the audience, and Scott played the villain in a movie named by esteemed critic Roger Ebert as one of the “fifty greatest movies in the history of cinema,” directed by the legendary Werner Herzog. With a client list that represents the world’s most distinctive companies – like Apple, SAP, Merrill Lynch, BMW, Cisco, CDW, Fidelity, John Deere and literally hundreds more – Scott McKain was honored with induction along with Zig Ziglar, Seth Godin, Dale Carnegie and just twenty more in the “Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame.” After thousands of presentations in all 50 states and 23 countries, he was honored with membership in the “Professional Speakers Hall of Fame.” Follow Scott McKain on Twitter @scottmckain Follow Scott Mckain on LinkedIn Follow Scott McKain on Facebook Follow Scott McKain on Instagram @scottmckain Check out Scott’s books on Amazon ICONIC Create Distinction Join DISTINCTION NATION (https://distinctionnation.com) for free resources. Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Fabrice is responsible for the vision, roadmap and go-to-market strategy for the Clarabridge CX Suite of products. He brings more than two decades of experience launching new products and business applications focused on solving large, complex analytical problems and delivering valuable insights. Follow Fabrice Martin on LinkedIn Follow Fabrice Martin on Twitter @fmartindc Follow Clarabridge on Twitter @Clarabridge Visit Clarabridge.com Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

deBBie akwara (popularly referred to as the CX Queen), is a leading CX entrepreneur and CX educator in Africa. She is the founder of Nigeria’s 1st boutique CX management consulting firm, Niche Customer Experience Consulting Firm. Prior to Niche, deBBie led CX success in the banking, telecommunications and education sectors working at noted local, pan African and international organizations in Nigeria i.e. Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc, Etisalat Nigeria (now 9mobile) and Bridge International Academies. Successes recorded were an increase in self-service adoption, an increase in the organization’s industry customer service ranking and an increase in revenue generation from CX improvement projects. As an advocate for CX education in Africa, deBBie (through the Niche Institute of Customer Experience & Innovation West Africa) launched Africa’s 1st indigenous globally recognized CX certification courses in partnership with the Institute of Customer Management, United Kingdom and certified by the European Professional Certification Agency (now known as European Marketing and Management Association – EUMMAS). It is a first of its kind CX certification that caters to the unique learning style of Africans, inculcates western learning methodologies and provides varied CX certifications for business managers, business leaders and CX & customer service consultants. deBBie is a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals West Africa (CXPWA) association. She is on a mission to grow businesses one customer experience at a time across Africa and building the customer experience management capabilities of professionals in Africa that will drive an authentic practice of customer experience management on the continent. deBBie was recognized in 2020 as one of the top global CX thought leaders and influencers by Survey Sensum. She is an author, a mom, a humanitarian and is always looking for new opportunities to learn about CX and connect with professionals seeking to find their true expressions in CX and demonstrate a practical application of CX to drive sustainable business growth. Follow deBBie akwara on LinkedIn Follow deBBie akwara on Twitter @debbieakwara Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Mark is from Belfast, Northern Ireland and spent 10 years in the UAE before moving back to the UK in 2019. Recently he has moved to Hungary with his family. Mark started as a consultant for a Customer Experience Consultancy. He is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of ARCET Global. In 2013, Mark co-founded Awards International UAE which successfully ran 15 large-scale business Awards programmes, with the average audience being in excess of 250 business leaders. Over the years, Mark successfully forged strong relationships with some of the leading business people across the world. Mark’s focus is now on building more engaging Awards concepts and Business Community events to fit with customer and market needs. In particular, Mark has been heavily focused on creating content for companies as well as Customer Centricity Programs and Predictive Talent Management Solutions. Follow Mark Hamill on LinkedIn Email Mark Hamill at mark@arcetglobal.com Get to know ARCET Global and check out their upcoming event calendar: 18-19 May 2021: Customer Centricity World Series 15-16 September 2021: European Customer Centricity Awards 27-28 October 2021: North American Customer Centricity Awards Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Mark McClure currently serves as the Executive Vice President of Customer Experience at Babel Street where he successfully leads his team with all post-sale customer facing operations such as onboarding, training and customer support. Mark guides his team by promoting trust and respect between customer and company, while paying attention to the details of the customer’s desires to ensure their satisfaction. He has years of strategic planning experience with leadership across organizations to achieve customer retention and revenue goals. With an extensive background in customer experience, Mark has expertise in overseeing global support, training and sales engineering teams. Throughout his career, he has established various customer experience procedures and has directed all presale operations within a global organization. Mark holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from West Virginia University. Follow Mark McClure on LinkedIn Get to know Babel Street Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Robbie Kellman Baxter is a consultant, author and speaker. She is also the author of The Membership Economy and The Forever Transaction, and hosts the podcast Subscription Stories. Robbie has more than 20 years of experience providing strategic business advice to major organizations, including Netflix, Fitbit, Microsoft and Consumer Reports. She has been focused on subscription and growth strategies for the past decade. Baxter has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on CNN. She earned her MBA from the Stanford GSB, and graduated with honors from Harvard College. You can find more about Robbie on her website https://robbiekellmanbaxter.com/ Check out Robbie’s special audience site with all kinds of goodies. Read a free excerpt of her book, The Forever Transaction Follow Robbie Kellman Baxter on LinkedIn Follow Robbie Kellman Baxter on Twitter Follow Robbie Kellman Baxter on Instagram Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.

Ryan Mason is the savvy Founder & CEO behind Luxe Brand, America’s leading luxury shoelace provider, of which has been featured on Good Morning America, NFL Network, Foot Locker stores, and on over 30 athletes and celebrities; and BizBuzz, providing integrated marketing automation software and services for over 250 small and medium-sized businesses. In each of these roles, Ryan is known as a disruptive force with an eye for setting new standards of excellence, and he never shies away from the opportunity to tackle new and interesting challenges. Ryan believes that people, process, and platform are the key elements to building a powerful business and he’s here to share the benefits of that approach with others. Follow Ryan Mason on LinkedIn Follow Ryan Mason on Instagram Follow Ryan Mason on Facebook Follow Ryan Mason on Twitter Head to Ryan’s website to buy his book, The Digital Playbook Follow Worthix on LinkedIn Follow Worthix on Twitter: @worthix Follow Mary Drumond on LinkedIn Follow Mary Drumond on Twitter: @drumondmary The Voices of CX Podcast is a podcast that covers all things business strategies, customer decision insight, empathetic leadership practices, and tips for sustainable profitability. With a little bit of geeking out on behavioral science, A.I. and other innovation sprinkled in here and there. The guests span multiple industries, but all of them have years of experience to bring to the table.