Podcasts about Customer experience

EPISODE 289: There is one part of your construction business that could lead to profit bleed, but they never show up on an invoice. That is your customer experience! Focusing on creating a great customer experience roadmap could differentiate you from your competitors. But where do you start? In this week's episode, Leyah Valgardson, our Director of Customer Success, and I will discuss why customer experience matters whether you're a homebuilder or a commercial contractor. Today, Leyah and I talk about the symptoms of customers having a bad experience, the three steps to creating a good customer experience and journey, and action items you can do today to improve your customer journey and make it a company culture. Let's jump right in!   Key Takeaways: Why customer experience matters (03:08) Your customer is buying an experience (09:06) Reasons to have a customer experience strategy (15:06) Symptoms of a customer having a bad experience (18:53) Customer experience vs. customer journey (25:06) Have a clear customer journey roadmap (26:39) Setting expectations clearly and consistently (38:26) Seeking ways to wow your customers (48:06) Positive ripple effects of providing great customer journey (1:00:57) Action items you can do today (1:07:21)   Additional Resources: - Apply to work with the Construction Leading Edge team HERE - Learn how to get out of your business and make it run without you HERE - Visit Construction Leading Edge for more HERE -- The Construction Leading Edge Podcast helps construction business owners maximize their revenue, eliminate chaos, systematize their work, and win back their time. Follow us on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss an episode!

Today we're going to talk about enterprise resource planning and how it can drive both internal success as well as successful customer experiences. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Nick Foy, Founder and CEO, Silverdale Technology. RESOURCES The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Ann-Marie Yap, Executive Director of Customer Experience and Support Services at Stanford Health Care, Stanford School of Medicine, joins the podcast to discuss her background, her focus on access, discovery, & research, the value of hospital-at-home, and more.Want to network with peers and hear more conversations like this? Apply to be one of our complimentary guest reviewers at our upcoming HIT + Digital Health + RCM Meeting Oct, 3-6 2023 here.

In this special episode, brought to you by Ceres Talent, a marketing staffing agency run by modern-day marketing matchmakers, we're going to talk about 4 Hiring Myths that anyone hiring and managing marketing talent have probably run across. We're going to get to the bottom of each of these today, plus provide an outlook on the marketing talent market as it currently stands. To help me discuss these topics, I'd like to welcome Sue Keith, Corporate Vice President at Ceres Talent. RESOURCES Ceres Talent website: https://www.cerestalent.com The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

This podcast features Jamie Raskulinecz   Jamie is the founder and CEO of Next Generation Trust Company, and discusses the self-directed retirement plan industry and the founding of her company. She also explains how Next Generation Trust Company helps investors invest in non-publicly traded alternatives using their retirement plans. -------------------------------------------------------------- Starting a Self-Directed Retirement Plan [00:00:00] The Difference Between Servicing and Trust Companies [00:02:29] Importance of Customer Experience [00:06:45] The Importance of Self-Directed Retirement Plans [00:08:00] Marketing to Self-Directed Account Holders [00:09:33] Prohibited Transactions in Self-Directed IRAs [00:12:42] Prohibited transactions [00:16:28] Types of accounts: Solo 401k vs IRA [00:17:37] Deploying small balance IRAs [00:23:03] Investing in Personal Loans [00:23:59] Investing in Startups [00:25:19] Contacting Next Generation Trust Company [00:25:48] --------------------------------------------------------------   Connect with Jamie:    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NextGenerationTrust/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/next-generation-trust-company/mycompany/?viewAsMember=true Web: https://nextgenerationtrust.com   Connect with Sam: I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns.     Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HowtoscaleCRE/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwilsonhowtoscalecre/ Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com   SUBSCRIBE and LEAVE A RATING. Listen to How To Scale Commercial Real Estate Investing with Sam Wilson Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-scale-commercial-real-estate/id1539979234 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4m0NWYzSvznEIjRBFtCgEL?si=e10d8e039b99475f -------------------------------------------------------------- Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: Jaime Raskulinecz (00:00:00) - . So when you're looking for investors, one of the objections you might get is, you know, all of my money is tied up in the stock market and things are really bad right now, and I can't really liquidate anything because, you know, everything has lost a lot of money, so I gotta stay there and make up for it. So the answer to that objection that I like to tell sponsors to give is, that's really great, and I, I absolutely understand that, but did you know that you're able to use your retirement plan, which, whatever kind you have to make these same investments into non-publicly traded alternatives?      Intro (00:00:37) - Welcome to the How to Scale commercial real Estate Show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big.   Sam Wilson (00:00:50) - Jamie Rascal Linens is the founder and CEO o of Next Generation Trust Company. They are custodians for sale directed retirement plans, specializing in the custody and administration of non-publicly traded alternative assets. Jamie, I got all that out in one sentence without messing it up. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:01:07) - Thank you so much for having me. That was a mouthful, wasn't it? Betwe, between my name, pronunciation, and the, and the intro. Wow. ,   Sam Wilson (00:01:15) - It's a lot of big words all crammed into one. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I've got three questions that I ask every guest who comes on the show in 90 seconds or less. Can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now, and how did you get there?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:01:28) - Interesting. Um, yes, I can tell you. So, uh, my, my prior business to this was a property management company and I was looking for an additional revenue stream, and I happened to meet someone in this business who, uh, introduced me to it. I thought it was one of the greatest things I had ever heard, because I was also interested in putting real estate in my retirement plan. And so, kind of the rest is history. We started, uh, the servicing company in 2004, the Trust company, um, about seven years ago. And here we are today with, uh, almost 700 million in assets under custody, and, um, you know, still going strong working with real estate investors, fund managers.   Sam Wilson (00:02:16) - That's awesome. That's awesome. You, it, it's keeping you busy. You mentioned a couple of things there. Uh, you, you said, you mentioned you that you had started a servicing company in 2004 and then seven years ago started the trust company. I don't even know what the difference is   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:02:29) - . So, um, back in 2004, next Generation Services was formed. We have two companies, next Generation Services and Next Generation Trust company. And so the services company all by itself, always needed to have a licensed, uh, or chartered financial institution to act as custodian for all the assets. Okay. And without me having that partnership, next Generation Services would be unable to do business. Hmm. So you can only imagine that that was the nightmare that kept me up every night. And I was looking for ways to have both sides of that equation so that we had control of both sides. And so about seven years ago, we formed, the Trust company was chartered in South Dakota, and so the trust company is the custodian for all the assets, and the servicing company is in North Jersey and still does all of the sales, uh, transaction report and other types of reporting. And, uh, the trust company is really the chartered custodian for all of the assets.   Sam Wilson (00:03:38) - So yeah, I mean, that, that's is are all self-directed custodian set up in a similar, uh, kind of arrangement there?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:03:45) - A lot of them are okay, but, uh, a lot of them are, but some of them use the trust company completely for both sides of that business. And so for me, because the servicing company came first, and because we're located in two different states and the regulations vary, it made more sense to keep them both separate for, um, you know, uh, trust company regulation purposes and other business considerations.   Sam Wilson (00:04:17) - It sounds, I mean, it sounds like this is, uh, is just not obstacles, but just kind of overcoming the legal hurdles required to do business the way you guys wanna do business.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:04:28) - Yeah, there's, there's a lot of, as you can imagine, there's a lot of regulation, uh, governing these types of businesses and plans, right? So we have to worry about the division of banking in South Dakota because we have an office in New Jersey. We also have to register with the banking commission in New Jersey. We've got i r s and Department of Labor Regulation. So it's really, uh, it's really a lot of fun.   Sam Wilson (00:04:55) - Yeah, I guess so. I guess, so how did, what, what gave you the confidence to enter this space? Knowing all of the regulatory hurdles? And I know some of those may be, maybe they have, maybe they haven't lessened here in the last 10 years, but, um, how did, how did you have the confidence to move forward in that? I mean, that's, that's a lot to swallow all at once, even just thinking about it.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:05:16) - Well, um, one of the biggest reasons is I think that, um, ignorance is bliss in the beginning. So you really, uh, you know, I didn't have any idea about a lot of what was gonna happen with this, especially the trust company didn't come until many years later. Yeah. So, and, and that's sort of been the story of my life, right? One of my other businesses is property management and we specialize in affordable housing and talk about regulations, right? Right. And so there's that, and my, uh, my prior life, my career was healthcare. So I've been in a heavily regulated environment, uh, pretty much since birth.   Sam Wilson (00:06:01) - Wow. Yeah, I guess, I guess, uh, if you're used to it, you know, and in its own right, you know, those regulations, uh, prevent competition, which I'm not gonna say is a good thing, but, um, they certainly, once you understand it, it's like, well, it's confusing and it's hard and lots of paperwork. So, you know, in its own right. Once you, once you kind of have the inside know-how it's probably, uh, it's probably okay, just getting through that initial hurdle I think would be, would be a little bit challenging. What do you feel like when you formed this company, and you guys have been, I guess now around it's 2023, so that's 19 years, like, what do you feel like you do differently or that was missing in the space? Because I think you saw opportunity there. What was that opportunity?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:06:45) - Well, for me, regardless of whatever business I was in, what was always top of mind for me was the customer or the client experience. Hmm. And whether that was way back when in healthcare or in property management with tenants, or I've owned rental real estate myself. Yeah. You, you want to provide the best experience to people that you can. And in my industry, as you know, there are small boutique firms like mine, and then there are those giant companies that have been around since the seventies. And really our goal was not to become a giant company, like the ones that have been around since the seventies. I liked being a boutique firm because we can pivot easily and we can make accommodations for our referral sources and for our clients easily. And it was also easy for me to instill that, um, you know, that feeling with all of our staff members. We've done Ritz Carlton training. So, um, you know, that's kind of the level of service that I want us to be known for, and we are actually known for our customer experience in the industry.   Sam Wilson (00:08:00) - No, I think that's great. That's absolutely great. And yeah, I mean, as a, as a deal sponsor, I have, uh, interacted with all of the different, you know, uh, I guess variations of the types of firms out there. And certainly the smaller the firms and the more personalized that experience is, the easier it is for us as sponsors to bring our investors on that have self-directed accounts. And the larger the companies get, the, uh, the more cumbersome and less responsive it tends to be. So I certainly, sure.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:08:30) - And, and what's our job? It's to make life easier for our client when they wanna make investments. Right. And on the other side, you know, of course, you know, we're not allowed to partner or directly refer, but we wanna make it a seamless process for all the parties concerned in the transaction, otherwise why would they come to me? Right,   Sam Wilson (00:08:49) - Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I understand there's statistics that are out there and, and I'm not gonna butcher whichever ones they are. Uh, but in short, and I'm guilty of this too, so tell me what the opportunity is and maybe, maybe we could even talk about how deal sponsors can be effectively marketing to the self-directed account holder crowd. Because what I understand is that there's a lot, a lot, a lot of money in self-directed accounts, and again, myself included, especially small balance accounts that is doing absolutely nothing other than sitting in a trust account. How, how, how do we get in front of self-directed account holders and let them know what opportunities we have?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:09:33) - That is such a great question. So let me, let me start at the beginning. There's almost 12 trillion in IRAs in the United States right now. Uh, it's really boomed because of much more contributions and a lot more gain in the investment. Yeah. Uh, in the last year that may not be so the canon investment, but about 12 trillion. And so we get this question a lot from fund managers and other people who are looking to raise those funds. And you know, my answer to them is because I know some of the objections that you get. So when you're looking for investors, one of the objections you might get is, you know, all of my money is tied up in the stock market and things are really bad right now, and I can't really liquidate anything because, you know, everything has lost a lot of money, so I gotta stay there and make up for it.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:10:29) - So the answer to that objection that I like to tell sponsors to give is, that's really great, and I, I absolutely understand that, but did you know that you're able to use your retirement plan, which whatever kind you have to make these same investments into non-publicly traded alternatives? And one of the best things to ask, especially now with, um, the layoffs that there have been in the last couple years, is they're an old employer 401K somewhere that you can roll over. Uh, I am not allowed to give people advice, but personally I like to tell people that I can think of only one real specific reason to ever keep your old employer 401K active. And that's if you have stock in that company, you may wanna keep it in that old 401k, but anything other than that, you wanna really roll it over so that you have more control over the investments that you can make and the fees that are involved because 401ks have higher fees, uh, with employers. So that's one strategy to even start talking about, do you have old employer 401ks? What, what are your IRAs doing? Uh, you can also self-direct education savings accounts and HSAs, and a lot of people take advantage of those contributions and use those to self-direct as well.   Sam Wilson (00:11:57) - I think that's, that, that's really cool. Um, and, and most people don't, most people don't know even about self-directed IRAs. Even inside of my own family, I've had to educate a lot of my own siblings like, Hey, you know, you can move this into an accountant and tell, tell 'em what to do with it. Like that, that's, that's, and, and, and so if they don't know about that in the self-directed IRA space, then you start getting, you know, further down the rabbit hole into self-directed HSAs and things like that. And that's, that's mind blowing I think for a lot of people. Let's talk a little bit about maybe the transaction types, prohibited transactions, things like that, that go into self-directed IRAs. I know there's all kinds of confusion on this, and so I'm hoping maybe you can kind of just boil this down so a simpleton like me can understand   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:12:42) -  Well, it took a simpleton like me to figure it out and figure it out quickly too when I first started the business. Right. Okay. So the easiest thing to remember is not what type of investments am I allowed to do within a self-directed ira because they're, you know, it's a huge number. What is best to remember is what am I not allowed to do? And the only things that are not allowed investment in self-directed IRAs are life insurance policies and collectibles. And so, uh, that means that if somebody says to you, gee, I wanna invest in a racehorse, can I do that? You absolutely can. So, and we've had people do that. Um, you know, I wanna invest in oil and gas interest or lease rights for mineral rights. Can I do that? Absolutely, you can. Uh, another interesting one was several years ago they purchased licenses to, uh, purchase feet at national sports stadium games. I never even knew that was a thing.   Sam Wilson (00:13:50) - Oh. So,   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:13:52) - Um, so the possibilities really are endless. You may invest in, you know, anything except for those two things. Um, I have people, you know, real estate investors are mostly creative thinkers, right? So real estate investors are, uh, a real fun and interesting group for me to work with because I'm always getting calls with creative ideas to try to do something that's not allowed. So, , how about if I structure it this way? Yeah, no, it's still not good. You can't, you know, you can't get around the rules, right? But, you know, we, we have great discussions with people, but the structure, as you say is important. If you have family members or if you have business partners that you are associated with, you're unable to really do transactions between you and them. So a great example, you and your wife own property personally, and you wanna get it into your ira.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:14:54) - You can't sell it into either one of your IRAs because it's self-dealing. You can't purchase or sell anything that you already owned personally. If you and your wife had separate IRAs and you wanted to invest in a property together, uh, this requires some thought about this. You may invest in a property together and you may partner together, but the percentages that you start out investing must remain the same throughout the entire investment. So if you purchase a property, 50, 50, 50% of the investment money must come from each ira and all of the income must come back to the IRAs in those same percentages. So 50% of the rent, 50% of expenses from either ira, and those percentages can never change because then that's actually doing transactions with disqualified people. That's why the percentages must stay the same, but there is a lot of flexibility to partner with others, even though they may ordinarily be disqualified from doing a transaction between you.   Sam Wilson (00:16:05) - Right. The way I've, I, the way I've understood disqualified, uh, uh, people, it would be more of a, a linearal, no linearal, gosh, can't even speak today, but just direct descendants. Like, my mom can invest with me in a deal that I am a general partner on, but my siblings can. Is that right? Correct.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:16:28) - Yeah. But you have to be careful. If your siblings invest, then you have to be sure that it's a market rate transaction and that your siblings IRAs are not getting special treatment because of the relation, right. Or your fund, or your deal isn't getting special consideration. Like if they're giving you a loan, maybe they're giving you half of the normal interest rate that's market that's wouldn't be allowable. So you also have to keep some good records to prove that everything was market rate.   Sam Wilson (00:17:02) - Right. Right. Yeah. Which, I mean, market rate four years ago might, might have been three to 5% market rate today might be 10 or 15. So , right,   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:17:12) - You're   Sam Wilson (00:17:13) - Gonna, you're gonna need the, uh, need that good record keeping there. Okay. Awesome. So we've talked a little bit about prohibited transactions. We've talked about how to market to, uh, self-directed account holders. What, and we've talked a little bit about the types of accounts. I think we mentioned self-directed IRAs, we mentioned, uh, self-directed HSAs and self-directed. What was the other one you threw in there that was a   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:17:36) - Little bit? Education savings, account   Sam Wilson (00:17:37) - Education savings account. One that I don't hear a lot of press coverage on, because I think everybody, I think IRAs for whatever reason tend to be more, just more people know about 'em. But solo 401ks, what is to walk us through that benefits, maybe if you're considering opening accounts, why one versus the other? I don't even, not even sure. I understand why one is better than the other. So maybe you can kind of talk to us about those.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:18:04) - Well, on a solo k there, there can be no common law employees of the company if you have a solo K but you can have partners or spouses that can, uh, be included in the plan. And so why some people see benefits to using a solo K first thing is the contribution limits to a solo K are much higher than you could put into an ira. So for 2023, and I have some cheat notes for myself cause uh, my memory is bad, but for 2023 and a solo, okay, you can, um, you can contribute up to 25% of your compensation to a maximum of about, uh, 22,500. And if you're 50 and above this year, there's a $7,500 catch up contribution. So the contribution limits are a lot higher. If you mortgage a property in a solo k, it's a little bit, it's, it's a little bit easier to mortgage a property in a solo k um, there are some benefits to that, but the disadvantages to a solo K or that most people don't really understand them, uh, there are companies that specialize in self-directed solo Ks, and that might be all they do is qualified plans for non-publicly traded alternatives.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:19:38) - We offer solo Ks as well, but we require folk to have a third party administrator to advise them on the setup of the plan, the ongoing reporting and maintenance of the plan, because that's, that's a whole separate field, uh, qualified plan administration, and that's really not our thing. So en to, to enable somebody to do it, they really have to have someone to advise them.   Sam Wilson (00:20:03) - Right. Yeah. It sound, it sounds like there's, there's, uh, maybe some flexibility benefits that come with it, but then also some reporting and, um, just some rules to that game maybe that are sounds really nuanced.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:20:19) - Yeah, and a little more of an expense too, right? Because you actually need to have somebody advise you on that. So, uh, it it's a little more expensive to do if you think you're gonna make all of those. Uh, if you're gonna maximize the contributions and perhaps you have an old employer 401K that you wanna roll into this plan, so you have a lot of funds, then it kind of makes sense, right? You've got a lot of money in there and you wanna be able to put it to maximum use for your investments, and then it pays to pay all of those professionals to advise you, right? If, if you, if you have $10,000 in that plan, um, you know, why would you wanna spend money on the advisors, you know, makes more sense to use an IRA simpler,   Sam Wilson (00:21:01) - Right? Yeah, absolutely. Are there things that we should be doing on the IRA side of things to, I mean, are there, are there advantages or, or, uh, is there any capability of putting in more than maybe what the contribution limits that are published? Are there, are there kind of some catch up provisions or anything like that that we should be thinking about?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:21:21) - Yeah, there are, uh, catch up contributions for, uh, traditional and Ross, although not as generous as, uh, the 401k. So it's only a thousand dollars catch up contribution for both of those, and the contribution limits are 6,500 for this year. But you know, what people don't realize is with those old employer 401ks, um, you know, as I keep saying, there's not too many reasons to keep all your money over there. You can roll those into an IRA and have a nice balance to enable you to do some creative investing.   Sam Wilson (00:21:58) - Yeah, no, that's cool that I didn't realize that, that you could roll old 401K funds into an ira. What, what do you advise? This is a personal question because I see, I see both in my investor pool and me personally inside of my self-directed ira, you get distributions. Maybe they're monthly, maybe they're quarterly, but you know, so let's say we put 50 grand in a deal and you know, it's throwing off 8% a year, whatever that comes out to be, what is that? 4,000 bucks a year? Yeah, it's really hard, especially when that 4,000 bucks dribble dribbles in $1,000 at a time throughout the year to do anything meaningful with that. What do, what do you see some people doing to kind of overcome that hurdle of small accounts, especially investments that produce cash flow, but then, I mean, it's gonna take 12 years to have another $48,000 to invest into anything at 4,000 bucks a year. If that's all that account had was 50 grand, then I'm not saying that's what it is, but if that were the case, so what are people doing right now to kind of deploy small balance IRAs in a meaningful way?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:23:03) - Uh, good question. And so don't forget, even though you have a small balance, um, IRA, you probably can make contributions every year to boost up that balance, right? So you have to watch your income limits and, and what other contributions you're making. Yeah. But you can add to it that way. But a favorite method, uh, or a favorite investment in our office of small balance accounts, especially with some young people who might just be starting out, they may look at their balance and say, especially in this interest rate environment, I have a friend who has credit card bills or whatever, and they're paying, what is it now, 30%? I'm afraid to look at my statement. So I don't even know what credit card interest is these days, but it's, it's, you know, really high. Sure. So, um, they're paying this off and maybe it's 30% interest.   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:23:59) - I can get maybe four and a half percent in a treasury fund right now because interest rates are going up so much. But if I offer that person a personal loan, and it could be collateralized by something, it doesn't have to be an unsecured note, but I'm gonna lend this person $5,000 to pay off some credit card debt, and instead of them paying 30% and me getting four and a half, maybe I'll get 10, right? Or 12 if it's not collateralized by anything, maybe even 15, because there's no collateral, right? You have to look at what your user, uh, laws are in each state, but I'm going to get a much higher interest rate, you're gonna get a much lower interest rate, and I still have recourse against you if you don't pay me, uh, or if you don't pay my ira. So that's a good way to do it. There are some other companies that take smaller investments into some startups, so I don't, there's so many out there crowdfunding sites and startups, but you can use your IRA or other money to do smaller investments in some of these platforms that do investments in startup companies, and they're small minimums, right? So those are two of the most popular ones that I see.   Sam Wilson (00:25:19) - Yeah, I would, I would, I would think a reggae fund of some sort where you could, especially if you can, you know, continuously invest those distributions that are coming to your account, would be a good way to, a good way to deploy that as well. I hadn't, hadn't, uh, considered that, uh, on that front. So, no, those are, those are great. Two very great suggestions there. Jamie. I know we're over time. I certainly appreciate you coming on the show today. This was a blast. Learned a ton from you. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or your company, what is the best way to do that?   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:25:48) - Well, we, our website is next generation trust.com. That's probably the best way. There are several ways to reach us there. We have, uh, a chat spot on that website. We have a form on the website to contact us. There's a ton of educational resources there. We have, uh, pre-recorded webinars and other videos. We have white papers that they can download to see the different investment types. And there's also, uh, a listing of our staff and ways to contact them if you want to talk to a live person. Fantastic. We have a live, live person answering the phone during business hours, so you, you will always get a person at my office.   Sam Wilson (00:26:30) - Awesome. Awesome. Thank you Jamie, so much for that. I do appreciate it. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Have a great rest   Jaime Raskulinecz (00:26:35) - Of your day. Thanks so much for having me.   Sam Wilson (00:26:37) - Hey, thanks for listening to the How to Scale Commercial Real Estate Podcast. If you can, do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, whatever platform it is you use to listen. If you can do that for us, that would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank hire on those directories. So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you on the next episode.      

The state of customer experience is continually changing, as brands increasingly compete based on the experience they can deliver to their customers across channels, and across the customer journey. The winners in this race gain new customers through reputation and word of mouth, retain existing customers through loyalty and increased customer lifetime, and those who struggle to keep up can sometimes face an ever-widening gap in experience maturity. Genesys, a leading provider of customer experience and call center technology platforms, recently released its State of CX 2023 report, and today I'm going to discuss some of the most striking findings with one of its contributors. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Ginger Conlon, Thought Leadership Director and Customer Experience Advocate at Genesys. RESOURCES Genesys State of CX report: https://www.genesys.com/resources/state-of-cx Genesys website: https://www.genesys.com The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Lisa loves a good puzzle. After witnessing the confusion that ensued after new technology systems were integrated into offices in the 90s, she didn't panic, she saw an opportunity to establish effective processes that support employees and businesses grappling with evolving technology. Then a pattern emerged: internal teams kept failing to communicate with one another in the wake of change. To respond, Lisa founded Lcubed Consulting. As CEO of Lcubed, Lisa helps companies align people, processes, and technology to utilize agility as a strategic advantage and acknowledge change in a business constant. Her secret sauce to success is leveraging key elements of Project Management, Process Performance Management, Internal Controls and Organisational Change Management to build teams with the skills and capabilities to drive strategic results. Lisa is the #1 best-selling author of Future Proofing Cubed, a book she created to share her insights on productivity, profitability, and process refinement in business. Lisa's goal is to prepare her clients with the skills, capabilities, and self-reliance they need to thrive in the future without Lcubed's guidance. With this notion, she has broken the typical consulting model. Lisa holds her Bachelor of Science in Electronic Media Management from Northern Arizona University. She is a Project Management Professional and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Lisa enjoys spending free time with her family and basset hounds.   Questions • We'd like to hear in your own words, did you arrive on this journey? How did you get to where you are today? Could you share that with our audience? • Now, could you tell us a little bit about your company, Lcubed Consulting and also your book, Future Proofing Cubed? • If you could share with our audience maybe you could skew it down to a particular type of industry, maybe 1 to 3 things that if you're really trying to run a successful business with the right people, what are 1 to 3 tips that you'd recommend in terms of the culture and the environment needs to be existing for you to attract and keep the person that you want? • Emerging out of the pandemic, what has been your experience with some of your clients in terms of customer experience, have you seen customers maybe be more demanding for service experiences or delivery? Are they putting on their foot to ensure they're getting a certain type of service? Or have you seen maybe a more relaxed type of customer, what has your experience been with your clients as well as you as a customer yourself? • So, I would also like for you to share with our listeners, Lisa, what's the one tool, website or app that you absolutely cannot live without in your business? • Could you also share with our listeners, maybe one or two books that you've read recently, or even a book that you read a very long time ago, that has had a big impact on you. • Could you also share with our listeners, Lisa, let's say, we have listeners who are business owners and managers who feel like they have great products and services, but they lack the constantly motivated human capital. So, the people are just not motivated. If you're sitting in a room with that person right now, what's the one piece of advice you would give them to have a successful business? • Could you also share with our listeners, what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? Either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. • Where can listeners find you online? • Before we wrap our episodes up, we always like to give our guests an opportunity to share with us a quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you will tend to revert to this quote, it kind of helps to get you back on track if for any reason you got derailed. Do you have one of those?   Highlights  Lisa's Journey Me: Now, we always like to give our guests an opportunity to share in their own words, a little bit about how they got to where they are today. So, I know that your bio kind of gives a pretty good summary of how it is that you got to where you are today. We'd like to hear in your own words, did you arrive on this journey? How did you get to where you are today? Could you share that with our audience?    Lisa stated that because the journey really is the story, it's what matters in our personal lives, our professional lives. She is an accidental entrepreneur, she left college with the desire to find safety and security in a corporate job, she was looking for a place where she would go to work, she would have paid vacation time, she would have bonuses, she would have things that seemed like they would give security. And those were important to her because her parents were entrepreneurs. And that journey isn't always a smooth one.  And so, she wanted something that she perceived at the time to be easier and to be safer. Fifteen years into that journey, she realised it was the early 2000s. And actually, things were a little difficult. And it was in 2008 and 2009, she was working for a start-up, it was her dream job, it was everything she had hoped that it was going to be, she was building a project management team, they were growing and scaling and going to do amazing things until she looked around and realised that every executive leader had built a fiefdom of external consultants who are coaching and guiding and advising them on how to protect their fiefdom. And none of them were working with each other and it was not safe and it was not secure and the economy tanked.  And she looked around and said, “Oh my gosh, I can do something better.” And in that moment, she became an entrepreneur, and started a business and it's 14 years later, it has not been seamless, it has not been without obstacles and challenges. But it's been fantastic because she's the one designing the journey and the bumps in the road are learning moments, and she wouldn't change anything. It's been great.   About Lisa's Company Lcubed Consulting and Lisa's Book Future Proofing Cubed Lisa shared that Lcubed was born out of that frustration that she had watching consulting teams come into environments over her entire career and land and expand. And she would see that they were in these environments under the auspices of helping the client, but really what they were doing was growing their revenue stream. And she finds that somewhat abhorrent and counter to what consulting is supposed to be about. And she decided that she wanted to do things differently. She wanted to take all of the knowledge and the skills and the experience that she had built up in larger corporations, learning and understanding the impact of Project Management, Process Management, Organisational Change, and using all of those tools and capabilities to help her clients deliver better products and services for their clients, while building self-reliance so that she can take herself and her team eventually out of that equation. She didn't want them to become dependent on her.  The book Future Proofing Cubed: The Definitive Guide to Improving Productivity, Refining Processes, and Bolstering Profitability takes their business model, what they call adaptive transformation, and sort of explains how they use all of those baked best practices in a much more effective and efficient way so that companies can build those skills and capabilities without large investments in internal teams, or large consulting groups.   In Running a Successful Business - Tips to Attract and Keep the Person That You Want Me: Now, in an organisation, as a consultant, I'm sure you know, there's some key things that a lot of companies still struggle with, having the right kind of synergy among the team. A lot of organisations struggle sometimes with recruitment, getting the right person and actually keeping them. And so, if you could share with our audience maybe you could skew it down to a particular type of industry, maybe 1 to 3 things that if you're really trying to run a successful business with the right people, what are 1 to 3 tips that you'd recommend in terms of the culture and the environment needs to be existing for you to attract and keep the person that you want?   Lisa stated absolutely, it may be an oversimplification. But she thinks that knowing what success in the environment looks like. With some of her smaller companies, they do work and they use Lencioni's idea of hungry, humble and smart, that if you have an employee who has the ability, they're hungry, they want new opportunities, they want to learn, they want to grow, they want to make an impact. If they're humble and able to say I don't know what I don't know. And they're smart, meaning that they can pick up and reader a room and understand what's going on with internal and even with your client engagements. If you have those three things, any technical capability can be taught. But if a person shows up hungry, humble and smart, you can build a team of people who can do anything.   Experiences Customers Are Desirous of Now Me: Great. So, I love those three points that you just brought across. So, we've identified the three things we want to ensure that the team member has and as you mentioned, you can teach any technical skill, I guess it kind of goes back to you really want to ensure you have persons with the right attitude versus aptitude. Because you can't train on attitude, right? But even getting further and deeper into that, our programme is about navigating the customer experience and the experience that the customer has is not just on the outside, but also on the inside. And I'm a firm believer that if you really want to have a strong customer experience, it starts from within. If it's strong internally, then it's quite easy for your employees to perpetuate, and relive that externally with your actual clients that are paying, they're the reason why you're in business.  And so, what has your experience been? We've just emerged out of the pandemic, some countries are still feeling somewhat of the effects of it. I mean, COVID is not completely gone. But what has been your experience with some of your clients and wherever you are in, in which part of the world in terms of customer experience, have you seen customers maybe be more demanding for service experiences or delivery? Are they putting down their foot to ensure they're getting a certain type of service? Or have you seen maybe a more relaxed type of customer, what has your experience been with your clients as well as you as a customer yourself?   Lisa shared that there's so many things in that to play with. She wants to play with the language right, that the experience starts within. She absolutely agree with that, that internally, we have to understand the experience we want our customers to have. There's a disconnect, more often than not, when we think from the inside out and think that we know what our customers want and need. And she likes to sort of flip that upside down a little bit and teach her clients to think from the outside in.  And what she means by that is actually asking their customers what they want, what they need, so that they're not making guesses. And they're not making assumptions, and they're not applying their own wants and needs onto potentially what their customers wants and needs are. Because oftentimes, when we do that, on the inside, we're really wrong and we don't truly understand. So, starting on the outside and understanding the customer, where are they at? What do they need? And with her clients in the pandemic, they had to do a lot of that because all of their wants and needs in March of 2020 changed dramatically. And so, polling and getting that data and asking the questions so that they can adapt their products and their services to those needs. And it's the need they have today, but the big impact is what does their needs going to be tomorrow, in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.  During the pandemic, she had the opportunity to watch one of her clients respond to the shutdown. So, the company is a food distribution organisation and they have a national presence in the United States. Their primary job is to take food from a warehouse and deliver it to restaurants, and service providers in hospitals, in airports, in large conference centres, getting food to places where it's going to be cooked and served and sold. Overnight, their business shut down for two weeks or so they thought. And they had the opportunity, they basically froze and did nothing initially, until they brought the leadership team together in this world called Zoom that they had never interacted in. There were people meeting each other, seeing each other in face to face interaction for the first time in 20 years, they've just never been in the same space together. They're panicked, they're at home, everything is a nightmare.  And one person is raising their hand literally shaking their hand in front of the camera trying to get everybody's attention to say, “Hey, I have an idea. We have all this food in our warehouses. And it's not getting to people who need to eat, we have produce, we have things that are going to start spoiling and serve no use to anybody if they're rotting in the warehouse. How about we figure out how to take our food and deliver it to shelters, to food kitchens, to places where there are people who cannot get to food, we're going to spoil it off, we're going to write it off, it's going to waste one way or another, why don't we make it a donation.” And for the first 30 days of the pandemic, that national company donated food because their customers, people who need to eat needed food. It had nothing to do with their bottom line, it had absolutely nothing to do with anything except doing the right thing.  In that first interaction where one individual had an idea, they all thought about it, they experimented about how to make it actually happen. They learned how to innovate on the fly. And that's important because they were speaking to the customers need and for them, it wasn't their customer, it was their customers' customer, a hungry person. And they were solving a problem that did absolutely nothing to drive their business forward except they did the right thing.  What they learned from that was how to innovate and how to think outside of the box, think from the outside in. And as a leadership and management team today, they are still doing that on a quarterly basis and trying to evolve their business model in a way that it hasn't in 40 years. It is wow because they thought from the customer's perspective wants and needs, they solved the problem. We need to solve problems.   Me: And as you mentioned that, Lisa, that we need to solve problems. That's the primary reason why everyone is in business. I remember when I started my company in 2009, it was because one of my greatest pet peeves was I thought service was just so poor. And I said, I'm going to stop complaining. And I'm going to start being a part of the solution, and try to help these organisations to improve on their service delivery. So, when I go and have interactions, I can walk away with a better feeling than the one that I'm currently having. So, I think every business is solving a problem, whether you're selling a pencil or a fan, or you're servicing somebody's motor vehicle, or you're providing some innovative solution or product that's going to revolutionize the industry for aviation, or whatever it is. I think all businesses are solving a problem for someone. And I think, if we come, as you mentioned, from the outside in, to kind of understand where the customer is coming from, and how can we ease their frustration? How can we make life easier for them, that we can definitely create a better experience, both internally and externally.   App, Website or Tool that Lisa Absolutely Can't Live Without in Her Business When asked about online resources that cannot live without in her business, Lisa shared that there are so many, but she's going to go with the one that surprises her the most, because she would never have imagined this, she cannot live without Canva. She would never in a million years have ever thought that she would use a marketing tool, a graphic design, well, now it's kind of an everything tool, right? Presentations, video, audio, whatever, it does it all. She loves it, it makes everything so much faster, so much easier. She's doing work for herself that she probably should be outsourcing but it's kind of fun to do it and it looks really good. So yeah, she cannot live without Canva.   Me: Agreed, Canva has definitely revolutionised the industry and it's made graphic designing not seem like, “Oh, my goodness, I can't do this.” Because simple things that you'd have outsourced as you mentioned, you can do on your own. And they look pretty good. So, you're saving a few bucks there for sure.   Lisa stated that saving a few minutes of time even right? So, you outsource it and things turn into, hopefully days, not weeks. But it's easy enough that a person who has no skills in graphic design can turn something out in minutes, it's fabulous.   Me: My daughter is in her final year in high school and she's a part of the school newspaper and she sees me use Canva and she asked me if she could, like play around with it a bit to put out some stuff that she wanted to do promoting for the newspaper and for the school. And I guess at that age at 17, you're creative and innovative. But she wasn't even using the platform for like an hour and I was just so surprised that the newsletter that she produced, the video that she was able to generate from all of the pictures that she had taken. I mean, just simply amazing, I'm not saying that she couldn't have used other applications but as you mentioned, Canva kind of found a way to bundle everything in one so you could just do all the things in that one platform.   Lisa absolutely agreed. And they made it easy for an end user who has no skills in those areas. There are lots of applications out there and she'll use video editing as an example, but you have to be very, very, very skilled in the application to make it work properly. And Canva just sort of magically does it for us.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Lisa When asked about books that has had a big impact, Lisa shared that the number one book that always comes to her mind first and foremost is Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson. As leaders and as people, we need to understand how to communicate effectively and that one, it's so foundational to everything that it affects your personal life, your business life, how we show up, how we support others. It's always kind of the first thing that pops to her mind.  There's another book called Flip the Script: Getting People to Think Your Idwa Is Their Idea by Oren Klaff. And as her business was growing and evolving, and off the top of her head, she can't think of the author's name. But it's taking people who run and have their businesses, sales is part of what we have to do. But we may or may not have ever been trained to be salespeople. And we may or may not even like the connotation of being a salesperson, and Flip the Script really did a lot in her mindset to help her understand that selling is a by-product of building good and effective relationships.  And that is far more comfortable to her than the idea of going after and creating a sales pipeline and all of the technical things about what selling is, and reminding her that after now 14 years, she obviously must be able to close a deal, or she wouldn't still be doing what she's doing. And she doesn't have to have the traditional sales process to make it work, because relationships are really where business comes from.   Me: Agreed. I liked that statement you made, Sales is a by-product of building effective relationships, that's really, really true. And you said that you got that mindset, or it shaped your mindset towards that from the book called Flip the Script.   Advice for Business Owners and Managers who Lack Constant Motivated Human Capital Me: Could you also share with our listeners, Lisa, let's say, we have listeners who are business owners and managers who feel like they have great products and services, but they lack the constantly motivated human capital. So, the people are just not motivated. If you're sitting in a room with that person right now, what's the one piece of advice you would give them to have a successful business?   Lisa stated that there's a challenge in that question because if we have a room full of employees who aren't motivated, there is a very flippant part of her personality that wants to say, “Do you have the right people in the room to grow and scale your business?”  And that's a very scary question because if the answer is, “No, I don't”….then what.  So, and then, the then what mindset we need to understand what motivates our employees and if we have really good people that have been with us, and are no longer performing, do we understand what's changed in their world? Do they need a new opportunity, internally within the organisation in a different role? Have they lost the drive to contribute to this type of business? Do we need to help them find an opportunity outside of this business?  Which is a scary thought, but sometimes the right one, and just because we're separating from a relationship doesn't mean that we're ending it poorly. And Lisa's experience, she's had several examples of times when she's taken employees, help them find their next opportunity.  They were so much more successful, her existing team was more successful, and they've maintained a relationship over time. So, finding that alignment of what's in it for me, and why are they still there? And if they aren't being fulfilled, are there opportunities to train them, coach them? Give them the opportunity to make a change inside or is it that it's time for them to move on onward and outward? And there's nothing wrong with that, if that's the right choice.   Me: Love it. I've asked this particular question, I don't ask it very often. But I've asked it a few times since I've started podcasting and I must say your answer, I really like it's different. Most people didn't take it from the angle that you took it from and I liked the fact that you focused on the fact that maybe we just don't have the right people. And if so, even though it's scary, what can we do to make that transition? Because that's the only way we're going to be able to have success, right?   Lisa agreed, absolutely. And the reality is, it's a little bit of everything. You're going to have some people who probably need to move on, you're going to have some people who probably need upskilling….training new opportunities. There's lots of different things, it's never going to be just one thing. But taking on the scary one of “Oh my gosh, I don't have the right people in the right roles.” That's totally addressable.   What Lisa is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something that she's working on that she's excited about, Lisa shared that the one thing that she's working on right now that's exciting for her is taking the stories that she has from her business and starting to share them as a keynote speaker, and having the opportunity to inspire through some of her great foibles and some of the successes.  But the very real journey that she's had over the last 14 years to help other emerging leaders, potential entrepreneurs, or business owners, be able to attribute and say, “Oh, gosh, I've been there done that.” or “Oh, my God, thank you for sharing that story. I never want to have that experience.”  And that opportunity and sharing to larger audiences is really a lot of fun. And it's eye opening for her to hear and get the response that something hit and it was meaningful. And hopefully, she's sharing some golden nuggets along the way that will help them learn lessons from her mistakes rather than having to make them for themselves.   Where Can We Find Lisa Online LinkedIn – Lisa L. Levy Website – www.lisallevy.com   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Lisa Uses When asked about a quote or saying that she tends to revert to, Lisa shared that there's a quote, but it's a Hemingway quote that has been butchered by many. And so I'll continue to do it. But it takes from the idea that if we break something, if we break a bone in our body, when it heals that spot on that bone is stronger than the original bone around it. And so, when we're having difficult times, the purpose and the reason that it resonates for her is that we can learn from our hardest moments. She likes to think of everything as an experiment and it's not about success or failure, it's about what we learn from the outcome of the experiment.  And so, all of those things are always kind of in her mind whirling around in a not coherent fashion, the way that she's talking right now is very much what's in her head. But it's about being willing to take the risk, do an experiment, if something breaks, it'll heal, and it'll be stronger. And we don't really necessarily fail, we learn things so that we can make different choices the next time. And those are the things that drive her forward every day.    Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest    Links ·  Future Proofing Cubed: The Definitive Guide to Improving Productivity, Refining Processess, and Bolstering Profitability by Lisa Levy ·  Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson ·  Flip the Script: Getting People to Think Your Idea Is Their Idea by Oren Klaff   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Service   Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience Webinar – New Date Register Here  

I am here in Durham North Carolina at the 2023 CXPS - that's Client Experience for Professional Services - Conference. Today we're going to talk about CX and professional services and some of the unique challenges and opportunities. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Ryan Suydam, Chief Experience Officer, Client Savvy.

It's no secret that nearly everything is getting outsourced today. From house cleaning to car maintenance to food delivery, the convenience and accessibility of hiring someone else to do a task you A) Don't know how to do or B) Have no interest in doing has become big business.    This is particularly true in the world of home improvement and renovations; while a good percentage of the population still goes the DIY route, more and more are seeing the benefits of hiring a professional to do it right the first time, saving both time, money, headaches - and probably marriages. And since so many people are spending more time IN their homes thanks to remote work, they're much more eager to invest in outdoor living spaces, remodeling bathrooms, and upgrading their kitchens.    But anyone who has hired (or attempted to hire) a handyman knows finding trustworthy and reliable contractors can be challenging. Vice versa, if you're a handyman or contractor, you know the difficulty of managing customer expectations, dealing with paperwork and contracts, and handling admin while doing the job itself. Far too often, neither side comes out ahead.    This is an opportunity that Chris Lalomia has capitalized on. (Very successfully, we might add.) Leaving the “corporate zoo,” he ventured out on his own and started The Trusted Toolbox, a home repair and remodeling service. He employs a team of specialized technicians whose only responsibility is to do what they do best. By managing the communication, the paperwork, and the “busy work,” he has more control over the final outcome, making both customer and contractor happy.   If you're in any type of service-based business, tune into this episode for some great advice on customer service, business planning, mistakes to avoid, and more.   What You'll Learn:   Lessons he learned from building a business plan Marketing mistakes he made first starting out What the number one priority should be today for advertising Why it's essential to show your client your work Why he puts a premium on customer service His exit strategy …and much more! Favorite Quote:   “We can't be a master and expert of everything.” Connect with Chris: www.chrislalomia.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia/ Instagram: @customerservice.freak   How To Get Involved: Matthew Meehan and Luigi Rosabianca use their combined experience to provide insight and strategic advice to help small and medium-sized businesses in America have the same opportunities as corporate 500 companies. If you're looking for tailor-made solutions to grow your small biz, learn more at www.shieldadvisorygroup.com. Stay Connected: Connect with Matt and Luigi on Instagram: @matthew.r.meehan @luigi_rosabianca @theLiquidLunchProject @ShieldAdvisoryGroup. Visit The Liquid Lunch Project website and subscribe to The Weekly, our Friday morning newsletter, for all the latest in the world of finance, tech, small business, and more. www.theliquidlunchproject.com Make sure you never miss an episode — check out The Liquid Lunch Project on Apple Podcasts, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review.      

In this HCI Podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Amanda Ono about why you should embrace conflict over comfort. Amanda Ono (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/amandaono) has spent her career learning to maximize a company's most valuable investment — *its people*. Boasting over 20 years of international experience in organizational development, HR consulting, and change management, she's implemented successful talent and leadership initiatives in six countries across four continents. You can currently find her at Resolver (https://www.resolver.com/), a Kroll business and worldwide leader in defining risk intelligence, making her mark as both VP Customer Experience and VP People & Culture. Part of the LinkedIn Podcast Network #LinkedInPresents Further explore the topics discussed in this episode with the new HCIConsulting Chatbot: https://poe.com/HCIConsulting. Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon and leaving a review wherever you listen to your podcasts! Check out Manifest at at usemanifest.com/HCI. Check out CrowdHealth and start your free trial at joincrowdhealth.com and use promo code HCI. Check out the HCI Academy: Courses, Micro-Credentials, and Certificates to Upskill and Reskill for the Future of Work! Check out the LinkedIn Alchemizing Human Capital Newsletter. Check out Dr. Westover's book, The Future Leader. Check out Dr. Westover's book, 'Bluer than Indigo' Leadership. Check out Dr. Westover's book, The Alchemy of Truly Remarkable Leadership. Check out the latest issue of the Human Capital Leadership magazine. Each HCI Podcast episode (Program, ID No. 627454) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR™, aPHRi™, PHR®, PHRca®, SPHR®, GPHR®, PHRi™ and SPHRi™ recertification through HR Certification Institute® (HRCI®). Each HCI Podcast episode (Program ID: 24-DP529) has been approved for 0.50 HR (General) SHRM Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCPHR recertification through SHRM, as part of the knowledge and competency programs related to the SHRM Body of Applied Skills and Knowledge™ (the SHRM BASK™). Human Capital Innovations has been pre-approved by the ATD Certification Institute to offer educational programs that can be used towards initial eligibility and recertification of the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) and Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) credentials. Each HCI Podcast episode qualifies for a maximum of 0.50 points. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Adam Chen interviews two change agents at Workforce.com, a leading workforce management software which manages scheduling, time & attendance, and payroll for organizations large and small. We hear two differing perspectives on what intraprenuership means at Workforce.com and how innovation is fostered and has evolved since the company's inception. Check out this new episode featuring insights from the co-founder as well as an intraprenuer who helps carry the baton forward as the company continues to grow its global operations. RESOURCES The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

This episode features an interview with Krish Sailam, Marketing Technology & Operations Lead at Nextdoor. After spending 20 years in the AdTech and MarTech space, he now helps brands craft their experiences from a customer-centric perspective. Prior to Nextdoor, Krish served IPG and Dentsu where he managed large programmatic accounts for Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, Slack, and Intel.In this episode, Kailey and Krish discuss driving community engagement through localization at scale, creating customer-centric user journeys, and escaping the data cesspool. -------------------Key Takeaways:Designing your user experience based on what the customer wants instead of what the latest innovative technology can do will help you drive retention of relationships and revenue. Customers are looking for experiences that feel natural and intuitive to them.As technology continues to revolutionize data, it's important to shift the balance of the customer experience into the hands of AI to streamline that process. Ensure you have knowledgeable people in your organization and restructure your data systems so they are built for AI.Don't be afraid to kill off your systems. With all of these new developments in AI and data, it pays to be adaptable. By practicing “data Pilates,” you're creating systems that have a strong core, but are flexible and sustainable.-------------------“Don't be afraid to kill off your systems, in the spirit of AI coming down the pipe and needing to rebuild these things. The way I see it is, you really need to practice this concept of data Pilates or data yoga. Come up with a really strong core, but make sure it's really flexible and it's able to do a lot of things.” – Krish Sailam-------------------Episode Timestamps:‍*(02:20) - Krish's career journey*(07:16) - Krish explains Nextdoor*(10:10) - Industry trends in customer engagement in tech*(20:41) - Changes in customer behavior in tech*(26:41) - Challenges in the customer engagement journey*(29:24) - How Krish defines “good data”*(39:04) - A time Krish was surprised by data*(42:15) - Changes in customer engagement in the next 6-12 months‍*(45:26) - An example of another company doing it right with customer engagement (hint: it's Little Spoon and Spotify)*(48:08) - Krish's recommendations for upleveling customer engagement-------------------Links:Connect with Krish on LinkedInConnect with Kailey on LinkedInLearn more about Caspian Studios-------------------SponsorGood Data, Better Marketing is brought to you by Twilio Segment. In today's digital-first economy, being data-driven is no longer aspirational. It's necessary. Find out why over 20,000 businesses trust Segment to enable personalized, consistent, real-time customer experiences by visiting  Segment.com.

Hubie Brown is a renowned basketball coach known for his impactful strategies and insight. When I attended one of his clinics, the title was "Cool Things I Want to Talk About to Help You With Your Teams." It featured 10 random, yet valuable, pieces of advice to improve a team's performance.As I prepare my live talks for this spring and summer, I've decided to create a podcast inspired by Hubie Brown's approach.In this episode, I'll share 10 useful tips to enhance your contact center without a specific theme. These tips will help you optimize your contact center operations and provide a better experience for both your agents and customers.Value everywhere here.Join us at the "Advice from a Call Center Geek" LinkedIn Group, where we share Call Center Operations Tips and Tactics! Connect with industry experts, ask questions, and get the answers you need. All posts are reviewed to ensure no sales or spamming. Click the link now and level up your call center game!"Click here to Join!ACG Call Center Tips and Tactics Linkedin Group!Follow Tom: @tlaird_expiviaJoin our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeekConnect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geekLinkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel

CERTIFICACIÓN GRATIS: "Gerente-Líder de Ventas" clic aquí.Yami Almaguer Gil de "Customer Service vs Customer Experience" comparte con nosotros las lecciones sobre su más reciente obra "Consejos de Oro". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

5/10/23 - Episode 106.In this episode, the host, Scott Austin, emphasizes the importance of consistent branding across all customer touchpoints, especially emails, for Shopify stores. He highlights the benefits of incorporating branding elements in emails, such as reinforcing brand identity, building trust, and gaining a competitive advantage.The episode discusses the challenges of maintaining consistency in branding due to the use of various tools for customer engagement. Scott provides a solution for creating consistent branding in Shopify email notifications using Klaviyo, an email marketing platform.The process of customizing email notifications involves four steps:Create universal content for Shopify templates in Klaviyo, including header and footer sections that can be used across all email templates.Create a unique template for each Shopify notification, using Klaviyo's starting templates and editing the content to match the store's brand voice.Export the template to Shopify by copying the HTML code from Klaviyo and pasting it into the appropriate notification in Shopify Admin.Test the new template by previewing it in Shopify, sending a test email, and acting as a customer to ensure the notification works as intended.In summary, implementing consistent branding across Shopify email notifications requires some effort but significantly contributes to the overall brand-building process, helping stores stand out from competitors.SHOW TRANSCRIPT - https://jadepuma.com/blogs/the-shopify-solutions-podcast/episode-106-add-rich-branding-to-your-shopify-notification-emailsSHOW LINKSSign-up with Klaviyo - https://www.klaviyo.com/partners/signup?utm_source=0010V00002PzS9BQAV&%3Butm_medium=partner - affiliate linkShopify Notification Variables - https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/notifications/email-variables HELP THE PODCASTLeave a review - https://ratethispodcast.com/solutions  Apply for Shopify Store Consult Podcast Episode - https://jadepuma.com/pages/podcast-consult-application

"You'll not sustain shareholder value unless you create greater value for your customers. (It's time to) rethink and reconceptualize the organization as being into business at customer service." - Bill GeorgeDelve in this [Un]churned conversation with host, Josh Schachter and Bill George, an executive fellow at Harvard Business School and author of the True North series as they discuss02:43 -  True North Framework05:30 -  Younger generations are more focused on purpose and values.07:26 -  Serving customers is the focal point of business success 09:04 -  Talk to customers every day!10:21 -  CEOs spend only 3% of their time talking to customers12:23 -  The importance of prioritizing frontline people over CEOs16:31 - Everyone in an organization must think of themselves as a leader to make a difference.21:00 - Bill George's True North Resources- Connect with Bill on Linkedin- Get a copy of True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace

For every tool or system we interact with, someone behind the scenes is powering it. This week, Chris Losacco is joined by Postlight's Head of Product Design, Natalie Kurz, to discuss why you should focus not only on customer experience but how internal teams use the software. They share tips on how to know when to redesign your internal interfaces and make the case that by helping internal teams, you can reduce turnover, reduce inefficiencies, and ultimately improve your customer experience. 

Clay Clark Testimonials | "Clay Clark Has Helped Us to Grow from 2 Locations to Now 6 Locations. Clay Has Done a Great Job Helping Us to Navigate Anything That Has to Do with Running the Business, Building the System, the Workflows, to Buy Property." - Charles Colaw (Learn More Charles Colaw and Colaw Fitness Today HERE: www.ColawFitness.com) See the Thousands of Success Stories and Millionaires That Clay Clark Has Coached to Success HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ Learn More About Attending the Highest Rated and Most Reviewed Business Workshops On the Planet Hosted by Clay Clark In Tulsa, Oklahoma HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/business-conferences/ Download A Millionaire's Guide to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Money-Generating and Time-Freedom Creating Business HERE: www.ThrivetimeShow.com/Millionaire See Thousands of Actual Client Success Stories from Real Clay Clark Clients Today HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/

Hey CX Nation,In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast we celebrate our #200 episode by welcoming Tom Shoemaker, VP of Product Marketing at Propel based in Santa Clara, CA.  Propel helps product companies grow revenue and increase business value. Their product value management platform connects commercial and product teams to optimize decision making, drive process efficiencies, and engage customers with compelling products and experiences. Recognized as a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winner, Propel is built on Salesforce and drives product success for hyper growth startups, corporate pioneers, and Fortune 500 leaders in the high tech, med-tech and consumer goods industries.In this episode, Tom and Adrian chat through how the team at Propel has tackled The Four CX Pillars: Team,  Tools, Process & Feedback and shares tips & best practices that have worked across his own customer focused business leader journey.**Episode #200 Highlight Reel:**1. How early roles in engineering & marketing led to path in product marketing leadership 2. Product marketing in a nutshell; G2M, product launch, pricing, content & sales enablement 3. How hunters can teach farmers and farmers can teach hunters by sharing knowledge & best practices regularly  4. How do you ensure that your KPIs/performance metrics align to your company's OKRs & mission?5. Always remember that your customers pay the bills & dictate future product & service needs  Huge thanks to Tom for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer success space into the future.Click here to learn more about Tom ShoemakerClick here to learn more about PropelIf you enjoy The CXChronicles Podcast, stop by your favorite podcast player and leave us a review today.You know what would be even better?Go tell one of your friends or teammates about CXC's content, CX/CS/RevOps services, our customer & employee focused community & invite them to join the CX Nation!Are you looking to learn more about the world of Customer Experience, Customer Success & Revenue Operations?Click here to grab a copy of my book "The Four CX Pillars To Grow Your Business Now" available on Amazon or the CXC website.For you non-readers, go check out the CXChronicles Youtube channel to see our customer & employee focused video content & short-reel CTAs to improve your CX/CS/RevOps performance today (politely go smash that subscribe button). Contact us anytime to learn more about CXC at INFO@cxchronicles.com and ask us about how we can help your business & team make customer happiness a habit now!Support the show

Tariq Hassan, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at McDonald's USA, joins Suzy Founder and CEO Matt Britton on the latest episode of The Speed of Culture podcast in collaboration with Adweek. Tariq dives deep into how the evolution of technology has changed his role as a marketer over time, how data actually allows marketers to leverage a more human approach, and creating a relatable and meaningful brand. If you're interested in being a guest on the show, we'd love to hear from you. Just fill out this quick form at https://bit.ly/3L7YNEK and we'll be in touch!Follow Suzy on Twitter: @AskSuzyBizFollow Karla Davis on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3oUb5YtSubscribe to The Speed of Culture on your favorite podcast platform.And if you have a question or suggestions for the show, send us an email at suzy@suzy.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott Baradell is a writer and entrepreneur who grew his PR agency Idea Grove, with business generated by its popular blog. Idea Grove is one of the top 25 tech PR agencies in the United States, a three-time Inc. 5000 company, and an inc. Best Workplaces in 2021 and 2022.  In 2020, Scott started a second blog, Trust Signals, to provide news, analysis, and practical advice on what it takes to build trust with customers and the public in today's post-truth world. The blog inspired and culminates in this book.   Before Idea Grove, Scott was the chief communications officer for two Billion Dollar companies. He's the co-founder and CMO of a venture-backed start-up and an award-winning journalist. He lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife Maria, and children, Juliet, Benjamin, Jack, Christopher and Maggie.   Questions • Even though I read your bio, which is a formal description of who you are, we love for our guests to tell our audience in their own words a little bit about how they got to where they are today. So, could you share that for us? • So, can you tell us a little bit about your book Trust Signals, maybe two or three themes that the book talks about and why it's important if you're running a business to be aware of some of these things? • What do you mean by post-truth world? • Why do you think trust is so crucial for people when they're making a decision? And do you think it has increased or decreased in recent years? • What are maybe three to five things that consumers look out for that gives them that confidence that they can trust, they can rely on this organisation? • We have some listeners who are not very savvy in the online space, but they want to be known as a subject matter expert, what are some steps or trust signals that they could be successful in that online space? • Could you also share with our listeners what is the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business? • Could you also share with our listeners, maybe one or two books that have had the biggest impact on you? It could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or even one that you've read recently. • Can you also share with our listeners, Scott, what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? Either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. • here can listeners find you online if they wanted to reach out to you? • Do you have a quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you will tend to revert to this quote? It kind of helps to get you back on track if for any reason you got derailed. Highlights  Scott's Journey Me: Okay, so we always like to ask our guests at the beginning of the conversation before we even delve into the real juice of our conversation a little bit about your journey, Scott. Even though I read your bio, which is a formal description of who you are, we love for our guests to tell our audience in their own words a little bit about how they got to where they are today. So, could you share that for us?   Scott shared that like a lot of people, a lot of things happen by accident. He started out, not really interested in business, per se, he was a writer, he was interested in history. In college, he was editor of a college newspaper, and then he got tired of spending time in the library and decided not to become a history professor. So, he had to go find a job, his parents basically said, find a job within two months of graduation or your cut off. So, he use his clips, his writing from the newspaper that he was editing to get a newspaper job. And it kind of went from there.  He was a journalist for 6 years before he kind of saw the writing on the wall there. And then he went into corporate marketing, which he did for about 15 years and then decided back when blogging and things like that on the corporate side, were first starting to emerge that he wanted to be part of that.  So, he started his own business at that time. But from one space to the next, it was definitely a journey in an evolution where it wasn't all planned out, it's what he likes to tell his 15 year old daughter as well as just young professionals, it's okay, if it's not all planned out, just go in the direction of what you love, and it should work out.   About Scott's Book Trust Signals Scott shared that trust signals are just defined as evidence points in the book, he primarily focuses on evidence points online that make you more likely to trust a brand. So, for example, it could be coming across a positive review of a company where the use case sounds similar to how you might use a product or someone you trust, a creator you trust on social media endorsing a company or a media story in which puts the company in a positive light, these are all things that kind of can create a breadcrumb trail that can lead you to a company's website or hopefully, you've reinforced that website with lots of other trust signals like testimonials and case studies and other third parties saying good things about you.  So, that's really the book is about that idea. And he wrote the book specifically with PR people in mind, because PR people have for 100 years primarily defined their roles as getting media coverage, getting their clients mentioned in the media. And in today's post truth world, there's so much fragmentation that there aren't any shared sources of truth anymore.  People go to the media and the other sources of information influence that they trust. And so, what he tries to communicate to his profession since he was a PR pro after he left journalism is, in this day and age, you have to move beyond just trying to get stories for your clients in the media, you have to look at all these other kinds of trust signals that together, help to help your clients to win over audiences and to grow their businesses.   What Does the Concept Post-Truth World Mean? Me: So, trust signals are critical as you mentioned to grow your business. You mentioned post truth world and I have kind of an idea of what that concept means but I'd love for you to share with our audience, what do you mean by post-truth world?   Scott shared that what he means, is simply that in today's world, as opposed, as recently, as 30-40 years ago, the public doesn't rely on shared sources of truth. It used to be the New York Times was all the news that's fit to print, but now you've got probably a third of the country that says they don't believe a word in that publication. People get on the internet, and algorithms all pointing them towards information that confirms what they already think about things. They go into rabbit holes where they can dive deeper and deeper in a one perspective on things, which could be very different from someone else's and someone else's. And it didn't used to be that way. It used to be that you had a relatively small number of large media organisations that served as kind of the gatekeepers for information, the gatekeepers for public opinion, and it's not like that anymore.   The Importance of Trust and Has It Increased or Decreased in Recent Years Me: And in an organisation, right, you have customers and well, there is the popular saying that people buy from people who they know, like and trust. And I still believe that to this day, despite all of the technology and artificial intelligence and just so much that has advanced I think that concept still remains whether it's an individual or an organisation. Why do you think trust is so crucial for people when they're making a decision? And do you think it has increased or decreased in recent years?   Scott shared that well, it's crucial to not just business but everything, you're not going to get in your car and drive to the supermarket if you are worried that the red light at the traffic stop is not going to work or that when the green light goes that a car coming from the other way is not going to go, you're trusting that they're going to stop. Our whole society, everything we do, is built around this intricate system of trust. Most of the time we don't even think about and you're simply not going to buy anything from someone who you don't trust them, because it's impossible to vet almost any product unless you've already used it and it's the same product thoroughly enough without believing in the source of the product you're buying in.  That's kind of the shorthand that all of us use every day to figure out who I should buy from, who I should work with, who I should work for. An employee is going to potentially someone who's looking for job is going to look at their employer's glass door ratings before they go work there, that's a trust signal. And if they did find a company they want to work for and they put their resume together, they're going to put in all the best endorsements and kudos they can think of and those are trust signals. So, it makes the world go round.   But you asked, do you think it's decreased? He doesn't think it's decreased because he thinks it's kind of immutable. He thinks that we need it.  Studies go back to even before the earliest days of mankind, and even to primates and stuff in their hunting rituals, they do trust building rituals before they go out and hunt in a group to make sure that they will support each other and share their kills, for example. So, it's just intrinsic to every form of human relationships. So, a lot of people said, “Oh, it's post-trust, not just post-truth, but post-trust, people don't trust anymore.” And he would say that it's not trust, a trust deficit so much as a trust displacement.  In other words, you used to trust certain big institutions that you don't trust anymore. And so, you have to go find something else to trust. It's like, a big example in politics would be Donald Trump, for example. Donald Trump is someone who many, many people would consider very untrustworthy, however, in looking at his following, it's important to understand that clearly one of the reasons he's been able to develop this following is that many of those people had faith and trust in institutions that they lost that trust in. And people can't be without trust, they had to find somewhere else to put it. And they invested their trust in this person. So, in that way, he says trust is displaced, sometimes you're confused about where to put it. But you almost can't live life without putting it somewhere.   Things Consumers Should Look Out For That Gives Them Confidence to Trust an Organization   Me: So, could you also share with our listeners, maybe, I would say, three to five things that as a consumer you should be looking out for or what are maybe three to five things that consumers look out for that gives them that confidence that they can trust, they can rely on this organisation?   Scott shared that he can give you an actual example, from someone who works for him. She had a baby recently, before she had the baby, she and her husband had been planning a nursery and they'd gone over budget for the nursery. And so, they still hadn't bought a crib mattress and so, they just said, “Let's go get the cheapest crib mattress we can find because we busted our budget already.” So, Laurie is her name, she was going to go do that and then she remembered that like a year earlier, before she'd even become pregnant, that there was an influencer, creator that she followed on Instagram, who was talking about the importance of getting a non-toxic crib mattress, and that had stuck in her mind.  And so, even though her inclination was to just go buy something inexpensive, that stuck in her mind, so she did a Google search on safest crib mattresses. And, sure enough, she could recognize the name of the crib mattress that this influencer on Instagram had mentioned a year earlier. And then once she found that then she looked and looked up all the reviews she could find online, found a bunch of 4- and 5-star reviews. And then that drew her in further and then she found that there was an article in Parents Magazine, saying good things about this crib mattress.  And then finally she went to the company's website and found out they had a seal from the certifying organisation that was vetting non-toxic, environmentally friendly products. And then finally, she was already on the website and she bought the product. And all of those are examples of things that consumers use as a collection of trust signals that they follow to either make a purchase or whatever destination they're trying to go to.   Me: Brilliant, that's really good. And she did quite a few steps. She did her due diligence thoroughly.   And most people do and when he tells PR people and when he tells that story to them, he says, but would she have bought the crib mattress if she had just seen the Parents Magazine article? Probably not. So, why are you only focusing on that? Why don't you give your customer what they want, your customer wants you to help them build trust.   Trust Signals that Can Be Used to be Successful in the Online Space Me: So, let's say for example, we have some listeners who are not very savvy in the online space, but they want to be known as a subject matter expert. Similar to what you were saying, that Instagram influencer was able to lodge that piece of information in her mind, right? And it stayed with her up to a whole year later. What are some things that you could do online to establish trust in an online space? Because it's so hard, there's so much noise, there's so many different platforms. And I mean, I know everyone has their own audience and at the end of the day, if that customer is meant for you, they will come to you because whatever message you're sending out there, your message will be attracted to them. But what are some steps or trust signals that they could be successful in that online space?   Scott stated that if someone's interested in becoming a subject matter expert or influencer or building their own personal brand, there's really no substitute for producing great content. People don't know you, they haven't met you in person and they're only going to know who you are, if you show them who you are online. So, he would start by two things, figuring out what channel is most important, are most relevant to your goals that can be LinkedIn. His agency works primarily with B2B tech clients. So, LinkedIn is typically the most important channel. But on your audience, it could be Tik Tok, or Instagram or Twitter or something else. So, it can seem definitely overwhelming out there. So, it's always best to start with a single channel.  He'll tell you a channel that he used that helped him tremendously when he was starting to write the book is Quora. Quora is a great channel for questions and answers. And maybe you don't always want to talk about PR and marketing, maybe you want to talk about a movie or something like that, it kind of gets your juices flowing in terms of writing. And what he likes about Quora is that, generally, the comments and the engagement is respectful compared to like a Twitter or somewhere where it can be so nasty. So, for him, everyone's different. But whatever channel you choose, choose one channel to start with, and build out from there.  He's seen again, and again, people that start out on TikTok, for example, build a following, they move over and add Twitter, they move over and add LinkedIn or start on Twitter and then add LinkedIn. So, that's definitely the way to go. Don't try to do it all at once. That's the first most important thing.  And then just like you want to be focused in terms of your channel, be focused in terms of your content. There's so much content out there, it's overwhelming, and half of its being generated by ChatGPT now, so how do you stand out the two ways you stand out, are by talking about the same thing, not the same exact thing, but the same general thing that you're building over and over and over again, because what someone told him once is, by the time you've talked about something 100 times, maybe you might feel tired of it, but the people you're trying to reach are just now hearing it.  So just keep going, keep trying to find new wrinkles, find new ways to stay excited about it, don't move on to some totally different topic before you even build an audience for the first one. So, he thinks being focused in terms of your channel, and focused in terms of your content are the most important things.   App, Website or Tool that Scott Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business When asked about an online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Scott stated that in his business, they produce a lot of content and content is not very valuable if people aren't seeing it so for him, he's a huge fan of Google Search Console in their everyday for sure for checking their own two websites. They have Idea Grove, which is his agency, their website, the agency website, as well as the Trust Signals website. He's looking at that everyday for insights into what content is resonating, what content to produce next, and really helps to inform and drive strategy and they use it for their clients too. He's got a lot other tools he uses, but that's probably his favourite.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Scott When asked about books that have had impact, Scott shared that there's a book he read a long time ago, actually in college, which unfortunately, was a very long time ago for him but it stayed with him. And it informed a lot of choices he made since actually. It's a book called Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality, it was written by a historian named Richard Kluger. And he encountered this book, which is a very long one, it's thick, in a yearlong legal history class in college at University of Virginia, and the book was basically a history of illegal cases, which sounds extremely boring. But what it was, that was so amazing, was it was a sweeping history of the entire African American experience as told through the American legal system.  So, in other words, from Dred Scott to Brown versus Board of Education, everything in between, before and after. He took all of these court cases and told the human story behind them in such a way that it was like reading a novel that you couldn't put down and told him that taking something that someone would inherently think, is not that exciting and making it exciting, is really fun, it's a fun challenge.  He works in B2B Tech, or his agency, and they work with some clients that work in very arcane spaces, they do this fairly obscure stuff, sometimes they think they're boring, they're like, “Oh, you can't do anything for us, we're too boring, you can't get PR for us we're boring.” But to unlock that and capture the story in there, because there's always a story in there somewhere, to capture that, and to have the client kind of light up, because you help them find that is really exciting. And he kind of, in a lot of ways, goes back to that book and how he went from “Oh, boy, this long book of legal cases to wow” this book that he couldn't put down, it's definitely had a big influence on him.   What Scott is Really Excited About Now! When asked about something that he's really excited about, Scott shared that something that's exciting that they're doing now is they've began offering their first package product, they're a traditional agency, so like lawyers or accountants, they build by the hour, basically, they sell their time, that's what most agencies do. They've never had a product per se, but they found they've had a lot of success with a specific kind of digital PR campaign where they kind of combined PR and SEO, they put out this really cool piece of content, which is a survey, a base piece of content that ties to their clients, industry, and got it gotten a tonne of media coverage and links back to their client site from them.  But they realised that they could package it up and just sell it separately and do it the same way every time to increase margin on it. And so, they've been having a lot of success selling a product as an agency, this offering and they've never done that before and Idea Grove has been around a long time now and they're all really excited about, doing something they haven't done before, that's always fun.   Where Can We Find Scott Online Website – www.trustsignals.com He did a lot of the work that led up to the book on that site. Not only that, but if you're interested in the book, but don't want to go out and spend $20.00 on it. He's excerpted the entire book chapter by chapter on that site for free, and he's also now started a podcast where he's breaking down the audio book into chapter by chapter, so, that's available for free. So, all of that if you go to www.trustsignals.com, you can find links to either the audio or text version of the book or Kindle version as well. As well as a lot of other stuff, as well as contact information if you'd like to reach him directly.    Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Scott Uses   When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Scott shared that there's a great quote by a Japanese poet named Kenji Miyazawa from maybe 100 years ago, but he said, “We must take pain and use it as fuel for our journey.” At times, where he's had loss or other setbacks that are very hard, and you just kind of want to give up. It's a really good statement of what life really is.  Life is about resilience, and no one goes through life without having things that they have to endure and suffering. And if you can come out the other side, and burn it as fuel for your journey, he thinks that's a great way to take something hard and turn it into a positive.   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Links ·  Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality by Richard Kluger   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Service Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners  Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.” The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!   Our Next Webinar – May 16, 2023 at 10:00 am   Register Here

The quality of the customer service experience that you provide is equally as important as the quality of the work that you produce. On the show today I talk with customer service expert Shep Hyken about how to create a truly remarkable customer service experience in your business.  Customer service is not simply a department within your business, it's a philosophy that should permeate every step of your customer service journey. Every single interaction between your business and your client speaks to the level at which you care for your client. Be intentional to meet client expectations in all of these interactions to show that you care. This type of customer service will lead to more loyal customers than you would ever imagine! Key Takeaways  The quality of what you produce means nothing if you have no clients to pay for what you produce. Care more about the client rather than making the sale. This will lead to healthy, loyal relationships and also to more closed deals. Become service aware and evaluate every client touchpoint in your business to make sure you are meeting client expectations. Meeting expectations every time will create a truly remarkable experience for your client. About Shep Hyken  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert and the Chief Amazement Officer of Shepard Presentations. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books and has been inducted into the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in the speaking profession. His articles have been published in hundreds of publications, including Forbes, and he has been quoted in the New York Times, Inc, Real Simple, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and more. Shep works with companies and organizations that want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. In This Episode [00:00] Welcome to the show! [03:09] Meet Shep Hyken [05:47] Where to start with customer service [10:24] Great customer service within healthy boundaries [14:34] How to stand out [19:28] Importance of a CRM [21:23] Be aware of opportunities [25:47] Using video to create amazing customer service experiences [28:21] Human centered communication [37:53] Connect with Shep Hyken [38:16] Outro Quotes  “Being intentional means you're aware of the opportunities you have to create that experience.” [07:39] - Shep Hyken “Customer service is not a department, it's a philosophy.” [15:16] - Shep Hyken “Nobody ever became truly successful by being mediocre and average” [16:51] - Shep Hyken “It's not about being over the top. It's about doing and meeting the expectation” [17:29] - Shep Hyken Links  Get the The Lead Machine: Website Checklist for Filmmakers FREE Workshop Available "How to Consistently Earn Over $100k Per Year in Video Production While Working Less Than 40 Hours Per Week" Join the Grow Your Video Business Facebook Group  Find Shep Hyken online  Read The 2023 ACA Study Connect with Shep Hyken on LinkedIn Follow Shep Hyken on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter Follow Ryan Koral on Instagram Follow Grow Your Video Business on Instagram What's your question for the podcast? Share a video or audio response! Check out the full show notes page If you haven't already, we'd love it if you would take 1 minute to leave us a review on iTunes!

Simon Severino helps business owners discover how to be able to run their company more efficiently which results in sales that soar. He created the Strategy Sprints® Method that doubles revenue in 90 days by getting owners out of the weeds. Simon is the CEO and founder of Strategy Sprints which is a global team of certified Strategy Sprints® Coaches which offers a customized strategy to help clients gain market share and work in weekly sprints which results in fast execution. He is also a Forbes Business Council Member, a contributor to Entrepreneur Magazine, and a member of Duke Corporate Education. What problem do you solve?  Time and money. When you are running a business you don't have time to solve your problems. Simon will help free up time for you to improve your business. Show Notes: He began as a strategy consultant to big name companies. He fell in love with this work. Simon began his company but then realized he was the bottleneck. He then hired the employees he needed. A business owner may not realize he's the bottleneck. He may be saying things like: “I don't have the bandwidth”, “I'm running out of steam”, “I'm too busy”. When you feel you are running out of time, you need to sit down and do an inventory of where you spent your time. Then take one of your tasks and delegate it. Secondly, you need to ask yourself: “If I would live more freely and more intentionally, what would I do tomorrow.” It is the entrepreneurs job to look at the big picture and then delegate to finish solving the problem. We only have control of our own habits. Three habits: Daily habit: Write down what you are going to delegate and what new item you are going to do tomorrow to live more intentionally. Weekly Habit: Getting a report about the week's sales number (deals closed), marketing number (subscribers) and operations number (referrals or satisfaction rate). Track these 3 numbers. Monthly Habit: Strategic analysis and then rebudgeting according to where you are winning. Many entrepreneurs get distracted and start something new instead of focusing on what they are winning at and optimizing that. Three things to consider if you want to double revenue. Increase these by 25% and increase revenue by 90%. Sales frequency Price Conversion Rate The best teams think in weeks and months and not years. It makes them more agile. Protect your vision from temporary volatility. Simon Severino's Best Small Business Tip: Turn your fixed costs into variable costs. Go to your biggest costs positions and see how you can pay according to profit and not a fixed amount. Connect with Simon Severino: Book: Strategy Sprints Website: strategysprints.com Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Strategy Sprints Podcast Clarity Navigator Discovery Session – Sign Up HERE Learn more about Gary's Mastermind group at goascend.biz/the-mastermind-solution

Today we're going to talk about how AI and automation can help financial organization fight fraud, bias, and create better and safer customer experiences. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Joe Robinson, Co-Founder & CEO at Hummingbird. RESOURCES The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

On today's episode of the Shopify Ecommerce Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marcin Stoll, the Chief Product Officer at Tidio.We discuss how their platform helps businesses grow sales through excellent customer service. According to Marto, live chat is the most convenient way to communicate with customers and can often result in sales.Tidio's platform focuses on two main areas: providing excellent customer support and creating and leveraging sales opportunities—their product development centers on understanding visitors' intent and providing proactive communication. Tidio can give context for engagement and personalized experiences by tracking a visitor's journey on a website.But Tidio doesn't stop there. They also help businesses understand where their website traffic is coming from and recognize returning visitors. And while they use AI to automate some repetitive questions and improve response times, they emphasize the importance of maintaining a personalized customer experience.Discover valuable insights from the latest Shopify podcast to boost your store's profits and optimize revenue. Access the mentioned resources today and take your store's success to the next level.Reach out to us! We welcome any comments or questions you may have about our latest episode. Connect with us here or through our social media channels — your feedback is always welcome.TwitterLinkedInFacebookFor more ecommerce, marketing, and business knowledge, check out the eCommerce Fastlane Insights Blog for the most up-to-date strategies and tactics.TOPICS INCLUDE: Advertising, Affiliate Marketing, Amazon, Attribution, Automation, B2B, Brand, Customer Retention, Customer Support, Data + Analytics, Data Trust + Security, Dropshipping, Ecommerce SEO, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Founder Stories, Influencer Marketing, Legal, Logistics, Shipping, Loyalty, Rewards, Retention Marketing, Marketing, Sales, Conversion, Money From Home, Operations, Payments, Finance, Tax, People, Personalization, Post Purchase Experience, Print On Demand, Product Development, Retail, Shopify POS, Reviews, Search, SMS Marketing, Social Commerce, Social Media, Live Shopping, Startup Ideas, Store Design, Mobile Apps, Sustainability, TikTok, Trends, Ultimate Guides, Web3, best Shopify apps, and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As businesses expand globally, they begin to face more complex issues such as global payments, ambiguous compliance requirements and language barriers – and that's just naming a few! But Aditi Pany founded Qalara to help small and emerging brands scale more seamlessly, and empower retailers to discover these brands, too! During this episode of Retail Remix, host Alicia Esposito sits down with Aditi to learn about why she wanted to create a platform designed to support the growth of ethically made wholesale brands, and how shifting consumer behaviors are driving the evolution of the Qalara business. Listen here to learn:  Aditi's origin story and how her family inspired the creation of Qalara; The new challenges of expanding globally and how Qalara is helping brands overcome them; and Tips to help businesses reach similar levels of growth and scale. RELATED LINKS Connect with Aditi on LinkedIn. Learn more about Qalara! Learn more about global supply chain trends at Retail TouchPoints. Do you want to learn how marketplaces are creating new growth opportunities across the retail ecosystem? Register for the Retail Innovation Conference & Expo, which is taking place June 13-15, 2023, in Chicago and will be laser-focused on what's new and what's next in connected commerce. All-Access Pass holders will get access to three days of content, including sessions on new revenue models like resale, social commerce, and more. Register and use the code RRPODD225p to get 25% off all pass types!

Are you a business leader seeking better ways to retain customers fueled by trusted employees? Are you struggling to create a culture of trust in your business? Host Stacy Sherman and Joe Folkman, a leadership expert, explain how to achieve goals based on three pillars of the "Trust Trifecta." You'll hear helpful insights on cultivating strong relationships and repairing trust when it's been broken. Without trust, there's no way to build strong teams, meaningful communications, positive work environments, and healthy relationships. So, take notes and apply the many proven tactics to improve your trust-building skills for better outcomes in business and life. More at

Welcome to #OTW!#OTW - OpenToWork, is a new series on [Un]churned, featuring amazing SaaS leaders and practitioners who are open and ready for their next role.This episode features, Erica Scully, Member, Customer Success Collective. Erica is addicted to challenges, is customer-obsessed, and loves building long-term client relationships. She likes to get things done and enjoys educating her customers and seeing them win in their business with our products. 

Vijay, one of our listeners, drew my attention to a deficit in my content regarding customer strategy. He asked if we had anything on customer engagement. After a search of both my hard drives (computer and memory), I realized that I didn't. To remedy this giant hole in our content, we recorded this podcast.  Now, part of not having any content on the subject means I didn't have a definition ready for the term. However, like anyone would these days, I fixed that with an internet search. I found an excellent one at HubSpot, another great one at Salesforce, and third at Qualtrics. Each of these definitions was unique and oddly familiar. However, together they do a great job of defining the general outline of the concept. To summarize them, let's say that customer engagement is about interacting with customers in a connected way through a variety of channels to build an emotional connection with them.  In a recent podcast with Customer Experience pioneer Joe Pine, we explored the idea of time well spent. One addition I might make to the combination definition from my previous three sources is to deliver an experience that a customer thinks of as “time well-spent.” Often when customers feel this way about your product, service, or experience, they will recommend it to their friends and family—which is an excellent indication of engagement.  In this episode, we explore the concept of customer engagement and how you can craft a winning strategy for it in your experiences. Plus, we fill a hole in our content to satisfy Vijay's request and feel better about the job we are doing engaging you with our content.  Here are some other key moments in the discussion: 03:53  We share definitions regarding Customer Engagement and how we agree and disagree with part of them. 10:44  We discuss how finding a new idea in marketing is essential, so, reengaging old concepts under a new name is fine if it means solid strategy comes back into fashion.  17:02  We revisit the idea first shared by Pine on an earlier podcast about how engagement is also about time, from giving it to you to thinking of what was spent with you as a good investment.  20:52  Ryan offers his critique about the concept of customer engagement and a common mistake many organizations make when trying to improve it.  22:43  Colin share his key takeaways about the concept and how you can apply a practical strategy for engagement moving forward.  _________________________________________________________________ Did you know we have a YouTube Channel too? Check it out here. Connect with Colin on LinkedIn HERE. Follow Colin on Twitter HERE. Click HERE to learn more about Professor Ryan Hamilton of Emory University.  To learn more about Beyond Philosophy's Suite of Services Click here.

In this episode, Scott discusses the difference between the customer service with Apple and Peloton and how that is reflected in their earnings.

In this episode, Scott discusses the difference between the customer service with Apple and Peloton and how that is reflected in their earnings.

Today we're going to talk about in-game advertising, and how brands are utilizing this tactic to great effect, all while strategizing amid growing efforts to implement global data privacy policies. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Jared Lansky, SVP Partnerships at MediaMath. RESOURCES MediaMath website: https://www.mediamath.com The Agile Brand podcast website: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com/theagilebrandpodcast Sign up for The Agile Brand newsletter here: https://www.gregkihlstrom.com Get the latest news and updates on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-agile-brand/ For consulting on marketing technology, customer experience, and more visit GK5A: https://www.gk5a.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems.Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company