Podcasts about Customer service

AGENDA:  00:00 NVIDIA Launches a Three-Deal Blitz Across the AI Stack 04:31 NVIDIA's $12BN Poolside Deal Exposes Frontier AI's Capital Wall 15:39 NVIDIA Moves to Back Mercor at $20BN and Perplexity at $30BN 26:55 OpenAI Confirms 2027 IPO as Anthropic Seizes the Lead 40:42 Hugging Face Draws $13BN Takeover Interest as Open Models Boom 44:56 Citadel Cashes Out 80% of Its Leopold Aschenbrenner AI Trade 51:51 AI Boom Is "Less Than One-Third Over"—But Token Addiction Has a Price 01:04:07 Stripe Reaccelerates to 41% as AI Reshapes Software's Leaderboard 01:07:45 Instinct Security Scare Exposes Why AI Agents Still Cannot Be Trusted 01:23:55 VCs Name AI's Biggest Bubbles: Support, Defense, Humanoids and Roll-Ups  

How to navigate customer service and what to ask to avoid chatbots and speak to a real person. Also, an inside look at the popular Asian restaurant chain, "Panda Express". Plus, former tennis players John and Patrick McEnroe break down who the key players are at this year's U.S. Open. And, back-to-school supplies to help parents and students stay organized. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Now that the dust has somewhat settled, and though I have already done some very detailed announcements around Piston Peak, Imagination, Tomorrowland and Villains Land, there are so many other details from my experience at Disneyland and at the expo that I haven't really unpacked. It's taken me many days to get my head around everything that took place. This podcast is my effort to summarize all of that, to better get a sense of the whole of D23, not just park announcements--which I have a lot to cover--but the event itself, from D23 day at Disneyland to the Exposition floor to the Honda Center events at night. It was an incredible, but intense and intimate experience--shared with some other 100,000 people. Join me as we look at insights on D23 and the promises ahead for the Disney Parks. Be sure to check out my latest endeavor, Disneyland Insights: Inspiration, Ideas & Magic for You and Your Organization. __________________________________________________ Disney Insights YouTube Page--Check it out and subscribe. DisneyInsights.com--So many resources at our home site. Be sure to subscribe to receive notice of upcoming podcasts. My newest book, A Century of Powerful Disney Insights, Volume I 1923-1973, The Walt & Roy Disney Years is available!  Also, check out my two of my other books, The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney and Disney, Leadership and You.  Also, for those examining other business benchmarks beyond Disney, check out Lead with Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand Into World-Class Excellence. _______________________________________________________ Check out Zanolla Travel to book your next vacation!  David & Leah Zanolla ZanollaTravel.com Owner/Agents (309) 863-5469 _________________________________________________________ Performance Journeys This podcast and post is provided by J. Jeff Kober and Performance Journeys, which celebrates more than 20 years as a training and development group bringing best in business ideas through books, keynotes, workshops, seminars and online tools to help you take your organization to the next level. Want a Keynote Speaker? More than just nice stories, I offer proven insight and solutions having worked in the trench. Need Consulting? I've worked for decades across the public, private and non-profit arena.  Need Support? We offer so many classroom, online, and other resources to help you improve your customer service delivery, leadership excellence, and employee engagement. Contact us today, and let us help you on your Performance Journey!  

What would change if a customer could return three days later through a different channel and continue the same conversation without repeating a single detail? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Paul Adams, Chief Product Officer at Fin, the company previously known as Intercom. Paul has spent almost 13 years with the business and provides a candid account of how it abandoned its previous roadmap, placed a company-wide bet on AI, and rebuilt its products and working practices around AI agents. Our conversation begins with Fin's move from a customer service agent toward what Paul calls a single customer agent. The idea is that customers do not care whether their request belongs to sales, service, or customer success. They want the company to understand their situation and help them complete the task. Paul explains how AI agents can bring customer history, company knowledge, operational data, and business goals into the same conversation. This could allow an agent to resolve an issue, support a purchase, recognize a valuable customer, or transfer the conversation to a human without losing the context already provided. We also examine the economics behind poor customer service. Many companies are not ignoring customers through a lack of concern. They are receiving volumes of requests that cannot economically be handled by adding people alone. Paul says some Fin customers are resolving between 70 and 90 percent of customer queries through AI. Rather than seeing entire teams disappear, he is observing employees move into customer success, knowledge management, AI supervision, and higher-touch services. The episode also provides an unusually candid account of what it took to rebuild an established SaaS company around AI. Paul describes the process as brutal. Strategies were discarded, familiar processes were removed, and some people decided the new direction was not for them. His advice is to prioritize speed, place smaller experiments in front of real customers, and learn from evidence rather than waiting for every internal condition to become perfect. Paul also recalls working on early versions of mobile YouTube and Gmail when colleagues questioned whether anyone would watch video or answer email on a phone. Those stories provide a timely warning about judging new technology by its early limitations. Could AI agents finally give customers continuity across sales, service, and support, or will internal company structures remain the greater obstacle? Listen to the conversation and share your thoughts with me.

Why are companies preparing for agent-to-agent customer service when many customers still cannot get a chatbot to answer a straightforward question? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Latané Conant, Chief Marketing Officer at Parloa, about the state of customer experience and what businesses must repair before agentic AI becomes another barrier between customers and support. Parloa's State of Agentic CX report assessed 10,000 enterprise websites, 4,000 chat interactions, and 100 phone trees. According to the company's findings, fewer than 10% of the tested chat conversations achieved the customer's goal. Only 1% of enterprises demonstrated readiness for automated agent-to-agent interactions. Those results raise a difficult question about years of customer experience investment. Businesses now have websites, chatbots, mobile applications, email, messaging, and phone systems, but customers frequently struggle to find help or complete the task that brought them there. Latané argues that part of the problem comes from treating customer service primarily as a cost center. When the objective is reducing contact volume, organizations can unintentionally make themselves harder to reach. This overlooks the commercial and operational information contained within customer conversations. Calls can reveal onboarding problems, unexpected product uses, recurring faults, and potential sales opportunities. Latané explains how analyzing service conversations can give marketing, product, operations, and executive teams a clearer picture of what customers are experiencing. We also examine why so many chatbots reproduce the frustration of traditional phone trees. Although the interface looks conversational, the system underneath may still rely on rigid categories and predefined routes. Customers then find themselves trying different words or repeatedly requesting a human agent. Latané describes a better agentic customer experience as being closer to talking with someone who already knows you. A personal AI agent could remember previous interactions, understand preferences, work across voice and text, and complete a request without making the customer repeat information. That possibility also introduces questions about trust, permissions, personal information, and oversight. Latané discusses the need to monitor what AI agents are doing, identify when conversations move away from approved subjects, and use supporting agents to detect potentially harmful behavior. Human involvement remains particularly important when a conversation involves distress, vulnerability, or emotional care. In Latané's roadside assistance example, AI can arrange a tow truck for a flat tire. If it detects signs that the caller is in distress, the conversation should move quickly to a person. We finish by considering what this means for customer service employees. Latané believes experienced representatives and operations teams can become builders and managers of AI agents, applying their customer knowledge across a much larger digital workforce. If the existing customer service front door is confusing and unwelcoming, should businesses repair that experience before inviting AI agents through it? Listen to the episode and share your thoughts with me.

Hey CX Nation,In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #283, we welcomed Joseph Lepordo, CEO at In2ition AI based in North Andover, MA. In2ition AI is the always-on intelligence platform built for frontline revenue operations.The In2ition AI team handles inbound and outbound calling, candidate screening, training, coaching, and employee engagement — 24/7, at scale, without adding headcount.In this episode, Joe and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that his team think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.**Episode #283 Highlight Reel:**1.  Leveraging AI for its pattern recognition power2. Mastering communication is paramount for tomorrow's leaders3. Why customer feedback & requests need to become your company's realityClick here to learn more about JosephClick here to learn more about In2itionAIHuge thanks to Joe for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & contact center space into the future. For all of our Apple & Spotify podcast listener friends, make sure you are following CXC & please leave a 5 star review so we can find new members of the "CX Nation". You know what would be even better?Go tell your friends or teammates about CXC's custom content, strategic partner solutions (Hubspot, Intercom, & Freshworks) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation, a community of 15K+ customer focused business leaders!Want to see how your customer experience compares to the world's top-performing customer focused companies? Thanks to all of you for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!Reach Out To CXC Today!Support the showContact CXChronicles TodayTweet us @cxchroniclesCheck out our Instagram @cxchroniclesClick here to checkout the CXC websiteEmail us at info@cxchronicles.com Remember To Make Happiness A Habit!!

Stephen Grootes speaks to Bulelani Balabala, Business Speaker, Media Contributor and Township Entrepreneur at TEA, about why winning a customer is only the beginning; and what small businesses can do to improve customer service, maintain quality, create great experiences, and turn first-time buyers into loyal repeat customers. The Money Show is a podcast hosted by well-known journalist and radio presenter, Stephen Grootes. He explores the latest economic trends, business developments, investment opportunities, and personal finance strategies. Each episode features engaging conversations with top newsmakers, industry experts, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, and politicians, offering you thought-provoking insights to navigate the ever-changing financial landscape.    Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Money Show Listen live Primedia+ weekdays from 18:00 and 20:00 (SA Time) to The Money Show with Stephen Grootes broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/7QpH0jY or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/PlhvUVe Subscribe to The Money Show Daily Newsletter and the Weekly Business Wrap here https://buff.ly/v5mfetc The Money Show is brought to you by Absa     Follow us on social media   702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702   CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/Radio702 CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you complain when you get poor customer service? More with Chris Conley on the WSAU Wisconsin Morning News.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Parks & Experiences D23 presentation at the Honda Center has concluded and with it came two big pieces of news in what was literally the last two minutes of the entire program. Disneyland fans rejoice with the fantastic news that Tomorrowland is finally going to get some serious TLC as it gets set to be remodeled in time for Disneyland's 75th anniversary in four years. Meanwhile, Walt Disney World fans fave finally received huge notice that their beloved Journey Into Imagination with Figment and Dreamfinder will be completely revamped to something more like the original attraction. And then did we mention Villains Land? Yes, confirmation was given to the two E-ticket attractions that will headline this corner of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. So join us as we highlight the crazy details from this year's D23 expo. Be sure to check out my latest endeavor, Disneyland Insights: Inspiration, Ideas & Magic for You and Your Organization. __________________________________________________ Disney Insights YouTube Page--Check it out and subscribe. DisneyInsights.com--So many resources at our home site. Be sure to subscribe to receive notice of upcoming podcasts. My newest book, A Century of Powerful Disney Insights, Volume I 1923-1973, The Walt & Roy Disney Years is available!  Also, check out my two of my other books, The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney and Disney, Leadership and You.  Also, for those examining other business benchmarks beyond Disney, check out Lead with Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand Into World-Class Excellence. _______________________________________________________ Check out Zanolla Travel to book your next vacation!  David & Leah Zanolla ZanollaTravel.com Owner/Agents (309) 863-5469 _________________________________________________________ Performance Journeys This podcast and post is provided by J. Jeff Kober and Performance Journeys, which celebrates more than 20 years as a training and development group bringing best in business ideas through books, keynotes, workshops, seminars and online tools to help you take your organization to the next level. Want a Keynote Speaker? More than just nice stories, I offer proven insight and solutions having worked in the trench. Need Consulting? I've worked for decades across the public, private and non-profit arena.  Need Support? We offer so many classroom, online, and other resources to help you improve your customer service delivery, leadership excellence, and employee engagement. Contact us today, and let us help you on your Performance Journey!  

Be sure to check out my latest endeavor, Disneyland Insights: Inspiration, Ideas & Magic for You and Your Organization. __________________________________________________ Disney Insights YouTube Page--Check it out and subscribe. DisneyInsights.com--So many resources at our home site. Be sure to subscribe to receive notice of upcoming podcasts. My newest book, A Century of Powerful Disney Insights, Volume I 1923-1973, The Walt & Roy Disney Years is available!  Also, check out my two of my other books, The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney and Disney, Leadership and You.  Also, for those examining other business benchmarks beyond Disney, check out Lead with Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand Into World-Class Excellence. _______________________________________________________ Check out Zanolla Travel to book your next vacation!  David & Leah Zanolla ZanollaTravel.com Owner/Agents (309) 863-5469 _________________________________________________________ Performance Journeys This podcast and post is provided by J. Jeff Kober and Performance Journeys, which celebrates more than 20 years as a training and development group bringing best in business ideas through books, keynotes, workshops, seminars and online tools to help you take your organization to the next level. Want a Keynote Speaker? More than just nice stories, I offer proven insight and solutions having worked in the trench. Need Consulting? I've worked for decades across the public, private and non-profit arena.  Need Support? We offer so many classroom, online, and other resources to help you improve your customer service delivery, leadership excellence, and employee engagement. Contact us today, and let us help you on your Performance Journey!  

A look at the busy week ahead on Wall Street, why shoppers are showing up but sometimes feel like nobody is interested in helping out, and why doing less with your investments could make you more money.

Winning a new customer doesn't end when the first cleaning is booked. In this episode of The Profit Cleaners Podcast, the Brandons discuss how losing customers after their first or second clean can quietly make your entire customer acquisition process less efficient. They explain why cleaning business owners should look closely at their retention data, identify where customers are dropping off, and determine whether the first-clean experience may be contributing to unnecessary churn.They also share practical ways to create a stronger customer experience, including handwritten notes, thoughtful leave-behinds, proactive follow-up, and small details that keep your company top of mind between visits. More importantly, they explain why the way you respond when something goes wrong can have just as much impact as getting everything right in the first place.Through real stories from their cleaning businesses, the Brandons show how honest communication, accountability, and a willingness to make things right helped them preserve customer relationships even after mistakes were made. A broken item doesn't necessarily have to mean a lost customer. How your company responds can determine whether that mistake becomes a cancellation or a story the customer tells their neighbors for all the right reasons.If you are successfully bringing new customers through the door but struggling to keep them, this episode will help you rethink the first clean as more than a service appointment. It's an opportunity to build trust, demonstrate value, and create an experience customers want to continue.Listen now!Download the “We Broke Something” leave-behind to help your team communicate clearly with customers when something gets damaged during a clean. Click here: profitcleaners.com/leavebehindHighlights:(01:23) Why the first clean should be treated as an audition for recurring business.(03:16) How losing customers early can make customer acquisition significantly more expensive.(05:13) Why customer retention and lifetime value matter to the long-term health of your business.(07:06) How to use your business data to identify first-clean and early customer churn.(10:25) Simple ways to make the first-clean experience more personal and memorable.(12:11) How thoughtful leave-behinds can keep your cleaning company top of mind.(14:12) How to respond professionally when a customer is unhappy with a clean.(15:39) Why proactive follow-up can uncover concerns before they become cancellations.(18:36) How honest communication after breaking a customer's item strengthened the relationship.(21:38) Why taking responsibility for a costly mistake helped preserve a long-term customer.(24:09) How going above and beyond to correct a problem can become part of your referral story.(25:51) Why every customer interaction should be handled with your reputation in mind.(26:59) Why customers are ultimately buying more than a clean.Links/Resources Mentioned:Profit Cleaners Website Watch the FREE Masterclass: https://profitcleaners.com/masterclass)Join the FREE Facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitcleaners/Visit profitcleaners.com/cleanerclean to stay updated on everything coming next from Profit Cleaners. profitcleaners.com/cleanercleanDownload the “We Broke Something” leave-behind: profitcleaners.com/leavebehindDownload the “We Broke Something” leave-behind: profitcleaners.com/leavebehind

Every leader loses customers. Few know how to win them back. Will Guidara, the restaurateur behind Eleven Madison Park and author of Unreasonable Hospitality, joins Carey to talk about taking the anxiety out of service, the customer-service pet peeves that drive him crazy, what AI is actually doing to hospitality, and the lesson Simon Sinek taught him about leading people.

Customer service can make or break a direct-to-consumer farm business.

P.M. Edition for Aug. 12. Former Disney CEO Bob Iger and investor Joshua Kushner are buying the Los Angeles Lakers for $12.5 billion—the highest-ever valuation for any sports team. WSJ sports reporter Andrew Beaton discusses the sale, which he calls a “stunning twist.” Plus, inflation cooled slightly last month to 3.4%. Journal economics reporter Matt Grossman joins to talk about what it could mean for the Federal Reserve. And ticket reseller StubHub reported record revenue, thanks in part to this summer's World Cup. But as retail reporter Hanna Krueger details, both during and well before the World Cup, some fans were disappointed when the tickets they bought on StubHub didn't work and they faced lengthy fights to get their money back. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I'm CT…  When I'm not busy being Arroe the podcaster, I live in the real world.  Everybody has to have a job.  Mine is C.S.  Customer Service.  Solutions, relationships.  Keeping my team motivated in an age of constant connections.  Each guest has chosen to stop their day to visit our location.  Episode 234 The mystery man, olive branches, tang and the poet .Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

Despite claims AI will simplify and streamline our lives most Irish people want to speak with a human when they are contacting customer services.New research has shown we are happy enough to let the bots deal with simple straightforward tasks, but when it comes to sensitive or complicated topics most people do not want to interact with computers.Newstalk Reporter Bairbre Holmes has taken a look at what the numbers tell us, and sent in this report…

Customer service was once designed to build trust, solve problems, and strengthen the relationship between businesses and the people they serve. Today, many customers face automated phone systems, endless hold times, repeated transfers, confusing policies, poorly trained representatives, and artificial-intelligence chatbots that often create more frustration than solutions.In this episode of Soulfood and Lemonade, Dellie examines the history and decline of customer service, the rise of call centers and automation, and research showing how negative customer experiences affect trust, loyalty, and company reputations. The episode also explores employee burnout, corporate cost-cutting, consumer rights, and the growing emotional and financial burden placed on customers when companies fail to resolve their own mistakes.Is technology improving customer service—or helping companies avoid accountability? Listen as we discuss what businesses must do to rebuild trust and what consumers can do when customer service becomes their worst nightmare.

Send us Fan MailWhat if the fastest way to lead change was to stop trying to feel confident? Executive coach Terez Rijkenberg says clarity beats confidence every time, and she has the frameworks to prove it.Terez Rijkenberg, executive coach to C-suite leaders and director at Tuitive AI, joins Yanique Grant to share the two frameworks behind her work: the RAFT formula (results, actions, feelings, thoughts) and Radical Adaptability. She unpacks how change really happens, how she coaches leaders through it with a real client story, and how her Claude-based AI system hands executives back 10-plus hours a week. She also shares the grounding quote she uses when stress spikes.In this episode:- Terez's journey from the corporate ladder through postpartum depression and identity shift to executive coaching - The RAFT formula: why your thoughts drive your feelings, actions, and ultimately your results - Radical Adaptability: safety, clarity, belief, experiment, and integrate, the five steps of real change - A client story showing why coaching a team is faster than telling them what to do - Before and after: building AI workflows that remove manual work and free leaders to think - The grounding self-talk Terez uses under pressure: this is not an emergencyFeatured resources:Book: The Success Principles by Jack CanfieldBook: The Freakonomics series by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (her gateway into behavioral economics and psychology)Claude (Anthropic) - where Terez builds her processes, systems, and personalized client dashboards AI Amplified Exec - her Claude plugin that turns spreadsheets, transcripts, and documents into branded outputs like board packs in minutes Tuitive AI - where Terez is director and built AI Amplified Exec, helping senior executives use AI safely for real gains in personal productivity.Connect with the guest:Website: terezrijkenberg.comWeekly email / blog: terezrijkenberg.com/blogLinkedIn: Terez Rijkenberg (most active here)Follow the show: X @NavigatingCX and join our private Facebook group, Navigating the Customer Experience Community. Hosted by Yanique Grant.

In this episode, Insurance Agency Customer Service: Implementing Best Practices in Your Agency, we tackle the massive shift from transactional service to intentional, elite-level client experiences. Because in the independent insurance world, service isn't just about answering questions—it's the engine that drives your recurring residual income!

AI is forcing every customer experience leader to choose: chase efficiency at any cost, or scale service without losing the human heart. Jeannie Walters sits down with Vincent Davis, Chief Customer Officer and SVP of Customer Experience at PG&E, to unpack what it takes to build empathy, accountability, and trust in a world where automation is everywhere and customer patience is thin.We dig into Chewy's approach to empathy at scale, and why values beat hype in an AI strategy. Customers don't feel your intentions, they feel the experience, especially during outages, service interruptions, and billing issues. We look at crisis readiness through United Airlines' handling of irregular operations, then dig into PG&E's work across digital channels, contact centers, billing, and insights. Vincent explains how an IVR named Peggy boosts containment and satisfaction while freeing agents for higher-impact work. We also cover customer obsession, employee experience, process simplification, and why customers measure every brand against the best they've had, from Amazon to Uber.If you care about customer experience strategy, AI in the contact center, proactive communication, and building trust when things go wrong, subscribe, share this with a CX leader, and leave a review with your biggest question about empathy and automation.About Vincent DavisWith more than two decades of experience in the energy industry, Vincent Davis leads with the conviction that customer experience is not one department's job, but a standard for the entire company.As Chief Customer Officer at PG&E (https://www.pge.com/), one of the largest customer experience organizations in the utility industry, he leads a team of roughly 2,000 coworkers, overseeing more than $22 billion in annual revenue and a portfolio of programs and products spanning everything from smart meters and billing to digital channels and customer service.Davis is the driving force behind Customer at the Heart, PG&E's award-winning initiative that has changed how the company approaches customer experience, with the mantra that the company will build trust by delivering a 10 out of 10 experience in every interaction. He believes customer trust is earned by being present in the communities PG&E serves and ensuring customer voices are reflected in business decisions. Davis's path to this role has taken him through nearly every part of the customer function, from leading PG&E's Energy Efficiency Programs group to directing a $1 billion demand-side management portfolio and spearheading an $850 million Advanced Meter Replacement initiative.Earlier in his career at Duke Energy, he led the Envision Charlotte program, a public-private sustainability partnership recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative.He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of South Carolina and an MBA from Queens University of Charlotte. He has executive management certifications from Stanford and UNC Chapel Hill. In 2022, he received the Leadership Excellence Award in Energy at the Energy Inclusion Conference.Follow Vincent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-davis-6436a01Articles Mentioned:- Chewy's CEO Is Chasing ‘Empathy at Scale' (Inc) -- https://www.inc.com/stephanie-mehta/chewys-ceo-is-chasing-empathy-at-scale/91358987- Amazon Connect Customer Brings Live Sync and the Agentic CX Designer to CCW – Here Is Why That Matters (CX Today) -- https://www.cxtoday.com/ai-automation-in-cx/amazon-connect-customer-brings-live-sync-and-the-agentic-cx-designer-to-ccw-here-is-why-that-matters/- KeyBank modernizes its digital experience with customer relationships front and center (CX Dive) -- https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/keybank-modernizes-digital-experience-customer-relationships/823575/Resources Mentioned:Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.comExperience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.comEnjoyed the show? Subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Leave your review at ratethispodcast.com/xact.Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   In this episode, Justin interviews RIMS SERMC Member Eric Lobser about his career path at Spire Inc. They discuss his start in Budget Analysis at Laclede Gas, which eventually became Spire Inc. He moved into Operations, Treasury, and then Strategic Planning, including Acquisitions. He continued his career as VP of Enterprise Risk Management. Eric shares how he grew into that position, using knowledge he had gained from all the departments he had worked with. He tells about his early presentations to the Board. Eric explains what ERM means to him, and how ERM helps companies manage risks, including reputation, engage in opportunities, and make the resource allocation decisions that lead to success and mitigate failures.   Listen for Eric's idea to improve the ERM acronym.   Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:16] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is Eric Lobser. He was a practitioner in the natural gas sector for 35 years. We're going to get his ERM philosophies today. But first… [:42] RIMS-CRMP Workshop. We are delighted to announce that on August 27th and 28th, RIMS President Manny Padilla will be leading the two-day in-person workshop at St. John's University at 101 Astor Place in New York City. A link to the registration is in this episode's show notes. [1:02] RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshops. RIMS will partner with PARIMA for the RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep on September 1st and 2nd. Registration links are in this episode's show notes. [1:13] Also on the webinars page, you will see a two-part series hosted by the RIMS Membership Department. The "Classroom to Career" webinar series highlights how RIMS equips students with the knowledge, skills, and connections needed to thrive in risk management careers. [1:28] Participants will gain insights into industry trends, career pathways, and practical tools that help them confidently step into the evolving world of risk management after graduation. These sessions will be hosted on September 1st and 9th. [1:41] These sessions are member exclusives and are complimentary for RIMS members, of course. So, if you are interested in becoming a member, this would be the time. Visit RIMS.org/membership. [1:51] RIMS is back on YouTube. Our handle is @RIMSOfficialChannel. We've got plenty of videos there, including RIMScast, RIMScast Canada video podcasts, and other informative and entertaining content from RIMS. Subscribe to the channel today! [2:10] On with the Show! We will take a deep dive into Enterprise Risk Management with Eric Lobser. Eric recently retired from a 35-year career in the natural gas sector. He remained with one company that eventually became Spire Energy. [2:26] Eric is also a member of the RIMS Strategic and Enterprise Risk Management Council. [2:32] We will discuss his career journey, how one role led to the next before settling on Enterprise Risk Management, and his philosophies on what makes ERM truly valuable and why the acronym could use an upgrade. Let's get to it! [2:52] Interview! Eric Lobser, Welcome to RIMScast! [3:17] Justin and Eric met last year during a webinar. Eric has a fascinating career. His entire career was at Spire. Originally, it was Laclede Gas Company. Then it became The Laclede Group, and then Spire. Eric's career was 35 years and some months long. [3:53] Justin says that shows our audience that you can have a risk career at one company. You don't need to jump around. If you're doing well, if you're comfortable, if the company's treating you right, and you're doing a good job. [4:10] Eric says the risk career came later in his life. It was the culmination of a lot of other things he did. He had a varied set of positions at Spire. Over time, it was multiple types of companies. As you go through CEOs, things change. [4:31] Eric says he was there for about five CEOs and got to see many different sides of how business operates. [4:49] Eric says he graduated from Boston College in 1990. It was a tough job market. He wanted a job on the East Coast, but it was an expensive place not to have a job. He went back home. [5:08] His stepfather had a contact at the Laclede Gas Company. He interviewed, and they offered him a position, which he took. Within two weeks, he thought he would be crazy to stay at that company more than a couple of years. He thought it was odd they had a few computers. [5:29] Eric came from a school with a library full of computers. You had to sign up to use them. It taught him to use his mind, and it instilled patience. Those elements have been valuable to Eric's career. [6:06] Eric started as a budget analyst and did that for about a year and a half, in the corporate office in downtown St. Louis. [6:33] Then he was fortunate to move to Operations to do the same sort of work with all the department heads to help them with their budgeting, to translate things from Operations into financial terms and get better relationships with the people who ran the business. [6:53] Eric says he got to understand the business better from the view of the boots on the street. [7:04] Justin asks if risk management and ERM came onto Eric's radar in August 2001, when he became the Managing Director for Strategic Planning and Corporate Development. [7:18] Eric says that he had also worked with property insurance in Treasury. There's a big commodity risk at a natural gas company. There are also market risks and credit risks. [7:33] Eric says Strategic Planning was new to The Laclede Group, taking the budget period and extending it out three years, rolling in strategy and planning. [7:49] Eric helped them to develop software for business planning, custom-made from Access, to help support the Balance Scorecard they rolled out. It included something for Initiatives for making improvements, which were tied to Metrics.  [8:11] There were Action Items. There was a section where you laid out your different risks and what you were doing to mitigate them. The Action Items often required support from other areas. The software would put that into their business plan so they could see it and collaborate. [8:33] Eric says risk management and collaboration are hand-in-hand. [9:09] Eric speaks of a change in leadership, where they went from mostly looking at operational excellence and continual improvement to a more external look at other businesses, at ways to diversify within the gas industry: storage, pipeline, E&P, and more. [9:40] That was the beginning of the thought processes Eric would go through, looking at different businesses; what can go right with them, and what can go wrong. [9:57] Part of modeling acquisitions is taking a look at those scenarios and looking for the probability of a downside, what that downside looks like, and what will drive it. What has to go right to have the best case? What does the base case look like? What are those probabilities? [10:20] Eric says that was the beginning of understanding how risk and business go hand-in-hand. They can't have opportunity without risk. There's no reward without risk. Understanding that was an element of that job. [10:39] Eric was fortunate to have a tremendous boss during that time who helped him gain critical thinking about how things operate. [10:58] Eric says when they were looking at how other companies operate, they were companies within the gas industry, to stay within their knowledge base, and simplify their business, within the natural gas value chain, from wellhead to burner tip. [11:30] They were looking at exploration & production, gathering & processing, pipelines, underground storage, down to uses for it, including compressed natural gas for vehicles and local distribution utilities.  [11:58] Justin suggests that the 13-year period when Eric was in Strategic Planning and Corporate Development, holding several positions, was a key time in his career. Eric says yes, and it was his favorite period. He had gone to school for investment banking and acquisitions. [12:42] Eric says, at the same time, it was a tremendous amount of work. He thought maybe it wasn't the best place to spend his lifetime because of the level of work and stress involved. [13:04] Eric was married and raising a family, and that had to come into play, as well. He says while his wife was extremely patient with him during all those times, sometimes working around the clock, he felt it wasn't the right long-term opportunity for him. [13:20] Eric says one of the things he learned when he was doing acquisitions was developing models for how utilities make money. Eric worked with people who did rate cases at the company, to understand what drove cash flow. [13:47] In doing that, Eric learned how regulations work and how tariffs work. That led to asking himself, if this isn't the right career for me, taking a look at something next to it, which was regulatory and government affairs. [14:27] Eric had already started to learn about it. Once he was in charge, he based it on Missouri regulations. The first acquisition was a company in Kansas City, Missouri. [15:05] The second acquisition was Alagasco in Alabama, and that was a completely different type of ratemaking approach that was annual. They had a formal department. Eric was asked to develop something more formal for the entire company. [15:21] Eric says then they acquired Energy South, which brought them into Mobile and also Mississippi, a third rate jurisdiction. There was a mountain of information to climb. His drive and thirst for knowledge helped him up the curve pretty quickly. [15:53] Eric says relationships and the stuff between the lines are just as important as what you can read about and study. [16:12] Eric says, pulling from his enterprise risk career, one of the impacts is not just financial, but reputation. Reputation is a huge element of rate setting. Your reputation precedes you to the commission that oversees rate case litigation and the parties to the case. [16:47] The parties that are involved include industrials, AARP, low-income groups, an energy efficiency group, and other parties. [17:01] Understanding where they're coming from, and what they're trying to achieve, and working towards something that gives all parties some of what they want, is a key element. [17:18] If you were a bad operator; if you had a significant incident that showed you weren't a safe operator, or you weren't treating your customers well, then going into the rate case, people had their minds set that they wanted to give you not a rate increase but a rate reduction. [17:40] The value of the relationships and the reputation, the stuff that is gray and in between the lines, is not just about what the numbers are but who you are as a business. [17:56] A Quick Break! Many fantastic RIMS events are coming up in 2026. The 11th Annual Chicagoland Risk Forum will return to the Old Post Office on Thursday, September 24th, 2026. Visit ChicagolandRiskForum.org for more information. [18:12] The RIMS Western Regional Conference will be held from October 4th through the 7th in Seattle, Washington. The agenda is live, and registration is open. Visit RIMSWesternRegional.com and the link in this episode's show notes for more information. [18:29] Save the dates: October 18th through the 21st. We will be in Quebec City to celebrate the 50th Live RIMS Canada Conference. Booth sales are open, and sponsorship opportunities are still available. Advance registration is open now. [18:45] Visit RIMSCanadaConference.ca for more information. Also, remember to check out RIMS.org/Canada for our spinoff show, RIMScast Canada, hosted by National Conference Committee Chair, Aaron Lukoni. [19:00] The RIMS ERM Conference 2026 will be held on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio. Registration is now open. [19:10] Through August 21st, you can nominate a program for the RIMS ERM Global Award of Distinction. If you know of an ERM Program that is award-worthy, we want to hear about it. A link to the nomination form is in this episode's show notes. Visit RIMS.org/ERM2026. [19:29] We're already looking to RISKWORLD 2027, which will be held over four days in New Orleans, Louisiana, from April 18th through the 21st! The call for session proposals is now live and will stay active through August 21st. [19:44] RIMS members can exclusively register by September 4th for the best rate. And get first access to the hotel block. Hotel reservations open on October 28th, ahead of public registration. Sitting this out is the real risk! The link to registration is in this episode's show notes. [20:04] Let's Return to Our Interview with Eric Lobser! [20:31] Justin asks about compliance at a natural gas company. Eric says his career at a critical infrastructure utility delivering a relatively volatile product to people's homes was very safety-oriented with a lot of rules, regulations, and areas of compliance. [21:04] The whole industry faced a need to replace some of its aging infrastructure. That started when Eric was in Treasury and trying to think about how they would afford all the replacements they were going through. [21:22] It came again when Eric was in Regulatory, trying to understand the balance between safety and rates and what's best for the business and what's best for the customer. [21:53] Compliance is not something you can decide to do a little bit or a lot. You have to meet at least the minimum standards. Spire was always at that point but also found the benefit of going beyond that, to deal with it a little bit more strategically. [22:14] Spire was generally a group that looked at opportunities to do replacement in a way that overall was more cost-effective, exceeding requirements on their compliance. Compliance was an enterprise risk. [22:34] Eric says it was not just making sure they were in compliance, but also what the cost of compliance is and what if people change their minds and all of a sudden want us to do this or that? [22:53] Being a regulated utility, your rates are dependent on somebody deciding you deserve to have this. [23:02] Compliance was more often not physical replacement but putting in another pipe beside the old pipe and terminating the old cast iron pipe that had degraded and become a safety issue. [23:26] Spire always paid attention to where they were getting leaks or water potentially getting into the system and areas of geography that had similar types of risk. [23:39] Spire took a strategic approach to look at the information they were getting and figure out where to go and do wholesale changes rather than responding to risks as they popped up. [23:54] Eric says that was the approach where they took compliance and said if we do more, it probably can be better for us and better for the customer to take a better strategic approach. [24:19] Eric says it's inconvenient and sometimes problematic for people when there are workers in the street. Part of Eric's career was dealing with claims and issues that can happen with construction. The construction was necessary to make sure the system was safe. [24:53] Eric says the most prevalent claims were when they were doing excavation and hit something unmapped, like an underground dog fence or sprinkler system. To be cost-effective, they used reliable outside partners to replace these. [26:44] Eric says that every year, when he was in Strategic Planning, he would help put on a two-day conference for the Board to review company strategy and present new ideas. [27:01] Any time they found an acquisition opportunity that met the muster of the executives, they presented that to the Board. [27:!3] Eric says the Board is extremely interested in rate cases, which are the heart and soul of a utility's business. [27:28] Something Eric found helpful later in his career, doing regulatory work, was to pull together parties without overlapping interests, such as the Board and the Public Service Commission, to help them find agreement on why something was beneficial for the customers. [28:58] Eric says, for the first time or two, presenting to the Board was frightening. He was fortunate enough not to be leading the presentations. He reported to officers who helped develop the business planning and strategy. They helped Eric work his way into bigger roles. [29:32] Eric says when he became more involved in doing the modeling, one time he was called by the CEO to speak to the Board while he was on a family vacation. His wife reminds him of this. The Board was very interested in the upside case and downside case of a model scenario. [30:31] Eric says in that phone call he had to give the Board a rigorous view of why they should spend $1.1 billion on this acquisition. While exciting, Eric says presenting to the Board was a very stressful part of the job. They're relying on things that he's saying to them. [31:12] Eric says acquisitions have their own timeline and they develop however they want to. It's not like going to the grocery store to pick up something. When something pops, it pops, and it's all hands on deck. You don't stop until the job is done. [31:35] One more Quick Break! RIMS, The Foundation for Risk ManagementTM, is dedicated to shaping the future of the profession. By making a contribution, you are strengthening the global risk management community and investing in the future of the industry. [31:55] The Foundation also supports the Spencer Educational Foundation but has a different mission. The Foundation focuses on providing opportunities for those professionals who have already decided to enter risk management and are just getting started. [32:09] You can learn more about the Foundation by visiting www.RIMS.org/FRM.  While you're there, be sure to check out information about the Susan Meltzer Scholarship Fund, which was established to honor Ms. Meltzer, who was RIMS President in 1999 and 2000. [32:28] Susan Meltzer was a cherished RIMS President and contributed so much to RIMS and the greater risk community. Learn more at RIMS.org/FRM.  [32:36] Let's Return to Our Interview with Eric Lobser! [32:52] Eric says that it seems to him that if people viewed Enterprise Risk Management more as Enterprise Value Management, they would better understand that it's more about what you need to do to improve the value of your company. [33:19] In Eric's Strategic Planning days in Corporate Acquisitions, he learned that Expected Value is about changing probabilities, not just the impact of those probabilities. [33:32] Eric says Enterprise Risk Management does a great job of addressing both the likelihood and the impact of things going wrong and things going right. What you're building with ERM is value. You're adding to the value of the company. [33:46] Eric thinks more people would engage. It would resonate with a lot of the corporate cultures to look at ERM as a way to build value for the company. [34:08] Justin says that for almost eight years, Eric was the Spire VP of ERM. Justin asks if Eric was able to hit the ground running, going from Regulatory and Government Affairs into ERM. [34:32] Eric says the position started with Insurance, and then Commodity Risk Management, other elements of the business that helped him up the learning curve. From Acquisitions, Regulatory, Operations, and Customer Service, Eric understood a lot about the business. [34:55] Eric says having a couple of years when he was in charge of Spire's Insurance program, including Captive Management, where you retain risk instead of transferring it, was a great transition to eventually getting Enterprise Risk. [35:31] Eric says he read every book he could get his hands on in the time he had. He noticed some of the things they were doing were based on ISO 31000. Eric read through ISO and COSO. COSO felt very intricate and detailed. [36:10] Eric asked himself what the potential was that we were going to adopt something. The culture of the business manages the risk. ERM oversees how the business manages risk. Eric wanted to pick a framework that fit more with Spire's corporate culture. [36:39] Eric says ISO 31000 is adjustable. He felt like it was a good fit. It was more about strategy and enterprise than Spire's focus had been. It was not just about what could go wrong and what they should be concerned about happening, but what must go right. [37:22] Eric says that looped in what he learned in Strategy, what they have to do to be successful, and what could derail them from that. Spire transitioned a little bit less away from risks and more to strategic imperatives and what they had to do to achieve their strategic vision. [38:02] Justin asks about ERM conferences and what makes a great ERM session. Eric says it's a practitioner who has lived through it with real-world experience on what works, what doesn't work, and why it didn't work. [38:18] Eric says everything's specific to the company, so what works for one may not work for another. An experienced practitioner brings a level of credibility that is important. Eric wants a presenter who focuses on what helps a company be more successful in executing its strategy. [38:41] Eric says a lot of presentations go into risk registers and software, but in the end, risk management is change management, with very complex systems. The presenter should speak to engaging the business, getting different areas to collaborate, and making better decisions. [39:31] Eric says those decisions are about how you allocate resources. Resources are limited. You can't do everything, so you prioritize. [39:41] ERM helps you to prioritize better, using a process of identification and assessment, to help you understand how important a risk is in relation to other risks, how soon it needs to be dealt with, and what level of mitigation and controls you already have in place. [40:13] Eric says, ERM helps you determine if this risk is extremely well-managed and there are resources you can take away from it to put toward a risk that's less well-mitigated. [40:22] Eric says a good ERM session presenter talks about how ERM helps a corporation make better decisions and effectuate those resource allocations that then help that company to be more successful. That's what ERM is about, and when somebody talks about that, it resonates. [41:02] Eric says when he hears a concept that really resonates with him, he tries to pull those concepts together. He has used principles from the Enterprise Risk Oversight Committee. [41:44] Justin says the Global ERM Award of Distinction call for submissions is open. You can send in those nominations now. RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction nominations are open through Aug. 21! [41:57] Justin asks Eric what makes an Enterprise Risk Management program award-worthy. Eric says some of it is going to be based on the eye of the beholder. Enterprise Risk should be customized to the culture. People are going to view what makes a great program differently. [42:28] Eric says that the SERMC is looking for, with the diverse perspectives of the members, a program that is well-integrated into Strategic Planning, helps the business make decisions, and most importantly, helps it be more successful, with fewer downturns, than their competitors. [43:09] Eric says the business manages risk. ERM can help oversee what they're looking at and turn its attention to important things, and help determine the best ways to mitigate or treat risk, or support what they are doing, so the strategy prevents threats from derailing the company. [43:33] Eric says, in the end, a company that is consistently successful is probably the mark of a good Enterprise Risk Management program. [43:51] Justin says, we're going to see you again on November 19th and 20th in Columbus, Ohio at the RIMS ERM Conference. You can get your nominations in now for the RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction. We'll have a special awards ceremony, like we do every year. [44:07] Eric, it has been such a pleasure to have you on RIMScast! I look forward to seeing you in Columbus. [44:19] Special thanks again to Eric Lobser for joining us here on RIMScast. We appreciate him and all the great work he does for the RIMS SERMC. The call for nominations for the RIMS Global ERM Award of Distinction is open; a link is in this episode's show notes. [44:36] There are specific attributes that will make a nomination truly award-worthy. Submit your nominations today! [44:42] Plug Time! Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [45:00] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [45:16] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [45:29] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. Please remember to subscribe to RIMScast on your favorite podcasting app. You can email us at Content@RIMS.org. [45:41] Practice good risk management, stay safe, and thank you again for your continued support!   Links: RIMS ERM Conference 2026 | November 19‒20 in Columbus, Ohio | Registration Now Open! | www.rims.org/ERM2026 | RIMS ERM Global Award of Distinction nominations open through Aug. 21! RIMS Certification Week: Sept. 21‒24 | Complimentary For All Spencer Educational Foundation's 2026 Funding Their Future Gala | Sept. 17, 2026 RISKWORLD 2027 Registration | RIMS members can lock in 2026 rates now through Sept. 4 | Education Content Submission Through Aug. 21. ChicagoLand Risk Forum | Sept. 24, 2026 RIMS Western Regional Conference — Oct. 4‒7, 2026 | Seattle, WA | Register Today. RIMS Canada Conference — Oct. 18‒21, 2026 | Quebec City | www.rimscanadaconference.ca | Advance Registration Open | Sponsorship Opportunities Available The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center RIMS, the Foundation for Risk Management Spencer Educational Foundation — Scholarships and Grants | Open Calls and Timelines. RIMS Now RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) | Insights Video Series Featuring Joe Milan! RIMS Diversity Equity Inclusion Council RIMS-CRMP Stories RIMScast Canada — Episodes Now Live RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMScast on YouTube! RIMS Risk Management Magazine | Contribute | Q2 2026 Issue Now Available Sponsor RIMScast — Sales@RIMS.org Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep Workshop — Live In NY — Aug 27‒28! RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA | Sept 1‒2 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops Upcoming RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars "RIMS Student Series: Classroom to Career Part 1" | Sept 1 "RIMS Student Series: Classroom to Career Part 2" | Sept 9 RIMS Certification Week: Sept. 22‒24 | Complimentary For All   Related RIMScast Episodes: "Board Reporting and ERM in 2026 with Trisha Sqrow and Suzanne Christensen" "The Future of Strategic Risk Management" with John Button "Mid-Year Risk Roundup 2026 with Morgan O'Rourke and Hilary Tuttle" "Emerging Risks and AMRAE's RMIS Panorama 2026 with François Beaume" "Strategy and Change with Ward Ching and Aaron Olson"   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: "48 Hours From a Storm: What to Do Before A Hurricane Strikes" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company (New!) "AI-Scale, Risk Ready: Engineering Controls for the New Data Center Boom" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Facing Into Risk: Navigating the New Risk Landscape" (New!) | Sponsored by AXA XL "Secondary Perils, Major Risks: The New Face of Weather-Related Challenges" | Sponsored by AXA XL "The ART of Risk: Rethinking Risk Through Insight, Design, and Innovation" | Sponsored by Alliant "Mastering ERM: Leveraging Internal and External Risk Factors" | Sponsored by Diligent "Cyberrisk: Preparing Beyond 2025" | Sponsored by Alliant "The New Reality of Risk Engineering: From Code Compliance to Resilience" | Sponsored by AXA XL "Change Management: AI's Role in Loss Control and Property Insurance" | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company "Demystifying Multinational Fronting Insurance Programs" | Sponsored by Zurich "Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding" | Sponsored by Zurich "What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping" | Sponsored by Medcor "How Insurance Builds Resilience Against an Active Assailant Attack" | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog "Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips" | Sponsored by Alliant   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Manny Padilla!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Eric Lobser, SERMC Member   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.

Between tighter budgets, a fast-growing rental living sector, and clients who simply need great people fast, temporary recruitment has become one of the smartest tools in a property employer's kit. Here's what we discussed, straight from the podcast. What is driving demand for temp recruitment in property? Right now, plenty of clients tell us they have no budget for permanent recruitment. But temp recruitment often sits under a completely different budget line. Businesses still need to operate, and a temporary contractor is frequently the simplest solution. We're also seeing growth in areas like marketing and events, both strong signs the wider market is picking back up. This matches the latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs, which found that UK businesses are increasingly choosing temporary and contract staff while remaining cautious about committing to permanent hires this summer. Why "trial before you invest" works for property employers My colleague Elise puts it perfectly: “trial before you invest.” If you're unsure whether you have the time or budget for a permanent hire, bring someone in on a temp contract first. You pay weekly. If the person works out brilliantly, you can make the role permanent. If the contract simply ends, you've still had the job covered without a long-term commitment. Temp recruitment in the New Homes market Across new homes, sales have slowed. Many clients have responded by opening marketing suites seven days a week, which means they need staff who can cover part-time hours, weekends and holidays. Good candidates often come with a notice period, sometimes four weeks or more. Rather than leave a site uncovered, clients bring in a temp worker to bridge the gap. Occasionally, that temp performs so well they're offered the permanent job themselves. The rise of temp recruitment in Rental Living  Grace Harris leads our temporary rental living desk, covering build to rent, co-living and student living. She joined just over a year ago, and the rental living market has been growing rapidly ever since, with temporary recruitment demand growing right alongside it. What roles do temp workers cover in Build To Rent? Resident hosts and community hosts working front of house and reception Facilities and maintenance staff, including painters and decorators Asset management and portfolio management roles at head office level Why summer is peak season for Rental Living temp staff Student accommodation sees a wave of turnover every summer, with students moving in and out within weeks of each other. Extra temporary support keeps front desks running smoothly during the busiest months. The sector has also had to adapt to the Renters' Rights Act, which received royal assent in October 2025 and introduced significant changes for landlords and tenants across the private rented sector. With so many moving parts, businesses need reliable temp workers to keep operations running.   How to get started with temp recruitment Call our temp desk and tell us what you need We take time to understand your business, not just the job specification We meet and vet every candidate before they go anywhere near a client site Your temp worker can start quickly, often within hours We take this seriously because a temp contractor represents deverellsmith on-site. If they don't do a good job, neither do we. That's why we're just as invested in our contractors as our clients are.   Frequently Asked Questions What is temp recruitment in the property sector? Temp recruitment in property means hiring vetted temporary or contract staff for roles such as marketing, sales, front of house, facilities or asset management. It's usually billed weekly rather than through a permanent salary, giving employers flexibility without a long-term commitment. How quickly can a temp worker start in the UK property market? With deverellsmith's temp desk, we can usually place a vetted candidate within days rather than weeks, because we've already taken the time to understand your business. Can a temporary contract turn into a permanent job? Yes. It's common for a temp worker to prove themselves so well on a contract that the client offers them a permanent position. Many employers now use temp recruitment as a genuine trial period before committing to a permanent hire. Why is temp recruitment growing in rental living and build to rent? The UK rental living market, including build to rent, co-living and student accommodation, is expanding rapidly. This growth, combined with recent renters' rights legislation, has increased demand for flexible temporary staff who can support both frontline and operational roles.   About The Podcast Guests Alice – Business Manager, deverellsmith Temp Desk Alice has spent over five years leading deverellsmith's temp and contract desk, specialising in New Homes Sales, Customer Service and Concierge placements. A former professional actress and singer, she brings that creative background into building genuine, lasting relationships with clients and candidates alike. Connect with Alice on LinkedIn or email alice.murray@deverellsmith.com. Elise Goldsmith – Principal Consultant, deverellsmith Elise sits on the Temp & Contract desk at deverellsmith, specialising in new homes sales recruitment. She partners with leading developers including London Square, Ballymore, Hill and Peabody, drawing on four years' prior experience in estate agency to match top talent with the right roles. Connect with Elise on LinkedIn or email elise.goldsmiths@deverellsmith.com. Grace Harris – Senior Recruitment Consultant, deverellsmith Grace heads up deverellsmith's temporary rental living desk, specialising in build to rent, co-living and student living recruitment across the UK and US. Her deep sector knowledge and extensive network help organisations secure the right people to keep their operations running smoothly. Connect with Grace on LinkedIn or email grace.harris@deverellsmith.com.

Hey there Voices of the Bench community, this is Trish Jones with Ivoclar. If you've been curious about fast-firing zirconia to improve efficiency but aren't convinced it can deliver predictable, high-quality results, I'd encourage you to connect with us. Our new IPS Emax Zirconia offers multiple fast-fire protocols designed to help save you valuable production time while maintaining consistent results. Time is money in every lab. Don't wait. Reach out to your local Ivoclar rep today and discover how IPS Emax Zirconia can help streamline your workflow. As full-arch dentistry continues to grow, so do the demands on today's dental laboratories. That's why Knight Dental recently launched SimplyARCH Studio, a dedicated production environment built exclusively for full-arch restorations. To support this specialized workflow, Knight invested in an XTCERA milling system and carefully evaluated multiple CAM software solutions before choosing hyperDENT. The decision came down to exceptional milling quality, minimal hand finishing, and impressive production efficiency. But what truly set hyperDENT apart was the implementation process. From the very beginning, the team provided more than software training—they shared the knowledge and experience needed to build an optimized workflow for complex full-arch cases. With proven expertise in advanced milling strategies and laboratory production, hyperDENT helped ensure SimplyARCH Studio was designed for long-term success from day one.Matt Everatt joins Elvis and Barb for a fascinating conversation that takes a deep dive into his journey through the dental laboratory industry and the story behind his book, The Invisible Profession. From discovering dental technology at 16 and specializing in maxillofacial prosthetics and orthodontics to working in hospitals, developing early sleep-apnea appliances, and nearly leaving the profession altogether, Matt's career has taken some seriously interesting turns. Eventually, he helped co-found S4S, building a successful business around sleep-apnea appliances, occlusal splints, orthodontics, and more before eventually stepping away from ownership. This week on Voices From the Bench, we finally sit down with someone we've been wanting to have on the show for a LONG time—Philip Gold! Philip grew up in the dental laboratory, quite literally pulling teeth out of formaldehyde bottles in his father Raymond Gold's lab in Atlanta. His father started the laboratory in 1946, and Philip eventually found himself following in those footsteps, although not without first taking a seven-year detour working for Williams Gold. That experience gave him the opportunity to visit laboratories all over the country, learn from some of the best in the industry, and see firsthand how different labs operated. Philip eventually returned to the family laboratory in 1980 and began the process of taking over from his father. What followed was a career built around learning, adapting, building teams, and—most importantly—relationships. Philip shares what it was like stepping into a leadership role at a young age, earning the respect of experienced technicians, and learning that being a leader isn't about knowing everything yourself, but understanding the work well enough to help the people around you succeed. He also talks about selling the laboratory to National Dentex with the goal of giving the business and its people an opportunity to continue growing, only to eventually find his way back into the laboratory world with By Design Dental Studio alongside his daughter Katie and Denise. And if you know Philip, you know he's never stopped learning. He currently holds six CDT certifications, including ceramics, crown and bridge, partials, implants, dentures, and digital. His story about preparing for the digital practical exam is a perfect example of his determination—his first practice run took seven and a half hours for an exam designed to be completed in just over five. So he reorganized, practiced again, changed his workflow, and eventually got it down to under five hours. And of course, Philip isn't pursuing certifications just for himself. He wants to set an example, motivate the next generation of technicians, and encourage more people in the laboratory to continue learning. We also get into the importance of customer service, why relationships are at the heart of this industry, and why sometimes the best thing a laboratory can do is simply pick up the phone and help. Philip shares his philosophy that when something goes wrong, you drop everything and make it right. We talk about giving back to the industry, the people who helped shape Philip's career, and how the dental laboratory community has always been willing to share knowledge when you're willing to ask. And yes… somewhere along the way we also hear the greatest “okey-doke” story in dental laboratory history. Special Guest: Phillip Gold.

Dr. Kuba is all bent out of shape today over a recent medical visit. She recaps multiple instances of inefficiencies that push her to pause, reflect, and consider the hidden lessons. She and Bethany dialogue about the potential causes of such inefficiencies as well as what dental teams can do to avoid chronic medical mistakes. Everyone can relate to those terrible medical experiences, but today's episode will help you to stop and consider the lessons to be learned in thinking through these scenarios. August Digest Available! This month we focus on HIRING! Grow your team and build your systems intentionally this month. Subscribe today! Want 30% off the Leadership Summit? Become a subscriber!! https://www.patreon.com/cw/ManagingDentalDrama/membership Do not miss the Leadership Summit! When: September 18, 2026 from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Lunch served) Where: Homewood Suites The Colony, TXWho: Practice owners and leaders are invitedWhat: Bring your leadership problems, and we will solve them together! Harness a day full of practical solutions surrounded by like minded leaders. www.hellobethany.com/leadership HUB HIGHLIGHTEmergency Call TriageMake emergency calls easier for your front office team with this simple triage guide that helps them ask the right questions and know how quickly a patient may need to be seen. Team TrainingMake team training easier with this step-by-step guide designed to help your front office and clinical team work more efficiently and create a better patient experience.Don't forget to check out our social media for moreManaging Dental Drama FBManaging Dental Drama IGConnect with the Managing Dental Drama Community!Managing Dental Drama Membership Club Sign UpWait! There's More!We want to hear YOUR voice!Text a 2-minute voice memo to 214.326.4605 with your questions, comments, real-life examples, or tips for a chance to have YOUR voice on the air!Interested in the Leadership Summit?Join Us! Friday, September 18, 20268:30am - 4:30pmIn The Colony, TXInquire or register TODAY!HelloBethany.com/Leadership

I'm CT…  When I'm not busy being Arroe the podcaster, I live in the real world.  Everybody has to have a job.  Mine is C.S.  Customer Service.  Solutions, relationships.  Keeping my team motivated in an age of constant connections.  Each guest has chosen to stop their day to visit our location.  Episode 234 The mystery man, olive branches, tang and the poet .Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

In Keep Canada Weird Jordan and Aaron Airport explore the weird and offbeat Canadian news stories from the past week. In this episode your hosts discuss; Ottawa's Heavy Metal Hospital Huge Plastic Rocks in Saskatoon Fake Customer Service Scammers Rabid Cat TERROR in Quebec Series Links Keep Canada Weird Series: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com/keep-canada-weird Send a voice memo: www.thecanadiangothic.com/contact Join the Keep Canada Weird Discussion Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepcanadaweird Provide feedback and comments on the episode: thecanadiangothic.com/contact Subscribe to the show: thecanadiangothic.com/subscribe Contact: Website: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCanadianGothic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecanadiangothic/ Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/thecanadiangothic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A hallmark of what has made Disney a world-class organization is its attention to its customers—and especially to return customers. They of course refer to them as guests in their parks, which is a sign that this commitment on Disney's park is intentional and is more about relationships than it is about transactions. But there's a lot more intentional effort made when creating guest or customer loyalty. And it's important too, because loyal fans made purchasing decisions that are powerful to any one's bottom line.  New announcements have been made about Disney's Lakeshore Lodge located on Bay Lake. And at the same time preparations are being made for next week's big D23 event. Both showcase how impactful guest Disney loyalty is, how it and other world-class organizations benefit long term financially, but how any organization could benefit by creating greater customer loyalty. Be sure to check out my latest endeavor, Disneyland Insights: Inspiration, Ideas & Magic for You and Your Organization. __________________________________________________ Disney Insights YouTube Page--Check it out and subscribe. DisneyInsights.com--So many resources at our home site. Be sure to subscribe to receive notice of upcoming podcasts. My newest book, A Century of Powerful Disney Insights, Volume I 1923-1973, The Walt & Roy Disney Years is available!  Also, check out my two of my other books, The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney and Disney, Leadership and You.  Also, for those examining other business benchmarks beyond Disney, check out Lead with Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand Into World-Class Excellence. _______________________________________________________ Check out Zanolla Travel to book your next vacation!  David & Leah Zanolla ZanollaTravel.com Owner/Agents (309) 863-5469 _________________________________________________________ Performance Journeys This podcast and post is provided by J. Jeff Kober and Performance Journeys, which celebrates more than 20 years as a training and development group bringing best in business ideas through books, keynotes, workshops, seminars and online tools to help you take your organization to the next level. Want a Keynote Speaker? More than just nice stories, I offer proven insight and solutions having worked in the trench. Need Consulting? I've worked for decades across the public, private and non-profit arena.  Need Support? We offer so many classroom, online, and other resources to help you improve your customer service delivery, leadership excellence, and employee engagement. Contact us today, and let us help you on your Performance Journey!  

Arrivato in Australia nel 2009 con un Working Holiday Visa, Lorenzo Nistri ha costruito passo dopo passo una carriera nel mondo della comunicazione digitale. Oggi è senior content producer per il Dipartimento di Customer Service del New South Wales.Seguici su Facebook e Instagram o abbonati ai nostri podcast cliccando qui. 

In Keep Canada Weird Jordan and Aaron Airport explore the weird and offbeat Canadian news stories from the past week. In this episode your hosts discuss; Ottawa's Heavy Metal Hospital Huge Plastic Rocks in Saskatoon Fake Customer Service Scammers Rabid Cat TERROR in Quebec Series Links Keep Canada Weird Series: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com/keep-canada-weird Send a voice memo: www.thecanadiangothic.com/contact Join the Keep Canada Weird Discussion Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/keepcanadaweird Provide feedback and comments on the episode: thecanadiangothic.com/contact Subscribe to the show: thecanadiangothic.com/subscribe Contact: Website: https://www.thecanadiangothic.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCanadianGothic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecanadiangothic/ Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/thecanadiangothic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Tanner and Dave sit down with Stacy Anthony, CEO and co-founder of Ag Revolution, to discuss how his company is reshaping equipment sales and service across the Midwest. After spending 27 years with John Deere rebuilding dealerships and later creating one of the nation's largest agricultural equipment export businesses, Stacy set out to build something entirely different. He shares the story behind launching Ag Revolution, why the company invested in a fleet of more than 60 mobile service trucks instead of additional brick-and-mortar dealerships, and how servicing equipment directly on the farm is helping producers reduce downtime and keep operations moving. The conversation also dives into the evolution of Fendt and Massey Ferguson, what separates premium equipment from dependable value-focused machinery, how dealership culture impacts customer experience, and why building long-term relationships—not just selling equipment—has been the foundation of Ag Revolution's rapid growth. Along the way, Stacy reflects on his career traveling to 27 countries exporting farm equipment, receiving recognition at the White House, and the leadership lessons he learned from working with farmers around the world. Whether you're evaluating your next machinery purchase, interested in dealership trends, or simply enjoy hearing stories from leaders who are challenging the status quo, this episode offers a fascinating look at where agricultural equipment is headed. Want Farm4Profit Merch? Custom order your favorite items today!https://farmfocused.com/farm-4profit/ Don't forget to like the podcast on all platforms and leave a review where ever you listen! Website: www.Farm4Profit.comShareable episode link: https://intro-to-farm4profit.simplecast.comEmail address: Farm4profitllc@gmail.comCall/Text: 515.207.9640Subscribe to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSR8c1BrCjNDDI_Acku5XqwFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@farm4profitllc Connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Farm4ProfitLLC/Farm4Profit Media is not a financial, legal, or tax advisor. Content is provided for informational purposes only, and we serve solely as a platform for third-party opinions. Any actions taken based on this content are at your own risk. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Need a laugh to survive the latest political dumpster fire? Grab a beverage and dive into the Pentagon's surprisingly bizarre brainstorm for Iran—because subjecting troops to Spectrum customer service might actually violate the Geneva Conventions. Plus, Stephanie Miller breaks down President Trump's awkward dodge on Judge Jeanine's job security and the sheer chaos of recent primary elections. With guests Malcolm Nance & Carlos Alazraqui!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send us Fan MailIn our latest episode, Yvonne and Rafael talk to Andrea Mills, President of Ametros.Guest BioAndrea Mills | President, Ametros | Workers' Comp Professional AdministratorNearly 20 years in the workers' compensation industry8+ years with Ametros, currently in her ninth yearLeads the largest professional administration company in the workers' comp space, serving both workers' comp and liability casesSince the recording of this episode, Ametros has expanded Medicare Advantage Plan support and is now available in all states except New York. For more information, visit info.ametros.com/medicare-consultation. Any references to savings are for informational purposes only. Savings are not guaranteed, and past performance or historical results are not indicative of future outcomes.Here are highlights of our conversation with Andrea: 1. The Settlement Cliff: When Support Suddenly StopsInjured workers spend an average of six years in the workers' comp system with full support: medical care, case managers, adjusters. Then settlement happens. Suddenly, most of that infrastructure disappears. They're left managing complex healthcare needs, settlement funds that need to last them years or a lifetime, and ongoing medical treatment entirely on their own.This is the gap Ametros fills.DC micro lesson: The industry has built systems for managing active claims. But we haven't built strong systems for managing the post-settlement phase. There's a resource cliff, and injured workers are expected to navigate it alone. Ametros stepped in to solve this problem. 2. Professional Administration Isn't Process. It's Presence.Ametros helps injured workers manage settlement funds, navigate their healthcare journey, and access the support they need after settlement. Referrals come from adjusters, Medicare Set-Aside vendors, and plaintiff attorneys who all recognize the same truth: injured workers need expert, compassionate support they can actually rely on after their claim is settled. DC micro lesson: Professional administration is about showing up for someone vulnerable and saying, "We're going to help you figure this out." It's about showing up for injured workers and helping them feel at ease and secure about their future medical care. 3. Medication Management: The Invisible Cost of Chronic ConditionsAfter settlement, injured workers face the full cost of their prescriptions for the first time. Chronic pain medications can cost thousands per month. Ametros works with injured workers to find the best alternatives, manage costs, navigate insurance, and ensure medications and care remain affordable.DC micro lesson: What happens to prescriptions after settlement is not a sidebar in the claim story. It's often the center of the story. Ametros helps injured workers think through their long-term care needs and identifies the best options. 4. Empathy Isn't Soft. It's Infrastructure.Ametros doesn't just talk about empathy; they've operationalized it. It's woven into hiring, training, and accountability. It's infrastructure. When injured workers interact with Ametros, they feel seen. That's not accidental. DC micro lesson: We need to stop treating empathy like it's a mindset hack. Start asking: How is empathy built into your processes? How do you hire for it? Coach for it? Help people build capacity for it? Until you answer these questions, you're not operationalizing empathy. You're just talking about it.5. Capacity Comes From Boundaries, Not Gritting It OutAndrea models protecting her own capacity: family time, travel (hello, Italy!), life outside work. Ametros's leadership team protects these boundaries for their teams too. You can't show up for injured workers if you're running on empty. You can't make people feel seen if you're depleted.DC micro lesson: How your team shows up for injured workers is directly connected to how you show up for your team. Capacity isn't something you demand from people. It's something you protect for them.A Final ThoughtAmetros solved a problem the industry had been overlooking: injured workers settling their cases and then disappearing into a resource void. They stepped into that gap and said, "We can do better." That's how you move an industry forward.Kudos to the team at Ametros for winning the Gold Stevie® Award for Sales & Customer Service in the Contact Center of the Year – Other Service Industries category. This recognition is well-earned by a team that puts injured workers' needs first.¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp 

Leveraging AI Efficiency and Human Insight  Shep interviews Filip Jaskólski, Chief Product Officer at Text. He talks about how customer service, empowered by AI and human collaboration, can shift from being a cost center to a revenue generator for businesses.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How can customer service move from a cost center to a revenue generator?    What is the ideal balance between AI automation and human agents in customer support?    How can companies use AI to boost upselling and product recommendations?    Why should businesses transition from reactive to proactive customer service?    What metrics actually matter when evaluating AI in customer support?   Top Takeaways:    Customer service has evolved beyond being a support center. When done strategically, it can be an important contributor to customer retention and revenue.      Every interaction with customers is an opportunity to gain valuable information about what they want or need. Aside from answering questions and solving problems, successful companies use these customer signals to improve their products and services.     By analyzing and interpreting not just the words that customers use but also the intent and context behind interactions, AI becomes an essential tool for providing personalized recommendations.     The potential for upselling and cross-selling exists in every customer conversation, not just in face-to-face interactions. Automated systems are now sophisticated enough to identify when recommendations are relevant and welcome, turning customer support channels into points of sale.     The goal is not to fully automate contact centers. Instead, successful businesses strive for a balance between AI and human strengths. For example, AI can sort through large numbers of inventory to suggest products that match the customer's needs. At the same time, human agents are capable of empathy and judgment that are essential in building a lasting connection with customers.     Revenue, satisfaction, and loyalty are the biggest indicators of success in using AI to enhance customer and employee experience. Often, companies get stuck measuring how many customers interact with AI, or how fast problems are resolved while missing out on real opportunities for growth.     Plus, Shep and Filip discuss why businesses should be proactive rather than reactive when interacting with customers. Tune in!  Quote:   "With the technology that we have today, AI can help us go deeper in our relationship with customers. We can analyze so much data and context to match what our customers need to what we can offer."      About:    Filip Jaskólski is the Chief Product Officer at Text. He drives product strategy and development with a focus on practical, scalable AI-powered customer experience solutions.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm CT…  When I'm not busy being Arroe the podcaster, I live in the real world.  Everybody has to have a job.  Mine is C.S.  Customer Service.  Solutions, relationships.  Keeping my team motivated in an age of constant connections.  Each guest has chosen to stop their day to visit our location.  Episode 233 Stop saying I'm sorry, addicted to the lottery and Amazon side hustle.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-like-it-s-live--4113802/support.

La mayoría de las empresas mide sus resultados cuando el mes ya terminó. Las mejores empresas hacen algo distinto: aprenden a anticiparse. En este episodio de Crece o Muere, converso con Mariana Lira, experta en Customer Service, Supply Chain y Forecast para Latinoamérica, sobre cómo construir procesos comerciales más predecibles, por qué el forecast va mucho más allá de proyectar ventas y cómo una mejor planificación impacta directamente la experiencia del cliente, la operación y el crecimiento del negocio. Si quieres dejar de reaccionar y empezar a tomar decisiones con anticipación, este episodio es para ti.

I'm CT…  When I'm not busy being Arroe the podcaster, I live in the real world.  Everybody has to have a job.  Mine is C.S.  Customer Service.  Solutions, relationships.  Keeping my team motivated in an age of constant connections.  Each guest has chosen to stop their day to visit our location.  Episode 233 Stop saying I'm sorry, addicted to the lottery and Amazon side hustle.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

FULL SHOW-Welcome to The Other Side of Midnight with Walter Sterling, the ultimate late-night audio refuge for insomniacs and "Midnight Misfits". Broadcasting while the rest of the world sleeps, Walter curates an unpredictable, highly entertaining mix of the paranormal, pop culture, and relatable everyday grievances. One moment you're diving into government UFO cover-ups and the myth of a 1,000-pound giant secretly airlifted out of Afghanistan, and the next, you're laughing at the unique torture of automated customer service phone trees. Featuring interviews with investigative journalists, Hollywood insiders like the voice of Ancient Aliens, and an eccentric cast of late-night callers, this show is a perfect blend of high strangeness and hilarious observational comedy. Grab a snack, settle in, and join the greatest all-night conversation in America.

Great client experiences don't happen by accident. They're built through dozens of intentional decisions before, during, and after every project.This week, Kyle sits down with Darin Kuns of DK Construction to share how his team has intentionally designed an experience that stands out. From customer confidence checkups and post-project interviews to thoughtful job site standards and small gestures that make clients feel valued, Darin explains how the little details create lasting trust.If you're looking for practical ideas on building a company people can't wait to recommend, this episode is packed with ideas you can start using right away.Want to keep in touch with past clients and prospects without the hassle of writing content yourself? That's exactly what Remodelers AutoPilot does — each month you get a done-for-you email newsletter and social media posts, ready to send.Explore the vast array of tools, training courses, a podcast, and a supportive community of over 2,000 remodelers. Visit Remodelersontherise.com today and take your remodeling business to new heights!Key TakeawaysFix pre-construction bottlenecksImprove planning before productionDelegate to increase capacityTrack client confidenceCreate memorable client experiencesGather post-project feedbackSet clear job-site standardsRecognize and support employeesChapters00:00 Introduction and Episode Context00:33 Celebrating 400 Episodes and Guest Suggestions01:02 Highlighting Todd DeWalt and Construction Leading Edge01:48 DK Construction's Market and Business Focus02:11 Identifying Business Heartburns and Bottlenecks03:07 Addressing Capacity and Process Challenges04:22 Strategies for Smoother Project Handoffs05:15 Handling Change Orders and Project Variances06:04 Time Management and Capacity Planning07:11 Setting Small Wins in Project Selection07:53 Focusing on Capacity and Focused Work08:56 Company History and Market Overview11:01 Developing Client Relationships and Expectations12:06 The Three Uniques of DK Construction14:48 Employee Recruitment and Incentives20:08 Client Experience and Customer Confidence24:58 Enhancing Client Delight and Little Things30:12 Implementing Client Feedback and Post-Project Surveys34:50 Company Culture and Employee Recognition39:58 Team Communication and Meeting Optimization44:52 Signage and Job Site Respect50:03 Letting Go of Control and Delegation51:52 Building a High-Performance Team55:00 Final Thoughts on Customer Service and Business Growth

D23 is truly right around the corner and so many have chimed in to share their hopes and expectations of what is coming. Get ready as I share my insights as to what I see is likely be announced, not just for Walt Disney World and Disneyland, but across the globe and even for the Disney Cruise Line. I think this D23 will make us more hopeful and excited for things to come. We'll look at the possibilities of what Imagineering will showcase in their Horizons exhibit, and how all of this will play out in the parks panel on Saturday night, August 15th. Join us as we get ready for D23  the Ultimate Disney Fan Event. Be sure to check out my latest endeavor, Disneyland Insights: Inspiration, Ideas & Magic for You and Your Organization. __________________________________________________ Disney Insights YouTube Page--Check it out and subscribe. DisneyInsights.com--So many resources at our home site. Be sure to subscribe to receive notice of upcoming podcasts. My newest book, A Century of Powerful Disney Insights, Volume I 1923-1973, The Walt & Roy Disney Years is available!  Also, check out my two of my other books, The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney and Disney, Leadership and You.  Also, for those examining other business benchmarks beyond Disney, check out Lead with Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand Into World-Class Excellence. _______________________________________________________ Check out Zanolla Travel to book your next vacation!  David & Leah Zanolla ZanollaTravel.com Owner/Agents (309) 863-5469 _________________________________________________________ Performance Journeys This podcast and post is provided by J. Jeff Kober and Performance Journeys, which celebrates more than 20 years as a training and development group bringing best in business ideas through books, keynotes, workshops, seminars and online tools to help you take your organization to the next level. Want a Keynote Speaker? More than just nice stories, I offer proven insight and solutions having worked in the trench. Need Consulting? I've worked for decades across the public, private and non-profit arena.  Need Support? We offer so many classroom, online, and other resources to help you improve your customer service delivery, leadership excellence, and employee engagement. Contact us today, and let us help you on your Performance Journey!  

Weird stuff you've inherited; Crazy Kentucky Powerball winner arrested again; Jeopardy Creeper; Robot Teacher Constorversy; McDonald's Customer Services failure; Florida Man Mayhem; WING IT WEDNESDAY with Brothers Helping Brothers.

Balancing Productivity and Customer Satisfaction with Automation  Shep interviews Jeff Fettes, founder and CEO of Laivly. He talks about how organizations can integrate AI across the entire customer service journey to empower agents and advance business goals rather than relying on vanity metrics.  This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:    How do you measure true ROI on AI in customer service?   What customer service metrics should companies track to evaluate AI success?   Why do most customer service AI implementations fail?   How can contact centers integrate AI across the entire customer journey?   Should AI in customer support be used to replace human employees or assist them?  Top Takeaways:    Use AI in customer service because it is beneficial, not just because it is new. AI should be implemented when it makes processes genuinely easier or better for customers. It is about evaluating what your customers, employees, and organization need and then using AI to deliver that.  Limiting AI to the beginning of your interaction adds unnecessary cost and frustration, especially if the customer still needs to speak to a human later. For better impact, integrate AI into every stage of the customer service journey where appropriate.  When customers move from AI to human agents, history and the details of the interaction should be transferred seamlessly. This way, agents do not need to ask questions that force customers to repeat themselves.  The goal of AI should not be to replace staff but to support them. It should enhance the capabilities of your existing team and help them to reach your organization's unique goals.  Many leaders claim their AI projects are successful even when they're over budget or delayed. A study by Laivly found that 65% of leaders called their most recent AI initiative successful even though, in reality, 43% of AI projects are delayed or stalled, and 53% went over budget.  Don't measure AI by the percentage of customers it touches or deflects. Focus on how it improves productivity and customer satisfaction metrics that you have set within your organization. AI is only successful when it delivers results that are important for your business and improvements that are meaningful to your customers.  Plus, Shep and Jeff discuss more stats and insights from The AI Paradox: Everyone Thinks They're Winning. Tune in!  Quote:   "Customers only want to participate in AI if it's going to be good for them, if it's going to be easier for them, if it's going to make their lives better, and if they like it."    About:    Jeff Fettes is the founder and CEO of Laivly, a platform that addresses customer experience challenges by integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation into customer service workflows.  Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What separates an average automotive salesperson from someone capable of selling more than 40 cars per month? "The more you familiarize yourself with the customer, the more you're going to be able to use that for yourself to build your business as a car salesman." - Josh MacPhee In this episode of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast, Sean V. Bradley sits down with Josh MacPhee, a top-performing sales consultant at McDonald Buick GMC Cadillac in Moncton, Canada, who sold an incredible 326 vehicles in only his second year in the automotive industry and went on to achieve a 40-car month. Josh reveals the mindset, daily habits, customer-service strategies, and modern tools that helped him rapidly build a powerful client base. From relentless follow-up and constant availability to using social media as a relationship-building engine, his approach challenges the traditional way many sales professionals operate. "Be kind, be honest, really help people, and care about what they're trying to accomplish in buying a vehicle from you." - Josh MacPhee You'll also hear how Josh transformed his experience working in a skateboard shop into a thriving automotive career, multiplied his results far beyond industry averages, and created relationships that continue producing business long after the initial sale. Whether you are brand-new to the showroom or an experienced salesperson looking to break through a performance plateau, this episode delivers practical strategies you can immediately adapt to generate more conversations, strengthen customer loyalty, and sell more vehicles. The numbers are impressive, but the process behind them is where the real value lives. Listen now to discover what Josh does differently. Key Takeaways: ✅ Building strong customer relationships and offering exceptional service are central to achieving consistent high sales figures. ✅ Utilizing social media platforms such as Facebook and Facebook Marketplace can significantly increase referral-based sales. ✅ Regular and effective follow-up is critical in maintaining customer interest and converting leads into sales. ✅ Working closely with managers and leveraging their expertise can help refine sales techniques and improve results. ✅ Embracing technology and community engagement can create additional pathways to expand a personal brand and reach in automotive sales.   About Josh MacPhee Josh MacPhee is a dynamic and successful automotive sales consultant at McDonald Buick GMC Cadillac in Moncton, Canada. With a notable track record of selling 326 units in his second full year and achieving a remarkable 40-car month, Josh has swiftly risen as an influential figure in car sales. Prior to his career in the automotive industry, Josh honed his customer service skills by working at a retail skateboard shop, where he was responsible for cultivating customer relations and building sales initiatives. His commitment to customer service, strategic use of social media for networking, and relentless follow-up tactics are key elements of his sales approach, enabling him to far exceed the national sales averages within his industry. Josh continues to push boundaries and set new records in automotive sales by constantly evolving and adapting his strategies.   Embracing the Grind: How Relentless Follow-Up and Customer Service Revolutionize Car Sales   Key Takeaways: Emphasize the importance of continuous growth and development, even in challenging markets. Foster a relentless commitment to customer service and follow-up. Leverage technology and team dynamics to excel in sales performance.   Relentless Customer Service and Follow-Up in Car Sales In the competitive world of car sales, consistency is key. Josh MacPhee's story illustrates how relentless follow-up and exemplary customer service can create extraordinary success in an environment where most salespeople average less than ten cars monthly. The approach is simple yet profound: make it easy for the customer and be accessible, whether on weekends, late at night, or even during holidays. MacPhee, a sales consultant at McDonald Buick GMC Cadillac in Moncton, Canada, credits his success to these values. "I just talk so much and create such a personal level with my conversations that they want to come back," explains MacPhee. His willingness to take calls late a night and work during off-hours underscores a broader principle: in a performance-based industry, accessibility can set you apart from competitors. This dedication to being available whenever the customer needs support leaves a lasting impact, evidenced by customers who choose him because he's consistently available and knowledgeable. "You wasted no time to get back to me and talk to me the whole time you were off on vacation," a customer reportedly said, highlighting trust and reliability as cornerstones of MacPhee's successful strategy.   Building a Sales Network through Referrals and Community Engagement Effective car sales extend beyond the dealership floor—into community networking and robust referral systems. For MacPhee, referrals significantly contribute to his sales numbers. "We offer $200 for a referral," he states, a small investment when aiming for a fruitful long-lasting business relationship. Beyond financial incentives, MacPhee emphasizes relationship-building by engaging customers on social media platforms like Facebook, maintaining the connection long after the initial sale. Moreover, MacPhee leverages local insights and community relationships. "If it's legit, think about this: why the hell would you not want to incentivize somebody?" he argues, stressing the value of forging lasting connections within the community. Understanding local relevance, he primes his sales strategy by ensuring his presence is acknowledged beyond the transactional relationship, positioning himself as a reliable advisor in the community. By fostering deep ties, both digital and personal, MacPhee's strategy aligns with broader community-focused practices that drive sustained success. His approach taps into a natural cycle—prioritize existing relationships to expand business, maximizing opportunities for referral-based prospects in a strategy that feeds itself.   Harnessing Technology and Team Dynamics In an era where technology plays a transformative role, integrating modern tools into traditional sales processes offers a distinct advantage. However, at McDonald Buick GMC Cadillac, MacPhee sees a fusion of personal effort and minimal tech dependence. "Artificial intelligence? What do you mean?" Queries MacPhee, indicating an opportunity for technological advancement that complements his human-centric approach. Still, the power of a cohesive work environment shouldn't be underestimated. Through collaboration with managers and peers, he builds a reservoir of sales knowledge and refined tactics. Allying with mentors and learning actively, MacPhee draws from a collective base of expertise that deepens individual knowledge, especially for complex negotiations. "It's important because you're getting a second person in to talk," MacPhee shares, emphasizing the value of team-based sales processes. Such environments promote skill sharing and adaptive learning, as colleagues become resources rather than competitors. Thus, success grows not only from independent initiative but from thriving in a supportive team context.   Josh MacPhee's story champions the idea that diligence, customer engagement, and a strategic approach to relationships can transcend the industry norm, catapulting sales beyond expected metrics. Insights from his journey reveal that relentless dedication to customers and collaborative learning environments can redefine success. Though not overly reliant on modern technology, salespeople like MacPhee showcase the power of grinding hard, building a network, and making each customer interaction meaningful. Through this lens, car sales emerge not as a routine job, but as a dynamic business driven by personalities who exceed boundaries through sheer tenacity and astute connection-making.       Resources + Our Proud Sponsors:   ➼ Podium: The AI Platform Powering the Modern Dealership. From instant lead response to seamless test drive scheduling, Podium's AI Employee Jerry works 24/7 to turn every lead into a conversion, so your team can focus on closing. Trusted by thousands of dealerships nationwide and proudly featured on the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast. Learn how Podium can help you sell more cars, book more service appointments, and grow your dealership. Discover how Podium's innovative AI technology can unlock unparalleled efficiency and drive your dealership's sales to new heights. Visit www.podium.com/mcs to learn more!   ➼ The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group: Join the #1 Automotive Sales Mastermind Facebook Group with over 29,000 automotive professionals worldwide. The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group is the go-to community for car salespeople, BDC agents, sales managers, general managers, and dealer principals looking to increase performance, income, and leadership skills. Inside the group, members collaborate daily on automotive sales strategies, lead handling, phone scripts, closing techniques, CRM best practices, dealership leadership, and accountability systems. Learn directly from top automotive trainers, industry mentors, and high-performing sales leaders who are actively winning in today's market. If you're serious about growing your automotive career, increasing car sales, and building long-term success, join The Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group today! ➼ Dealer Synergy: Dealer Synergy is the automotive industry's #1 Sales Training, Consulting, and Accountability Firm, with over 20 years of proven dealership success nationwide. We specialize in helping car dealerships increase sales, improve processes, and build high-performing Sales, Internet, and BDC departments from the ground up. Our expertise includes automotive phone scripts, rebuttals, CRM action plans, lead handling strategies, BDC workflows, Internet sales processes, management training, and accountability systems. Dealer Synergy partners directly with dealership leadership to align people, process, and technology, ensuring consistent results and scalable growth. From independent dealers to large dealer groups and OEM partnerships, Dealer Synergy delivers measurable performance improvements, stronger teams, and sustainable profitability. ➼ Bradley On Demand: Bradley On Demand is the automotive industry's most advanced interactive training, tracking, testing, and certification platform for car dealerships — built to develop top-performing teams across Sales, Internet Sales, BDC, CRM, Phone Skills, Leadership, and Management. In addition to LIVE virtual automotive training classes and a library of 9,000+ on-demand dealership training modules, Bradley On Demand now includes AI Phone Roleplaying and Coaching to help salespeople and BDC agents practice real dealership conversations before they ever get on the phone with customers. This AI-powered roleplay technology strengthens phone scripts, objection handling, appointment setting, lead follow-up, and closing skills, while providing measurable coaching feedback for continuous improvement. Bradley On Demand empowers dealerships to train faster, coach smarter, improve call performance, increase closing ratios, and sell more cars more profitably — all through structured, trackable, modern automotive training.

Send us Fan MailCan AI answer your customers without pushing them away? David Karandish has automated support for 20,000 companies, and he says deflection should make the experience better, not worse.David Karandish, founder and CEO of Capacity, joins Yanique Grant to unpack how to bring AI into customer support the right way. After selling Answers Corp for $960 million, David built Capacity into an omni-channel support automation platform serving roughly 20,000 customers. In this episode he shares the design principles that keep automation human, why your first AI project should be a small, provable win, and how AI agents are now running entire companies from finance to marketing.In this episode:- The design principles that make AI deflection improve the customer experience instead of frustrating people, from great escalation paths to leading with empathy - Why human behavior is largely universal across regions, and where support questions actually differ - What the $960M Answers.com journey taught David about people who are truly stuck and have nowhere to turn - The single most practical first step for any support leader: go get your small win, then iterate - How builder agents let a complete novice spin up workflows, integrations, and CSAT surveys just by askingFeatured resources:Book: Principles by Ray Dalio — a first-principles breakdown of how Dalio built one of the most successful investment firms of all time. Foundational AI models — Google Gemini, OpenAI, and Anthropic's Claude, used across the business. Jira — for tracking development tickets; David uses LLMs to analyze time-in-stage when off-the-shelf plugins fall short. Capacity — an AI-powered support automation platform that deflects emails, calls, and tickets across voice, SMS, WhatsApp, web, and email. ~20,000 customers, 250+ app integrations.Connect with the guest: Website: capacity.com Email: david@capacity.comFollow the show: X @NavigatingCX and join our private Facebook group, Navigating the Customer Experience Community. Hosted by Yanique Grant.

Chuck Surack never planned to build one of America's largest online retailers. He just wanted to be a musician. So right after high school, he took his sax and drove off in his old VW van to play gigs around the country. It didn't work out. But with the audio and mixing skills Chuck learned gigging, he decided to convert his van into a mobile recording studio - and started making money fast by making recordings of local bands, businesses, and schools.The game-changer came as a one-two-three punch: first, he created a new product - digitized sound libraries - to sell nationally; second, he started selling high end pro audio gear; third, he instituted a sales culture hyper-focused on customers and relationship-building that resulted in Sweetwater's enormous and super loyal online customer base. In this episode, Chuck shares how he built a retail giant from his garage, why customer service became his greatest competitive advantage, and why, even in the age of AI, human relationships remain one of the most valuable assets any business can build. What you'll learnThe hiring philosophy that transformed customer service into a competitive moat and has helped Sweetwater fend off much larger competitorsWhy under-cutting competitor prices and offering discounts isn't always the answer to fuel sales and growth Why the best salespeople aren't always don't think of themselves as salespeople - and don't have to come from sales or marketing backgroundsWhy training people—not technology—may be the biggest, best investment a company can makeHow saying "no" to bad products strengthened customer trustThe leadership principle: empowering employees to solve problems without asking permissionTimestamps05:39 — The saxophone player who never meant to build a billion-dollar company09:11 — How turning his VW van into a mobile recording studio was the first step in building a business14:37 — The $20,000 keyboard synthesizer that changed his life forever21:27 — Chuck gets into retail - almost in spite of himself34:39 — Why Sweetwater refused to compete on price37:51 — How Chuck and his early team started to learn the power of customer service44:45 — Inside "Sweetwater University" and being a Sales Engineer: 13 weeks of training before an employee answers the phone46:55 — Leadership rule for employees: Never ask permission to do the right thing1:03:19 — Why Amazon hasn't stopped himThis episode was produced by Casey Herman with music by Ramtin Arablouei, and edited by Andrea Bruce with research help from Carla Esteves.Follow How I Built This:Instagram → @howibuiltthisX → @HowIBuiltThisFacebook → How I Built ThisFollow Guy Raz:Instagram → @guy.razYoutube → guy_razX → @guyrazSubstack → guyraz.substack.comWebsite → guyraz.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey there Voices of the Bench community, this is Trish Jones with Ivoclar. If you've been curious about fast-firing zirconia to improve efficiency but aren't convinced it can deliver predictable, high-quality results, I'd encourage you to connect with us. Our new IPS Emax Zirconia offers multiple fast-fire protocols designed to help save you valuable production time while maintaining consistent results. Time is money in every lab. Don't wait. Reach out to your local Ivoclar rep today and discover how IPS Emax Zirconia can help streamline your workflow. As full-arch dentistry continues to grow, so do the demands on today's dental laboratories. That's why Knight Dental recently launched SimplyARCH Studio, a dedicated production environment built exclusively for full-arch restorations. To support this specialized workflow, Knight invested in an XTCERA milling system and carefully evaluated multiple CAM software solutions before choosing hyperDENT. The decision came down to exceptional milling quality, minimal hand finishing, and impressive production efficiency. But what truly set hyperDENT apart was the implementation process. From the very beginning, the team provided more than software training—they shared the knowledge and experience needed to build an optimized workflow for complex full-arch cases. With proven expertise in advanced milling strategies and laboratory production, hyperDENT helped ensure SimplyARCH Studio was designed for long-term success from day one.Matt Everatt joins Elvis and Barb for a fascinating conversation that takes a deep dive into his journey through the dental laboratory industry and the story behind his book, The Invisible Profession. From discovering dental technology at 16 and specializing in maxillofacial prosthetics and orthodontics to working in hospitals, developing early sleep-apnea appliances, and nearly leaving the profession altogether, Matt's career has taken some seriously interesting turns. Eventually, he helped co-found S4S, building a successful business around sleep-apnea appliances, occlusal splints, orthodontics, and more before eventually stepping away from ownership. Matt Everatt joins Elvis and Barb for a fascinating conversation that takes a deep dive into his journey through the dental laboratory industry and the story behind his book, The Invisible Profession. From discovering dental technology at 16 and specializing in maxillofacial prosthetics and orthodontics to working in hospitals, developing early sleep-apnea appliances, and nearly leaving the profession altogether, Matt's career has taken some seriously interesting turns. Eventually, he helped co-found S4S, building a successful business around sleep-apnea appliances, occlusal splints, orthodontics, and more before eventually stepping away from ownership. But this conversation goes far beyond Matt's career. His book, The Invisible Profession, explores how the dental laboratory industry arrived at a place where technicians and laboratories are often undervalued, pushed into price competition, and expected to simply keep their heads down and produce. Matt shares his thoughts on the "million little things" that shaped the industry, the danger of becoming a "busy fool," and why laboratories need to stop competing solely on price and start becoming known for the value, expertise, and partnership they bring to the dental team. Elvis, Barb, and Matt also talk about the changing landscape of digital dentistry, AI, 3D printing, speed, service, and why the labs that embrace change and remain agile will be the ones positioned for the future. It's an honest, thought-provoking, and ultimately optimistic conversation about where the dental laboratory profession has been, where it is today, and where it can go next.Special Guest: Matt Everatt.

The Pirates of our Times   Huge! This Changes Everything! Secrets Revealed! The Real Reason… ALL CAPS! What You're Not Supposed to Know About… Something That Shouldn't Exist… See Recipe in Comments Below[1]     Is this what it takes to get our attention now?   You would think so. When we search through YouTube looking for a favorite news outlet, we now slog through sensationalist titles and AI-generated title pages that entice us to view by showing extreme emotions: anger, fear, distress, shock.   Not comforting, is it?   It's a weekly challenge for me when I try to choose a graphic that authentically represents the content of the teaching. At some point I think we have to admit that no matter how intriguing the title or graphic, mostly the same people will read and the same people will delete. Probably at most, an especially intriguing title will cause a tiny percentage of people to open an email who normally delete it. We are becoming more wise…or perhaps fatigued…with sensationalist content.   The ability of AI[2] to offer us not just curated viewing, shopping, music, or social media posts, but to communicate with us like an actual person in Customer Service chats or Chat GPT, creates an illusion of an interested and caring person we know. How cool is it that YouTube lets me know when a new beading or archaeology video is released?   Honestly, though, it's digital machinery that has been fed immeasurable amounts of data. As I found out last week, it's also been fed pirated books (Creation Gospel workbooks!) and videos (Creation Gospel videos!). The AI in turn cheerfully offers the information free to seekers.   There was a foreshadowing of this back in 2003 when we first went online with www.israelnet.tv, offering teaching programs from some of the best-known Messianic teachers of the day. Our tech guy contacted us and said he was watching someone download multiple programs simultaneously in real time. This was in spite of clear copyright cautions. We only had permission from the teachers to stream to our audience, not to re-distribute the programs for personal use.   With a little bit of investigative work, we tracked down the email address of the pirate. My burning question was, what kind of person steals Bible teaching? There's much more lucrative content out there. Bible teaching? Really?   I sent the faceless Torah pirate an email, and kindly but firmly explained that we knew he was downloading copyrighted programs. I also explained that we did not have permission to distribute the material randomly; we were only licensed for the specific use on Israelnet.   Instead of an apology, the pirate went into the old trope: The Bible doesn't belong to anyone. It's free. Bible teaching should be free.   Pretext.   Aaargh, matey!   Sure the Bible is free. They're in the top drawer of any hotel nightstand. An institution known as the Gideons gives away free Bibles. Most people have an extra copy they'd be happy to give away. But there was a reason Yeshua chose one of the disciples to carry the donation money bag.   Even though Yeshua was quite handy with multiplying loaves and fishes, they had to eat.   Relying on miracles instead of working is not the Scriptural example. Miracles are for when we reach the limit of human skill, access, or knowledge.   In my reply to the gentleman pirate, I agreed that the Bible is free. In fact, our Creation Gospel programs and workbook royalties are designated to support Torah-based orphanages, not pay salaries. My husband and I had full time jobs, so we didn't rely on donations to pay the grocery bill or car payment. We donated our time and money. Other teachers, however, were full time ministers. They needed the income to support their ministries and families.   Not being as handy with loaves and fishes as Yeshua, they had to eat.   At the least, if this gentleman wanted to re-distribute the teachers' programs, then he should obtain permission like Israelnet did. He should explain why the costs the teachers incurred, such as travel, studio, equipment, utility bills, (our streaming T-1 line back then was $1000 per month!), software, etc., was okay for him to remove from their pockets because he knew better than they did to whom their teaching and production work should be disseminated.   So in our times, AI developers are free to redistribute all the intellectual property it can consume, even apologizing for not listing everything due to “copyright rules.” It's like nodding and saying “no” at the same time.   It's not something we'll change, however. In fact, it's so incorporated into our daily activities that it's probably impossible to disconnect unless we go off-grid. We're being sluiced down that funnel faster and faster. The current Western trend toward socialism and communism is a symptom. The pirate's reasoning that all Biblical content should be free is rapidly expanding. We feel entitled to confiscate anyone else's hard work because it's the “moral” thing to do. Share. Lift up the downtrodden. Love your neighbor.   Sometimes we feign asking permission by passing onerous laws to tax and take property. Others simply take without permission and know that the wealth from it will more than equip them to face their accusers in court by the time it makes it that far. The ultimate settlement is calculated as the cost of doing pirated business. The Author's Guild reports that the median annual income from book sales is just $15,000 for full-time authors. We're not all John Grisham. The authors are never going to recover the income they've lost to pirates and AI even when the case makes it to court.   Yes, I agree. Love your neighbor as yourself.   But what about “Thou shalt not steal”? That's in the Bible, too.   Pretext.   Yes, that's what the Torah calls it.   A pretext is when we make up a reason to conceal the actual reason we do or don't do something. Pretext tends to spread like wildfire. We'd all like to avoid confronting our own fears, failures, laziness, aggressiveness, greed, or apathy if someone can come up with a pretext that sounds way better than “my fear,” “my laziness,” “my aggressiveness,” or “my greed.”   Numbers 11:1-6 is an example of a pretext:   “Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD; and when the LORD heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the LORD burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp… The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”   The fire started with a taste for free meat and fish. This was the pretext. They even invented facts to go with the pretext: we ate free fish in Egypt; we have no appetite.   The opposite was true. The fish wasn't free in Egypt. Even the straw for the bricks they had to find for themselves. They did, too, have an appetite. The ignoramuses even listed all the things they were craving.   The manna, the Word of Heaven was not tasty enough for their uncontrolled, greedy appetites.   It helps to know what preceded the complaining. For the first time, the organized camp moved with the Tabernacle, following the Ark of the Covenant and expected to give feet to the commandments they'd learned:   “So they moved out for the first time according to the commandment of the LORD through Moses.” (Nu 10:13)   The Israelites had entered a new stage of responsibility in their walk to the Promised Land. No longer newly-saved milk-dependent babes in the wilderness, they had multiple commandments in which to walk. They were now organized by camp, directed by leadership. There was no map to their journey, only the Ark that traveled ahead looking for the place for them to rest.   When we don't know exactly what lies ahead, we often look back. What we see when we look back takes on a glory and sheen that it never had when we were living it. Truth be told, we were miserable. But those reconstructed memories and invented facts make great pretexts.   Our present challenge is more than just leaking away of intellectual property or orphanage funds through pretexts or outright theft. Like I said, we won't stop this flood until Yeshua returns. There's no way to separate out an answer on a search engine that was stolen versus one that was taken from an open source. Our present challenge is more than just clickbaiting viewers or listeners to read, watch, or listen to a program when they have thousands of choices each day.   Let's put the two together.   We are in a transition period. We hear the footsteps of Messiah. We also know that the period just preceding his return is one of chaos, turmoil, war, weather phenomena, family conflict, rebellion, and mass confusion.   In the middle of this, a remnant is called out of that darkness in the “wilderness of the peoples.” What we feel as tribulation is really just a test. Tribulation is for the unrepentant. Yet, we, too, become scared, nervous, anxious, and angry. We're not sure we know how to follow the Ark. Organization? The Beast uses those! Help!   Yes, the Beast is full of cravings and greedy desires. He does use organizations to clickbait and entice us, to offer us any pretext for complaining about the journey. To overwhelm us with “free” choices: Cucumbers? Fish? Melons? Garlic? Onions? Pick me! Pick me! I love free!   All our choices do cost something no matter the pretext or the truth of the Word. The only free thing is our salvation. After that is a wilderness journey of learning, and each lesson costs us some effort. And unlike the wilderness of the first Exodus, this Greater Exodus doesn't come with a visible Moses or a leadership appointed by him. This is a bit scarier because it's more than a bit greater than the first one! (Je 16:14-15; 23:7-8; Is 43:16-19)   You know what? I used AI to look up those verses faster than I could on Logos. I don't think AI is the Beast. It's a tool, but we need to know how to and how not to use it, just like we need to know how to use and not use the organizations to which we belong or which we use. We don't put faith in government, medicine, recreation, education, or any other system. We use them, but they will ultimately fail…repeatedly. They are tools, but they are not the Kingdom. We must recognize where they fail and use them wisely where they are honest and successful.   While the wicked and lukewarm world with no clear direction enters this stage of confusion that precedes the Kingdom, knowing only an indiscriminate throwing off of every yoke, we are to walk with clarity. Training in the Word equips us, calms us, balances us.   This is why I know that trying to find the most enticing graphic or clickbait title is not going to get lots more people to open a newsletter. In fact, statistics tell me that fewer than 50% even open the weekly email.   People are weary and wary. When they do open those links that imply they HOLD THE NEXT GREATEST SECRET CONSPIRACY, they already anticipate that it will under-deliver.  They know we're overrun with the pirates of our time. It's kind of like those sea monkeys I ordered from the back of a comic book when I was seven years old. I still have no idea what that cloudy mess was, but the ads made me think something alive, mysterious, and fascinating could be had for the cost of postage and few bucks.   And I get it.   I, too, have to search for ways to promote books like Scorpions Ascent or a conference, to politely ask the readers or viewers for a minute or two to consider whether the book or event is a good fit for them. I don't want to be a time pirate, yet on the other hand, if we don't do something to attract the eye, the message is shouted down by edgier content producers. At what point do we become a time pirate? These are wilderness dilemmas, but Yeshua goes ahead of us so we won't get lost.   My prayer is that we are quietly growing a trained remnant that doesn't need superlatives, all caps, world-shaking prophecy insights, and carnival ride doctrines. They are faithfully collecting tasty manna in the Torah portions each week. They don't need pretexts to justify their lust for the doctrinal carnival rides because they are not afraid of walking in the chaos Scripture warned us would accompany the period before Yeshua's return.   AI can only appear to know you by your first name. It cannot know you at all. It is data programmed to identify your habits captured either legally or illegally by analyzing your keystrokes, questions, searches, and preferences. The upside is a quick search for a simple, non-life-changing question. The downside is that from now until Yeshua comes, we will not likely know for sure what images or voices are real. Oh yeah, that's in the Bible, too.   A minister of pretext doesn't really know you, either. He or she knows human fears, greed, cravings, laziness…even the good desire to do righteous things for your neighbor. The minister of pretext's bait draws out the “rabble,” sharing confusion and darkness because they feed one another half-truths that become whole lies. In the end, it consumes them together. It doesn't bear the fruit of righteous things. He's a pirate who baits our scroll…em…scrolling time.   As we navigate this greater exodus, let us deliver what the apostles of Yeshua delivered and what Moses and the leaders in the wilderness delivered. Truth. Truth still matters.   A human being doing the honest work of the Kingdom can hold truth and the good of others at the same time. It can give without stealing. Truth can be firmly upheld without being unkind. It can make manna tastier than anything from The French Laundry.   That is something the world desperately needs right now. Real human beings unafraid of the giants, robots, and raging, confused nutters. Strong, yet gentle messengers of Yeshua aren't driven by their own fears, but by the good news promises of the gospel. They may not remember where you shopped online six months ago or that you like loom beading videos, but they know you are the Father’s treasured possession. This kind of knowing becomes a comfort to others:   For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness—nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority. But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us. (1 Th 2:3-8)   Isn't this a great passage Paul wrote to comfort the Thessalonians? These are words of relationship, not something Paul asked AI to write for him. Even back then, the recipient of a letter could sniff out a genuine letter from AI. A pastor who loves the flock is a gift from above AI will never duplicate.   This Shabbat is “Shabbat Nachamu,” the Shabbat of Comfort that follows the fast of Tisha B'Av. The readings for the weeks following are also comforts that the destructions will someday come to an end, and the hard work of walking through the chaos and confusion of the wilderness will come to an end.   The great thing about the Ark seeking out a resting place for the Israelites three days' journey ahead of them in the wilderness? It is said that its cloud lifted up the low places, leveled the high places, and killed the scorpions and snakes in their path. It shaded them from the heat or cold. The journey was nothing to be afraid of, nothing  for which they needed to collect pretexts beforehand for failures. They were being afforded the comforts they would need even through the challenges of the journey.   It was those on the fringes the cloud had expelled for complaining who were consumed by the fire. It's way bumpier and hotter out there where the cover of the clouds of glory is thin. The Presence of the Father can also sniff out a reluctant traveler on this journey. Leave the pretexts out there in the fire with the pirates, and report to your place in the cloud.   Complaining is the opposite of comforting. Complaining is the opposite of comforting. Complaining is the opposite of comforting.   “'Comfort, O comfort My people,' says your God. ‘Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.'A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together;' for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Is 40:1-5)     [1] The recipe in Comments will be a link that ka-chings the content provider's account and takes you to a “recipe page” that buries the recipe within dozens of ads. Clickbait. [2] Fun Hebrew/English Coincidence Fact: The first AI pirate: in Hebrew: ?????, Ai means “heap of ruins.” It was a Canaanite city located just east of Bethel. It was the site of a major battle in the Book of Joshua. At first, the Israelites were defeated because a warrior named Achan (“troubling, troubler”) took treasure and hid it. After Achan was put to death, Joshua led a successful military ambush to capture and destroy the city. Pirates of Ai are in a heap of trouble. Please SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to get new teachings.

Welcome to another inspiring episode of Build a Better Agency! In this episode, Jeannie Walters breaks down the real distinction between customer experience and customer service, and why treating them as the same thing keeps agencies from measuring what actually drives retention and referrals. You'll learn how a concise CX mission statement becomes the judgment call every employee uses when things get messy, and why vague goals like "be the friendliest" never translate into real behavior change. If you've ever wondered why some brands earn fierce loyalty while others just get by, Walters explains the frameworks that separate the two. Walters and Drew dig into the CX Strategic Success Blueprint and the CX Charter, two tools for turning customer experience from a poster on the wall into a cross-functional discipline with real accountability. They also unpack the difference between manufactured "wow" moments and genuinely reducing friction, using real examples from a utility company, a car dealership, and the pet brand Chewy to show what actually earns trust. Whether you're trying to sharpen your own agency's client experience or help your clients think differently about theirs, this episode gives you a practical starting point. Tune in to learn how to turn customer experience into a real business strategy instead of just a nice sentiment! A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Learn the exact difference between customer experience and customer service, and why the distinction changes how agencies plan Discover why a concise CX mission statement matters more than a lengthy list of values nobody remembers Understand how to build a CX Strategic Success Blueprint that ties customer experience directly to revenue and expense goals Learn how a CX Charter creates cross functional accountability so customer experience isn't treated as "a marketing thing" Discover why reducing friction matters more than manufactured "wow" moments, and how to tell the difference Learn how customer journey mapping uncovers friction points your team can't see from inside the org chart Understand why agencies should weave customer experience into marketing and sales conversations, not just delivery Learn the two changes Walters recommends every agency make to their own client experience in the next 90 days Discover why tone matters as much as content in contracts, invoices, and other easy-to-overlook client touchpoints

OpenAI launched Presence, and it seems like no one really noticed. They should have.Presence gives companies a way to build and manage real-time AI voice and chat agents across customer service, sales, HR, and IT, which could make this one of OpenAI's most important enterprise launches yet.The technology finally looks fast, natural, and capable enough to disrupt customer service at scale. That could mean faster answers and fewer terrible phone trees.Or an endlessly patient corporate gatekeeper.We're breaking down what OpenAI actually launched, what the early proof leaves out, and whether the AI customer service takeover has finally arrived.New: OpenAI Presence. Has The AI Customer Service Takeover Finally Arrived? An Everyday AI Chat with Jordan WilsonNewsletter: Sign up for our free daily newsletterMore on this Episode: Episode PageToday's Episode on LinkedIn: Thoughts on this? Join the convo on LinkedIn and connect with other AI leaders.Upcoming Episodes: Check out the upcoming Everyday AI Livestream lineupWebsite: YourEverydayAI.comEmail The Show: info@youreverydayai.comConnect with Jordan on LinkedInTopics Covered in This Episode:OpenAI Presence Launch and Industry ResponseReal-Time AI Voice Agents for Customer ServiceOpenAI Presence vs. Competing AI Voice PlatformsGPT Live and Real-Time Model CapabilitiesEnterprise AI Integration: Guardrails and EscalationsMultichannel AI Agent Consistency for SupportSpeech-to-Speech Benchmark Rankings and AnalysisDeployment Challenges: Beta to Production ReadinessConsumer Demand for AI Customer Service SolutionsInternal and External Use Cases for AI AgentsTimestamps:00:00 OpenAI launches customer service AI05:40 AI voice advancements and competition09:28 OpenAI's edge in speech models12:15 OpenAI's AI usage in companies14:22 Discussing AI integration in companies19:05 Transitioning from demo to deployment20:46 Comparing voice agents and improvements26:28 AI's Impact on Customer Service28:07 Considering personalized messaging strategiesKeywords: OpenAI Presence, AI customer service, enterprise AI platform, AI voice agents, real time AI chat, customer support automation, sales automation, HR automation, IT automation, real world AI learning, customer service disruption, AI-powered voice models, GPT live, GPT real time 2, on demand AI agents, voice AI agents, AI chatbots, AI-driven customer experience, speech-to-speech index, multimodal AI, desktop AI assistant, voice model benchmarks, Anthropic, Codex real time voice mode, Google Gemini Live, Gemini 3.6 Flash, AI internal workflows, human approval guardrails, escalation paths, agent simulation, FDEs (forward deployed engineers), AI agent guardrails, internal data integration, business AI applications, B2C AI customer service, personalized AI messaging, AI consumer adoption, enterprise AI deployment, voice agent evaluation tools, consumer demand for AI, phone support AI, advanced AI infrastructure, Codex-powered improvement process, AI support handoff, customer service automation trends.Send Everyday AI and Jordan a text message. (We can't reply back unless you leave contact info) Ready for ROI on GenAI? Go to youreverydayai.com/partner 

"If you want great customer service, you need to start by defining what great looks like." Episode Chapters [00:01:12] A Customer Service Challenge in Local Government [00:03:01] Creating Standards for Every Customer Interaction [00:05:25] How Leaders Build a Service-Focused Culture [00:08:23] Learning from Customer Frustration [00:10:08] Defining the Perfect Day for Your Customer Great customer service doesn't happen by accident. It begins with clear expectations. In this episode, Lee Cockerell answers a listener's question about improving customer service in local government and explains why every organization needs clearly defined service standards. From answering the phone to greeting customers, Lee shares how consistent expectations, daily reinforcement, and strong leadership create a culture where exceptional service becomes the norm. Read my blog for more from this episode.  Resources CockerellStore.com The Cockerell Academy About Lee Cockerell Mainstreet Leader Jody Maberry Travel Guidance Magical Vacation Planners are my preferred travel advisors. Reach out to have them help plan your next vacation. You can reach them at 407-442-2694.