The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin – Détails, épisodes et analyse

I first met Tom DeVries when he was giving a keynote at the 2024 CXM 360 Conference at Michigan State University. Tom took an unorthodox approach to the keynote by not talking for the first 5 minutes. What? Yup! He used non-verbals, videos, and audio cues to engage the audience.

Tom has built a successful design firm and has shifted his focus in the last 12 years to include customer experience. He is an expert in human-centered design and has worked with some of the biggest brands in the US.

He shares some invaluable wisdom in this episode including:

• CX Metrics vs. Genuine Improvement:
• Tom criticizes organizations for focusing too much on CX metrics rather than genuine improvements.
• Operational Changes for Better CX:
• He suggests that organizations should initiate changes at the operational level before implementing measurement systems.
• Transformative Change in CX:
• Tom speaks about the need for transformative change in CX.
• Adaptability in CX Roles:
• Tom notes the importance of learning how to learn and adapting quickly in the current business environment. How can CX leaders foster a culture of adaptability within their teams?
• Case Studies and Pilot Programs:
• Tom emphasizes using case studies and pilot programs to demonstrate CX improvements. He discusses some key elements that should be included in a case study to make it impactful
• Brand Behavior and Customer Perception:
• The episode discusses how a brand is defined by its behavior and how it is perceived through customer experiences.
• The episode touches on the idea that brands today compete for relationships rather than transactions. How can businesses effectively build and maintain strong relationships with their customers?
• Shifting from Mechanical to Ecosystem Thinking:
• He urges businesses to shift from mechanical to ecosystem thinking. In what ways can adopting an ecosystem mindset benefit an organization in today’s fast-paced environment?
• Storytelling in Brand Strategy:

The role of storytelling in brand strategy is highlighted in the episode.

The episode is loaded with useful insights; some of which challenge traditional CX approaches.

Meet Tom:

Tom DeVries is a creative, straight-shooting strategist with a reputation for crafting industry-leading products,

brands, and experiences. By fusing business, technology, and humanity, he creates solutions that hit hard, turn

heads, and boost bottom lines. As the founder of ThoughtFull, an award-winning design firm, and Crucx, the world’s simplest customer

experience operating system, Tom drives growth by liberating organizations and their customers from the ordinary.

One of the most challenging jobs is to change a culture that achieved success with legacy thinking. It all starts with trust, especially if you are a CX leader. Stuart Gilchriest is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) who has worked in CX for 10+ years across multiple industries .

After starting his career in the hospitality industry in his native England, he transitioned into Customer Experience roles in the travel industry and became a respected voice on VOC program management, CX Strategy and Experience Design. He is most proud of helping Hertz achieve their only JD Power Customer Satisfaction wins in the past 20 years, in 2019 and 2020.

Stuart shares some practical applications in this episode including:

1. Community Support: Stuart emphasizes the importance of reaching out to communities for support when facing challenges.
2. The Forgetting Curve: Stuart discusses the "forgetting curve" by Ebbinghaus and the importance of reinforcing information through repetition. How can this concept be applied effectively within an organization to improve stakeholder engagement and information retention?
3. The Role of Repetition in CX: How do you ensure that key information and messages are consistently reinforced with your stakeholders to foster deeper relationships and ensure effective communication?
4. Change Management and ADKAR: The episode touches on change management models like ADKAR.
5. Building Trust: Stuart speaks about building and maintaining trust through practices like listening tours and the "emotional bank account" concept.
6. CX Roadmap: Stuart emphasizes the importance of a CX roadmap that addresses both short-term and long-term goals while aligning with stakeholder metrics.

This episode is packed with gems

Meet Stuart:

Stuart Gilchriest, a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) has worked in CX for 10+ years across multiple industries including hospitality, education, travel, vehicle rental (Hertz), and HR technology (UKG). He is currently Director of Sales Experience at Mercury Insurance, a mid-sized P+C insurance carrier based in Los Angeles, CA. He is passionate about the CX discipline and helping turn customer and agent insights into financial and operational success for Mercury.

After starting his career in the hospitality industry in his native England, he transitioned into Customer Experience roles in the travel industry and became a respected voice on VOC program management, CX Strategy and Experience Design. He is most proud of helping Hertz achieve their only JD Power Customer Satisfaction wins in the past 20 years, in 2019 and 2020.

Stuart holds a BA in Economics from the University of Nottingham in the UK, an MBA from Hult International Business School in Boston, MA, and a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) designation. He currently lives in Naples, FL with his wife Mayra, son Nicolas (21), daughter Mariana (5) and dog Chewy. He is a sport fanatic and has watched live sports on 5 continents (and counting), is an avid traveler (Colombia is a favorite destination), and is currently working on perfecting his homemade Indian curry recipes (the spicier the better!).

Customer Experience Management takes on an entirely different context when you or a loved one gets a cancer diagnosis. As you'll hear from my guest on this episode, the healthcare system is broken in many ways. UNC is starting with a better way to listen.

Loretta Muss, coordinator of the Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) at the North Carolina Basnight Cancer Hospital, recently retired after advocating for patients, families, hospital staff and administration for the past 14 years.

Muss started in her role with the PFAC in 2009 with the hope of strengthening the relationship between patients, caregivers and their cancer care teams.

On this episode of The Delighted Customers Podcast, Loretta talks about some of the realities stressing our healthcare system and the impact on patients. She shares the immensely successful PFAC she launched for UNC's Cancer Hospital and we talk about how the model can be used to help businesses inside and outside of healthcare.

Here are three pivotal questions she answered, which we believe can reshape how we view healthcare:

1. How can caregivers' inclusion in advisory councils transform patient care?

Caregivers play a crucial role in the patient journey, often providing the most consistent care. Understanding their perspectives can lead to more holistic and effective healthcare solutions.

1. What strategies can be employed to prevent burnout among healthcare providers while maintaining high standards of compassionate care?

Burnout is a critical issue affecting healthcare providers worldwide. Addressing it is essential to ensure that providers can continue delivering the high-quality, compassionate care that patients need.

1. In what ways can personalized patient interactions improve overall healthcare outcomes?

Personalization in healthcare can bridge the gap between clinical efficiency and patient satisfaction. Exploring this can lead to better health outcomes and a more humane healthcare experience.

Curious about Loretta's insightful answers? Tune in to our latest podcast episode and discover how these questions and their answers can drive significant improvements in the healthcare sector. 

How Leaders Can Leverage Video to Improve CX and EX - Rose Bentley, CEO, Qumu

Video in business is here to stay. The question is how to best leverage it to engage employees and customers to improve their experience?

On this episode:

• Qumu CEO and President Rose Bentley shares how you can best leverage technology to make deeper connections with your employees and customers. 
• She shares the specific role video plays and doesn’t play in an organization
• She talks about how she uses video in her role as CEO and the lessons that leaders can learn to improve effectiveness and engagement

Rose Bentley

Rose Bentley is responsible for overseeing global operations and implementing the strategic growth plan for Qumu. Her experience and leadership most recently at Teradata and Cisco have been focused on developing and partnering to deliver technology-driven business solutions and services, optimizing go-to-market performance, providing a seamless customer experience, and driving profitable revenue growth.

Qumu

Qumu Video Engagement Platform is a SaaS-based enterprise video technology that helps globally distributed enterprises create, control, deliver, experience and analyze live and recorded video at scale. It drives greater context and connection in communications with employees, customers and partners in the modern workplace, one that is highly distributed and diverse.

https://qumu.com/about/

Read Rose Bentley’s Vivid Vision and learn more about Qumu

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Part 2 of 2

Predictive NPS - How Loyalty Measurement is Changing with Rob Markey

A powerful, insightful, revealing interview so packed with gems that I had to break it into two parts!

Rob Markey is the Co-Inventor of the Net Promoter System and the Co-Author of The Ultimate Question 2.0.

In Part 2 (this episode):

We discuss:

• Rob’s definition of customer experience
• The impact of digital transformation on CX
• Why and how NPS will still play a role despite the emergence of technology
• The evolution of NPS in a digital world
• Is it moral and ethical to treat every customer the same? (hint - his answer may surprise you!)

Rob Markey Bio

• Has led dozens of successful customer-centric transformations at large, global companies​
• Creator of Bain’s approach to customer-centricity​
•  Introduced Earned Growth through Customer Value Management in “Are You Undervaluing Your Customers,” Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 2020​
•  Co-inventor of the Net Promoter System; co-author The Ultimate Question 2.0; Leader of Bain’s NPS Loyalty Forum​
• Founder of Bain’s Customer Strategy and Marketing practice​
• 30+ years at Bain​
• MBA, Harvard; BA, Brown​
•  Ran 7 marathons and aspires to complete all the world majors by 2024
• And by the way, happens to host his own podcast, The Net Promoter System Podcast

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Rob Markey on the Delighted Customers Podcast Part 1 of 2

What would you expect from one of the top CX thought leaders in the world?

A powerful, insightful, revealing interview so packed with gems that I had to break it into two parts!

Rob Markey is the Co-Inventor of the Net Promoter System and the Co-Author of The Ultimate Question 2.0.

In Part 1 (this episode):

We discuss:

Loyalty levers to pull in a down economy How loyalty leaders can excel in a recession Why Rob initially rejected a single question to measure customer loyalty? This misinterpretation of Net Promoter Score Why that one question was selected as the right question to measure customer loyalty

Rob Markey Bio

Has led dozens of successful customer-centric transformations at large, global companies​ Creator of Bain’s approach to customer-centricity​ Introduced Earned Growth through Customer Value Management in “Are You Undervaluing Your Customers,” Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 2020​ Co-inventor of the Net Promoter System; co-author The Ultimate Question 2.0; Leader of Bain’s NPS Loyalty Forum​ Founder of Bain’s Customer Strategy and Marketing practice​ 30+ years at Bain​ MBA, Harvard; BA, Brown​ Ran 7 marathons and aspires to complete all the world majors by 2024 And by the way, happens to host his own podcast, The Net Promoter System Podcast

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I caught up with Brittany Knox at MSU’s CXM 360 Conference. Brittany is a graduate student in MSU’s Masters of Science in Customer Experience Management. She’s also a Project Consultant at BCBS of Michigan.

In this episode, she shares:

• The benefits of walking in the shoes of the employee who is serving BCBS members

• The importance of looking at customer pain points holistically to determine root causes

• Why she was led to background enroll in the MSU CXM program although she was a researcher at Johns Hopkins

Brittany Knox

Brittany Knox is a Michigan State University graduate student in the inaugural cohort for the Customer Experience Management program; however, she is not a novice in the CX field. 

For the past six years, she has been obsessed with the customers of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. As a consultant, her primary focus is tracking and reporting key initiatives that make a significant impact on the customer experience. Prior to that, she coordinated research studies in asthma, ovarian cancer, and autism. 

Brittany is passionate about helping minority owned businesses deliver on their brand’s promise. 

Through CX, she’s able to tap into her superpower -- connecting with the customer through empathy and building an employee culture that supports the company’s customer experience goals. 

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The Role of Perception and Expectations in Customer Experience

This episode is definitely different!

Gary David, PhD, is a professor of sociology and a conversational analyst. 

On this episode:

• What his dissertation research at an immigrant-owned liquor store in downtown Detroit taught him about making emotional connections despite contentious social constructs
• We take a look at the role expectations play in the customer experience and how those expectations are not just formed by a customer’s experience with your brand.
• We look at “the collective,” how our experience gets shaped differently when we experience things with others. 
• We consider Gartner’s definition of customer experience that underscores the importance perceptions and feelings play in CX. Gary has a slightly different spin on that.

A fascinating episode that will definitely provide some new learnings.

Meet Gary

Gary David is a Professor of Sociology and Experience Design at Bentley University. He also is a professional speaker and consultant focusing on creating workplace communities and connected environments, DEI & Belonging, and experience design and alignment. He is co-host of Experience by Design podcast, where he and co-host Adam Gamwell “explore experience designs of all kinds.” He also livestreams on Twitch as “ProfessorEXP”, where he leads discussions on current events, culture, business, digital entertainment, and design.

https://www.experiencexdesign.com/episodes

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Carla Higgins has made a career in the banking industry and held many positions. She knows banking from the inside out.

Today we talk about the evolution of banking and how Covid accelerated the rollout of ITM’s and how they may be a cost effective alternative to the traditional brick and mortar model.

She breaks down the Interactive Teller Machines:

• What problem do they solve?
• How can they improve the customer experience?
• How can they reduce operating costs?
• What resistance did she experience?
• And the question burning in everyone’s mind - is there actually a bank branch in Punxsutawney, PA or is that just a rumor some groundhog made up?

Meet Carla 

Ms. Higgins joined ERIE BANK as a Community Office Assistant Manager in July 2006 and has since held positions as Community Office Manager, AVP/Regional Administrator and AVP/Commercial Lender prior to accepting the newly created position of CNB AVP/Quality Assurance Manager, for all divisions of CNB Bank, in September 2017. She was promoted to VP/CX-Quality Assurance Manager in June 2018, and SVP/Multi-Experience in October of 2021.  As SVP/Multi-Experience, Ms. Higgins oversees bank-wide strategic initiatives based on client and employee experiences. In addition, her early Client Experience accomplishments include the establishment of Multi-Experience Customer Service Center and service metrics, implementation of call recording, bank-wide phone conversion, live chat enhancements, ITM (Interactive Teller Machine) integration, implementation, deployment and adoption strategies, and ongoing ITM initiatives. Raised in Erie, PA, Ms. Higgins is a graduate of Mercyhurst Preparatory School, earned her B.S. in Business Administration with a focus in Marketing from Edinboro University, and her M.B.A from Gannon University. She is also a 2017 graduate of CNB Financial Corporation’s Leadership Institute. She volunteers her time serving the Erie community on the Board of Directors as Chair for VisitErie, Board of Trustees Secretary for Mercyhurst Preparatory School, and a School of Business Advisor for Edinboro University. Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-higgins-301261195/

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Today I talked to Bruce Temkin, speaker, thought leader, and a customer experience legend.

Bruce co-founded the Customer Experience Professionals Association in 2011 and currently serves as the Head of the XM Institute.

Bruce shared his thoughts on some important topics that can help empower your customer experience efforts:

• Bruce’s transition from submarine engineer to CRM researcher at Forrester and the early days of the customer experience movement.
• A true story of Bruce enlightening two Australian retail executives on why CX is a must despite their current success.
• The ROI of CX explained philosophically and pragrmatically-
• Common pitfalls of CX leaders
• Demystifying this relatively new term: Human Experience

Meet Bruce

Bruce Temkin is an Experience Management (XM) visionary and is often referred to as the “Godfather of Customer Experience.” He leads the Qualtrics XM Institute, which provides thought leadership and training to help organizations around the world master XM and is also building a global community of XM professionals who are radically changing the human experience. Prior to Qualtrics, Bruce led Temkin Group, which provided research, advisory, and training that helped many of the world’s leading brands build customer loyalty by engaging the hearts and minds of their customers, employees, and partners. He is also the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Prior to Temkin Group, Bruce spent 12 years with Forrester Research during which time he led the company's B2B, financial services, eBusiness, and customer experience practices and was the most-read analyst for 13 consecutive quarters. Bruce has a mechanical engineering degree from Union College and a master’s in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Qualtics XM Institute

https://www.xminstitute.com/team/bruce-temkin/

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