Summary

In this conversation, David Avrin discusses the evolution of customer experience from a product-centric to a customer-centric approach. He emphasizes the importance of understanding changing customer expectations and balancing business needs with customer desires. Avrin advocates for compassionate capitalism, where profitability and customer satisfaction coexist. He also highlights challenges CX teams face aligning their initiatives with business outcomes and the role of leadership in driving customer experience transformation. The discussion touches on global perspectives on CX and eliminating friction to enhance satisfaction. David discusses the importance of creating a seamless customer experience and the challenges businesses face in doing so. He emphasizes the need for companies to be aware of friction points and how AI can improve customer interactions. Avrin also highlights the significance of maintaining human touch in customer service, especially as automation grows. The discussion touches on the future of customer experience, the value of understanding customer needs, and the necessity for operational decisions to include CX insights.
One of the most in-demand Customer Experience speakers and consultants in the world today, David Avrin, Global Speaking Fellow, has shared his content-rich, entertaining and actionable presentations with enthusiastic audiences across the world. David helps organizations better understand and connect with their changing customers and clients to future-proof their businesses. 
His insights have been featured on thousands of media outlets around the world. He is also the author of seven books including my favorite Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back).

Guest Bio

One of the most in-demand Customer Experience speakers and consultants in the world today, David Avrin, Global Speaking Fellow, has shared his content-rich, entertaining and actionable presentations with enthusiastic audiences across the world. David helps organizations better understand and connect with their changing customers and clients to help future-proof their businesses.  His insights have been featured on thousands of media outlets around the world. But he is also the author of seven books including my favourite Why Customers Leave (and How to Win Them Back).

Chapter Breakdown

00:00 Introduction to David

01:06 Shift from Product to Customer Centricity

05:11 Breaking Silos in Customer-Centric Organizations

09:42 Compassionate Capitalism in CX

12:16 CX Teams’ Struggle to Prove Business Impact

15:36 Coaching Leadership for CX Success

18:43 Global Differences in CX Practices

21:35 Eliminating Friction in Customer Journeys

27:45 Examples of Reducing Friction

34:10 Role of AI in Reducing CX Friction

40:31 Challenges with Call Centers and Chatbots

47:28 CX as a Revenue Generator

Takeaways

Understanding customers is key to future-proofing. Balancing profit and customer expectations is challenging. Compassionate capitalism enhances experiences. CX often struggles to align with business goals. Leaders must prioritize CX transformation. Customer expectations vary globally, affecting strategies. Removing friction boosts satisfaction. Quality is expected; ease sets businesses apart. Adapting to evolving customer behaviors is critical. Seamless experiences are vital for success. AI can reduce friction but shouldn't replace humans. CX is often undervalued in decision-making. Friction causes dissatisfaction and customer loss. Generational preferences demand awareness. Prioritize CX during economic downturns. AI should enhance, not hinder, service. Understanding needs reduces unnecessary support calls. Visibility into processes boosts satisfaction. CX insights should inform operations.Follow David Here

Follow Jochem Here

Visit us at ⁠⁠www.theydo.com⁠

Summary

Jochem Van Der Veer and John Cutler discuss the intersection of product management and customer experience, emphasizing the importance of customer centricity and aligning business strategies with customer perspectives. They explore the challenges of siloed departments, the role of leadership in fostering a customer-centric culture, and the need for situational awareness and innovation. The conversation highlights the importance of multi-frame thinking, cultural shifts, and integrating business metrics with customer insights. They also address the complexities of defining a North Star metric and advocate for a balanced approach combining top-down directives and bottom-up innovation.

Chapter Breakdown

(00:00) Podcast Introduction

(03:00) Overlooked Aspects of Customer Centricity

(07:10) Differences in Product Management by Company Size

(12:08) Breaking Product Team Silos

(17:29) The Challenge of Scaling Without Silos

(23:16) Innovation vs. Incremental Improvement

(28:30) Organizing Around Features vs. Customer Needs

(34:07) Examples of Thriving Product Teams

(40:53) Leadership's Role in Bridging CX and Product

(47:02) Avoiding Irreversible Decisions in CX

(53:48) Building Skills for Customer-Centric Teams

(57:58) Defining a Company’s North Star Metric

Follow John

Follow Jochem

#customer #centricity #product #management #experience #innovation #organizational #design #situational #awareness #teams #service #agile #frameworks #leadership #agility #business #metrics #northstar #cultural #shifts #skills #development #health #blindspots #strategy

Visit us at ⁠⁠www.theydo.com⁠

Summary

In this conversation, Jochem Van Der Veer interviews Marc Fonteijn, a prominent figure in the service design community, discussing the evolution of service design, the importance of community, and the challenges faced by service designers today. They explore the dual nature of service design—commercial versus philosophical—and the ethical responsibilities that come with it. Marc shares insights on cultivating influence within organizations, the significance of personal growth, and the ongoing issue of burnout among service design professionals. In this conversation, Marc and Jochem explore the evolving landscape of service design, discussing the importance of individual contributors, the integration of design thinking into leadership roles, and the challenges of maintaining effective meetings and workshops. They delve into the significance of design language and the impact of educational systems on design thinking. The discussion also touches on parenting, community building, and the role of friendships in professional growth, emphasizing the need for supportive networks in the service design field.

Takeaways:

• Service design has evolved significantly over the years.
• Building a community is about creating a safe space for professionals.
• The challenges of community management often revolve around people dynamics.
• Service design is not just about processes; it's about impacting customer experience.
• There are two streams in service design: commercial and philosophical.
• The decline in service design job titles may indicate broader acceptance of the practice.
• Ethics in service design is crucial for sustainable solutions.
• Influence in organizations requires ongoing relationship building.
• Personal growth and reflection are essential for service designers.
• Burnout is a systemic issue that needs to be addressed in the community. - - Curiosity can transform organizational challenges into design opportunities.
• There is a stigma around career advancement in service design.
• Individual contributors are essential for the growth of service design.
• Design thinking should be integrated into leadership roles.
• Workshops can be more effective than traditional meetings.
• Design language should be accessible to everyone.
• Educational systems often hinder creative thinking.
• Encouraging children to visualize and prototype fosters creativity.
• Discipline and curiosity are more reliable than motivation.
• Building friendships is crucial for community engagement.

Follow Marc

Follow Jochem

Visit us at ⁠⁠www.theydo.com

Summary

Jochem Van Der Veer interviews Steven van Belleghem, exploring South Korea’s unique customer experience landscape, the role of AI, robotics, and government in digital innovation. They discuss personalized automation, redefining human interactions, friction hunting, emotional connections, and the leadership needed to foster customer trust and loyalty in a fast-changing world.

Guest Bio:

Steven is a Customer Experience veteran - he’s mostly known for his super engaging keynotes and high energy on stage.

He finds his inspiration by visiting companies all over the world. He is the co-founder of Nexxworks, an inspiration agency that organises inspiration tours in all corners of the world to inspire executives to improve their customer experience.

He’s also a part-time marketing professor at Vlerick Business School and guest speaker at London Business School.

But most importantly, Steven has seen, dissected, inspected, reviewed and shared more customer experiences than probably any other person in the world.

Some of his popular books include “Customers The Day After Tomorrow” and “When Digital Becomes Human.” His work emphasizes the balance between automation and human connection in creating future-proof customer strategies.

Chapter Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Steven Van Belleghem

02:20 Insights from South Korea's Customer Experience Leaders

05:44 The Role of Robots in South Korea's Workforce

07:59 Korea’s Digital-First Approach to Customer Experience

11:20 Government and Corporate Collaboration in Innovation

16:51 Speed vs. Emotional Connection in Customer Experience

19:54 AI and the Future of Customer Service

24:16 Preparing Organizations for AI-Driven Transformation

30:09 Branding and Loyalty in an AI-Powered World

40:22 Redefining Metrics for Customer Experience Success

46:02 The Power of Emotional Engagement in a Frictionless World

53:54 The Future Role of CX Teams in Shaping Strategy

Takeaways:

• Steven's trip to South Korea revealed a stark difference in customer experience compared to Europe and the US.
• South Korea has a unique digital landscape with local tech heroes like Naver and Coupang.
• The integration of robots in workplaces is a significant trend in South Korea.
• Cultural differences impact how customer experience is approached in different regions.
• The South Korean government plays a crucial role in supporting local tech companies.
• Speed is a critical factor in customer experience, but it's not the only one.
• AI will transform customer service, but brands must focus on emotional connections.
• Trust and loyalty will be key differentiators in a future dominated by AI.
• Brands need to strengthen their identity to stand out in an AI-driven market.
• Leadership will need to adapt to new decision-making processes influenced by AI. Innovation will primarily occur on the consumer side with better tools.
• Companies must redefine the role of human interaction in a digital world.
• B2B companies lag behind B2C in customer experience innovation.
• Metrics should focus on zero friction and personalization.
• Friction hunting is essential for maintaining strong customer relationships.
• Emotional connections are key to differentiating customer experiences.
• Customer experience teams should act as the voice of the customer.
• Organizations should prioritize actionable insights over lengthy reports.
• Chewy exemplifies exceptional customer experience practices.
• Leadership must prioritize customer experience as a core business strategy.

⁠Follow Steven

⁠⁠Follow Jochem⁠⁠

Visit us at ⁠www.theydo.com

Summary

In this conversation, Andrew George, direct marketing strategist and customer experience advocate at the Canadian Red Cross, shares strategies for optimizing donor engagement through journey mapping, empathy-driven communication, and blending traditional metrics with attitudinal data. He highlights the importance of collaboration across teams, empowering donors, and implementing feedback loops to improve retention. Andrew reflects on lessons learned, adapting to changing donor needs, and the unique challenges nonprofits face compared to for-profits while emphasizing the ongoing journey toward true donor-centricity and the need for executive buy-in to drive CX initiatives.

Guest Bio

Andrew wears two hats as both a direct marketing strategist and customer experience advocate at the Red Cross, where he expertly balances the metrics-driven demands of marketing with the empathy-driven needs of CX. With a focus on direct marketing, Andrew understands the rigorous push to generate responses, acknowledging the sometimes transactional nature of the field. But it’s through CX that he finds deeper fulfilment—connecting with donors one-on-one to better understand their experiences, even when the conversation is challenging. For Andrew, these insights help drive genuine, impactful relationships with donors, fueling meaningful growth for Red Cross programs.

As a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur supporter, he knows all about loyalty and dedication. Andrew has also dabbled in the world of voice acting, lending their voice to small commercials and narrations—an experience that adds another layer of versatility to their storytelling skills.

Chapter Breakdown

00:00 Introduction to Andrew George and His Roles

05:49 Metrics and KPIs in Non-Profit Marketing

11:56 Insights from the Ukraine Donor Journey

18:00 Creating Aha Moments for Team Empathy

24:04 Balancing What Donors Say vs. What They Do

29:54 Team Structure and Collaboration in Marketing and CX

35:45 Implementing Feedback Loops for Improvement

42:40 Empowering Donors Through Communication

48:36 Nonprofit vs. For-Profit: A Cultural Perspective

56:09 Overcoming Resistance to Change

Takeaways

• Andrew balances metrics-driven marketing with empathy-driven customer experience.
• The primary customers for the Red Cross are individual donors.
• Optimizing donor experience is crucial for retention and engagement.
• Metrics like share of wallet and retention are key performance indicators.
• Attitudinal measures can correlate with financial success in non-profits.
• Journey mapping helps understand the donor experience from start to finish.
• The Ukraine donor journey provided valuable insights into donor motivations.
• Creating a seamless experience is essential for donor satisfaction.
• One-on-one interviews yield deeper insights than surveys.
• Team collaboration is vital for creating a unified donor experience. CX is organized in pockets within the organization.
• Collaboration is key for effective decision-making.
• Feedback loops are essential for continuous improvement.
• Mistakes in CX often stem from solving non-existent problems.
• Empowering donors enhances their experience and engagement.
• Donor needs are evolving, requiring adaptive strategies.
• Nonprofit organizations attract individuals motivated by purpose.
• True donor-centricity is a continuous challenge.
• Executive buy-in is crucial for successful CX initiatives.
• Change management is necessary to overcome resistance.

Follow Andrew

⁠Follow Jochem⁠

Visit us at ⁠www.theydo.com⁠

Summary

Deborah Honig, a Global Business Executive at Samsung Electronics, shares insights into customer journeys, from mobile ordering to digital banking. She highlights the role of technology in enhancing user experience, reflects on both positive and negative interactions, and explores the challenges brands face in delivering consistent online and offline experiences.

Guest Bio

Deborah is an accomplished leader in customer experience and brand innovation, currently driving Samsung’s vision of a connected, customer-first future in the UK. In her role, she orchestrates Samsung's diverse product and service ecosystem.

And here’s what I love: merging cutting-edge technology with emotion.

She is tasked with defining Samsung’s brand purpose for the UK, and today she’s pioneering ways to enrich how people live, engage, and connect.

Her career began at McKinsey, From there, she advanced to leadership roles with some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Nike, Amazon, M&S, and Starbucks.

Her experience spans developing brands, creating transformative customer value props, and building retail strategies that use data and technology to meet customers where they are.

Chapter Breakdown

00:00 Rapid Fire Questions with Deborah

00:12 First Customer Journey: Mobile Ordering at Starbucks

01:09 Recent Journey: Buying a Samsung Vacuum

02:47 Worst Journey: In-Store and Online Boot Purchase Issues

05:03 Best Journey: Switching to Barclays for Digital Banking

07:20 Surprises in Digital Banking Experience

08:39 Challenges of Stickiness in Banking

09:30 The Evolution of Customer Journeys with Technology

12:10 Personalized Experiences in Retail and Banking

15:05 Lessons from Great and Poor Customer Journeys

18:22 Predictions for the Future of Customer Experience

21:15 Final Reflections on Digital Transformation

Takeaways:

• People want to get in and get out quickly.
• Mobile ordering has evolved significantly over the years.
• Chatbots can enhance the customer journey by providing information.
• Inconsistent policies between online and offline can frustrate customers.
• Technology in banking has made processes more convenient and efficient.
• Switching banks can lead to better customer experiences.
• Digital validation of documents is becoming more common in banking.
• Customer expectations change based on past experiences with brands.
• Brands need to keep up with technological advancements to retain customers.
• A seamless customer journey is crucial for satisfaction.

Follow Deborah

Follow Jochem

Visit www.theydo.com

Summary

Jochem Van Der Veer and Jim Kalbach discuss the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework, its integration with experience design, and its application in understanding user needs. Jim emphasizes the importance of precision and complementary techniques in JTBD, explaining how it enhances traditional methods like journey mapping. They explore the hierarchy of target jobs, the significance of job metrics, and the ROI of implementing JTBD in organizations. 

They delve into the Jobs to Be Done framework, discussing its importance in prioritizing opportunities, understanding unmet needs, and fostering collaboration within teams. They explore the timeless nature of jobs, the longevity of research findings, and the common pitfalls organizations face when implementing this framework. The discussion also highlights the balance between leveraging AI for research and the necessity of human insight in understanding customer needs.

Guest Bio 

Jim is an expert at the intersection of experience design, innovation, and new ways of working. With a deep passion for creating meaningful user experiences and driving organisational change, Jim has authored five influential books on these subjects including : The JTBD Playbook (Rosenfeld, 2020) and Collaborative Intelligence (Wiley, 2023).

In 2020, Jim co-founded the JTBD Toolkit, a comprehensive online resource dedicated to the "Jobs to Be Done" framework. With years of experience in design thinking, remote collaboration, and product development, Jim is Chief Evangelist at Mural - the whiteboard software company and sought-after speaker and thought leader in the design and innovation space.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Jobs to Be Done Framework

02:46 Complementary Techniques in Experience Design

06:05 Understanding Precision in Jobs to Be Done

09:03 Target Jobs and Hierarchy of Abstraction

11:49 Job Metrics and Their Importance

15:07 B2B Example: Health Insurance Job Metrics

17:59 Qualitative Research in Jobs to Be Done

21:14 The Value of Job Metrics for Underwriters

24:00 Scaling Jobs to Be Done in Organizations

26:53 Decision Making and Rituals in Organizations

32:18 Data Integration and Jobs to Be Done

36:28 The Longevity of Jobs to Be Done Research

37:50 Collaboration vs. Research in Jobs to Be Done

39:43 Operationalizing Jobs to Be Done

41:30 Facilitating Team Collaboration

43:16 Understanding Metrics: NPS and Jobs to Be Done

44:41 Common Mistakes in Jobs to Be Done

48:31 Delivering Insights to Teams

51:21 Balancing AI and Human Insight

56:54 Complementary Roles of AI in Research

Link to book - https://g.co/kgs/zTgBXnE

Follow Jim - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalbach/

Visit us at ⁠⁠⁠www.theydo.comSummary

In this conversation, Todd Unger, Chief Experience Officer at the American Medical Association (AMA), discusses his journey in transforming the organization to focus on growth through customer experience. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the target customer, creating a compelling brand proposition, and the role of digital transformation in achieving these goals. Todd shares practical insights and examples from his experience, including the development of a customer experience strategy and the creation of his book, 'The 10 Second Customer Journey.' In this conversation, Todd Unger discusses the importance of simplicity in branding, the process of building products that deliver on brand promises, and the significance of brand sentiment in driving membership. He reflects on the lessons learned during the pandemic and emphasizes the need for streamlined commerce processes and effective storytelling. Unger also highlights the importance of eliminating friction in customer experience and shares insights on the future of customer experience and growth strategies.

Guest Bio:

Todd is a transformational leader with a real edge on Experience, known for his "productive disruptor" mindset he turned his company upside down to focus on one thing: growth.

With over a decade of expertise in consumer product marketing and advertising, he has a laser focus on the customer, ensuring that business and digital transformation are always customer-centred. Currently serving as Chief Experience Officer at the American Medical Association, they drive initiatives that blend product, marketing, e-commerce, community, and service to boost membership and enhance the impact of the organisation’s mission.

He’s the author of the 10-second customer journey. A playbook on customer experience, offers a groundbreaking step-by-step framework that redefines the way businesses approach customer interactions.

Chapter Breakdown:

00:00 Introduction to Todd Unger and AMA

02:01 Defining Growth at a Legacy Organization

04:31 Digital Transformation as a Growth Driver

06:31 Breaking Down Silos for Success

11:16 Redesigning Email Campaigns for Impact

16:01 Overview of the Seven-Step CX Framework

20:51 Redefining Target Customers in 4D

25:31 Creating a Compelling Brand Proposition

30:01 Delivering on the Brand Promise

36:01 Streamlining the Commerce Process

40:31 Building a Strong Storytelling Platform

50:01 Eliminating Friction Across Touchpoints

55:01 Lessons for CX Leaders

Takeaways:

• The point of customer experience is growth.
• Membership growth is a challenge for associations.
• Digital transformation is key to member engagement.
• Aligning marketing, product, and service is crucial for growth.
• A culture of testing and experimentation drives innovation.
• Understanding the target customer is foundational for success.
• Segmentation should be driven by data, not assumptions.
• A compelling brand proposition resonates emotionally with customers.
• Simplicity in messaging is essential for clarity.
• Leadership support is vital for organizational change. Simplicity in branding can lead to better customer understanding.Digital brands excel by conveying their message quickly and effectively.
• Creating a product that aligns with brand promises is crucial.
• Brand sentiment is a key metric for membership success.
• The pandemic reshaped how organizations express their brand strategies.
• Streamlining the commerce process enhances customer experience.
• A strong storytelling platform is essential for engagement.
• Eliminating friction in customer journeys can drive growth.
• CX should be embedded in operational units for effectiveness.
• Continuous learning and adaptation are vital for organizational growth.

⁠⁠Follow Todd

⁠⁠⁠Follow Jochem⁠⁠⁠

Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theydo.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Summary

Ryan Levier draws on his experience in customer experience and service design to highlight how building relationships with C-suite executives drives innovation. At Amtrak, he transformed the company’s focus from transportation to hospitality, using data and insights to improve service design and address challenges like train delays.

Ryan emphasizes the importance of empathy, business acumen, and effective communication in fostering change. He explores the concept of "innovation debt" and how learning from past failures can shape future success. By connecting teams and framing key customer and employee moments, Ryan demonstrates how to prioritize what truly matters in the customer journey.

Guest Bio 

With over 15 years of experience representing Fortune 500 companies, Ryan brings a unique approach rooted in servant leadership and a track record of building competitive brands through collaboration with C-Suite executives across roles like Chief Digital Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Information Officer.

An expert in experience design, innovation strategy, digital transformation, and athletics, Ryan has shaped world-class B2B, B2B2C, D2C, and eCommerce experiences across sectors like energy, transportation, consumer packaged goods, sports, and nonprofits. By balancing the needs of people, business objectives, and technology's potential, he guides organisations in making innovative strides, fostering adoption, aligning vision, and delivering immediate value to customers.

Through a holistic view of complex challenges in today’s fast-evolving landscape, Ryan brings forward-thinking solutions to enhance operational efficiency and create sustainable growth.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Ryan Levier and His Expertise

02:45 Building C-Suite Relationships for Customer Experience

06:07 Transforming Amtrak: From Transportation to Hospitality

08:54 The Importance of Data and Customer Insights

11:58 Creating a Vision for the Future of Amtrak

15:10 Cross-Functional Collaboration in Innovation

18:04 Understanding Business Language in Customer Experience

21:07 The Role of Empathy and Business Understanding

23:54 Foresight vs. Insight in Strategic Planning

27:02 Communicating Change Effectively

29:59 Implementing Practical Changes at Amtrak

33:45 Understanding Train Delays and Customer Experience

37:20 Connecting Teams for Innovation

41:41 Navigating Innovation Debt

46:06 Learning from Failures

50:58 The Power of Framing in Experience Design

54:12 Micro Moments vs. Moments That Matter

Follow Ryan - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/crleveille/

Follow Jochem - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

The Experience Edge speaks to, Lasse Kragh Carstensen, Head of Digital Business & Channels at Sparekassen Danmark, shares how a customer-owned bank is redefining financial services with a human-first approach. He discusses the paradox of scaling while staying personal, how customer insights directly shape strategy, and why simplifying digital experiences matters more than adding features. Lasse also reveals the challenges of balancing AI with human service, the importance of friction hunting, and how Sparekassen aligns teams around the customer journey.

Guest Bio

Lasse is a dynamic business strategist and digital transformation expert with a proven track record of driving customer-centric growth. With extensive experience in the financial sector, including leadership roles in the banking and pension industries, Lasse has successfully managed complex projects and teams, earning recognition for his innovative approach to digital business development and agile product design. 

His work consistently bridges the gap between companies and their customers, delivering measurable business performance improvements.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:25 How Sparekassen Danmark Differs from Traditional Banks

04:53 The Paradox of Staying Human While Scaling Efficiently

07:20 AI in Banking: Where Does It Fit?

12:10 Organizing Teams Around the Customer Journey

16:53 How Customer Feedback Informs Strategic Decisions

25:55 Digital Transformation in Banking: Key Challenges

35:39 Measuring Simplicity in Customer Experiences

47:13 The Future of Human-Centric Banking

55:58 The Importance of Continuous CX Improvement

58:00 Friction Hunting: Eliminating Pain Points in Banking

01:05:09 Closing Remarks & How to Connect with Lasse

Jochem’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

Lasse’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lasse-kragh-carstensen-5ba84bb2/

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jenni Reijonen shares how LocalTapiola, one of Finland’s largest insurance companies, is reshaping customer experience. She reveals how they built a thriving customer community of over 1,000 members without any incentives, how they’re using design thinking to transform CX, and why customer experience is more than just customer service. Jenni also opens up about the challenges of shifting from system-centric to customer-first development, the power of persistence, and the small wins that keep the team motivated.

Guest Bio 

Jenni Reijonen is not your typical customer experience leader—she’s an Experience Evangelist, dedicated to transforming CX into a strategic business advantage. With a deep background in design thinking and customer-centric innovation, she has played a pivotal role in reshaping how organizations understand and engage with their customers.

One of her standout achievements was building LocalTapiola’s customer community from the ground up, growing it into a thriving ecosystem of over 1,000 members—an impressive feat for an insurance company. For Jenni, customer experience isn’t just about improving journeys; it’s about fundamentally changing how companies connect with their audiences.

Today, she leads customer experience renewal and design tools at LocalTapiola, driving innovation and deeper customer engagement.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Jenni Reijonen and Her CX Expertise  

02:12 Why Build a Customer Community?  

04:02 The Challenges of Scaling a CX-Driven Community  

06:45 How Culture Supports Customer-Centric Transformation  

08:42 Making the Business Case for CX  

11:35 Early Indicators That CX Transformation Works  

14:19 The House Framework for CX Renewal  

17:52 Mapping Processes to Customer Journeys  

20:46 The Evolving Governance Model for CX  

22:41 Measuring CX & Connecting to Business Metrics  

26:44 The Role of Cross-Functional Teams in CX  

31:53 What Happens After Transformation?  

35:58 Overcoming Resistance to Change in CX  

39:46 Communicating & Scaling CX Initiatives  

47:36 Celebrating Small Wins in CX  

51:09 Jenni’s Best, Worst & First Customer Journeys  

54:47 Closing Remarks & How to Connect with Jenni

Follow Jenni - https://www.linkedin.com/in/reijosenjenni/

Follow Jochem -⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

Visit ⁠⁠⁠www.theydo.com⁠⁠⁠

SummaryIn this episode of The Experience Edge, Zack Hamilton, a seasoned CX leader and retail strategist, joins us to explore the future of customer experience. From his unique journey from retail to SaaS, Zack shares insights on the rise of Journey Pods, the fall of NPS, and how focusing on customer lifetime value can transform businesses. With unfiltered advice and actionable strategies, Zack reveals what it takes to truly UnF*** CX and create meaningful, lasting customer connections.

Guest Bio 

Zack Hamilton is a distinguished retail and eCommerce strategist, recognized for his transformative leadership as a Chief Experience & Strategy Officer. With over two decades of deep expertise in retail, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and post-purchase experience (PPX) for global brands.

As an eCommerce visionary, Zack has been instrumental in developing and implementing digital-first strategies that seamlessly integrate online and offline retail experiences. His innovative approaches have consistently driven significant improvements in customer acquisition, conversion rates, and lifetime value across digital platforms. Having advised over 200 retail brands worldwide—including industry giants like Walmart, Macy's, and SEPHORA—Zack specializes in creating cohesive, omnichannel experiences that drive business growth.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Zack Hamilton and His Expertise

01:53 Transitioning from Retail to SaaS at Parcel Lab

05:20 Evolution of CXOs: Operational vs. Survey-Centric Leadership

11:07 Framing Customer Problems with a P&L Lens

17:36 Introducing Journey Pods and Redefining Retail Models

24:48 Serving Emerging Luxury Customer Segments

30:23 Structuring Journey Pods: Teams, Metrics, and Responsibilities

36:38 Governance and Decision-Making in Journey Teams

42:30 Launching “UnFuck Your CX” Newsletter: Mission and Impact

50:01 Challenging NPS and Advocating for Customer Lifetime Value

56:21 Setting Metrics for Business Impact and Long-Term Growth

59:37 Lessons Learned in CX Leadership and Career Highlights

01:04:27 Closing Remarks: How to Follow Zack

Follow Zack - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zackhamilton/

Follow Jochem - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

Visit ⁠⁠www.theydo.com⁠⁠

Summary

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jivesh Juneja, Customer Journey Director at Nissan, shares how he’s reshaped customer experience for over 500 million annual visitors.

Discover how Nissan shifted from product-centric to customer-focused strategies by streamlining operations with the Try, Buy, Use framework. They leveraged data to enhance customer journeys and identify "serious buyers."

Jivesh also shares practical advice on fostering innovation, building cross-functional teams, and driving measurable business outcomes.

Guest Bio 

Jivesh Juneja is a visionary business leader and technology enthusiast, currently spearheading innovation at Nissan Motor Corporation. With over a decade of expertise in digital product management and customer experience, he employs a data-driven approach to managing customer journeys. Notably, he has optimized digital platforms with over 80 million annual visitors and enhanced integration across all customer touchpoints.

Jivesh has a remarkable track record of leading large teams, managing high-stakes projects, and collaborating with senior stakeholders to deliver transformative results. It’s rare to have a journey director on the show whose expertise spans business development, omnichannel marketing, communication strategy, data analysis, and project management.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Jivesh Juneja and His Expertise

01:16 Transitioning to Customer Journey Director at Nissan

02:22 Nissan’s Shift to Journey-Centric Transformation

05:07 Organizing Around the Try-Buy-Use Framework

08:56 Balancing Optimization and Innovation

13:23 Implementing Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for Customer Journeys

18:25 Aligning Teams Around Value Streams

24:32 Prioritization Through Journey Taxonomy

31:26 Quarterly Planning and Continuous Improvement Rituals

38:18 Measuring Success with Data and Metrics

43:55 Securing Executive Buy-In for Transformation

46:01 Lessons Learned from Journey Transformation

52:26 Shifting from Product-Centric to Customer-Centric Thinking

56:09 Lightning Round: Jivesh’s First, Last, Worst, and Best Journeys

01:04:56 Closing Remarks and Jivesh’s Contact Details

Follow Jivesh - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jiveshjuneja/

Follow Jochem - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

In this episode, Daniela Carrillo, CX New Modalities Program Manager at Uber, shares insights into how Uber transforms customer experience (CX) through innovation and empathy-driven design. She discusses the importance of understanding diverse user needs across global markets and how balancing data with real-world insights leads to better customer solutions.

Daniela highlights the power of cross-team collaboration, the challenges of quantifying CX pain points, and how to build trust with product teams to ensure customer feedback drives meaningful improvements. She also explores the role of AI in CX, the impact of socio-economic context on user behavior, and the importance of asking the right questions to uncover actionable insights.

The conversation concludes with Daniela reflecting on her own best and worst customer journeys, reinforcing the value of simplicity, empathy, and trust in designing standout service experiences.

Guest Bio

Daniela Carrillo is a powerhouse in customer experience transformation and currently serves as the CX New Modalities Program Manager at Uber. Passionate about empathy-driven design, she specializes in uncovering the "why" behind decisions, bridging the gap between user needs and backend complexities to create seamless and impactful journeys. At Uber, Daniela plays a crucial role in developing innovative approaches that enhance customer experiences across diverse transportation modalities, ensuring the company's global services are tailored to local market needs.

Chapters

00:01 Daniela Carrillo’s role at Uber

01:17 What are “New Modalities” in Uber’s CX strategy?

03:53 Adapting Uber’s services to different markets

07:42 How Uber collects and applies customer insights

12:29 Why companies should balance data with real-world experience

19:24 How product teams engage with CX feedback

27:42 The power of storytelling in product development

34:22 Reading between the lines in customer research

40:16 The pitfalls of having too much data

49:55 Keeping CX research simple and effective

55:48 The role of AI in Uber’s customer support

57:49 Lightning round: Daniela’s best and worst customer journeys

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠

Daniela’s Profile - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrillodaniela/

Ain Chishty discusses the evolution of AI in customer experience, particularly in contact centers. He highlights the importance of optimizing business outcomes through AI, categorizing AI applications into automation, augmentation, and optimization. Ain emphasizes the significance of understanding customer journeys and personas in engineering design, advocating for a culture of customer centricity within engineering teams to ensure that products meet user needs effectively.

Jochem and Ain In this conversation the importance of a user-centric engineering culture, the significance of understanding user pain points, and the methodologies used in journey mapping and defining user personas. He emphasizes the need for quantifying the impact of customer experience and the balance between revenue generation and cost optimization in contact centers. The discussion also touches on the evolving role of AI in customer interactions, generational preferences in communication, and best practices for optimizing customer experience in large organizations.

Guest Bio

Ain is the EVP of Engineering and Technology at Affinity. They have been pioneering AI and CX since 2006 - Ain’s journey into computer engineering started all the way back in eighth grade, driven by a passion for elegant object design and the magic of coding. With a laser focus on building scalable, resilient, and customer-centric software solutions, Ain has shaped products that solve complex challenges and transform user experiences—particularly in the contact center space.

Chapters

00:00 The Evolution of AI in Customer Experience

13:07 Optimizing Business Outcomes with AI

20:04 Engineering Mindset: Customer-Centric Design

30:02 Building a Culture of Customer Centricity

36:32 Journey Mapping and Use Cases

42:59 Revenue vs. Cost Optimization in Contact Centers

52:00 Generational Preferences in Customer Interactions

01:01:00 Best Practices for Optimizing Customer Experience

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠

Ain’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ain-chishty/

From redefining “frontline” support to using AI for strategic insight—not replacement—Jen Burton brings a fresh, human-first perspective to CX leadership. As a CX Coach at Zendesk with nearly 20 years of experience, she shares how building a culture rooted in emotional intelligence and warmth drives both team performance and customer loyalty. In this episode, Jen dives into the operational power of AI, the untapped value of second response time, and the importance of aligning CX with business goals. She also opens up about her own journey through leadership challenges, hiring missteps, and the pursuit of becoming truly “unbothered.”

Guest Bio

Jen Burton is a CX Coach at Zendesk, where she leads the design and implementation of human-centric, data-driven performance systems that streamline operations and deliver outstanding results. With more than 15 years of experience in customer support and operations, Jen is widely recognized for her ability to build scalable, high-quality support systems across chat, SMS, and voice channels.

Her approach combines the power of AI with the nuance of human insight, empowering teams to operate with autonomy while driving both customer satisfaction and business success. Passionate about elevating the human experience, Jen also brings a deep commitment to fostering personal growth and authentic connections within teams.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Jen Burton and her leadership philosophy

03:42 Humanizing leadership: challenges and best practices

10:04 Reframing blame and building emotional resilience

13:42 Creating a warm and high-performing CS culture

20:21 Structuring support teams for scale and growth

24:07 Collaborating across teams: CX as a strategic partner

30:34 Making the business case for CX investments

33:59 Operational AI: from sentiment analysis to trend detection

42:54 Evolving CX metrics and performance management

51:37 Coaching and QA in modern CX environments

55:02 The future of CX: upskilling, AI, and journey thinking

59:16 Ownership and collaboration around customer journeys

01:01:50 Personal journey stories: growth through wins and losses

01:09:08 Where to find Jen and final reflections

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Jen Burton - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenburton/

Luciane Carrillo, Head of Customer Experience at Crunchyroll and former Netflix leader, joins the podcast to reflect on 13 years shaping CX at a global scale. She shares lessons from Netflix’s international expansion, how she's adapting them for Crunchyroll's anime-loving fanbase, and why cultural nuance, feedback, and empowerment are vital for modern CX leadership. From creating proactive CX teams to mentoring women through her Brava community, Luciane brings both strategic insight and heart to every touchpoint.

Guest Bio

Luciane is a trailblazer in customer experience, with over 15 years of expertise transforming how global brands connect with their audiences. At Netflix, she played a pivotal role in scaling customer experience strategies during the company’s groundbreaking global expansion, navigating cultural and operational challenges to deliver exceptional results.

Now leading CX transformation at Crunchyroll, a Sony Pictures subsidiary, Luciane is setting new standards by blending data-driven insights with empathetic leadership. Beyond her corporate work, she is the founder of Brava, a foundation dedicated to empowering and celebrating women.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Luciane Carrillo

01:37 What Crunchyroll is and how it differs from other streaming platforms

03:21 Comparing CX at Netflix vs. Crunchyroll

06:08 Reusing vs. reinventing the playbook in new orgs

09:44 Transferring soft skills and global mindset

10:37 Adapting Netflix’s culture of feedback at Crunchyroll

13:12 Navigating global teams and communication styles

16:43 How CX has evolved beyond support

19:27 Organizational structure to elevate CX impact

22:54 Building relationships with other teams

25:31 CX as a strategic foresight function

27:18 Designing for fans vs. users

30:59 Segmenting support based on culture and region

35:12 Balancing AI and human support in CX

37:18 Crunchyroll’s no-voice support strategy

38:50 Understanding AI chatbot effectiveness

40:00 Mentoring CX leaders and tackling systemic biases

45:49 Examples of bias in workplace systems

48:49 How Brava helps women navigate career challenges

51:42 How Luciane’s leadership style evolved

55:02 Recommended resources for CX and leadership

58:15 First, last, worst, best journey stories

01:02:42 Closing thoughts

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠

Luciane Carrillo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/luciane-carrillo-4932137/

Martin Villanueva, Global Customer Engagement Lead at IKEA, shares insights on the evolving landscape of customer loyalty, AI-driven personalization, and omnichannel experiences. He discusses how IKEA balances digital and physical retail, the challenges of managing customer engagement across global franchises, and the role of AI in shaping hyper-personalized yet privacy-conscious interactions. Martin also explores how AI is transforming customer data management and decision-making, offering a glimpse into the future of intelligent, human-centered customer experiences.

Guest Bio

Martin Villanueva is IKEA’s Global Customer Engagement Lead, with a track record of pushing boundaries at global brands like McDonald's, Nike, adidas, and now IKEA. Combining strategic thinking, creativity, and a data-driven mindset, he delivers impactful results in every project. He is also a sought-after keynote speaker on customer engagement and innovation.

Beyond his professional achievements, Martin is an accomplished athlete and former captain of his university football team, where he honed his leadership and teamwork skills while competing in Australia’s Premier League. His career has spanned multiple continents—including Buenos Aires, the Netherlands, Panama, and Peru—and his studies have taken him to Hong Kong and New York, giving him a truly global perspective in his work.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

01:57 Martin’s Background: From Sports to Global Brands

02:46 How IKEA’s Customer Experience Differs from Nike & Adidas

05:02 Is Customer Loyalty Still Relevant?

07:28 The Evolution of Loyalty Programs with AI

10:19 Emotional Loyalty vs. Transactional Loyalty

13:02 AI’s Role in Customer Engagement at IKEA

15:38 AI-Powered Personalization and Its Impact on Retail

16:42 Will AI Reduce the Need for Physical Stores?

19:19 IKEA’s Franchise Model and Customer Experience Strategy

22:08 How Global Franchises Adopt Customer Engagement Strategies

25:42 Measuring Engagement and Customer Lifetime Value

28:20 Handling Franchise Resistance to Global Strategies

32:27 How AI is Changing Decision-Making in Global Brands

34:23 AI Adoption at IKEA and Its Impact

37:15 How to Ensure AI Provides the Right Answers

40:48 Has AI Changed How Teams Analyze Customer Data?

42:31 The Role of Remote Work in Global Teams

45:34 Managing a Distributed Global Customer Engagement Team

48:11 How to Stay Close to Customers in a Global Role

50:58 Bringing Physical Customer Experience Insights to Digital Teams

53:14 AI-Enabled Retail Design and Behavioral Insights

56:10 Ethics of Influencing Customer Behavior in Retail

58:52 Closing Thoughts and Where to Find Martin

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠

Thomas’s Profile - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinrvm/

Thomas Caliman, Chief Experience Officer at ADEO, shares insights on the evolving role of design and customer experience in large organizations. He discusses how design and CX teams collaborate to drive business impact, the power of journey mapping for alignment, and the importance of connecting UX with business objectives. Thomas also explores the role of generative AI in customer research and experience design, offering a glimpse into the future of AI-powered personas and synthetic user testing.

Guest Bio

Thomas is the Chief Experience Officer at ADEO, the parent company of renowned brands like Leroy Merlin and Bricoman. With over 500 million customers, ADEO is committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences.

With more than 15 years of experience, Thomas has led 350 projects for 230 clients, earning nine prestigious awards for his expertise in user-centered design, customer experience (CX), and design team management. His innovative approach blends creativity with data-driven insights to drive transformative solutions.

Previously a trailblazer at Amazon and Microsoft, Thomas now serves on Adobe Think Tank’s Innovative Design Board, helping to shape the future of design thinking and customer-centric strategies.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Thomas Calimaux and His Background

01:19 Shaping the Future of Design Thinking at Adobe’s Design Board

04:05 The Role of Design in Business Performance and Growth

06:39 Aligning UX and CX with Business Goals

10:18 A Practical Example of Design Driving Business Impact at ADEO

13:33 The Amazon PR FAQ Method for Customer-Centric Design

17:17 The Evolving Role of Generative AI in Design

21:51 AI-Powered Personas and the Future of User Research

26:32 From Design to Chief Experience Officer: Thomas’s Unique Career Path

30:07 Bridging UX, CX, and Business Strategy

34:20 Organizational Structure and the Role of Tech in UX/CX

37:56 Journey Mapping and Opportunity Prioritization

42:35 How ADEO Prioritizes Business and Customer Experience Initiatives

49:52 The Shift Towards a Customer-Centric Culture at ADEO

53:06 Making Customer Journeys Accessible to Business Leaders

58:21 The Power of Customer Journeys in Aligning Organizations

01:03:06 Thomas’s Best, Worst, First, and Last Customer Journeys

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠

Thomas’s Profile - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-caliman/

From challenging public perceptions of the pharmaceutical industry to redefining how patient trust is built and maintained, Richard Schwartz brings a bold, human-centered vision to healthcare experience design. As a CX leader in the life sciences, Richard unpacks why patient journeys are more than process maps—they are emotional and behavioral landscapes shaped by belief, compassion, and clarity.

In this episode, Richard and Jochem explore how pharma brands can evolve beyond reactive care and build real relationships through trust-driven design. They challenge the myth that pharma companies are purely profit-driven and instead spotlight the untapped opportunity in patient-centered experiences that drive both adherence and outcomes. From the role of compassion in medicine to the impact of AI-driven agents on healthcare journeys, Richard offers a blueprint for how experience can become a true form of clinical intervention—with measurable, meaningful impact.

Guest Bio

Richard Schwartz is a customer experience leader in the life sciences sector, where he’s made a mark uncovering the hidden dynamics between pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and patients. His work has focused on understanding why prescriptions often fail to reach patients and how trust becomes a critical, and often overlooked, factor in medication adherence.

With a deep commitment to patient-centric innovation, Richard views experience design as a form of medicine—one that holds real clinical impact. His approach bridges operational complexity with human insight, helping pharma brands reimagine engagement strategies that build trust and improve outcomes. Passionate about shaping the future of healthcare, Richard brings both empathy and strategic rigor to his work in redefining how the industry serves its most important stakeholder: the patient.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Richard Schwartz and his CX mission in pharma

03:42 Pharma’s Disney complex vs. the real miracle of medicine

08:24 The public trust gap and its root causes

13:39 Misunderstood journeys and the myth of segmentation

18:28 Experiences in medicine: Compassion as a clinical tool

21:25 The tangled economic ecosystem around patient care

25:29 Obesity treatment as a best-in-class CX example

28:03 Debunking common myths about the pharmaceutical industry

34:11 Pharma advertising and missed opportunities to connect

37:41 Breaking the cycle of preserving the status quo

42:08 Drawing patient-centricity: arrows in, not out

44:10 Metrics, measures, and why action matters

46:39 Designing predictive, invisible experiences

50:16 How CX drives prescribing behavior and brand adoption

54:18 AI and agentic systems: the future of healthcare journeys

59:40 Data sharing, privacy fears, and trust trade-offs

01:06:29 Richard’s advice for building your Experience Edge

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Richard's Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardpschwartz/

From redefining empathy at scale to structuring strategy around shared goals, Steven Smart brings a pragmatic and people-first approach to digital transformation in financial services. As a Digital and CX Lead at DLL, Steven shares how streamlining customer journeys—down to a handful of critical interactions—creates clarity and consistency across complex, siloed organizations.

In this episode, Steven unpacks the operational power of aligning internal priorities with customer goals, the evolving role of empathy in both design and leadership, and why frictionless experiences start with cross-functional collaboration. He also shares powerful lessons from personal journeys—both triumphant and trying—that shaped his view of what truly great customer experience looks like.

Guest Bio

Steven Smart is a digital and customer experience leader at DLL, where he has spent the past three years driving transformation through customer-centric innovation, organizational change, and strategic partnerships. With over eight years of experience reshaping customer journeys, Steven is known for aligning technology, business goals, and customer needs into cohesive, impactful solutions.

His approach blends empathy with structured problem-solving, helping teams navigate complexity while keeping the customer at the centre. Passionate about creating lasting impressions, Steven is deeply committed to guiding organisations on the path to meaningful, experience-led growth.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Steven Smart and his CX transformation work at DLL

03:42 Rethinking the customer journey in financial services

09:36 Balancing frictionless design with human connection

12:26 Breaking silos and aligning strategy across teams

20:34 Operationalizing empathy and embedding it into culture

28:57 One vision, one roadmap: Structuring for CX at scale

35:25 AI in CX: Augmenting, not replacing human insight

50:42 Clean data, APIs, and preparing for an AI-powered future

57:28 Personal journeys: First, worst, best, and last CX moments

01:03:01 Final reflections and Steven’s CX magic wand wish

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Steven Smart - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-smart-b612b45a/

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer speaks with Shanta Bodhan, Associate Director of Innovation Customer Experience at Cornerstone, about the evolving landscape of employee development through immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), and generative AI. Drawing on her background in HR and sustainability, Shanta shares how her team is reimagining workforce learning at scale for global brands including Siemens, Nestlé, and UPS.

The conversation explores the challenges and advantages of remote-first organizations, how immersive learning can drive measurable outcomes, and the balance between personalization and scalability in customer experience. Shanta also discusses the intersection of employee and customer journeys, the role of mentorship in combating imposter syndrome, and how innovation teams can align business and individual goals. With practical insights and a vision for the future of learning, this episode offers a compelling look at the power of human-centered technology in shaping tomorrow’s workforce.

Guest Bio

My guest today is Shanta Bodhan, Associate Director of Innovation Customer Experience at Cornerstone. A visionary in corporate learning, Shanta is leading transformative initiatives using extended reality (XR), virtual reality (VR), and generative AI to redefine how global organizations approach employee development and engagement.

With a background spanning sustainability and human resources, she’s passionate about aligning innovation with purpose. Shanta is a dedicated advocate for mentorship, diversity, and inclusion, and is helping shape the future of work through equity-driven solutions and cutting-edge learning strategies.

Chapters

01:17 Shanta's Background and Move to Remote Work

02:31 Defining Workforce Agility and Its Relevance

04:25 Remote vs. Return-to-Office: What's Working?

06:28 Scaling Remote Work at Cornerstone

08:19 The Value of In-Person Connection

09:26 Using XR and Generative AI for Learning

11:17 Overcoming Adoption Challenges in VR Training

13:18 Measurable Impact of Immersive Learning

14:51 Measuring Learning Retention with Hard and Soft Skills

17:21 Partnering with Companies on XR Implementation

19:08 Shanta’s Role in Innovation CX at Cornerstone

21:16 Customer Experience vs. Customer Success

23:48 Customer Feedback and Innovation Integration

24:53 All-Remote Deployment of VR Learning

28:28 The Future of Learning with XR and AI

30:08 Who Buys XR Learning: HR, Innovation, or Leadership?

32:35 Impact on Attrition and Personalization in Learning

35:54 Can VR Learning Be Mandatory?

38:56 Adoption Through Normalization of Immersive Tools

40:31 Employee Experience vs. Customer Experience

43:05 Mentorship vs. Management and the Rise of Imposter Syndrome

48:13 When and How to Introduce Mentoring

51:14 Aligning Employee and Business Goals

53:03 Customer Journey Goals and Measuring Success

54:45 Balancing Scalability and Personalization

56:44 Customer Journey as a Cross-Functional Tool

58:16 Fixing Friction Points in the Customer Journey

59:34 Personal Reflections on Journey Moments

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Shanta Bodhan - ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanta-bodhan/

Do you really need to “break the silos” to fix customer experience?

In this video, Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo CEO) unpacks why that common advice is flawed - and shares Alison Landers’ (Chief Experience Officer at UBS) smarter approach: it’s not about breaking silos, it’s about orchestrating across them.

Drawing on Alison’s experience leading CX at UBS, Wells Fargo, and Prudential, this episode reveals how journey orchestration helps organizations coordinate at scale and finally deliver seamless experiences customers actually feel.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why silos aren’t the enemy — and why orchestration is the smarter goal

• How customer experience cuts across channels, products, and divisions by design

• Why lack of coordination leads to disconnected journeys customers notice instantly

• The three pillars of Journey Orchestration

• How naming journey owners and building cross-functional alignment unlocks value

• Lessons from UBS, Wells Fargo, and Prudential on scaling CX transformation

Check out the full podcast episode with Alison Landers here.

Join the conversation:

What’s one experience in your company that’s broken because no one owns the “in between”?

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo:

#CustomerExperience #JourneyOrchestration #CXStrategy #BusinessSilos #TheyDo #CustomerJourney #CXLeadership #CrossFunctional #DigitalTransformation

In this episode, Jochem van der Veer sits down with Trish Wethman, former Chief Customer Officer at Best Egg, to explore the evolution of the CX function and how to embed customer intelligence into business operations. Trish shares lessons from her tenure in creating impactful customer strategies and championing cultural transformation through CX. From navigating tough executive meetings to redesigning the CX function for action, Trish offers a candid look at what it takes to align organizations around a shared customer vision.

The conversation covers everything from embedding insights partners into business teams, building a sticky CX vision, and redefining ROI in customer experience, to the future of AI in transforming journey mapping and decision-making. This episode is an essential listen for CX leaders looking to elevate their function from data collection to business impact.

Guest Bio

Trish Wethman is a seasoned customer experience executive and the former Chief Customer Officer at Best Egg. With a background in driving customer-centric transformation, Trish has built high-performing CX teams that align business objectives with customer needs. Known for pioneering insights-driven partnerships and shaping cohesive experience visions, her work has helped enterprises navigate complexity and deliver measurable outcomes. Trish also contributes to the Mid-Atlantic CX Forum, where she continues to champion the role of CX in modern business strategy.

Takeaways

• CX leaders must connect metrics to business impact, not just report on data.
• A CX vision only sticks if it’s co-created with business leaders who feel accountable.
• Embedding insights business partners into product and marketing teams improves prioritization and advocacy.
• Aligning customer journeys to acquisition, conversion, and servicing metrics creates business relevance.
• Distinguishing between process maps and true journey maps is critical for actionable insights.
• Micro-journeys should be owned by the teams closest to them, while the CCO oversees end-to-end cohesion.
• CX principles like “flexibility” work best when they’re deeply rooted in customer research and relevant across departments.
• Weekly business reviews are powerful tools for prioritization across CX, product, and marketing.
• ROI can be demonstrated through lift in conversion, risk mitigation, and faster decision-making.
• AI should automate insight generation and journey mapping, enabling CX teams to focus on driving action.
• Future CX functions will require more consultative and alignment-oriented roles.
• Service design, AI operations, and customer data orchestration will be foundational to next-gen CX.

Chapters

00:00 Guest introduction and setting the stage

01:00 CX storytelling failure: translating insights to business value

05:00 Building integrated CX teams that understand business metrics

08:00 Creating the role of insights business partners

11:00 The role of a CX vision and stakeholder collaboration

15:00 Aligning CX to acquisition, conversion, and retention

19:00 Journey mapping beyond the surface level

22:00 Ownership of end-to-end vs. micro-journeys

24:00 Weekly business reviews and their impact

28:00 ROI examples from marketing and innovation support

31:00 CX as an alignment function across silos

33:00 CX principles: flexibility as a customer value driver

35:00 AI’s transformative role in CX workflows

40:00 AI-first CX operating model: what stays human?

44:00 Shifting skillsets: from analysts to consultative partners

47:00 Rethinking surveys and AI-enabled research

50:00 CX engineering: building intelligent customer systems

52:00 Quality control, trust, and hallucination risks in AI

53:00 Closing thoughts and where to find Trish online

LinkedIn

Follow Trish Wethman on LinkedIn

Follow Jochem van der Veer on LinkedIn

As Promised you can find Trish Wethman on The Mid-Atlantic CX Forum "Where CX and IT Meet"

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer speaks with Allison Paine Landers, CXO for Banking and Lending at UBS and a recognized leader in the FinTech Top 100 Women list. With a deep foundation built across financial giants like Prudential and Wells Fargo, Allison brings a sophisticated perspective on customer and employee experience transformation. From her roots in marketing and operations to steering global CX initiatives, she illustrates how a nuanced, journey-centric approach can redefine service delivery at scale.

Allison dives into the challenges and rewards of integrating customer experience within legacy financial institutions. She offers tactical insights into orchestrating cross-functional teams, aligning product and journey ownership, and building robust testing mechanisms to validate real improvements. Whether launching new banking capabilities or enhancing existing ones, her methodology revolves around deep listening, data-driven prioritization, and adaptive design - all anchored in a firm commitment to measurable business outcomes.

Guest Bio

Allison Paine Landers is the Chief Experience Officer for Banking and Lending at UBS. A seasoned leader in customer and employee experience, Allison has over two decades of expertise in financial services. Her past leadership roles include spearheading CX transformations at Prudential and Wells Fargo, where she architected journey-centric practices from the ground up. She has been named to the FinTech Top 100 Women for two consecutive years, reflecting her industry influence and innovation. Known for her strategic clarity and operational pragmatism, Allison is passionate about designing experiences that are not only user-centric but also commercially impactful.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Guest Introduction

01:29 Evolution of CX in Financial Services

03:49 The Role of CX Teams: Ownership vs. Influence

06:10 Organizational Design for CX Impact

07:30 Standing Up Journey Practices at Prudential

10:31 Journey-Centric vs. Product-Centric Models

12:27 Structuring CX at UBS

15:19 Future-State Journey Mapping

17:30 Differentiating UBS Through High-Touch and Digital

20:26 Journey Ownership and Accountability

24:19 Redesigning Financial Services Organizations

27:38 Common Patterns in Journey Management

30:01 Delivering Tangible Business Value

34:55 Designing the Right Solution, Not Just Fixing Problems

37:31 Implementing UX Testing and Real-Time Panels

40:43 Balancing Pilots and Panels for Rollouts

43:44 Misunderstood Challenges in Journey Management

47:45 Proving ROI Beyond CX Scores

51:20 Amplifying Business Value Through Horizontal CX Views

55:38 Using AI to Accelerate Insight Generation

58:00 Blending Context with AI in Journey Analytics

01:00:17 Integrating Business Performance into Journeys

01:01:58 Translating Journeys for Enterprise-Wide Understanding

01:04:58 Final Thoughts and Where to Find Allison

Follow us:

Jochem’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

Allison's Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonpainelanders/

Elizabeth Oates is on a mission to help insight professionals go from simply being “interesting” to delivering true business impact. As the author of More Than Just Interesting and a seasoned insights leader, she’s transforming how organizations approach decision-making, data collection, and the role of human understanding in customer experience.

In this episode, Elizabeth introduces the concept of “collection debt,” explains why insights functions often fall short, and provides practical tools for tying every insight to a business decision. She dives into how AI is reshaping the role of analysts, why trust and timing matter more than ever, and how journey thinking can create an infinite loop of customer engagement. Whether you lead an insights team or work with one, this is essential listening.

Guest Bio

Elizabeth Oates is an insights strategist, thought leader, and the author of More Than Just Interesting: How to Build an Insights Function for Impact. With over two decades of experience, she has built, led, and transformed insight teams for major organizations, helping them move from data collection to decision enablement.

Elizabeth developed a framework of nine core skills for impactful insight work, blending business strategy, storytelling, and stakeholder influence. Her work centers on elevating the role of human insights in an increasingly AI-driven world, ensuring organizations maintain customer relevance while building trust through strategic insight delivery.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Elizabeth Oates and collection debt

03:26 What is collection debt and why it matters

07:36 Aligning insights with business actions

12:48 VOC: From reporting to relevance

14:48 Insight lifecycle: What’s still true and what’s now true

17:36 Where to start collecting insights

22:35 Anatomy of a perfect insight

28:02 Reframing insights language for impact

30:20 The role of AI in modern insights work

35:22 The underestimated power of influence

44:36 From interesting to impactful: The action connection

49:40 Case study: When not launching a product is the win

56:08 Measuring and celebrating insights impact

59:37 Using journey thinking to avoid customer exits

01:07:16 Why LEGO masters the customer journey

Jochem’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

Elizabeth's Profile - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethknoxoates/

From grassroots insights in East Africa to global strategy, Carolyne Gathuru brings a powerful voice to what it truly means to be customer-centric. As a CX strategist, leadership coach, and member of the Women in CX Inner Circle, she weaves 25 years of field experience into practical, impactful guidance for organizations undergoing transformation.

In this conversation, Carolyne dives into how to build genuine customer care into company culture, why training isn't always the answer, and how to simplify CX strategy without losing depth. She challenges assumptions about AI, voice of the customer programs, and what it takes to operationalize CX in both commercial and government settings.

Guest Bio

Carolyne Gathuru is a seasoned CX strategist and communication coach with over two decades of experience guiding public and private organizations toward customer-centric transformation. She is a core member of the Women in CX Inner Circle and the founder of Life Skills Consulting in Kenya.

Her work spans leadership alignment, culture change, and voice of the customer (VOC) programs. Carolyne’s mission is to help organizations move from box-ticking initiatives to genuine impact by diagnosing systemic gaps, simplifying complex strategies, and advocating for the human side of customer experience. With her clear-eyed approach and relentless passion, she is changing how organizations view and implement CX from the inside out.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Carolyne Gathuru and CX in Africa

01:47 Training for genuine care, not just scripts

06:05 Why training often isn’t the real problem

09:07 The power of stakeholder interviews and bottom-up insight

12:05 The leadership checklist to define CX initiatives

17:22 The tension between AI convenience and human connection

23:29 Rethinking Voice of the Customer programs

29:16 Why organizations must ask: What do customers really want?

32:49 The surprising evolution of CX in government

36:23 The hardest part: Tying CX to the bottom line

40:10 Journey mapping as a diagnostic tool

42:27 Tying CX to brand, ESG, and internal engagement

46:18 Using pain points to build CX business cases

47:50 Why simplicity drives action in culture change

50:15 Representation and relevance in global CX networks

52:30 Elevating CX as a real profession for women in Africa

55:22 Final thoughts: Start experience excellence at home

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Carolyne's Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolyne-gathuru-266ab017/

Crystal D'Cunha is on a mission to ignite leaders, excite employees, and delight customers. As President and CEO of The Inside View Inc., she helps organizations hardwire customer experience into their culture. With award-winning programs and decades of leadership expertise, she equips teams to take CX from theory to action - starting with something as deceptively simple as the daily huddle.

In this episode, Crystal unpacks the emotional and structural DNA of a customer-centric company. She explains the difference between customer service and customer experience, why CX is not a department, and how small moments of delight can drive major business impact. From the power of language to real-world organizational transformation, this is a masterclass in experiential leadership.

Guest Bio

Crystal D'Cunha is an award-winning customer experience consultant, keynote speaker, and the visionary CEO of The Inside View Inc. Known for her energetic and hands-on approach, she helps companies integrate CX deeply into their leadership development and employee culture. Her Leadership Experience Excellence program won a Stevie Award, beating global giants like IBM and Pepsi.

Crystal is also the host of the Leaders Listen Up podcast and a seasoned advisor on embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into customer and employee journeys. With a practical philosophy of “ignite, excite, and delight,” she transforms organizations by aligning their leaders and teams around consistent, emotionally resonant customer experiences.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Crystal D'Cunha and her CX philosophy

01:22 Winning a Stevie Award for CX leadership training

06:52 Why CX is not a department

09:34 How eight-minute huddles shift culture

18:51 Customer service vs. customer experience

23:11 Coaching employees to drive better customer outcomes

29:12 A magical Hilton experience that cost almost nothing

38:14 The mindset shift leaders need for CX transformation

44:01 Who should own CX - and what to do when support is missing

52:29 Why many CX leaders are set up to fail

56:01 How to know your leadership team is truly ready

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Crystal's Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/crystald1/overlay/about-this-profile/

From rethinking growth strategy to redefining what it means to be truly customer-led, Gia Loudi brings a sharp lens to how tech companies build around customer experience. With deep roots in B2B SaaS and a track record that spans Bitly, Sprout Social, and her own advisory work, she champions a foundational approach to CX that starts with one powerful question: What does your best customer really need?

In this episode, Gia unpacks the system behind customer-led growth, the overlooked power of jobs-to-be-done research, and why AI is no substitute for human insight. She shares how companies accumulate CX debt, why product marketing is often the unsung hero, and how mapping customer leaps of faith can unlock sustainable growth.

Guest Bio

Gia Laudi is a growth advisor, author, and speaker who helps high-growth B2B SaaS companies build sustainable, customer-led strategies. As co-author of Forget the Funnel and host of the podcast by the same name, she brings a grounded, systems-based approach to operationalising customer experience across marketing, product, and success teams.

With over a decade of experience at companies like Bitly, Sprout Social, SparkToro, and more than 100 startups, Gia specializes in translating customer insights into repeatable growth systems. Her methodology, rooted in jobs-to-be-done research and customer experience mapping, empowers organizations to reduce guesswork and realign around the true value customers seek. Passionate about cutting through the noise, she’s reshaping how tech companies think about CX - from intuition to insight, and from chaos to clarity.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Gia Laudi and her CX work in B2B SaaS

01:54 Rethinking CX mapping: Beyond transactional journey maps

07:50 Inside the customer-led growth system

11:59 Defining "leaps of faith" in the customer journey

18:36 CX debt: What it is and how to spot it

22:07 Who should own customer experience in SaaS?

25:56 Can AI replace human-led customer research?

43:13 Operationalizing the customer experience map

47:33 Why jobs-to-be-done must anchor your research

49:37 The opportunity of AI in organizing customer insights

55:10 Final thoughts: Re-centering strategy around real customer value

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Georgiana's Profile - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgianalaudi/

From building trust with vulnerable communities to redefining the role of digital in healthcare, Joan Cox leads with a deeply human approach to patient experience at LifeBridge Health. Drawing on her work across diverse communities, she shares why true transformation starts with empathy, connection, and community-driven care.

In this episode, Joan explores how digital tools must support - not replace - human interaction, the hidden toll of compassion fatigue, and why patient experience is essential to both clinical outcomes and lasting change.

Guest Bio

Joan Cox is the Chief Experience Officer at LifeBridge Health, where she leads initiatives that embed empathy, human connection, and holistic care into every aspect of the patient journey.

With extensive experience collaborating with organizations like the Mayo Clinic Network, Joan brings a deep understanding of how mission-driven transformation can improve both patient outcomes and organizational health.

Drawing from her work across diverse communities—from underserved desert populations to urban healthcare systems—she specializes in creating systems that support both clinical excellence and emotional connection. Passionate about empowering patients and healthcare teams alike, Joan is committed to reshaping healthcare delivery around compassion, community, and lasting impact.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Joan Cox and her CX leadership at LifeBridge Health

02:47 Lessons from Arizona: Building trust with underserved communities

08:43 Redefining mission-driven healthcare in Baltimore

14:28 Digital engagement vs. human connection: Finding the balance

21:26 How patient experience drives financial outcomes in healthcare

30:37 Organizing CX teams to embed the patient voice at the executive level

39:18 Breaking silos: Collaborating across marketing, IT, and care teams

49:39 Leading through presence: The power of small moments

58:29 Joan’s vision: Equal access to care for all

Jochem’s Profile - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Joan's Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joan-pendergast-cox-cpxp-66b3287/

Why do CX efforts fail - even when everyone’s working hard?

You’ve got the tools, the talent, and the intent. But customer pain persists. In this video, Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo CEO) reveals the real reason most customer experience initiatives don’t deliver results.

It’s not broken UX.

It’s not bad support.

It’s structural misalignment - and it’s costing you more than you realize.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why silos aren't the enemy - and why “breaking them” is the wrong goal

• The 4 hidden costs of poor cross-functional coordination:

• How journey-centric orchestration helps teams work smarter, not harder

• Real-world lessons from companies like Lufthansa on aligning product, UX, and service

• Why journey management beats cosmetic fixes like NPS and UI tweaks

Join the conversation:

Where are your teams misaligned - and what would it take to fix it?

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo

#CustomerExperience #JourneyManagement #TheyDo #BusinessSilos #CXLeadership #DigitalStrategy #CrossFunctional #CustomerJourney #CXFailure #OrchestrationNotDestruction

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer welcomes Brooke Sellas, CEO of B Squared Media, to dissect how social media has evolved from a content distribution channel to a powerful platform for customer experience and intelligence. Brooke explains how forward-thinking brands are using social not just to post, but to converse, and how these conversations can reveal vital insights into customer behavior, brand sentiment, and even revenue potential.

Brooke introduces her CARE framework (Conversation, Acquisition, Retention, Engagement) and explains how her agency uses this model to help enterprise brands mine social interactions for voice-of-customer data. With examples from clients like printer and appliance brands, she reveals how conversational data, social listening, and AI integration can drive measurable business outcomes, from reducing churn to increasing sales. This episode is a masterclass in turning social media into a revenue engine and customer intelligence hub.

Guest Bio

Brooke Sellas is shaping the future of digital marketing one conversation at a time. As an award-winning CEO, she leads B Squared Media, the premier agency redefining 'social care' for brands like Brother International, Miele, and BCU. You can dive into her insights through her book Conversations That Connect, her thought leadership on CMSWire, or her expert-led courses, among them, three digital marketing courses at the University of California, Irvine (one focused on AI & Marketing) and a LinkedIn Learning course on Social Care.

Takeaways

• Social media has evolved from content broadcasting to customer conversation and care.
• The CARE framework, Conversation, Acquisition, Retention, Engagement, drives measurable business results.
• Social listening tools help brands proactively identify trends, crises, and customer intent signals.
• Acquisition conversations on social media are often underestimated; many brands find >20% of social interactions are sales-related.
• Responding to positive comments increases brand affinity and fuels word-of-mouth marketing.
• 76% of customers who don’t receive a reply on social will consider switching to a competitor.
• AI enhances scalability but must be paired with human judgment to avoid PR mishaps.
• Gen Z shoppers value brand-customer conversations more than online reviews.
• “Channel of choice” is essential: CX insights differ across email, phone, and social.
• AI can analyze conversational data to reveal which messages and offers close more deals.
• A single customer service issue, like a confusing coffee machine manual, can cause widespread sentiment drops unless proactively resolved.
• Social selling is not just a buzzword; it requires structured processes and attribution clarity.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Brooke Sellas

01:00 Why social media has shifted from content to conversation

03:00 Who should own social media in an enterprise?

04:30 Brands leading in conversational social media

07:00 The CARE framework explained

10:00 Using VOC to find acquisition and retention signals

14:00 Proving ROI and prioritizing efforts

18:30 Scaling with AI and human oversight

25:30 Best practices in social listening and VOC integration

30:00 Segmenting by channel and generation

34:00 Case study: Fixing a product sentiment issue

41:00 Identifying channel of choice for CX alignment

46:00 Attribution tension between marketing and social care

50:00 Events that trigger companies to invest in social care

55:00 Sprout Social stat: 76% switch brands after no reply

LinkedIn

Follow Brooke Sellas on LinkedInFollow Jochem van der Veer on LinkedIn

Brooke's Web Links

https://bsquared.media/

https://bsquared.media/conversations-that-connect-book/

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer speaks with Jennifer Jenkins, Head of CX Design at Scotiabank. Jennifer shares her deep expertise in service and systems thinking, offering a fresh lens on organizational silos, cross-functional collaboration, and the evolving practice of journey management. With roots in workplace design and a strong belief in in-situ research, she provides a unique perspective on how to elevate both customer and employee experiences.

The conversation delves into topics such as rethinking silos as structures, aligning organizational design with customer experience, the necessity of qualitative research in a digital world, and designing with sustainability in mind. Jennifer advocates for systems that are not only more efficient but more human, urging companies to expand their awareness, reframe assumptions, and design responsibly for scale.

Guest Bio

Jennifer Jenkins is the Head of CX Design at Scotiabank, where she leads strategy and design across complex systems in a large, legacy financial organization. With a background spanning service design, workplace strategy, and systems thinking, Jennifer brings a multidisciplinary approach to shaping impactful customer experiences. She is particularly known for championing cross-functional pods, emphasizing qualitative research, and promoting sustainable design choices in digital contexts.

Takeaways

• Silos can be reframed as necessary structures; the goal is to connect them, not eliminate them.
• Service design often breaks down when organizational design doesn't align with the intended customer experience.
• Journey pods at Scotiabank are cross-functional, aligning CX strategy with product development early in the process.
• Pods engage in both qualitative and quantitative research, using methods from anthropology to unmoderated online testing.
• Trust within an organization reflects externally: high employee trust correlates with high customer trust.
• Designing journeys as nonlinear, multidirectional experiences is more accurate than traditional linear models.
• Qualitative, in-situ research captures insights missed in digital-only environments - context truly matters.
• Journey-centric org models must remain hybrid to account for structural and process realities.
• Designing for sustainability includes decisions like avoiding unnecessary animations or heavy media.
• Employees often lack the tools and knowledge to act sustainably - education and awareness are key.
• Sustainability in digital design must consider both content and energy use, and requires collaboration with engineering.
• Small design decisions, when scaled across millions of users, can have a massive environmental impact.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and welcome

01:12 Jennifer Jenkins’ background and role at Scotiabank

02:00 Rethinking organizational silos

04:00 Why silos persist in legacy organizations

09:00 Aligning org structure with service delivery

10:00 Designing effective journey pods

13:00 Balancing quant and qual in CX research

14:00 Making CX insights actionable

16:30 Nonlinear journey design and its challenges

21:00 Viability of journey-centric org design

23:00 The overlooked role of employee experience

27:00 Measuring intangible experiences

29:00 The value of in-situ research

32:00 AI's limitations in understanding human nuance

35:00 Real-world insights from observational research

38:00 Journey friction and user trust

39:00 Designing CX with sustainability in mind

44:00 Empowering teams with knowledge and skills

48:00 Closing thoughts and where to find Jennifer

LinkedIn

Follow Jennifer Jenkins on LinkedIn

Follow Jochem van der Veer on LinkedIn

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jon Picoult, author of the bestselling book From Impressed to Obsessed, shares his insights on crafting unforgettable customer experiences.

With over 16 years of consulting C-suite executives through his firm, Watermark Consulting, Jon emphasizes why mere customer satisfaction is a weak benchmark - and why companies must instead strive to create indelible impressions. He explains how impressing customers builds loyalty that drives referrals, repurchase behavior, and ultimately, business growth.

Jon and host Jochem van der Veer dive into how businesses can use psychological principles like the peak-end rule and the perception of control to design memorable episodes across the customer journey. They explore how to evaluate when the basics are truly being met, how to socialize CX insights throughout the organization, and how to build a financial business case for customer experience investment. It’s a strategic conversation that blends theory with actionable advice for CX leaders and executives alike.

Guest Bio

Jon Picoult is the founder of Watermark Consulting and the author of the bestselling book From Impressed to Obsessed. A renowned thought leader in customer experience and leadership, Jon has been featured by outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NBC News, Fortune, and Forbes. Over his 16-year consultancy career, he has advised some of the world’s foremost brands, helping them leverage customer and employee loyalty for marketplace advantage.

Takeaways

• Satisfaction is not enough - impressed customers drive growth and retention.
• Memory science is key to experience design: aim for peak moments and strong endings.
• Honoring small promises, like follow-up calls, can create powerful impressions.
• CX leaders must master both fundamentals and differentiators - don’t skip the basics.
• Executive teams need to experience their own service firsthand to drive empathy and change.
• Journey mapping is a starting point, not the end game; deep analysis reveals hidden friction.
• Artifacts like confusing bills or broken IVRs make CX challenges tangible to leadership.
• Giving customers a sense of control (e.g., clear expectations) improves their perception.
• Great CX also benefits employees - simplify internal tools to improve delivery.
• Reducing contacts through better communication cuts costs and boosts efficiency.
• CX ROI isn’t always about revenue - start with measurable cost savings.
• When selecting a consultancy, know exactly who will be on your account.

Chapters

00:00 Satisfaction is mediocrity

01:42 Why satisfaction fails to ensure loyalty

03:22 Impressive CX doesn’t require high spend

05:36 Meeting baseline expectations can wow

07:08 Balancing fundamentals and delight

09:21 How to assess readiness for delight

11:59 Executives stepping into customer shoes

14:43 Case example of broken IVR experience

17:14 Socializing CX reality throughout the org

20:10 Defining “what right looks like” in CX

22:46 Journey mapping is a beginning, not the end

24:46 Making CX real with artifacts

28:41 Episodes and peak-end design

32:16 Ending on a high note in every episode

38:20 Perception of control as a CX principle

46:00 How to quantify CX ROI

52:00 Focus first on expense impact

58:00 Where to start building CX business cases

62:00 Choosing the right CX consultancy

LinkedIn

Follow ⁠⁠Jon Picoult⁠⁠ on LinkedIn

Follow ⁠⁠Jochem⁠⁠ on LinkedIn

Links to more

Learn more about Jon and his company, Watermark Consulting.

Read Watermark’s Customer Experience ROI Study.

Learn more about Jon’s book, FROM IMPRESSED TO OBSESSED:  12 Principles For Turning Customers And Employees Into Lifelong Fans.

In this compelling episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer is joined by James Munoz, Director of Brand and Employee Experience at Elsevier, to discuss what it truly means to lead through chaos and complexity. Drawing from his unique background as a former U.S. Army reconnaissance officer turned CX transformation leader, James unpacks how his soldier-first mindset evolved into a human-first philosophy that fuels customer and employee experience today.

James shares hard-earned lessons from the military, financial services, and enterprise transformation programs at Wells Fargo and Elsevier. He dives into what makes a strong Voice of the Customer (VOC) program, the need for real-time feedback loops, the value of having a shared CX vision, and how artificial intelligence can serve internal teams to elevate customer understanding. The episode ends on a high note: a call to reimagine CX not as a reactive discipline, but as an engine for innovation.

Guest Bio

James Munoz is the Director of Brand and Employee Experience at Elsevier, where he leads strategic alignment across brand, customer, and employee initiatives. A seasoned transformation leader, James brings over a decade of military leadership experience as a former U.S. Army reconnaissance officer, followed by CX and operational roles at Bank of America and Wells Fargo. His expertise spans journey measurement, VOC program design, and experience strategy. James is a champion for connecting brand promise to execution and is known for shaping cultural change through customer-centric thinking.

Takeaways

• Human-First Leadership: Military service taught James to prioritize people over tasks - a principle he now applies to CX.
• From Military to CX: Transitioning from the Army to brand experience was intuitive for James because both require deep understanding of human behavior.
• Strategic VOC Programs: Good VOC isn't just about surveys - it's about recurring engagement with business stakeholders and closing the loop on insights.
• Quarterly vs. Real-Time Feedback: While quarterly reviews help align stakeholders, there's a rising need for real-time, dashboard-driven CX.
• Regulated Industries & VOC Maturity: Banks often have more mature VOC practices due to compliance pressure - something B2B organizations can learn from.
• Shared North Star Vision: A tangible, organization-wide North Star aligns customer, employee, and brand experiences for consistent execution.
• CX as Culture: VOC programs can and should drive cultural change, not just collect metrics.
• AI as Internal Enabler: James is excited about AI's potential to help internal teams craft more empathetic, consistent messaging and surface insights faster.
• Brand-CX Disconnect: Too often, brand and CX teams operate in silos - James argues for direct alignment as they represent two halves of the same promise.

Chapters

00:00 Guest Introduction and Setup

01:27 From Army Recon to CX Transformation

03:11 Translating Military Lessons to Customer Centricity

05:16 Entering CX Through Banking and Transformation

07:15 What Makes a Strong VOC Program

10:36 Regulated vs. Non-Regulated Industries

12:10 Quarterly Business Reviews and Culture Change

15:35 Real-Time Data and Agile Experience Management

19:38 Team Structures and Journey Alignment at Elsevier

22:04 Creating a Shared Vision Through a CX North Star

26:17 Getting Executive Buy-In

28:08 Misconceptions About CX Strategy

30:33 CX vs. Brand Perception

32:17 The Four Core Business Experiences

35:15 Connecting CX to Business KPIs

38:35 The Role of AI in Internal Collaboration

41:27 AI to Enhance Customer Understanding

43:45 The Magic Wand: Changing Mindsets

46:30 Should CX Be a Function?

47:46 From Fixing to Innovating in CX

50:07 CX's Language and Vision Problem

51:22 Wrap-Up and How to Connect with James

LinkedIn

Follow James Munoz on LinkedIn

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn

In this episode of The Experience Edge, host Jochem van der Veer speaks with Nathan Zahm, Head of CX Alpha at Vanguard’s Personal Investor division. Nathan shares how CX Alpha - a cross-disciplinary initiative - blends behavioral science, analytics, design, and financial planning to deliver measurable improvements to client investment outcomes.

From redefining client experience as a value driver to integrating AI and robust experimentation frameworks, Nathan explains how Vanguard’s customer-centric legacy is being extended into the digital future.

Listeners will gain a front-row view into the role of journey frameworks, personalization boundaries, and the ethical use of AI in highly regulated environments. Nathan also delves into the practical structure of CX Alpha, from agile product ownership to multi-decade financial journeys, revealing why trust, transparency, and teamwork are critical to creating meaningful experiences that drive financial success.

Guest Bio

Nathan Zahm leads CX Alpha at Vanguard, where he is responsible for enhancing digital client experiences across the personal investor business. A seasoned financial expert with a background in actuarial science and investment research, Nathan previously led Vanguard’s work on goal-based investing strategies, including target retirement funds and 529 plans. At CX Alpha, he brings together analytics, behavioral science, and user experience design to deliver tangible improvements in customer outcomes. His holistic and data-informed leadership approach reflects Vanguard's long-standing mission to align client experience with long-term financial success.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Nathan Zahm and CX Alpha

02:15 Origin and mission of CX Alpha

04:00 Vanguard’s shift from investment-only to CX-enhanced value

06:08 Serving 9 million brokerage clients

07:09 Nathan’s journey from actuary to CX

10:58 Behavioral science and front-end experience

13:45 Team structure and disciplines in CX Alpha

16:07 Ethics in nudging vs. manipulation

19:41 Personalization vs. manipulation

21:52 Predictive modeling challenges

23:40 AI’s role in client service and infrastructure

29:15 Human vs. AI-led client conversations

32:02 Future of bot-to-bot financial interactions

34:49 Functional vs. emotional CX benefits

35:21 AI’s internal enablement of CX Alpha

40:27 Triangulating customer feedback for prioritization

43:26 Task, goal, and life-journey design

46:29 Defining moments that matter

49:11 Prioritization across CX layers

53:28 Vanguard’s client-first culture

55:48 Voice of customer in practice

58:10 The scalable future of CX Alpha

60:26 Where to connect with Nathan Zahm⁠

⁠Follow Jochem’s on LinkedIn ⁠

⁠Follow Nathan Zahm on LinkedIn

In this insightful episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer is joined by Tyler Andre, a CX Strategy & Design leader at Accenture Song. Tyler unpacks the evolution of customer experience from a reactive support function to a proactive, operational discipline. He emphasizes the critical role of operational consistency and human-centered design in creating scalable CX foundations, while challenging outdated paradigms like NPS as the singular metric of success.

Tyler introduces a practical trifecta - consistency, depth, and breadth - as the blueprint for maturing CX practices. With vivid examples and tactical advice, he illustrates how AI is enhancing real-time decision-making and self-service, but affirms the enduring value of human ethics in CX design. The episode is a masterclass in transforming CX from a marketing veneer to an engine for organizational coherence and business growth.

Guest Bio

Tyler Andre is a leader in Customer Experience Strategy and Design at Accenture Song. With a career spanning global engagements, Tyler specializes in helping enterprise organizations build strong CX foundations rooted in operational excellence. His expertise lies in scaling customer-centric practices using human-centered design, data-driven decision-making, and business design methodologies. Known for demystifying complexity, Tyler is a sought-after voice in advancing CX maturity across industries.

CX is often confused with customer service—true CX is proactive, not reactive.

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer sits down with Ben Geheb, Global Chief Experience Strategy Officer at VML, to unpack the challenges and misconceptions surrounding customer experience strategy today. From jargon pitfalls to the need for actionable journeys, Ben shares compelling insights on bridging the gap between customer-centric thinking and real-world business execution.

The conversation includes strategic guidance on aligning CX with organizational goals, building rituals that sustain decision-making, and transforming CX from a reporting function into an accountable, outcome-driven practice. Whether discussing how to position CX teams within enterprise structures or the need to modernize tech stacks to support agile solutions, Ben brings a clear-eyed perspective on making CX impactful and resilient.

Guest Bio

My guest today is Ben Gehab, he is the Global Chief Experience Strategy Officer at VML, a leader in customer experience strategy, helping brands stay ahead in an era of shifting expectations. His insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review and VML’s Future Shopper 2024 report, shaping the conversation on digital transformation and consumer trends. With a passion for problem-solving, Ben specializes in aligning business goals with customer-centric innovation. Featured on podcasts like Human Centered, he explores the future of experience strategy - designing solutions that don’t just meet customer needs but anticipate them

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and client names

01:47 Guest bio and professional intro

03:05 Overcoming jargon and redefining journeys

06:31 Good vs. bad CX initiatives

12:03 Moving from data to decision-making

15:49 Creating momentum and business buy-in

21:18 Building effective ceremonies and alignment

28:26 Infusing CX into agile and sprint cycles

31:04 Gaining influence through accountability

38:45 Ownership vs. influence in CX transformation

43:58 Misconceptions about customer-centricity

48:52 Quantifying CX value and measuring impact

56:24 Final thoughts on modernizing CX execution

59:27 Wrap-up and where to find Ben online

Follow us:

Jochem’s Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveer/

Ben's Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-geheb-5b747245/

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem welcomes Sam Beek, Chief Product Officer at Veed, to explore the evolving landscape of video content creation in the age of AI. From humble beginnings hacking together apps at tech events to scaling a global video platform, Sam shares his journey and the pivotal role of customer feedback in building user-centric products.

Sam and Jochem delve into how enterprises and solo creators can harness the power of video, why storytelling still reigns supreme, and how Veed's SEO-led growth strategy fuels innovation. They explore AI's role in making video creation more accessible and personalized, the shift from polished to authentic content, and how internal cultural change can help enterprises embrace the creator economy.

Guest Bio

Samuel Beek is the Chief Product Officer at Veed.io, a fast-growing video creation platform. With a background in engineering and product development, Sam has a track record of building tools that make storytelling simpler for creators and marketers alike. A Reforge alum with expertise in user research and growth, he’s passionate about solving real problems through intuitive design and continuous customer engagement. At Veed, he’s leading the charge in AI-driven video innovation, SEO-led growth, and accessible video tools for everyone - from solo creators to enterprise teams.

Takeaways

• Great product design starts with deep user empathy and regular customer conversations.
• Internal systems like user interviews, Slack snippet sharing, and company-wide customer Q&As ensure customer voices shape product direction.
• Balancing AI innovation with fixing foundational UX is critical, sometimes a logo misalignment trumps flashy new features.
• SEO is a growth engine at Veed, driven by the philosophy: "Make something people search for."
• With nearly 450,000 landing pages, Veed meets users where they are with tools tailored to hyper-specific needs.
• Storytelling and fun are key to adoption, people engage with tools that are enjoyable and help them express themselves.
• AI tools should enhance storytelling rather than replace human creativity.
• Enterprises must evolve: authentic, conversational video content trumps over-produced, generic messaging.
• There’s growing pressure for businesses to “put a face” on their brand and humanize customer relationships.
• Starting small, using props (like Lego figures on your webcam), or voiceover-only content helps overcome video anxiety.
• The best creators iterate: aim for a “video 4 out of 10” to start and improve over time.
• Emerging video trends: hyper-personalized content, AI-assisted storytelling, and a shift toward more human, lower-fidelity formats.

Chapters

00:00 Intro to Sam Beek, CPO at Veed

01:55 Sam and Jochem’s early days building products

04:52 Why customer conversations shape product vision

07:12 Digital product research and building insight systems

10:13 Making customer feedback visible to teams

12:27 A UX failure story and what it taught Sam

14:48 Balancing AI innovation with UX basics

16:55 Revenue vs. engagement as product metrics

18:23 Veed's SEO strategy: 450k+ landing pages

21:45 LLMs and changing search behavior

23:37 Innovating for people, not just AI trends

25:55 From toys to scalable storytelling features

27:55 Why fun matters in product adoption

29:16 What enterprise teams need to learn from creators

32:10 Humanizing the enterprise through video

34:10 Brands nailing video content: Duolingo and OpenAI

36:29 Getting past corporate comms blockers

39:25 Where content creation is going

42:15 Helping people become better storytellers

47:58 The magic wand: removing the fear to create

50:37 Tactics for overcoming video creation anxiety

53:42 Final thoughts and where to follow Sam

LinkedIn

Follow Samuel Beek on LinkedIn

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn

Samuel on Twitter screen_name=SAMUELBEEK

Samuel on his website

In this special edition of The Experience Edge, we bring together six of our most impactful guests in one powerful narrative, tracing the journey of CX transformation from leadership mindset to system change—and ultimately to measurable business impact.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why vulnerable leadership and cross-functional trust are foundational to CX
• How to break down organizational silos to deliver seamless experiences
• The role of content, storytelling, and digital strategy in engaging customers
• Why measurement, experimentation, and feedback loops are critical for impact
• How AI enables real-time synthesis - and where human empathy still matters
• Who should truly own the customer journey (spoiler: it’s not just one team)

Featuring standout insights from top CX leaders who’ve led transformations inside complex enterprises, from healthcare to transportation, financial services to tech.

Whether you're a CX strategist, product leader, or experience designer, this episode is your fast track to understanding what it really takes to evolve customer experience in 2025 and beyond.

Follow Jochem van der Veer on LinkedIn:

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo

In this episode, Jochem Van Der Veer is joined by Angelique Wyszynski, Global Head of Insurance Innovation and CX at HSB (Hartford Steam Boiler). With over two decades of customer experience leadership in risk-averse industries like insurance and finance, Angie shares how she’s transforming CX from the inside out, without creating new silos. They unpack how to embed CX into legacy systems, operationalize customer insights, build credibility with finance, and scale innovation in heavily regulated environments.

Angie offers a playbook for CX leaders to drive value in complex organizations, showing how her centralized team delivers high-impact research, innovation strategy, and operational alignment, while fostering a culture that’s both customer and employee obsessed.

Guest Bio

Angelique Wyszynski is the Global Head of Insurance Innovation and Customer Experience at HSB (Hartford Steam Boiler). She has spent 20+ years leading CX strategy, innovation, and transformation in some of the most regulated industries, including insurance and finance. Angie previously held senior roles at Travelers and The Hartford, where she built one of the most comprehensive voice-of-customer programs in the industry.

At HSB, she leads a multidisciplinary team focused on embedding customer insights, enabling innovation across product and service lines, and translating customer feedback into measurable business value. Known for her expertise in behavioral economics, strategic foresight, and cross-functional collaboration, Angie is redefining what it means to be customer-centric in complex B2B environments.

Takeaways

• First CX hires must co-create, not impose: Build programs with business partners, not for them.
• Start with listening: Angie interviewed 45+ leaders to define CX maturity and align strategy.
• Embed research as function, not an afterthought, to democratize insights and enable innovation.
• Quality CX output = actionable, contextualized insights tied to business outcomes.
• Partnering with finance is critical to prove CX value and secure long-term credibility.
• Prioritization is structured by strategic alignment, not the loudest voice.
• Centralized teams enable agility and scale in complex organizations.
• Teaching others to “fish” helps scale CX without bottlenecks.
• Journey maps are powerful, if made simple, shareable, and built with the business.
• Innovation thrives when insights are pushed to the edge and new ideas come from everywhere.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Angelique Wyszynski

01:11 Why HSB Was Ready for CX Transformation

04:49 Avoiding the Trap of CX Silo Creation

06:28 Running a 45-Interview CX Diagnostic

09:06 The Universal Insight that Sparked Her Team

11:37 How to Get Early Traction

15:52 High-Quality Research Means Actionable Results

18:14 Partnering with Finance to Show CX ROI

23:17 Building a 20-Person CX & Innovation Team

25:41 How the Team Prioritizes Work Across HSB

27:43 The Innovation Funnel and Idea Scoring

30:59 Defining Innovation at HSB

33:54 Can Organizations Innovate Without CX?

34:55 Why Centralized CX Still Works

36:47 Managing Strategic Focus vs. Business Requests

38:14 Will AI Make CX Fully On-Demand?

41:22 Journey Mapping: Keeping It Tangible

46:36 Taxonomy Trouble: What’s a Journey, Really?

49:24 Why Journey Thinking Is Back

52:08 Can Insurance Organize Around Journeys?

53:23 Best, Worst & First Customer Journeys

58:21 Current Focus Areas at HSB

1:00:11 Connect with Angie on LinkedIn

LinkedIn

⁠Follow Angelique Wyszynski on LinkedIn

⁠Follow Jochem van der Veer on LinkedIn

Why Talking to 10 Customers Beats 10,000 AI Insights

Are your customer insights grounded in reality - or just AI-generated guesswork?

Synthetic research is everywhere. It looks real, sounds strategic, and gives you confident answers. But according to Gia Laudi, it’s BS if it isn’t rooted in real conversations with actual customers.

In this episode, Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo CEO) breaks down the false confidence synthetic insights create - and why teams relying on AI to define personas, journeys, and jobs to be done are building on sand.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why synthetic research is tempting - and dangerous

• Six common traps hiding in plain sight

• Why real conversations with 10-12 customers outperform 1,000 AI-generated “insights”

• How to anchor your growth in reality using a hybrid model

• What CX teams, marketers, and product leaders miss when nuance is stripped away

• The risks of basing strategic decisions on data that “sounds right” but isn’t real

• Why research is meant to reduce uncertainty, not fake clarity

Join the conversation:

When was the last time your team talked to 10 real customers before making a big decision?

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn:

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo:

Stop Saying You Are Customer Centric

Is your company actually customer centric - or just saying it is?

75% of companies claim to be customer-first. But only 30% of customers agree. In some surveys, the gap is even worse: 81% of leaders say they’re customer-centric... and only 3% of customers believe them.

In this episode, Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo CEO) exposes the disconnect between intent and execution - and how journey coordination bridges the gap between brand promises and customer reality.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why most customer-centricity efforts fail - despite good intentions

• How internal misalignment shows up as friction in the customer journey

• The hidden cost of symbolic gestures: workshops, research, and surveys that don’t lead to action

• Real examples from telco and transportation sectors - where clarity around where to act changed outcomes

• The dangers of insight without ownership: when knowing the problem still doesn’t lead to change

• How journey coordination becomes the operational structure for proving customer focus

• What high-performing organizations do differently

• Why customer centricity isn’t a campaign - it’s a structure

Join the conversation:

Where is your company performing customer centricity… without practicing it?

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn:

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo:

“Nobody’s just trying to withdraw money.”

That line from the podcast episode with Nathan Zahm (Vanguard) sparked this episode - and it reveals a blind spot in how most teams approach customer experience.

In this video, Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo CEO) unpacks the three-level journey model used at Vanguard and why so many teams miss the middle: the moments that matter.

If your team is optimizing for task completion or designing abstract lifecycle stages, but struggling to create real impact - this model is what you're missing.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why task journeys (what the customer does) are just one layer
• How moments that matter (what the customer feels) bridge short-term action and long-term strategy
• What defines a life journey (what the customer wants) - and how to show up when it matters most

The three types of value this model unlocks

• Metrics to track each level: from call deflection to drop-off rates to customer lifetime value
• Real examples from Vanguard: retirement planning, 529 savings, and building trust across decades
• Why most CX teams fail to act - and how this framework helps you prioritize what actually matters

Join the conversation:

What are the moments that matter that your company needs to get right - and do you?

See the podcast episode with Nathan Zahm here.

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn:

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo:

#CustomerExperience #JourneyManagement #CXStrategy #TheyDo #Vanguard #MomentsThatMatter #CustomerJourney #OperationalExcellence #EmotionalDesign #LifeJourneys #CXLeadership

In this energizing episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer is joined by customer experience visionary Dan Gingiss. With leadership roles at Discover, McDonald's, and Humana, and as author of Becoming the Experience Maker, Dan shares how companies can transform everyday interactions into powerful brand moments. The conversation dives into Dan’s WISER framework - a tactical approach to designing experiences that customers can’t help but talk about.

Together, they explore how CX isn't just a department but a company-wide mindset, and Dan offers real-world examples of how tiny improvements can drive major business outcomes. From eliminating website friction to activating back-office teams as CX advocates, this episode is packed with practical wisdom on making customer experience a core business driver. A must-listen for CX leaders looking to move from theory to tangible impact.

Guest Bio

Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker, author, and former Fortune 200 executive with over two decades of experience in customer experience and marketing. His career spans leadership roles at Discover, McDonald’s, and Humana, and he is the author of two influential books: Becoming the Experience Maker and Winning at Social Customer Care. Dan is also the co-host of the award-winning podcast Experience This! and a respected voice in CX thought leadership, known for his actionable WISER framework that helps brands become truly memorable.

Takeaways

• CX is a shared responsibility, not just the job of one department.
• Even back-office teams impact customer experience.
• Immersing executives in their own customer journeys reveals critical friction points.
• Eliminating small annoyances (like unnecessary form fields) can massively boost conversions.
• A WISER experience is: Witty, Immersive, Shareable, Extraordinary, and Responsive.
• Ordinary experiences are opportunities waiting to be improved.
• Business cases for CX improvements should tie directly to ROI or cost savings.
• Listening to earnings calls can help CX teams align with company priorities.
• Brands like Chewy and Zappos win customer loyalty by showing empathy and over-delivering.
• Pricing changes (like tariffs) should be transparently communicated to customers.
• Responsive service during tough times builds lasting loyalty.
• CX transformation is not a one-time project—it’s a daily mindset.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dan Gingiss

01:20 The mindset shift: CX is everyone’s job

04:36 The cashless restaurant case study

08:22 Executives must become their own customers

10:13 Removing friction in digital onboarding

14:18 How to scale CX beyond the low-hanging fruit

16:30 Daily CX improvements over giant transformations

20:23 Linking CX to financial ROI

25:04 Why CX teams struggle to speak business language

29:53 The WISER framework unpacked

42:41 When not to apply the WISER framework

46:19 Leadership buy-in and prioritization

47:08 Navigating pricing and tariffs in CX

51:19 Brands that have your back build loyalty

53:17 Chewy: A masterclass in emotional CX

55:34 Where to find Dan Gingiss

LinkedIn

Follow Dan Gingiss

Follow Jochem van der Veer

Journey Mapping is Dead. What comes next?

Journey maps are like blueprints without builders. Beautiful and insightful - but ultimately useless unless someone owns the outcome.

In this video, Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo CEO) breaks down why most customer journey maps fail to drive measurable impact - and introduces the shift from static maps to living systems of journey management.

If you’ve ever spent months building journeys that never get used, this one’s for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why over 80% of journey maps fail - and what to do about it

• Why beautiful maps on walls don’t drive change without ownership and accountability

• The life cycle of a journey map - and why it usually ends in failure

• What journey management really means

• Three steps to move from mapping to managing

• Why insight > alignment > action is the real path to customer-centric outcomes

• How leading companies use journey governance to increase CX and operational efficiency

Join the conversation:

What’s one journey in your business that gets mapped - but never acted on?

Follow Jochem on LinkedIn:

Explore Journey Management with TheyDo#JourneyMapping #CustomerExperience #JourneyManagement #TheyDo #CXLeadership #DigitalTransformation #CustomerJourney #MappingToManaging #Silos #DecisionSupport

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer sits down with Bill Staikos, a globally recognized CX leader with more than two decades of experience driving customer and employee experience transformation in financial services, consulting, and tech. Bill shares his candid perspective on the state of CX today, including why the function has struggled to mature, what it takes for leaders to earn a true seat at the executive table, and why journeys remain critical to connecting silos.

Together, Jochem and Bill dive into the challenges of aligning CX to business strategy, the role of AI in enabling both orchestration and context, and why defining value is the non-negotiable first step for any experience program. Bill also gives a preview of his upcoming podcast The Multimodal Experience, where he explores how emerging technologies will reshape how we interact with brands and organizations. This episode is a masterclass in cutting through jargon and redefining what it means to create business impact through customer experience.

Guest Bio

Bill Staikos is a senior customer experience executive with over 20 years of leadership across financial services, consulting, and technology. He has held senior roles at American Express, Freddie Mac, JP Morgan, and BNY Mellon, where he led global initiatives to transform client and employee experiences. A former SVP at Medallia, Bill helped organizations turn insights into measurable outcomes.

Recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice and one of the Top 50 Global CX Influencers, Bill is also the founder of the Be Customer-Led podcast and is now preparing to launch The Multimodal Experience. Known for his pragmatic, impact-driven approach, Bill advises leading brands—including Apple, Bank of America, Marriott, and T-Mobile—on connecting customer experience to business growth.

Takeaways

• The customer’s core needs haven’t changed: at the heart of every business, customers simply want to achieve their goals.
• CX has become overly synonymous with surveys, leaving vast amounts of uncollected insights untapped.
• Many CX teams lack execution capacity, limiting their ability to drive business outcomes.
• Defining value—for both the customer and the business—is the essential first step for CX leaders.
• CX is not just reporting; it must directly connect customer metrics to core business metrics.
• Teams must evolve beyond VOC experts to include data science, finance, and technology skill sets.
• The best way to get leadership attention is to demonstrate tangible impact (e.g., churn reduction, revenue growth).
• Journeys are essential tools to connect silos and create a shared context across teams.
• AI can enable orchestration at both the customer level and the enterprise level.
• Change leadership and change management are equally critical to successful adoption of new capabilities.
• CX leaders must frame their work in business language (growth, risk, operating leverage) to resonate at the C-suite.
• The future of CX is multimodal, blending AI, XR, wearables, and new interfaces into everyday customer and employee experiences.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Bill Staikos

02:34 What hasn’t changed in CX over two decades

05:24 CX’s survey problem and its consequences

08:13 Should CX be its own department?

10:59 Defining value in customer experience

13:47 Skill, will, and talent gaps in CX teams

19:23 Examples of CX creating business impact

25:21 Why journeys are vital for connecting silos

36:25 The role of AI in context and orchestration

43:57 Where organizations should start with AI and CX

46:11 Should CX leaders engage in the CIO’s AI agenda?

49:59 Launching The Multimodal Experience podcast

52:31 Closing reflections and future directions

LinkedIn

Bill Staikos: LinkedIn Profile

Jochem van der Veer: LinkedIn Profile

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem van der Veer sits down with Blake Morgan, customer experience (CX) futurist and author, to explore what’s stayed true in CX over the past decade, where business leaders often fall short, and how to build a customer-centric culture in a modern, AI-driven world. Blake highlights that while tools and channels have evolved (especially AI), fundamental human needs, being seen, heard, and having problems solved, remain the same. She emphasizes the importance of trust, long-term thinking, and tying CX efforts directly to business outcomes like revenue and customer retention. Throughout, she offers practical guidance on how organizations, especially in the “messy middle” of their structure, can embed CX mindsets, empower frontline and middle managers, link performance metrics to customer value, and begin with low-friction, high-impact actions.

Guest Bio

Blake Morgan is a leading voice in customer experience, known for her role as a CX futurist, author, and speaker. She is the author of The 8 Laws of Customer‑Focused Leadership: New Rules for Building a Business Around Today’s Customer, a framework rooted in research and interviews with top business leaders for making CX central to strategy. Blake is also the founder of the Modern Customer Podcast, an instructor on LinkedIn Learning, and frequently contributes to outlets like Forbes and Harvard Business Review. She helps organizations build trust, elevate customer‑centric culture, and align CX practices with revenue growth.

Takeaways

• Here are 10–12 key insights from the episode:
• Humanity still matters. Despite advances in technology and AI, customers still crave human interaction, being greeted, being seen, empathy. Blake Morgan
• Trust is a bank. Every customer interaction is a deposit or withdrawal from trust. Hidden fees, lack of transparency, or making it hard to reach a human cost trust heavily.
• Short‑term gains vs long‑term relationships. Boards often emphasize short‑term metrics, but Blake argues for balancing immediate profit with sustained customer loyalty and relationship building.
• Metrics beyond satisfaction. While customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score, etc., are important, understanding revenue behavior (repeat purchases, referrals, churn etc.) gives stronger causal insight into CX impact.
• Start small, fix what's broken. Even in large enterprises, you can begin with friction points that frontline employees and customers call out and deliver improvements that matter.
• Middle managers are pivotal. They often get overlooked but are essential to bridging strategy and execution, coaching teams, and embedding the CX mindset across departments.
• Think of CX as everyone’s responsibility. It shouldn't live in a silo (a department) but be woven into every function, product, marketing, support, HR, operations.
• Employee experience mirrors CX. Engaged, empowered employees who understand purpose and feel supported deliver much stronger customer experience.
• AI as an enabler, not a replacement. Brands like Sephora are using AI to gather richer feedback and personalize content, but only when used thoughtfully, not to replace human connection.
• Law of the mindset is foundational. From Blake’s “8 Laws” framework, creating a customer experience mindset is the starting point, especially in an environment of rapid change. Blake Morgan

Chapters

00:00 Introduction & What’s Still True in CX

02:30 Underestimated Shifts & Trust in CX

07:40 Boardroom Perspective & Balancing Short‑ vs Long‑Term

11:50 Culture, Performance Metrics & CX Mindset

17:20 Employee Experience & Manager Role

37:40 AI’s Role: Enhancing or Undermining Emotional Intelligence

41:12 Starting Small & Building Momentum

44:16 The “Law” to Focus on Now & Closing Thoughts

LinkedIn

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

Follow Jochem van der Veer on LinkedIn

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem Van Der Veer sits down with Santos Subramanyam, Director of Enterprise Products, CX & UX at Macy’s, to explore how customer experience has evolved over time, and what timeless truths still matter. Drawing from Santos’s extensive background in retail, hospitality, automotive, SaaS, and more, they dig into the role of measurement beyond NPS/MPS, the importance of aligning teams around customer journeys, and how AI and data are enabling more real‐time, human‐centred decisions. The conversation is rich with examples, from redesigning checkout flows in store, to localized customer experience, to prototyping with empathy, that illustrate how to build experiences that scale and deliver business outcomes.

They also examine what it takes to shift organization culture: elevating customer journey thinking from execution teams all the way up to the C‑suite; storytelling and alignment; and the real work of bringing teams, data, and leadership together. Santos shares both his successes and the friction points, especially around aligning priorities, defining what metrics truly matter, and using small wins and service design to drive momentum.

Guest Bio

Santos Subramanyam is Director of Enterprise Products, CX & UX at Macy’s. He leads large, cross‑functional teams to build scalable design systems, align business and customer outcomes, and use data and AI to optimize customer and colleague experiences. Santos has a diverse industry background, including retail, SaaS, hospitality (notably Marriott), and automotive, and has driven major transformations: boosting metrics like MPS/MPS across tens of thousands of associates, cutting transaction times in stores, modernizing legacy systems with holistic designs, and partnering with business, product, engineering, and data teams for measurable impact. He’s also an advocate for culture, localization, and embedding journey thinking across organizations.

Takeaways

• Past truths remain valuable , Experiences in physical retail and in‑person interactions still matter; digital cannot fully replace physical touchpoints.
• Modernizing systems is more than UI , It involves hardware, ergonomics, flow, colleague tools, and the mental model of how people (both customers and employees) interact.
• Metrics beyond MPS/NPS , Focusing on speed, ease, transparency, transaction times etc., rather than relying solely on MPS as a steering lever.
• Use service blueprints and Kaizen for discovering inefficiencies (even small ones) in physical + digital touchpoints; small changes can scale into large operational improvements.
• Storytelling & visualization matter , Enacting journey pain points (via role‑play) or using narrative visuals makes executive alignment easier.
• Cultural alignment is hard but essential , Organizational culture, leadership mindset, individual KPIs can misalign; aligning around customer journey thinking is an ongoing effort.
• Influence through small wins , Prove with smaller initiatives to build trust and momentum before big change.
• Engage stakeholders where they are , Whether legal, product, tech, or operations, find ways to include them in the journey, storytelling, and showing shared value.

Chapters

00:00 Intro & Name Pronunciation

 03:11 Santos’s Background & What Still Holds True in CX

 06:30 The 80‑20 Rule & Localisation in Global CX

 12:30 Moving Beyond NPS/MPS: Business Metrics & Speed of Transaction

 18:30 Journey Mapping, Service Blueprints & Physical + Digital Integration

 23:00 Prioritization, Autonomy & Small Wins

 27:40 Organizing Teams Around Outcomes vs Functions

 30:50 Storytelling Up the Org & C‑Suite Engagement

 38:20 AI Use Cases: Call Center, Conversational Agents, Merchant Tools

 50:30 Using Reports, Data, Feedback Loops to Drive Action

 57:00 Magic Wand Question: What Would You Change Most?

 59:00 What’s Next for Journey Alignment & Final Thoughts

LinkedIn Profiles

Guest: Santos Subramanyam

Host: Jochem van der Veer

In this episode of The Experience Edge, Jochem Van Der Veer speaks with Eric Roux, Customer Experience Director at Cisco and co‑founder of the Boston Blockchain Association, about a compelling but underexplored idea: embedding customer experience (CX) into the go‑to‑market engine by forging a tight partnership with sales. They dive into how this alignment enables brands to deliver on promises, orchestrate outcomes, and avoid the “tossing over the fence” trap that many CX organizations fall into.

They also cover how CX leaders should build teams that are empowered and adaptive (not just follow the textbook), the nuanced role of metrics and trust, and how AI is starting to play a supporting, but not dominant, role in high‑touch enterprise relationships. Eric shares practical examples of how he’s applied these ideas in enterprise contexts and offers advice for scaling intimacy in consumer or low‑touch environments.

Guest Bio

Eric Roux is Customer Experience Director at Cisco, where he leads efforts to tightly integrate CX with sales, ensuring that customer promises made in the pursuit phase are honored through delivery and ongoing value creation. He is also a co‑founder of the Boston Blockchain Association, supporting innovation and connecting emerging tech leaders with funding and mentorship. With a background in consulting and professional services at top firms, Eric brings both strategic depth and hands‑on discipline to the CX space.

What you will learn

• CX and sales must “show up together” and speak with one unified voice to align around customer outcomes.
• It’s not enough for sales to hand off a customer, real partnership means knowing when CX leads and when sales leads, and stepping in accordingly.
• The human dimension (listening, relationships, trust) remains central in delivering CX, even more so than methodology and tools.
• Formalizing CX as a discipline sometimes leads teams to overemphasize frameworks and lose sight of customer reality.
• High performers in CX don’t need the textbook; they instinctively adapt, experiment, and course‑correct.
• A strong CX team is built by enabling autonomy, allowing for mistakes, and prioritizing growth and chemistry over rigid structure.
• In high-touch enterprise environments, CX serves as the orchestrator: in the room with the customer, tying threads together, facilitating alignment.
• In low-touch or high-volume contexts, CX must lean heavily on measurements, signals, and relationships with stakeholder proxies.
• AI is a powerful assistant: e.g. refining meeting preparation, automating analysis, but it doesn’t replace judgment, empathy, or orchestration.
• Metrics can be overdone: choose the ones that matter, set boundaries, and be willing to evolve them over time.

Chapters

00:00 Intro & framing: CX + Sales partnership

02:19 Why speak with one voice

04:19 Why many organizations struggle

06:04 Building the partnership: who initiates

08:00 What we lose in formalizing CX

09:17 Team composition & hiring

10:36 Orchestration across CX & Sales

13:13 Example: bringing people into the room

15:19 CX as the central orchestrator

17:42 Low‑touch / high-volume CX challenges

20:19 Distinctions between high-touch & transactional

22:31 Should CX be a department?

24:26 Role of AI in high-touch CX

27:55 Scaling productivity & journey to value

30:30 The expectation shift in delivery

32:16 Trust, consultant role & relationships

33:10 Obsession with metrics

35:20 Working backward from outcomes

36:46 Accountability and cross-domain problems

38:16 Incentivizing CX roles

40:43 Close to the customer in startups

42:59 How to keep intimacy while scaling

45:18 Traits of CX “rock stars”

47:13 Entry-level roles, AI & the future

50:00 Analytics vs. human insight

52:07 Incentives, role design & alignment

52:35 Closing / how to reach Eric

LinkedIn & Other Links

Follow Jochem Van Der Veer (TheyDo)

Follow Eric Roux

Eric's Website Boston Blockchain Association