Today's compilation features excerpts from two interviews: Christopher McShane, SVP of customer experience at Serta Simmons Bedding, and Jon Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting. Both my guests speak on the importance of establishing an internal system to improve employee and customer experience. These are two great conversations which dig deeply into the processes and cultural considerations needed to truly change your organization's approach to driving experiences worth having. Enjoy!

I had the pleasure of speaking with neuroscientist, professor, speaker, author, and cofounder of Immersion Neuroscience, Dr. Paul Zak. Give this episode a listen for invaluable wisdom on deepening your customer connections, generating long-term customer value, optimizing employee performance through immersive training, and much, much more.

Doing customer math rallies your team not only to ask, "Did we earn more customers than we lost?" But it pushes everybody to care about the why. Find out why in this video.

"The expectations of people, thanks to technology, are different. You want it now, you want it fast, you want good service, you want it with no friction," says Fernando Machado, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Burger King, in regards to the company's transformation to improve its guest experience and meet customer needs. In this episode, Fernando, an extremely successful marketer who's been featured in Adweek and Forbes, shares how he works closely with operations and the franchise owners to make great CX come to life.

Are you responsible for building an entirely new customer experience path for your organization? Monica Whiting, Vice President of Customer Experience at TECO energy, shares tactics and plans to help you strategize short-term and long-term goals for CX, regardless of your industry. Teco is a utility company that provides electric and natural gas services in Tampa Florida, and gas services across the state of Florida.

How does a legacy organization learn how to integrate digital technology in a way that facilitates a meaningful customer experience? Todd Unger, Chief Experience Officer and Senior Vice President of Physician Engagement at the American Medical Association, shares insights and lessons learned along the way, while leveraging his background in marketing and advertising, and product development, to transform a 170-year-old company's communication methods into the world of digital.

Allison Pickens is a Chief Operating Officer at Gainsight, a customer success SaaS organization, whose role is also inclusive of CCO responsibilities. Allison shares how she united the entire organization to embrace a CX transformation, and the skills she believes are required to ascend beyond a typical CCO role, which helped bolster her organization's success and external credibility.

"Don't look at yourself, look at your customer. Be sure you have your customer in mind when you create something. Be sure it's customer-focused, not self-focused," says Horst Schulze, who is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of the Capella Hotel Group, and Co-founder & Former COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.

Horst definitely knows a thing or two about creating excellent customer service and has some great insights to share with us—many more of which can be found in his latest book, Excellence Wins. Horst shares the wisdom that transcends hotel management and can be employed by CX practitioners in any establishment where customers are being served.

Does your organization have a system in place for measuring customer churn? In today's episode, I chat with Chelsie Rae Lee, Senior Vice President of Customer Strategy at SnackNation, a subscription service that delivers snacks to homes and offices. In this sense, SnackNation is a B2B2C company, as it partners with grocers and other businesses, while also selling directly to consumers. Diving deeper into your analytics will help you understand why your customers left, if they're thinking about leaving, and how you can work to keep them on board. 

Chelsie talks to me about defining her role as the SVP of Customer Strategy and how she worked with senior leadership and her team of account managers to improve employee experience, create a customer journey map, and understand customer churn. 

How do we look at the total journey and understand the underlying drive of customers, so we can develop digital products that better meet their needs? Mark Bartlett, Chief Experience Officer at FPX, chats with me about the importance of developing your customer narrative and understanding their behaviors, so you can design products that they'll get the most benefit out of.

Mark's B2B experience in technology and engineering have shown him that too many times, engineers and developers build products, only to be disappointed in the end when nobody uses them in the way it was intended. He shares tactics that have been helpful as he rebuilds FPX from a customer-first perspective, to be a B2B value-driven engine. 

In today's episode, I chat with Thales Teixeira, a Lumry Family Associate Professor at the Harvard Business School. Thales has been in this position for about nine and a half years and teaches in the marketing unit. He shares that over the past few years, he's taught intro to marketing, digital marketing strategy, and E-commerce to his MBA students. Additionally, Thales works with business executives, teaching them about digital disruption and transformation—which is what we'll be touching on today.

In today's episode, we're going international with Rekha Weerasooriya, General Manager of Customer Experience Management and People Development at Dialog Axiata, the number one telecommunications provider in Sri Lanka. At Dialog Axiata, Rekha is in charge of customer listening, customer experience management, and employee experience development. Rekha shares tactics that I think you'll find valuable, and pieces together a story that shows just how complex running CX within a competitive telecommunications industry can be.

Today I'm chatting with Scott Campbell, the senior vice president and chief client officer at American National, which offers personalized insurance coverage for life, business, and auto expenses. Before leading client experience at American National, Scott spent a large chunk of his career in marketing and communications. He details how this experience has been useful for him, allowing him to understand the importance of wrapping up the work and communicating it back to the organization.

To get traction that becomes foundation to the way that people lead, you must understand the cores of power inside the organization. In this episode, I share examples of how to partner—or dance—with the power core.

Today, we're doing something a little different; The Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show is in both video and audio form. I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation between myself and Ben Steele, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at REI. So please do listen to the full interview! REI is an 80-year-old passion-based business; it's a co-op with members, rather than shareholders. As Chief Customer Officer, Ben wants to tell the story of this unique company whose members truly love and support it. 

Quite a few of the CX leaders I've spoken to on the podcast have shared that previous experiences in sales, retail, and hospitality helped create a foundation for the skills required to be a successful CX champion in their organization. In today's episode, I chat with Rhiannon Hoeweler, the Vice President of Visitor Experience, Strategy, and Fun at The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, who shares that her stint as a cocktail waitress gave her some of the skills she needed in order to lead this work.

In today's episode, I explore the basics of establishing a core CX foundation for your organization with Darin Byrne, Vice President of Client Experience and Delivery at Wolters Kluwer. Darin and I chat about customer experience as a mindset, and how he was able to define and frame his role in a way that provided clarity for the rest of the organization to understand. This conversation is great for leaders interested in learning how to develop a solid base for customer and employee experience within their organization and then expound upon that. 

In today's episode, I chat with CCO Lisa Henken Ramirez, about implementing customer experience Netspend, a young, a finance-related company. Netspend is a leading provider of prepaid Visa® and Mastercard® cards for personal & commercial use. Lisa shares with us how she used her background in consulting and change management to help lead the company's CX efforts and get Netspend employees to connect more authentically with customers.

As conversations around sustainability and corporate social responsibility continue to increase, I think you'll enjoy this timely conversation with Michael Bair, Senior Director of Member Experience at Inspire, a clean energy tech start-up. Inspire uses technology to bring clean energy sources to businesses and the homes of everyday Americans.

With over 10 years of experience under his belt, leading customer-facing teams, Michael sheds some insight into how he breaks through some of the challenges to get customers to think differently about their energy options. 

Today's podcast is the last replay featuring "best of" content from 2018. Thank you all for your support and for taking the time to listen to these podcasts. I've got a lot of great interviews coming up that I can't wait to share with you!

Today, we're revisiting a conversation I had with Alan Dubovsky, a well-respected colleague in the industry, who is the Chief Patient Experience Officer at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Alan shared the unique situation that placed him in this position at Cedars-Sinai, his prior experience in the healthcare industry, and the extensive work he's done to define his newly created role. 

Today's podcast is the last replay featuring "best of" content from 2018. Thank you all for your support and for taking the time to listen to these podcasts. I've got a lot of great interviews coming up that I can't wait to share with you!

Today, we're revisiting a conversation I had with Alan Dubovsky, a well-respected colleague in the industry, who is the Chief Patient Experience Officer at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Alan shared the unique situation that placed him in this position at Cedars-Sinai, his prior experience in the healthcare industry, and the extensive work he's done to define his newly created role. 

Today's "Best of 2018" episode features Patricia Pedhom Nono, who was previously the general manager of customer service & customer experience at MTN Cameroon, one of the biggest telecommunications companies in Africa. This was a really great conversation. Patricia shared a detailed account regarding how she demonstrated the value of a customer-first strategy to a skeptical C-Suite. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb133

"Our lives as human beings are made up of moments," said Dan Heath in my interview with him earlier this year. One of my most popular podcast episodes of this year features Dan Heath, co-author of the book, The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. Though not a CX book per se, it will definitely get you thinking about ways you can differentiate your brand and the experiences you provide to your customers.

I'm closing out the year by replaying some of my most popular episodes from 2018. Today's episode, which many of you seemed to enjoy, features Amanda Sachs, General Manager, Customer & Partner Experience at Microsoft.

This is such a multi-faceted interview because CX for Microsoft involves numerous partners and employees that span the world, so not only do we discuss CX at a local level, but we talk about how to make an impact with teams that operate in different cultures and speak different languages.

In this conversation, Christopher McShane, the senior vice president of customer experience at Serta Simmons Bedding chats with me about how he helped his team understand weak points in their operations. We spoke about a 90-Day plan he implented and how to develop a plan to improve both the employee and customer experience.

In today's episode, I chat with Alvin Stokes, Senior VP of Customer Experience at Cable & Wireless Communications (C&W), and we discuss how he began a CX transformation in an international telecommunications industry spanning 17 markets. C&W is a full-service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America, and Alvin manages the consumer service delivery workforce across 17 Caribbean markets. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb130.

How do you make health care more personal and customer-focused? This is a topic that comes up in my interview with Antoinette Taranto, Chief Customer Officer at The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. Since the organization historically focused on providers, state legislators, and Medicare and Medicaid services, they wanted to change the direction to become more customer-focused. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb129

Today, I'm replaying one of our most popular episodes from 2018 about the employee experience and building customer loyalty at Hertz with Eric Smuda, VP of Customer Experience and Loyalty. In today's replay notes, we're going to focus on Eric's approach to employee experience at Hertz. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb128

As CX leaders and in our own lives, we've seen that sometimes, finance companies can be a little late to the customer experience train, so I think you'll enjoy today's conversation, as I speak to Samantha Paxson, Executive Vice President and Chief Experience Officer for Co-op Financial Services. Samantha shares how she's used her communications and marketing background to unite leadership across silos within her organization to provide a more efficient and unified customer experience. I think you'll also find value in the conversation where we touch on the importance of emotional intelligence and how that plays a role in clearly and effectively communicating the needs of the business. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb127.

Do you put the needs of your customers first and focus on the value you provide them? Today, we're replaying an episode that many of you enjoyed, featuring Francis Cordon, the first Chief Customer Officer at Rigor, a SaaS company. In this conversation, Francis and I chat about the importance of putting yourself in your customers' shows in order to earn your right to customer-driven growth. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/126

As a business leader or owner, do you think about how your approach to hiring impacts your organization and customer experience? In today's podcast episode, I'm revisiting conversations with two previous guests, Mary Winfield, VP of Customer Experience and Trust at Lyft, and Carolyne Matseshe-Crawford, Head of Fan Experience at Fanatics. Both of these women place a strong value on employee experience, and you'll hear some of their strategies regarding implementation tactics. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb125.

I'm revisiting conversations from two CX leaders who have united their organizations to conduct a CX transformation guided by a specific purpose to enhance the experience. Listen to Vishal Bhalla, VP and CXO of Parkland Hospital, whose 2-year journey with hospital visits inspired him to become a leader in healthcare. Listen to Lee West, Pastor of Guest Experiences at Gateway Church, who shares how his personal experience witnessing new church member isolation inspired him to map a new welcoming strategy. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb124

I'm sharing excerpts from previous interviews with two experienced C-Suite leaders who successfully implemented very tactical steps with a focus on uniting the C-Suite and understanding their needs to advance their CX work. You'll hear from Brian Lilie, CCO and Head of Technology at Equinix, the world's largest IBX data center & colocation provider, and Isabella Lau, CCO and CMO at Manulife, a Canadian multinational insurance company and financial services provider.

I interview Jay Baer, founder of Convince & Convert, and author of the new book "Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers With Word of Mouth" on how to operationalize experiences that creates word-of-mouth marketing for your business. In this episode, Jay also shares examples from 3 companies (B2C and B2B) who've successfully operationalized talk triggers that keep their businesses booming and customers talking. Get show notes and watch the interview at customerbliss.com/cb122.

In today's episode, you'll hear from Karen Ellis, the Chief Customer Officer of San Antonio airport, and Sonya Lacore, Vice President of Inflight Operations at Southwest Airlines. Both women share how they assessed the work that needed to be done in order to improve customer and employee relations within their first year on the job. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb121

What I know is that customer experience is floundering. We are focusing on the mechanics instead of the meaning of the work. At the end of the day, customer experience is about leading. It's about leadership. It's about finding a way to guide your people and your organization to rise to show up as a different kind of company in the marketplace. Customer experience does not belong in a silo.

"If you have a customer success job in an organization that isn't interested in customer retention, you need to consider doing something else," says Lucy Norris, Chief Customer Success Officer at Genesys, a technology company that provides solutions for customer experience, marketing, and sales. In today's episode, Lucy and I talk about how they define customer success and customer experience at Genesys, and how she's been leading the CX transformation in the organization.

Do you lead your business by thinking about your customers' wants and needs? Are you putting the customer first? In today's episode, we're revisiting two conversations with CX leaders representing global organizations about defining customer obsession. You'll hear from Tamar Cohen, VP of Customer Experience at Zoetis and Amanda Sachs, the General Manager of Customer and Partner Experience at Microsoft. Both women are leading customer experience in these organizations with a "customer-obsessed" mantra. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb119.

In my recent vlog, Jeanne's Daily Dose...Of Reality, I discuss the importance of journey mapping and how you can use it to break down silos and unite your leadership team. In today's episode, we're continuing the conversation around journey mapping by revisiting two conversations I've had with previous guests on the show: Kathy Tobiasen and Sami Nuwar. Get show notes at customerbliss.com/cb118

I had the pleasure of speaking with Bob Buiaroski, the SVP of Manulife, a leading Canadian-based financial services group that serves millions of customers in 22 countries and territories world-wide. With a background in business and technology, Bob shares how he implemented changes to a CX structure at Manulife that had been in place at the company but not fully developed. He helped Manulife go from ad hoc cx management to embedding it in the organization's culture. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb117.

You may think of gaming as simply a favorite past time of your children or nieces and nephews, but did you know it's actually on track to becoming a 180 billion dollar industry by 2021? Gaming is a huge industry with a lot of devoted customers, which is why it was so interesting to speak with John Pompei, Head of Player Experience Operations Worldwide for Electronic Arts. Get more information and show notes at customerbliss.com/cb116.

In today's conversation with Anand Sampat, the head of customer experience for C2C, a public London commuter train that services 40,000 daily commuters, we discuss how he manages the customer experience for such a complex system. Starting off as a customer insights manager with a degree in engineering, Anand shares how this role gave him an opportunity to understand more of the inner workings of the company and use his analytical skills to bridge gaps and problem solve. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb115.

On today's episode, we're talking to Lee Roquet, the Chief Customer Officer at Yellowfin, a B2B SaaS company that provides a business intelligence analytics platform. Lee shares how determining the power core at Yellowfin helped him understand the company's culture, which laid the groundwork for his CX strategy. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb114.

In today's episode, I chat with Daniel Coullet, Senior Vice President of Customer Success and Experience, and Elizabeth Curtin, Customer Experience Practice Manager at PTC, about defining customer success and the value of designing a customer room to enhance employee and customer experience. PTC is a B2B global software company that offers a technology platform and solutions to help companies design, manufacture, operate, and service things for a smart, connected world. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb114

In this episode, Rob Markey, leader of customer strategy and marketing practice at Bain & Company and co-author of The Ultimate Question 2.0, How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World chats with me about the evolution of both customer experience as a holistic experience and of the chief experience officer and chief customer officer roles over the past few decades. Additionally, we chat about what we look forward to seeing in the future of CX and the work that can still be done to improve organizational transformations. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb112.

We know how difficult it can be to unite silos within your own organization, now imagine you had to unite silos across 17 different state agencies! That's right, when your customers are the employees within a group of government agency partners, you've got a lot of work cut out for you. And today, we'll hear from William Chumley, the Chief Customer Officer for the Governor's Office of Information Technology for the state of Colorado, who has been uniting leaders, the C-Suite, and silos across 17 executive branch agencies, in efforts to improve IT functions and streamline CX for these agencies that serve the citizens of Colorado. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb112

What I know is that everybody needs a little pixie dust.

When you do things that are unexpected for your customers, they remember you and it bonds you to them. So I want to share some of my favorite pixie dust moments back from my days at Lands' End.

Over the past two years, the CX leaders and CCOs that I've spoken with have shared great actionable advice and tactics to help you transform the culture of your organization to be customer driven. In this episode, you'll hear from two brilliant leaders who've led CX work in the telecommunications industry. Charlotte Dunsterville, Chief Customer Officer of Sure International Telecom, and Patricia Pedhom Nono, former general manager of customer service & customer experience at MTN Cameroon, share how they first started prioritizing and assessing the work they need to get done in order to transform CX in their organizations. Get show notes and more information at customerbliss.com/cb110.

"You can't change Rome in a day. You need a plan and you need to take baby steps," said Sue Martin Homes, Global VP of Customer Service at Newegg, the leading tech-focused e-retailer in North America. In today's lively chat with Sue, we talk about her customer service experience and leadership that paved the way for her success in transforming the CX culture at Newegg, a multi-billion dollar company that has been customer-focused since its inception. Get show notes and info at customerbliss.com/cb110.

How do you transform a bureaucracy that was generations in the making? In today's episode, I speak with Greg Derwart, Managing Director, Administration & Customer Experience at Maryland Department of Commerce. We explore transforming customer and employee experience within a state government agency, and how this work is managed across multiple departments and agencies. Get more information and show notes at customerbliss.com/cb109