Explore every episode of the podcast The CX Equation

In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale speak with Sam Stern, Senior Manager of Service Design at LinkedIn, to challenge the idea that all friction is bad. Sam explains how intentional friction, when designed thoughtfully, can create emotional resonance, improve memory, and strengthen customer loyalty. From the IKEA Effect to the Enterprise Pause, he shares practical frameworks for distinguishing good friction from bad and applying it across customer and employee journeys. The conversation explores why effortless experiences often feel forgettable, how contrast drives recall, and where slowing down, through human interaction or key decision moments, can turn routine transactions into meaningful, memorable experiences. Key takeaway: Designing intentional friction at the right moments transforms routine interactions into memorable experiences that build trust and long-term customer loyalty.

In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale sit down with Emmanuelle Savarit, a senior research and strategy leader, to explore how embedding user research into everyday decisions drives measurable business impact. Emmanuelle shares how to position research as a core business function, align insights with stakeholder priorities, and scale research across organisations. She also explains how AI is enhancing, rather than replacing, researchers by freeing them to focus on strategic thinking and human judgment. Tune in to learn how to turn insights into action and build a culture where research truly moves the needle. Key takeaway: Embedding user research into daily decision-making turns insights into measurable business impact.

In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale sit down with Nicole Storey, Co-Founder and Head of Experimentation at Hookflash, to reveal how experimentation can transform website performance and customer experience. Nicole breaks down why running tests without a clear hypothesis wastes time, how to align SEO insights with on-site experience, and why “losing” tests can be the most valuable lessons. She shares practical frameworks for data-driven decision-making, creating tailored landing pages, and building a culture that drives sustainable growth. Tune in to learn how experimentation can turn insights into real business results. Key takeaway: Experimentation with a clear hypothesis turns website data into actionable insights that drive real business growth.

In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale are joined by Zeke Wu and Aswin Peter to discuss what it really takes to use AI for improving customer experience. Drawing on lessons from the automotive and energy domains, they share that a problem-first thinking approach beats AI hype every time. The conversation explores how trust and transparency shape AI adoption, why augmenting teams matters more than replacing them, and how small, practical use cases can scale globally, even in regulated environments. The key takeaway: competitive advantage comes from better decisions, not just more digital tools.

Markets are crowded, products feel interchangeable, and customer loyalty is more fragile than ever. In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale are joined by Andy Sage to explore why experience is the true competitive advantage across industries, and how behavioural psychology can shape CX design. From adoption curves to organisational design, they unpack how to turn complex, commoditised offerings into trusted propositions that customers genuinely value, adopt, and remain loyal to.

Marketing teams are heading into 2026 under pressure to prove value, simplify their MarTech stacks, and deliver more with fewer resources, all while AI noise gets louder every week. In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale are joined by James Gent and Neil Hughes of Tap CXM to unpack what really changed in 2025, what composable actually means in practice, and why the next wave isn’t more AI.

What if your global CX strategy could scale effortlessly, without ever overruling local teams? In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale welcome Rob Grierson, Head of Group CRM, Customer Analytics & Innovation at Specsavers, to explore how global teams can unify customer experience across 10+ markets without diluting local expertise. Rob shares practical frameworks for building a global CRM community, strengthening personal relationships across regions, and creating shared testing standards that inspire trust. He also breaks down Specsavers’ “steal with pride” culture, where teams confidently adopt proven tactics from other markets to accelerate impact. This conversation reveals how global scale, when combined with local autonomy, becomes a powerful CX advantage.

In today’s data-driven world, creativity is the true competitive differentiator and the cornerstone of next-level customer experiences. In this episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale sit down with Matt Broekhuizen, Head of Customer Engagement at VCCP, to explore how iconic brands like LEGO and Sainsbury’s blend tech, data, and creativity to create emotionally resonant customer experiences. Matt shares frameworks for aligning cross-functional teams, building human-centered CRM programmes, and utilising AI to enhance creative excellence, proving that the most successful CX strategies prioritise brand storytelling over technology.

Today, personalisation has become a buzzword that’s thrown around frequently in marketing circles. But what does meaningful personalisation really look like, and how can businesses deliver it at scale? In this inaugural episode of The CX Equation, hosts Chantelle Casey and Mark Clydesdale dive deep into the evolution of personalisation and provide actionable insights for businesses looking to move beyond surface-level customisation.

The CX Equation brings you unfiltered conversations on enterprise CX. From CRM to loyalty, hosts Chantelle and Mark uncover what’s really working — and what’s not — in customer experience transformation.