June 24, 2025

Adapt to the Local Culture and Create a Better CX Featuring Katherine Melchior Ray

28 minutes

Customer Experience as the Ultimate Global Differentiator

Shep interviews Katherine Melchior Ray, a professor at UC Berkeley, brand expert, and author. She talks about her book Brand Global, Adapt Local, and how brands can build value by understanding and personalizing experiences across different cultures and regions.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:  

How can cultural differences impact customer service interactions?

What role does personalization play in enhancing the customer experience across different cultures?

Why is it essential to understand local cultural perceptions when building brand value?

How can businesses strike a balance between global brand consistency and local cultural adaptation?

What impact does the country of origin have on storytelling for brands?

Top Takeaways:  

Understanding cultural diversity builds brand value. Different countries and cities may host a variety of cultures and nationalities where diverse preferences and customer expectations coexist. By embracing these differences, businesses can tailor customer experiences to fit cultural nuances and serve diverse markets better.

Customer experience is a global differentiator. Brands can no longer rely solely on product quality or price alone. The way brands engage with and serve their customers has a significant impact on their success.

Personalization isn't just for luxury brands. Even small daily purchases, such as a cup of coffee, can be personalized to enhance customer satisfaction. Understanding customer preferences helps brands build confidence and provide a greater value than just the product itself.

Storytelling is an essential part of creating brand value because it shapes how customers perceive a brand's origins, identity, and purpose.

Understanding cultural context is important because what resonates in one region may not be as meaningful or attractive elsewhere. Brands need to strike a balance between having a consistent global message and being flexible in the experience they create to adapt to different markets' perceptions.

Trust and brand loyalty are strengthened when businesses prioritize understanding their customers' cultural backgrounds and nuances. This communicates to the customer that they are valued as individuals, not just as transactions.

Cultural dynamics evolve, so it is essential for brands to continually learn from diverse international markets and keep up with customer preferences.

Plus, Katherine shares some interesting nuances in customer interactions from countries such as Japan, Singapore, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and more. Tune in!

Quote: 

"The skills we learn to work across explicitly different cultures are the skills that we can use to embrace diversity in our own country."

About:  

Katherine Melchior Ray, an educator at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, brand expert, and co-author of Brand Global, Adapt Local: How to Build Brand Value Across Cultures. She has worked with some of the world's biggest brands, including Nike, Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Hyatt, Shiseido, and Babbel.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  

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By Shep Hyken & C-Suite Radio

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