Be Customer Led

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAAAKD8gBgjnxO4yrZQ24L8oPyTjLYmaUm0s (Lou (Lewis) Carbone) has continuously been at the forefront of studying, exploring and developing value creation through experience management - he started when I was in CX-diapers!

In this episode of https://www.linkedin.com/company/becustomerled/ (Be Customer Led), Lou and I cover the past, present, and future of customer experience. You can download or listen here:

Interestingly, Lou is focused on Latent Acuity: understanding the deep, unconscious metaphors that become the powerhouse in identifying clues and signals that drive emotional feelings about brands. We talk about this in depth and how it's used in practice.

Lou and I also cover the future of customer experience, and concepts he calls "digimanity" or the combination of digital and humanity, and his practice of fusion-omics, or the combination of departments, practices, or disciplines and it's impact on CX.

Really insightful conversation with someone who has seen and worked on everything there is to see and work on in customer experience.

I'm lucky to call Lou a mentor and, more importantly, a friend. I learn more every time I talk to him. I know our listeners will too.

No matter how long you've worked in customer experience, every once in a while, someone comes along with a simple and powerful view that can change your own thinking. https://www.linkedin.com/in/milliegillon/ (Millie Gillon), a Senior MD and Head of CX, Innovation and Transformation at https://www.sc.com/en/ (Standard Chartered Bank), is one of these people.

While we may have passed each other in the halls of JPMorgan or even American Express, I was grateful to have her on the show and cover some deep topics and learn from her in this episode. We cover:

How she leads her team toward bringing together customer experience metrics and business metrics

Her approach to metrics and her Five Voices of CX framework (you'll want steal this one for sure)

Tips on influencing the C-Suite and the firm more broadly

Advice for CX practitioners and peers to support each other to grow and learn

A fantastic show with an innovator and leader in financial services. I walked away from this episode not only with new learning, but feeling like I was speaking with someone who truly wanted to make a difference in the world (not just financial services).

A must listen-to show!

Lauren Harding knows how to navigate the complexities of customer experience in a complex industry like financial services.

As the Head of Customer Experience for Spring, a UK-based part-exchange, or home buying service, she is dealing with insights, analytics, design and culture.

In this show, Lauren and I chat about

🎙 CX's evolution in the UK and Europe more broadly

🎙 The core tenets of CX and some of the hurdles she faces in the UK part-exchange business

🎙 How she engages the business to help drive a customer-led culture

🎙 The CX Tech stack and how Spring is harnessing tech to better engage their customers

Really interesting show with a boots-on-the-ground practitioner in a very complicated business. Love Lauren's authenticity and passion for the work.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/garymagenta/ (Gary Magenta) is my first two-time guest and it's because his perspective on all-things business is not only different from the mainstream, it's always spot on.

Gary recently left a 21-year career at https://www.rootinc.com/ (Root Inc.) to start his own company, https://themagentamix.com/ (The Magenta Mix) to focus on helping companies cut through the clutter to develop a clear view of the current state and desired future state, leadership and team coaching from discovery through execution, and conducting workshops in specific areas.

Gary and I cover a host of topics, including:

🎙 The future of work and how companies are approaching return to work

🎙 How fully remote is impacting innovation and how it's accelerating the workforces' role in driving greater innovation

🎙 The shift from company-centric to employee-centric and what that means for companies across industry

🎙 The pandemic's role in forcing leaders to adopt a completely different skillset, where listening now has to be on surround sound

🎙 The rush to digitalization, the resulting technical debt it has created, and the need for next-level experts, or "NextPerts" to solve complex problems.

Gary and I also cover what he is doing with his new company and they the services being provided are right time, right place.

An amazing show with a friend, coach and mentor!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-sherwood-72195748/ (Michael Sherwood) is Head of Digital Experience at https://www.atombank.co.uk/ (Atom Bank), the UK's first app-only bank. So to say that Michael is an expert on leading with experience through technology is an understatement.

Fascinating conversation with an industry veteran on a range of topics:

🎙 His view on the core tenets of experience, particularly through the lens of a tech-forward company

🎙 How he's thinking about CX / Design from the journey perspective vs. the product perspective at Atom Bank

🎙 How he brought Insights and Design together in his team and the benefits of this move

🎙 How he and his team are changing culture at Atom Bank in the face of COVID

🎙 Michael's views on the future of the CX Tech stack

Loved this conversation. Michael is so knowledgeable and has done it all - even starting looking at feedback in spreadsheets before ramping up on tech to drive scale in customer listening.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carineroman/ (Carine Roman) is the Chief Customer Officer at Mailchimp, and now a full year in the role after a successful career at other leading brands including LinkedIn, 33 Across, and Ziff Davis to name a few.

Carine is one of the most thoughtful leaders we've had on the show, hands down. Truly impressed by her perspective and intentional approach to create an environment for Mailchimp that is safe and energizing.

Carine and I focus on a number of areas, including:

🎙 Differentiating factors that mean success for the CCO vs. other roles

🎙 How she approaches influencing the C-Suite and the organization overall - it starts with trust, having a transparent agenda, and a little humor (a French accent doesn't hurt either 😉)

🎙 How leaders can change an organization to be a culture of Inclusion and put the employee at the center of everything they do

🎙 Advice for listeners who want to achieve CCO at some point, and for allies to support women and people of color at these levels.

Amazing show and I was so impressed with Carine. So glad that Be Customer Led is a customer, and it's clear the impact she's having on the company!

A must listen if you're a Chief HR Officer, Chief Experience or Customer Officer, or aspiring to be some day.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-conyers-5b6b8818/ (Samantha Conyers), Co-Founder and Chief Experience Officer at https://www.excott.com/ (EXCO), is a bad-a$$ (and that is an understatement).

Samantha and her partners started EXCO over 3 years ago to bring new and fresh thinking to the Caribbean around customer experience - the first company in the Caribbean to do that.

She was also the first person in the region with the title Customer Experience Manager, in a region with other 7,000 CX professionals...so Samantha knows a thing or two about being first.

Samantha and I have such a great conversation about:

How she and her partners started EXCO and it being an all-female executive team

The challenges with starting a company and what, looking back, wasn't as much of an issue as they expected

The State of Customer Experience in the Caribbean today

Her perspective on why companies still aren't investing in CX enough

Her advice to other females in CX, and allies to elevate more females in the discipline

I am grateful that I am able to call someone like Samantha a friend. She and her team are doing amazing things to help advance the discipline!

A multi-award-winning executive coach, https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuen-chuen-yeo/ (Chuen Chuen Yeo) is the author of 'https://www.amazon.com/Paradoxes-Leadership-Agility-Inspire-World-ebook/dp/B0893JQ6YH/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1andkeywords=8+Paradoxes+of+Leadership+Agilityandqid=1632101978andsr=8-1 (8 Paradoxes of Leadership Agility)’ and creator of the Five Inner VoicesTM, a framework for Leadership Agility. She was named 'Best Agile Leadership Development Coach – Singapore ' by https://www.corporatevision-news.com/ (Corporate Vision Magazine) in 2020/21.

Chuen Chuen and I talked about leadership agility, and how she helps leaders achieve it through an easy, four-step process:

Reconstruct the Map: Taking to an unbiased, courageous reality check

Refresh the Lens: Dropping the legacy mindset and driving toward a new mindset

Renew the Identity: Where the transformation starts and leaders take on a new persona

Rebuild the Capabilities: Learning and acting on that new learning

A really interesting and fresh approach to adapting to new environments, new ways of working, and ever-changing business dynamics.

Loved this show and her book for its simplicity, examples used throughout the four steps, and that Chuen Chuen is one of the most approachable people you will ever meet!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mchalesiobhan/ (Siobhan McHale) is the Executive GM at https://www.duluxgroup.com.au/ (DuluxGroup), and an expert on activating culture change in an organization. Not only has she written an amazing book on the topic, https://www.amazon.com/Insiders-Guide-Culture-Change-Workplace-ebook/dp/B07T8S4TGY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=G18LW8W98KQKanddchild=1andkeywords=the+insider%27s+guide+to+culture+changeandqid=1631222265andsprefix=the+insider%27s+guide+to+cu%2Caps%2C230andsr=8-1 (The Insider's Guide to Culture Change); but, she also helped drive it first-hand during her tenure at https://www.anz.com.au/personal/ (ANZ) and her years consulting companies on the topic.

Siobhan and I sat down to talk about:

🎙 Identifying "patterns" in the workplace

🎙 Her four-step process to "activate the culture disruptor" in your business. The steps are Diagnose, Reframe, Break, and Consolidate.

🎙 The best way to 'diagnose' patterns in the culture that are driving the wrong behavior, and the output of this step in her process

🎙 What she means by reframing Roles, why is this important to organizational change, and why is reframing important before you get to the next stage

🎙 How companies can break out of deeply embedded patterns and how you know when you've broken those patterns

🎙 How to consolidate wins with the culture disruptor and timing before you start to see change in your workplace

An amazing show with a truly amazing thought leader on culture change. Siobhan's book is a must read whether you're in HR, a people leader, executive, or in customer experience!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenvanbelleghem/ (Steven Van Belleghem) is an international keynote speaker, author of four best-selling books, and entrepreneur, co-founder of Nexxworks and Partner of https://www.intracto.com/nl-nl (Intracto). He is a globally renowned expert on customer experience in a digital world.

So what did Steven and I talk about? 😉

🎙 Steven's view on 2020 being the largest digital training example of our time

🎙 His perspective on companies that have put digital out there as a solution to the pandemic vs. really creating a human-centric solution

🎙 Companies moving away from a "customer" journey focus to a "life" journey focus, and how companies can make the shift

🎙 Why companies need to shift from "authenticity" marketing to one of "responsibility" instead

🎙 How all of the above is changing the customer and employee experience disciplines

An incredibly deep thinker with an amazing view on digital, it's impact on customer and employee experience, and how companies need to pivot now in order to meet employee and customer needs.