Be Customer Led

Liam Delap is a thought leader in the digital automation space, and is the Director of Enterprise Sales at Pypestream. We talk about Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI), its history, business application today and where we think it's going.

Many of us are using conversational AI in our homes, but not many businesses are using it with their clients today. The use cases for B2C are clear, but still have room for improvement in B2B.

We talk about Conversational AI benefits for industry, uses cases with a focus on B2B, and what's on the horizon in this space, including how the AI will integrate empathy into the conversation and use cases for where it can be proactive without being creepy.

Liam and I explore a world in the future where Conversational AI is part of our every day, in the background, and we, as consumers, are giving companies the right to use our data because they're the companies that are enriching our lives by using it wisely.

Great episode where we geek out on tech that exists today, and that will grow exponentially in the next 1 - 2 years.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekxywang/ (Derek Wang) is Founder and CEO of Stratifyd. Derek and I cover a host of topics, including the commoditization and democratization of Artificial Intelligence, some interesting use cases around Customer Experience Analytics, and where Derek thinks the technology is going forward.

Super interesting discussion if you're curious about analytics in customer experience, or you are deep into the topic.

Jeff Sheehan is an expat in Dublin helping companies operationalize Customer Experience (CX). Jeff has an incredible background working for big tech including NCR Corp and Motorola, including other tech icons; maybe you've heard of one them - they're called Apple.

Jeff and I talk about his five predictions for CX in 2021, including:

Buzzwords replaced by operational definitions

Transformation is replaced by Evolution

CX shifts from being a project to being a proper business function

CX strategic plans are aligned to business strategy

Companies will define their CX "Why" this year

Jeff is also a founding board member of the European Customer Experience Organization, including being the Ireland Ambassador (now that's a cool role!).

Finally, we talk a little bit about Jeff's upcoming book: https://cxfieldmanual.com/ (Customer Experience Management Field Manual - A Practical Guide for Getting the Job Done).

I really enjoyed this conversation because Jeff first takes a common sense approach to CX and then puts a simple business wrapper around it. There are few like Jeff in our discipline, but he delivers an incredibly sensible and refreshing view of the work.

Marc Havercroft is the Global Chief Customer Officer at SAP SuccessFactors, and a force in the Human Experience Management space; he and his team are not only breaking all of the rules, they're defining new ones altogether.

Marc and I cover the launch of Human Experience Management (HXM) at SAP SuccessFactors, how HXM technology connects to the customer experience management (CXM) today, and how it will connect to CX and come together to shape the human experience in the future.

The speed of HXM and CXM is coming together quickly and will be here in the next year or so. And it's not for a lack of the technology existing, Marc believes it's about the market catching up to the technology and the use cases coming to life.

Marc envisions an ever increasing agile workforce and work structure, and a future where you can plug in to your company, your experience blockchain certified, and be productive on Day 1. Companies and their leaders need to be prepared for this and need to start changing now.

Finally, Marc has a memorable answer to the question of where he gets his inspiration from. Put simply, he's inspired by "rule breakers" - and is energized by individuals who believe the past doesn't define the future; it's the power of what you put in your mind that matters.

I was inspired by this conversation and am excited to see what SAP brings to market next.

Be Customer Led had the privilege of speaking with Antonia Hock, Global Head – The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center. If you're wondering how to set up and design your service experience and your service recovery experience, this is a must-listen-to show.

In this episode, Antonia and I cover:

The core tenets of a great service experience that she has in her playbook

How your customers should feel when the service experience is working well

Why wowing your customer doesn't have to be expensive to have impact (my personal favorite)

Putting out the fires and why service recovery can be more important that the service experience itself

Service experience in digital vs. analog

How companies can start bringing together employee and customer experience

This truly is an amazing conversation with an industry leader and service veteran. If you want immediate take-aways that you can apply to your practice within minutes of listening to the show, this one is for you!

Download the episode where ever you listen to pods, or here: http://linktr.ee/becustomerled (linktr.ee/becustomerled)

Grateful for Antonia and can't wait to visit the Ritz-Carlton in Bali soon!

It's not often you get to interview one of your heroes and an absolute legend in the customer experience space.

I have been a Shep Hyken apostle since I was in CX Diapers many moons ago. So much learning from Shep over the years, whether through his books, his social media content, and speaking engagements.

Shep talks about his journey to where he is today and what set him off to focus in this space.

Shep and I cover Moments of Truth, his "Truth Gap" and why employee engagement is critical in the overall equation of success.

We also cover how technology might be impacting our ability to stay close to the customer and where it's adding value.

Such a great episode and we are grateful for Shep's time with us!

Jill Raff is CEO and Founder of the Jill Raff Group. Jill focuses on helping companies deliver best-in-class employee experiences through her Inside-Out Framework™ EX to CX.

In this episode, Jill and I cover a lot of deep topics, including:

Culture and it's impact on her and her work

Traditional silos of EX and CX and how they're coming together

Jill's EX2CX Framework

The 3 E's Formula: Educate, Engage and Entrust

Great episode where we both also share a lot of personal stories that helped shape who we both are today.

Love this one!

Bill Schimikowski is the US Customer Experience Lead for Biogen, and a long-time leader in the customer experience space. Bill recently went to Biogen from Fidelity, and was in Financial Services his entire career before moving over to the BioTech.

Bill is one of those practical leaders that is so thoughtful in his approach it leaves you with, "Huh, why didn't I think of it that way?"

And this is one of those shows where we cover a lot of ground, including:

Starting up a new CX Team in a new company and Bill's approach to that

The emotion behind the experience and the importance of understanding it before you can fix something

Bill's transition from Financial Services to BioTech/Pharma

How Bill influences culture change from his seat

Using employees as a source of innovation and recognizing them the right way

the CX Tech Stack

So much rich conversation and advice in this episode. So grateful to have someone of Bill's caliber on the show...a can't miss episode!

Anne Witherspoon is the Chief Client Experience Officer (CCXO) at Texas Capital Bank and one of the best leaders in this space I have had the good fortune to connect with.

Anne and I talk about her role at the Bank, the skills needed to be a successful CCXO vs. other roles she has held in financial services, and how her background in Operations makes her a better CX leader.

Anne shares insights and advice on how to influence culture from the CCXO seat, and where she feels the customer experience (CX) function, overall, is evolving toward.

Anne also shares her philosophy on metrics and why she's passionate about moving away from surveys as the primary mechanism for feedback.

Finally, Anne shares advice for other female CX practitioners who aspire to move up to a CCXO level role, and advice for allies on how to support female leadership in their organization.

I love this episode because of Anne's passion and commitment to CX as a discipline, her leadership, and her ability to describe and talk about her work in simple terms any CEO can relate to.

I'm grateful for Anne's time and highly recommend this show to any CX practitioner; but particularly to females working in, or looking to break into, customer experience.

Gary Magenta is a Senior Vice President at Root, Inc. where he helps some of the largest brands create differentiated experiences. I have known Gary for a number of years now, and I can honestly say, there isn't a person out there better than Gary in the CX and EX space.

In this episode we talk about his latest book, Blowing Up the Box: Disrupting the Customer Experience. What you will learn:

What being a "disruptor" actually means

The three ingredients of disruption

The three questions organizations should be asking themselves as part of the pre-disruption process

The Disruptor Challenge, a workbook at the end of his book to help you think about how your company can be a disruptor

Gary and I talk about a number of brands in this episode, from Uber and Rent the Runway, to Kodak and Nintendo, and why they disrupt or were disrupted.

Finally, Gary shares his personal journey to where he is today and where he gets his inspiration from.

It was an honor to have Gary on the show. I consider Gary a mentor, and a guru in the truest sense of the word.