Be Customer Led

Life is full of memories, plans, and people we love. But many families are not prepared for difficult moments. This conversation shares how one idea turned pain into support for others!

In this episode, Emily Cisek talks about her journey to creating Paige after losing three family members in 2018. She explains how the platform helps families organize important documents, digital assets, memories, and personal messages in one safe place.

Emily describes Paige as a digital safe-deposit box that guides users through estate planning in a simple, less stressful way. The conversation also highlights the emotional side of planning for the future, including stories of families recording videos and messages for loved ones.

Highlights

[01:54] Emily's Journey to Founding Paige

[04:34] How Paige Helps with Estate Planning

[06:00] Features of Paige's Platform

[08:24] Addressing Physical and Digital Assets

[10:14] Emotional Impact of Paige

[13:31] Connecting Emotionally with Customers

[16:24] Target Audience of Paige

[19:11] Turning Planning Into a Family Journey

[23:33] Common Mistakes by Financial Institutions

[25:47] Advice for Building a Supportive Platform

Connect with Emily:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/emily-cisek/

Website: go-paige.com/

Mentioned in the episode:

Blueprint for Customer Obsession: amazon.com/Blueprint-Customer-Obsession-Marbue-Brown

In this episode, we have the pleasure of conversing with Tim Doyle and Steve Hind about how AI is making a difference in supporting customers.

Tim Doyle is the founder at Eucalyptus, a global telehealth platform operating digital healthcare clinics across multiple countries, including Australia, Canada, and Japan. Tim is in the lead in delivering scalable, high-quality healthcare to over a million patients with a focus on AI to enhance consistency, efficiency, and patient experience in regulated healthcare systems.

Steve Hind is the co-founder at Lorikeet, an AI-native customer operations platform building concierge-style support experiences. Before partnering with Eucalyptus to prototype AI-driven support systems in regulated healthcare, Tim worked at Stripe and Watershed.

Throughout the conversation, Tim and Steve discuss how AI can be used safely even in high-risk areas like healthcare and finance, how customers see apps, chats, emails, and phones as one experience, how AI works best when it has strong safety rules, why success depends more on integration than just the AI model, the importance of timing and execution when it comes to successful AI adoption, and the need to balance empathy with strict compliance.

HIGHLIGHTS

[01.43] Introduction and background to Steve & Tim.

[07.18] Moving beyond surface-level automation.

[09.40] Mastering the delicate balance between empathy and regulatory compliance.

[13.43] Deep system integration and understanding what customers value.

[17.04] Measuring Success - Higher customer satisfaction, faster response times, and lower costs.

[19.38] Agentic AI - Paring ambition with guardrails instead of limiting autonomy.

[26.23] Customer Support - Seamless, omnichannel experiences and proactive problem-solving.

[30.17] Timing, preparation, and decisive action.

RESOURCES

Connect with Steve Hind & Tim Doyle

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/shind/

linkedin.com/in/tim-doyle-11b48a14/

Email - [email protected]

Meet Alex Levin, the CEO and co-founder of Regal, a company that uses AI voice tools to help customer support centers.

Alex talks about his early life, studying philosophy and psychology, and then working in early tech companies. He later helped build large home services companies like Angie's List and HomeAdvisor. While working there, he learned a lot by personally handling customer complaints.

He noticed that many customers get frustrated because it is hard to reach support teams, and they often wait too long or get passed around, which led him to start Regal.

Regal uses AI agents to answer customer calls, help solve problems faster, and reduce costs for companies. The discussion also explains how AI is improving but still needs human support, especially for emotional situations. Alex believes AI will play a big role in future customer service, especially through voice.

HIGHLIGHTS

[01:38] Alex's Career Journey

[03:43] Challenges in Customer Support and the Birth of Regal

[05:40] Regal's Platform and Its Impact on Customer Support

[11:37] The Evolution of AI Agents and Their Capabilities

[16:15] Conversational Design and Customer Experience

[19:40] Measurable Improvements and Future of AI in Customer Support

[22:30] Challenges and Limitations of AI in Customer Support

[25:53] Regal's Vision and Future Plans

RESOURCES

Connect with Alex:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexlevin1/

Website: regal.ai/

Email: mailto:[email protected]

In this episode of Be Customer Led, Marbue Brown continues his deep-dive conversation with Doug Kramon, Head of Customer Care and Fan Support for ESPN and Disney. Picking up from their previous discussion, Doug explores how generative AI is moving beyond "table stakes" to fundamentally transform the emotional arc of customer service.

[01:29] Future of AI in Customer Service

[06:59] The Importance of Emotional Connection in Customer Service

[11:51] Skills for Future CX Leaders

[18:00] Examples of AI Influencing Customer Service

Connect with Doug:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/douglaskramon/

In this episode of Be Customer Led, host Marbue Brown sits down with Doug Kramon, Head of Customer Care and Fan Support for ESPN and its direct-to-consumer offerings at Disney. Doug shares his career journey, from studying cultural anthropology to building customer service programs within major media organizations. He then explains how his current team supports fans across five key areas: Watch, Play, Read, Engage, and Listen, spanning streaming, fantasy sports, social media, radio, and more.

The conversation explores AI's growing role in empowering care agents, improving knowledge bases, and reducing customer effort. Doug also highlights the importance of emotional connection in fan support and the need for strong cross-functional skills among future CX leaders.

HIGHLIGHTS

[01:40] Doug's Career Journey

[05:38] Delivering Fan Support Across Pillars

[18:01] AI's Role in Enhancing Customer Service

[27:31] Challenges and Opportunities with AI

Connect with Doug:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/douglaskramon

In this episode, Marbue Brown sits down with Tal Peretz, the Co-Founder and CEO of Onfire AI. A seasoned expert with a decade of experience building data and AI solutions, Tal previously served as the CTO of Onid in the authentication and identity space. Today, he leads Onfire AI in its mission to revolutionize the customer journey for technical buyers, specifically CTOs, CISOs, and CIOs by leveraging vertical AI to create more meaningful, contextual connections between buyers and sellers.

The conversation explores how AI can be used to enhance, rather than diminish, the customer experience within the sales and shopping portion of the journey. Tal explains how Onfire AI cuts through the "noise" of automated outreach by combining CRM data with live web signals from communities like Reddit and X to identify "in-market" buyers. They discuss the shift toward "human-in-the-loop" AI that empowers sales teams to provide highly personalized, timely outreach that respects the buyer's time and solves their specific pain points

HIGHLIGHTS

02:26 – the Mission of Onfire AI

05:22 – Solving the "Noise" Problem for Technical Buyers

10:05 – The Three-Layer AI Engine: Data, Context, and Human Tone

14:40 – Measuring ROI: 4x–8x Increases in Engagement

18:04 – Strategic Intelligence and the Future of Buying

Connect with Tal Peretz

Company Website: onfire.ai

Guest Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: Tal Peretz

This episode features John Boerstler, former Chief Experience Officer for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and current General Manager of U.S. Federal at Granicus. John traces his unconventional career journey from joining the U.S. Marine Corps to leading large-scale customer experience transformation in government.

The conversation dives deep into what makes public sector CX fundamentally different from the private sector, where trust, policy, and lack of consumer choice reshape how success is measured. John shares behind-the-scenes insights from his time at VA, including pandemic response, vaccine delivery, PACT Act outreach, and game-changing initiatives such as VSAFE to combat fraud. Together, they unpack CX metrics, employee experience, and what a true public-sector CX playbook looks like, centered on trust, proactive outreach, and meaningful service recovery.

[02:20] John's Career Journey

[07:33] Role at Granicus and VA CX Improvements

[12:02] Challenges and Differences in CX in Public vs. Private Sector

[18:36] Impact of COVID-19 and VA's Response

[31:23] Employee Onboarding and Metrics

[35:55] Game-Changing Improvements at VA

[39:06] Designing a CX Playbook for the Public Sector

[41:55] Contact Information

Connect with John:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/johnboerstler/

Email: [email protected]

Resources:

The CX Cookbook by Veterans Experience Office

https://www.performance.gov/cx/assets/files/va-customer-experience-cookbook.pdf

Meet Brian Schiff, Co-Founder and CEO of Flip, a purpose-built Voice AI for automating customer support calls - trained on over 300 million successful calls across hundreds of brands.

Brian shares how Flip started and explains how their technology replaces old, frustrating IVR systems with natural, conversational voice experiences. Instead of pressing numbers, customers can simply speak and get real help faster!

The discussion covers how AI now understands everyday language and works alongside human agents rather than replacing them. Brian explains how Flip handles common customer requests like order updates, returns, and cancellations, and how AI can manage a large share of calls while improving customer satisfaction. We also discuss how success is measured, using metrics such as wait time, call resolution, and customer satisfaction. The episode ends with a look at the future of voice AI and how better conversations can drive stronger business results.

Highlights

[01:31] Brian's Background and Flip's Origin

[04:40] AI's Role in Transforming Customer Experience

[07:02] Flip's Unique Approach to Voice AI

[16:36] Balancing AI and Human Interaction

[19:24] Metrics and Success Measurement

[24:27] Handling Complex Transactions

[27:35] AI Handling Contact Volume

[35:07] Deployment and Analytics

[38:53] Future of Voice AI

Connect with Brian:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bschiff/

Website: flipcx.com/

Meet Matt Marcotte, the founder of The M2 Collaborative, a leadership coaching and brand strategy consultancy.

This conversation follows Matt's 34-year career in retail and his time at Salesforce. Matt calls himself a "consumer anthropologist" because he loves understanding why people behave the way they do.

He believes that great customer experiences start with employees who feel valued and supported. When people believe in what they do, they create stronger connections with customers.

Matt talks about key ideas from his book, Built on Belief, such as "people not products" and "belief fuels commitment." He explains the difference between a culture where employees only follow rules (compliance) and one where they care and take ownership (commitment). He shares real examples from places such as Apple, Trader Joe's, Chewy, and Zappos to show how strong cultures are built.

Matt also gives simple steps for leaders: know why you want a commitment culture, understand where you are now, move in small steps, and involve employees in shaping the future.

[03:22] Matt's Career Journey

[06:44] Key Themes in Matt's Consultancy and his Book 

[11:53] Culture of Compliance vs. Culture of Commitment 

[19:54] Building a Culture of Commitment 

[24:43] Starting with the Heart 

[33:05] Examples of Starting with the Heart 

[39:53] Practical Steps for Shifting to a Commitment Culture 

Connect with Matt:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mamarcotte/

Website: m2collaborative.com/

Mentioned in the episode:

Built on Belief: Why Cultures of Commitment Are the Competitive Advantage: amazon.com/Built-Belief-Commitment-Competitive-Advantage

Blueprint for Customer Obsession: amazon.com/Blueprint-Customer-Obsession-Marbue-Brown

Meet  EJ Kritz, Chief Experience Officer of DBSI, a company focused on designing the bank branch of the future. He explains how DBSI brings together design, technology, digital signage, and modern banking tools to create better in-person experiences. 

EJ also talks about why branches still matter today and how they are becoming community-focused spaces supported by digital and problem-solving specialists. He emphasizes the importance of empathy, curiosity, and adaptability in banking, highlighting that human skills are just as essential as technical ones. Overall, the discussion shows how innovative branch design can help banks stand out and better serve their customers. 

HIGHLIGHTS

[01:06] EJ's Journey to DBSI

[02:54] Overview of DBSI's Services 

[05:21] The Future of Bank Branches 

[10:49] The Role of Digital and Problem Resolution Specialists 

[18:15] Branch Design and Customer Experience 

[21:19] The Evolution of Bank Branches 

[32:50] The Impact of Branch Design on Customer Experience 

Connect with EJ:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ejkritz/

Website: dbsi.com