Be Customer Led

“I think the next battlefield is the ecosystem; whoever the smart one will follow and build or learn from it.”

Steven Moy, CEO of Barbarian, joins today's episode of Be Customer Led. Barbarian is an agency that is obsessively focused on utilizing technology to eliminate friction, leveraging data to fuel new ideas, and harnessing creativity to bring new products and services to life for their customers. Its principal objective is to assist clients in transforming and disrupting their industries. Throughout the episode, Steven shares his expertise and experience with client needs, how they are growing, and how they are influencing new technology.

[01:33] Steven's Journey - Steven relates his tale, which includes numerous twists and turns, and discusses how he believes this journey has provided him with a greater perspective on his current role as CEO. 

[22:28] Customer Needs – Customer requirements change and evolve at a breakneck pace. Also, the pandemic has significantly altered and has undoubtedly accelerated that alteration. Steve discusses the important tendencies he observes in those shifts in needs. 

[30:51] Digital Convenience and Personalization – Steven provides an overview of his stance on digital convenience and customization to fulfill client needs.

[39:28] Digital Frontiers - Steven talks about the digital horizons that interest him the most.

[15:47] Steven's Inspiration – In response to the episode's final question, Steven shares where he finds inspiration.

Resources:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/stevenmoy/

Website: wearebarbarian.com

Twitter: twitter.com/Steven_P_Moy

This week’s Be Customer Led with Bill Staikos features Steve Dion, founder and CEO of DION Leadership, dedicated to creating workplaces where the employees start every day excited and end every day accomplished. Throughout today’s episode, Steve shares his knowledge and expertise in helping organizations develop more vital workplaces and cultures by creating and deploying innovative assessment, leadership, and team development programs.

[01:32] Steve’s story – Steve describes his journey and how he came to be in the position he is in today.

[05:33] Impact of COVID – Steve discusses how the world of work is changing due to COVID’s impact over the last two years.

[07:35] The Future - While sharing one of his recent experiences coaching a CEO, Steve explores some areas he finds fascinating regarding the future of work.

[12:14] Advice to CEOs – Steve counsels CEOs on their own need to return to the office. 

[16:04] Better Workforce - Steve outlines what advice he would give leaders on establishing leadership and teamwork to improve the workforce and how people respond to that kind of framework.

[24:23] Steve’s Approach – Steve explains how he serves his clients through his company, Dion Leadership. 

[26:28 Inspiration – Steve shares the thought leaders he admires and the places he seeks inspiration.

Resources:

Connect with Steve:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sdion/

Website: dionleadership.com

Work-life balance: worklifealigned.com

This week’s Be Customer Led with Bill Staikos features Kermit Randa, a results-driven CEO with vast expertise managing the transformation to establish accountability, high performance, and profitable development cultures. He is also a visionary well-known as a strategic thought leader, motivator, and mentor. Throughout the episode, he discusses the importance of customer success in driving CX, drawing on his experience and expertise as a change agent who effectively leads firms to become sustainable, thriving category-leading businesses. 

[01:16] Background – Kermit describes his journey and the factors he believes contributed to his current position. 

[04:41] Customer Success - Kermit delves deeply into defining customer success, noting that it has risen significantly in relevance within a firm during the last five years. 

[10:35] More on Customer Success – Further elaborating on customer success, Kermit discusses the critical responsibilities of the CEO position regarding customer success. 

[13:48] Customer Retention – Kermit addresses some important ways in which customer success teams may begin considering and focusing on retention, a critical component of their responsibilities.

[20:17] Metrics - Kermit mentions several metrics for measuring the success or performance of a customer success management team, which he has employed so far. 

[22:47] Customer Experience - Kermit explains how focusing on customer success improves customer experiences. 

[26:00] Employee Retention – Kermit presents his thoughts on what he believes leaders should do better in employee retention. 

[28:41] Feedback from Employees - Kermit and Bill discuss their respective perspectives on how employers should respond to employee feedback. 

[35:26] Inspiration – Kermit talks about his role models and sources of inspiration.

Recourses:

Connect with Kermit:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kermitranda/

This week’s episode of Be Customer Led with Bill Staikos features Michael Bartlett, author of The Dark Side of CX. Michael is the director of experience innovation at JMARK. He’s also the founder and creator of the CCXP exam simulator, which helps CCXP candidates prepare for certification with highly realistic sample questions. Throughout today’s episode, he presents several concepts from his recently released book that you can utilize to create a better customer experience for your customers.

[01:31] Michael’s Story - Michael discusses how he transitioned from the film industry to the area of customer experience and what motivated him to create the CCXP exam simulator.

[05:51] The Dark Side of CX – Michael shares what inspired him to write his book and what the book is about.

[09:35] Challenges & Learnings – Michael’s takeaways from the journey of writing and publishing his book. 

[12:31] Research – Michael describes his research and idea gathering approach before publishing his book.

[16:27] Next Move - Why Michael thinks companies have a hard time understanding customers’ issues and thinking of the next right move for the customer.

[21:26] Confusion – Michael explains how confusion affects the consumer experience and how to reduce confusion in customers’ interactions with a business.

[24:58] Social Friction vs. Goal friction – Michael explains the concept of two types of friction that contribute to a bad customer experience.

[33:04] Michael’s Role Models – Michael reveals who he looks up to and where he finds inspiration.

Resources:

Connect with Michael:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelbartlettccxp/

CCXP Exam Simulator

ccxpexamsimulator.com

Mentioned in the episode:

The Dark Side of CX: The costly patterns that turn loyal customers into brand haters: goodreads.com/book/show/60502211-the-dark-side-of-cx?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=nDCQaqFUcI&rank=1

This week on Be Customer Led, we’re joined by Katie Schlott, a Partner at IA Collaborative. 

Katie has worked with fantastic companies, including FedEx, HP, GE, and Samsung, bringing these brands to life through user-centered product, service, and brand innovation. Throughout today’s podcast, Katie covers numerous aspects of inclusive design and the need to include the perspective of all women, and their diverse experiences, in designing new products and services.

[01:42] Katie’s Journey – Katie begins the conversation by recounting her heroic journey thus far. 

[06:25] IA Collaborative – Katie describes IA Collaborative’s mission and focus, how they help their clients, and her role in the process.

[10:48] Inclusive Design – Rather than relying on regular users, inclusive designers broaden the range of viable use cases. Noting that Katie offers her perspective on inclusive design. 

[14:40] Designing for Women - Katie discusses the importance of incorporating a woman’s perspective into the design. Moreover, she mentions several companies contributing to this societal shift. 

[24:07] Best Practices – Katie outlines some of the best practices and inclusive design principles that anyone can take away and begin exploring, testing, and learning with their data. 

[29:0] National Women’s Day – Katie suggests new executive-level initiatives commemorating National Women’s Day.

[33:16] Inspiration – Katie talks about her role models whom she looks up to and the sources of inspiration for her work.

Resources:

Connect with Katie:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katie-schlott-ab314b7/

IA Collaborative: www.iacollaborative.com

Design for Women: www.iacollaborative.com/women

Mentioned in the episode:

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men: goodreads.com/book/show/41104077-invisible-women?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=g9DoKwS2mf&rank=1

Quotes

“My favorite part of the innovation process is thinking about new areas of opportunity, prototyping, building, failing multiple times…but teaching our clients, that’s the way we’re going to iterate to build something that the people you’re trying to serve actually need; as opposed to what you think they need.”

“I think about inclusive design as specifying products and services for as many people and situations as possible, while you reduce the level of ability required by each of those people.”

“Rather than use that common, average user - inclusive designers extend those possible use cases to the widest variety of people…and that’s really important, because culture assumes that a few can represent all, and that leaves a lot of people unserved.”

“When you’re designing for and marketing to the same homogeneous demographics time and time again, you’re missing out on huge areas of opportunity for equity and innovation.”

“As we celebrate International Women’s Day…think about, how are you are integrating your various products, services or solutions to solve bigger, more systemic challenges facing women?”

Kerry Goyette, founder, and president of Aperio Consulting Group, is today's guest on Be Customer Led with Bill Staikos. Aperio Consulting Group is a corporate consulting firm specializing in developing high-performance cultures via workplace analytics and training. Moreover, Kerry is a keynote speaker, an award-winning author, and an expert in behavioral science. In today's episode, Kerry discusses her thoughts, knowledge, and expertise with workplace analytics and the future of work.

 [01:04] Background – Starting the conversation, Kerry recounts her journey thus far. 

[03:03] Aperio Consulting Group – Kerry discusses how Aperio help its clientele work at their best.

[05:31] Workplace Analytics –  Kerry discusses how analytics technology has influenced her work with corporations. Moreover, she explains how organizations are using these capabilities to strengthen their cultures and teams. 

[09:47] Artificial Intelligence – Kerry discusses how artificial intelligence may be used to uncover opportunities and assescs cultures or teams' strengths and weaknesses.

[13:17] Aperio’s Approach – Kerry shares with us how her firm approaches exploring raw, messy data to find valuable information using data mining techniques and artificial intelligence. 

[21:34] Great Resignation – Kerry outlines what she sees as the factors influencing the ‘great resignation’ and why there’s more to the story than it being just another effect of the pandemic. 

[26:59] Future Work – Kerry discusses her perspective for the new normal and how our work culture may evolve as people begin to rethink the way they work.

[30:00] Motivational Research Institute -  Kerry talks about her work in the Motivational Research Institute and why she founded it. 

[34:14] Inspiration – Kerry reveals where she finds inspiration.

Resources:

Connect with Kerry:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kerry-goyette/

Website: aperiogroup.com

In an increasing number of firms, we see CX supporting the organization’s marketing efforts. Today’s guest of Be Customer Led is Christy Dempster, who works for Roche as a senior international marketing manager - customer experience and analytics lead, global customer experience. Roche is a global leader in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, aiming to advance science and ultimately enhance people’s lives. Christy is one of the finalists for the CX Leader of the Year in 2021. Throughout today’s podcast, Christy  widely describes the relationship between customer experience and marketing and the opportunities that open up from collaborations between these two fields.

[01:32] Christy’s Story – Christy’s career includes some non-traditional twists and transitions through multiple industries. She shares with us her background and how the journey she has nurtured her knowledge and her perspective on CX. 

[05:56] Christy’s Role at Roche – Christy recounts her role at Roche, what intrigued her to the position, and the impact she contributes to creating.

[11:09] CX Analytics – Christy explores how far the discipline of CX has come in terms of pure analytics and how it will significantly impact the consumer level. 

[17:06] CX and Marketing – Christy emphasizes the importance of integrating customer experience and marketing to create better outcomes for customers. 

[24:17] Inspiration – Christy talks about the things that motivate her the most.

Resources:

Connect with Christy: 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/christydempster/

Mentioned in the episode:

Clare Muscutt Helps Us Understand CX Community Building for WiCX: becustomerled.com/captivate-podcast/clare-muscutt-helps-us-understand-cx-community-building-for-wicx/