CX Decoded By CMSWire

In this CX Decoded podcast, Jim Tincher, founder, CEO and journey mapper-in-chief at Heart of the Customer and author of the book "Do B2B Better," discusses the importance of talking to customers after a transaction has taken place. He uses his experience as a product manager for health savings accounts to illustrate how a disconnect between the company's understanding of its customers and the actual customer experience can lead to high churn rates. He also addresses how to measure customer experience and the role of inventory in business.

In his book "Do B2B Better," Jim highlights four actions that separate successful customer experience programs from those that don't work. These include showing how customer experience is improving financial outcomes for the organization and proactively creating a better outcome for the company. Jim also brings attention to the issue of silos within organizations and how they can lead to a disconnect between different departments and their understanding of customer experience.

Podcast key takeaways:

• Talking to customers after a transaction has taken place is important for understanding their experience and identifying areas for improvement.
• A disconnect between a company's understanding of their customers and the actual customer experience can lead to high churn rates.
• Successful customer experience programs show how customer experience is improving financial outcomes for the organization and proactively creating a better outcome for the company.
• Many organizations struggle with silos, which can lead to a disconnect between different departments and their understanding of customer experience.

We caught up with Jim to discuss these topics.

Leonardo Da Vinci revolutionized the way people were painted during the Renaissance, and his "Mona Lisa" is the most famous painting in the world and is a cultural icon for beauty, in part due to what is usually described as her alluring and mysterious smile. What has made the "Mona Lisa" so popular for more than 500 years? It can be boiled down to one word: innovation.

Da Vinci was an innovator his entire life. He saw possibilities everywhere. The painting is a culmination of his curiosity and studies he undertook during his lifetime. Leonardo was interested in just about everything. One thing he was interested in was human anatomy, and he made many anatomical studies of the human body, including the facial muscles used for smiling. He discovered the complex system of muscle movement needed to produce a smile, and the data he collected during dissections he performed helped him produce the world's most revered painting.

This week's CX Decoded podcast guest knows about innovation, data collection and omnichannel approaches when it comes to beauty as well. Michelle Pacynski, vice president of digital innovation at Ulta Beauty, has led Ulta through much of its digital transformation in the past 10 years, a time in which the company revolutionized how beauty products were assembled and marketed to enthusiasts.

We caught up with her to find out what brands can learn from the beauty industry about a host of topics, including the high level of engagement of beauty enthusiasts.

Thinking about getting the latest CX and marketing tools for your customer service agents or possibly investing in some artificial intelligence? Are you wondering whether the pandemic ended up hurting or helping digital customer experience? And just how is the recession impacting what CX decision-makers are focusing on? Or perhaps you're wondering whether interest is growing — or diminishing or even stalling — for certain CX tools or strategies. Or maybe you just want to know if others really don't know what headless CMS is or does.

Meet Sarah Kimmel, vice president of research for Simpler Media Group, which runs CMSWire.com. She tells us what the numbers are saying by diving into the findings of the 2023 State of Digital Customer Experience Report. Sarah's got the gift for wrangling meaningful findings that indicate where we're headed. She's based in Chicago, aka the Windy City. If you really want to chew the fat with her, try getting on her good side by bringing up volcanoes or tornadoes.

A recession can be like preparing to go backpacking. You have to decide what you need, what's unnecessary and what might potentially weigh you down.

CX leaders have to make similar decisions to successfully trek the current economic landscape. They too have to pick and choose needs, cull waste and protect the integrity of their teams — all while serving their customers flawlessly.

Tina Dobie is the chief customer officer at Calendly. In this episode, she discusses how to think about doing more with less while still driving marketing leads, keeping customers close and your customer support agents inspired.

We caught up with Tina in our latest CX Decoded podcast.

Avoiding unhappy customers is what everyone wants to do, right? But listening to our most vociferous critics is not always easy because they're not going to pussyfoot around with you. According to this episode's guest, it's our angry, enraged customers who are our Golden Tickets to success.

Shaking down happy customers about why they like you won't help you understand areas you need to improve, says Tomas Haffenden, head of service design at Torrens University. You want to cozy up to the grumps, the crazy mad and the fire-breathing fit-throwers instead — cause boy-howdy — will they ever tell you what the !!*@%&*! is wrong.

The concept of transformation has been center stage for businesses around the world for some time now, but taking a moment to reflect on what transformation actually means could radically change organizations seeking new life in turbulent times.

The specter of a looming recession makes the notion of transformation even more enticing — and terrifying — to many business leaders now — especially customer experience leaders. But how do they go about analyzing where silos are blocking transformation, harming customer experience and leaving organizations in a perpetually "frozen" state?

Hank Brigman, senior vice president practice lead for Service Journey Strategies, helps shine some light on the most challenging aspects of customer experience transformation and discusses the inevitable and painful consequences of non-action.

Travis Trembath, vice president of fan engagement for the PGA Tour, is passionate about golf, customer experience and customer engagement. Having to the best golfers in the world compete under his company's brand? That's the easy part. Fan engagement, and digital customer experience, however, remains a moving target.

In this episode, Trembath shares some of the ways the Tour is engaging fans through data, such as data lakes and data warehouses. He also discusses using omnichannel approaches to get in touch with the PGA fan base, how he sees the future of the metaverse and other customer experience topics, including how a PGA behind-the-scenes documentary can build the organization's fan base.

Plus, you get an inside look into life behind the scenes at the PGA Tour, a prestigious global professional sports brand. We caught up with Trembath for our latest CX Decoded podcast.

According to a recent Statista report, the economic impact of 5G on the U.S. gross domestic product will hit $484 billion by the year 2030. 5G is faster, more reliable, has more capacity and less latency than the previous 4G wireless technology — and has the capability of completely changing how brands and consumers will think about the internet in the future.

But what exactly is 5G, how does it work and what type of impact will it have on gaming, shopping, business and customer experience?

Frank Boulben, the chief revenue officer of Verizon Consumer Group, has watched as each new wireless generation has come into being, and he caught up with CX Decoded to help us drill down how 5G might be used in consumer and B2B cases.

When it comes to CX leadership, or leadership in general, its always good to lead by example, but equally good to incentivize the behavior you want from your team.

Want some sobering statistics for your call center? Customer service representatives between ages 20 and 34 stay on the job for an average of just over one year, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Further, the average call center turnover rate is as high as 45% — and that's at least twice the average turnover in other departments, according to the numbers.

Call centers are going through a revolution, however. Tools like AI and predictive analytics are driving automation and cost reduction. Are these innovations enough to save the call center and improve retention?

Jonathan Brill, HP's former global futurist and author of "Rogue Wave," helped us try to crack the retention conundrum while also discussing call center innovations now and what the future looks like.

We caught up with Brill for our latest CX Decoded Podcast.