Learn in this episode:

• Why CX maturity means knowing your starting point instead of copying another company's playbook
• Why everything in support can be automated, and why that is the wrong goal to chase
• The one customer moment Tim says should never go to a chatbot
• How to decide which interactions earn a human before you automate the rest
• How Tim closed a feedback loop that had been trapped in a spreadsheet for years

Tim Thijsse (pronounced thigh suh) is a UX and customer experience strategist operating from the Digital Experience Collective and the author of Maturing in Customer Experience Optimization. A top 50 CX leader in 2025 and 2026, he has led digital optimization programs for brands like Heineken and E.ON, and today delivers CX trainings, talks, and workshops.

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Learn in this episode:

• Why customers can't be fully honest with a sales rep who carries a quota, and who they open up to instead.
• How Brian built an entire chief customer officer program with ChatGPT before he ran a single meeting.
• The one rule that decides whether an executive ever gives you a second meeting.
• What 60 no-agenda conversations surfaced that three years of dinners and ballgames never did.
• Why a handwritten note still outperforms every digital follow-up at the executive level.

Brian Porter is the Chief Customer Officer at Ernest, where he has helped grow the company from around 65 employees to nearly 800 across a 30-plus year career. Before the C-suite he led client relations across 14-plus division offices, turning a people-first culture into a real competitive edge in a category most people write off as a commodity.

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Learn in this episode:
- How RJ Young structures three specialized support teams across 30 products to hit 95 NPS
- Why most AI vendor pitches fail Amanda's one-question filter
- How to build the internal case for AI adoption when your C-suite is getting pitched directly
- What Agent Assist looks like in practice at a 70-year-old company
- Amanda's 2028 prediction for the support agent role and why most teams are not preparing for it
- The career path from journalism to CX and why amplifying customer voices became the mission

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Amanda Carden-Chamberlain is the Director of Customer Success at RJ Young, a Southeast US business technology company that expanded from printers and copiers into full managed IT infrastructure during COVID. She has spent 17 years in CX across food service, e-commerce at 4Patriots, wine and spirits distribution at Saxco, and enterprise technology. In that time she has also been featured on leading CX blogs for her perspective on customer service as an incubator for future company leaders.

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Want an AI support agent that's actually reliable, without the never-ending setup steps?

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Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com

Learn in this episode:

• How a $0.50 problem on a transit card unlocked millions in customer loyalty.
• Why removing everyday friction compounds into retention faster than any new feature will.
• What intentional AI calibration looks like in practice and why most teams skip it entirely.
• How to tell the difference between a product that works and a "boardroom product" that only works in the meeting where it was designed.
• Why ESG and community investment at MasterCard translated directly into closed commercial deals.

Troy Dennis leads strategy for regional customers at Experian. His career spans JP Morgan Chase, TD Bank, Regions Bank, and MasterCard, where he led North American digital evolution, prepaid products, and community and belonging programs focused on bringing underserved populations into the digital economy.

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* What if you could pair AI self-service tools with unmatched reliability? *

Learn how you can with Helpfeel's AI support suite, including done-for-you deployment and self-service optimization. Over 800+ teams choose Helpfeel to serve customers with prepared AI that's saving costs and boosting retention.

Find out more: https://en.helpfeel.com

Learn in this episode:
- How to move from a manual support model to an automated, intelligent self-service ecosystem.
- Why democratizing knowledge creation is a powerful tool for agent retention and cultural change.
- The reality of implementing KCS (Knowledge Centered Service) and how to get executive buy-in.
- Why a support agent's job is to create a lasting improvement, not just close tickets.

Joel Sandi is the Director of Self-Service and Content Strategy at Outreach, where he leads the transformation of technical data into seamless customer journeys. With a background in journalism and strategic support roles at 8x8, Joel is an expert in architecting unified support portals that deliver high-impact ROI and ticket deflection.

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Want an AI support agent that is insanely reliable without all the setup headaches?

Save time and delight customers with Helpfeel's done-for-you deployment and seamless VoC-based optimization.

Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin.

Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com

The CX Files has a new name: CX Heroes.

Learn in this episode:

• Why AI tools should be managed with the same rigor as a BPO partner.
• The importance of a neutral arbiter to audit AI performance and quality.
• How to identify which customer use cases are ready for AI and which require a human touch.
• Why most AI implementations fail due to vertical silos rather than technical issues.

Alex Schaeffer is a veteran CX executive with two decades of experience driving global transformation. Having held leadership roles at Ford Motor Company and serving as VP of Customer Experience at Avis Budget Group, Alex specializes in connecting operational data with real-world customer outcomes.

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Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin.

Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com

Learn in this episode:

• Why CSMs stay silent on churn risk in strategic accounts and what is actually driving that silence.
• How to build executive relationships with customers before there is a problem to solve.
• Why bringing CS into the final sales meeting is the one move that changes how customers feel about choosing you.
• How Silverfort uses AI sentiment monitoring across Gong, Zendesk, and email to surface churn signals before they reach the renewal conversation.
• Why one AI voice agent demo made a three-time CCO draw a hard line around customer-facing deployment.

Michelle Wideman is the Chief Customer Officer at Silverfort and a three-time CCO, previously at Dell Boomi and Oona. She built her career on the sales side before transitioning into customer success leadership and has spent the last several years running CS and support for organizations in hypergrowth. She is known for turning CS teams that feel like an afterthought into functions that win company-wide recognition.

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Want AI self-service without AI headaches?

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Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin.

Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com 

Learn in this episode:
- Why mapping the happy path is the biggest mistake in CX design.
- How to identify break points in a customer journey before they cause a crisis.
- The secret to building executive trust by presenting mitigation plans upfront.
- Practical ways to shift your team from building processes to building experiences.
- How T-Mobile uses AI to translate complex engineer-speak into human-friendly support.

Kimberly Wyman is the Vice President and Strategic Advisor at T-Mobile for Business. With over 20 years of experience leading global organizations, she has mastered the art of empowering frontline teams and scalable customer operations.

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Want AI support that's insanely reliable without the usual setup time and operation overhead?

Save time and delight customers with Helpfeel's done-for-you deployment and seamless VoC-based optimization.

Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin.

Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com

Learn in this episode:
- How to launch a new sub-brand to shift customer perception without losing legacy trust.
- The process for mapping a 70-year-old customer journey to find hidden friction points.
- Why shifting from reactive service to proactive strategy is the key to B2B growth.
- How to get buy-in for innovation in a culture that is used to doing things the old way.

Kamron Kunce is the Chief Marketing Officer at RJ Young and their new service Velocity One. He has a unique background in the music industry and e-commerce which he uses to lead brand strategy and customer experience for the premier business technology provider in the Southeast.

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Learn in this episode:

• Naisan's secret sauce: Using emotional empathy as a business heuristic to align CX, product, and finance teams.
• Why understanding the emotional angle of a customer journey leads to better business decisions.
• Strategies for navigating the gap between tactical execution and economic buyer needs.

This guy knows his stuff *and* knows how to communicate it extremely well. Fantastic guest.

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Naisan Geula is the Senior Vice President of Field Services at Retool and founder of Pre-sales Advisors. With a career spanning massive exits at Tableau and leadership roles at Salesforce and CloudBees, Naisan specializes in scaling high-growth SaaS companies by keeping a relentless focus on the human element of technology.


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Want an AI support agent that's prepared for you, instead of making you get ready?

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Join 625+ leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin and deliver marvelous experiences.

Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com