Everything Clicks

Chris Pilsner is Executive Director of Relationship Management & Digital Experience at UMass Amherst., 

In this episode, she shares her proven strategies for breaking down organizational silos and driving digital transformation in the higher education space. 

Drawing on 15+ years of experience in major advertising agencies and a deep academic background, Chris reveals:

- How she navigates change management challenges

- Builds cross-functional alignment around major CRM initiatives

- And balances student expectations with institutional constraints.

Learn her approach to managing email overload that impacts student success, maintaining student-centric focus through cross-functional collaboration, and more.

=== Connect with Chris:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cfoleypilsner/

- Website: https://www.umass.edu

=== Resources:

UMass IT strategic plan: https://www.umass.edu/it/strategic-plan

=== About the Everything Clicks podcast:

Everything Clicks is a podcast about customer experiences that wow consumers while driving profitable growth. Each week, we dissect the strategies and tactics of top B2C marketers at leading Fortune 5000 companies.

📣 Subscribe now for more insights on creating digital experiences that convert. 

📱 Follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shamirduverseau/ 

🌐 Smart Panda Labs: www.smartpandalabs.com

Pedro Araujo, Chief Marketing Officer at Orlando City SC and Orlando Pride, shares his data-driven approach to creating authentic fan experiences.

Learn how he balances emotional connection with performance metrics, builds marketing tech stacks on limited budgets, and creates consistent experiences for fans across multiple touchpoints.

Pedro offers advice on how to leverage fan feedback and optimize conversion funnels, highlighting the importance of representing local culture while competing as a challenger brand in professional sports.

Visit Myrtle Beach's VP of Marketing, Stuart Butler, reveals how shifting from paid advertising to owned content and branded entertainment delivers a better ROI while creating authentic connections with travelers. Learn how an innovative approach to accessibility initiatives and storytelling bridges the experience gap between what travelers expect and what destinations typically deliver. Discover practical strategies for using AI in travel marketing, transforming audiences into advocates, and measuring the real impact of authentic content.

Webtrends Optimize’s Commercial Director Stuart Rex reveals the $240 billion disconnect between ad spend and post-click optimization — and why this imbalance is costing marketers conversions. Learn how Google’s increasing focus on landing page quality creates an opportunity to reduce ad costs while improving results and tested, practical approaches to experimentation without getting overwhelmed. Get a step-by-step playbook for optimizing your landing pages and discover how to identify your “North Star” metric.

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Smart Panda Labs’ Principal Consultant, Tu Nguyen, breaks down the key framework for creating a successful experimentation program with real business impact. Learn why embracing failure is critical for innovation, how to align cross-functional teams around shared goals, and what role AI will play in accelerating experimentation velocity. Get practical approaches to start small, measure what matters, and create a sustainable culture of testing that connects directly to business outcomes.

CarParts’ Senior Director of Customer Experience Aurelia Pollet reveals why most companies lack holistic CX leadership and how this creates a gap between customer expectations and reality. Learn why mystery shopping your own brand is crucial, how to balance technical expertise with customer advocacy, and why email marketing is far from “dead.” Get practical insights to help you create seamless experiences that prevent the 59% customer drop-off that happens after just one negative interaction.

Wells Fargo’s VP of Data Engineering and Analytics, Shaun Gehring, reveals how near real-time data feedback loops are transforming digital buying experiences. Discover why most companies are wasting resources on real-time data, how to use AI to create a more natural shopping experience without the creepiness factor, and strategies to align technical, marketing, and product teams for a more cohesive customer journey.

Slide UX founder and principal Erin Young shares when friction in user experience can be beneficial, how to balance information and simplicity for complex products, and why user research often catches what A/B testing missed. Find out how UX sits at the intersection of marketing, product, and IT, and how you can speak each team’s language to create a better digital experience.

Amerilife's Chief Lead Generation Officer Bill Decourcy shares game-changing strategies for performance marketing success. Discover how to harness the power of video and YouTube as attention-grabbing tools, implement AI to do more with less, and spend less time in dashboards and more time reaching the right audience. With insights on building a unified martech stack for seamless digital experiences across all channels, this episode delivers practical tactics to enhance your marketing effectiveness and drive measurable results in today's competitive landscape.