Often Imitated: CX Stories from History

Sunset Boulevard is considered to be one of the best movies of all time. But it was almost an abject failure. What ended up being a saving grace to the creators Billy Wilder and Charles Bracket was going directly to their viewers and hearing their feedback. And in their case…it was brutal. But going straight to their customers was their saving grace—and it might be yours too.

Today’s guest, Ruben Harris, is the CEO of Career Karma, and he knows the secret to great CX is engaging directly with customers. In this episode, he’ll share how Career Karma is revolutionizing people’s lives, building trust with users, prioritizing customer input, and much more.

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“If you're trying to rehaul your CX, you have to take calls yourself and actually talk to your users.” - Ruben Harris

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) Lights, Camera, CX

* (5:12) What is Career Karma?

* (7:54) How Career Karma helps people

* (10:31) Putting trust at the center of CX

* (14:24) The importance of speaking with customers

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Ruben on LinkedIn

Check out Career Karma

The cupholder is an often-overlooked feature of a vehicle. But what else will willingly hold a drink, your phone, garbage, a perfectly-sized burrito, or your wallet? That’s right, your local cupholder. Now taken for granted, it was once a novel idea that came directly from customers. When CX leaders at Sears realized the weight of their customers’ opinions mattered a bit more than the C-Suite, they changed the cupholder game forever.

Our guest today, Dakota Semler, Co-Founder and CEO of Xos Trucks, dives deep into the importance of weighing customer feedback. He and his team have completely revolutionized the trucking industry, and it’s because they put the customer first. 

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“You don't need to make engineering, product decisions, or customer experience decisions by committee, but you need a committee to listen to that feedback and incorporate it back into your processes.” - Dakota Semler

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) How cupholders changed the world

* (5:49) What is Xos Trucks?

* (7:38) The modern-day fleet operator experience

* (10:54) Decarbonizing transportation

* (12:35) Designing CX for your end user

* (13:52) Approaching weighted feedback

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Dakota on LinkedIn

Check out Xos Trucks

Baseball has been at the heart of American culture for almost 150 years. Giving us icons like Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, and most importantly, Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. But behind the bravado of men in capris, is a marketing powerhouse. Today we’re doing a deep dive into baseball marketing. Starting with Charles Finley from the 60’s and 70’s to today’s guest, Adam Grossman, CMO of the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports. He shares how social media has changed sports marketing, how to be bold and change centuries-old institutions, how to experiment with your marketing, and so much more.

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“You have to push yourself to be a little bit nervous and push the envelope, because if you play it safe the whole time—you're just going to have safe results.” - Adam Grossman

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) What a donkey can teach us about CX

* (8:20) An inside look at what the CMO of a major league baseball team does

* (11:41) Social media’s impact on CX

* (15:58) Tackling the green monster

* (18:05) Experimenting with the City Connect Jersey

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Adam on LinkedIn

Check out the Red Sox

We all love a guilty pleasure. From reality TV to Britney Spears to a 1am trip to your favorite fast food restaurant. Maybe you enjoy all three of those! There’s nothing wrong with that and here at Often Imitated we will always be team #FreeBritney.

What all of these have in common is that they form consumers' experiences and emotions into creating lasting memories. No one understood that more than Pete Harman when he coined the phrase “Finger-Licking Good!” for KFC except maybe today’s guest. In this episode, we’re speaking with Bob Kraut and he has been the mastermind behind all of your favorite guilty pleasures. As the former CMO of Arby’s, Pizza Hut, and Captain D’s, he has revolutionized the way we as customers interact with fast food. Today, he’s the CMO of Billy Jealousy and will help us get our brands locked into the minds of our customers. So pull through that drive through, click play, and enjoy!

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“The key to excellent customer experience is to create behaviors and experiences for customers that build memories.” - Bob Kraut

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) Finger-licking good CX

* (6:45) Background on Bob's extraordinary career

* (8:35) Promising a great CX and how to follow through

* (12:04) How Bob revolutionized Arby's

* (15:00) How your brand outweighs your product

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

Check out Billy Jealousy

His Airness. Mike. MJ. All names that represent the GOAT himself: Michael Jordan. When he rocked the now infamous Air Jordans in the 1985 Slam Dunk Contest, he changed the shoe game forever. His sneakers had been banned from the NBA, and subsequently became the world’s next obsession. How he turned wearing shoes into an entire empire and one of the best customer experiences of all time, is something else all together. 

Someone else who’s turned the mundane into a one-of-a-kind experience is today’s guest, Andy Pearson. He’s the Vice President of Creative at Liquid Death, and he and his team have changed how the world drinks water. From selling your soul to tattooing your face…their CX might make a customer say, in the words made famous from Micheal Jordan’s hit film Space Jam…”I believe I can fly.” Today, we’ll find out how.

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“Our customer experience is the brand. From the moment you interact with us, you’re in the ecosystem.” - Andy Pearson

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) Michael Jordan: the king of CX

* (7:00) Liquid Death explained to those who haven’t sold their souls

* (10:13) How hating marketing builds exceptional CX

* (12:37) Making CX your brand

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Andy on LinkedIn

Check out Liquid Death
 

This podcast was produced by the team at Caspian Studios. Learn more at Caspianstudios.com

Few rooms offer more emotional support than the modern bathroom. Bad date? Excuse yourself to the restroom. Need to make friends with other people in your college dorm? Funny enough, bathroom. Went a little too hard at the company offsite? Better hope you’re not running into your VP in the loo.

But the bathroom used to be far less thrilling. Hundreds of years ago, it was a pot in the corner. And before that? Idk…a bush? But one man decided that pots were gross and he was going to add some dignity back into going to the restroom. John Harington took the world of plumbing by storm and invented the flushable toilet. But why haven’t you heard of him? All that and more in today’s episode.

Today, we’re talking with Dave Fink about how he too took on a thousand year old industry. As Co-Founder and CEO of Postie, Dave changed the way modern marketers approach direct mail. In this episode, he shares how mail can take your marketing campaigns to the next level, how to leverage modern technology on ancient mediums, how CX can improve your marketing, and much more.

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“If you take a CX approach to your entire marketing stack, then you end up building a deep understanding with your prospects and customers.” - Dave Fink

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) The troublemaker, the Queen, and their toilet

* (8:03) What is Postie?

* (10:55) Why CX leaders shouldn't underestimate direct mail

* (12:28)  Modernizing ancient history

* (14:17)  The Postie Customer Experience

* (18:15)  Taking a CX approach to marketing

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Dave on LinkedIn

Check out Postie

Maybe you’ve noticed a common thread in every elevator you’ve ridden. They often seem to have a single name branded on the inside: Otis. Now, maybe you weren’t a child fixated on elevators and your caregivers didn’t ask you to stop pointing this out. But on the off chance you were, do we have the episode for you. When Elisha Otis entered the elevator industry in the mid 1800s, they were novel and dangerous. So he invented a way for them to become simple and secure: the elevator brake. From there, the world would be changed forever.

When it comes to simple and secure, no one understands it better than Joe Burton, CEO of TeleSign. Putting in the extra work to make sure his customers are more protected than ever is the perfect recipe for a simple CX. And today, he shares those insights with us. It’s a ride you don’t want to miss. 

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“If you go the extra mile, they'll stay at your website the extra minute.” - Joe Burton

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) How the elevator impacts your CX

* (6:36) What is TeleSign

* (8:24) How peace of mind betters CX

* (11:18) Safety and simplicity in the gaming industry

* (16:11) The intersection of technology and humans

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Joe on LinkedIn

Check out TeleSign

The Space Race was a time of exciting development in science and technology. Did Neil and Buzz actually land on the moon? Who are we to say? (Kidding!) But what we do know is that the push to leave Earth’s atmosphere drove huge advancements in the technology of the time. One of the key lessons we can learn from The Apollo Missions is that with wildly important goals come impressive feats. And that extends to your customer experience philosophy.

Today, we’re hearing from Abakar Saidov, Co-Founder and CEO of Beamery, about how huge goals can launch your organization’s CX into the stratosphere. He shares insights on how to reframe talent acquisition, having data-backed CX, addressing CX fringe cases, and much more.

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"What our business has been doing is not just building much better workflows for the organization, but actually equipping them with the AI and the skills to be able to do that." - Abakar Saidov

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) Neil’s one small step for CX

* (5:13) Beamery’s north stars (not a space pun)

* (7:09) Talent acquisition during the pandemic 

* (8:20) A new way to look at hiring

* (11:35) Beamery’s stance on data-based CX

* (14:20) Focusing on the CX outliers

* (15:34) Transforming your company’s CX

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Abakar on LinkedIn

Check out Beamery

Listen to The Talent Blueprint Podcast

Arrested Development. Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Firefly. What do these three shows have in common? Well, for starters, people apparently are pretty fed up with hearing correct opinions on how superior these shows are to everything else on TV! And secondly, they were famously canceled. Low ratings are fear of all creative projects (please leave a 5 star review below!), and the grim reaper in charge of delivering them is the all powerful Nielsen. A revolutionary during the Great Depression, Arthur Nielsen pioneered the data surrounding ratings as we know them today. He’s allowed companies to make data-based decisions regarding their work for nearly a century, and that’s just what your CX needs.

Today’s guest, Jodie Jansen, is the Chief Customer Officer of Mediafly. She brings data to the forefront of CX and helps her team and customers make data-based decisions. And today, she’ll teach you how to do the same.

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“Don’t guess about the health of your customers, quite frankly, don’t guess about the health of your team. Don’t take for granted or don’t take at face value that a deal is going the right way or a customer is healthy because someone said it was. Rely on the data to be able to give you those insights.” - Jodie Jansen

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) Arthur Nielsen’s guide to data-driven CX

* (6:31) What is Mediafly?

* (7:39) Making CX the heart of your business

* (9:13) The secret to data-driven CX

* (13:55) How to find the right people to work with

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with Jodie on LinkedIn

Check out Mediafly

When Peter Roget was faced with tragedy he did what all of us hope to do—he turned it into triumph. When life gave him lemons he didn’t just make lemonade. Instead, he invented a water filtration system to make all of London’s lemonade more hygienic. From mastering medicine to inventing a pocket chessboard Peter was one of the original “jack of all trades”. But one of his biggest accomplishments, successes, and achievements was creating the first ever thesaurus. 

When it comes to creating opportunity out of adversity, Peter did it more than anyone. A company doing the same today is Birdeye. David Lehman, the President and COO of Birdeye, joins us to talk about how your biggest struggles can become your company’s greatest successes. And how CX is the first step in that journey, expedition, and endeavor. 

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“Happy customers are so much better at promoting my brand than anybody else can be. ” - David Lehman

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Time Stamps

* (0:00) History of the thesaurus, wordfinder, wordbook

* (7:19) What is Birdeye?

* (9:07) Utilizing bad reviews

* (11:09) The secret to referrals 

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. 

Hear more executive perspectives on CX transformation at Oracle.com/cx/perspectives

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Links

Connect with David on LinkedIn

Check out Birdeye