Pat Perdue's Customer Experience Podcast

SHOW NOTES

One of the big challenges in Customer Experience is managing all of the changing initiatives that are simply a way of life among competitive companies today. 

There is huge pressure at all levels of just about every organization to innovate.  Do something new. The pressure to constantly innovate has become business as usual. 

With every department on the hook to be innovative, they end up tripping over each other and negatively impact the customer experience in unforeseen ways.  

Our Guest, Bruce Simpson

Our guest today, Bruce Simpson, knows a lot about helping companies manage the change that comes from a culture of constant innovation.  As partner and co-founder of SwitchGear Consulting, Bruce has spent the past 15 years as a trusted co-pilot for BIG change, helping leaders who are not only trying to change culture and elevate performance but have realized they need a make-over on how they work and even how their people think.

In This Episode We Discuss:

a) How to recognize when our organizations focus too heavily on innovation at the expense of creating lasting change.

b) How leaders at every level of the organization can get their teams "unstuck," and begin to actually move the company forward and help it to genuinely evolve.

c)  What are the crucial tasks senior leaders must do to reduce "adoption paralysis" and ensure their company truly remains innovating and customer-focused

d)  Lots lots more....

About our Guest - Bruce Simpson

Since helping build his first Call Centre in 1989, Bruce Simpson has been living inside Sales + Service Teams for 30 years. Bruce’s first 10,000 hours came as an in-house Operator in Healthcare and Telcom (during the big disruption of long-distance competition). His second 10,000 hours came as the COO and Co-Founder of a 3rdParty Outsourcer (NDR / ClientLogic / Sitel) executing the Customer Experience on behalf of other companies. For the last past 15 years Bruce has become a trusted co-pilot for BIG change, helping leaders who are not only trying to change culture and elevate performance but have realized they need a make-over on how they work and even how their people think.

Contact Information for Bruce Simpson and SwitchGear

Click here for SwitchGear

Click here to reach Bruce on LinkedIn

Leave us a review on iTunes

I really appreciate all the support I've been receiving on this podcast! Thank you! If you want to leave a rating and review on iTunes, that's always helpful for people to find the podcast.

Click here to leave a rating / review on iTunes

Click here to reach Pat Perdue at on Twitter:

@Patperdue

SHOW NOTES

What happens when a data whiz teams up with a policy and communications guru?  Turns out it’s a very happy marriage – both literally and figuratively in a customer experience and business sense.  My guest today, Gary Edwards, is ½ of Golfdale Consulting.  Here’s why I wanted you to meet Golfdale, and Gary.

In This Episode We Discuss:

a) How you may be doing too much customer service

b) How being inspired by a high profile keynote speaker talking about over-the-top customer service might be the worst thing to happen to your Customer Experience initiative

c)  How public policy can have unintended consequences, negatively impacting your ability to deliver great CX to all of your customers, and what you can do about it.

d) How understanding the distinction between "service" and "hospitality" can mean the difference between getting customer experience right, and driving your customers to the competition.

e)  Lots lots more....

About our Guest - Gary Edwards of Golfdale Consulting

Gary Edwards has over two decades of experience in executive leadership roles. Gary currently is a Principal with Golfdale Consulting which he founded with his partner Hande Bilhan, on a mission to help companies improve their analytics strategy, positioning and advocacy.

Previously Gary was instrumental in the 10 year growth and sale of Empathica, a pioneering Customer Experience Management software company serving global Fortune 1000 companies.  Prior to Empathica, Gary served as the Country Manager and SVP of Gallup Canada.

Also…Gary is ½ of the consulting firm, Golfdale Consulting.  The other half is his partner, both in business and in life, Hande Bilhan.  Golfdale combines Customer Experience, data, and very savvy messaging and public policy influence.  So when organizations want to get a sense of the impact government regulations can have on customer experience, they call Golfdale.

Contact Information for Golfdale Consulting

Click here for Golfdale Consulting

Contact Information for Gary Edwards

Click here to reach Gary on LinkedIn

Click here to reach Gary on Twitter

Contact Information for Hande Bilhan

Click here to reach Hande Bilhan on LinkedIn

Click here to reach Hande Bilhan on Twitter

Pat on Twitter here:

@Patperdue

SHOW NOTES

What happens when a data whiz teams up with a policy and communications guru?  Turns out it’s a very happy marriage – both literally and figuratively in a customer experience and business sense.  My guest today, Gary Edwards, is ½ of Golfdale Consulting.  Here’s why I wanted you to meet Golfdale, and Gary.

In This Episode We Discuss:

a) How you may be doing too much customer service

b) How being inspired by a high profile keynote speaker talking about over-the-top customer service might be the worst thing to happen to your Customer Experience initiative

c)  How public policy can have unintended consequences, negatively impacting your ability to deliver great CX to all of your customers, and what you can do about it.

d) How understanding the distinction between "service" and "hospitality" can mean the difference between getting customer experience right, and driving your customers to the competition.

e)  Lots lots more....

About our Guest - Gary Edwards of Golfdale Consulting

Gary Edwards has over two decades of experience in executive leadership roles. Gary currently is a Principal with Golfdale Consulting which he founded with his partner Hande Bilhan, on a mission to help companies improve their analytics strategy, positioning and advocacy.

Previously Gary was instrumental in the 10 year growth and sale of Empathica, a pioneering Customer Experience Management software company serving global Fortune 1000 companies.  Prior to Empathica, Gary served as the Country Manager and SVP of Gallup Canada.

Also…Gary is ½ of the consulting firm, Golfdale Consulting.  The other half is his partner, both in business and in life, Hande Bilhan.  Golfdale combines Customer Experience, data, and very savvy messaging and public policy influence.  So when organizations want to get a sense of the impact government regulations can have on customer experience, they call Golfdale.

Contact Information for Golfdale Consulting

Click here for Golfdale Consulting

Contact Information for Gary Edwards

Click here to reach Gary on LinkedIn

Click here to reach Gary on Twitter

Contact Information for Hande Bilhan

Click here to reach Hande Bilhan on LinkedIn

Click here to reach Hande Bilhan on Twitter

Pat on Twitter here:

@Patperdue

In this first ever Yay Monday! episode, my guest Amar Sidhu, SVP Service Delivery and Production at ADP Canada, walks us through what is essentially a how-to manual for improving employee engagement scores an incredible 17 percentage points over a two ...

Mondays have a bad rap!  They often bring us down…. Why is that?  Probably because when we hear Monday we think office cubicle, stuck in front of a computer, and our life is gonna suck for the next 5 days until the weekend.

In this first ever Yay Monday! episode, my guest Amar Sidhu, SVP Service Delivery and Production at ADP Canada, walks us through what is essentially a how-to manual for improving employee engagement scores an incredible 17 percentage points over a two year period.

In this important episode, Amar shares:

* His fundamental belief of what drives his success as a senior executive while building success for his teams and departments.

* What is the number one driver of employee engagement, and contributed to the 17% jump in engagement results.

* The two crucial elements in your staff culture that, if absent, can cause staff celebrations to backfire.

* Overcoming this corporate paradox:  The people who know the most and have the best customer knowledge have the least amount of authority to make decisions.

* The business case behind empowering the front line to make decisions without always having to escalate requests.

* And so much more….

Amar’s Challenge:

Anyone with a new idea to engage your employees and drive audacious results, reach out to Amar on Twitter @amar_sidhu_TO.  You can also reach Amar on LInkedIn here.

You can find me on Twitter @Patperdue.  I always love to hear from listeners of the show so feel free to reach out.  

Thank you for listening.

Mondays have a bad rap!  They often bring us down…. Why is that?  Probably because when we hear Monday we think office cubicle, stuck in front of a computer, and our life is gonna suck for the next 5 days until the weekend.

It doesn’t have to be that way!!!  Mondays can be awesome!  Companies can make Mondays great by creating great places to work!  Some have personal chefs, some have unlimited vacations!  You’re probably asking, how do they do that?

But seriously, great places to work don’t have to just be unlimited vacations and skateboarding half-pipes in the office.  Great places to work are about trust, and transparency, and great leadership.  That’s what this show is about.

As managers and business leaders we owe it to our employees to make Monday’s great!  Because when Mondays are great, that means our teams are great, and our customers love us.  And that means good business.

So subscribe, download, and listen.  You’ll learn from the best how to transform your office into a Yay Monday company.   So let’s hear it for Monday!  Yay!

SHOW NOTES

Can we draw a line between Customer Experience, a company's overall reputation, and an organization's overall business performance?  While the answer is "yes," just how specifically we can do that might surprise you.

We all know that providing incredible Customer Experience is the right thing to do.  This episode's guest, Stephen Hahn-Griffiths, from The Reputation Institute, has the business case to back it up.

In this episode we discuss:

* The incredible value providing a consistent customer experience adds to your organization's overall bottom line.

* The importance of "predictive service" and how organizations that are mastering that are adding tremendous value by creating an experience that anticipates what their customers want.

* Stephen announces the surprising, and not-so-surprising, leader in customer experience (a scoop for this podcast!  Thank you Stephen!).  It may surprise you at first, and then you'll say, "Oh!  Of course!"

* In this world of tech-driven innovations, how can companies without the budget to invest in big data not be left behind in the world of incredible customer experience.

About our Guest:  Stephen Hahn-Griffiths

Stephen Hahn-Griffiths is the Chief Reputation Officer for the Reputation Institute, and plays an active role in spearheading the Reputation Consulting and Custom Measurement needs of their major clients.  Stephen was previously a partner and co-owner at Protobrand, a boutique insights and strategy consultancy in Boston. Prior to that, he was the Chief Strategy Officer at leading multi-national ad agencies, including Leo Burnett, Mullen, and Saatchi & Saatchi.

He is often cited as a reputation expert and has been featured in leading business media such as Forbes WSJ, CNBC, NPR, Bloomberg, and this very podcast.

Contact Information

You can reach Stephen on Twitter here:  @shahngriff

You can find Stephen LinkedIn by clicking here 

About The Reputation Institute

The Reputation Institute is the global leader in reputation intelligence.  Plain and simple, they're the world's leading reputation research-based consulting and advisory firm, looking at data from more than 7000 companies per year, across 55 countries, in 20 different industries.  They help organizations answer key questions: 

* What is my reputation and how does it compare?

* How can I improve and protect my reputation?

* What is the business impact of better managing my reputation?

Click here for their website.

Pat Perdue Contact Information

You can always reach me on Twitter @patperdue  or find me on Linkedin here.  Feel free to reach out.  I love to hear from you.

SHOW NOTES

This Week's Guest, Jeanne Bliss

This week I sat down with Jeanne Bliss, best selling author of I Love You More Than My Dog, Chief Customer Officer, Chief Customer Officer 2.0, and her latest book, Would You Do That to Your Mother, the Make-Mom-Proud Standard for How to Treat Your Customers.

Warning - listening to this episode could seriously improve how your organization treats its customers!

[bctt tweet="Would how you treat your customers make your mother proud? Warning: Listening to this episode of Pat Perdue's Customer Experience Podcast, featuring @JeanneBliss, may dramatically improve the way you treat your customers. #MakeMomProud!" username="@patperdue"]

Jeanne asks the question that gets to the heart of it:

[bctt tweet="Would you turn down your mom's warranty claim 2 days after it expired?  Probably not, but that's how many companies treat their customers.  Treating your customers like you would treat your mom provides a fabulous shorthand to get to the heart of the right thing to do for the customer. Listen to @JeanneBliss on Pat Perdue's Customer Experience Podcast " username="@patperdue"]

This will be your go to book to give to your clients and best customers.   It's a great, fun read that's also includes 32 case studies and countless anecdotes.

[bctt tweet="Would You Do That to Your Mother: The #MakeMomProud Standard for How to Treat Your Customers by @JeanneBliss is a must-read for anyone who has customers (= everyone).   This is already my favourite book to give away, and will be yours too! " username="@patperdue"]

Written in the voice of an archetypal, occasionally (lovingly) chastising mom, chapter titles are often hilarious, including, "Don't Make Me Feed You Soap!"

Throughout our conversation, Jeanne brings her trademark real-world vision of what great experience looks like, combined with the rare operational expertise to help big companies see through the bureaucracy and get to the heart of what's right.

Click here to order yours

Join the Make Mom Proud Movement here!

This Episode Brought to you by YCASTR

Emails suck.  Podcasts rock.  Why bore your employees with endless emails they don't even read, when you can create internal communications and training in a format your team will love.  That means higher employee engagement, better CSAT scores, and higher sales.  Contact us at www.YCASTR.com

SHOW NOTES

Fair warning:  You're going to want to quit your job and go work at Saje Wellness once you listen to this episode.Loved This Interview!I was thrilled to be able to speak to two powerhouses in retail and digital customer experience.  Kate Ross LeBlanc is the co-founder and CEO of Saje Natural Wellness, and Katie Drechsel is VP of Marketing at Saje.  Both are deeply passionate about delivering outrageous customer service.  Connecting that to the online experience creates a truly seamless and absolutely enlightened overall customer experience.  It's worth visiting a Saje store just to experience the enthusiasm of the team as they show you how your life can be better through the healing power of natural oils.  Visiting them online (Instragram, Twitter, or their stunning website), is to witness that passion translated into a digital experience.What's Unique about this EpisodeAs you'll discover, both Kate and Katie find it nearly impossible to speak about the customer experience before the conversation soon shifts to the employee experience.  At Saje, separating one from the other is like separating the roots of a plant from the stem, and thinking the plant will still survive.  For the stem of Customer Experience to be strong, the roots of Employee Experience need to be healthy.  This episode is worth a listen just for their passion alone.More in this Episode* How the careful use of language can create a unique company culture* How recruiting for what "lights you up," beats recruiting for skill set every time* How genuinely listening to customers ensures a transformative digital customer experience* How a genuinely enlightened employee experience translates into an enlightened customer experience* Much moreMore About Kate Ross LeBlanc, co-founder and CEO, Saje Natural WellnessKate leads the Saje Natural Wellness executive team to inspire global wellness. She is a passionate speaker about retail, company culture, leadership and holistic happiness. She pioneered Saje's product line and is the champion of Saje's Positively Outrageous Customer Service. In 2016, Kate was winner of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Retail and Hospitality, alongside her husband and Co-founder Jean-Pierre LeBlanc. She was also awarded the Momentum Award by Women of Influence RBC Entrepreneur of the Year, an award that celebrates entrepreneurs who have demonstrated success in team development and empowerment.Katie DrechselWith a career spanning over 13 years, Katie Drechsel is nothing less than a brilliant digital marketer and community builder.  Katie combines her instincts and knowledge of social engagement with a true passion for listening to the customer.  The result is an engaging digital customer experience that is a true reflection of the ongoing dialog between Saje's beloved customers, and what is a very distinctive brand.About Saje WellnessFrom their Media Kit (it was so awesome I wanted to share it with you)  WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE SAJEIt means living and breathing our values every day: wellness, celebration, awesomeness and growth.We want to support you in becoming the healthiest version of yourself so you can spend your time connecting to the people and experiences that you love.Sounds pretty good, right?We believe when you live with these values in mind, you introduce your best self to the world and big things happen.OUR VISIONGlobal wellnessOUR MISSIONConnecting people with the ...