The Account Experience Podcast

In this episode of The Account Experience Podcast, Adam Dorrell sits down with Lou Shipley — former three-time software CEO, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, board member at CustomerGauge, and author of the new book Unlikely Entrepreneurs, already a top-three Amazon bestseller ahead of launch.

Adam and Lou reflect on more than twenty years of working together, using that shared history to explore what really separates successful B2B companies from the rest. Lou shares key lessons from his book, including why entrepreneurship doesn’t follow a single path — and why experience, judgment, and empathy often matter more than youthful bravado.

A central theme of the conversation is customer and account experience as a leadership signal. Drawing on Lou’s time at Black Duck, they discuss how listening to customers cuts through operational noise, reveals hidden risk, and exposes growth opportunities long before they appear in dashboards or forecasts.

The episode also explores what it’s like to build and lead companies later in life, the advantages of pattern recognition and perspective, and why founders and CEOs should treat customer insight as a strategic asset — not a “soft” metric.

A thoughtful, practical conversation for founders, CEOs, and B2B leaders focused on building trust, resilience, and long-term value.

Find Lou on loushipley.com

In this episode of The Account Experience Podcast, Adam Dorrell sits down with Lou Shipley — former three-time software CEO, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, board member at CustomerGauge, and author of the new book Unlikely Entrepreneurs, already a top-three Amazon bestseller ahead of launch.

Adam and Lou reflect on more than twenty years of working together, using that shared history to explore what really separates successful B2B companies from the rest. Lou shares key lessons from his book, including why entrepreneurship doesn’t follow a single path — and why experience, judgment, and empathy often matter more than youthful bravado.

A central theme of the conversation is customer and account experience as a leadership signal. Drawing on Lou’s time at Black Duck, they discuss how listening to customers cuts through operational noise, reveals hidden risk, and exposes growth opportunities long before they appear in dashboards or forecasts.

The episode also explores what it’s like to build and lead companies later in life, the advantages of pattern recognition and perspective, and why founders and CEOs should treat customer insight as a strategic asset — not a “soft” metric.

A thoughtful, practical conversation for founders, CEOs, and B2B leaders focused on building trust, resilience, and long-term value.

Find Lou on loushipley.com

In this episode, Adam Dorrell chats with CX royalty, Ken Hughes (the King of CX), about the human side of experience.

They explore how emotion drives loyalty and trust, drawing lessons from B2C giants like Taylor Swift for the B2B world.

Ken shares some great anecdotes about how storytelling and vulnerability make ga reat CX experience. He emphasizes that CX is a philosophy, not just a department, and shares insights on building genuine emotional connections with customers.

Ken’s new book is Taylormaking — get the details from  https://www.taylormaking.com/

In this episode, Adam Dorrell, CEO of CustomerGauge, speaks with Mark Fonseca, Partner at Pragmetrics, about his experience conducting over 10,000 customer interviews.

Mark shared his unique three-question approach to B2B customer loyalty assessments, focusing on Net Promoter Score, understanding the "why," and identifying what it takes to achieve a perfect score. 

Mark spoke about the importance of creating a "safe harbor for the truth" and building trust quickly to uncover candid insights. 

He also discusses how his role as an agnostic third party allows customers to share feedback they might not otherwise, leading to surprising discoveries about customer loyalty and potential revenue opportunities.

Host Adam Dorrell welcomed back the outspoken and often hilarious Ben Phillips, CCXP, leader of Customer Experience in Fortune 500 companies, for the second time!

He’s an author, CX professional, and top voice in the customer experience world — truly one of the few real experts in B2B CX.

The two dove into the strategy gap in B2B CX programs and how internal experience is as important as measuring customer experience.

You won't want to miss this lively episode.

Ben is reachable on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-phillips-ccxp/

What happens when Customer Experience (CX) moves from buzzword to boardroom priority?

If you’ve seen her live or watched her videos, you’ll know her contagious energy and practical approach to making CX strategies work! 

What happens when traditional B2B customer surveys fail spectacularly, yielding less than 1% response rates and delivering feedback that's months too late to act on? 

Gerard Hutchings, Head of Business Development Strategy at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, found himself facing exactly this challenge in the asset management industry. But instead of accepting defeat, he created something revolutionary: a customer feedback program where the entire C-suite: CEO, CFO, COO, and department heads, personally conduct 15-minute customer calls using Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology. 

The result? Nearly 100% response rates, real-time actionable insights, and clients who comment positively on the organizational culture.. 

In this episode, Gerard shares how he transformed the fear of feedback into executive leadership opportunity, why "now's not a good time" actually means "now is the perfect time" for customer conversations, and how applying scientific methodology to sales relationships can unlock billion-dollar client insights that traditional surveys simply can't capture.

Disruptors have made a large impact and step-changed performance in many other

What if these 3 disruptors did exactly that to established customer experience (CX) approaches: Netflix, Uber, and Amazon?

Hosted Adam Dorrell alongside Nigel Tordoff, Chair of the CPG Experience Council, discussed how

They explored how consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies could learn from these disruptors by prioritizing simplicity and customer benefit, leveraging data to enhance the customer experience, and implementing subscription-based offerings that empower customers with choice and flexibility.

In this episode of The Account Experience Podcast, host Adam Dorrell sits down with Bill Main, Director of Global Customer Success and Customer Experience at Getronics, to uncover the secrets behind building a truly customer-centric organization.

Bill shares how Getronics achieves a 50% NPS response rate, why customer experience is more than just a number, and how leadership transparency builds trust.

Whether you’re in B2B or just passionate about CX, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to elevate your customer experience strategy.