The CX Cast

Memories are fickle. And that has implications in how customers' emotions drive their perceptions of brands. In this episode, we answer the question: How do customers' memories of their emotions toward a brand impact their loyalty to that brand?"

We highly recommend that you listen to episode 129 before listening to this episode.

Referenced Forrester research:

"How Firms Help Employees Evoke Emotions That Deepen Customer Loyalty" (https://goo.gl/SFiPkD)

Emotions drive customers' perceptions — and human interactions are more emotionally resonant than digital interactions. That's why CX pros must help their colleagues deliver experiences that create more positive customer emotions. They can do this by sharing information about what matters to customers and training and coaching employees about what they should do to evoke positive customer emotions. To get more value out of good employee experience delivery, firms must also help customers better remember positive emotions associated with past interactions.

Episode guide:

00:30 Why does emotion matter to CX?03:39 What role do employees play in evoking the right emotions?06:30 How did Forrester synthesize qualitative and quantitative data to measure emotion's impact on CX?09:40 How should firms help their employees identify and evoke the right emotions from customers?12:56 How do firms identify the moments of emotional impact that matter, and take action?

Referenced Forrester research:

"How Firms Help Employees Evoke Emotions That Deepen Customer Loyalty" (https://goo.gl/SFiPkD)

Firms aspire to the benefits of a customer journey focus but struggle to achieve them because of obstacles in four realms: approach, ownership, tools, and culture. Some companies, though, have found a path to journey centricity and are shifting the focus from channels and individual touchpoints to the flow of journeys across touchpoints, silos, policies, and procedures. In this episode, we discuss how three companies are doing just that. Forrester Principal Analyst, Joana van den Brink-Quintanilha, joins us for the discussion.

Episode guide:

0:45 - Example of a firm that has organized around its customer journeys. 2:00 - What's the before and after? How does it start? 3:08 - How far can the organization scale this approach? 6:30 - Example of an agile approach to journey-centric organization. 8:30 - How should companies get started? How do they secure buy-in? 10:30 - Should companies organize around customer journeys? 12:45 - Does the urgency to re-organize vary for physical, digital, and hybrid experiences? 

Referenced Forrester research:

"The Customer-Journey-Centric Firm"

Customer experience (CX) transformations don't happen by accident. They require a methodical approach that ensures thousands of people can work together to consistently produce the right experiences across scores of channels. But most organizations manage CX haphazardly — which dooms their CX transformations. In this episode, Forrester Principal Analyst, Rick Parrish, lays out the essential activities of CX management and explains Forrester's methodology for how you can gauge how well your organization performs the essential activities of CX management, discover which ones you need to strengthen, and learn how to do so.

Referenced Forrester research:

"Gauge Your CX Management Maturity"

CX quality has largely stalled. Why? Survey data shows that people interact with brands more, which means they have more experiences and form more perceptions. But the data also shows that trust in companies has dropped precipitously; customers say the way to build their trust is to listen to them more, offer higher-quality products and services, and treat employees better. Misleading and false statements amplified by internet technologies further damage trust. In this episode, Principal Analyst Ryan Hart joins us to discuss this trust crisis and our predictions for how smart companies will respond in 2018.

What's your prediction for 2018? Let us know at [email protected] or tweet at us @CX_Cast.

Referenced Forrester research:

"Predictions 2018: The Crisis Of Trust And How Smart Brands Will Shape CX In Response"

If your company is struggling with employee engagement, chances are it's looking in the wrong places. If you're responsible for employee technology but not involved in discussions to improve engagement, it will be difficult, or even impossible, to move the needle. Engagement is an outcome of the employee experience (EX), and while there's a mosaic of factors that influence EX, technology plays a significant role. In this episode, Forrester Principal Analysts Dave Johnson and Sam Stern dive deep on how to identify causal factors of employee engagement and make better decisions about technology policy and enablement.

Listeners, we'd love to get to know you! Whether you just want to say hi or share a CX story, send us an email at [email protected].

Relevant Forrester research:

"The Employee Experience Imperative"

"How Firms Help Employees Evoke Emotions That Deepen Customer Loyalty"

As we head into 2018, Sam and Jenny discuss their words of the year and the implications that these topics will have on CX pros.

What's your word of the year? Send us a note at [email protected]!

In the near future, artificial intelligence (AI) will be pervasive in the machines that humans interact with. Soul Machines, believes those machines will "be a lot more helpful to us if they are more like us." The company acts on that belief by creating avatars for clients who wish to add a more human face to their digital interactions with customers. These "digital humans" are filling roles as call center agents and sales representatives. In this episode, Greg Cross, Chief Business Officer at Soul Machines, joins us to discuss the impact that these "digital humans" have on CX.

Listeners, we'd love to get to know you! Whether you just want to say hi or share a CX story, send us an email at [email protected].

Relevant Forrester research:

"AI Will Revolutionize Digital Experiences"

"Humanize Your Conversational Bot"

"Secure The Rise Of Intelligent Agents"

Brand still matters. Marketing still matters. But CX defines the brand. And marketing has a key role to play in heightening customers' emotions. In this episode, we untangle the interplay between brand and CX.

This is a topic that we plan to delve deeper on. When has a brand made you look forward to an experience? Did they live up to the expectation or drop the ball? Tell us about it!

We reference this blog post in the episode.

Companies depend on their employees to deliver high-quality customer experience (CX). And employees depend on companies to provide tools and design processes that enable them to effectively serve customers. In this episode, we lay out the organizational, managerial, and technological changes that must happen to enable workers to deliver the business' intended CX.

Listeners, we'd love to get to know you! Whether you just want to say hi or share a CX story, send us an email.

Referenced Forrester research:

"Five Steps To Enable Customer Experience Delivery"