The CX Cast

In Part 2 of our discussion on quantifying emotion with Forrester CMO Victor Milligan and VP of Customer Experience Index Roxie Strohmenger, we dig into the nitty gritty of how to measure the specific emotions your customers have, including how to "titrate" your measurement program (explanation included).

If you missed part 1, please go back to episode 79 and check it out. We also have a bunch of related CX Cast episodes in our archive for those who want to learn more on the role of emotion in CX: 

77: Rise of the Empowered Customer

37: How To Measure Emotion in Customer Experience

25: The Impact Of Emotion in Customer Experience.

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.

Human beings aren’t getting more emotional; it’s just that they now have the power, willingness, and ability to take action when provoked by a delightful or frustrating experience. Understanding these emotional responses can help brands design experiences that elicit the specific feelings that drive loyalty. In part 1 of a 2-part series, Forrester CMO Victor Milligan and VP of Customer Experience Index Roxie Strohmenger join CX Cast to discuss the rising importance of emotion in business and what specific emotions create and curb loyalty.

Loyal listeners may recognize this as a frequent topic for CX Cast. For those less familiar, check out our previous episodes: 

77: Rise of the Empowered Customer

37: How To Measure Emotion in Customer Experience

25: The Impact Of Emotion in Customer Experience

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.

In September 2016, news broke that Wells Fargo had opened more than 2 million checking and credit accounts without customers' knowledge. Now we find the scandal runs deeper, with Wells Fargo unfairly firing employees as retribution and blacklisting them from future jobs in banking. In this episode, we dissect the various aspects of the scandal and give listeners three takeaways to avoid the type of public embarrassment Wells Fargo faced. We also want to give a shout out to the podcasts we mentioned in this episode: NPR's Planet Money Podcast, Episode #732: Bad Form, Wells Fargo and The Ezra Klein Show Episode with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.

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.

Empowered consumers fuel the age of the customer — you've likely heard this repeatedly. They now have more choices, richer resources, and higher demands than in the past. But this is more than just a catchy idea; it is a measurable trend. Here, we prove it. This episode reveals how evolutions in customer behaviors and attitudes are manifesting themselves. Still skeptical? See the "The Rise Of The Empowered Customer" Forrester report for the full story.

Decades of quality and process improvement efforts have left firms awash in tools for mapping experiences and analyzing processes. Customer experience (CX) pros who hope to introduce customer journey maps as a new tool for understanding experiences often face pushback from stakeholders who are reluctant to adopt yet another tool. Forrester Principal Analyst Tony Costa returns in this episode to describe commonly used tools — process maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, etc. — and how they differ from customer journey maps. For the full explanation and great visual guides, check out the full Forrester report, "Journey Maps And Process Maps And Service Blueprints, Oh My!"

Forrester's Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) leaders of 2015 barely improved in 2016, even as brands that had lagged behind caught up significantly. Does this herald a leveling out in 2017, with companies converging toward CX parity? No. Forrester CX Research Director, David Truog, lays out for CX professionals what will happen instead. For the full analysis and predictions, check out the "Predictions 2017: The CX Quality Split" Forrester report.

Last week, 900 attendees gathered in San Francisco at Forrester's annual CXSF forum to discuss how emerging technology like AI-powered chat bots, IoT and voice recognition platforms are about to change customer experiences (CX) once again. In this episode, we sat down with Forrester Researcher Kelly Price to recap some of the key themes coming from the forum, such as how CX pros must design for new patterns of consumer behaviors and how technology can aid CX pros in delivering an emotionally engaging experience. Both attendees and non-attendees should check out some related research from Forrester that builds on these themes, including The Future of Mobile, The State of Chatbots, and The Future of Customer Experiences.

Listeners should also note that we encountered some audio problems in recording this episode so we apologize for any issues with sound quality.

In this episode, you'll hear from Judith Weader, a Senior Advisor on Forrester's Customer Experience Council, as she shares some valuable lessons learned as a former CX practitioner in a CX department of one at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island.

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:

Customer Obsession Is An Employee Engagement Strategy, Too

Seven Steps To Create And Sustain A Customer-Centric Culture

Want Great CX? Make Everyone Do Their Part

Customer expectations are rising faster than companies can evolve their value propositions. Customer experience (CX) professionals need to expand their toolkit to manage customer expectations as early as possible to build and sustain positive emotional momentum throughout the journey. In this episode, Forrester VP and Principal Analyst James L. McQuivey and Prinicpal Analyst Ryan Hart discuss how CX pros can use the power of anticipation to create more profound, more compelling experiences that sustain long-term impact. For more on this topic, check out the "The Dawn Of Anticipatory CX" Forrester report.

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].

Happy CX Day 2016! To celebrate this very special occasion, CX Cast co-hosts Sam Stern and Deanna Laufer, along with Senior Analyst Maxie Schmidt, discuss CX day events, how companies are celebrating, and what you can do to participate in the festivities even if your company is not hosting its own event. 

In honor of CX day, Forrester is also releasing a new report called "Why CX, Why Now" which contains an infographic to help CX pros socialize the CX imperative at their organizations. We've also compiled a curated CX reading list for those looking to dive deeper into particular areas of CX. Both are available on Forrester's CX blog (http://blogs.forrester.com/customer_experience).

Finally, if you have any questions or comments, or want to share how you are celebrating CX Day, please send us feedback at [email protected] or tweet at us @CX_Cast.