The CX Cast

In the past few years, thousands of companies including Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and Lending Club have popped up to deliver peer-to-peer services to customers. As part of the sharing economy, these businesses are poised to disrupt incumbents in hospitality, travel, finance, and many other industries. And unlike some traditional companies that are driven by operational efficiency or blinding product focus, sharing economy firms obsess over the quality of the experience they deliver. In this episode, analyst Deanna Laufer discusses what customer experience professionals can learn from the sharing economy's success to guide their own experience design. For more on this research, check out Deanna's report Why The Sharing Economy Matters For Customer Experience Professionals on Forrester.com.

Customer advocacy — the perception on the part of customers that a firm does what's best for them, not just what's best for the firm's own bottom line — is a key driver of customer loyalty for financial services firms. So is customer experience quality. In this episode, we speak with VP and Principal Analyst Megan Burns about what kinds of experiences deliver a one-two punch by making customers happy and demonstrating customer advocacy. For more on Forrester’s research related to the drivers of customer experience and customer advocacy, check out the reports Actions Speak Louder Than Words When It Comes To Customer Centricity, What Drives A Profitable Customer Experience, and Customer Advocacy 2014: How US Consumers Rate Their Financial Institutions on Forrester.com.

The path to customer experience maturity is long: Transformations typically take at least five years, and many companies stall before their metamorphosis is complete. To stay the course, CX pros and their colleagues should seek and share regular doses of inspiration to demonstrate the benefit of delivering great customer experience, solve specific customer experience problems, and infuse new thinking at regular intervals. In this episode, we speak with senior analyst Sam Stern who shares the best places to seek customer experience inspiration. For more on Sam’s research, check out his report Finding The Right Inspiration To Transform Your Customer Experience on Forrester.com or read his blog post on the topic.

Outstanding business-to-business (B2B) customer experiences ensure that every stakeholder in a client account gets the value they seek. Given the number of potential stakeholders in a given account, this can seem like a daunting task. In this episode, we speak with senior analyst TJ Keitt about how CX professionals at B2B companies must build collaborative environments within their CX ecosystems. For more on TJ's research, check out his report Customer Collaboration Powers B2B Customer Experiences on Forrester.com

Today user experience (UX) is a robust field combining elements of product design, service design, and innovation. And it’s an essential capability to bridge businesses’ and customers’ goals. But most customer experience professionals maintain a narrow view of UX as limited to usability testing or user interface design. In this episode, we speak with principal analyst Leah Buley about what separates outdated UX organizations from modern ones, and how customer experience professionals can revitalize their UX capabilities. For more on Leah’s research, check out her report on How To Modernize User Experience and How To Hire Great UX Talent on Forrester.com.

Digital design agencies now offer iterative, user-centered design processes to help their clients create quality customer-obsessed work on tight deadlines. But too many potential clients are stuck in the past, wasting time on slick presentations and myriad rounds of approvals instead of solving customer problems. In this episode, we speak with principal analyst Allegra Burnette about how customer experience professionals can rethink their role as client in order to get the best work from a new generation of digital design and development partners. For more on Allegra’s research, check out her report on How To Be A Great Client on forrester.com.

Many customer experience (CX) professionals are blind to the line of visibility — the critical divide between what customers see and don't see during an experience. Failure to carefully consider where this divide belongs can mean the difference between a quality experience, and one that unintentionally airs your company’s dirty laundry to the outside world. In this episode, we speak with senior customer experience analysts Sam Stern and Tony Costa about how CX pros can get a handle on their line of visibility to make conscious, intentional experience design decisions that reflect customers' needs and desires. For more on Sam and Tony’s research on the line of visibility, check out their report CX Pros Are Blind To The Line Of Visibility on Forrester.com.

Hundreds if not thousands of leading corporations have created chief customer officer (CCO) positions in recent years to help them become more customer-centric. Now US federal government agencies are toying with the idea of adding CCO positions and four have already taken the plunge. In this episode, we speak with senior customer experience analyst Rick Parrish about how federal CCOs can help achieve their agency’s mission and dispel common objections to creating CCO positions. For more on Rick’s CCO research, check out his Executive Q&A: Federal Chief Customer Officers report on forrester.com or his blog post on the subject.

Great customer experiences are built on solid strategies executed by people sharing a common vision. But if they look closely, most companies will find that their employees don't have a shared understanding of the intended customer experience. In this episode, host Sam Stern discusses with CX analyst Deanna Laufer approaches CX professionals can use to communicate their visions effectively. For more, check out our blog or related research reports on how to Mobilize Your Customer Experience Strategy and How To Build A Customer Experience Strategy That Works.