The Modern Customer Podcast

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, you'll hear why winning with AI doesn't start with an AI strategy.

In this episode, Peter Czimback—former VP of Experience Innovation at Aramark—shares a business-first approach to transformation that begins with experience, outcomes, and human capability, with AI supporting execution underneath.

The conversation explores how leaders can move beyond AI experimentation and hype by anchoring technology decisions to growth, productivity, and the experiences they want to deliver to customers and employees.

If you're navigating AI investments, organizational change, or transformation at scale, listen to the full episode to learn how experience-led thinking helps leaders use AI to strengthen what already works.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

As digital products become the primary customer interface, delays in bug diagnosis and resolution now directly affect the customer experience.

In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Matt Rubright, Chief Customer Officer at Jam, explains how Jam fits into the bug-reporting and support workflow by capturing technical context as issues are reported. That shared context helps support and engineering diagnose problems faster, reduce handoffs, and move toward resolution with greater clarity.

The conversation looks at why resolution speed and coordination have become CX priorities—and how AI is influencing the way teams work together when something breaks.

This episode is sponsored by Jam. 🎧 Learn more about Jam and how teams are rethinking bug resolution: https://jam.dev/

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Krista Phillips, Chief Customer and Transformation Officer at M&T Bank, explains how a Fortune 500 bank turns half a million customer signals into CX execution.

The conversation explores how structure, governance, analytics, and AI help move customer insight from feedback into action—while balancing digital growth with trust and prioritizing relationships over transactions.

Topics covered include:

1. Anchoring CX in relationships, not transactions

2. Balancing digital convenience with trust-based experiences

3. Turning customer signals into enterprise priorities

4. Using analytics and AI to inform decisions without replacing leadership

🎧 Listen to learn how customer insight drives execution inside a Fortune 500 bank.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Sven Gierlinger breaks down what CX leadership really looks like at scale.

As SVP and Chief Experience Officer at Northwell Health, Sven leads experience across one of the largest health systems in the country—bringing hospitality principles, cultural leadership, and practical technology into healthcare.

🎧 Listen to the full episode to learn what modern healthcare CX leadership really looks like—when it's done right.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Will Heywood, Chief Customer Officer of DHL Supply Chain North America, shares how the world's largest contract logistics provider applies AI where execution actually matters—inside warehouses, delivery networks, and daily workflows.

Will breaks down his first 90 days as CCO, including owning growth targets and clarifying how customer experience is created through day-to-day operational execution.

He also walks through real AI use cases already in production, from agentic delivery scheduling to warehouse automation, and explains why disciplined adoption matters at scale.

🎧 Listen to the full episode and see how AI actually works at enterprise scale.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

Kidney care is one of the most complex—and overlooked—patient experiences in healthcare. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, we explore how CX-aligned leadership can reduce friction and improve outcomes for people facing advanced kidney disease. Strive Health's Chief Customer Officer, Evelyn Goodfriend, shares what patient experience looks like up close, why traditional care models fall short, and how listening, alignment, and better workflow design support both patients and caregivers. We also discuss where AI meaningfully helps and where human support remains essential. A practical conversation for CX leaders and operators navigating high-stakes, high-complexity customer journeys.

Don't miss this episode!

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

How is one of the largest health systems in Texas using AI to transform patient experience?

This episode of The Modern Customer Podcast explores how Memorial Hermann Health System is applying AI, predictive analytics, and digital tools to redesign care for millions of patients across Houston. The conversation features Alex Greengold, Chief Consumer Experience Officer at Memorial Hermann, who brings previous CX leadership experience from AOL and DISH, where he earned multiple J.D. Power awards.

Watch the full conversation to see how AI, smart design, and culture are reshaping the future of care.

🔗 Learn more about Memorial Hermann: http://www.memorialhermann.org/

🔗 Connect with Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexgreengold/

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

The Hershey Company is transforming faster than ever—proving how CX and AI can modernize a 130-year-old brand at scale.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Tiffany Menyhart — Chief Customer Officer at The Hershey Company — shares how her team is reshaping customer experience across physical retail, e-commerce, and the rapidly expanding on-demand ecosystem.

Hershey's results speak for themselves: ▪️ On-demand sales up 30%+ this year (and 60% growth over recent years) ▪️ 40%+ seasonal lifts with retail partners through strategic digital optimization

If you're leading CX, digital, retail, or innovation strategy, this episode is a must-listen.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation and subscribe for more insights on AI, and the future of customer experience.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

AI is reshaping how companies build and scale customer relationships. In this episode of The Modern Customer podcast, learn how to use AI to strengthen customer trust, speed up execution, and prepare for voice-driven and multimodal CX. Nicholas Thorne, co-author of Me, My Customer, and AI, breaks down practical strategies for modern leaders. Nicholas is also the co-founder of Audos, and a partner at prehype, known for helping entrepreneurs build and scale new ventures.

What you'll learn: • How to prioritize the customer segment that drives your next stage of growth • How AI can safeguard executive focus and free you to engage directly with customers • How to turn trust and responsiveness into long-term strategic advantage • Why voice and multimodal CX are accelerating faster than expected — and how to prepare

Tune in to explore how AI can accelerate growth while deepening customer trust.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.

This week on The Modern Customer podcast, Michael Gerrish, Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, shares the strategy that transformed their organization.

The key? Aligning Marketing and Experience to accelerate growth. Michael outlines how the unified CMXO role is responsible for making sure the brand's promises match the actual customer experience, driving maximum ROI.

The Results:

✅ $120 Million in annual revenue

✅ 93% industry-leading customer retention rate

Learn how they achieved this with the "Insights to Action" model, eliminating silos and leveraging AI to simplify complex healthcare needs. Listen to the full episode now!

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.