The One Thing - Customer Experience From the Top

Innovation is about connecting the dots and solving human problems. Without context or story, this will not have ROI. The starting point for any experience-design program is knowing the DNA of the brand and the customers it serves. Just ask Kambiz Hemati, VP, Customer Experience & Environments at American Eagle Outfitters, whose impressive career has put him in the middle of the action with big brands like Foot Locker, Nike, and Starbucks. Twenty years of experience design, focused on innovation and visual aesthetics, have taken him on a journey designed to transform how we shop and the way we live. Kambiz offers a deep look with Liliana Petrova into: why taking care of associates is fundamental to the customer experience, the value of understanding that not all customers are on the same level, why you must look beyond your narrow competition design and seek inspiration in a broader context and across industries, how reiterations, trials and the willingness to accept that half of what you do won't work is key to experience design today, and the importance of creating a holistic experience through all channels, connecting the physical store with the website so that they introduce and complement each other.

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Customers are always paying attention -- you can’t miss a beat. There’s nowhere that’s more true than with an institution of higher learning, where students are both customers and residents. So setting a standard for student experience is paramount for leadership. Just ask Miguel Martinez-Saenz, President of St. Francis College in Brooklyn NY (of which Liliana Petrova happens to also be an alumna). Miguel shares with Liliana: why, as a leader, Miguel has a zero-tolerance policy for disrespect of front line employees, and believes in setting the right standard for how others interact with each other in the communities he creates; understanding because not all students are the same, a hybrid model of in-person and online services is necessary; the importance of service to others, and what it really means to being lucky; and, how Miguel and his team have led the college through the pandemic without missing beat of attention to customer experience

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The life-cycle of a customer is the exact map brands need to create strategic experiences which create lifetime value for customers. Understanding where they’ve been, and where they are likely to go, are two critical building blocks for customer experience design. But also vital is leadership which spends time in the field to understand the customer’s needs, 360-communication across teams, and having buy-in from leadership in charge of the purse-strings. Michael Williams, Senior V.P. of One Vanderbilt, one of the biggest buildings in NYC both in height and level of customer experience. Michael delivers big thoughts, and big value on: how getting insights from the wrong audience can be valuable; why fan experiences such as in sporting events offer unique challenges; building driveway-to-driveway experiences; a powerful example of experience done right from Disney; and why asking a question about your CFO’s car can unlock the checkbook.

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Listening. It's a basic building block to effective customer experience and, ultimately satisfaction. It is also a consistent message we are hearing on this show. Ironically, in the one industry where listening is the most impactful aspect of customer experience,  health care, it may be happening the least. Alan Dubovsky, Chief Patient Experience Officer at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, has embraced this ethos of listening.  Alan shares insights on redefining the meaning of listening to patients, why executives making rounds in the field impacts patient experience, the importance of adding unstructured feedback, and how intentionally designing a future patience experience, instead of simply reacting what has happened in the past, is a winning strategy.

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From the beginning -- the first hire, the brand values, and the initial vision of the website -- cupcake dynamo Baked by Melissa has been focused on the experience of the customer. It’s part of the recipe. And with cupcakes being an emotional purchase, celebrating something happy, soothing something sad, or thanking when something is good, it's personal for both the customer and for co-founder Melissa Ben-Ishay, whose name is on the wall. Every experience a customer has reflects on Melissa herself. She joins Liliana Petrova to share how values have driven some of the most important decisions Melissa has had to make in the past 13 years, including: reacting quickly in the first moments of the pandemic; taking the risk to launch an epic and expensive customer experience campaign which both connected with customers and drove brand awareness for years to come; and, how this mompreneur had to overcome her initial reluctance to become the CEO of her own company only to find herself exactly where she should have been all along.

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Every business must participate in the digital journey. How do you jump to digital if traditionally you haven't had to focus on your customer, as an industry. This is the challenge for health care. Today health care systems are supposed to meet patients where they are, and they are forced to figure it out while in motion. What's more, they have to learn from other industries. Meghan Nechrebecki, Founder/CEO of Healthcare Transformation and passionate health care administration expert, joins Liliana Petrova. She's someone who saw this coming, and who understands how the health care industry can rise to rise the challenge.

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The President of the Specialty Food Association, Bill Lynch, shares how to lead an organization in a customer-centered way and move the customer experience from physical to digital.

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