The Trusted Guide Podcast with Mark Slatin

Dr. Tom DeWitt, trailblazer and Director of CXM@MSU, talks about why it was time to launch a Masters of Science in Customer Experience Management (CXM) at Michigan State University. 

He shares some powerful realities about why companies should lead with a customer experience strategy and how this program can close the gap by preparing leaders to lead CX at the C-level.  

If you are thinking about advancing your education and you're a CX practitioner, or if you are an employer interesting in preparing leaders to contribute to revenue growth by earning customer loyalty, this episode is a must.

For more information about the program, interested applicants and companies should visit https://broad.msu.edu/marketing/cxm/.

Here's some interesting research that supported the creation and launch of the new degreed program at MSU:

According to a survey conducted in the summer of 2020 with 160 decision makers that were provided with a description of the proposed MSU MS-CXM degree program, 87% indicated that it is important to hire employees that are experts in the field of customer experience management (CXM); 80% said they would be likely to give a raise to current employees who have obtained the degree; and 78% of US companies and 89% of international companies would be likely to hire students graduating from the program.

Similarly, a survey of 338 professionals working in CX conducted at the same time found that 87% of respondents indicated that CXM is critical to success; 85% were interested in a master's degree in CXM; 63% would be likely to apply if the MSU MS-CXM degree were offered; and 44% of respondents that are extremely likely to pursue a master's degree in the next 5 years would be extremely likely to apply to this MS-CXM degree.

Meet Tom DeWitt, Ph.D

Tom DeWitt, Ph.D. is the Director of CXM@MSU, an entity dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management (CXM), and a fixed-term faculty member in the Department of Marketing of the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. As the Director of CXM@MSU, Dr. DeWitt has created North America's first academic program in customer experience management (Masters of Science in Customer Experience Management - MS-CXM) and hosts industry conferences twice each year for organizations to share best practices in CXM. 

For more than a decade Dr. DeWitt has also provided customer experience management (CXM) solutions to organizations and audiences around the world through consulting, workshops and presentations. Prior to joining academia, Tom enjoyed a career in the hospitality industry, where he served in senior management roles in the USA and Asia.

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at [email protected]

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In this episode, my guest Stacey Nevel gives practical tips on how to engage employees and avoid some of the most common mistakes that negatively impact employee engagement. 

Have a clear purpose and align your team to that mission is the first step. She provides illustrations of how to do that and steps that winning organizations take to ensure congruence between corporate strategy and how it's lived in the organization's culture.

Ultimately, engaged employees drive customer loyalty, retention, profitability, forgiveness, and referrals. 

She also shares an interesting story about how linemen in a utility company were out of alignment with that mission and how that impacted the impact on their clients.

Join us for some fresh perspectives from the Vice President of Voice of the Customer at the rock, Prudential Financial.

Meet Stacey

Stacey is a seasoned Customer Experience (CX) professional with over 25 years of experience designing and managing customer and employee feedback programs. She has a background in CX feedback measurement and management within client-side financial services and insurance companies as well as vendor-side CX technology and consulting providers. Throughout her career she has sought to better understand and share the linkages between VOC, VOE and operational metrics to positively impact the customer experience, customer loyalty and product usability. Stacey holds a B.S.B.A. in Marketing from Georgetown University as well as CCXP, CEM and NPS® industry certifications.

CURRENT ROLE

Currently, Stacey is serving as the Vice President, Voice of the Customer, where she oversees the strategy, methodology and competitive benchmarking of the US VOC program while also service as a senior relationship lead for 3 key business units. Since joining Prudential she has worked to develop a comprehensive Voice of the Customer (VoC) research strategy that supports a continuous cycle of listening, analyzing, action planning and monitoring, partner with Customer Experience (CX) leaders and teams on the design, measurement framework, analysis, synthetization and socialization of customer and evangelize the importance of democratizing customer feedback data to enable timely close loop processes and targeted employee training that drives customer-centricity. In addition to her role at Prudential, Stacey also serves on the board of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) and as chair of the CCXP Advisory Committee.

BEFORE PRUDENTIAL 

Prior to joining Prudential Stacey was the Director, CX Consulting for Confirmit Inc., where she grew the Confirmit CX practice through thought leadership and strategic consulting to scope, design and sell customer experience feedback programs to prospective and current North American clients. In 2017 alone, she participated in over 15 speaking opportunities spanning broad CX and industry specific events. She also authored Confirmit's internal methodology document and co-authored their CX maturity model, client onboarding process, and empathy and customer-journey mapping processes. Prior to Confirmit, Stacey has accumulated a wealth of CX and VOC knowledge from her experiences with major platform providers and agencies, including Allegiance, Satmetrix, Vovici, and CustomerSat. 

FIRST CAREER ROLE 

Citibank, N.A., Manager, Client Satisfaction and Support. Stacey managed the monthly survey and mystery shopping programs for the New York retail bank market for five years. She was the recipient of the Service Excellenc

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Customer friction can lead to customer defection. Often, companies attempt to fix their customer's pain with a short term solution. Diane defines design thinking and why it's a different approach that starts with putting your customer in the center. 

She also shares what led her from a career as a clinical psychologist, supporting those dealing with death and dying, into the world of customer experience management. 

What caused her to career to change trajectories may surprise you.

Meet Diane Diane Magers, CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional), MS, MBA 

She's the Founder and CEO of Experience Catalysts.

Passionate experience transformation executive and change agent. Sherpa for new and developing experience-obsessed organizations. Thought leader and innovator for engaging associates, customers, and partners. Believes sustainable change requires embedding customer and experience capabilities into all parts of an organization.

Skilled in creating Experience Management business value and systematically changing organizations to align around experience and drive financial impact. She specializes in enabling brands with skills and competencies like design thinking, journey management, and value mapping to drive sustainable shifts in how organizations work to achieve results. Over 25 years of transforming experiences working in and with brands such as Sysco, AT&T, State Farm, Dale Carnegie, CommScope, Invisalign, Ciena, Freeman, Cisco, and Sodexho. 

Diane is the Emeritus Board Chair and recent CEO for the Customer Experience Professionals Association, speaks and conducts workshops all over the world to help transform Experience Management strategy into action. She has a very unique background…earned an MS in Clinical Psychology and an MBA. She is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) and holds certifications in Voice of Customer, Customer Experience Management, Net Promoter Score, and CX Design, and Innovation LUMA certified.

Contact me if:

• You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast
• You would like to be a guest on the show
• You would like to book me on your show

Email me at [email protected]

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

Jon shares gems from his new book: From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers an Employees Into Lifelong Fans. Excellence is never an accident. Jon brilliantly pulls the curtain back on proven methods to fundamentally change the way you think about creating a successful, beloved business.

Jon Picoult shared practical and proven principles from his new book From Impressed to Obsessed in this episode. We talk about real world challenges for CX leaders and what cognitive science implies about where organizations go wrong and what leaders can do about it.

Meet Jon

Jon Picoult helps companies impress their customers and inspire their employees, creating "raving fans" that drive business growth. He is the founder of Watermark Consulting and a noted authority on customer and employee experience. A sought-after business advisor and public speaker, Jon's insights have been featured by dozens of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, and Forbes.com (where he is a regular contributor). His landmark study on the ROI of customer experience is one of the most widely cited pieces of research in the industry, referenced by firms such as McKinsey, Deloitte, Accenture, Forrester, SAP, and Oracle. Jon is also the author of the new book, "From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans" (McGraw-Hill, Nov. 2, 2021), which debuted as an Amazon #1 New Release and has earned praise from business luminaries such as Horst Schulze (co-founder of Ritz-Carlton Hotels), Hubert Joly (former CEO of Best Buy), and Marshall Goldsmith (world-renowned executive coach). Jon has advised the C-suite at some of the world's foremost brands, including companies such as AT&T, Allstate, ADT, Generali, and Becton Dickinson. He's helped these and other organizations capitalize on the power of loyalty – both in the marketplace and in the workplace. Prior to establishing Watermark in 2009, Jon held senior executive roles at Fortune 100 companies – leading service, operations, distribution, technology, sales and marketing. Early in his career, at the age of 29, Jon earned the distinction of becoming the youngest executive officer in the over 150-year history of a leading global insurance and investment firm. Jon received his A.B. in Cognitive Science from Princeton University and his M.B.A. in General Management from Duke University. Learn more at Jon's website: https://watermarkconsult.net/ ​

Contact me if: - You have feedback you'd like to share about the podcast - You would like to be a guest on the show - You would like to book me on your show Email me at [email protected]

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast

Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter

The Delighted Customers Podcast is about trust. Hosted by Mark Slatin, the show helps CX leaders become trusted guides—earning executive confidence, influencing decisions, and leading change that sticks. Episodes focus on turning insight into credibility, building CX roadmaps leaders support, and navigating the realities of organizational influence for experienced CX professionals.