Creating a Moment of Joy with David Duncan, Owner & CEO of Silver Oak Cellars and Andrea Robinson, Master Sommelier

Sarah Quinn, VP of Global AI/Digital/CX Sales at TELUS International, shares fascinating insights from an impressive career working with household-name brands - from McDonald’s to J. Crew, to Airbnb, and more. In this episode, Sarah discusses how successful (and not-so-successful) brands navigated significant past changes in public behavior, plus why CX teams should embrace AI to avoid irrelevancy. 

About The Guest:

Sarah Quinn is the VP of Global AI/Digital/CX Sales at TELUS International and previously has provided a broad range of strategic consulting services for Fortune 500 companies and more. Sarah began her career as a Direct Marketing superstar, going on to become a proven high-impact turnaround sales strategist in the B2B and B2C enterprise space, helping increase both her employer's and client's bottom line.

Key Quotes:

“It's not what people like that's the most important. It's what they don't like that might be the most important…When people love you, they love you. Like political parties, if I'm a Democrat or Republican, I'm going to vote one way or the other. It's easy to find people firmly on this side or that side, but it's not easy to find people that might go on either side. That's also a part of a marketer's struggle. To understand what they don't like, to me, is as important as what they do.”

“When I say the comment, ‘The customer's always right,’ we know they're not always right. But, it's how do you make them feel like you hear them and you understand, and how do you sway them to maybe understand they're not right?”

“If the last two years didn't prove to marketers that you just can't depend on the environment or history or anything, then I don't know what will. Those that come to the top will come to the top, and the two words I keep saying are agility and flexibility.”

Time Stamps:

*[1:15] Sarah’s role at TELUS International

*[3:50] Biggest changes in CX from the past decades 

*[6:33] Tools for getting to know your customer better

*[14:57] Outdated CX techniques 

*[16:438] Times regression-modeling worked wonders

*[20:57] What’s next for TELUS International 

*[21:49] The future of CX trends

*[26:50] Engaging across generations with the same message

*[35:40]  Advice to staying agile and flexible during cultural change 

Links

• Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn
• Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
• Follow Phil on Twitter

Thanks to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.

We hear so much about the importance of strategic communications, but what does that really mean? Martha Boudreau, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at AARP, helps bring strategic communication to life through relatable stories and concrete examples. Hear her explain what it means to become your customer’s wisest friend and fiercest defender - a core mission to Martha’s team at AARP. You’ll hear some of her globally-recognized insight into topics like aligning strategies, empowering employees, and much more.

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Key Quotes:

“We have to be where everybody is, offering up the same kind of content to everyone - whether it's a mailbox, a digital platform, or through our app. That is an obligation. What it means from a customer experience standpoint, is that it all has to work together. It has to be a sort of an omni-channel experience.”

“For other brands, especially brands that were not created in the digital world, there can be no time to wait. You have to adopt different platforms, but first, you have to have a serious look at who your consumers are and know that moving forward, there will be no excuses for delivering anything that's not a great consumer experience. You know what? Maybe, you never get it perfect - but you create processes whereby you can fix things as you move through.”

“Being able to truly listen and then act on the input makes sense for the mission, and for the business model of the organization. That's essential. You can't satisfy everyone, but you can make sure that your processes are top notch, and that you're delivering what your brand promises.” 

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Time Stamps:

*[:15] Martha’s role at AARP

*[3:20] How listening to customers benefits CX

*[7:50] Aligning CX strategies across multiple departments

*[12:20] Why customer experience is employee experience 

*[15:48] Martha’s go-to tools for productivity 

*[19:05] Responding to negative customer feedback

*[22:00] AARP’s Virtual Community Center

*[25:40] The future of CX 

*[29:17] Lightning round

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Links:

• Connect with Martha on LinkedIn
• Follow Martha on Twitter
• Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
• Follow Phil on Twitter

Thanks to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.

This episode features an interview with Lee Becker, SVP and GM of Medallia’s Public Sector. In this episode, Lee talks about the federal government’s cross-agency initiative to improve CX, shares advice for managing CX across several departments, and explains why a human-centered approach sets the stage for success. 

Quotes

“We are elevating the human experience of government by putting people's voices at the center of decision making. That is really at the core of what we do. This element of placing the people's voices at the center of everything is something so profound because it’s the missing piece.”

“I think customer experience sometimes can be seen as an audit function, and we've got to make sure it doesn't become that. Customer experience should be seen as a core enabler for everything that organization is doing. It cannot be seen as this special thing off to the side.”

“We actually make sure that the changes we’re making are not just a copy-and-paste. It’s not just a, ‘Hey, we're going to keep the same process and we're going to slap technology on it, and boom, here's our modernization.’ Let's actually take a step back. Let’s make sure that we're putting the people's voice at the center of everything.”

Time Stamps

*[:19] Lee’s journey from Department of Defense to Medallia Public Sector

*[3:08] The scope of Medallia Public Sector’s mission

*[9:09] Team building and organization

*[14:09] Creating a CX focused culture 

*[21:27] Cross-department communication and alignment

*[25:41] Tackling complex pain-points

*[34:38] Bigges lessons Lee’s learned in the Public Sector

Bio

Lee Becker is a Navy veteran with more than 20 years of experience in regulated industries and the public sector. Lee joined Medallia in 2020, after spending 10 years at the U.S. Department of Defense in various strategic and operational roles. This included the development of award winning programs in customer, patient, and employee experience at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and co-leading the White House cross-agency goal on customer experience for all of government.

Thanks to our Friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they’ve created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here.

Links

• Connect with Lee on LinkedIn
• Follow Lee on Twitter
• Connect with Phil on LinkedIn
• Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Scott Finlow, CMO for the PepsiCo Foodservice Division. In this episode, Scott talks about creating centers of excellence within a large company, operating with a digital-first mindset, and catering to experiential consumers.

Quotes

*”What’s important is to build a comprehensive and dynamic understanding of people, not just as consumers, nor just as shoppers, but in a more holistic way. To understand them as people, what their motivations are, what their behaviors are, not just in a moment, but over the course of a day or a week or a lifetime. And that becomes a more important way to understand people as you seek to build brands authentically and genuinely to help meet their needs, whether it's an individual brand or a portfolio of brands. That's different in different markets and in different contexts. And it's an incredibly dynamic space now more than ever.”

*”You may go to Starbucks in the morning. You may be at 7 Eleven. You may be ordering from from B-Dubs for lunch. You're living in an omni-channel world today. The construct of retail to some degree in food service doesn't really present itself clearly to a consumer or to people. And that's increasingly what we need to contextualize and understand when we do our work, when we understand people, when we build our brands, when we build the experiences. We want to create. ”

*”Retail is looking to create a more experiential environment. And I think the world that you live in in terms of being focused on customer experience and guest experience is incredibly relevant across both. And everyone needs to work hard to understand that guest, and or consumer, and create a better experience for them. What's important is understanding what the nature of a better experience is, right? And there are probably some common underpinnings. Things like convenience, things like depending on the context, something that's maybe unique and special, certainly relevant, is going to be incredibly important. Value is always a constant at a high level and is also dynamic, and very much unique and dynamic across the different contexts as well.”

“In every role I've ever had, CX has been at the root of it. One thing that I think is really important is for everyone in the company to think that way about it no matter what your role is, whether you're in sales or finance. How are you just thinking about the consumer, the user, the customer, and how you build a better brand experience and a better business as part of that? That should be at the heart of every CPG organization. That's for sure.”

“Act like an owner. No matter where you are in the business, be an owner of the brands. Be an owner as it relates to understanding your customers, helping your customers and supporting that business. Don't don't have it be someone else's job. Make it your job. Make it everyone on your team's job to think about that experience and organize at least a part of your work and your mindset to be hyper-conscious about how you can make that a better experience.”

Time Stamps

*[3:36] Making sense of consumer insights

*[9:30] Building a unique brand experience in foodservice

*[12:20] Creating the experiential environment

*[14:12] Understanding the consumer across silos

*[17:13] Taking ownership of your CX

*[18:38] Future-proofing by shaping your brand in context 

*[21:09] Adapting CX to COVID

*[23:39] Driving innovation at PepsiCo through IT

*[28:46] The future of PepsiCo and sustainability initiatives

*[33:09] Advice for CX leaders

Bio

Scott Finlow is the Chief Marketing Officer for the PepsiCo Foodservice Division.  Scott and his team are responsible for translating deep consumer and customer insights into innovation and experiences that accelerate growth, build brands with purpose and transform the business for the future.  Scott has been with PepsiCo for 25 years in a variety of Marketing roles in the US and Asia.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with Scott on LinkedIn

Follow Scott on Twitter

Check out the PepsiCo Foodservice Digital Labs

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Carol Carpenter, CMO at VMware. In this episode, Carol talks about understanding your end user, how CX encompasses what customers see, think and feel, and how to enable customer success through a delightfully simple experience.

Quotes

*”I define customer experience here at VMware as what do we make our customers see, think and feel? What do they see, think, and feel as they experience the company, our products, our people, our support? How do they feel in that entire realm of experience? And that's why customer experience is much more than just a function.”

*”We're in a multi-cloud world. 70 to 80% of businesses are using more than one cloud. As a company, part of our brand promise here at VMware is we're going to simplify and help you decomplexify all the things you need to do across your application and infrastructure stack. It's pretty complicated when you have multiple clouds, you have multiple solutions. And our goal was to be the Switzerland, and frankly, the connectivity to help companies transform and move to the cloud and take advantage of all the cloud offers. So long way of saying that at VMware, we're looking for, how do we create the simplification? How do we make it so that customers have the security, the management, the resiliency, and the ability to move fast?”

*”At VMware, we're really committed to communities. A lot of people don't realize we actually have several open source projects. We have the founders of Kubernetes as part of our team. So we believe in the communities and the bottoms up approach, and that's a different type of experience and engagement that's required. So that's also an area where, as CMO, I have some influence and work with those teams pretty closely. Cause you can't market to those communities. You need to engage with them.”

Time Stamps

*[3:13] Carol’s journey to CMO at VMWare

*[12:08] How to stay ahead of the curve on CX

*[15:30] Partnering with customers to drive innovation

*[22:17] Advice for navigating change as a leader

*[27:07] Deciding what CX initiatives to pursue

*[28:29] Building trust with customers

*[30:25] Getting a 360° view of your CX

*[40:38] Predicting the future of CX

Bio

Carol Carpenter joined VMware in June 2020 as Chief Marketing Officer. As CMO, Carol is responsible for leading all aspects of the Global Marketing organization, which includes Corporate Marketing, Partner, Segment and Field Marketing. She brings to the role more than 25 years of technology sector experience. Most recently, she was Vice President, Product Marketing at Google Cloud.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with Carol on LinkedIn

Follow Carol on Twitter

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with John Boerstler, Chief Experience Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs.  In this episode, John talks about improving trust ratings, journey mapping, and reaching underserved communities.

Quotes

“If we're going to create this world-class customer experience for our veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors, then we also have to make sure that we provide a world-class employee experience for 400,000 men and women that serve here in the VA everyday.” 

“If we think just not only along the lines of age, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender in general, we have to design for all of these different customer types to ensure that some of the most underserved veterans and their families are out or are engaged and retained as customers and that they choose VA for their care and benefits so that we can fulfill our sacred oath and our commitment to them.”

“The United States military creates the largest number of displaced workers every year. 250,000 young men and women leave active service. And they move from Virginia to Texas or California to Missouri or Missouri to Florida and the professional and personal networks that they have at their duty station that do not translate to the communities that they return to. And so they have a difficult time finding work and finding a new social or that unit mentality, that social net social network, so to speak that we have in the military, that comradery that we so miss. And that can lead to negative health and economic outcomes. So how can we be on the front end of that transition, improve it, negative health and economic outcomes by wrapping our arms around these individuals and their families at that point of transition and then at the same time deliver a delightful customer experience?”

Time Stamps

*[4:09] Shifting to human-centered design

*[6:05] The sacred duty to serve Veterans

*[7:15] How the VA has improved trust ratings by 23%

*[10:26] Leveraging tech to give more Veterans access to services

*[12:50] The birth of the Veterans Experience Officer and the first journey map

*[16:54] The core values of the VA in CX

*[18:46] Using data to increase access and improve outcomes for Veterans

*[20:47] Meeting the unique challenges of Veterans after active service

*[24:14] Learning to meet the needs of LGBTQ and BIPOC Veterans

*[27:31] Measuring the effectiveness of CX initiatives

*[31:58] Meeting Veterans at their point of transition to civilian life

*[32:33] Addressing mental health needs among Veterans

*[39:00] Owning the moment

Bio

John is a native Texan who served honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1999-2007 as a non-commissioned officer and infantry unit leader, including one combat tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2005 and Operation Natural Fire in the Republic of Kenya in 2006. John has also served as the CEO of Combined Arms, Executive Director of NextOp, a program manager with Wounded Warrior Project, the Mayor of Houston’s Office of Veterans Affairs, and as a policy and district staffer for a U.S. Representative.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with John on LinkedIn

Follow John on Twitter

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Howard Pyle, founder of ExperienceFutures.org.  In this episode, Howard talks about the true meaning of digital equality, front-end experience automation, and why there will never be a single solution suited for all users.

Quotes

“The social issue is twofold. One is that all the sites, all the tools you interact with are designed for privilege. They're designed for people who already know how to use technology. They're designed for people who sit in front of a computer all day. They're designed for people who have reference to things like the way design system conventions work. We expect you to know how these systems work...And so if you don't know how to access those sites, suddenly you lose access to the things you need to do in your daily life. You can't access government, you can't access healthcare. You can't access your financial services because you don't know how those tools work. And that's where it becomes a social issue.”

Time Stamps

*[3:27] Understanding the depth of the digital divide

*[6:04] Digital inequity as a social issue

*[10:05] A new way to look at digital equity

*[18:01] The nexus of experience design and automation

*[22:19] Democratization of digital access

*[24:06] Whose problem is digital inequity?

*[25:40] Designers create for privileged audience

*[29:04] Defining CX

*[37:00] Committing to digital equity at the leadership level

*[41:23] Addressing design equity with help from ExperienceFutures

Bio

Howard is founder of Experience Futures and a 20-year design and digital platforms veteran. He was previously SVP of Global Customer Experience Design at MetLife, VP in IBM’s Design Studios, and founder of several startups.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with Howard on LinkedIn

Follow Howard on Twitter

Check out ExperienceFutures.org

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Kristi Langdon, Head of Customer Experience at Daimler Trucks North America.  In this episode, Kristi talks about setting employees up for successful delivery of the customer experience, the importance of connecting every employee with your end customers, and how CX actually starts with LX, or leadership experience.

Quotes

*"Start by listening. You would be amazed at the frequency with which we forget to listen, that we forget to start with voice of the customer. Because oftentimes we make assumptions. We think we know the right way, but if you would just take the time to listen to the customer in the front end and really understand what their pain point is, you would then inform what is the right problem you're trying to solve. Too many times we make those assumptions and it leads us down the wrong path. And we end up solving something that never needed to be solved."

Time Stamps

*[5:43] Extending CX past the sale

*[8:14] Kickstarting your CX transformation

*[9:33] Accepting constructive feedback

*[16:58] Enabling and empowering employees to deliver your CX

*[18:33] CX starts with leadership

*[20:45] Addressing fear of change

*[23:00] Protecting your market share amid change

*[31:15] Encouraging your employees through success stories

*[39:08] Daimler’s CX model

*[42:47] Tech trends incoming to Daimler

*[45:03] Delivering on your brand promise

Bio

Kristi is the Head of the Customer Experience team at Daimler Trucks North America with 20 years of senior leadership experience in manufacturing, technology, banking and energy. Kristi started the first CX organization at DTNA and launched a “voice of the customer” program.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with Kristi on LinkedIn

Check out DTNA on their website

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with Toby Thorne, Head of Customer Care at bp pulse.  In this episode, Toby talks about how social media has put the pressure on to create a flawless customer experience, translating feedback into insights and action items, and managing customer hesitancy on adopting new technologies.

Quotes

*“I think customer service is quite an old fashioned term these days. It's got connotations of being very reactive, and really acting or servicing customers when they contact you. And customers generally contact business when something goes wrong. I think customer experience is more focused on that whole end-to-end customer journey. So every touch point with the customer needs to be slick. It needs to be easy, enjoyable where possible. And I think that's the key difference. It's not just waiting for customers to contact you. It's focusing on every customer interaction.”

Time Stamps

*[6:55] The difference between customer service and customer experience

*[15:33] Tracking changes in customer needs

*[16:03] Helping build customer confidence in new tech

*[22:46] Finding the customer-centric data after a digital transformation

*[24:46] How to turn data into action items

*[26:12] Streamline CX through data

*[31:50] The effect of social media on consumer expectations

*[37:22] Automation and the future of CX

Bio

Toby Thorne is a customer care professional with years of experience within the automotive and retail industry, including managerial roles in financial services, customer care and head office. He has extensive experience within various brand/managing director’s executive teams. He is a natural leader with a customer centric approach, skilled in operational management, process optimisation and stakeholder management.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with Toby on LinkedIn

Check out bp pulse on their website

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter

This episode features an interview with David Duncan, Owner & CEO of Silver Oak Cellars and Andrea Robinson, Master Sommelier. In this episode, they talk about cultivating traditions, meeting guests in the moment, and being the ambassador to a joyful experience.

Quotes

*“My favorite wine descriptor is trust. What we focus on with our entire team is a consistent experience and a great bottle of wine that people can come back to and enjoy again and again.” - David Duncan

*“I'm in service to the customer who's buying the wine and investing in spending their time in my presence, creating that moment, reading what their needs are. But I’m also in service to the wineries and winemakers. They are the artisans. They are the preservers of open space and agricultural land and tradition.” - Andrea Robinson

Time Stamps

*[7:15] Creating a moment for the customer

*[8:55] Aligning employees to provide a great CX

*[14:05] How sustainability as part of CX pays off

*[20:22] Encouraging customers to expand their horizons

*[22:01] Pivoting with changing tastes

*[27.45] Offering diversity initiatives

*[30:11] How the pandemic has changed customer interactions

*[36:16] Measuring customer satisfaction

Bio

David owns four brands: Silver Oak Cellars, Twomey Cellars, OVID Napa Valley and Timeless Napa Valley. Silver Oak’s new winery in the Alexander Valley is first in the world to achieve net positive energy, net positive water status and earn LEED (Leader in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification.

Andrea is one of only 28 women in the world to hold the title of Master Sommelier. She’s a best-selling author, holds 3 James Beard awards and developed a game-changing line of stemware called The ONE.

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by IBM. If you are responsible for Customer Experience, they've created a White Paper just for you. In the CX North Star Report, you can learn more about how to activate your CX vision. Download it here

Links:

Connect with David on LinkedIn

Follow David on Twitter

Check out Silver Oak Cellars

Connect with Andrea on LinkedIn

Follow Andrea on Twitter

Check out Andrea’s Website

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn

Follow Phil on Twitter