The Chief Customer Officer Human Duct Tape Show

“Connect with people as humans, get to know them a little bit personally, so that you have a connection, so that when times become tough and you've got to challenge them, they feel like they're in a safe zone to do that,” says Holly O’Neill in our recent LinkedIn Live conversation. She and I discuss CX consistency, accountability and metrics, and leadership bravery. Holly’s extensive career at Bank of America spans more than 20 years, which has allowed her to refine her strategic thinking in terms of understanding the big picture then digging into the important details.

In this conversation, you’ll hear from two leaders who have led transformative customer-centric initiatives at organizations that have global reach: Catherine Courage, VP of Consumer UX at Google and Darryl Speach, who at the time of our conversation was Chief Customer Officer of Greystone & Company. Darryl’s prior experience at Disney and New York Life Insurance gave him plenty of insight regarding people-centered work, and Catherine’s experience with human-centered design and UI gave her an advantage in terms of thinking through the customer’s end-to-end experience.

Both women share tactical advice on how to unite different departments and teams within an organization to be on the same page when it comes to transforming CX that leads to customer success.

This is a great episode in which we're able to really dig more deeply into the ways you can weave humanity into your business. Enjoy!

While I’m on vacation, I want to replay this podcast and leave you with a few valuable gems from Horst Schulze to inspire us in the new year. Horst is the founder and former CEO of the Capella Hotel Group,  Co-founder & Former COO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and author of Excellence Wins. He is currently serving as the expert in residence at Arch + Tower, a boutique, organizational strategy consulting firm specializing in customer and employee experience.

Today's episode features a compilation from two leaders in the B2B industry who decided to grow their company through focused CX efforts, while placing a strong importance on team and employee development. You’ll hear from Andy Schulkind, the VP of CX at Domino North America, and Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations. Both leaders place a high value on developing a trained, supported, and efficient internal workforce which serves as a strong foundation for delivering great customer experience.

“I preach to people to stop linking net promoter to bonuses and stop making it into a target, which makes it the objective as opposed to a learning process,” says Fred Reichheld, New York Times best-selling author, customer loyalty guru, and creator of the Net Promoter Score management system. Fred and I chat about the hard work that comes with good leadership, and the dedication that's needed in order to live up to promises, to put customers first, and to serve as a beacon of light.

In this compilation episode, I'm revisiting conversations with Sherif Mityas, CXO at TGI Fridays, and Troy Barnes, Chief Customer Officer at Pizza Hut Asia Pacific. Their high-level positions had them entrenched in work in which they oversaw CX strategies that impacted numerous restaurants.  Sherif talks about how he assessed the work that needed to be done while in the role, and you’ll hear Troy discuss the ongoing journey of level setting expectations and uniting the C-Suite around improving efforts. 

Nathan and I discuss some of the principals behind BILT’s success, one of them being that they measure it by their own customer’s success. BILT is a customer experience platform. It operates as an app that provides a 3D assembly experience for customers who need to build a finished item like a grill or bed frame. BILT has worked with companies such as Weber, IKEA, and the Home Depot, to help empower customers and give them the confidence needed in order to complete their project.

As AI continues to be an increasing topic of interest when it comes to customer experience and data gathering, CX leaders should always remember that the human element will always be needed. We need people to create those magic, unexpected moments; to smile at customers, to ask them how their day was, and to know when to go the extra mile. 

In my conversations with authors Nathan Foy and Deborah Westphal, both share insights regarding the way a human-focused business model positively impacts growth and relationships.

Do you have support from your fellow colleagues and the C-Suite in managing your CX work? In today’s episode, I’m highlighting portions of two conversations that I had with guests during the height of the pandemic: Michael Kuenne, Chief Customer Officer at Extended Stay America, and Aparna Khurjekar, who at the time, was the CCO of Verizon Consumer, and is now, President of Verizon Business Markets.

Both of these leaders have unique experiences in terms of managing their organization’s customer experience in the B2C realm. Michael and Aparna had the support of the CEO in leading their CX transformations and both shared tactics that helped them build internal partnerships while navigating this work. In these conversations, I think you'll find useful questions to ask yourself and your colleagues, to help you all strategize in a way that puts the customer first. 

While I’m taking a break from recording new podcasts and LinkedIn Live conversations, I’ll be sharing a few compilations of previously recorded interviews. We have pulled out relevant insights and chunks of conversation from guests that you’ll find useful as you lead or take part in the CX undertakings in your organization.

Today’s episode features two authors, Alain Hunkins, who wrote Cracking the Leadership Code, and Robbie Kellman-Baxter, author of The Forever Transaction. Both guests share examples and tactics from their books to help you elevate your leadership. Their strategies will help you think through ways to better connect with your audience, your team, and perhaps even yourself! Enjoy!

In this chat with my buddy and colleague, Shep Hyken, we discuss some of the concepts in his latest book, “I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again.” Shep and I talk about measuring a customer’s willingness to come back to your business as an important success metric. I often stress to leaders that retention is a critical metric when looking at customer success; it’s not only about the new customers you’re able to acquire, but who continues to come back to you.

Jenn Oyler and I discuss CX strategies that impact both the employees and customers in a B2B2C organization. We also explore some finer details of the work when we chat about the various CX KPIs that Jenn measures against, how they determine ROI, and her leadership style. Jenn is the vice president and head of customer experience at Principal Financial Group and has experience at State Farm.

Chris Kollas is the Chief Customer Officer at TCS World Travel. TCS World Travel is a unique company that has hosted guests on all-inclusive, private jet adventures for over 25 years. Chris and I chat about how he and his team of roughly 100 employees focus on the customer, the integration of marketing and sales, and how they maintained connections with their customers during the pandemic––a time which was incredibly rough on the travel industry. 

"At the end of the day, what we realize is, we all unite under the same thing, which is to drive the customer experience, get the patient what they need,” says Corrie Quaranto, Vice President of Northwell Health, regarding a patient-focused experience at their facilities.

In my discussion with Corrie, we discuss how Northwell has been taking the time to focus on customer care in a way that reduces stress and confusion for the patient during their healthcare experience, especially when it comes to the billing and financial responsibility.

“Customer experience is about leadership. It's about the blueprint for how you run your business, and how you want to show up in the marketplace,” says Andy Schulkind, the vice president of customer experience at Domino, North America. Domino is a B2B company which specializes in the development and production of various printing technologies used for coding and marking.

Domino North America prides itself on its customer service, and it’s this commitment to customer experience as a whole, that has helped Andy succeed in his role. In our conversation, Andy and I chat about setting the foundation in order for the work to be successful.

In my conversation with Holly O’Neill, Chief Client Care Executive & Head of Consumer Client Services at Bank of America, we spoke about the importance that empathy, communication, and flexibility played in the customer and employee experience during the pandemic. Holly and I chat about some of the customer experience processes involved with how BofA uses storytelling throughout the customer journey, how the leadership team embraces feedback, and some important shifts that needed to be made over the past year.