Cx Leader Podcast With Steve Walker

As more companies realize the potential of a customer-centric culture, the discussion around how your employees’ experiences can affect your customers' experiences is becoming more prevalent. Employee experience – or “EX” – has often been siloed in human resources, but how can you connect the customers’ and employees’ experiences? What data do we collect? And how do we activate a CX plus EX culture to make the best use of what we discover? Guest host Pat Gibbons welcome Kevin Campbell, an employee experience scientist at Qualtrics, to discuss how to connect CX and EX data.

In a world that generates thousands of terabytes of data every single day, it's important to be a little picky on what type of data to gather. Customer experience professionals rely on data to understand their customer’s needs. But what data do you collect? How does a CX leader determine what information is meaningful and what is simply noise? Host Steve Walker welcomes Azlan Raj, chief marketing officer of the EMEA service line at Merkle, for a discussion on how a CX pro determines what kind of data to gather. 

Steve Walker hosts another Live with CXPA event with guests Mark Slatin, senior vice president and director of CX at Sandy Springs Bank, and Ann Schrader, CX strategist at Farm Credit Service of America, for a discussion on ways for CX leaders to improve their CX program’s visibility and build a reputation as a valuable part of their company’s strategy.

In Part 1 of "CX for Start-ups" guest Jen Batley discussed why it’s so important for new companies to really be in-tune with their customers. Knowing their needs while providing a product or service that disrupts the field is critical for start-ups. But what if you’ve been around for a while and are looking to scale-up? Are you providing what you promised to your customers? How are you listening to your customers while you grow your company? Host Steve Walker welcomes back Jen Batley of Batley Advisory to discuss companies looking to scale-up their business.

New business owners have a lot to think about when trying to get their company off the ground, and hopefully one of the many things in their mental "to-do" list is customer experience. We’ve always maintained that a strong CX program and customer-centric culture is vital in today’s business environment, and that’s just as true for new companies. But how do you get started? What insights should you gather first? And what about scalability? In the two-episode series, Steve Walker welcomes Jen Batley, founder and executive consultant for Batley Advisory, for a discussion on what starts-ups should know regarding customer experience when getting their company off the ground.

With supply chain shortages throughout the globe CX pros are reminded how operational logistics can affect the customer experience. All companies have some sort of operational processes – shipping, legal work, graphics design, as a few examples - so it’s important to consider how the efficiency of your operations impacts the customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes Dr. John Olson, professor of operations and supply chain management and program director of the masters of business analytics at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a discussion on  why CX leaders should drive the move towards operational excellence.

Many companies rely on partners to deliver the best results for their customers – we here at Walker enjoy the benefits of being a member of the Qualtrics Partner Network. But any CX pro will know that it may not be particularly easy to manage the experience when it’s in another organization’s hands, and it’s natural to want to ensure that any experience your customers have with you or your partner reflects your brand promise. So how do you manage the experience beyond your own walls? Host Steve Walker welcomes Andrew Carothers, senior manager of digital experience at Cisco, for a discussion on delivering exceptional experience to and through your partner channels.

Building a CX program from the ground up can be a challenge, especially in a field such as healthcare. Where do you start? What’s most important to customers? How do we develop a customer – or “member” – centric culture? Host Steve Walker welcomes Gratia Carver, vice president and chief experience officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City, or “Blue KC”, for why measurement is such a crucial practice to building a customer-centric culture.

The customer experience profession is evolving to recognize the importance of going beyond the customer. If a company’s culture doesn’t include employee experiences then it will be difficult to mature a CX program. Host Steve Walker welcomes Karyn Furstman, vice president and Head of CX Strategy & Solutions at Designit, for a discussion on building a customer-focused culture through employee experience.

Note: this episode is an encore presentation of the Live with CXPA event, “10 Traits of Effective CX Leaders” which premiered on March 8th, 2022. You can also watch a video presentation of this event on CXPA’s Vimeo channel.  What makes an effective leader in customer experience? On this special episode of The CX Leader Podcast and Live with CXPA, host Steve Walker leads a discussion with panelists Lauri Jones (Walker), Sandra Mathis (Microsoft) and Johnathan Ruchman (Brookdale Senior Living) on ten traits of effective CX leaders. You can also download a free resource on this topic at walkerinfo.com/effectivecxleader. 

Just as a car requires regular maintenance, customer experience programs need regular evaluation, leading to small "tune ups" or complete overhauls so they deliver the best possible results for your company. Host Steve Walker welcomes Christine Beishline from Freeman to discuss how they “design for beautiful,” always keeping the end results in mind.

Just like any other business process, customer experience programs need occasional review and scrutiny to ensure it delivers the best possible experience. This is true even if your program seems to be running smoothly. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Luis Angel-Lalanne from American Express to discuss the process in which they transformed how customer sentiment was gathered to help improve their CX.

Live events can also be great way to gather insights into your customers while providing an exceptional experience. More companies are designing events to provide almost over-the-top experiences to help engage with their customers. So how do you design a great event AND gather the insights you need to improve your customer experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes Johnathan Yaffe from AnyRoad to discuss how some companies have become an experiential brand.

CX professionals know that the frontline employees can be a great source of customer insights. And customers often supply feedback in ways they often never realize. Having your employees recognize and communicate that feedback can provide valuable insights, and in some cases, warn you of potentially major problems. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stephanie McFarland from McFarland PR and Public Affairs, to discuss the importance of empowering employees to deliver good experiences.

If your company is not providing a digital experience at some level then you’ve already missed the boat. If you consider the possibilities of personalizing a digital experience, then you have a potentially powerful tool that can differentiate your company from competitors. So, how do you personalize the digital experience? Host Steve Walker welcomes Michael Scharff, CEO at Evolv Technologies, for a discussion on personalizing digital experiences.

Businesses and organizations have had to endure drastic changes in the last two years, and the way business owners manage their office space is no exception. With more employees working from home, business leaders have had to rethink how they use their commercial space, and landlords and property managers are starting to think about their tenants’ experience while they work to adapt to the current environment. Host Steve Walker welcomes Nora Hughes and Lauren Mead from HqO to discuss the tenant experience.

This podcast has always maintained that customer experience is one of the best differentiators you can leverage in driving customer loyalty. And there’s yet another piece of research that is proving this assertion, with customers giving companies a clear warning about 2022: “we won’t tolerate bad experiences.” Host Steve Walker welcomes Bruce Temkin, head of the Qualtrics XM Institute, to discuss the results of their "2022 Global Consumer Trends" report.

In the 200th episode of The CX Leader Podcast, host Steve Walker and guests Sonya McAllister and Sean Clayton reminisce on how customer experience has evolved since the podcast began in 2018, how businesses' views and acceptance of CX have changed in those four years, and what customer experience will look like in 2022.

Fresh into a new year is often a good time to look at how customer experience is progressing within companies. The XM Institute has recently published their report, "The State of CX Management" which examines the CX efforts and maturity of several companies. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Moira Dorsey from the XM Institute to discuss the findings from the report. 

Even in an era where self-service options are becoming essential to many companies’ customer experience, the contact center is still a large part of many organizations’ frontline efforts. But how has call center technology adapted to accommodate customer experience, and how aligned is your company's culture to providing the best possible experience for your customers? Host Steve Walker welcomes Steve Bederman from NobleBiz for a discussion on how contact center technology and culture can have a large impact on customer experience.