Today we’re talking with Vikas and Darryl Addington, the Director of Product Marketing at Five9, and he shares with us some of his own secrets about Artificial Intelligence in the Contact Center. One thing you will have to do if you’re considering using AI for your company is moving towards the cloud, which is where all the data is. There are plenty of benefits to switching over to AI, such as customers being able to get assistance much faster than if they would have to wait for a human being to...
Jul 08, 2021•30 min
Today we’re going to be talking about the power of wait time in driving the customer experience, and to do that we have Tom Reiger, the President of NSI, Inc. and President/CEO at National Business Innovations, LLC. We start off talking about wait time and Gabe asks if it’s really such an important thing to focus on and Tom explains that it’s always something his company is trying to focus on as it can prove to raise your company’s costs by quite a bit if you’re not careful. Tom’s role 1:27 Wait...
Jul 01, 2021•25 min
Today it’s just Vikas and Gabe talking about the issues faced the most in the CX industry and solutions for dealing with them. We discuss how companies might be trying to manage their customer feedback, and then talk about what employees might be experiencing in their own work life and recognizing when they’re frustrated or losing focus in their job and being able to track the data for that. B to B and B to C companies have their various problems and issues that we distinguish and for which we c...
Jun 24, 2021•21 min
In this episode we’re going to be talking about CX transformation and driving business value with your CX team, and to do that we brought on Laurent Pierre Jr., the General Manager of Microsoft Azure CXP. We discuss what you need to do to work with your team, your leaders, and the customer to create life time value, or to get your customers to want to stick around for the rest of their lives. We want to focus on investing in the customer journey and get customers to love our company by treating ...
Jun 17, 2021•27 min
Today we meet with Chief Operating Officer at UJET, Vasili Triant, and we talk about how companies have been adapting to the age of the mobile phone. Vasili tells us that people have been saying voice is going to die out since the late 90’s, but the reality is that all channels have been on the rise, meaning even demand for voice interactions is increasing. Vasili tells us about how they interact with their consumers and what UJET is doing to collect their data and take care of them based on the...
Jun 10, 2021•24 min
Eric Chon is the Community Support Manager at Zwift, an online competitive cycling app for people who want to exercise and have fun while remaining indoors, and last year they hosted the first ever virtual Tour De France. Today we’re talking about how and why Zwift switched to a different CX platform. Eric tells us of how switching to Kustomer changed their company’s direction and the reasons behind making the switch. About Eric and Zwift 0:26 Why Zwift switched to Kustomer 3:56 Omni channel 5:5...
Jun 03, 2021•18 min
In this episode we talk with CEO and Founder at Kustomer, Brad Birnbaum. We’re gonna be talking about this idea of a ticket free future. We discuss how and why Kustomer started, Kustomer focus on a seamless customer experience, and the role of an omnichannel platform to service modern customer needs. Brad’s background 0:44 The 3 principles on which Kustomer was founded 2:49 What does truly omni channel mean? 4:17 CRM’s role 7:33 Final advice for leaders of customer service 14:05 “You have to ada...
May 27, 2021•16 min
Today we’re going to be talking about language resilience in this expansion of key superpowers, and to do that we have Edmund Ovington, the VP of Global Alliances at Unbabel and Vikas joining us. Edmund explains why resilience, agility, and flexibility are the superpowers that your company will need to survive. People want to communicate with a company in their own language and it doesn’t matter if that company is foreign because they want to be catered to. We talk about the benefits of expandin...
May 20, 2021•24 min
In this episode we’re going to be talking about why and how to manage a global CX team. To do that we have two special guests with us: Michael Windsor, the Senior Director of Global Customer Experience at Skybox Security, and Vikas Bhambri from Kustomer. Michael has worked in various places around the world, including Israel where they focused a lot on security, so he tells us what we can expect when working in different regions and how to go about customer experience in those various places. Wh...
May 13, 2021•23 min
Today we’re talking about the importance of visual context in customer service and to do that we brought on Vikas Bhambri and Wade Radcliffe, who was Director of Business Development at Streem and is now the Vice President of Strategic Sales at Xerox. We talk about why video can really help improve the customer experience, such as cutting down on troubleshooting or quoting time. There may be some pushback from customers or even service reps that they won’t want to see each other, so Wade’s solut...
May 10, 2021•23 min
On Today’s episode we have Steve Richard, the Chief Evangelist and Co-founder of Execvision, to discuss the importance of call recordings and why this ought to be incorporated into customer support. Plenty of people thought the phone, or calling in to companies for customer support would die out, but if anything, especially with the pandemic over the last year, customer phone calls have increased and this continues to be a necessary tool for companies to have in order to work with their customer...
Apr 29, 2021•22 min
In this episode we have Vikas Bhambri and Kyle Coleman, the VP of Growth and Enablement at Clari, a company that transforms revenue operations to be more connected, efficient, and predictable. We discuss a mistake that many companies end up making without realizing it and what the interaction is that causes customers to struggle a little more in trying to learn about the product. Often looking up and learning about physical products online is pretty easy and there is a lot of information about i...
Apr 22, 2021•28 min
Today we’re going to talk about customer service research and what more than one million phone calls tells us what you’re supposed to be doing to be successful in customer service and to do that we have on with us Vikas Bhambri from Kustomer and Matt Dixon, the Head of Product and Research at Tethr. We discuss how they have gathered data of over a million customer service phone calls and the useful things we’ve learned to improve the customer experience. How writing “The Effortless Experience” h...
Apr 15, 2021•28 min
In this episode we speak with the Director of Customer Experience and Employee Engagement at Schindler Elevator Corporation, Stacy Sherman, and Vikas Bhambri, Head of CX at Kustomer. Vikas tells us about the 3 pieces to an effective program: People, process, and technology. We discuss having executives getting involved on the front lines to see and understand directly what’s going on with the customer, and then making sure your employees are feeling valued and heard. What’s not working 1:32 3 pi...
Apr 08, 2021•25 min
In this episode we talk with the Director of Multifamily CX, UX, and Human-Centered Design at Freddie Mac, Kris Featheringham. He emphasizes on the importance of a human-centered design to provide the ultimate tailored customer experience. Kris and I discuss the process and lessons he has learned throughout his CX career, and then go into getting executive sponsorships and what you can do to work with your people to understand more their needs in relation to the needs of your customer base. Kris...
Apr 01, 2021•22 min
Today we’re going to be talking about customer success and how to do that on a global scale and to do that we brought on Balaji Gadicharla, who is currently the Global Head of Service Support and Success at CipherCloud. He explains some of the ideal trends and practices he has observed while traveling around the globe, such as having someone go to the customer in person, and then establishing dedicated teams. Balaji explains that the best way to become a trusted partner is by understanding them ...
Mar 25, 2021•14 min
In this episode we speak with Sami Nuwar, the Senior Principal Consultant at Medallia, which is a customer experience management platform that helps you manage CX in your company and make things easier. We discuss why people lose focus and stop trying operational excellence, and then where to go and what to do when this happens to your business. We talk about optimizing your data collection in order to analyze it and thus improve various aspects of your customer interactions and experience. Sami...
Mar 18, 2021•16 min
Today Vikas Bhambri, Head of Sales and CX at Kustomer, and Josh Neckes, currently the co-founder and president at Simon Data, are joining us to dive into market trends, specifically on the data side. We discuss how companies can better know what’s going on with their customers and Josh tells a funny story about when a company kept contacting him about his marriage that had been called off, but the company didn’t know, so contact from the company kept coming, causing some annoyance for Josh. Comp...
Mar 16, 2021•25 min
Today we are going to talk about how to build and scale a CX program even during a pandemic, and to do that we have joining us the Head of Customer Experience and Strategy at ServiceNow, Matt Lombardi. He tells us there are 3 critical needs CX leaders need to embrace. The first one is getting executive buy-in early and often. The second one is track and report on the value that your team is creating for the business, which ties in to number one. Number three is continuously adapting and improvin...
Mar 11, 2021•18 min
In this episode we talk with the User Experience Architect at Pitney Bowes, Nitya Pannala. We discuss this idea of design thinking, which is a mindset, or ideology of approaching every problem in a human centered way. Nitya gives 3 easy rules to put design thinking into practice. Number 1 is empathize and put yourself in your end user’s shoes. Number 2 is go broad before you go deep by considering multiple options before narrowing down. Number 3 is to experiment as much as possible by testing ma...
Mar 09, 2021•23 min
Today we’re going to be talking about human centered customer experiences and we’ll be doing this with the Director of customer experience from NuAxis Innovations, Amanda Chavez. She tells us how they focus on giving their customers a more human experience by using special creative methods and techniques to just have a conversation and get them to open up. Amanda says that literally the only thing you need to talk to humans is the stuff that you learned in 5th grade English and ask the who, what...
Mar 04, 2021•20 min
I have with me today Vikas Bhambri and the Director and Distinguished Principal Analyst at XM Institute, Luke Williams, who is the most senior CX and VOC expert in the firm and is a New York Times best seller, “Why Loyalty Matters,” and has been highlighted multiple times in the Harvard Business Review. We discuss the future of CX and how companies need to shift or prepare for situations like the one we’ve been faced with during the pandemic. Luke tells about how CX tech needs to treat and appro...
Mar 02, 2021•35 min
Today we discuss employee and customer engagement and the best way to do that is with Senior Director of Employee & Customer Experience at Centene Corporation, Suzzanna Rowold. She explains that the two major elements that drive success in your company are 1) Employee turnover and 2) Quality of leadership. When hiring people, you need to make sure that you have set clear expectations of what they’re going to be doing so that they aren’t blindsided by a role for which they aren’t prepared. Tr...
Feb 25, 2021•22 min
In this episode we are discussing the best ways to set up your remote workforce and with us today we have the VP of customer care at Magellan Health, Gordon Schleffer. He explains what went on with the customer service world after the pandemic hit last year and what types of businesses gained more calls from customers versus what businesses lost calls. Gordon tells us that the companies that did the best were the ones who had established a strong company culture. The ability of your management a...
Feb 23, 2021•23 min
Today we’re gonna be talking about operations and how that really plays into the role of helping you transform your customer experience, and with us we brought on the Vice President at Mercy Hospital, John Timmerman. The best thing to do is find out who is performing the best and study their behavior, and don’t study the behavior of the average employee, or you’ll get average results. It’s easy to take your company values and just put them on the wall, but often that doesn’t affect a lot of the ...
Feb 18, 2021•34 min
In today’s episode we have joining us Customer Experience Expert and Sr. Vice President at Masterbrand Cabinets, Billie Jo Timm, and we’re going to be talking about enabling long term sustainability in customer service. She'll give some good advice on how to get people to collaborate by getting them involved in the whole process of exactly what they do and how it impacts the customer. She will explain the various steps of long term sustainability, such as pushing continuous improvement and prepa...
Feb 16, 2021•17 min
Today we’re going to be talking about transforming your CX organization. To do that we got with us today the Head of Customer Experience at Patient Pop, Hunter Schoettle. We discuss how he runs his customer service team and he shares the secrets to his hiring process. Hunter builds a strong base in relationships with his own people in order to help that spread to the customer. He tells us about how they are able to work with other departments and the type of strategy you can use to expand your c...
Feb 11, 2021•20 min
In this episode, we’re going over how to build support organizations startup-style with Karen Durenberger, VP of Customer Support at Total Expert. She explains where to begin and says the first thing you need to do is define what your team needs to be, really understanding what type of service you need to give to your customers. You have to ask yourself how you want your customers to describe your customer support team because it’s amazing how much insight you will get into what their expectatio...
Feb 09, 2021•24 min
In this episode we discuss a 90 day roadmap to customer excellence, and to do that we brought on Shannon Martin, the Senior Director, Travel Partners Group at Expedia Group. She gives some good advice on how to break down a customer’s issue, and then come up with a plan to solve that issue, finding the root and shifting your approach to avoid that problem in the future. We talk about the question “Why” and use this to get to the root of their issue, which usually takes around 5 whys. Shannon tel...
Feb 04, 2021•17 min
In this episode we talk with Digital Transformation Leader, Customer Experience Zealot, and Global Vice President at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Erik Vogel. He gives us steps on how to deal with customers’ credit and how to protect yourselves from making the mistake of sending products before knowing what their credit is. It’s our job to make sure we don’t ruin the customer’s experience while putting up safeguards for ourselves. Erik gives us some tips on how to communicate effectively and make ...
Feb 02, 2021•30 min
