In this podcast, Joe Wheeler, Richard Owen, and Maurice FitzGerald discuss the evolution of customer experience. Wheeler, author of ‘The Digital-First Customer Experience’, highlights how AI and machine learning drive growth and scalability in companies like Spotify and Lemonade. The trio explores the economic implications of AI in businesses, balancing cost reduction and job creation, and the importance of understanding customer segments. They discuss real-world examples like Budweiser and Cadi...
Apr 08, 2024•35 min
Is customer success indeed dead? That’s just one of the questions answered during this discussion. (Spoiler alert: it may well be dying at your company.) Join host Richard Owen and Chris Adlard, co-author of ‘The Customer Catalyst’, as they discuss the essence of customer transformation. Chris introduces us to the ‘C-change diagnostic’, a tool that companies can use to evaluate their CX progress and receive extensive suggestions on the next actions each major function should take. Chris emphasiz...
Mar 25, 2024•33 min
In this podcast featuring Sean Albertson, a call center expert and author of '4ROCKS', host Richard Owen explores the dynamics of customer experience and business challenges. Sean's four metaphorical rocks—Sedimentary, Metamorphic, Igneous, and Meteoric—symbolize layers of complexity, organizational changes, unexpected events, and external factors affecting customer struggles. The discussion unfolds as Sean emphasizes the need for action based on the results of research results, moving beyond me...
Mar 11, 2024•33 min
Das Narayandas is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In this engaging podcast hosted by Richard Owen, Das reflects on their early connection and dives into decades of B2B client relationship expertise. Das shares insights from his groundbreaking marketing dissertation, emphasizing the nuances of long-term supplier-customer dynamics. The conversation seamlessly transitions to the critical aspects of customer selection, service, and the evolv...
Feb 26, 2024•39 min
In this insightful podcast with host Richard Owen, Joe Pinto reflects on his years at Cisco and the transition to his role as Chief Customer Experience Officer at Pure Storage. Moving from Cisco to Pure, Joe notes the significant size difference and praises Pure's CEO for championing Customer Success. Managing the challenge of maintaining high NPS during rapid growth, Joe highlights Pure's achievements in handling escalations efficiently and the seamless, "hitless" upgrade process. Customers att...
Feb 13, 2024•30 min
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. These short extracts from the full discussions cover some great sales and marketing views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics in the digital age. Richard Owen’s four guests in this short video are: Bill Binch - Former sales & marketing leader at Marketo and at Pendo, now an advisor at VC company Battery Ventures. Richard Watts - 33-year veteran of Pr...
Jan 29, 2024•10 min
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. These short extracts from the full discussions set out some fascinating marketing-centric views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics. Richard Owen’s three guests in this video are the famous marketing cartoonist Tom Fishburne, marketing veteran Andy Lark, and Breeze Airways CMO Angela Vargo. The first extract is from Richard's discussion with Tom Fishburn...
Jan 29, 2024•7 min
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. Join us in this captivating episode as we explore the remarkable journey of Chris Bishop, Chief Customer Officer at Conga, a trailblazer in revenue lifecycle management software. From Advocacy to Data Science Mastery: Conga's Evolution Chris unfolds his five-year odyssey at Conga, illuminating the transformation of the Chief Customer Officer role. Discover how he shifted the pa...
Jan 22, 2024•30 min
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. Where better to find such thinking than from major thought leaders and academics, who do not have to live with the restrictions imposed by quarterly business targets and results. These short extracts from the full discussions set out some fascinating views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics. Richard Owen’s seven guests in this video are Peter Fader (Wha...
Jan 08, 2024•12 min•Ep. 19
2023 was a great year for our CX Iconoclast podcast Richard Owen interviewed many business leaders, and we have picked out some highlights in these short videos. You will get interesting and entertaining advice in these clips from Mark Templeton (Citrix), David Tudehope (Macquarie Telecom), Tom Monahan (CEB), and Steve Byrne (Travel Counsellors). Richard is of course a CX industry veteran and nevertheless felt he learned a lot from these discussions. You can of course find the full versions of e...
Jan 08, 2024•13 min•Ep. 18
Today, we sit down with Joe Wheeler, the author of the insightful book “The Digital First Customer Experience.” We dive deep into the design strategies used by top brands like NIKE, Amazon, and Starbucks, and how these strategies have evolved to meet the demands of an increasingly digital marketplace. Highlights: Insights from “The Digital First Customer Experience”: 1. Discussion about the book and its revelations on customer experience strategies. 2. Joe Wheeler shares his inspiration for writ...
Nov 06, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Today's conversation explores several key themes, including the intensely personal nature of B2B relationships, the impact of generative AI on the buying process, and the many changing roles in today's corporate landscape. Richard Owen, Liam Fahey and Ralph Oliva delve into the evolving nature of B2B marketing within various industries, particularly those facing competition from innovative startups. It examines how risk-averse cultures can hinder growth and how some firms are investing heavily i...
Oct 16, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Have you ever experienced something like “marketing funnel vision?” Been trapped in a “sub-silo?” Feared a case of “data-blindness?” What a relief to laugh at the challenges of business, which is what cartoonist Tom Fishburne helps us do. Tom Fishburne took an unconventional career path, which might be true of all cartoonists. He started cartooning as a child and continued through his time at Harvard Business School, where his cartoons were featured in the student newspaper. But for many years h...
Jul 10, 2023•33 min
Why do only software companies and drug dealers call their customers “users”? Has “CX washing” diluted to overall impact of CX in the business world? Why do so many acquisitions fail to consider the customer experience? And could OCX Cognition really be in pursuit of the “holy grail” of CX? Just a few of the questions our guest, former Citrix CEO Mark Templeton, discusses in this episode. Everybody’s career begins somewhere, but even so, you might be a little surprised to learn that Mark Templet...
Jun 19, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Our guest Steve Byrne would almost certainly not have a business to run if it weren’t for the differential power of the customer experience. He’s the CEO of Travel Counsellors, a company that works hard to live by its own rules and to do right by every person involved in its value chain – customers, employees, and partners. Steve had a lot to say about how he approaches these interconnected obligations, and about how the business is thriving despite what could be considered countervailing market...
Jun 05, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Our guests today are business partners and academic collaborators: Peter Fader and Daniel McCarthy. Their entrepreneurial and academic pursuits are intertwined in interesting ways. On the entrepreneurial side, they co-founded a predictive analytics firm, called Zodiac, that they sold to Nike in 2018, and now they are co-founders and directors of Theta, a predictive customer value analytics company. Theta’s work draws heavily on customer lifetime value, along with an output of Peter and Dan’s aca...
May 15, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 11
When the customer experience is poor, should the sales team take the blame for failing to consider the long-term health of customer relationships? Not so fast, says our guest Bill Binch, a sales leader at some of the tech industries fast-growing companies. It’s a bit more complicated than that, and if you’re a leader whose role include ensuring that customers either get value from your solution or deliver value to your bottom line, you’ll learn a lot from this episode. Bill is an operating partn...
May 01, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 10
In any successful industry, leaders must answer an existential question: How do you evolve and adapt as the world around you changes? Our guest David Tudehope, CEO of Australia’s Macquarie Telecom Group, looks to customers to as the ultimate guide. In doing so, he takes a very unusual approach in an industry known for its poor customer experience. David explained that Macquarie Telecom Group strives to be what he calls “un-telco.” The company was founded just as the telecommunications market in ...
Apr 17, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 9
How do you know you’re getting value from your investments in innovation? Our guest Michael Schrage got that same urgent question from his students and clients: In response, he’s become laser focused on measurement, and his thinking has deep applicability to CX. Michael is a researcher at MIT’s Media Lab and a Visiting Fellow in the Imperial College Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He has served as an advisor on innovation issues and investments to major firms, including Google, In...
Apr 03, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 8
What on earth makes your customers tick? That’s easy, according to our guest Paul Marsden, because it’s the same for everyone. And CX leaders would do well to keep the three core needs of fellow humans. Paul Marsden, CPsycol, is a consumer psychologist who helps businesses understand consumers. The conversation in this episode covered a lot of ground based on his unusual specialization. Paul shares many opinions, but – perhaps unusually – they’re grounded in data, research, and analytics. Paul h...
Mar 20, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Does your company mourn the loss of customers as much as it celebrates their acquisition? It should, and it should back up that grief with resources to stop a repeat, says our guest Richard Watts. Richard Watts serves on several boards, including the board of Farmers Insurance, where he’s on the audit committee. It’s a sensible follow-on to his 33 years at Progressive Insurance. From the time Richard joined in 1977 to his retirement in 2010, Progressive grew from a relatively small insurer writi...
Mar 06, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Feeling threatened by an upstart competitor -- or the looming possibility of one? Don't fight back using the same CX practices that got you where you are, urges our guest Martin White. Before he founded his consulting firm Blackwood86, Martin White was CMO at MS Amlin, and before that he held executive and leadership roles in the financial services space at Experian, Morgan Stanley, GE Money, American Express, MBNA, and more. Customer experience was often part of his remit in those roles, so we ...
Feb 20, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Sometimes, it’s unexpectedly good news for all involved when technology limits the role of people play in the customer experience. But during times of unavoidable glitches in the customer experience, humans are critical, says our guest, Angela Vargo, VP of Marketing at Breeze Airways. Breeze calls itself America’s newest and nicest airline. With a focus on leisure travel, Breeze offers affordable, nonstop flights to underserved routes. A start-up airline is, of course, rare enough that it’s prob...
Feb 06, 2023•30 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Will AI put CX leaders out of work? Nope, but it should prompt a fundamental reimagining of the discipline, says our guest Erik Brynjolfsson. What’s at stake? “The companies within each industry that are using digital assets effectively are pulling away from their competitors,” he explains. Erik is a professor at Stanford as well as a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, the Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Stanford Ins...
Jan 23, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Should you be worried about loving your customers? Or working to make your customers love you? Our guest Andy Lark has a simple answer: No. Andy Lark, a CMO and chief customer officer several times over, thinks critically and creatively about brand, customer experience, and the trends affecting business today. Today, Andy is CMO at Dubber, world's leading provider of cloud-based call recording and voice AI, but he’s had executive leadership positions at Dell, Sun Microsystems, Nortel, Commonweal...
Jan 23, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Most companies today don’t have any tangible value, points out our guest Tom Monahan. It’s all concentrated in relationships with customers and the experiences companies provide. Tom Monahan led CEB for decades, developing a compelling suite of research, benchmarks, and decision-support tools and services and eventually selling the company to Gartner. His work at CEB included the development of the Customer Effort Score, at the time a revolutionary way of thinking about the customer experience i...
Jan 23, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 1
If you’re exhausted by traditional approaches to CX, impatient with the stunning lack of progress in the field, and done re-hashing the “best practices” that don’t change anything, you’ve found your podcast. Here’s what we know: Companies gain competitive advantage through exceptional customer experience, and customer insights are the best decision-making tool there is. But traditional CX approaches have run their course and it’s time for the next revolution in CX. Tune in with host Richard Owen...
Jan 12, 2023•1 min0
