The Customer Experience Podcast

Engagement is the moment when customers and prospects interact with the brand. From that moment on, the reality of being that brand’s customer becomes the customer experience.    Without effective engagement, there is no customer experience.   In this episode, I interview Nema Hashemi, Director of Sales at Contentstack, about creating engagement between customers and brand and alignment between content and code.   What we talked about:   - The relationship between customer experience & engagement   - What, exactly, is headless CMS?   - How sales is involved in customer success, aka internal alignment   - The present need to move as fast as possible on content   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

Buyers barely even read the product description anymore. 96% of us scroll right to the reviews because we want to predict what our buying experience will be like.   The last thing we want is for an organization to over promise and under deliver. We long for transparency.   In this episode, I interview Todd Caponi, Founder at Sales Melon and author of The Transparency Sale, about why transparency sells better than 5.0 ratings.   What we talked about:   - How leading with your flaws appeals to the buyer’s brain   - Sales theory from the 1920s… still valid?   - Why buyers spend 61% of their time investigating your claims   - Personalization & value will help your communication stand out   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

You already believe that sending video messages is one of the most successful ways to make you and your team members more visible to customers. But you’re a little iffy on exactly how to adopt video messages into your organization successfully.    I’m Ethan Beute, Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, host of The Customer Experience Podcast, and co-host of the CX Series on the B2B Growth Show, here today to share what I’ve learned about video messaging adoption from years with the BombBomb team.   What you’ll learn about:   - The 4 stages of video adoption & their essential questions   - How to overcome the discomfort of seeing yourself on video   - Things people say when they’ve adopted video successfully   - What it looks like in your organization when sending videos is normalized behavior   Check out these resources I mentioned during the podcast:   - I wrote The Video Messaging Adoption Guide   - I co-wrote Rehumanize Your Business   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

Not everyone knows exactly what a Chief Customer Officer does. Even fewer realize that their role is to create delight at every point in the customer experience journey.   In this episode, I interview Alli Tiscornia, Chief Customer Officer at Sendoso, about her relentless focus on customer experience.   What we talked about:   - Defining the Chief Customer Officer role & where they report   - Retention and expansion as a more powerful and less expensive source of revenue growth than acquisition   - Improving the employee experience and customer experience by being a partner, rather than a vendor   - Turning employees and customers into marketers   - Inviting your customers to your all-hands employee meetings   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

People buy from people they like, people they feel an emotional connection with.   But when our sales strategy is to launch directly into the pitch in the first conversation, we get feedback that our company is “too salesy.”    The flip side of that is a sales experience focused on human connection.   In this episode, I interview Tori Belkin, Senior Director of Sales and Sales Enablement at Ceros, about a human-first sales approach:   What we talked about:   What experiential content is & its role in sales   Taking a feelings-based approach to the customer experience   Why she hires reps based on the airport test   The importance of conversation & connection before the sales pitch   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:   Tori gave Simon Berg a shout-out as an inspiring leader   Guru’s customer success team is unparalleled   Tori’s LinkedIn   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

When your tech-oriented customer base is growing faster than you can hire your customer support staff, you have a big CX problem.   Obviously, the solution is to create an internal training program from scratch, right?   In this episode, I interview Richard Myers, Vice President of Customer Support & Success at Linode, about developing his CS training team.   What we talked about:   - The integral part that CS plays in customer experience   - Ricks’ decision to create a internal training program from scratch   - The 72-day onboarding process for new hires   - How Linode’s core values equip CS to problem solve for customers   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:   - Rick’s post on “Why You Need a Support Training Team”   - Rick’s shoutout to Steve Clemens   - B&H Photo Video is a place doing customer experience excellently   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

64% of all event planners have never done a virtual or hybrid event before. About 60% of attendees have never been to a virtual or hybrid event. Those numbers are from just a few weeks ago.   How can we know what makes a great virtual event so that we can host one?   In this episode, I interview Corey McCarthy, the CMO at Socio, about how to host great virtual events.   What we talked about:   - What it took Socio to pivot itself and its clients to virtual and hybrid events   - The characteristics of a great virtual event (including why you need an emcee)   - Marketing insights for rethinking the customer journey during a pandemic   - Creating communities, even virtual ones, increases brand loyalty and creates evangelists   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast:   - Socio.events   - Corey on LinkedIn   - Steve Axel on LinkedIn   - Who Gives a Crap  Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

Sangram Vajre, Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Terminus, shares 10 rules for building a category and community, the power of unbranding, and the importance of promoting people over products. He discusses his goal to educate about a problem which created a movement. They also explore the significance of community in brand building and the value of storytelling. Additionally, the chapter highlights the importance of hustling and word of mouth in building a community, and the power of becoming intentional in personal and professional growth.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic created a variety of crises and challenges at each of its 3 stages. Though the pandemic persists, its consequences are more clear and the crises become more manageable. As we enter a post-crisis phase (Jun 2020-Dec 2021), we must focus on the systems we’ve put in place to communicate with customers in terms of both how they’ve changed and how they must further evolve.   In this episode, Brian Gilman, Vice President of Solutions Marketing at Vonage, shares his perspective on the 3 pillars of post-crisis communications — and what has to change forever.   What we talked about:   - The permanent changes to customer communication systems   - Why we say goodbye to “future proofing” (and perhaps to long sales cycles)   - How to make the immediate shift to fast implementation and decisions   - The 3 pillars of the post-crisis period: replacement for work from home, fail overs for continuity, and augmentation   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.

Video meetings are more than likely here to stay.  They’re exhausting, though — way beyond mere eyestrain. If more of us are going to work remotely, we need to implement these 3 ways to overcome “Zoom fatigue.”   I’m Ethan Beute, Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, host of The Customer Experience Podcast, and co-host of the CX Series on the B2B Growth Show, here today to share actionable ways to improve your video meetings.   In this episode, you’ll learn how to…   - Schedule a 25 minute meeting to give yourself a built-in break   - Quit multitasking during meetings & get permission to look out the window   - Record a video message rather than having a video meeting   - Free your time & attention from so many video meetings   Check out these resources I mentioned during the podcast:   - My book teaches you how to Rehumanize Your Business with video   - Watch me talk about Zoom Fatigue on the news   - Learn 6 steps toward better meetings   Subscribe, listen, and rate/review the Customer Experience Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or Google Podcasts, and find more episodes on our blog.