The Modern Customer Podcast

Most of us hate flying. From delays to TSA lines to smaller and smaller seats on flights—flying is not what it used to be. Many of us enjoy the ease of using Uber on the streets but when it comes to the skies, the airlines—no matter how terrible they treat customers—appear disruption proof. Until now! Enter Surf Air, an All-You-Can-Fly private membership that provides business and leisure travelers with exclusive, hassle-free air travel. Today we talk airline industry disruption. Today on the Modern Customer Podcast we’re joined by Surf Air CEO Jeff Potter who talks about the Surf Air customer experience. Starting his career as an airplane cleaner, Potter eventually worked his way up to becoming President and Chief Executive Office of Frontier Airlines and a member of their Board of Directors during Frontier’s greatest growth period. He also held the Chief Executive Office title with Vanguard Airlines in early 2000. As CEO of Surf Air he oversees all operation and is instrumental in helping Surf Air to expand into new territories. His combined stellar aviation background and luxury product experience as Chief Executive Office of Exclusive Resorts makes him an invaluable part of Surf Air’s success. In this podcast you will learn: What is Surf Air? How does Surf Air create a unique and exclusive environment for guests? What are the disruption opportunities in the airline industry? 

Remember Mary Kay or Avon? These companies put bread on the table for hard-working women and their families. In fact today’s modern woman cannot always work a 9 to 5 job, and that’s precisely why Stella & Dot founder and CEO Jessica Herrin set out to create a company that was flexible enough for the modern woman to build a business for herself without working 9 to 5. As she says, “9 to 5 just doesn’t flatter.” Herrin is a successful serial entrepreneur having started the company known to many now as WeddingChannel.com, the first company to put wedding registries on the web (it was sold to The Knot in 2006). Her second company was Stella & Dot. Stella & Dot’s business model—where women host parties within their homes and sell the Stella & Dot products (mostly jewelry and accessories)—is catching on like wildfire.Engaging communities is an important aspect of customer acquisition—today a company’s share-ability factor is everything because customers talk. Jessica Herrin is also a CEO on fire recently starring in an episode of “Undercover Boss” where she does things like spend a day undercover working in their “Delight Center” (contact center) and as a jewelry maker. She has a new book out called “Find Your Extraordinary: Dream Bigger, Live Happier, and Achieve Success On Your Own Terms.”  Listen to our podcast to learn about: How Stella & Dot provides an experience for both sellers and customers How companies can learn from the Stella & Dot business model Stella & Dot’s approach to customer acquisition and customer delight

Niels Aillaud, Head of Digital Marketing and Chief Digital Officer of Whirlpool knows the importance of customer reviews and takes them very seriously. Whirlpool, an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of home appliances, manages a wealth of solid brands such as KitchenAid, Maytag and many more—Aillaud is working to track all conversations about the various products and services within the Whirlpool portfolio. Whirlpool’s stock has been steadily increasing for the last almost 40 years. Clearly they are doing something right. Our guest today on The Modern Customer Podcast Niels Aillaud Niels Aillaud is responsible for Digital Strategy and Innovation for Whirlpool Corp. today. For the last 18 years, Niels has leveraged his deep understanding of technology and the evolution of consumer’s behavior to expand his clients’ success in the digital realm. Prior to Whirlpool, Aillaud was responsible for Global Digital Marketing at Logitech. Before that he led all digital marketing initiatives for LG Mobile, where he was the recipient of multiple awards (Webby, EFFIE, OMMA, Cannes Bronze Lyon).  In this podcast you will learn: Whirlpool’s approach to social customer reviews How a to launch a company-wide data program Whirlpool’s approach to customer journeys

Historically we've always looked for ways to evolve how we use our money. We've been transacting for thousands of years and we're getting savvier on how to enable consumers to transact with greater ease. Clearly mobile payments are becoming bigger. Skip Allums, Lead Designer at Paypal and today's guest on The Modern Customer Podcast calls it a rising tide. In this podcast we address questions such as how do we make mobile payments more convenient and safe? Consumers are increasingly weary of their financial privacy and interested in how their data is being used. Designers need to think about the customer journey and how we're mapping the experience of the customer from the absolute beginning. Some companies are moving quickly with mobile payments. For example in Q1 of 216 the money consumers loaded on their Starbucks cards and app surged to $1.2 billion, up 22% since the third quarter last year, according to Starbuck's filings. Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay are all leading the charge today but it's only the beginning. Mass adoption of mobile pay hasn't happened yet but Allums believes it will happen in the near future.  In this podcast you will learn: Good mobile design The mobile payment landscape Best practices of mobile commerce  

Today on the Modern Customer Podcast we're joined by David Edelman, global co-leader of McKinsey's Digital and Marketing & Sales Practices, based in Boston. For more than 20 years, Edelman has specialized in helping marketing executives manage the strategy, organization, and infrastructure transformations required to become "digitally adroit" leaders. From creating digital centers of excellence, to developing marketing technology architecture plans, to redesigning entire go-to-market approaches, he has led work that is both strategic and highly tactical. A frequent contributor to leading publications, and a Top 5 LinkedIn Influencer, Edelman has also spoken or participated in panels at many top CMO and industry gatherings. He also sits on the advisory boards of a couple of small agencies and startups in the social and video markets. What you will learn in this podcast: The one challenge sitting on every CMOs' desk today Why marketing technology has gotten far too complicated and what you can do about it The one major customer experience challenge facing retailers today The new consumer decision journey

General Mills is a 150 year old company. You have definitely heard of their famous cereal brands such as Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and even their new cereal brand Tiny Toast. You surely grew up eating Cheerios, Betty Crocker cakes, Hamburger Helper and Häagen-Dazs ice cream. You might not know that today they also own Annie’s, Epic (amazing jerky), Larabar and Cascadian Farms. They produce and market more than 100 brands in 100 markets and there is one woman at the marketing helm of this enormous operation. Her name is Ann Simonds and she is the Chief Marketing Officer of General Mills. From content to social media to traditional advertising Simonds has a lot of responsibility. But that doesn’t stop her from taking the time to do things such as make frequent trips to the grocery store to watch her customers in action. In this podcast you will learn about how Simonds takes the roof of the house of her customers to get to know what their needs are.  What you will learn in this podcast:  A day in the life of the CMO of General Mills The number one challenge sitting on every marketer’s desk today General Mills approach to social media and customer engagement Why General Mills launched the #WeNeedTheBees campaign The various marketing approaches and customer personas for different brands, for example Annie’s, Larabar, Epic or Cascadian Farms versus Betty Crocker, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Haagen Dazs Advice Ann would have given herself at the beginning of her career

For today's Modern Customer Podcast we are joined by Erin Walline, the new Executive Director of Global Customer Programs for Dell. With a unique background in product engineering and user experience (UX), Erin looks to apply human-centered design philosophies to business strategy and operations across internal organizations, ensuring Dell’s customers have a seamless experience at every touchpoint.  After receiving her Ph.D. in Engineering from Texas A&M University, Erin started as a user experience engineer with Dell 13 years ago. Members of her team have unique background ranging from cognitive psychology to anthropology and UX design. In this podcast you will learn:    How to drive customer experiences through company culture How to use both qualitative and quantitative data to improve your customer experience How to build a customer journey How to build influence as a customer experience executive 

B2B marketing is not for the faint of heart. Translating technical products and services and turning that into engaging content is not the easiest. Being a marketer in today’s complicated digital environment takes courage, patience and persistence. Being CMO isn’t for everyone—the average length of stay for a CMO is 18 months, not a lot of time to prove your worth. It’s important to turn results around fast and today’s podcast guest Susan Ganeshan knows how to do exactly that. Ganeshan has been CMO of text analytics and customer experience management vendor Clarabridge for two years and contributed to some of the major success they’ve had. Before that she held senior roles at a few different software companies and while there, she mentored four different individuals who all eventually rose to the rank of CMO. Ganeshan believes all tech marketers should be able to give a demo of any product their company is selling including the major components of the technology they’re supporting. Ganeshan believes that marketers fail when they can’t get the right metrics and measurements out of their campaigns. She has success to draw from and lessons learned, and in our podcast we talk about some of the major top of mind issues facing modern marketers today. In this podcast you will learn: The number one challenge sitting on every marketer’s desk today How to approach a global marketing strategy First steps to building a high level marketing strategy Susan Ganeshan’s one personal business secret   Disclosure, Clarabridge has been a client of Blake Morgan’s.

There’s never a dull moment at Yahoo! The company is in the news daily with rumors on who will purchase it, what Marissa Mayer is up to, and it’s been like this for years. You can imagine it might affect the employees that work at Yahoo from day to day. However according to Yahoo’s SVP of Global Operations John Devine, this is not the case. With a redefined approach to customer care that is directly impacting the development of Yahoo’s core products. Instead of just being reactive to user problems, this program is designed to channel the feedback, wants and needs of 1B+ users to product teams in a meaningful way that evokes material changes. Today’s guest on The Modern Customer Podcast is leading the effort of enriching the company’s product roadmap through user feedback. In this podcast you will learn:   Who Yahoo’s modern customer is How the company manages the external noise internally The ingredients of Yahoo’s company culture The strategy for Yahoo's VOC program Marissa Mayer’s management style  

Most of us can't even conceptualize life before digital. In the “old days” people looking for a hotel would drive down the road. If the hotel was all booked up, they would drive on down the road to the next hotel. Enter Hilton, a 96 year old brand that has innovated at every turn. In the 1950s Hilton wanted to make it easier for customers to book rooms and created the world's first central reservations office where customers could book over the phone, telegram or teletype. The office consisted of a team of eight “agents” who would write on a chalk board to book reservations. How times have changed!  In this week’s modern customer podcast we talk with Mark Weinstein, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Loyalty and Partnerships for Hilton Worldwide. There is much change to the travel industry, and Hilton has had to stay on its toes. The demographic of their travel has shifted with people traveling at younger ages due to increased accessibility—it’s simply much easier to get around than it used to be (see above paragraph around how one would find a hotel in the old days). There are market shifts such as the sharing economy that have altered the hotel industry. Hilton has created numerous programs in conjunction with the sharing economy including a partnership with Uber. It might make your head spin to think about Hilton’s scale, with 13 brands, spanning more than 4,500 hotels across over 100 countries and territories. That said, they are a fantastic case study in thinking about how today’s biggest companies are tackling the complex modern digital landscape. In this podcast you will learn: Hilton’s customer engagement strategy (including social and mobile) Hilton’s approach to surprise and delight Hilton’s thoughts on Airbnb