The Modern Customer Podcast

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is not an age-old role. It's a unique new role that's set up differently at every organization. One example comes from MetLife who has seasoned industry executive Claire Burns running customer strategy. Burns serves as the Chief Customer Officer for MetLife which covers 110 million customers and 65K employees. The global company has an extensive and diverse product and distribution channels. Burns leads transformational change – tasked with shifting from a product centric corporate strategy to a customer centric corporate strategy. Burns, reporting to the CMO, has a "matrixed" managed team of 50 change agents around the world who are responsible for implementing these customer-centric programs. Burns' task is aligning the entire company around the customer. She helps the company decide what kinds of products they need to create. Burns also evaluated what services are going well and what ones aren't. She ensures the company is treating its customers as an asset—helping the broader organization gain clarity with their priorities and ensure they align. More About Our Sponsor Plantronics: Plantronics offers one of the industry's most complete families of corded and wireless products for unified communications. Widely recognized for their sound quality, reliability and comfort, Plantronics' audio solutions help companies extend the benefits of IP communications throughout the extended enterprise, fostering better business communication and efficiency regardless of where professionals are working. https://www.plantronics.com/us/company/

The Dallas Mavericks are famous for a few reasons. They are the 9th most valuable basketball Franchise in the NBA valued at $1.4 billion dollars. The other unique aspect of the team is Mark Cuban their highly involved and enthusiastic owner. The Dallas Mavericks Chief Technology Officer--interviewed in this podcast--is used to hearing from Cuban whether it's about engaging digital fans or a customer complaint Cuban found on social media. Management of the team make customer experience excellence a habit. The Dallas Mavericks continually invest in technology in addition to other leadership development practices such as the Disney Institute to maintain a strong level of quality throughout the Mavericks fan experience. Today's Modern Customer guest, Chief Technology Officer Ken Bonzon talks about how he started his career with the Dallas Mavericks 17 years ago and the many transformations he's seen the team go through. Fan engagement has always been a priority for the team, and now with technology engaging partners and fans has become even easier. Learn about what the Dallas Mavericks are doing to engage fans and maintain brand relevance in this podcast.

Amazon repeatedly tops customer experience lists in addition to every other category for innovation. So what's the secret? John Rossman was an early employee with Amazon and started with the initial leadership team in the early 2000s. In his book The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind The World's Most Disruptive Company provides an inside-look at what makes Amazon so successful. Today Rossman serves as a Managing Director at consultancy Alvarez & Marsal. At a time when Amazon rarely talks to the press Rossman's book looks at all the reasons why Amazon remains competitive and the decision-making that makes the company consistently high performing. Don't miss these critical tips in today's modern customer podcast.

Why does it seem like start-ups are having all the fun lately? All too often big companies will launch an incubator or start-up environment in their company only later to close it once the company starts to feel nervous about their growth. In today's Modern Customer Podcast we learn from Michael Docherty the author of Collective Disruption: How Corporations & Startups Can Co-Create Transformative New Businesses. In the book Michael reveals how the smartest corporations are learning to partner and co-create with startups for transformative innovation. The book provides established companies with a practical framework for plugging into the startup ecosystem to fuel and incubate new businesses. As CEO of Venture2 Inc., Docherty and his organization work with leading companies to transform their innovation capabilities, build innovation ecosystems and accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough new products, services and business models. He is a frequent speaker on innovation and corporate venturing and an active supporter of the entrepreneurial community.

Some of today's most innovative brands are content publishers that are engaging customers with content in addition to finding smart ways to monetize their websites. Take PopSugar who are tapping into big data, machine learning and predictive analytics to make better decisions about how they engage with customers. PopSugar—a site that's attracted more than 100 million visitors worldwide and 1.5 billion monthly content views—has more than one hundred editors creating content driven by site analytics, to discuss the impact that predictive analytics has had on its content strategy, readership numbers and conversion rates. A millennial publication focused on fashion, beauty and fitness—PopSugar turned to Adobe Analytics to make sense of its user data—including search and social behavior—to evolve and refine its content strategy. Listen to this podcast with Chris George SVP, Product Marketing and Sales Strategy at PopSugar. In this role, Chris has launched The Bakery, PopSugar's full-service creative shop; PopSugar Insights; and SNAP, PopSugar's native advertising platform. Chris joined from SpinMedia where he served as EVP, Marketing Solutions managing all aspects of revenue and sales solutions. He's also held management positions at Fox Interactive Media where he oversaw advertising products, sales development and market intelligence for MySpace and others. He holds a BA degree in Advertising from Michigan State University.

A new study from "The Math, the Magic and the Customer" found that inundated with troves of analytical data - today's marketers often mistake the "algorithm" for the "person". Today's marketers seek to have gotten so ROI-centric on every campaign according to Bain they are missing out on some of the magic of engaging with and understanding customers. The report says that "Humans, after all, are pesky creatures. We make decisions with our hearts as well as our heads. Our wants and needs can't always be reduced to, or predicted by, data." Today's guest on The Modern Customer Podcast is Laura Beaudin, partner in Bain & Co's San Francisco office - leading the firm's Digital, Customer, Strategy & Marketing - as well as Telecom & Media practices could offer your listeners a fresh approach on how important it is to not get lost in the data and maintain connection to the customer as a "person". I thought this might make for an interesting show topic as it addresses a dilemma facing marketers today and offers proven strategies to deal with it. To access the report click here.

Are we living in the experience economy? In today's episode of the Modern Customer Podcast I interview Joseph Pine, co author of The Experience Economy –a book that predicted we are living in the Experience Economy. The book was updated and re-released—and almost twenty years after its initial publishing it still provides excellent fodder for the customer experience conversation. It was the original book to hit on the subject of customer experience. The book provides a well-researched discussion of how businesses won't survive by doing what they've always done. Businesses must look to some of the major inspirations such as Disneyland, Hershey's Chocolate World and other exciting experiences to engage the customer. To simply provide a product or service is not enough. In this podcast we revisit the principles of The Experience Economy. We see how businesses stack up today when it comes to providing the ultimate experience as defined by Joseph Pine in his book. In this podcast you will learn: What is a customer experience according to The Experience Economy? Are we living in the experience economy today? What can businesses do across their business to improve the customer experience?

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