Punk CX: Customer Experience Insights with Adrian Swinscoe

Today’s interview is with Michael Upton, Chief Digital & Technology Officer at First Tech Credit Union (or First Tech), which is the US’s premier credit union serving the world’s leading technology-oriented companies and their employees. I met Mike as part of a recent trip to Pegaworld iNspire held in Las Vegas. Mike was talking at one of the break-out sessions, and his topic was The Pragmatic Approach to Transforming Customer Service. I couldn’t resist that title and thought Mike’s insights would appeal to you too so I nabbed Mike for a quick chat for the podcast. By the way, you can view the replays of the talks on-demand here. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Purposefully designed experiences don’t happen by accident – Interview with Deborah Battaglia of Assurant – and is number 471 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s interview is with Deborah (Deb) Battaglia, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience at Assurant, Inc, a global B2B2C Fortune 300 company that provides risk management and insurance products to leading automotive, housing, and mobile technology companies. Deb joins me today to talk about the ‘why’ & vision for their transformation, how long the programme has been running, what they have achieved in terms of outcomes, how the pandemic impacted things, the outlook for the future and how they aim to leverage new technologies as well as some key learnings & top tips for others on their own journey. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Developing empathy within ourselves and the machines that we build – Interview with Minter Dial – and is number 470 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s interview is with Minter Dial, an international speaker and a multiple award-winning author, specialized in leadership, branding and transformation. Back in February 2019, Minter joined me on the podcast to talk about his book: Heartificial Empathy. Now, so much has happened since then that he felt compelled to update the book and is back to talk to me about why he felt the need to update the book, what’s changed, why the development of empathy is still important, how we can develop it not only within ourselves but also the machines that we develop, what to watch out for when we do so and how the emergence of ChatGPT and the whole generative AI wave affects all of this. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Why you should be adopting an Experience Mindset – Interview with Tiffani Bova of Salesforce – and is number 469 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at TextExpander for sponsoring this episode of my podcast. TextExpander is an auto-complete tool that allows your team to eliminate repetitive typing and stay on the same page with just a few keystrokes allowing you to delight more customers in less time. Click here to find out more and to get a 20% discount for the first 12 months of TextExpander if you use the code: SWINSCOE

Today’s interview is with Tiffani Bova, the global customer growth and innovation evangelist at Salesforce, and the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Growth IQ. Tiffani joins me today to talk about her new book: The Experience Mindset: Changing the Way You Think About Growth, what is an Experience Mindset, what’s the best way to adopt one, why it’s important to take a combined customer and employee experience approach, the research that accompanied the development of the book and what’s the payoff to adopting an Experience Mindset. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Customer experience (CX) leaders will become the engagement quarterbacks of the future – Interview with Mike Murchison of Ada – and is number 468 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at Pega for sponsoring my podcast this month. We are fast approaching PegaWorld iNspire which is Pega’s annual conference that will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, from June 11th to 13th. This year it will be an in-person event, for the first time in four years, and will bring together experts and industry leaders to demystify technologies like generative AI and intelligent automation They will also illustrate how enterprises can practically apply these technologies to turbocharge productivity, improve low-code app development, and optimize customer engagement. Check out PegaWorld.com to find out more and, hopefully, I’ll see you there.

Today’s interview is with Mike Murchison, co-founder and CEO of Ada, a leading customer service automation provider. Mike joins me today to talk about how the conventional customer experience playbook is outdated, why brands should be talking to their customers more as they grow (not less), a view on the future of customer experience, what service and support teams will do in the future and how CX leaders are likely to be the quarterbacks of the future. This interview follows on from my recent interview – There’s no point having a fast bike, if you don’t know how to ride it – Interview with Jerry Haywood of Boost.ai – and is number 467 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at Pega for sponsoring my podcast this month. We are fast approaching PegaWorld iNspire which is Pega’s annual conference that will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, from June 11th to 13th. This year it will be an in-person event, for the first time in four years, and will bring together experts and industry leaders to demystify technologies like generative AI and intelligent automation They will also illustrate how enterprises can practically apply these technologies to turbocharge productivity, improve low-code app development, and optimize customer engagement. Check out PegaWorld.com to find out more and, hopefully, I’ll see you there.

Today’s interview is with Jerry Haywood, who is the Chief Executive Officer at boost.ai, a leading provider of conversational AI for enterprises. Jerry joins me today to talk about if ChatGPT has become the fastest proprietary eponym or generic trademark in history, why chat-first customer service strategy is the future of the customer experience and how those interfaces will not just be text based, how recent and future advancements from ChatGPT, Bard, Ernie, and ANOther LLMs will change things and the what the future holds for conversational AI. This interview follows on from my recent interview – PegaWorld iNspire: Towards the autonomous enterprise and celebrating 40 years of innovation – Interview with Don Schuerman of Pega – and is number 466 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at Pega for sponsoring my podcast for the coming month. We are fast approaching PegaWorld iNspire which is Pega’s annual conference that will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, from June 11th to 13th. This year it will be an in-person event, for the first time in four years, and will bring together experts and industry leaders to demystify technologies like generative AI and intelligent automation They will also illustrate how enterprises can practically apply these technologies to turbocharge productivity, improve low-code app development, and optimize customer engagement. Check out PegaWorld.com to find out more and, hopefully, I’ll see you there.

Today’s interview is with Don Schuerman, the CTO and Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing at Pegasystems. Don joins me today to talk about the upcoming PegaWorld iNspire, how excited Don feels about being back face-to-face again after four years, celebrating Pega's 40th anniversary and 40 years of innovation, the autonomous enterprise, what that means and what it requires as well as generative AI and where he thinks it’s likely to have the most impact in the near term. This interview follows on from my recent interview – The promise of generative AI in customer care and the challenges ahead – Interview with Ryan McDonald, Chief Scientist at ASAPP – and is number 465 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at Pega for sponsoring my podcast for the coming month. We are fast approaching PegaWorld iNspire which is Pega’s annual conference that will be held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV, from June 11th to 13th. This year it will be an in-person event, for the first time in four years, and will bring together experts and industry leaders to demystify technologies like generative AI and intelligent automation They will also illustrate how enterprises can practically apply these technologies to turbocharge productivity, improve low-code app development, and optimize customer engagement. Check out PegaWorld.com to find out more and, hopefully, I’ll see you there

Today’s interview is with Ryan McDonald, Chief Scientist at ASAPP. Ryan joins me today to talk about his experience over the last 20 years in the language technology space (AI: NLP, ML, LLMs), recent developments in the generative AI space, the challenges that enterprises face in embracing and leveraging this technology and how ASAPP is advancing AI to augment human activity to address real-world problems for enterprises, particularly in the area of customer care. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Well-being and the changing nature of management and leadership – Interview with Ray Biggs, Head of Customer Care at John Lewis & Waitrose – and is number 464 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Today’s interview is with Ray Biggs, Head of Customer Care at John Lewis & Waitrose. Ray joins me today to talk about their customer care programme, their focus on agent/partner well-being, particularly in the face of turnover, attrition and burnout and changing working arrangements, the implementation of well-being time outs, the changing nature of management and leadership, especially in the customer care environment, a quote from Martin Hill Wilson and Kicker shoes no less. This interview follows on from my recent interview – The connection between flight simulators, agent attrition and better outcomes – Interview with Brian Tuite of Zenarate – and is number 463 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees. NOTE: A big thank you goes out to the folks at TextExpander for sponsoring this episode of my podcast. TextExpander is an auto-complete tool that allows your team to eliminate repetitive typing and stay on the same page with just a few keystrokes allowing you to delight more customers in less time. Click here or on the banner image above to find out more and to get a 20% discount for the first 12 months of TextExpander if you use the code: SWINSCOE

Today’s interview is with Brian Tuite, the cofounder & CEO of Zenarate, a leader in developing top-performing customer-facing teams through AI Conversation Simulation. Brian joins me today to talk about agent turnover and attrition and how much of that is driven by the level of training, preparation and support that agents receive and how they are leveraging AI and simulation training to help solve this perennial problem and improve outcomes for both customers and employees. This interview follows on from my recent interview – The crucial role of constant storytelling and change management in our transformation – Interview with Nadia Ness of Ikea – and is number 462 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.