Customer Confidential: Untold Stories of Earned Growth
Rob Markey, Bain & Company partner and customer experience expert
The Customer Confidential Podcast unlocks a world of unparalleled customer and employee loyalty insights. Host Rob Markey, a Net Promoter System pioneer, uses his deep expertise and empathetic approach to challenge conventional wisdom, peel back layers of typical advice, and expose the real stories of industry transformation. Take a deep dive into discussions on CX, customer journey, customer insights, Net Promoter Score, and more. Every episode is a master class in loyalty. Guests include CMOs, CXOs, and heroes of customer-centric transformation, along with thought leaders who inspire them. Exploring organizational structures, operating models, goals, and metrics, Rob and his guests from companies such as Vanguard, American Express, and more bring to light practical marketing, product, customer experience, and technology strategies for earning customer-focused growth. This podcast is your source for untold stories of customer and employee loyalty. Challenging, insightful, and instructive—all in one place. Earned growth starts here.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 20, 2019 • 48min
Ep. 149: Gen. Stanley McChrystal | Battle-Tested Advice (Part 1)
General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of U.S forces in Afghanistan and head of the Joint Special Operations Command in Iraq, joins me for part one of a two-part interview. In our discussion, he describes how he forged trust among the military's most elite fighting units. Today, he shares what he learned with civilian executives, as a co-founder of the McChrystal Group, offering battle-tested advice to leaders in the business world.
Feb 14, 2019 • 52min
Ep. 148: Eric Smuda | Dude, Where's My Car?
When I rent a car, I too often find myself waiting in line for the service desk, wondering why my car wasn't ready and waiting for me, as promised. Now I can test my hypotheses against the real world experience of this week's guest, Eric Smuda. He led customer experience practices for two different giants of the rental car industry, Avis Budget Group and Hertz. He draws back the black curtain, and reveals what it's like to deliver a car to a customer, from behind the scenes.
Jan 3, 2019 • 34min
Ep. 147: CA Technologies' Dayton Semerjian | Keeping the Faith Even as Others Lose It
Like fitness or dieting, getting started with the Net Promoter System is easy in some ways. Executives are typically optimistic and excited about their fledgling program, riding the high of their early wins. And then something emerges and threatens that momentum. But like maintaining good health, the companies that stay the course learn to anticipate their customers' needs, allowing them to deepen relationships and deliver bigger financial results in the long term. That's what happened at CA Technologies. In this episode, I continue my conversation with Dayton Semerjian. He guided the enterprise software company through a Net Promoter journey that returned it to growth. In this episode, Dayton discusses the challenges he faced while bringing culture change to CA and how he overcame them.
Dec 13, 2018 • 36min
Ep. 146: CA Technologies' Dayton Semerjian | Getting Back to Growth in B2B
CA Technologies' Dayton Semerjian joined me on the podcast in 2016 to discuss his approach to managing the enterprise software company's customer experience in a rapidly changing industry. At the time, the business-to-business service provider was deep in a Net Promoter journey that would ultimately rebuild its customer relationships and return it to growth. Fast forward two years and Dayton's efforts as general manager of global customer success and support not only surpassed senior leaders' expectations, they made CA an attractive acquisition target. In light of CA's success, I invited Dayton back on the podcast to reflect on his experience in the first of a two-part interview.
Dec 6, 2018 • 50min
Ep. 145: 1-800-GOT-JUNK's Brian Scudamore | A Shining Example of Memorable Service
Host Rob Markey talks to Brian Scudamore, the founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK, whose rubbish hauling business started as a way to pay for college and grew into an international franchise. Brian discusses how the company's commitment to customer service helped set it apart from competitors and what it takes to maintain service standards in a growing business.
Nov 30, 2018 • 43min
Ep. 144: Citizens Bank's Beth Johnson | First Customers, Then Growth
Big things have been happening at Citizens Financial Group, the New England-based financial services company. After spending 26 years as part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the company returned to the public market in a 2014 initial offering that raised $3 billion. And the bank has been undergoing a multiyear turnaround effort that has put customers at the center of its business. In this episode, Rob Markey talks to Beth Johnson, chief marketing officer and head of virtual channels for Citizens Bank. She has been a key player in these efforts since she joined the company in 2013.
Nov 8, 2018 • 47min
Ep. 143: Bain's Gerard du Toit | The Customer Experience Tools Companies Love
Host Rob Markey talks to Bain Partner Gerard du Toit. His team recently asked hundreds of executives if they've adopted 20 of the most popular customer experience tools, and more importantly, whether they're happy with the results. While customer experience tools are not a panacea, they do form an arsenal with which companies can arm themselves to compete. Gerard also discusses the results and other emerging trends in customer experience.
Oct 26, 2018 • 34min
Ep. 142: Q&A with Maurice FitzGerald | The Empathy Remedy in Healthcare
Medical outcomes matter, but they're not the only factor in patient satisfaction. A provider's ability to communicate and express empathy are also critical to the customer experience in healthcare. Host Rob Markey welcomes back Maurice FitzGerald, retired vice president of customer experience at HP Software and author of Net Promoter—Implement the System. Rob and Maurice discuss the unique customer experience challenges that healthcare providers and organizations face, and how the Net Promoter System can help.
Oct 11, 2018 • 46min
Ep. 141: Jeanne Bliss of CustomerBliss | It's Still About Humans Helping Humans
Host Rob Markey welcomes back Jeanne Bliss, author of the new customer experience book, Would You Do that to Your Mother? In her book, she argues that companies need to humanize the customer experience to help their employees provide the service that customers want. Jeanne also advises senior leaders as founder and president of CustomerBliss, and previously oversaw the customer experience at Land's End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker and Allstate.
Sep 20, 2018 • 31min
Ep. 140: Comcast's Charlie Herrin | How Follow-up Calls Can Inspire Change
Follow-up calls offer an opportunity to hear real customers describe, in detail, the things that make them love your company, or not. And they can involve senior executives in learning what it's like to be an average customer or an average frontline employee—to get out of the mindset of "corporate" and into the world where customers interact with your company every day. In this episode, Rob Markey continues his conversation with Charlie Herrin, Comcast's chief customer experience officer, who has been leading Comcast's multiyear Net Promoter turnaround. He discusses some of the most important drivers of culture change there.
