The Experience Strategy Podcast

In today’s episode, we are joined by Josh Liebman, the Guest Experience Evangelist for ROLLER Software. Josh has worked for some of the top tourism destinations in the world, from Walt Disney World and Universal Studios to Ritz Carlton, The Four Seasons, and Coca-Cola. With nearly 17 years of designing experiences in this industry, Josh specializes in service standards, complaint resolution, and guest feedback. Tune in as we look at how customer needs and expectations have changed and what we can do to help them feel cared for, supported, inspired, and connected in a post-pandemic world.    IN THIS EPISODE:   [02:19] Josh explains what guest experience evangelists do and what it entails.  [08:12] How does ROLLER make the ticketing and booking experience better? [15:31] Josh shares an example of how to improve guest experience by eliminating administrative and functional elements through technology.   [18:09] Meeting customers’ expectations is not enough. You should go above and beyond.  [25:30] Best practices to empower customer service teams.  [28:29] Josh’s recommendations to recover from customer issues.  [32:30] The difference between being customer-centric and experience-centric. [38:20] How the pandemic changed the hospitality and tourism industry.   KEY TAKEAWAYS:   Many jump straight to the solution when resolving customer complaints, but this makes it a transactional experience for the customer. When we think about the relationship aspects then we realize that it requires the experience and hospitality elements that lead up to the solution.  We need to address friendliness, being the hero, and service recovery again because those things might have been success factors in 2010 but in some ways, we are starting over in a different place where there is technology that can replace some of those interactions. There is a real need for companies to begin to focus on what customer-centricity is about.  When companies reopen after the pandemic, the first guests to come back are those that are most loyal. Companies need to acknowledge that the customers made a very intentional decision to do business with them and make sure that the guests know you are aware of that.    LINKS MENTIONED:   Josh's Podcast: Attraction Pros    Josh's LinkedIn Profile    Josh's Podcast: The Guest Experience Show   BIO:   Josh Liebman is the Guest Experience Evangelist for ROLLER Software. With nearly 17 years of designing experiences in the hospitality, tourism, and attraction industry, Josh specializes in service standards, complaint resolution, and guest feedback. Working for some of the top tourism destinations in the world, including Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, and The Coca-Cola Company, Josh’s background includes leadership in operations, guest service communications, quality assurance consulting, consumer analytics, and guest experience training. Josh's guest experience philosophies, strategies, and tactics transcend all industries and if you want to dive deeper into his expertise he is also the host of two podcasts: The Guest Experience Show and AttractionPros. 

In today’s episode, we are joined by Ryan Hutmacher, an award-winning chef and founder of the Well Beyond Food project. As a self-proclaimed experientialist, his company creates custom food experiences designed to foster connection & promote inclusion within organizations and their teams. Tune in as we discuss the importance of authenticity to brand-building and ways to measure the ROI and impact of intangible experiences.    IN THIS EPISODE:   [03:41] Ryan shares what the Well Beyond Food project is and what it aims to do. [05:26] Well Beyond Food’s mission is to allow people to be seen and see others.  [07:23] Well Beyond Food is not just a cooking experience. It is a team-building activity.  [13:24] Quality control and making sure everyone feels accomplished are very important elements during team building activities. Ryan explains how he achieves that.  [15:24] What inspired Ryan to build the Well Beyond Food project? [20:15] Ryan shares his personal journey that inspired the project. [23:20] Practice what you preach. Otherwise, people will see right through your story. Authenticity is the heart of your business. [24:24] If you want others to feel comfortable expressing their own unique voice and style, you need to lead the way.  [27:15] How to measure ROI on intangible experiences?   KEY TAKEAWAYS:   Authenticity in your business is a must. No one can be you. It is truly the only thing that you have to authentically sell. Designing an experience from a place of authenticity and truth is absolutely essential to create both meaning and value. One of the questions you need to ask yourself is: “What are the jobs to be done?” Ryan has done the work to understand which jobs are most important to his business clients. Business is about continually asking questions, exploring, figuring out how to get data, validate, learn from the insights, and use them to grow.    LINKS MENTIONED:   Well Beyond Food website   BIO:   Ryan Hutmacher is an award-winning chef and founder of the Well Beyond Food project. As a self-proclaimed experientialist, his company creates custom food experiences designed to foster connection & promote inclusion within organizations and their teams. From interactive workshops & webinars to team-building adventures & wellness retreats, his creative formats make way for human experiences that connect.   Ryan’s talents have been featured on countless stages, including TEDx and the Today Show. He’s credited for winning a nationally televised cooking competition on ABC’s “The CHEW” and serving as the First-Ever Weight Watchers Chef. His unique skill-sets span three industries, including Hospitality, CPG, and Healthcare. In his free time, he enjoys mushroom foraging, ping pong, running, and spontaneous travel.

In today’s episode, we are joined by Dwayne King who works at the intersection of experience transformation, human-centered innovation, UX design & research. His unique view of organizations has allowed him to diagnose the real reasons 90% of innovation labs fail. Tune in to learn how to lead the other 10% and set your innovators up for success.    IN THIS EPISODE:   [04:40] Pursuing the wrong idea can be one of the key elements why your innovation efforts might fail right at the beginning.  [08:12] Companies no longer need to stay within their category. Dwayne shares an example of a company that successfully expanded out of its category. [15:08] Two important elements of design thinking that need to be considered during the innovation process.  [22:00] Common funding mistakes that most companies make right off the bat. [26:09] Three challenges that companies face when transitioning from an innovation experiment into a full-blown product. [34:12] Importance of structuring innovation teams for success. [40:20] Why product managers might not be as successful on an innovation team. [44:43] How lack of the leadership and culture to support innovation within an organization sabotages innovation.   KEY TAKEAWAYS:   Just because there's a problem to solve, it doesn't mean that it's your problem to solve. Stop making big bets and instead make smart bets by starting with the right insights and design thinking. Transition through innovation stages consciously and ensure that the right teams, technology, and investments are in place at each phase. Build a well-rounded and empowered innovation team and oversight board. Slapping titles and labels on these things does not make them a reality. Foster a culture of innovation from the top all the way down. Innovation only happens in an organization that is primed to incubate and embrace innovation.   LINKS MENTIONED:   Dwayne’s LinkedIn Profile   BIO:  Dwayne King Dwayne built his career at the intersection of experience transformation, human-centered innovation, UX design & research. He leverages these lenses to generate meaningful change within organizations that helps them connect with their audience to create positive business outcomes.    He works across many industries in a multitude of problem spaces. Because of this, he is an expert learner, quickly transforming from a questioning student to a confident strategist and leader regardless of the problem space or industry. 

Today’s we are joined by Julie O’Brien Ph.D., a behavioral scientist working at the intersection of wellbeing and technology. Julie shares insider knowledge into how companies of all sizes can use science to improve their customer experience. Tune in as Julie shares the seven most important behavior change principles for Experience Strategists.   In This Episode: [01:58] Julie shares how behavioral scientists collaborate in the creation of successful products and services. [04:11] Elements necessary for an innovation to be successful. [06:41] Distinctions between behavioral mapping and journey mapping. [09:44] Why it is crucial for companies to integrate behavioral science and behavior change principles into their work. [11:44] Why human factors are integral to behavior science. [17:21] Quick summary of the seven behavioral change principals. [22:39] Julie shares her thoughts on agency and how it factors into behavioral change. [28:30] Environment is an integral factor in human behavior. [34:04] Julie shares advice for Experience Strategists and companies large and small.   Key Takeaways: Behavioral Science offers a methodology and approach that can help people better evaluate all possible solutions to choose the one that has a higher chance of success. Companies need to incorporate behavioral science into their process so that they can design solutions that actually make sense with the way that humans behave. Behavioral science is really a broad interdisciplinary field that draws on many different perspectives that all help us understand human behavior in general. It’s important for behavioral scientists to understand that removing agency is ok when people are active participants in the removal of agency. It's not ok when it’s done without consent or awareness or to push someone’s behavior towards something that is actually not what they want or not getting to an outcome that they care about. Bio for Julie O'Brien, Ph.D. Julie O’Brien is a behavioral scientist working at the intersection of wellbeing and technology. She’s spent her career designing and testing scalable solutions that close the gap between what people want to do and what they actually do. She has spent her career bridging the academic world and the product world. She believes that basic research has enormous value to product and service design, and that everyone can learn to think like a behavioral scientist. To that end, she has developed a framework to introduce the underlying drivers of human behavior to product and service designers. She firmly believes that behavioral science can best solve real-world problems when integrated into existing systems in a holistic way, across multiple touchpoints and channels. Julie has designed products, started two nonprofits, and studied the full range of human behavior from energy efficiency to racial discrimination to diabetes self-management. She is the Head of Behavioral Science and Coaching at US Bank, a newly-elected member of the board of directors for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. She holds a PhD in Social Psychology, created the behavioral research function at Opower, led the health initiative at Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, and most recently built out Applied Behavioral Science at WW. Learn more about her work and how to apply behavioral science at https://www.thinkbehavioralscience.com/

In today’s episode, we are joined by Ron Swidler, Chief Innovation Officer at The Gettys Group Companies and creator of the Hotel of Tomorrow® Project, a think tank that unites teams of hospitality experts to ideate, prototype, and test innovations for the near and more distant future of the hotel industry. From technological innovations and new business models to unprecedented shifts in customer expectations, Ron shares the top 10 things hotels should be doing to prepare for the future.    In This Episode:    [01:59] Ron elaborates on the major shifts he has seen in customers’ wants and needs from a hospitality experience.   [06:38] How are owner developers now approaching creating profitable spaces that provide both hospitality and meet the new safety needs that customers have come to expect?  [11:35] Brands have to decide what they stand for in order to deliver their services to their guests in a way that is most meaningful to them, or risk becoming irrelevant.    [16:12] What does it mean to experience time well spent in a hotel?   [19:38] Ron shares some ways that technology is driving the future of hospitality.   [27:37] How do modularity and flexibility relate to the idea of time well spent?   [31:29] Micro room solutions are creating adaptable and functional spaces while cutting down on construction costs.   [34:19] How will luxury be defined moving forward?   [38:44] Aransas gives a quick summary of today’s discussion and topics.     Key Takeaways:    Moving forward, hotels must focus on innovating for wellness.   The flexibility of how spaces are used has to become a higher priority for the hospitality industry.   Brands need to have a clear sense of purpose and a clear place in the market.   People in the future are going to want their spaces to adapt to their particular needs.   Luxury is linked to an experience of transformation.  It’s a moment to invest in ourselves and to feel nourished and nurtured and cared for.     Bio: Ron Swidler   With a passion for pioneering ideas and new approaches to hospitality experiences, Ron serves as the CIO at The Gettys Group Companies.    Ron created the Hotel of Tomorrow® Project, an industry-leading think tank that has brought together hundreds of companies for many years to envision the future of hospitality. The result has been innovation that can be found in hotels and restaurants throughout the world. His vision also led to the founding of Gettys ONE—our interior design group dedicated to branded hotels— and Outside Agency, our branding agency—where he leads brand creation and strategic thinking projects for boutique properties, large industry events and international brands.   He is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been interviewed in countless publications for his hospitality, design and branding insights. Ron received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois. He is affiliated with the Hospitality Advisory Council at DePaul University, School of Hospitality Leadership. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France; EM Lyon in Paris; Haaga Helia University in Helsinki, Finland; and Breda University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands.

Today we are joined by Joyce Cadesca, Founder and President of famHQ, a tech-enabled family concierge service supporting working moms in managing their households and careers.   In this episode we look at the functional, social, emotional, aspirational, and systemic Jobs To Be Done in this exciting new startup.   In This Episode:    [01:31] What famHQ is all about. [04:58] What inspired Joyce to create famHQ. [07:09] How famHQ is establishing “villages” around single moms of color.   [11:24] Dave asks about the jobs that famHQ performs for their customers.   [17:04] How the people and the tools that famHQ employ work together to make their services as seamless as possible.   [22:01] Can famHQ be a systemic solution for society’s single parent households? [24:32] Creating a fair and equitable working environment.   [30:36] What gets companies excited to partner with famHQ?   [32:51] How the human factor sets famHQ apart from other household service providers.     Key Takeaway:    The Jobs to be Done by employers, communities, and service providers have shifted radically in the last 10 years. Companies like famHQ, who take a systemic view of their customer’s needs will be able to have lasting impact.   Bio: Joyce Cadesca   A steadfast equity advocate, Joyce Cadesca serves as the Founder and President of famHQ, a tech-enabled family concierge service supporting working moms of color in their households and careers.   Upon graduating from Columbia University, Joyce began her professional career as a classroom teacher to elementary and high school students. A few years later, she became the youngest director for Beginning with Children Foundation in New York City, where she led the College Access and Success department.   Cadesca then attended The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth to earn an MBA degree in General Management. She then moved into full-time corporate positions within operations, HR, and finance functions at leading global financial institutions. However, at the height of the pandemic in 2020, Joyce switched career paths back into the nonprofit education sector to leave her mark by paying it forward to future rising leaders of color.   What began as dedication to supporting underrepresented students evolved into a wider inquiry around equity. While Joyce's current focus is to support moms of color in the workplace, she believes that leveraging an equity lens is core to developing strategy, no matter the industry.    Outside of work, Joyce has volunteered as a board member with the Child Care Council of Westchester in New York, and as co-chair of the Tuck Association of Diverse Alumni at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Joyce lives in the greater Philadelphia area with her son.   *** http://www.famhq.org @famhqconcierge https://www.linkedin.com/company/famhq/

Experiences, like umami flavors, can be difficult to pin down. Both ideas transcend words, so how do you define them? How do you measure them? How do you help leaders and customers understand the value? In this episode, we are joined by Aga Szóstek, Ph.D. a strategic experience designer and author of "The Umami Strategy” as we discuss how to create experiences that are not just memorable, but powerfully impactful.   In This Episode:    [04:08] Why did Aga name her book The Umami Strategy? [07:50] What drove Aga to focus on experience strategy? [13:59] Why vision is one of the most challenging elements of the strategic cycle.   [16:51] Most companies do not incorporate this experience into their overall vision.   [20:42] Why brand image is often prioritized over the brand’s experience.   [22:13] What are “edges” and how are they used to make a brand stand out?   [27:52] How companies measure experience metrics.   [37:14] Aga’s secret for experience measurement that more companies should focus on.   [40:42] What designing a new kind of business book was like for Aga.     Key Takeaways:    A meaningful experience vision will drive a strong sense of purpose for the customer. Feeling of purpose, doing something with you contributes to something higher order Companies must also be clear about how they emotionally differentiate themselves from competitors. Expectation divided by experience equals memory.     Bio:    Aga Szóstek, Ph.D. is a strategic experience designer and author of The Umami Strategy: Stand Out by Mixing Business with Experience Design. For the past two decades, she worked at the forefront of combining design, technology, and business. Her approach inspired many organizations to bet on experiences as their market differentiator. When not consulting, Aga designs experiential tools called Seed Cards and co-hosts a podcast: Catching The Next Wave.   https://agaszostek.com/en

The pandemic has influenced every aspect of how we deliver customer experiences. We are joined today by experience strategy pioneers Colin Shaw and Joseph D. Pine to make predictions about what the new normal will look like… and recommendations about what it should look like. Will 2022 be the year today’s companies step forward into the future or will they stay stuck in the past?     In This Episode:    [03:39] Joe and Colin share why people are listening to experts that cultivate digital services and experiences.   [08:52] How Colin and Joe define “experiences.” [13:37] Colin and Joe discuss “experience strategy.”   [17:21] What companies are missing the key element of experience strategy? [19:33] How the American Customer Satisfaction Index can shed light on how many companies actively pursue or actively ignore progress in customer satisfaction.   [29:35] Are companies approaching industry change with the wrong mindset? [34:27] Where will customers go from here?   [37:15] Colin describes the elements of what he labels “Customer Science.” [42:59] Joe and Colin share their New Year's Resolutions for their work in 2022.     Key Takeaways:    The pandemic has been a catalyst for companies to review their business models.  The time for companies to define their new mindset is now.   Between the years 2010 and 2019, only 30% of organizations improved their customer satisfaction.  That means that 70% of organizations’ customer satisfaction either declined or remained flat.   Customer experience is still in its infancy.  Perhaps the pandemic will be what nudges it into maturity.   The future of customer satisfaction will depend on both companies and customers.  We all have a choice to go back to the way things were before, with mediocre experiences, or to move forward and build new standards and expectations.     Bio: Colin Shaw & Joseph D. Pine   Colin is an original pioneer of 'Customer Experience.' LinkedIn has recognized him as one of the 'World's Top 150 Business Influencers', where he has 290,000 followers. As the Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC, his Customer experience consulting company has been recognized by the Financial Times as 'one of the leading management consultancies for the last three years in a row. Colin is the co-host of the highly successful Intuitive Customer podcast, which is rated in the top 5% of all podcasts by BuzzSprout.   Joseph Pine II is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and management advisor to Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial start-ups. He is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping businesses conceive and design new ways of adding value to their economic offerings. In 2020 Mr. Pine and his partner James H. Gilmore re-released their groundbreaking book The Experience Economy: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money with many new ideas, frameworks, and exemplars plus a new Preview to their best-selling 1999 book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater; Every Business a Stage. The book demonstrates how goods and services are no longer enough; what companies must offer today are experiences – memorable events that engage each customer in an inherently personal way. It further shows that in today’s Experience Economy companies now compete against the world for the time, attention, and money of individual customers. 

What will it take for in-person retailers to remain successful in a world increasingly dominated by Amazon? In two words: Transformative Experiences! In this episode we offer predictions and guidance for retailers who are ready to earn the economic power of guiding their customers on meaningful and impactful transformational journeys.    In This Episode:    [02:00] What exactly is the Transformation Economy? [03:32] Where Transformations fit within the Experience Economy as described by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore [04:36] Dave reflects on an article he co-wrote called The New You Business: How to Compete on Personal Transformations for the Harvard Business Review.   [06:20] How does understanding people’s wish for transformation influence how companies think about jobs to be done?   [09:50] Which retailers are currently doing well with Transformations? [16:57] We make suggestions for ways Home Depot could successfully compete in the Transformation Economy.  [33:43] What it is going to take for in-person retail to stick around in the world of Amazon.   [34:05] Here is a video Dave and Aransas made with Joe Pine to help you dig deeper into the concept of transformational jobs within the retail industry.  https://www.stonemantel.co/hbr-article   Key Takeaways:    77% of consumers tried new shopping habits in 2021.   Experiences drive a greater economic value.  People are more willing to invest in them.   Retailers need to know what role they are going to play to help people transform their customers’ lives.   Companies that focus on the progressive journeys of their customers rather than just the spending aspect tend to build more trust with their customers.  

Veteran researcher and pharmacist Kevin Asher knows the pharmaceutical industry inside out.  Today he joins us to discuss innovative digital solutions that were born during the pandemic, industry breakthroughs, and the patient data powering the most valuable patient experiences.     In This Episode:    [03:49] How has the pharmaceutical industry’s focus shifted over the last sixteen years?  What has changed?   [06:58] Kevin shares what he believes is the biggest area of growth for the pharmaceutical industry.   [07:55]  An industry breakthrough for treating chronic musculoskeletal pain has just been licensed by the FDA.   [09:00] How can patient care be improved through digital solutions?   [10:01] What is inspiring Pharma to make these shifts after many years of the same approaches to patient care?   [15:00] Dave touches on how regulated our healthcare system is and how technology is challenging the system.   [17:47] Kevin answers the question, “Why would pharma need to collect data about patients using their products?”   [27:01] How have collaborative studies on patient experience affected how new clinical trials are being designed? [33:00] How has the pandemic challenged the status quo of the patient experience?     Key Takeaways:    The thinking behind patient care no longer focuses on a magic pill or magic injection, but rather on collaborative studies on patient experience.   Digital interventions are meant to create more access to resources for patients and consumers within the healthcare industry.   The pandemic has opened up many doors for the healthcare system to rethink some out of date regulations and systems to help modernize the patient experience.     Bio: Kevin Asher   Kevin Asher is a UK registered pharmacist who has spent the last 16 years in the Pharmaceutical Industry, primarily in the Medical departments of the business focused on generating, interpreting and communicating clinical data.  Since 2019 he has been focusing on how digital solutions can improve patient care and result in better communications with healthcare practitioners.