The CX Cast

We come to you live this week from Forrester’s annual CX Summit EMEA conference in London, England. This year's summit is all about the gap between brand and customer experience and between strategy and execution with a dive deep into metrics and journeys. We capture some attendee and speaker voices discussing the research shared during the event. Featuring: Multiple speakers and attendees: Hanneke Mulder (Xerox) Shawn Stanyer (Bank of Valletta) Jorissa Neutelings (ABN AMRO) Nils Schmeling (NECXT) Magdalena Suchanek (Bank Millenium) Lovette Onunuga (FIRS) Isabella Grant and Ben Cooke (UCL students) Show Notes: We come to you live this week from Forrester’s annual CX Summit EMEA conference in London, England. This year's summit is all about the gap between brand and customer experience and between strategy and execution with a dive deep into metrics and journeys. We capture some attendee and speaker voices discussing the research shared during the event. You’ll hear:  About attendees' event highlights and takeaways. What's top-of-mind for CX practitioners.   Learn more about Forrester’s CX events here. And check out Martin's post about the Experience Room to get an impression of the props and stations.

Frontier Communications emerged from bankruptcy in 2021. That bankrupcy was the result of a broken customer experience sitting on terribly broken and outdated systems. It's new CEO launched four priorities to refocus the organization: Build fiber, sell fiber, improve customer service, become operationally efficient. Frontier's Chief Customer Operations officer, Charlon McIntosh tells the CX transformation story, with winning examples of stakeholder collaboration and guerilla CX.

Angelina and Martin are joined by returning guests Maxie Schmidt and Dipanjan Chatterjee to explore the fascinating psychology and data behind consumer purchasing decisions. Drawing from their latest Forrester research, we unpack why people say they buy versus why they actually do—and how brands can use this knowledge to better serve their customers. We discuss: Why traditional surveys fall short and how to uncover real motivations How the MaxDiff method can be used to identify primary, secondary & situational purchase drivers Cross-country and category insights and the four buyer segments   To illustrate, purchase driver rankings for cosmetics and beauty and purchase driver importance for cosmetics/beauty in France are shown below. Purchase Driver Ranking In Eight Countries: Cosmetics/Beauty Purchase Driver Importance For Cosmetics/Beauty in France

Originally episode 147, this recording kicked off a theme we've continued to cover: employee CX. Show Notes: Originally episode 147, this recording kicked off a theme we've continued to cover: employee CX. VP, Principal Analyst Maxie Schmidt and former CX Cast host Sam Stern dive into how incentivizing better CX scores encourages unintended behaviors, stepping into the shoes of employees who “game the system." The lesson: design the system carefully in the first place to encourage the right behaviors for better CX. Related content: 332: How To Set CX Metrics Goals - Forrester 147: Paying Employees For CX Is A Bad Idea (Part 1) - Forrester 148: Paying Employees For CX Is A Bad Idea (Part 2) - Forrester

This week, Principal Analyst Max Ball joins to explain the history and current state of AI in the contact center. Max highlights the immediate improvements brought on by AI and outlines areas where AI still has far to go. We also touch on the challenges faced by human agents and the confusion around terminology like "agentic" and "agents."

High-Tech firms operate in fiercely competitive and price-sensitive industries, making CX a potentially transformative differentiator — if implemented effectively. Principal Analyst Su Doyle joins us to share practical CX strategies tailored for high-tech firms, emphasizing the importance of aligning CX with business objectives, leveraging customer success programs, and adopting performance-focused approaches to drive growth and improve customer relationships.

All those reasons why customer obsession is too hard don’t matter. Customer experience wins business. VP, Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk explains how customer obsession is not just a goal, but a continuous practice that can lead to significant improvements in customer experience and business efficiency. She shares real world examples, challenges in measuring customer obsession, and future directions for the research. We discuss:  How customer obsession aligns with business strategy and operations  How mindsets need to shift for continuous practice  How to assess a firm’s customer obsession  Where to find insight to improve customer obsession practices  To learn more, join Shar for her keynote and much more interactive content at CX Summit North America.

Does a CX team’s position in the organization affect its influence? Principal Analyst Judy Weader shares insights from recent survey data and qualitative research, revealing that there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer. The placement of CX teams varies widely across different companies and industries, but organizational dynamics go beyond the org chart. The burden is on the CX leader to drive influence and flex with the nonlinear nature of CX maturity. Judy offers a decision-making framework to help organizations determine the best placement for their CX functions, emphasizing the role of executive sponsorship and the necessity for CX leaders to be proactive in their roles.

You don’t just manage, you lead. Managing the details of CX – execution, measurement, strategy – is crucial, but for you to truly succeed, you must lead your people to become customer-obsessed, empowered workers who understand and care about your customer’s outcomes.

Why should CX professionals care about brand experience (BX)? Forrester VP, Principal Analysts Dipanjan Chatterjee and Thomas Husson join the podcast to discuss the challenges organizations face in delivering a total experience and shed light on how BX can help drive growth.