The Frictionless Experience

Learn how Amit Singh from Verizon doubles sales by putting the customer first. Explore creating frictionless customer journeys, optimizing digital experiences, and driving business growth through customer listening and data analysis.

The podcast discusses the impact of marketing, seasonality, functionality, design, and speed on digital experiences. Guests share insights on driving revenue, understanding user experience, and blending physical and digital elements. Key topics include marketing KPIs, overcoming friction, and creating frictionless user experiences.

Jason Abdo, Senior Manager of Product Management at HD Supply, talks about making product management accessible to everyone, using metrics to understand product performance, creating and optimizing digital products, and uncovering opportunities for mobile app experiences. The discussion also dives into the dynamics of web vs. native apps, embracing change for long-term success, balancing user experience with business priorities, and exploring product management as a career.

Geoff Colon, Senior Director of Digital Marketing at Dell, discusses the power of data-driven design and its impact on user experiences. Topics include: designing user experiences, experimenting with unconventional ideas, understanding customer needs, optimizing user-centric digital experiences, and humanizing customer experiences to build trust and loyalty.

Increase Productivity and Unlock the Power of a Frictionless Employee Experience.In this episode of The Frictionless Experience, we have the pleasure of hearing from Dennis Perpetua, Global CTO of Digital Workplace Services at Kyndryl.With a workforce of 90,000 employees, Dennis knows the employee experience has to be top of mind in leading a large organization. Why? Because there is a causal relationship between employee experience and customer experience.Dennis shares his decades’ long expertise and findings on how the employee experience correlates to productivity, financial performance, and overall business metrics. Dennis takes us through his approach to improving the employee experience and what aspects you should focus on to create a digital workplace that enables customer success and leads to financial growth. Join us as we discuss:Prioritizing the employee experience for business successEliminate friction in the employee experience for a more productive workplaceConvincing C-Suite leadership to invest in the employee experienceUsing AI as a way to improve both the Consumer and Employee Experiences

On this episode of The Frictionless Experience, Joe Walker, Head of B2C Marketing Analytics and Data Platforms at Equifax, lets us in on his secret to removing digital friction and going from disbelief to changing minds with unbelievable data.Joe shares his experience crunching data, leveraging technology, and the power of curiosity to create, collaborate, and innovate within an organization.We discuss the journey of unraveling data and key metrics, and the importance of testing, to overcome skepticism in data and convince leadership to rally behind the user experience.Learn how keen attention to “unknown unknowns” (unseen friction with far-reaching impact) can overhaul your digital performance and supercharge the customer experience. Joe also reveals crucial instances where detailed data analyses have worked wonders, which include website optimization and major updates to single web pages that significantly impacted revenue. Join us as we discuss:Using data to uncover unknown issues, informing leadership, and strategic planning.The importance of tracking the customer journey.The need for a personalized, automated approach to digital experience.Instilling a culture of curiosity in your workspace and the urgency of always asking “why”.

If you are not finding pain points and understanding the user experience, then you’re basically throwing up a Hail Mary when it comes to having a successful user experience. In this episode of The Frictionless Experience we have the pleasure of hearing from Paul Stonick, Vice President of SCADpro at Savannah College of Art and Design. Paul walks us through how to create innovative, user-centric experiences through high-impact Design, one of the Five Friction Forces. Paul discusses SCADpro, a program where exceptionally talented students and industry professionals find creative and inventive design solutions to real-world business challenges for some of the world’s most influential brands, including Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, and Chick-fil-A. The conversation continues sharing different examples of brand creative, visual and UX design delivering compelling, frictionless experiences and significant business value. Blending physical and digital (i.e. kiosks, mobile apps, curbside pick-up), we discuss what “phygital” means in the customer experience, and provide examples and strategies so you can propel your customer experience.Join us as we discuss:The future of “phygital” to create meaningful, frictionless customer experiences.The crucial role of strategic design to foster user trust and business success.The essential ingredients to encourage unconventional design thinking in corporate environments for brands of all sizes, across any industry.

Great deals are happening online during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but the BEST deals are actually happening during other parts of the year. In this episode of The Frictionless Experience we have the pleasure of hearing from Mike Lively, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Slickdeals. Mike walks us through the significance of Seasonality, one of the Five Friction Forces, in the online shopping experience.With over 10 million monthly users, Slickdeals ranks among the top 10 most-visited sites during peak shopping seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With so much site volume and business at stake, Mike preaches load testing, monitoring, and preparation to continuously optimize the customer experience, not only during seasonal bursts, but consistently throughout the year.Mike shares the proactive strategies his team has mastered to prepare with other departments in the company for peak periods and how they leverage testing and user behavior analysis to create personalized, frictionless experiences.Join us as we discuss:How retailers and eCommerce sites can get ready for holiday and seasonal shopping days, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Amazon Prime Day. Ways to prevent third-party tags from causing costly performance issues and customer friction to ensure reliable user experiences.The value of ongoing testing and planning to convert more visitors and retain customers throughout the entire year. The significance of Core Web Vitals in optimizing website performance and user experiences.

If you don't know where you're going to spend your next marketing dollar, then you don't fully understand your business. In this episode of The Frictionless Experience, we have the pleasure of hearing from Mark Friedman, an expert in digital and eCommerce strategy and host of The Marketing Playbook podcast. With an impressive background working with and consulting for renowned direct-to-consumer brands, including Eddie Bauer, Brooks Brothers, Steve Madden, Speedo, Calvin Klein and Hanover Direct., we dive deep into Marketing, one of the Five Friction Forces, and its impact on the customer experience.Mark takes us through his fascinating career journey, how he’s revolutionized marketing and business strategies for the digital age and drives eCommerce demand.Join us as we discuss:Tracking marketing performance and attribution in today’s multi-channel environment.Challenges and opportunities to handle peak traffic periods and optimize customer lifetime value.Implications of heavy promotions on customer perception and the friction that can arise in the return process.Key insights on directing website traffic, load testing, and the significance of post-order monetization and customer retention efforts

Is it more important to quickly execute site speed optimizations or focus on getting them right before launch for a better customer experience?Join us and Kenny Goldshvartz, Digital Strategy and Solutions guru at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, as we dive into how he approaches Speed, one of the Five Friction Forces in digital experiences.According to Kenny, site performance is not just about Speed, but about balancing the Five Friction Forces and reducing digital friction to create seamless, reliable experiences. We explore the impact of Speed on bookings (a critical metric in the tourism and hospitality space to maximize occupancy rates and average booking value), the customer journey, and conversion rates. Come along as we discuss:Measuring friction, site performance, and user experience through A/B Testing, Core Web Vitals, and analytics.Evaluating different experiences on desktop and mobile, and the challenges of blending digital and physical experiences to meet customer expectations.Working together across an organization to identify and resolve friction, turning finger-pointing into transparent cross-team collaboration.If you enjoyed Part 2: Speed in our series on the Five Friction Forces, stay tuned for Part 3: Marketing.