SIMPLE brand With Matt Lyles

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Rick DeLisi, author of Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for an On-Screen World!Rick’s an author, a speaker, and a customer-experience expert who helps companies achieve greater customer loyalty. And he’s one of the co-authors of The Effortless Experience.Today, Rick’s back at it with his latest book - Digital Customer Service.The importance of crafting your customer experience centers around how you make your customer feel throughout every interaction. But in a digital-first world, you’ve got to make sure you invest in the right technology and the right technology processes. Delivering an outstanding customer experience today isn’t just about the psychology or just about the technology - it’s about having the right marriage of psychology and technology baked into the experience. And Rick’s lessons help you learn just how to do that so that you’re always able to meet your customers where they are.Some of the topics we discuss include:In a ME-centric culture, you should treat each individual customer like the unique person they areHow customers define their effort in a customer experience is ⅓ what they actually do and ⅔ how they feelCustomers are exponentially more loyal to a company when they feel like the company is an advocate for themWhy the term “Customer Experience” is a monster noun that has a wide variety of meaningsThe impression that customers are left with following direct contact with a company’s frontline is one of the most important in the customer experience so make it countThe real definition of “meeting your customer where they are” is not what you think it isThe more your customer has agency in the customer experience, the higher their positive feelings will be about the experienceWhen brands instill a Digital Customer Service model, it creates a Win-Win-Win-Win situationRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Rick's LinkedIn profileRick's book - Digital Customer Service: Transforming Customer Experience for an On-Screen WorldRick's book - The Effortless Experience

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Melina Palmer, author of What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell You!Melina is CEO of The Brainy Business, where she provides behavioral economics training and consulting to businesses all around the world.She's the host of The Brainy Business podcast. And she's the bestselling author of two books devoted to behavioral economics. In her latest book, What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You, she helps readers better understand how the human brain works and how the human brain adapts to change. But, more importantly, Melina explains how your employees adapt to change.Melina and I talk through her roadmap to help you reduce any friction related to instilling organizational change. We also explore how to ensure that you can get your employees on board with any change in the simplest way possible.Some of the topics we discuss include:Why it’s difficult for leaders to instill and implement change in their organizationsLeaders need to consider all the little changes their employees make, not just the big onesHow leaders can find out what drives and motivates their employeesInstead of eliminating biases, leaders should look for where they can work with existing biasesInvesting time upfront to look at the right problem will help you instill change more easilyHow you present change is just as important as how you develop the change, so you must take time to craft that communicationMelina’s “It’s Not About the Cookie” framework to help leaders deliver changeUsing simpler language to frame a change helps people more easily buy into change RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Melina's siteMelina's book - What Your Employees Need But Can't Tell YouMelina's book - What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell YouMelina's podcast - The Brainy Business

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Sarah Panus, host of the Marketing With Empathy podcast! You’ve likely heard about how valuable storytelling is in your content. But too many marketers today throw around the term "storytelling" without really knowing HOW to use storytelling well.Sarah’s a brand storytelling strategist, and she’s the owner of Kindred Speak consulting where she helps communicators and content marketers create more meaningful connections with their customers - all through the power of empathy-driven brand storytelling.Sarah and I talk about the common mistakes marketers make when they attempt storytelling. And we talk about the right ways to use storytelling in your content in a way that actually resonates and connects with your customers. Sarah's got a pretty simple framework that helps you do just that.Some of the topics we discuss include:Why brand storytelling is the most ideal way to stand out against all of the clutter your customers seeHow to approach brand storytellingYour brand is not the hero of your storySarah’s Focus Empathy Data framework simplifies the storytelling processThe ideal way to mine the best storiesHow to use empathy filters to instill empathy into your content and storytellingHow Search Engine Optimization (SEO) insights can inform the stories you should createHow to use empathy the right way in creating contentHow empathy-driven storytelling can actually help brands save money RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Sarah's siteSarah's podcast - Marketing With Empathy

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Donna Cutting, author of Employees First!: Inspire, Engage, and Focus on the Heart of Your Organization!Donna is the CEO of Red Carpet Learning. She helps brands create cultures of happy, engaged people who deliver exceptional customer service.And she’s the bestselling author of three books devoted to delivering red carpet experiences including her latest - Employees First!: Inspire, Engage and Focus on the Heart of Your Organization.Donna and I talk about how rolling out a red-carpet experience to your employees is just as important as the experience you deliver to your customers. And we talk about some of the key ways to ensure you’re attracting, onboarding, and retaining top talent  - all based on the employee experience you deliver.Some of the topics we discuss include: Organizational culture, employee experience, and customer experience must all work togetherIf you want your employees to deliver a red-carpet experience to your customers, you need to deliver it to them so they know what it looks and feels likeYour goal should be for the customer to feel happier than before they interacted with youHow leaders can instill a sense of purpose in their employeesToday’s employees are looking for something that is bigger than themselvesYou can tap into your organization’s greater purpose no matter your industry or productHow you can compensate your employees fairly without breaking the bankIt’s valuable to listen to and collaborate with your employees to craft the employee experienceThe best ways to listen to your employees are literally getting into a room with them and talkingThe ideal way to attract new employees to come into your organization is by treating them like customersOnboarding new employees is a process that’s longer and more important than you thinkRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Donna's siteDonna's book - Employees First!Red Carpet Culture Club

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Stan Phelps, author of Purple Goldfish 2.0!Stan’s the founder of Purple Goldfish think tank.And Stan’s the bestselling author of the Goldfish series of books. That’s 13 books that focus on all the various ways to help brands drive differentiation, increase loyalty, and promote positive word of mouth.If you want to brand out from the crowd, it's not going to happen through your product or pricing. It's going to happen through the differentiated experience you deliver.And a differentiated experience isn't just about what you say. It's about WHAT you do and, more importantly, HOW you do it and WHY you do it.Some of the topics we discuss include: The companies that win don’t put their customer first. They focus on engaged employees to deliver a remarkable customer experienceThe same five reasons that drive a goldfish to grow are the same reasons your business will growHow the New Orleans creole concept of lagniappe can help you differentiate your brandThere’s no such thing as meeting customer expectationsHow to understand our customer’s expectations and how to exceed themImproving the customer experience through gaps or opportunitiesOffering free samples to existing customers is more valuable than offering them to potential customersImproving the customer experience through gaps or opportunitiesThe missed opportunities that too many brands don’t take with referrals and word-of-mouth marketing RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Stan's siteStan's book - Purple Goldfish 2.0 Stan on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Alex Demczak, co-author of The Sale: The Number One Strategy to Build Trust and Create Success!Alex is a former SEC quarterback for the Missouri Tigers. He’s also a top keynote speaker and trainer for the Jon Gordon Companies. Alex and I discuss his lessons all around instilling integrity and building trust. Not only do we talk about how to build the right habits to instill integrity into your personal brand as a leader, we also discuss how you can help your employees build those habits too.Some of the topics we discuss include:Why delayed gratification is so valuable for being excellent in the long-termHow integrity has changed in culture recentlyYour life is more fulfilling when you live your life with integrity in place59% of people that leave their job do so because they dislike their bossGen Z would rather take a job with less money if it’s part of an organization where they truly believe in the mission and valuesIntegrity in leadership is a key driver in employee retentionThe misconception that most people have about integrityThe best leaders lead from the inside-out vs outside-inStrategies to instill so that you don’t veer away from integrity as you grow in your careerAccountability from others is key to staying on a track of integrityThe steps you can take to build trust back if you’ve lost itRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Alex's siteAlex's book - The Sale: The Number One Strategy to Build Trust and Create Success Streamline Books

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Mike Michalowicz, author of Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself!Mike was on the show back in episode 45 where we discussed how to differentiate your brand so you can grab and keep your customer’s attention.But in this episode, we’re talking about lessons to help you simplify your business in a way that can make the most impact.Mike's a keynote speaker, a best-selling author, a former Wall Street Journal columnist, and a business makeover specialist for MSNBC. Simon Sinek calls him “the top contender for the patron saint of entrepreneurs.”Mike and I discuss his simple, counterintuitive approach to creating efficiency that frees you up to pay attention to the things that matter - in life and in your work. So regardless if you’re leading a team of one, a team of one thousand, or somewhere in between, you need to have an organization that gets things done while you do what only you should do - the strategic, needle-moving, drive-the-business-forward type of work. And that’s just what you’ll learn from Mike’s lessons from Clockwork.Some of the topics we discuss include:The right way to delegate so that you’re truly freed up for the work you need to doThe importance of defining and focusing on one core function in your businessThe “superhero syndrome” and why it’s so important to be able to remove yourself from the business for the sake of your teamWhy a 4-week vacation is actually valuable to your business and teamWhy the method of “capturing” your team’s processes is more valuable than SOPsThe 5 dimensions of your team’s workRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Mike's siteMike's book - Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself 

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Nate Brown, founder of CX Accelerator!Nate’s the Senior Director of Customer Experience for Arise Virtual Solutions. But beyond that, he's one of the biggest experts in the Customer Experience industry.I say he’s an expert, but Nate proclaims himself more of a perpetual student of the world's greatest experiences who simply shares his learnings with the world.And in line with his nature of sharing his learnings, Nate’s the founder and head of CX Accelerator - an online community of customer experience professionals all sharing their learnings, guidance, and mentorship with each other.Nate and I discuss having a frictionless, seamless customer experience that helps your brand stand out. And we also discuss how you can instill a customer experience mindset into every team in your organization, even the non-customer-facing teams.Some of the topics we discuss include:The customer service issues your customers bring up help you decide how to shape your customer experienceThe difference between customer experience and customer serviceHow friction points in the customer journey are usually created “upstream”How leaders can help all teams understand the entire customer journey and be better aligned with other teamsBrands that focus on short-term success vs long-term customer relationships will fail in the long runWhat The Lord of the Rings teaches us to break down silos and create a “team of one” to be a customer-centric brandHow to ensure your entire customer journey is a seamless journeyHow to use a Voice of the Customer system to understand your customerHow creating and managing a customer community can help you gain customer insights.RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Nate's websiteThe Ultimate Customer Experience PrimerNate's Twitter

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Dennis Geelen, creator of The Zero In Formula!Rarely do we hear anyone talking about an equal and integrated focus on being both customer-centric and innovative. But when you look at some of the most successful brands today, that’s their focus.Beyond just saying you’re going to focus on being customer-centric or innovative, you must be intentional, and it takes planning down through every layer of every team in your organization.Dennis’s Zero In Formula is the plan to help you do just that. Dennis is a customer experience and innovation speaker and consultant. And he’s the bestselling author of the book, The Zero In Formula.Some of the topics we discuss include:You need to get your purpose, direction, and systems defined before hiring and focusing on your peopleEvery organization needs to solve indifference in their customers and their employeesYou can solve customer and employee indifference by being equally customer-centric and innovativeHow companies tend to lose their customer-centric focus as they growShould Customer Experience (CX) be owned across a company or owned within one team? How to instill empathy to really know your customersHow to figure out what a customer needs instead of giving them what they wantFive principles to help you instill innovation into your teamWhy diversity and inclusion are valuable for innovationThe traits and behaviors to hire for in order to ensure your team is customer-centricSteps you can take to know if your organization is customer-centricRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Dennis's siteDennis's book - The Zero In FormulaDennis's courseDennis's tools and resources to build a customer-centric and innovative businessCustomer Camp Clarity Call Cheat Sheets

When you think about the best ways to lead and retain people, one of the primary strategies should be to be nice. And, it’s not as easy as just thinking you’re nice and being done with it.No, there’s actually a method to it. And this week’s guest actually created the method - it’s called the Nice Method. And our guest is Dave Delaney!Dave’s a keynote speaker, author, corporate trainer, and host of The Nice Podcast.And Dave’s the founder and head of Future Forth, where he helps leaders of fast-growing companies retain talent, improve communication and strengthen their culture.It turns out Dave’s an expert on how leaders can strengthen their team culture - all by being nice.Dave and I discuss lessons from his Nice Method that helps leaders learn how to foster communication mastery and build a strong culture in today’s complex environment - the nice way.  And we also get into his improv comedy background to discuss how improv can help you grow a stronger, more engaged team.RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Dave's siteDave's ebook - The Nice Method (Use code "SIMPLE" for a free download!)Dave's blog - Bring the NiceDave's podcast - The Nice Podcast