The CX Leader Podcast | A resource for customer experience leaders

Host Steve Walker welcomes back guest Dereck Mobley, associate vice president at Walker, to share some stores of companies that were proactive and innovative in their approach to customer experience as a response to the pandemic.

The customer experience space has experienced a "renaissance" in recent years but now there's a new practice that seems to be taking the spotlight: experience management. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Drew Hall, vice president of advisory services and certified customer experience professional, for a discussion on how experience management - or "XM" - is a more holistic way to view how the customer experience is affected by the experiences of ALL aspects of the organization. 

Producer Chris Higgins highlights some of the best "take home value" from guests during the COVID-19 series of podcasts, giving CX leaders advice they can put into practice right away, improving their customer experience.

There can be many cogs in the machine that is customer experience, and making certain they all align is important if that “machine” is to function correctly. Host Steve Walker and guest Ted Bernard, a managing principal at Invantage Group, discuss how making certain the many pieces of CX, like customer support, align with your overall customer experience strategy.

Utilities are a vital part of everyday living in modern times: it’s our power, heat, communication, and, of course, our source of water, which is the only utility consumable by humans. This presents a different level of complexity and challenges for a company preparing and treating water for customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Georgetta Parisi, vice-president for customer operations at Aqua, an Essential utility company that provides water and wastewater services to more than 3 million people across 8 states. They discuss the importance of empathy when providing critical products and services to customers.

Companies around the world are having to adjust their operations in response to COVID-19, and customer experience leaders are finding that you cannot continue in a “business as usual” mentality. CX programs need to adapt along with the overall business. While their toolbox might be fairly well-stocked, these unprecedented times are leaving some CX pro’s and executives frustrated on next steps, wondering how to continue to collect insights and feedback while not appearing insensitive to the current global situation. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Brian Stucki, an executive vice president and general manager of Customer Experience Business at Qualtrics, a leading experience management platform, to discuss how companies need to step back from focusing on metrics and look to the "human side" during a crisis.

CX leaders today are having to make critical decisions on whether they should bother customers for feedback or find other ways to gather insights. Luckily there are tools in our CX toolbox that can help CX pros collect feedback, and unstructured voice of the customer is one of those tools. Host Steve Walker welcomes Cary Cusumano, a certified customer experience professional and principal client partner in customer experience design for Verizon to discuss ways to reconstruct the customer journey without using surveys or other potentially intrusive practices.

CX leaders are often tasked with managing change throughout the company in order to create an exceptional customer experience, and building relationships is key to helping manage that change. But when life is disrupted on a global scale, it's critical that everyone in the company trusts each other to make certain the customer's experience is not sidelined. Host Steve Walker welcomes guest Stuart Gilchriest, a certified customer experience professional with Hertz, the global car rental company, for a discussion on how taking the time to building relationships within the company can help in times of crisis.

Companies are often hesitant to actively seek feedback during crisis situations and that can affect your customer listen programs. But there are ways in which employees can be a source of customer insights. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Dr. Troy Powell, vice president of strategy as Walker, to discuss how a voice of the customer through the employee program, or "VOCE," can continue to provide a means to listen to customers without actively soliciting feedback from customers.

Businesses and organizations are facing a new operational reality that affects customers and employees, and as a CX professional, you and your company need to be prepared to effectively manage crisis situations. Host Steve Walker welcomes Jennifer Dzwonar, a partner at Borshoff, a PR agency known for their work in crisis and community relations, and discuss how CX professionals can help communicate with customers during difficult times.