CX Champions

This episode features an interview with Stacy Armijo, Chief Experience Officer at Amplify Credit Union. Amplify is a member-owned financial cooperative with more than 57,000 members and over $800 million in assets. They’ve been serving all 50 states since 1967. At Amplify, Stacy is in charge of Marketing, Communications and Social Impact. She also handles Retail, Payments & Operations, Human Resources and Training. She has over 20 years of professional experience in the industry. In this episode, Stacy explains how to build meaningful, impactful programs to create a job you love. She describes effective PR strategies, and what resources are most important for any company.Quotes*“I have a unique skill set in bringing the right words to the right ideas to make those ideas meaningful and impactful for others. And when I think about what combines all the things that I do, and the moments in my professional or personal world where I have felt like I really did something, like I really made an impact and it was unique and it was valuable, it can be boiled down to something sort of like that.”*“I think so often people underestimate what they do well. They tend to focus only on what they don't do well and how can they mitigate the liabilities of what they don't do well as opposed to, ‘I do this really well, how can I lean into that and make that more effective?’”*“In my career, I think about, ‘What is my current experience and does it satisfy all three Gs? Am I giving something? Do I feel like I'm contributing in a way that's meaningful and useful? Am I getting something? Is there something that I'm getting back in terms of what I'm learning and how I'm growing? And do I feel gratitude? Do I feel gratitude for the people I get to work with, for the compensation that I get to earn for all the opportunities that I have to be involved in things?’ And if I can say yes to all three Gs, I'm in the right place.”*“In my opinion, someone who is an effective public relations professional is good at anticipating the point of view of the people that they're interacting with. Understanding the messages that have meaning for them. And expressing them in a way that gets somebody to move to action. In essence, that's what a good PR person can do. That's not different from what a good customer service person can do.”*“I see an opportunity to be more authentic and to connect to something that's more real for people. And then to take the personality of the institution and carry that through.”*“Money is not your most precious resource. It is attention. Attention is your most precious resource in an organization. And so to be able to say ‘great idea, not today,’ is something that I do all the time.”Time Stamps[00:03:17] Stacy’s elevator pitch[00:11:39] How Stacy’s career started[00:14:55] The overlap between PR and CX[00:16:42] Making your work personal[00:22:31] Making the most of your resources[00:25:41] Designing online channels[00:31:09] Prioritizing digital customer service[00:35:23] The start of fee-free banking[00:40:26] The future of CX[00:47:08] Making the most of your strategyBioStacy is Chief Experience Officer with Amplify Credit Union, a $2B community financial institution based in Austin, Texas. At Amplify, her responsibilities include (1) Marketing, Communications and Social Impact; (2) Retail, including Branches, Contact Center, Wealth Management and Consumer Lending; (3) Payments & Operations; and (4) Human Resources and Training. She started her career in communications, having spent over 16 years at Pierpont Communications and working up from an account executive to EVP. She brings with her over 20 years of professional experience overall, and has also served as a Lecturer at the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at UT at Austin. There, she taught “Strategies in Public Relations.”Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksSee Stacy’s WebsiteLearn more about Amplify Credit UnionConnect with Larry on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Sarah Owen, Chief Product Officer at One Inc, the leading digital payments network in the insurance industry. Sarah joined One Inc. in 2021, and brings with her deep payments knowledge. She has more than 20 years of experience in leadership roles at First Data, Heartland Payment Systems, Vantiv, and TSYS. Sarah is also an inventor, having patented and served as co-inventor on several mobile and digital payments solutions. In other words, she’s a true payments expert. And in this episode, we’re learning from her about making a better product by putting customers front and center, identifying the moments that matter in your customer’s journey, and how One Inc. is at the forefront of a new age in the insurance industry.Quotes*”If you’re not solving problems for the customer, keeping the customer front and center, and ultimately improving their experience, then no one's going to buy your product.”*”Customer experience, from my perspective, is all about mapping out that customer journey to really understand the points that matter. What do you need to make sure that you get right? So it is about storytelling.”Time Stamps[2:23] How Sarah’s work-to-give mindset has shaped her career[5:19] What’s Sarah’s approach to customer experience[6:20] How did Sarah get into CX?[11:43] How low-code no-code helps with digital transformation[13:27] How is One-Inc a B2B2C company?[16:39] How Sarah identifies the moments that matter through customer journey mapping[19:21] How One Inc. is revolutionizing the insurance payments process[21:38] How legacy insurance companies operate, and why the established payments processes have lasted[25:49] How One Inc. uses tokenization to protect payment information[30:57] What does Sarah think about the future of payments?BioSarah Owen is Chief Product Officer at One Inc. Owen joined One Inc. in October of 2021 following a career driving product innovation, development and business transformation for payments. With increasing levels of responsibility, she has managed large product portfolios and built new products across card issuing, consumer loyalty and payment facilitator lines of business. For over two decades she has held senior roles at companies including First Data (Fiserv), Heartland (Global Payments), Vantiv (FIS) and she most recently served as lead for the Customer Engagement Portfolio for TSYS, a business unit of Global Payments. Owen combines her deep payments knowledge with a passion for helping clients transform their digital experiences and is a true champion of innovation, having patented and served as co-inventor for multiple mobile and digital payment solutions. Based in Atlanta, Sarah has also served as a mentor for TechStars and is an active volunteer in the local community.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Sarah on LinkedInLearn more about One Inc.Connect with Larry on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Jeff Newman, Manager of Customer Care for Porsche North America. He works to provide Porsche car customers with a best-in-class experience that aligns with Porsche’s 75-year history of brand excellence. In this episode, Jeff shares his leadership philosophy, and what he’s seen work over the course of his career. He also explains what makes a customer experience program successful, and how he’s built the program at Porsche.Quotes“I think that being an effective leader… it's the same arrows in the quiver, if you will. So whether it's in retail, whether it's in contact centers, or sales or service or tech support, you can still be a great leader. The same things that helped me be successful on the retail side was no different once I came over to the contact centers.”“It’s difficult to say that something is or isn't working if everybody's doing it in many different ways. So to me, one of the things I always like to do in a new role is asking if we have standard processes in place for a good 80% of what we do. So let's standardize what we're doing, and then we can go back and simply measure and say, is this working or is this not working?”“I am a huge proponent of quality assurance. It's something I am extremely passionate about. It's something I'm trying to finish a book on. But quality assurance in human behavior skills is something that I will never, ever, ever dictate with scripts.”“People can typically handle when changes are made, when they're being informed why. And so while I started out in the field, I always promised that if I ever became a corporate guy, that I would never be that person that's sitting in the ivory tower, sort of doing the regal wave to everybody. I'm never gonna be that person that's gonna let things happen to people without them being part of the process.”“To me, when you have a well-oiled quality program set up, a huge component of that is knowing the individuals. Everybody is a unique individual and you have to treat them as such.  It's the only way you're gonna be successful.”“[I have] this mantra, like everything that we do, whether it's building customer experience programs or agent programs or anything: how are we showing that we value your time?”Time Stamps[04:47] How Jeff got to where he is today[07:50] Jeff’s leadership philosophy[08:34] The importance of data[10:28] Standardizing customer service[17:26] Running a well-oiled program[20:48] How Jeff coaches[22:36] A customer field study[27:59] The importance of a purpose-driven brand[37:32] Jeff’s futureBioJeffrey Newman is Manager of Customer Care for Porsche Cars North America. He’s been with the company for 8 years, having started in April of 2015. Before Porsche, he served as Director of Customer Service for the Northeast Region for American Express. He has also held leadership roles at Windstream Communications, Alltel and Walmart. He has a B.S. in Marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Jeffrey on LinkedInLearn more about PCNAConnect with Larry on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Sarah Dekin, President and COO at Hometap, an equity-sharing company that invests in homes in exchange for a portion of the home's future value. Prior to her work at Hometap, Sarah served as CMO at Virgin Money and ZipCar as well as EVP of Strategic Marketing and Development for the House of Blues. And in this episode, Sarah shares what she’s learned about customer experience along her career path from the House of Blues to Hometap. She also talks about her key mentorships, knowing when to accept an opportunity, and how she’s blazing a trail in the homeowner experience at Hometap.Quotes*”I was working on strategy and planning, and we needed some help in business development. And business development is something I'd never done. And to be honest with you, negotiating in general is something that intimidated me a little bit. But it was probably because of that that I thought I should really take advantage of this opportunity and give it a try, even though it made me nervous. But I only did that because I knew that right behind me, [my mentor] Joe would be there. He wasn't gonna let me fail. And so I think for anyone who finds himself looking at an opportunity like that, definitely go for it.”*”The first point of contact for most of our homeowners is the website. And we believe in very simple, very straightforward [language], as transparent as possible. No buzzwords, no jargon, easily understandable phraseology and very transparent demonstrations of how the pricing works and lots of FAQs so that people can self-serve to the extent that they want. We have a very easy to use but robust scenario planner tool where our homeowners can change [different factors]. I think there's nothing better than actually interacting with the scenario rather than, you know, reading a multi-page document.”*”Whether it comes through in your digital experience or whether it comes through in the individuals with whom the homeowners interact, we do have a very homeowner-first mentality. We have homeowner values around respect, kindness, and empathy. And if you can have that as a core value not just for the frontline people, but for your product team, your designers, your engineers, and for your marketing team, those are going to mutually reinforce what will come out at the end as a very authentically kind and positive experience for the homeowner.”Time Stamps[1:40] Introducing Sarah Dekin, COO and President at Hometap[3:37] What did Sarah learn about CX at the House of Blues?[9:26] How did the House of Blues create its unique customer experience and build a name for itself in the industry?[11:22] When did Sarah know it was time to move on from the House of Blues after 10 years?[16:06] How did Sarah get involved with Zipcar, and how were they a disrupter in customer experience?[22:32] How did Sarah leverage Zipcar’s dedicated member base to help make important decisions?[24:20] How was Virgin Money pushing the envelope in online banking?[27:48] What is Hometap? And how are they providing an entirely new financial tool to homeowners?[34:42] Tell me more about the Hometap customer experienceBioSarah Dekin is the current Chief Operating Officer at Hometap. Sarah was previously with The Greene Turtle Sports Bar & Grille, Sarah Dekin Growth Company Executive and Advisor, Virgin Money, Zipcar, and House of Blues. Sarah has over 25 years of experience in marketing and strategic planning. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California. Sarah has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from Trinity College-Hartford. Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Sarah on LinkedInLearn more about HometapConnect with Larry on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio, a global leader in customer engagement platforms with a market cap of over $8.5 billion. Prior to leading global customer experience at Twilio, Glenn was co-founder of Appirio, a leading cloud consultancy and top global partner of Salesforce, Workday, and Google. And in this episode, Glenn discusses how to introduce IP into your company, the line between good and bad automation, and delivering on the basics of your customer promise so that you can broach more complex customer needs.Quotes*”There's no fast path to admiral or general in the army. The value of that is not just the respect you get from peers and teams, but also confidence. I would never wanna start my career in a position [that’s] too high… You've gotta keep your eye on the goal, [which] is to build experiences and build confidence. The career ladder comes. it will come by you excelling at your job, being a good teammate. But you don't want to come in on day one and be like, ‘How do I make my way to level 3, 4, 5, 6, 7?’”*”Where automation makes people's lives easier, you want it and you wanna push it. You shouldn't have to do anything other than text a message to a number to accomplish something. That's good automation. Then there's bad automation, which is annoying, which is marketing driven and non-consensual. When you're forced to talk to a chatbot instead of a human, because you can just tell they're trying to cut costs. That's an unnatural level of automation. It's not a customer experience-centric way to build.”*”One of the things Twilio talks about all the time is conversations with customers that start out as an automated conversation should be able to seamlessly drift into a live conversation and back, and be recognized as a single thread. That to me is one of the ultimate manifestations of customer engagement, where it crosses channels and feels like a continuous conversation. That's one of the things we preach at Twilio. Customer engagement, meeting customers where they want to be met, not where you want to meet.”*“I kind of think of this as like Maslow's hierarchy of needs translated into technology or for any company. This is a theory that says that if you don't take care of someone's basic needs, you haven't really earned the right to their attention for some higher order stuff. For humans, the basic needs are shelter, food, and oxygen. And now you can start talking about higher level things like fulfillment and satisfaction. So at Twilio, the version of that is the basic needs of our customers. Their messages need to reach their recipients. Their messages need to comply with requirements so they're not blocked or filtered by carriers. You need to be able to send the volume of messages… If we don't take care of those basics, we haven't earned the right to talk about improving your marketing strategy, improving your ROI on customer engagement. All that stuff comes later. And that's really a lot of the Twilio value proposition, but we don't have the right to talk about that until we handle the basics.”Time Stamps[0:16] Introducing Glenn Weinstein, Chief Customer Officer at Twilio[2:51] How did Glenn get started in the tech industry? [4:50] Learn about Glenn’s experience in the Naval Academy and how his education there led him into a tech career[8:01] What was it like consulting for Lockheed Martin in the 90s?[10:41] Why having a strong technical background is an advantage as a leader in software companies[12:47] What the Navy taught Glenn about running a SaaS company[14:32] How did Glenn come to co-found Appirio?[17:32] How did Glenn and his co-founders know when it was time to sell Appirio?[20:45] How did Glenn build the skills to run his own business?[25:36] Where is the correct balance between human interaction and automation?[27:21] How do you decide where to experiment in the customer experience?[33:38] Glenn’s advice for offering a world class customer experienceBioGlenn represents the voice of the customer, with responsibility for Twilio’s technical support, customer success, customer experience, professional services, and systems integrator partner teams. Before Twilio, Glenn was co-founder of Appirio, a leading cloud consultancy and top global partner of Salesforce, Workday, and Google, and he has also led consulting and support teams at numerous public software companies. Glenn received a BS in Computer Science from the U.S. Naval Academy, and an MS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. HGS is a digital customer experience leader dedicated to delivering winning customer interactions at scale that are prompt, personal, and positive. We continuously transform, optimize, and grow enterprises to exceed ever-rising customer expectations. HGS provides our clients with the right talent and technologies needed to champion every moment. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Glenn on LinkedInCheck out TwilioConnect with Larry on LinkedInCheck out HGS

Well, hello! We’re gonna guess that you opened your podcasts today and saw CX Champions. And you thought to yourself, “CX Champions? I didn’t subscribe to CX Champions.” And you would be right.We took CX Detectives and are remixing it. We’re doing our OWN spin on customer experience. So welcome!During the show, we’ll be interviewing disruptors in the CX space. People who aren’t afraid to challenge the status quo and get things done on THEIR OWN terms.In each episode, you’ll hear deep insight into how they built their careers in CX by helping some of the most iconic brands in the world engage their customers.CX Champions is an UNSCRIPTED masterclass on how YOU can stand out, think differently, and re-imagine what a Customer Experience could look like in a digital-first world.So settle back, grab a drink, and get down with CX Champions on your podcast player of choice. LinksConnect with Larry on LinkedIn

This episode features an interview with Dutta Satadip, Chief Customer Officer at ActiveCampaign, a leading cloud software company offering a category-defining customer experience automation platform. Dutta is a tech industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, having held leadership roles at companies like Pinterest and Google. In this episode, Dutta talks about understanding the ins and outs of customer pain points, building mutual accountability with customers, and key automation techniques that help hook customers.Quotes*”One of the things we did was to start something called an accelerated onboarding. It's not optional to attend it. We are gonna reserve spots for you. We give you a slot. That has been a good way for people to create a little bit of mutual accountability [with clients]." *”Sometimes people are just putting stuff in [their] cart and are not gonna come back. In 2021, we did a study and customers had left over 76.4 million dollars of revenue in their shopping carts. So we're talking about a [potential] customer who we haven't recovered. [Our clients] have used automation to remind people, ‘Hey, you have left this in the cart. Here’s a little bit of a coupon.’ We see almost 14% recovery [with them]. As a business, if you're not employing these automation techniques, you are leaving customers on the table and as a consequence, money on the table.”*Having a good top line mission and a leadership team that buys into that mission and vision is super important. Because at the end of the day, if something is not happening, it's because it's not getting prioritized. So ultimately I think a lot of the onus of making clients successful has to come from leadership.”Time Stamps*[0:07] The Case of the Missing Customer*[0:32] Introducing Dutta Satadip, Chief Customer Officer at ActiveCampaign*[0:54] Dutta’s Co-Detective Credentials*[6:19] Evidence #1: Client doesn’t know their customers well*[13:34] Evidence #2: Client has insufficient communication with their customers*[17:40] Evidence #3: Lack of automation*[25:10] Evidence #4: Client doesn’t know how to encourage customers to become lifetime customers*[39:46] Debrief*[41:04] HGS PubBioDutta Satadip is the Chief Customer Officer at ActiveCampaign and is a tech industry veteran, thought leader and keynote speaker who specializes in customer strategy, customer acquisition, customer retention and scaling operations.Dutta has more than 20 years of industry experience and has held various senior leadership roles in most key operating areas, including Pre-Sales, Business Operations, Product Strategy, Product Management, Product Marketing, Engineering as well as Consulting positions. He specializes in transforming organizations by identifying the right strategic levers to drive the business while minimizing risk. Dutta has operated extensively in both developed and emerging countries.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Dutta on LinkedInFollow Dutta on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, an on-demand human insight platform that quickly gives companies a first-person understanding of how their target audience behaves throughout any experience and why. Janelle has over 15 years of experience in customer research for both B2B and B2C companies to help them transform their customer and user experiences. She has also held UX research consulting roles at Nielsen Norman Group and Forrester Research. In this episode, Janelle talks about understanding your customers as human beings, engaging them in the feedback and development process, and embedding the customer voice in your business.Quotes*”Customer experience is really about people, and serving your customers as people and human beings.”*”Without the context of understanding your customers as humans and hearing from them [about] why they might have given you a low NPS rating or why they're leaving a particular page, you can't make an educated decision of what to do and how to fix it.”*”The interesting thing about people and customers is that while they don't wanna be tracked, they wanna be heard… You've heard the phenomenon, like everyone hates surveys, nobody fills them out, only a small percentage fill them out because they're tired of them… What this study and research uncovered was that people aren't fatigued by taking surveys. They're actually fatigued by taking surveys and then the company not actually doing anything with the information.”*”Don't try to change everything at once. Don't try to boil the ocean. Find one or two places in that product development flow that you really want people to talk to customers and then find a way to embed it there.”*”How do we get to a place where we're not just over indexing on all the things people are doing and where they're clicking and what they're saying on all these different platforms? What if we just reintroduced the customer as a person that is next to us every day or provides intelligence to us on an ongoing basis? To me, that's the future. And that's what gets me super excited about what we have in front of us.  And I think there's so much room and opportunity for us to  reintroduce the human into the business conversation.”*”The really interesting thing about personas to me is that we tend to think that everybody who falls into that persona is the same, but there's so much variety within personas. And so imagine if you could go talk to five people that fit into the profile of your key persona. You're gonna meet five very different people.”Time Stamps*[0:04] How to better understand your customers as humans and support a more diverse UX*[0:28] Introducing Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting*[5:55] How UserTesting helps organizations connect with customers*[8:34] What is a customer experience narrative?*[10:51] Finding inspiration from your own best customer experience*[11:30] The revealing metrics behind customer behavior*[16:35] How UserTesting engages customers in their own experience*[25:49] Where to begin when wanting to better understand your customers*[32:32] Why it’s critical to talk to customers who fit your ideal guest persona*[34:21] Debrief*[35:21] HGS PubBioJanelle is an expert research practitioner fascinated by human behavior and intrigued by data insight. She brings over 15 years’ experience conducting large-scale customer research initiatives for both B2C and B2B companies across a variety of industries to help them transform their customer, user, and brand experiences. Janelle is responsible for stewarding the future of Human Insight and translating that into opportunities to evolve the UserTesting platform. Prior to UserTesting, Janelle held UX research consulting roles at Nielsen Norman Group and Forrester Research.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Janelle on LinkedInFollow Janelle on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Srikrishnan Ganesan, Co-Founder and CEO of Rocketlane, a high-growth customer onboarding software that lets you collaborate with customers. Sri has over nine years of experience growing and scaling SaaS companies. In this episode, Sri discusses how to speed up employee communication across silos, the critical customer onboarding timeline, and developing accountability with customers so they take some ownership of their own experience.Quotes*”We figured out what [our customers’] biggest time sinks are and automated some of those. [Then] built a beautiful experience that makes those people look good in front of the customer. It [was] like [an] aha moment for them to say, ‘Hey, wow, this is where I spend a lot of my energy wastefully. And the product is doing all this for me. And it's not one more tool. It’s the tool that I'm going to use with my customers during this whole engagement. It's getting rid of multiple tools and making it one singular experience.’”*”From an efficiency standpoint, there's a lot of ways in which you can see the benefit of better onboarding. Firstly, if you get everyone to execute in a coordinated way on time, it gets your customer to value faster. And that's super important for SaaS because very often churn happens because it's been six months since you bought a product. You have some sort of an implementation that happened, but then you're not truly live yet. Your team hasn't adopted that software yet. And when it comes up for renewal, you're gonna be like, we didn't see [the] value.”*”The more you control [onboarding] and actually get the customer live in three to four weeks, you're more likely to have that successful partnership with them and build upon where you start.”*”Especially if you're selling to mid-market or enterprise, you're never truly done onboarding the customer. You're done with phase one. You're gonna start phase two next. So there are ongoing initiatives that you want to run collaboratively with the customer, where you wanna hold the customer accountable as well, and deliver a better experience on both sides.”*”Is my customer success team playing offense or defense and why? By playing offense, we mean, are they focused on expansion and focused on going after more use cases, doing more with the customer, setting up more integrations, et cetera? Or are they on defense saying, ‘Hey, sorry, but we are not able to deliver on this yet’?”*”If you do a great job during onboarding, then automatically you are more on the offense than on defense with those customers. If you do a sloppy job, you're on the back foot from the get go. You can't talk renewal. You need to first win back trust from the customer again before you go that direction.”Time Stamps*[0:11] The Case of Slow Customer Onboarding*[0:30] Introducing Srikrishnan Ganesan, Co-Founder & CEO at Rocketlane*[1:21] Get to know Rocketlane*[9:50] Evidence #1: Employee communication is siloed*[15:56] Evidence #2: Customers are left to conduct their own orientation of the product*[26:14] Evidence #3: Customer onboarding is standardized*[19:19] Debrief: Review takeaways*[30:05] HGS Pub: Lyssa and Sri celebrate cracking the caseBioSrikrishnan (Sri) Ganesan is a co-founder of the fast-growing customer onboarding platform Rocketlane, a SaaS product that helps businesses by replacing generic project management and document collaboration tools with a unique, unified workspace. Sri has spent his last nine years building and scaling SaaS businesses. His last startup was acquired by Freshworks (NASDAQ:FRSH) in 2015 and went on to become their fastest-growing product (Freshchat). He is passionate about all things CX and startups.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Sri on LinkedInFollow Sri on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Tom Martin, CEO at Glance Networks, a software company that provides in-the-moment web and mobile co-browsing, screen share, and video solutions that help increase customer satisfaction, improve brand loyalty, and drive new revenue. In this episode, Tom talks about the key to brand loyalty, removing friction points in the customer journey, and how the best technology is invisible.Quotes*”The loneliest place in the world isn't the desert, it's the internet. And people wanna do business with other human beings that they know, like and trust. And when you realize that the world has gotten really complicated and then you have to do everything digitally, we realized that this human piece, this human component, married and brought together with digital suddenly is like the winning combination to really deliver the outcomes that businesses are looking and seeking to achieve.”*”When you can be a business that can help people achieve [their] goals by providing that level of expertise in the middle of a journey, you realize [that] we can actually get more people through that journey and have the outcomes that we're looking for. And that's why people stay in touch. They have a great relationship and suddenly you're the face of that company. The technology needs to be there, but suddenly it's that emotional connection that binds you to that company, into that product that suddenly makes you that lifetime or higher loyalty customer.”*”Humans take the path of least resistance. They're like water. And so if you can remove steps and reduce that friction, that might be the biggest reason why people choose to work with you versus someone else.”*”I think about technology, and if you can make technology create an experience that allows two people to engage and communicate, and they never have to know how the technology works, it's never really present, and it works in the background, suddenly you're like, we've achieved Nirvana.”*”I.M. Pei, the great architect, always said, 'Simplicity is the art of design.' And so, you look at Japanese woodwork and you realize it's so complex, but on the outside, it looks so simple. And the beauty is so apparent. But behind it, it's all these little widgets and connections and joints to create this experience. And I think that to me is what most companies are attempting to achieve. Not all actually achieve it, but how do you create simple experiences knowing the technology is the enabler of the experience?”*”I think you start with the customer journey and you also try to start with how customers are also buying and consuming other things, not just within your own environment. Because today, businesses are really competing against other experiences.”*”When you can have an experience [where you] order something and it shows up tomorrow, you then have to ask yourself, Why is it so hard to buy a car? Why is it so hard to apply for a mortgage? Why is enrolling in healthcare this hard and it takes so long? My expectations have shifted, not because my expectations of healthcare have shifted. It's because I'm having better experiences elsewhere.”*”The best companies have organized around saying someone needs to own the journey, the experience. What is our face to the customer? Knowing full well that they're gonna need to interface with different parts of the business to make it happen, to make it be realized. But you can't sit there and have different parts of the organization be like, ‘No, we're gonna do it this way and we're gonna do it this way.’ It has to be a unified approach.”Time Stamps*[0:10] The Case of Implementing Invisible Technology to Power Great Customer Experiences*[0:24] Introducing Tom Martin, CEO at Glance Networks*[6:35] Facilitating conversation and collaboration using embedded technology*[8:53] Where to begin your technology journey*[10:51] Finding inspiration from your own best customer experience*[14:42] Creating a unified approach to CX*[21:59] Personalizing the future customer experience*[23:42] Creating an affordably luxurious experience for your customer*[31:46] Extending your brand through the experience*[33:10] Debrief*[34:15] HGS PubBioTom Martin serves as chief executive officer of Glance, and oversees the company’s strategy, product development, and go-to-market activities. Tom is known as a customer experience and contact center strategist, product lifecycle expert, and partnership builder. Tom has led Glance through a successful “pivot,” transitioning from a small business screen share tool to a provider of omnichannel visual engagement solutions for some of the largest enterprises in the world. Since that pivot, Glance has experienced multiple years of 70 percent of Year over Year growth. Prior to joining Glance in 2013, Tom spent over a decade at Verizon building and managing strategic partnerships. Outside of the office, Tom is an avid backcountry skier, mountaineer, and competitive cyclist.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Tom on LinkedInFollow Tom on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

A brand new season of CX Detectives is coming. HGS is excited to bring you insights from top customer experience leaders from B2B and B2C companies. We’ll hear from leaders at companies like Glance, Rocketlane, Onriva and more about how to make your customer experience truly exceptional. Join us as we team up with some of the greatest minds in customer experience to solve the toughest challenges yet. Welcome to CX Detectives.

This episode features an interview with Venu Gooty, SVP of Digital Strategy and Transformation at HGS, a global leader in consumer engagement, digital CX, and business process management. Venu has over 18 years of IT experience. And at HGS, he’s helping global brands optimize their operations so they can give customers a world-class experience. In this episode, Venu discusses how using a fit index in the hiring process improves employee retention, making sure employees have the best tools for the job, and tracking employee sentiment using analytics.Quotes*”Businesses really need to think about how to support customers in the channels of their preference. Customers are becoming more demanding in terms of how they would like to be responded to and the kind of experiences that they would like to see versus the experiences that you think you would want to provide to them.”*”Fit index allows us to better understand and engage the candidates on various parameters and criteria. We're also leveraging AI in order to truly identify which are those individuals who have higher likelihood of joining us and not attriting, because attrition is a huge problem within the contact center industry. The technology is enabling us to say a person with this kind of characteristics and these kind of attributes are the right fit based on the past employee behaviors, or based on the characteristics that we've used for previous screening of employees.”*”The hiring process is extremely challenging and it's also pretty time consuming. So that process is something that we have significantly streamlined using recruit bot application. It allows the applicant to get hired within two hours of their application, if they are interested in streamlining and fastening up that entire process. That also has enabled us to actually reduce the amount of back and forth that happens with the agents because previously, the amount of back and forth that we used to see was almost two to three weeks just from apply to hire time frame. But right now we have cut it down to an average of less than a day and as fast as less than two hours at this point.”*”How do you capture the tribal knowledge that is there among the employees and bring that knowledge and institutionalize it so that it's not just dependent on one individual who has all of that knowledge, but among that entire team, among the organization, so that anyone can respond to those queries and anyone can refer to the knowledge on a real-time basis and get those right answers during the client conversations?”Time Stamps*[0:09] The Case of Leveraging Technology to Improve the Employee and Customer Experience*[0:31] Introducing Venu Gooty, SVP of Digital Strategy and Transformation at HGS*[7:30] Evidence #1: High employee churn rate*[21:20] Evidence #2: Employees are working with disparate tech tools *[34:27] Evidence #3: Doesn’t know how to measure employee sentiment*[39:18] Debrief*[40:24] HGS PubBioVenu Gooty is a passionate and accomplished executive with over 18 years of IT industry experience. His deep expertise in data-driven marketing, digital transformation, digital customer experience, AI and big data analytics, is helping leading global brands improve customer engagement, optimize their operations, reduce costs and increase revenue.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.LinksConnect with Venu on LinkedInFollow Venu on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Bruce Temkin, Head of the Qualtrics XM Institute, the leading experience management platform in the world. Bruce is also known as the “Godfather of Customer Experience.” In this episode, Bruce discusses how to move from insight to action more quickly, focusing on sensing change, and how to thrive both personally and professionally in the year of agility.Quotes*”What we realized is this year, and probably even going farther out into the future, the organizations that succeed are those that can do that faster, learn faster, propagate insights faster, adapt faster. And so that's why we called it the year of agility. And we've been helping the organizations and the people that follow us try and think about how they can build agility into everything that they do.”*”Move away from an obsession of focusing on trending. A lot of the work happens in experience management and customer experience is around trending. How are you doing over the last year? And moving into an obsession with sensing. So what are you doing to listen and understand and sense those changes? That was a big shift.”*”If you step back and go, ‘Our customers are going to be asking for things differently. We're going to have different segments of customers and we're going to have employees who have a different view of work.’ In that environment, it's ripe for disrupting through a really good experience design. So these are the moments when you want to step back and say, ‘Okay, we might have been successful. We might still be successful in this moment. But there's enough changing that we can take advantage of that change by doing something substantially different and new.’ And those are a couple of the practices I think come into play during the year of agility.”*If we look at the business school, people trained in finance and people trained in making sure we hit our numbers, they're trained to be defensive. Like, demand shifts, so what do we do? We cut back our costs to reflect it. But this is a moment where offensive moves can be equally and maybe even more profoundly valuable.*”I want leaders to spend less time asking about numbers and measurements. I don't care if you have a dashboard. I don't care if someone's coming to present numbers. I want you to ask two questions: What are you learning? And what changes are you making based on what you learned?” *”Even when we're talking about technology in this space, ultimately we're doing it in the service of people. We can talk about data, we can talk about insights, we can talk about design. At the end of the day, what we're trying to do is to create experiences for human beings that helps them achieve the thing that they want to achieve. And hopefully do it in a way that satisfies the goals of an organization. And so if we're not ultimately thinking about what it's doing to each and every human being there, then I think we're missing the point.”*”How do we center ourselves so that we can be the best of who we are even in an environment of change? I think there's the organization stuff that's really important. But, you know, maybe even more important is how we think about ourselves as professionals and how we think of ourselves as human beings, and how we deal in that world of chaos that we're in.”Time Stamps*[0:09] The Case of Tackling the Year of Agility*[0:31] Introducing Bruce Temkin, Head of the Qualtrics XM Institute*[8:34] Evidence #1: Needs other ways to listen to customers*[15:03] Evidence #2: Wants to shift internal culture, but worries about change management*[24:34] Evidence #3: Doesn’t know how to adjust to change personally*[30:32] Debrief*[31:43] HGS PubBioBruce Temkin is an Experience Management (XM) visionary and is often referred to as the “Godfather of Customer Experience.” He leads the Qualtrics XM Institute, which provides thought leadership and training to help organizations around the world master XM and is also building a global community of XM professionals who are radically changing the human experience. Prior to Qualtrics, Bruce led Temkin Group, which provided research, advisory, and training that helped many of the world’s leading brands build customer loyalty by engaging the hearts and minds of their customers, employees, and partners. He is also the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Customer Experience Professionals Association. Prior to Temkin Group, Bruce spent 12 years with Forrester Research during which time he led the company's B2B, financial services, eBusiness, and customer experience practices and was the most-read analyst for 13 consecutive quarters. Bruce has a mechanical engineering degree from Union College and a master’s in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Bruce on LinkedInFollow Bruce on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Alexandra Morehouse. Alex is Chief Digital Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Banner Health, a health system with hospitals and facilities in six states. In this episode, Alex talks about addressing data deprecation in the cookie-less future, integrating disparate systems after an acquisition, and the “Know Me” principle.Quotes*”Marketing used to be seen as the people who issued the invitation to the party. And now it's come to mean you better have the chips and dip and the drinks ready. Because if you stimulate all this demand, people either show up online, in a call center, or in your retail location. If you don't have this integrated experience, then your brand looks disorganized and of lower value.”*”Healthcare in particular is under tremendous financial pressure. So digital transformation is simply taking transactions that used to be done with expensive people and moving them to technological self-service. And when you get that self-service in place, the customers are way happier.”*”Baseline is, know who I am. So if I go into Urgent Care over the weekend because I sprained my ankle, and then they tell me, ‘Hey, you need to go and follow up with your primary care next week,’ when I show up next week, they better know that I was in Urgent Care over the weekend. And I think that's probably more important. That's what builds trust. And it's that continuity that says, all right, no matter where I show up inside your system, you know it's Alex and you're not going to treat me like a stranger. And because the whole industry has grown through acquisition, that is the challenge on the CX side.”Time Stamps*[0:13] The Case of Bringing Digital Transformation to a Highly Regulated Industry*[0:39] Introducing Alexandra Morehouse, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Banner Health*[9:29] Evidence #1: New tech systems from acquisitions don't mesh*[19:05] Evidence #2: Not prepared for data deprecation in the cookie less future*[26:04] Evidence #3: Unclear how much information to collect from clients*[30:36] Evidence #4: Call center is slammed*[37:51] Debrief*[38:54] HGS PubBioAlexandra Morehouse is an experienced board member who brings digital transformation experience and strategic focus to her board assignments. She's worked with companies through M&A, turnarounds and growth efforts.Alexandra additionally has deep leadership expertise focused on Diversity and Inclusion. She's managed global teams of over 2,000 FTE and P&L’s up to $10B. She has led decentralized global teams at organizations including American Express, Charles Schwab, AAA, Kaiser Permanente and, currently, Banner Health.Her board committee assignments include compensation, governance and audit. Her background in DEI has been instrumental in pursuing ESG work on her boards.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Alex on LinkedInFollow Alex on TwitterConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This is a special episode highlighting key takeaways from past cases. In this episode, host Lyssa Myska Allen discusses tips for the best customer experience, from in-person to virtual, from top industry leaders.Quotes*”There's no easier audience to sell to than people who have already bought from you, know that you exist, and like the product. And so if you want to sell more to your existing customer base, you can increase their lifetime value, either through your core offering and doing a subscription service, or you can continue to launch new products that are complementary to whatever you're selling.” - Orchid Bertelsen*”When you're designing an [educational] experience, you have to get out of the learner's way as much as possible. And anything you do that adds a little bit of cognitive load or unnecessary cognitive load, the learners feel it, and you'll see that in the churn.” - Ori Ratner*”If you do it really well, you have this nice flow between an intelligent virtual assistant and an agent. If it needs to hand off for context, that's going to make or break an experience.” - Melissa O’Brien*“The most important thing to me is the symbiotic nature of technology and customer experience. In this day and age, you can't really have one without the other. Or you can, but it just won't be a great experience.” - Boone Putney*“I think the best thing that has come out of the blended world is really seeing how much we're able to do without having fans actually come to the building, and how much we've been able to engage with the community and help in other ways, besides from the hockey standpoint. We have great ownership that allow us to do that and have given us the ability and the resources to be able to do that. And so it's just a testament to our foundation and our DNA that's within the brand.” - Keren Lynch*“You need to have focus and say no to 98% of audience expansion tactics. And then you have to have a super clear origin myth that almost acts like a magnet. A brand is not that visual styling you put on at the end. It's your brand voice and your attitude and your very reason for being. It's the mission. And that's what millennials and others will get attracted to. Nobody wants some generic corporate thing. It's very forgettable. So you have to have a narrow focus and a clear appeal to those people based on a deep understanding of their needs and their larger context. You may be just a small, transactional part of their life, but if you want to attract them, you should still resonate for them.” - Tim Ash*“We really should be the guide along a customer's journey, not the hero of their journey. Like they are the hero, right. We're just here to make their lives better. And so much of it is listening to their pain points, listening to what brings them joy, listening to the words that they say, and then writing them down and then saying them back to them. I mean, that's literally what we do. We do a lot of case studies with our customers and we'll take the exact words that our customers say about why they like Transect, some feature that's helpful for them, and we'll regurgitate it in a marketing campaign because we know that that's what their peers are used to hearing.” - Robin LaineTime StampsThe Case of…*[0:43] Scaling up a DTC Brand with Orchid Bertelsen, COO at Common Thread Collective*[1:42] The Move to Mobile with Alexie Harper and Ori Ratner, Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer at Quantic School of Business and Technology*[2:30] Balancing Automation with Human Interaction with Melissa O’Brien*[3:08] Leveraging Technology to Meet the Needs of End Users with Boone Putney*[3:58] The Pandemic Pivot with Keren Lynch*[5:17] Getting Inside Your Customer’s Head with Tim AshThank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Orchid Bertelsen. Orchid is the Chief Operating Officer at Common Thread Collective, an eCommerce growth agency. In this episode, Orchid talks about the three ways to grow, developing strategic partners, and how to do it all without losing the soul of your brand.Quotes*”There's no easier audience to sell to than people who have already bought from you, know that you exist, and like the product. And so if you want to sell more to your existing customer base, you can increase their lifetime value, either through your core offering and doing a subscription service, or you can continue to launch new products that are complementary to whatever you're selling.” *”There are some products that people just want to experience in person. There is a certain way to expand into the brick and mortar experience while still utilizing and connecting the digital experience to it, whether it's something simple, like your transactions in store being tied to your account online, and you get an email receipt. I think that is the challenge, is that retail space is obviously expensive. A lot of flagship stores in major city centers are loss leaders. That retail footprint isn’t actually generating a lot of revenue per square foot, but it’s just another marketing expense, having a physical manifestation of what the brand is beyond the website.” *”There was a boom in e-commerce overall during COVID. When you have different partners like Shopify or Sub Stack, you can bring your business idea to life very easily. What happens then is that you have a community that's just really focused on single-channel DTC. And they probably created a solution to solve a personal problem. But at a certain stage of growth, they’re like, ‘Hey, I can no longer sell to people like me with the same exact problem, because I've already reached all of them,’ which is a good problem to have. So over the course of the last two years, you've seen more mature e-commerce businesses try to go omni-channel.”Time Stamps*[0:05] The Case of Scaling Up a DTC Brand*[0:32] Introducing Orchid Bertelsen, COO at Common Thread Collective*[10:45] Evidence #1: Sales are single-channel*[17:40] Evidence #2: Hasn’t developed strategic sales partners*[20:44] Evidence #3: Has already saturated market*[34:16] Debrief*[35:28] HGS PubBioOrchid is the Chief Operating Officer of Common Thread Collective, an agency focused on helping ecommerce brands grow profitably, and entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams.Prior to joining CTC, Orchid Bertelsen was the Head of Consumer Experience Strategy & Innovation at Nestlé USA, where she evaluates and tests emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, voice assistance, AR/VR. She has a varied portfolio, made up of 40+ brands and includes beloved brands like Coffee-Mate, Toll House and DiGiorno. Nestlé is also a majority stakeholder in Blue Bottle Coffee and owns and operates Starbucks at Home.She lives in Hayes Valley with her husband and daughter, and loves to travel back to Taiwan, where her family is from.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Orchid on LinkedInFollow Orchid on TwitterCheck out Common Thread CollectiveConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Alexie Harper and Ori Ratner. Alexie is the Chief Product Officer and Ori is the Chief Technology Officer at the Quantic School of Business and Technology. And they are also both Co-Founders. In this episode, Alexie and Ori talk about keys to designing an engaging UX, challenging learners with real-world scenarios, and how to leave students feeling like they’ve made meaningful progress in their studies.Quotes*”At the time the buzzword was ‘The Attention Economy.’ When we were identifying what was missing in education, we quickly zeroed in on the fact that motivation is a big part of it. And to solve that motivation problem, you're competing with non-education products. In the early days, when folks would ask us about our competitors, we would joke that Facebook and Twitter were our primary competitors, not the schools. So we just recognized that mobile is where students were living at that point. And so we had to be there, too.” - Ori Ratner*”When you're designing an [educational] experience, you have to get out of the learner's way as much as possible. And anything you do that adds a little bit of cognitive load or unnecessary cognitive load, the learners feel it, and you'll see that in the churn.” - Ori Ratner*”We create standard learning lessons that walk the learners through the material. They're very interactive experiences, so every eight seconds, the students should be interacting with the software in some way. And then we quiz them on the material we want them to learn at the end. And the lessons are designed to be story-based, focusing on what does it really look like to be working as a data analyst or someone in finance?” - Alexie HarperTime Stamps*[0:08] The Case of the Move to Mobile*[0:38] Introducing Alexie Harper and Ori Ratner, Chief Product Officer and Chief Technology Officer at the Quantic School of Business and Technology*[8:53] Evidence #1: Format of material is outdated*[20:40] Evidence #2: Visual design is clunky and cumbersome*[27:05] Evidence #3: No incentive to motivate users*[37:27] Debrief*[38:30] HGS PubBioAlexie Harper is the Chief Product Officer and Ori Ratner is the Chief Technology Officer at the Quantic School of Business and Technology. They are also both Co-Founders. Alexie was previously Director of R&D and a senior researcher at Rosetta Stone, and a travel writer and editor for Let's Go Inc. And Ori was previously a director of software development and the software architect at Rosetta Stone.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Alexie on LinkedInConnect with Ori on LinkedInCheck out the Quantic School of Business and TechnologyConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Melissa O’Brien, Research Leader at HFS Research. Melissa discusses simple ways to apply automation to both the customer and employee side to create an efficient and balanced customer experience.Quotes*”​​There's so much data, in particular in the contact center, that just gets overlooked. It's a treasure trove of information.  How can you understand your customer before they call in? Do you have kind of a golden record or repository of this customer's background, their buying habits and what their social media sentiment has been? I think one of the big things that you can use data for is to actually help an agent have context before a customer gets on the phone. And that you can really tackle by having the right kind of omni-channel and the right CRM integrations.”*”A lot of times, companies have a software license that comes with a chat bot, so they feel compelled to roll it out. And that has resulted in a lot of chat bot fatigue. Because it’s a poorly designed chat bot. They're just put out there with their FAQ's. You could get the same responses just searching the website. It's not just ineffective, it's also a detriment to the brand, because people are then having frustrating experiences on your site.”*”If you do it really well, you have this nice flow between an intelligent virtual assistant and an agent. If it needs to hand off for context, that's going to make or break an experience.”Time Stamps*[0:08] The Case of Balancing Automation with Human Interaction*[0:44] Introducing Melissa O’Brien, Research Leader at HFS Research*[4:59] Evidence #1: All processes are manual*[10:15] Evidence #2: Implementing automation seems too big a task*[14:09] Evidence #3: No visibility on data to pinpoint what to automate*[25:50] Debrief*[26:35] HGS PubBioMelissa O’Brien is Research Leader at HFS Research. Melissa leads HFS’ research initiatives for CX services including digital marketing and sales, contact center, and digital associates. Melissa brings over 13 years of both hands-on industry and analyst experience to her role at HFS. She previously led IDC’s Worldwide Customer Experience Management Services program, including in-depth analysis of evolving contact center business process delivery and consumer communication trends.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Melissa on LinkedInCheck out HFS ResearchConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Boone Putney, Chief Technology Officer at Fetch Package. Boone talks about bringing excitement and beauty into the customer experience, the importance of all teammates understanding the end user, and how technology and CX go hand in hand.Quotes*“I'm definitely passionate about the customer side of things. I think you can have some pretty hollow technology if you're not thinking about the implications of the customer experience. Same thing if you're exclusively thinking about the customer experience and not figuring out ways to leverage technology to deliver that experience.”*”Our entire team has an understanding of the end user. And our product managers have an end user focus. Their core job is to make sure they're bringing to the table this end customers’ core needs, and they can know that customer better than anybody. And then they can interface with the technology and the engineers to figure out a solution together, and make sure we're building the right solution. User research and user testing is a big piece of that. Having somebody dedicated to knowing that user and being their advocate within the product delivery process is very impactful for us.”*”I love sales. We wouldn't have any jobs if it weren't for sales. But I think the place I've seen some cultures go wrong is being very sales driven, where you have a customer or a certain set of customers ask for functionality and just smashing it through the product without really understanding how it affects the core offering and the rest of the user base. So we're lucky that we can take a look at that from all angles instead of any individual perspective.”*”[Customers] want us to take good care of their packages, to alert them when we have a package and make sure we deliver a package when we say we're going to, the way we say we're going to. But beyond that, anything we can do to bring some excitement and beauty into the process is really important for that end user.”*“The most important thing to me is the symbiotic nature of technology and customer experience. In this day and age, you can't really have one without the other. Or you can, but it just won't be a great experience.”Time Stamps*[0:08] The Case of Multiple End Users*[0:33] Introducing Boone Putney, Chief Technology Officer at Fetch Package*[8:57] Evidence #1: Using clunky pre-existing tech tools*[12:37] Evidence #2: Most processes are manual and inefficient*[22:54] Evidence #3: Gig workers' rely on their parent company's app*[27:19] Debrief*[28:11] HGS PubBioBoone has spent over 25 years writing software from games for the TI-83 calculator to developing solutions for Fortune 500 companies facilitating billions of dollars in annual transactions. Luckily enough, his first introduction to programming was in 2nd grade as part of an advanced curriculum in the Austin area public school system. He soon convinced his parents to purchase the first family computer with a 25MHz processor and 8MB of memory. Boone continued his software engineering education through high school and college where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Computer & Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas. After graduation, Boone spent the intervening years developing software and leading teams across large multinational corporations and start-ups alike including UPS, State Farm, Waldo, CardMyYard, and Pizza Hut.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Boone on LinkedInCheck out Fetch PackageConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS

This episode features an interview with Keren Lynch, Publicist and Manager of Communications for the Anaheim Ducks. Keren talks about the challenges they faced during the pandemic as an in-person events based business. She shares how the Ducks worked to be an asset to their community, and to engage with their fan base in new and unique ways, including socially distanced and virtual events.Quotes*“We ran a few food drives during the pandemic just to make sure everybody in our community had the resources during this time. We did a back to school drive where we made sure kids had supplies for school. We also did a number of socially distance events in the parking lot. So we really tried to stay as engaged as we could with our fan base, given the restrictions and keeping everybody safe. But it was a really neat time just because you realized how much of a community asset we were.” *“I think the best thing that has come out of the blended world is really seeing how much we're able to do without having fans actually come to the building, and how much we've been able to engage with the community and help in other ways, besides from the hockey standpoint. We have great ownership that allow us to do that and have given us the ability and the resources to be able to do that. And so it's just a testament to our foundation and our DNA that's within the brand. [...] I think that that's something that our ownership, the Samueli's, really try and touch upon and make part of our culture. And obviously we love having people to hockey games and that's always going to be the biggest draw. But I think that our charity component and everything we do off ice has really taken center stage.”Time Stamps*[0:08] The Case: The Pandemic Pivot to Virtual Engagement*[0:36] Introducing Keren Lynch, Publicist and Manager of Communication for the Anaheim Ducks*[5:40] Evidence #1: Reliance on in-person events revenue*[16:20] Evidence #2: Struggling to diversify events*[19:57] Debrief*[21:08] HGS PubBioKeren Lynch is the Publicist and Manager of Communications for the Anaheim Ducks professional hockey team based in Anaheim, California. Previously, Keren was a Marketing And Public Relations Consultant at Stanton.Thank you to our friendsThis podcast is brought to you by HGS. A global leader in optimizing the customer experience lifecycle, digital transformation, and business process management, HGS is helping its clients become more competitive every day. Learn more at hgs.cx.Links:Connect with Keren on LinkedInCheck out the Anaheim DucksConnect with Lyssa on LinkedInCheck out HGS