The CX Leader Podcast | A resource for customer experience leaders
320 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★★ - 22 ratingsThe CX Leader Podcast provides insights for customer experience (CX) and experience management (XM) leaders to improve their business results by unlocking the potential of their customer experience, helping their customers and prospects want to do more business with them. The CX Leader Podcast is produced by Walker, an experience management consulting firm that helps companies accelerate their XM success.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Work Friction: Less is More
April 23, 2024 10:00 - 30 minutes - 55.3 MBWe’ve all experienced it: that nagging, frustrating, and sometimes maddening feeling we get when something collides with our productivity. And while it can sometimes feel trivial, that type of friction adds up and affects our interactions with customers, thus affecting the customer experience. So how do we minimize those points of friction in the workplace? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Christophe Martel, CEO and founder of FOUNT, a software platform designed to help reduce friction and improve ...
Bonus Content: The Empathetic Frontline
April 18, 2024 10:00 - 7 minutes - 13.4 MBBonus content are audio clips of interviews that we couldn’t include in an episode but still contains great advice for our listeners, and this content is only available to those that follow the show through their favorite podcast provider. In the episode " The Empathetic Frontline" (episode #307) released back in March, guest Victoria Stephens from Flywire discussed the importance of employee experience as it relates to providing the best possible customer experience. Host Sara Walker asks...
Encore: Your CX Career
April 16, 2024 10:00 - 29 minutes - 53.8 MBProducer's Note: This episode originally released on March 7, 2023. Natalie Onions discussed how she became a customer experience professional and offered some great advice for newer CX pros on how to grow their careers in customer experience. Please note that this was recorded back in March of 2023, so some parts of the discussion may be outdated. There have been many guests on this show, each with unique stories and backgrounds about their path to becoming a customer experience professio...
The Death Care Experience
April 09, 2024 10:00 - 18 minutes - 33.3 MBIt's an often-misunderstood industry that exists between healthcare and hospitality and includes all the complexities of strict regulation and event management. And to add more complication, it includes an element of emotional support. Funeral homes and cemeteries walk a fine line of making the final arrangements of a loved one as frictionless as possible, all while knowing there are no second chances at delivering a positive experience. Host Sara Walker welcomes Walker expert Hannah Warren ...
Redesigning from Start to Finish
April 02, 2024 10:00 - 30 minutes - 56.5 MBJust like any other business process, customer experience programs can sometimes get a little stale or outdated. As CX leaders, it’s our responsibility to pay attention to the customers’ needs and expectations, and adjust accordingly. But sometimes it’s best to take a step back and look at the entire customer journey and, if needed, redesign the journey from start to finish. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Jaya Sudarshan, a customer experience manager for HP, the global technology company, for a d...
The CX Conundrum of Benchmarking
March 26, 2024 10:00 - 37 minutes - 69 MBWhat are some of the more common challenges you encounter with your CX program? Have you noticed a particular common problem among CX programs when you converse with fellow CX pros? Benchmarking is an often-tackled problem for customer experience professionals and is not as simple as comparing your numbers with another company's scores. This episode is the inaugural show of a new series we’re calling “CX Conundrums,” where we’ll address common CX challenges and possible ways CX leaders can a...
Don't Forget Your Invoice
March 19, 2024 10:00 - 25 minutes - 47.5 MBThere are many companies today that have embraced customer experience as a key strategic practice, working hard to put the customer first. But there’s often a part of the customer’s journey that is overlooked: when it’s time to pay the bill. Even in a recent episode, our host Pat Gibbons gave an example of a company dismissing customer feedback that identified invoicing as a pain point. So why do companies often adopt this mentality? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Philip Rürup, founder and CEO o...
The Empathetic Frontline
March 12, 2024 11:00 - 28 minutes - 52.5 MBGreat customer experiences comes from great employee experiences. It’s something we’ve discussed in several past episodes of this podcast and you can listen to our CX plus EX episodes on cxleaderpodcast.com. But how can you improve employee engagement for a large group of front-line employees, say a call center or large customer support operation? Host Sara Walker welcomes Victoria Stephens, director of client and payment experience at Flywire, a global payment software company, and a CXPA 2...
Encore: Your Opinion Counts
March 05, 2024 11:00 - 16 minutes - 30.1 MBProducer's Note: March 8th, 2024 is International Women’s Day. This global event celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, and serves as a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. To join in this celebration, we’d like to encore an episode that originally aired back in August of 2022 when Sara Walker hosted to highlight the wisdom of women CX leaders that were guests on the show. If you’d like to know more about International Women’s Day, you c...
The Data that Drives Change
February 27, 2024 11:00 - 31 minutes - 57.4 MBIf you're a CX professional then you've read your fair share of customer feedback comments. While most CX leaders love to read great comments from customers, there's always feedback that isn't so flattering, and your instinct may be to spring into action to fix whatever it was that caused the less than stellar review. Customer insights can be a powerful change agent, so leveraging feedback can be a great way to influence change within your company. What if we had some advice from someone on ...
Products for Your Customers
February 20, 2024 11:00 - 28 minutes - 51.6 MBIt goes without saying that designing any kind of product is no easy task. And in the case of software, balancing the engineering needs versus customer expectations can be daunting. Simple things like moving a button from the place it’s been for several versions can cause confusion and frustration. So it’s important to understand customers’ needs and communicate those needs to product designers. Host Sara Walker welcomes Naina Tahnilramani, a senior customer experience manager at Intuit and ...
AI: The CX Power Tool
February 13, 2024 11:00 - 26 minutes - 48.8 MBEver see the old classic Alfred Hitchcock movie, “The Birds”? There’s a famous scene when a flock of crows attack a group of fleeing school children, swarming without mercy and terrifying everyone in their path. It sometimes feels like that with A.I. - people pecking and swarming at you to try and integrate it into your business in any way possible. And many CX pros are feeling pressure to find ways of incorporating artificial intelligence into their programs. So how can we approach this tec...
Bonus Content: Becoming Customer Obsessed
February 08, 2024 16:32 - 5 minutes - 9.99 MBBonus Content! We interview many great customer experience professionals and they have a ton of great advice to share. But sometimes we have leave some of the interview out of the final episode in order to keep our podcasts a reasonable length. So you're not left out of hearing all the wonderful content our guests provide, we'll occasionally release material that was left out of the final episode as bonus content. This content is only available to those that follow the show through their fav...
Becoming Customer Obsessed
February 06, 2024 11:00 - 32 minutes - 59.8 MBChances are, if you're a regular listener to this show, you at the very least have a healthy respect for customer experience and the value it brings to your organization. But there are a few brands out there that have a following like none other brands like Apple, Costco, Trader Joe's, Chick-fil-A, and, one of our host's personal favorites: Chewy, the online pet supply retailer. These companies are obsessed with customer experience, but what does that mean? And how can you get your company t...
Encore: Service Design
January 30, 2024 11:00 - 29 minutes - 54.4 MBProducer's Note: This episode originally dropped on February 14, 2023. Steve Walker interviewed Justin Zalewski on how CX professionals can take an ordinary journey mapping process and do more than just find problems and build empathy - instead, Justin describes how to turn your journey mapping process up to "11". Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not necessarily be the same as when it originally was released. Most CX pros are familiar with customer ...
Welcome to 2024
January 23, 2024 11:00 - 34 minutes - 63.2 MBThat’s right - 300 episodes! Walker has been producing this podcast since January of 2018 and collected over 150 hours of content, discussed trends and events that included everything from COVID to artificial intelligence, and met some amazing customer experience professionals along the way. And at the beginning of each year we like to take a look at what to expect in CX over the next 12 months. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Walker experts Sonya McAllister, Sean Clayton, and Tanner Smith, to rem...
Open the Box
January 16, 2024 11:00 - 32 minutes - 59.6 MBThe famous quantum theory thought experiment called "Schrodinger’s Cat" imagines a cat is placed in a box with a vial of poison. Schrodinger suggests that until you open the box and observe the fate of the poor animal, it is simultaneously alive and dead – its fate isn’t determined until you’ve observed its condition. Leaders in a company can sometimes feel that way about the benefits of customer experience, and the fault really doesn’t lie with them – as a CX pro, you need to open the box a...
Everyone Has a Customer
January 09, 2024 11:00 - 33 minutes - 61.7 MBLet’s face it: not every person is well-suited to be, quote, “customer-facing.” Whether it’s their personality, their specific job requirements, or just their preference or personal talents, some people do better on the “behind the scenes” aspects of the company. And it’s easy to assume a mentality that they don’t necessarily need a customer-centric focus in their work. But an organization’s employee experience can impact not only their perspective of why they do what they do for the company...
Quick Tips Minicast: How many survey types are there?
January 04, 2024 11:00 - 6 minutes - 12.5 MBMost customer experience pros know about transactional and relational surveys, but did you know there's a third kind of survey you may need to use? Add the confusion of which surveys are best sent often or once a year, versus how long they should be, it can get frustrating for you - or your customer - on deciding what survey to use when. Walker expert Heather Koiro clears up the "survey confusion" with her Quick Tip Minicast! Listen to more Quick Tips at http://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktip...
Celebrating the Heart of Your Audience
January 02, 2024 11:00 - 37 minutes - 69.2 MBThink about a time when you visited someplace that’s meaningful to you: a special museum, the distillery of your favorite beverage, a presidential library – you walked away from that exhibit or tour with a heightened understanding and appreciation for that particular interest. Or possibly gained a deeper understanding of something new. That experience was likely designed to better connect you with the product, person, and/or brand. Host Troy Powell welcomes Christian Lachel, chief creative o...
Experiment and Explore
December 12, 2023 11:00 - 28 minutes - 52 MBWhile there is some historical debate on this, Aristotle is widely recognized as one of the early inventors of the scientific method – the way in which we observe, hypothesize, experiment, and gather data. Experimentation is key to logically understanding our world. And just like any other business practice, experimenting with CX can help you gain insights on what works best for your organization in delivering an amazing experience. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Gabs Dracopoulos, head of global ...
Yes, It's Worth The Effort!
December 05, 2023 11:00 - 31 minutes - 57.7 MBIt’s a subject on which we’ve dedicated several episodes: employee experience. And we’ve even covered how to effectively combine CX and EX, a subject for which Walker released a report that you can find on walkerinfo.com. But we haven’t really explored the value of combining employee and customer experience – is it even worth it, and what challenges can I expect? Host Steve Walker welcomes Suzanne Scharer, a product scientist at Qualtrics, for a discussion on why it's worth the effort to com...
Quick Tips Minicast: What is the Walker Loyalty Matrix?
November 30, 2023 11:00 - 9 minutes - 17 MBCompanies often struggle with knowing their customer's needs and why they actually stay customers. Are they happy? Are they looking elsewhere for their needs? Why are they not happy? Segmenting these customers into a loyalty scale is common, but not necessarily actionable. On this episode of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Michelle Buretta, a vice president at Walker, shares how the Walker Loyalty Matrix™ provides businesses with a practical means to leverage the voice of the customer for...
Every One is Part of the Whole
November 28, 2023 11:00 - 38 minutes - 70.5 MBAccording to a recent Pew Research Center survey, the majority of workers in the U.S. say that focusing on DEI in the workplace is “a good thing.” With so many organizations adopting ways to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, it seems that we, as CX professionals, should explore ways we can incorporate this important work into our efforts of improving customer experiences. And my guest on this episode has already made progress in incorporating DEI into CX and EX programs. Host Sara Wa...
The Value in the Machine
November 14, 2023 11:00 - 30 minutes - 55.6 MBThere’s so much talk about artificial intelligence these days. With stories of how it is changing the world on so many fronts, customer experience professionals can’t help but explore its impact on their organization’s CX program. And when we think about another common struggle with CX – linking the work of customer experience back to revenue – a little bit of help from machine learning might offer a solution. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Nikhil Nadiminti, senior program manager ISG for worldwi...
Data and Design Make Great Experiences
November 07, 2023 11:00 - 32 minutes - 60.1 MBThere's an adage that implies designers and data scientists sometimes don't always see eye to eye. Designers look for esthetics and the functionality while developers and researchers lean towards the data. Why is that? We can all get along and there's no reason why we can't work together! You can use data to create usable and esthetic designs that support excellent customer experiences. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Caroline Quinlan, digital CX manager for Electric Ireland, for a discussion on h...
CX Horror Stories VI
October 31, 2023 10:00 - 35 minutes - 64.6 MBWe must warn you: the podcast episode you're about to listen to is filled with frightful tales of deliveries gone wrong, misdirected concert tickets, terrible website engineering, and rental cars that won't start. This can only mean one thing: it's another blood-curdling episode of CX Horror Stories! Hosted by Sara Walker and Gary Szeszycki, guests include Diane Skirvin (Walker), Bill Daughtery (Gibson Teldata), Tyler Morris (Walker), and Kerri Meyer (Qualtrics). Listen to more horror sto...
Put Me In, Coach!
October 24, 2023 10:00 - 26 minutes - 48.9 MBIn 1989, Evered and Selman put forward the idea that looking at managers as “coaches” creates a better culture for employees. They say, “coaching focuses on discovering actions that enable and empower people to contribute more fully, productively, and with less alienation than the control model entails.” We take the same view here at Walker, where our team leads take the role of coaches to develop CX teams. A lot of those skills translate to leading a CX team in a company – or guiding a whol...
Quick Tips Minicast: How many questions should I have in my survey?
October 19, 2023 10:00 - 5 minutes - 10.5 MBYou're ready to get going on gathering customer feedback, but there's always that looming question: what will we ask them and how much is too much survey? On this edition of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Walker expert Molly Work gives helpful advice on how to determine the right amount of questions to ask in a survey. Listen to more Quick Tips at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Created with Customers in Mind
October 17, 2023 10:00 - 30 minutes - 55.7 MBManaging your money is already a stressful task, and it's sometimes difficult to intentionally think ahead about what happens when we retire. Luckily, there are some very smart people in the world of personal finance who can help with that aspect of life. But what does the customer experience look like in that field? Continuing our look into the winning programs at the 2023 US Customer Experience Awards, host Pat Gibbons welcomes Jenny Schmidt, vice president for strategic initiatives at Pru...
Give Them That "A-ha!" Moment
October 10, 2023 10:00 - 19 minutes - 36.2 MBHere's a situation you might have heard about, or even experienced: you’re ready to get going on this CX “thing” – you’re going to revolutionize your company. But you don’t quite have executive buy-in, or you’ve got the buy-in but you just can’t get people to do what needs to be done. It’s a common problem with companies new to customer experience. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Megan Burns, CX pioneer, keynoter, and advisor, for a discussion on how to active customer experience in your org...
Let's Celebrate!
October 03, 2023 10:00 - 31 minutes - 58.2 MBEvery first Tuesday of October, CX pros take a moment to celebrate their profession and bring awareness to the benefits of a great customer experience, and we hope you’re celebrating with us as well! Since 2011, the Customer Experience Professionals Association, or CXPA, has been dedicated to the advancement of the CX profession and continues to provide support for customer experience professionals throughout their career. Guest host Pat Gibbons welcomes Greg Melia, CEO of the CXPA, for a di...
Quick Tips Minicast: How can I improve my response rates?
September 28, 2023 10:00 - 5 minutes - 9.41 MBYou've planned a great program for gaining customer feedback, but there's just one problem: a low response rate. On this edition of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Walker expert Drew Hall has some advice on how to manage your lists to encourage a healthier response rate, therefore gathering a better quality of customer feedback. Listen to more Quick Tips at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/quicktips/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/
Consistently Good, Strategically Amazing
September 26, 2023 10:00 - 27 minutes - 50.9 MBWhen did customer experience come into existence? If you’ve listened to this show for a while, you’ll know there was no definitive “big bang” event for CX. It evolved from various other disciplines into the “ethos” of customer centricity that it is today. And there’s no stopping it – customer experience is here to stay, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future. Host Steve Walker welcomes back Megan Burns, a world-renowned author, keynoter, and CX expert, for a discussion on th...
Award-Winning CX
September 19, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 53.3 MBYou’ve heard us promote the US Customer Experience Awards several times on this program. If you’re not familiar with them, we recommend you check them out at usacxa.com. In this episode, host Steve Walker had the privilege of welcoming a CX leader that helped earn their company the Overall Winner of the 2023 Customer Experience Awards, in addition to winning gold and silver awards in several other categories. Steve welcomes Riccardo Porta, the Global Director for CX at Dow, the materials and...
Quick Tips Minicast: Is my sample size statistically significant?
September 14, 2023 10:00 - 7 minutes - 12.9 MBRespondents to your surveys are like notes in a symphony of data: if the right notes are played, you have a musical masterpiece. But if some are playing wrong notes, a dissonant chaos of sound can confuse the listeners. In the inaugural edition of The CX Leader Quick Tips Minicast, Walker expert Tanner Smith discusses how CX experts can make certain they're playing the right notes so they have clear insights into their customers. Listen to more Quick Tips at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/qu...
Everybody is a Consumer
September 12, 2023 10:00 - 26 minutes - 47.9 MBData is flying everywhere and CX pros are always striving to gobble-up whatever insights they can get about their customers. It’s easy to look at an average support call time, or NPS scores to get an idea of how things are going. But what about the things that are more difficult to quantify? How do find a hard number for something like customer service? Host Steve Walker welcomes Nathan Bobay, director for Consumer Service at Delta Faucets, for a discussion on quantifying the value of servic...
Encore: Convenience Trumps Price
September 05, 2023 15:20 - 23 minutes - 43.6 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we've been re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode originally dropped on November 6, 2018. Shep Hyken is an award-winning keynote speaker and renowned expert in customer experience. Shep discussed how he started in CX and how customers are no longer comparing you with competitors, but with “the best service they ever had, from anyone.” Please note that some details and situations described in the episo...
Encore: Stop, Start, or Change
August 29, 2023 10:00 - 29 minutes - 54.3 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on July 19, 2019. Guest Jay Baer has always been a fun guest to welcome onto the show. He is compelling, funny, and an engaging speaker. He’s also a world-renown expert in customer experience. We love this particular episode as he directly addressed the needs for companies to adapt to changing customer needs (e.g., a global pandemic!) Pleas...
Encore: Starting from Scratch
August 22, 2023 17:16 - 23 minutes - 43.5 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on July 19, 2019. Guest Roberta O'Keith did a great job describing how to start a CX program from scratch – it’s a great “CX 101” episode for anyone looking for ways to get a program off the ground. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released. It...
Go Where There's Traction
August 15, 2023 10:00 - 33 minutes - 62.2 MBAlmost immediately after the first horseless carriages appeared on America's roads, motorists began organizing automobile clubs. AAA formed in 1902 with 1500 members. AAA continues to save the day after a breakdown and making dream vacations a reality for more than 63 million members. The logistics of that aren’t easy, but this episode's guest will provide a glimpse of how the AAA National Office coordinates a complex customer experience program. Host Steve Walker welcomes Bryan Sander, mana...
Encore: Designing for People
August 08, 2023 15:48 - 28 minutes - 52.3 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on November 10, 2020. Guest Seth Fritz, manager of the design futures team at the Delta Faucets Company, gave us just a glimpse into the practice of human-centered design, utilizing techniques that allow designers to discover how people will interact with objects, and how the CX program at Delta helps the creative team better design product...
Encore: The Common Purpose
August 01, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 53 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on October 19, 2021. Guests Jennifer Pursifull and Sharon Bislich did some wonderful work with the company Medxcel in tying customer and employee data together, which helped empower their employees to create better experiences. That’s why we loved this episode – it beautifully demonstrates the powerful advantage of putting your CX and EX da...
Encore: Once Upon a Time
July 25, 2023 10:00 - 30 minutes - 55.7 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on August 24, 2021. We loved how our guest is passionate about connecting employees with the customers and brand through the use of storytelling. He and Steve discussed ways this can build empathy and understanding, which is vital to the overall culture of being a customer-centric organization. Please note that some details and situations ...
Your CX Communication Ecosystem
July 18, 2023 10:00 - 26 minutes - 47.9 MBFor some people, getting excited about a new project means diving right into the “fun stuff.” Working to fix up that cool classic car you just bought, or painting a landscape that inspired you. The temptation is to pick up the wrench or paint brush and dive in. But even artists and mechanics need a plan, and so do CX experts. And a critical area of planning for customer experience is communications. It’s important to know your audience and why you’re collecting data in the first place and pl...
Encore: The Survey People
July 11, 2023 10:00 - 27 minutes - 50.5 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode was originally on December 8, 2020. We loved how our guest highlighted the importance of creating a “change mindset” throughout the company to move the customer experience team beyond the label of the ”survey people.” Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released. ...
Encore: CX for the People
July 04, 2023 10:00 - 30 minutes - 55.4 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode originally dropped on April 20, 2021. We really liked this episode because our guests highlighted how well some local, state, and federal government have embraced CX principles as a way to connect to communities and commercial businesses. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it orig...
Encore: Wear Comfortable Shoes
June 27, 2023 10:00 - 25 minutes - 46.7 MBProducer's Note: During the summer months we'll be re-releasing some of our favorite episodes for our "Summer Encore Series." This episode originally dropped on November 12, 2019, and we loved the creative way in which IU Health immersed themselves in the patient's journey. Please note that some details and situations described in the episode may not neccessarily be the same as when it originally was released. Immersive experiences can be a powerful tool to demonstrate the customer experie...
Building CX Expertise
June 20, 2023 10:00 - 28 minutes - 53 MBIn the grand scheme of things, customer experience is still a newer practice. While it’s growing as companies and organizations realize its potential, there are still few options for formal education and training in CX. And that can make things difficult for CX pros trying to engage the entire company in customer experience efforts. So how do you raise the level of expertise across your organization? Host Steve Walker welcomes back Drew Hall, vice president and team lead for advisory and ma...
Setting Your Priorities
June 13, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 58.9 MBStarting a CX program in any organization can be difficult. And one of the more challenging aspects of spinning up a new program is getting your company – especially leadership – to make it a priority. And to make things even more complicated: what areas of customer experience do you prioritize? Do you start with surveys? Closed loop feedback? Journey mapping? Host Steve Walker welcomes Adam Shapourian, associate vice president of experience at United Educators, for a discussion on how to de...