The Modern Customer Podcast

The future of streaming is shaping a new horizon for customer experience. With its focus on data-driven personalization and interactive features, Roku is well-positioned to play a key role in shaping the future of the streaming world. Bridging the gap between viewers and brands, Sarah Monahan, U.S. Head of Verticals at Roku, reimagines how streaming ads can shape a whole new customer journey. Blak...

In a saturated market, customer experience transcends price and product: it's the ultimate differentiator. Across the globe, brands are constantly innovating and refining their CX strategies to meet the evolving expectations of their customers. Europe, with its diverse markets and cultural nuances, presents both challenges and opportunities for customer experience (CX) practitioners. Steven Van Be...

As technology reshapes how we live and work, our expectations for banking are changing too. Convenience and personalization are becoming the new normal. JPMorgan Chase is injecting a dose of digital delight, with Chief Design Officer Kaaren Hanson mapping out and curating the digital customer experience for Chase customers. Blake Morgan  is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and auth...

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Penny Brook, the former Chief Marketing and Experience Officer at Canada Goose, discusses how the retail industry is changing and how brands can create a better experience for their customers. She talks about the importance of storytelling, personalization, and technology in creating a memorable retail experience. Blake Morgan  is a customer experience fut...

On this week's episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Donna Drehmann, who has held customer service leadership roles at companies such as Postmates, Asurion, and TikTok, discusses the pivotal role of managing controllable elements such as training and quality assurance (QA) in contact centers. Blake Morgan  is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The...

Retailers leverage footfall and conversion data to inform critical decisions like store location, inventory levels, and personalized marketing initiatives. But what if these metrics only tell half the story of why shoppers leave without purchasing?  This is where customer experience (CX) emerges as the critical differentiator in retail. Martin Newman, with four decades of experience guiding consum...

In this week's episode of the Modern Customer Podcast, Isabella Villani, a renowned customer experience expert and author, illustrates how proactive analytics revolutionizes customer experience (CX). Isabella begins by explaining how this innovative approach enables businesses to anticipate and effectively meet customer needs, thereby transforming the CX landscape. Using proactive analytics, compa...

For fintechs to keep customers loyal, a deep understanding of their needs and challenges is essential. Trish Wethman, Chief Customer Officer at Best Egg, stands out in this respect. She has redefined customer experience (CX) in the fintech world by centering it around financial confidence. Wethman's approach goes beyond just offering financial products. She aims to empower customers, particularly...

How can the concept of "Unreasonable Hospitality" reshape the landscape of customer experience within the contact center? In this podcast, Will Guidara, former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park and author of "Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect," shares impactful business insights. His insights into hospitality, leadership, and customer service provi...

How can businesses genuinely embrace customer-centricity? Do companies like Apple genuinely prioritize their customers, or do they place their products above all else? These pressing questions guide our conversation with Colin Shaw. With a career spanning decades, Colin Shaw, the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, brings firsthand experience to the evolving world of customer experience. With se...

Building trust is a crucial aspect of any successful business, especially when it comes to the client experience. But how exactly can organizations foster trust, and what role does emotional safety play in this process? One individual who has made significant strides in understanding the dynamics of trust is Charles Green. He has dedicated his career to understanding the dynamics of trust and how...

What's the future of contact centers in shaping customer experience and brand loyalty? Companies are increasingly recognizing the critical role that contact centers play in shaping customer perceptions and driving brand loyalty. In this podcast episode, Stephanie Shaffer De Jesus, a seasoned customer experience practitioner, shares invaluable insights into the future of contact centers and the rol...

Storytelling is the ultimate tool for persuasion and connection. Rob Biesenbach is a seasoned professional speaking coach and author who understands the transformative power of storytelling. In this week's podcast, Rob shares that presentations should never be about merely delivering data – they should be about sparking change, getting buy-in, and igniting action. Blake Morgan  is a customer exper...

Customer service is a big part of the customer experience, and the call center is a critical focal point for direct interaction with customers. With all the changes in technology recently, I wanted to ask an industry expert his thoughts on the future of the call center in the customer experience space. In this episode of the Modern Customer Podcast, I had a conversation with an expert who has prob...

On this episode of the Modern Customer Podcast, I spoke with Kelly McDonald about meeting customer expectations. Kelly is a speaker and author of several books, including her latest title, It's Time to Talk about Race at Work, a guide for leaders to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Her ideas can be applied everywhere, from call centers to service and customer experience. According...

Most of us have grown up with the stereotyped idea that a leader should be emotionless and impersonal. But this isn't the case, as we so often see that introducing personal feelings and emotional intelligence into the mix can make for better leaders with stronger connections to their employees. In this episode of my podcast, I'm proud to say that I sat down with Jacob Morgan, my husband of nine ye...

As customer experience professionals, our goal is to listen to what customers want and make changes to improve our service and their experience. But as David Cote suggests, so many companies miss the mark because they think they have to choose between short- and long-term goals for their business rather than aiming for both. Under David Cote's leadership, Honeywell's market cap soared from $20 bil...

Despite trying to do our best every day in customer experience or any other facet of business, we often run up against a wall. We focus all of our energy on performance, and by doing so, our results can actually decrease. But why would that happen? Eduardo Briceno, TEDx presenter and author of The Performance Paradox, believes it's because so many of us are stuck in a fixed mindset. Despite aiming...

The most competitive brands today understand the contact center is an opportunity, and ensuring a customer-centric culture in that contact center is key. The problem for most brands and customer experience leaders is high churn and the reality that burnout is real. I talked to Brian Dunphy, an experienced contact center and customer experience expert who's guided customer experience strategy for n...

Over the past few decades, the landscape of the Fortune 500 has changed immensely. Reflecting on this transformation, Alan Murray, the founder of Fortune, offers an intriguing perspective. "If you go back 50 years and you look at the balance sheet of Fortune 500 companies in the 1970s, over 80 percent of the value came from physical entities - from oil in the ground to inventories on the shelves,"...

Modern customer experience is data-driven. Management needs data-backed insights to understand what they can improve in their processes or products to yield better customer service. This is why research companies such as Forrester exist. Forrester is an advisory company offering research, consulting, and other services to help companies make better customer experience decisions. On the Modern Cust...

Running a contact center is one of the most challenging processes for a company when offering a unique and positive customer experience. Contact centers are the bridge that connects your customers to your brand and allows them to feel engaged and heard. So, what makes running one so difficult? I talked to Naomi Wheeless, the Global Head of Customer Success at Square, about the management and leade...

Tanger Outlets has a 42-year history of being an industry leader in branded in-person retail outlets, providing a unique on-brand customer experience for people shopping for unique products from specific brands. Stephen Yalof, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, says that for the company and its outlets to remain relevant, it had to pivot towards customer experience in retail outl...

In customer experience integrating innovation and personalization is key. Inspirato is a luxury vacation membership company that offers its members access to a curated collection of luxury vacation properties and experiences around the world. The company operates on a subscription-based model, where members pay an annual fee for access to these high-end vacation options. I had the pleasure of talk...

  With its many changes and outside forces, the airline industry is challenging for customer experience. But Oscar Munoz, former CEO of United Airlines, believes it also provides an amazing opportunity to focus on individual customers and remember that even in stressful times and busy travel days, customers are humans and central to everything the business does.  When Oscar first stepped into his...