Cx Leader Podcast With Steve Walker

It’s a great time to be a CX leader and we here at Walker have had a fun time producing this podcast. But after over 330 episodes speaking with fantastic people from across the globe, covering topics to help you get the most from customer experience, it’s time to put away the microphones. This is the last episode of The CX Leader Podcast, at least for now. And the reason is not complicated: we here at Walker have shifted our marketing strategy and are devoting resources to other activities. All the great content we’ve produced from the podcast will still be available at cxleaderpodcast.com, and you can always rely on Walker as the authoritative source for customer experience and experience management. Host Chris Higgins welcomes former hosts Troy Powell, Sara Walker, Pat Gibbons, and Steve Walker for a look back on their favorite guests, topics, and what CX leaders should look forward to in 2025.  Find a transcript for this episode on our show note page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/all-good-things/ Listen to

Change is hard. And that’s not the first time we’ve said those words on this podcast. When it involves breaking through entrenched practices within a company, it can be especially difficult - but not impossible. With a little buy-in, some quick wins to demonstrate the possibilities, and some awareness to the importance of customer centricity, you can create a culture that views CX as a game-winning strategy. Host Sara Walker welcomes Talar Ozcanian, director of customer experience business aviation and helicopter aviation training at CAE, an aviation simulation and technology company, and winners of the digital transformation category at the 2024 US CX Awards, to discuss their digital transformation. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/a-soaring-transformation/ Learn more about CAE on their website: https://www.cae.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

While it might not seem significant at first, securing a place to park your car is an important event. Sure, it’s not life or death, but during large events it can be time sensitive. Sometimes it’s the first experience people have when attending a concert or a large conference, so when the logistics are not working efficiently, it creates a frustrating experience for someone just looking for a safe place to park their car. But work to create a great employee experience and give them the tools to foster a customer centric mentality, you might have the recipe for an award-winning program. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Andrea Cedillo, head of customer support at ParkHub, to explore their award-winning CX program. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/a-space-for-customers/  Learn more about Parkhub at https://parkhub.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

Today’s marketing playbooks put social media at the top of many strategies, but regardless of its prevalence, your website is still your business hub and a vital extension of your brand. But when your customers say your site is not friendly or functional, it’s time to rethink your online experience. And in once such case we’re exploring on this episode, the result was award winning. Host Sara Walker welcomes Rajesh Sankaran, Senior VP of eCommerce for A-Max Auto Insurance, for a discussion about their award-winning approach to improving how customers interact with their website.  Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/take-the-transaction-out-of-the-interaction/ Learn more about A-MAX Auto Insurance at https://www.amaxinsurance.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

Think of some of the best experiences you have had as a customer. What made it great? Did you feel like the experience matched the company’s identity? Did any of it feel like it wasn’t meeting the company’s brand promise? Great experiences are consistent: you know what to expect when you interact with an organization that reflects their brand through their CX efforts. Host Sara Walker welcomes Chelsea Reynolds, marketing manager for YuMOVE, for a discussion on keeping experiences consistent with your organization's brand.  For a trascript of the episode, please visit the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/consistency-is-the-key/ Learn more about YuMOVE at https://yumove.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

It’s not easy changing people’s minds. But we’re approaching a season in which customer experience professionals are working hard to convince executives and peers on the value of adopting a customer-centric mindset. WE as CX pros know the value of our efforts, but sometimes we have to convince others of its advantages. And sometimes data isn’t enough. We have to balance the data with storytelling to build confidence in others about the value of customer experience. Troy Powell hosts with guests Pat Gibbons, SVP at Walker, and Megan Burns, a customer experience expert, author, and keynote speaker. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-cx-conundrum-of-changing-minds/ Learn more about Megan at https://megan-burns.com/ Download Walker's Storytelling Workbook at https://walkerinfo.com/cxleader/cx-storytelling-workbook/ Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

Listening to your customers is the “window” to knowing how well your organization is performing in its customer experience efforts. Whether it’s an online support chat, a voice of the customer through employee program, or a CSAT survey, each of these touchpoints provide a metric to how your customers view your company. But HOW you create these listening opportunities matters, and keeping them consistent with your company’s brand is important. Pat Gibbons welcomes Joe Chiew, senior manager of consumer insights and voice of the customer at The Guitar Center Company, for a discussion on creating consistent listening experiences. Find the transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-harmonious-experience/ Learn more about Guitar Center at https://www.guitarcenter.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

Producer's note: this episode originally dropped on October 11, 2022. While some details may have changed since it's original publication, we think Dan Silvert's insights on the importance of healthy relationships between employees is a great example of create excellent employee experiences.  Many companies use them: personality tests or evaluations - ways to help employees discover more about how they and their colleagues work with others. Some might roll their eyes at the mention of them yet others find them very useful in trying to connect to other people in their company. Regardless of how you feel about them, the goal is ultimately a better-working team. And employees working well together means there’s better potential for excellent customer experiences. Host Steve Walker welcome Dan Silvert, a partner and president of the Velocity Advisory Group, a strategic consulting company. Read more about Velocity Advisory Group: https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/ More about Dan's book, "The True Competitive A

As consumers we’ve all interacted in different ways with companies. Sometimes an automated system, online chat, an app on our phones, or even a live human being. But as customer experience professionals, how do we know which channel is the best option and the most preferred by consumers? And how will AI fit into all this? Host Sara Walker welcomes James Scutt, a principle XM strategist at the Qualtrics XM Institute for a look at what their 2023 Global Consumer Study reveals about consumer channel preferences.  Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ai-is-it-hype-or-helpful/  Read the 2023 Global Consumer Study: https://www.xminstitute.com/research/consumer-channel-preferences-2024/  Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

What’s the first thing you think of when asked, “how well do you listen?” Many CX professionals might think of their listening systems: surveys, close-loop feedback, listening architectures. Some may say they interact with clients on a regular basis. But what about actively listening? Talking less and letting others express themselves, and then reassuring them that the conversation was worth it. Host Sara Walker welcomes Marisa Schwartz, senior regional medical director for St. Luke’s University Health Network, to discuss the importance of active listening.  Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/talk-less-listen-more/ Learn more about St. Luke's University Health Network at https://www.slhn.org/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

It's human nature to compare what we do professionally – and even personally – with others and CX leaders are no different. So Walker, along with the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), launched The CX Leader Pulse as a way to give customer experience professionals a look into what companies are, and are not, doing within their CX programs. The results of the first study are in and host Pat Gibbons welcomes Walker’s own Troy Powell, Vice President of Strategy & Analytics, and Greg Melia, CEO of the CXPA, to discuss what was discovered. Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-results-are-in/ To participate in The CX Leader Pulse, visit https://walkerinfo.com/pulse List to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about the Customer Experience Professionals Association at https://cxpaglobal.org/  Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

CX leaders have become increasingly effective at taking action on customer feedback. Today many organizations have effective closed-loop programs that efficiently route insights to the right person for timely action. However, there’s a blind spot – the vast majority of customers never provide their feedback. Actually that’s more than a blind spot. It’s a black hole! This episode's guest has built an impressive early warning system that addresses this problem. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Maddie Clark, Customer Experience Insights Senior Manager at ServiceNow, for a discussion on how she built an early warning system that addresses the problem of identifying dissatisfied customers that don't provide feedback. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-black-hole-of-cx/ Learn more about ServiceNow at https://servicenow.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/

In today's consumer world, we are inundated with advertising from countless online and offline mediums, and too often companies think that's what really drives their brand. But if you're a customer experience leader, you know experience has possibly become the most prominent ingredient in a company's brand. So how do we make it work? How do CX leaders ensure an experience that influences the brand and reputation of their organization in a positive way? Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Keith Farley, senior vice president for individual benefits at Aflac, to discuss the experience of directing CX at one of the world's most famous brands. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/your-brand-and-cx-theyre-connected/ Learn more about AFLAC at https://www.aflac.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/

If you go back in time 10 or 15 years you'll find it was common for a market research function within a company to send out a single survey each year to all customers asking about their satisfaction with the products and services they interacted with. The field has since greatly evolved as what we now call customer experience regularly receives customer feedback from multiple surveys and unstructured data, and we get that data from across multiple channels. But we still have a lot of evolution left if we want to keep up with the changes our companies are dealing with. Host Troy Powell welcome Isabelle Zdatny from the Qualtrics XM Institute to discuss the evolution of customer experience and experience management. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/its-moving-really-fast/ Learn more about the XM Institute at https://www.xminstitute.com/  Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/ 

Producer's Note: This podcast was originally released on April 4, 2023. As always with our encore episodes, please note that some details might be different, but the advice from Stacy Sherman regarding inclusiveness in CX and EX is still valuable.  People in general want to do good things for others. But it’s easy to assume that everyone sees the world with similar eyes. We live in a diverse world with people that have different needs, so it’s important that CX professionals plan and accommodate so the experience is accessible and meaningful for all their customers. Host Steve Walker welcomes Stacy Sherman, a customer experience and marketing keynote speaker, content creator, and host of the podcast "Doing CX Right", for a discussion on creating inclusive experiences for customers and employees with different needs and abilities.  Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/the-inclusive-experience/ Read more about Stacy on her website: https://doingcxright.com/  Lis

We'll bet you've heard this one: you call customer support and encounter an automated system. Despite your best efforts to speak clearly, the voice on the other end of the line can’t understand you. Or, how about when you’ve finally reached someone and they need to transfer you to another agent. After waiting on hold for a while, the second agent finally answers the phone but asks you to explain the problem all over again. That is s a particularly frustrating experience, and you’re not alone according to a recent study by RingCentral and Opinium Research. Host Sara Walker welcomes Jim Payne, director of product marketing at RingCentral, a provider of AI-first cloud-based communication and collaboration solutions, for a discussion about the report's findings and how AI can help ease those customer support pain points. You can read more about RingCentral and Opinium Research's report here: https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/can-ai-fix-bad-customer-service/ Find a transcript for this episode on the show not

In this bonus episode, Pat Gibbons describes his experiences at the Qualtrics X4 event in Salt Lake City, Utah, on May 1-3. With thousands of experience management professionals in attendance, Pat had an opportunity to discuss the top challenges facing XM professionals within their own organizations. Hosted at the Walker exhibit booth, professionals were asked to participate in an unique exercise that demonstrated the concerns experience management leaders are facing. Read more about X4 and details results from the exercise on our blog: https://walkerinfo.com/top-xm-challenges-results-from-x4/ Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/bonus-2024-x4-results/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/

It’s common today that, as consumers, we receive a survey after all kinds of experiences – shopping, travel, home repair – you name it. You fill out a survey with the hope that it might change the next outcome to be better. But what about the here and now?  As experience management improves consumers are demanding action during the experience. Now think of yourself not only as a consumer, but as a patient and the timeliness of feedback and action becomes that much more important. Host Pat Gibbons welcomes Laura Anning, Chief of Patient Experience for Washington Hospital Healthcare System, and Liz Wallshield, Senior Technology Consultant at Walker, for a discussion on using patient rounding as a way to quickly action on feedback.  Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/rounds-and-rounds-we-go/ Learn more about Washington Hospital Healthcare System at https://www.whhs.com/ Listen to more podcasts at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://w

Maybe it’s a concert headlining Beyonce, U2, or Taylor Swift? Or perhaps your favorite NFL team is playing their rivals this weekend? Perhaps you prefer events that allow for some more personal creative expression like GenCon or Comic-Con? While we have our personal preferences, few things compare to meeting up with thousands of like-minded people or fans for live events. But those gatherings don’t just happen out of the blue, and just like any other business, the experience matters. And ASM Global just released a new study that highlights what audiences are demanding in regards to live event experiences. Host Sara Walker welcomes Alex Merchan, chief marketing officer for ASM Global, a venue management and live event production company, to discuss their recent study on global audience trends. Find a transcript for this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/give-the-audience-what-they-want/ Learn more about ASM Global at https://www.asmglobal.com/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxlead

Conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusiveness have been happening in many companies in the U.S., and healthcare is no exception, especially when it comes to the care patients receive. And listening to patients’ needs and concerns is vital to providing doctors, nurses, administrative staff, and leadership with the insights required to providing equitable care for all their patients. But what does it mean to be “equitable” versus “equal” in the care providers give to their patients? Host Sara Walker welcomes Ariel Davis, head of healthcare provider solution strategy for Qualtrics, and Nicole Richendollar, vice president in our client services at Walker, for a discussion on providing equitable care to patients.  Find a transcript of this episode on the show notes page: https://cxleaderpodcast.com/equity-in-healthcare/ Listen to more episodes at https://cxleaderpodcast.com/ Learn more about Walker at https://walkerinfo.com/