The Modern Customer Podcast

The consumer experience is transforming, and technology is at the center of it all. One company leading the way is health insurance provider Humana. There are a lot of options to focus on with the customer experience, but according to Geeta Wilson, director of customer experience at Humana, the company looks for where it can make the biggest impact first—by using technology to deliver a better experience to the customers. Humana breaks down its interactions with customers into two categories: assisted and unassisted. Assisted service is when a person needs help to answer their question or perform their task. This is usually done on a phone call or via a chat experience. Unassisted service is when a customer can get the answers they need without any intervention from a customer service representative. To streamline the process and help customers to have a good experience on their own terms, Humana is turning to artificial intelligence. The new Ask Humana tool helps customers get the answers they need by using an online tool similar to a live chat. However, instead of chatting with a human, customers are communicating with a machine that uses trends and previous knowledge to provide the right answers. One area where artificial intelligence tends to lack is with emotional connectivity. Humana has been working on building a better emotional experience by mimicking the connectivity customers have when talking to and chatting with real customer service representatives. There are a number of challenges involved with artificial intelligence, including making sure the information is updated and accurate, that the experience meets customer satisfaction levels, and that the program meets the company's success metrics. What sets Humana apart in its quest to better the human experience is its approach. The company is focused on finding solutions through rapid experimentation to test their hypotheses. Once a hypothesis is found true, they continue to build on it. Humana starts broad to go narrow by framing the problem, making sure the team has a strong understanding of it, and then framing an experiment to test a solution for the problem. Because artificial intelligence is such an unknown area, the company is in uncharted territory and works to lay out the assumptions and let the results speak. To prove the technology, Humana relies on a number of metrics, including a unique emotional score. Because customers make 70% of their decisions with an emotional response, Humana uses a CPS-style approach to measuring emotion in AI interaction. The company has found that as emotional metrics improve, so do their other success metrics like overall satisfaction and the length of the call. As technology continues to develop, the customer experience will evolve out of necessity. Geeta predicts that advanced machines will be able to analyze data quickly, providing for improved automated processes and customized interactions with customers. Artificial intelligence is just one way that is happening.with customers. Artificial intelligence is just one way that is happening.

Kerry Bodine believes that happy customers lead to happy shareholders. Her book, Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business, helps business leaders understand the financial benefits of great customer experiences—and how their organizations must change in order to deliver them. In 2014, she founded Kerry Bodine & Co., a customer experience consultancy focused on customer journey mapping and experience design. She's also a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and private corporate events around the world. Kerry's ideas, analysis, and opinions have appeared on sites like The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, USA Today, and Advertising Age. She contributes a regular column to Touchpoint, the journal published by the global Service Design Network. Kerry spent seven years with the customer experience practice at Forrester Research. As vice president and principal analyst, she led Forrester's research on customer experience design and innovation. She was also the creative force behind the customer experience ecosystem, a framework that helps companies diagnose and fix customer problems at their roots. In previous roles, Kerry managed consumer research teams; guided the design of websites, mobile apps, and branded social networks; designed interfaces for robots and wearable devices; and, in 1995, developed a Web-based social shopping prototype for AT&T Bell Labs. In addition to her design background, she has completed stints as both a management consultant and an advertising executive. Kerry holds a master's degree in human-computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon University.

There's a lot you might not know about ACE Hardware - for example did you know the world's largest Ace Hardware store is in Indonesia and is 160K square feet? This global company—known as #TheHelpfulPlace—has focus on service you can't ignore. The service focus in addition to specialty items and authentic 1:1 experiences is their best weapon against competitors such as Amazon. The company is much bigger than you might realize – it has 85,000 employees and over 4800 stores. ACE Hardware as of 2016 has been ranked by J.D. Power as the highest in customer satisfaction with home improvement for ten years straight. Their CEO John Venhuizen talked to me in this Modern Customer Podcast about what makes them so successful. Whether it's trusting the locally owned Ace businesses to cater to their local communities or a less than in your face approach to social media marketing, the company maintains a service-oriented approach throughout. Listen to this podcast with ACE Hardware's CEO to learn: What's the CEOs role in shaping customer experiences How does ACE Hardware remain competitive against Amazon What is ACE Hardware's approach to social customer service

Dan Roam will always be your most interesting dinner party guest, not just because he will explain complicated topics to you on the back of a napkin. For years he has been espousing the benefits of communicating through simple images. He broke ground with this bestselling book Back Of The Napkin, and has recently released a new book called Draw To Win: A Crash Course On How To Lead, Sell and Innovate With Your Visual Mind. In the book Roam provides the tools necessary to thrive visually, using step-by-step diagrams and easy-to-master lessons that will make you an expert in communication and creativity. Think this isn't relevant for customer experience professionals? Think again! Simplifying content for customers should be priority number one for every brand. Gone are the days when customers had the attention span for long wordy documents explaining terms of service, how-to content, or self-help guides. Learn from Roam what you can be doing to improve your customer communication through images. An internationally bestselling author and the founder of the Napkin Academy, the world's first online visual-thinking training program, Roam has helped leaders at Microsoft, Boeing, eBay, Kraft, The US Navy, Senate and many more solve complex problems with simple pictures. You won't want to miss this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast. More About Our Sponsor Plantronics: Plantronics offers one of the industry's most complete families of corded and wireless products for unified communications. Widely recognized for their sound quality, reliability and comfort, Plantronics' audio solutions help companies extend the benefits of IP communications throughout the extended enterprise, fostering better business communication and efficiency regardless of where professionals are working. https://www.plantronics.com/us/company/

How important is it to organize your data around your customer? It turns out that variation in customer demographics can be a powerful thing, and you want to make sure you are taking that diversity of customer into account when building customer programs. Today on the Modern Customer Podcast Zoher Karu ebay's Chief Data Officer talks about the importance treating different customers differently. He recommends integrating different internal and external data elements together and explains the art and science behind understanding customers. At eBay Karu believes every customer is different and your customer strategy should reflect that. Learn more in this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast. Zoher Karu is Vice President and Chief Data Officer at eBay where he works to drive more personal and relevant experiences on eBay Marketplace properties. Prior to joining eBay, Zoher served as Vice President of Marketing Analytics and Insight at Sears, leading efforts to drive customer behavior, loyalty and growth, both in-store and on-line. Zoher holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. More About Our Sponsor Plantronics: Plantronics offers one of the industry's most complete families of corded and wireless products for unified communications. Widely recognized for their sound quality, reliability and comfort, Plantronics' audio solutions help companies extend the benefits of IP communications throughout the extended enterprise, fostering better business communication and efficiency regardless of where professionals are working. https://www.plantronics.com/us/company

Peter Strebel serves as chief marketing officer and senior vice president of sales responsible for creating and driving innovative branding, communications, marketing and business development strategies to increase awareness, capture market share and build revenue for the brand. Strebel stewards Omni's centers of excellence including revenue management, global sales, e-commerce, customer loyalty, reservations and call center, branding, advertising, communications, web and digital marketing and market research. Previously, Strebel was the senior vice president of operations and oversaw the development of brand-wide property standards, guest rooms and other operational areas for the brand's growing convention collection and resort portfolio. He also worked directly to support Omni Atlanta Hotel at CNN Center, Omni Nashville Hotel, Omni Parker House, Omni Berkshire Place, The Omni Homestead Resort and The Omni Grove Park Inn. A long-term Omni veteran, Strebel rejoined Omni in 2009 as area managing director and general manager of the Omni Berkshire Place. In his role as area managing director, he oversaw all marketing, sales and operational aspects of Omni properties in the Northeast. During his previous tenure at Omni, he had a successful 10-year career in sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately leading to his appointment as vice president of sales and marketing. What You Will Learn In This Podcast: How Omni Hotels differentiates itself with so many disruptions coming to hospitality How customer experience is defined at Omni Hotels Who drives customer experience at Omni Hotels How is customer service organized at Omni Hotels More About Our Sponsor Plantronics: Plantronics offers one of the industry's most complete families of corded and wireless products for unified communications. Widely recognized for their sound quality, reliability and comfort, Plantronics' audio solutions help companies extend the benefits of IP communications throughout the extended enterprise, fostering better business communication and efficiency regardless of where professionals are working. https://www.plantronics.com/us/company/

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is not an age-old role. It's a unique new role that's set up differently at every organization. One example comes from MetLife who has seasoned industry executive Claire Burns running customer strategy. Burns serves as the Chief Customer Officer for MetLife which covers 110 million customers and 65K employees. The global company has an extensive and diverse product and distribution channels. Burns leads transformational change – tasked with shifting from a product centric corporate strategy to a customer centric corporate strategy. Burns, reporting to the CMO, has a "matrixed" managed team of 50 change agents around the world who are responsible for implementing these customer-centric programs. Burns' task is aligning the entire company around the customer. She helps the company decide what kinds of products they need to create. Burns also evaluated what services are going well and what ones aren't. She ensures the company is treating its customers as an asset—helping the broader organization gain clarity with their priorities and ensure they align. More About Our Sponsor Plantronics: Plantronics offers one of the industry's most complete families of corded and wireless products for unified communications. Widely recognized for their sound quality, reliability and comfort, Plantronics' audio solutions help companies extend the benefits of IP communications throughout the extended enterprise, fostering better business communication and efficiency regardless of where professionals are working. https://www.plantronics.com/us/company/

The Dallas Mavericks are famous for a few reasons. They are the 9th most valuable basketball Franchise in the NBA valued at $1.4 billion dollars. The other unique aspect of the team is Mark Cuban their highly involved and enthusiastic owner. The Dallas Mavericks Chief Technology Officer--interviewed in this podcast--is used to hearing from Cuban whether it's about engaging digital fans or a customer complaint Cuban found on social media. Management of the team make customer experience excellence a habit. The Dallas Mavericks continually invest in technology in addition to other leadership development practices such as the Disney Institute to maintain a strong level of quality throughout the Mavericks fan experience. Today's Modern Customer guest, Chief Technology Officer Ken Bonzon talks about how he started his career with the Dallas Mavericks 17 years ago and the many transformations he's seen the team go through. Fan engagement has always been a priority for the team, and now with technology engaging partners and fans has become even easier. Learn about what the Dallas Mavericks are doing to engage fans and maintain brand relevance in this podcast.

Amazon repeatedly tops customer experience lists in addition to every other category for innovation. So what's the secret? John Rossman was an early employee with Amazon and started with the initial leadership team in the early 2000s. In his book The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind The World's Most Disruptive Company provides an inside-look at what makes Amazon so successful. Today Rossman serves as a Managing Director at consultancy Alvarez & Marsal. At a time when Amazon rarely talks to the press Rossman's book looks at all the reasons why Amazon remains competitive and the decision-making that makes the company consistently high performing. Don't miss these critical tips in today's modern customer podcast.

Why does it seem like start-ups are having all the fun lately? All too often big companies will launch an incubator or start-up environment in their company only later to close it once the company starts to feel nervous about their growth. In today's Modern Customer Podcast we learn from Michael Docherty the author of Collective Disruption: How Corporations & Startups Can Co-Create Transformative New Businesses. In the book Michael reveals how the smartest corporations are learning to partner and co-create with startups for transformative innovation. The book provides established companies with a practical framework for plugging into the startup ecosystem to fuel and incubate new businesses. As CEO of Venture2 Inc., Docherty and his organization work with leading companies to transform their innovation capabilities, build innovation ecosystems and accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough new products, services and business models. He is a frequent speaker on innovation and corporate venturing and an active supporter of the entrepreneurial community.