Punk CX: Customer Experience Insights with Adrian Swinscoe

Today’s interview is with Carey Smith, founder & CEO (Chief Big Ass), and Dave Waltz, Customer Advocate, of Big Ass Fans, a manufacturer of high-volume low-speed fans for industrial, agricultural, commercial and residential use. Carey and Dave join me today to talk about how their customer service strategy has been central to growing the business from $34 million in revenue in 2009 to a projected $175 million in 2014, what they are doing that’s different, silent complaints, why they hired a full-time customer advocate and what that person (Dave and his team) does and what they are responsible for. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Moving from the era of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to the era of CMR (Customer Managed Relationships) – Interview with Geraldine McBride of MyWave – and is number 122 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt, co-authors of a new book called: A World Gone Social: How companies must adapt to survive. They join me to talk about their book, the challenges that they see many firms facing, how to address these challenges and why customer service is not only an issue for whole organisations but is also a leadership issue. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Find and fix customer problems by hiring a Customer Advocacy Manager – Interview with Carey Smith and Dave Waltz of Big Ass Fans – and is number 123 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Stew Bloom, CEO of Aspect, who help enterprise contact centres deliver their customer experiences across every channel through their software platform. Stew joins me today to talk about proactive customer service and why proactive customer service drives customer loyalty. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Social leadership and why the C-Suite has to go social – Interview with Ted Coiné and Mark Babbitt – and is number 124 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Angela O’Connell, the Strategy & Marketing Director for MetaPack. Founded in 1999, MetaPack provides a SaaS delivery management system to retailers, third-party logistics companies and carriers enabling better choice and more freedom in delivery options to all consumers, both in B2B and B2C markets. Angela joins me today to talk about recent research about consumer feelings, anxieties and preferences about deliveries following online purchases, the last mile/yard of customer experience and where companies can improve. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Proactive customer service drives customer loyalty – Interview with Stew Bloom of Aspect – and is number 125 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with S. Chris Edmonds, who is the founder and CEO of The Purposeful Culture Group. Chris joins me today to talk about his new book: The Culture Engine: A Framework for Driving Results, Inspiring Your Employees, and Transforming Your Workplace, which gives firms and leaders a new framework for building and maintaining the culture that they need to develop in order to compete and drive their businesses forward but one that they can develop without falling behind on everything else. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Nearly 60% of customers will go elsewhere following a bad delivery experience – Interview with Angela O’Connell of MetaPack – and is number 126 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Laurence Chami, Managing Director of Eptica, a European provider of multichannel customer interaction software with a global reach. Laurence joins me today to talk about the work that Eptica are doing, the challenges that many companies face providing customer service via email, differences to approaches across geographies and why email as a customer service channel is here to stay. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Different customers have different journeys and needs – Interview with Daniel Lind of Qmatic – and is number 128 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Melvin Brand Flu, Partner and Director of Strategy and Business Design at Livework, a leading service design company. Melvin joins me today to talk about the work that Livework do and some of the research that they are doing around irritation curves. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Customer service by email and differences across geographies – Interview with Laurence Chami of Eptica– and is number 129 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Mikkel Svane, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Zendesk, a fast growing and recently listed (NYSE) cloud based customer service platform. Mikkel joins me today to talk about: Startupland: How Three Guys Risked Everything to Turn an Idea into a Global Business - his new book that tells the story of how they grew their cloud based customer service platform from a kitchen table in Denmark to Silicon Valley, a listing on the NYSE and customers in over 150 countries. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Do you know if you are irritating your customers? – Interview with Melvin Brand Flu of Livework– and is number 130 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Matt Lautz, President and CIO of CorvisaCloud, a provider of call centre software and a cloud based enterprise communications platform. Matt joins me today to talk about B2B customer service and customer experience, why it needs to improve, what lessons B2B can learnt from B2C and a few predictions about what's coming up in the customer service/customer experience arena. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Startupland – Zendesk’s journey from a kitchen table in Denmark to the NYSE – Interview with Mikkel Svane – and is number 131 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.

Today’s interview is with Ron Kaufman, Founder and Chairman of UP! Your Service and author of New York Times bestselling Uplifting Service: The Proven Path to Delighting Your Customers, Colleagues, and Everyone Else You Meet. Ron joins me today to talk about uplifting service, building a service culture, some examples of companies that are excelling at this and and why that’s important that every company builds their own service culture. This interview follows on from my recent interview: Proactive customer service will pay back ten fold – Interview with Matt Lautz of Corvisa - and is number 132 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders that are doing great things, helping businesses innovate, become more social and deliver better service.