The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin

In this thought-provoking episode of the Delighted Customer Show, we are thrilled to welcome back Marbue Brown, the visionary founder and CEO of Customer Obsession Advantage. An authoritative voice in the intersection of AI and customer experience (CX), Marbu has recently contributed to the bestselling book, "The AI Mindset: Thriving in Civilization's Next Big Disruption."  Marbue discusses his chapter, "Transforming Customer Experience with AI Strategies and Innovation," where he refutes the common belief that AI-driven interactions lack personal touch. He shares insights on utilizing AI to tackle long-standing challenges in customer service, such as optimizing onboarding and training processes to improve proficiency and reduce costs. By leveraging AI to simulate training scenarios, companies are enhancing their customer support capabilities while drastically cutting their training times and expenses. He shares real-world applications, highlighting how AI is revolutionizing business operations, especially in call centers, where quicker information aggregation and comprehensive customer journey insights are leading to improved agent performance and customer satisfaction scores. Marbu stresses the importance of selecting trustworthy AI providers and starting with clear use cases rather than getting lost in the technological allure. Marbue also provides actionable advice for businesses, emphasizing maintaining an open mind and a learning posture towards AI opportunities while recounting his own enlightening experiences. I personally loved the example he shared about how Sam's Club is using AI to improve the checkout process for customers. Tune in for a deeply insightful dialogue that addresses how AI can not only solve existing problems but also unleash new possibilities for businesses to thrive in the next big disruption. Meet Marbue B. A. Marbue Brown is author of the book Blueprint for Customer Obsession and the Founder and CEO of The Customer Obsession Advantage (customerobsession.net), a firm dedicated to helping companies achieve extraordinary business results through customer obsession.  He is an accomplished customer experience (CX) executive with a track record of thought leadership and signature business results at some of the most iconic companies on the planet, including JP Morgan Chase, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corporation, and Cisco Systems.  His expertise has been featured in premier media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fox Business, CNN Business, CBS News, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes, The Baltimore Sun, The New York Post, Wharton Business Daily, and KTLA-TV. The new book is The AI Mindset: Thriving in Civilization's Next Big Disruption.  You can find it here.  

I'm excited to kick off season 3 with Rob Markey! It's his third time on the show, and I think you will see why I'm so excited about the insights he shares. Rob is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and an Advisory Partner at Bain and Company. He’s widely known for his work on customer loyalty and the development of the Net Promoter Score and System. 🌟 In this episode, we explore Rob's journey and his current role at Harvard, including his innovative approach to teaching customer experience management. Here are 3 key takeaways you won't want to miss: 🔍 Service Business Design: Learn how understanding customer needs and crafting a value proposition around those needs can drive business success. From extermination businesses to banking, effective service design is crucial. 📈 Customer and Employee Management Systems: Dive into the importance of customer management systems that help customers navigate the business model and employee management systems that elevate and empower employees to deliver exceptional service. 💡 Learning and Adapting: Discover the power of customer feedback and how companies can adapt, innovate, and grow even in the face of market changes and challenges. A great example discussed was the untapped potential in effectively responding to customer praise. 🌟 Special Highlight: Rob shares fascinating insights from his classroom experiences and practical exercises, like the customer compatibility exercise and letter-writing campaigns to service organizations. These exercises show the powerful impact of customer communication and feedback. Don’t miss out on this episode packed with actionable insights and thought-provoking discussions on modern customer experience management! Tune in now and transform your CX strategy. 🎧🔥 #CustomerExperience #CX #BusinessStrategy #HarvardBusinessSchool #Leadership #CustomerLoyalty #Podcast #NetPromoterScore #MarkSlatin

Dr. Forrest Morgeson, Interim Chairperson of the Marketing Department, Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing at Michigan State University, and former Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). With over two decades of rigorous research and numerous publications in top marketing journals, Dr. Morgeson shares his deep insights into the cyclical relationship between customer satisfaction and the economy. Discover how economic fluctuations, global events, and energy prices intricately affect customer contentment, and why satisfaction decreased pre-COVID only to rebound post-pandemic. Dr. Morgeson provides a critical analysis of the Biden administration's efforts to enhance citizen satisfaction through executive orders, exploring the complexities that set governmental services apart from the private sector. Join the discussion on common misconceptions, the importance of correlating customer satisfaction with ROI, and the challenges businesses face in capturing accurate data on satisfaction and churn. Learn why optimizing, rather than maximizing, customer experience is key to outpacing competitors, and what strategies can improve satisfaction and earnings across different industries. Tune in as Dr. Morgeson shares practical advice for business leaders and reflects on his own career journey, providing valuable nuggets of wisdom for anyone interested in customer experience and satisfaction metrics. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain expert knowledge from a leading authority in the field. Subscribe to the Delighted Customers Podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and leave a five-star review to help us spread the word. New episodes drop every Thursday! For more information on the topics discussed, visit the Michigan State University's marketing department website.   Meet Dr. Morgeson Forrest V. Morgeson III is Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing, Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. He also serves as the Co-Director of the Doctoral Program in Marketing. Dr. Morgeson teaches marketing management, marketing strategy, and marketing research courses to graduate students. Dr. Morgeson’s past position was Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), where he managed ACSI’s academic research and team of researchers, advanced statistical modeling and analysis, and the company’s international projects and licensing program. Dr. Morgeson’s research focuses on customer satisfaction and customer experience measurement and management. His work also explores the marketing-finance interface, the impact of political identity on consumer attitudes and behaviors, and the impact of information technology on customer service delivery (e-commerce and e-government). His highly cited research (4,349 citations on Google Scholar) has been published in the leading journals in marketing, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Service Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, and Journal of International Marketing, along with several publications in the leading journals in public administration and management. Dr. Morgeson has recently published two books: Citizen Satisfaction: Improving Government Performance, Efficiency, and Citizen Trust (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), and The Reign of the Customer: Customer-Centric Approaches to Improving Satisfaction (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). In addition, over the past 20 years

I first met Tom DeVries when he was giving a keynote at the 2024 CXM 360 Conference at Michigan State University. Tom took an unorthodox approach to the keynote by not talking for the first 5 minutes. What? Yup! He used non-verbals, videos, and audio cues to engage the audience. Tom has built a successful design firm and has shifted his focus in the last 12 years to include customer experience. He is an expert in human-centered design and has worked with some of the biggest brands in the US. He shares some invaluable wisdom in this episode including: CX Metrics vs. Genuine Improvement: Tom criticizes organizations for focusing too much on CX metrics rather than genuine improvements. Operational Changes for Better CX: He suggests that organizations should initiate changes at the operational level before implementing measurement systems. Transformative Change in CX: Tom speaks about the need for transformative change in CX. Adaptability in CX Roles: Tom notes the importance of learning how to learn and adapting quickly in the current business environment. How can CX leaders foster a culture of adaptability within their teams? Case Studies and Pilot Programs: Tom emphasizes using case studies and pilot programs to demonstrate CX improvements. He discusses some key elements that should be included in a case study to make it impactful Brand Behavior and Customer Perception: The episode discusses how a brand is defined by its behavior and how it is perceived through customer experiences. The episode touches on the idea that brands today compete for relationships rather than transactions. How can businesses effectively build and maintain strong relationships with their customers? Shifting from Mechanical to Ecosystem Thinking: He urges businesses to shift from mechanical to ecosystem thinking. In what ways can adopting an ecosystem mindset benefit an organization in today’s fast-paced environment? Storytelling in Brand Strategy: The role of storytelling in brand strategy is highlighted in the episode. The episode is loaded with useful insights; some of which challenge traditional CX approaches. Meet Tom: Tom DeVries is a creative, straight-shooting strategist with a reputation for crafting industry-leading products, brands, and experiences. By fusing business, technology, and humanity, he creates solutions that hit hard, turn heads, and boost bottom lines. As the founder of ThoughtFull, an award-winning design firm, and Crucx, the world’s simplest customer experience operating system, Tom drives growth by liberating organizations and their customers from the ordinary.