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Navigating the Customer Experience

Join host Yanique Grant as she takes you on a journey with global entrepreneurs and subject matter experts that can help you to navigate your customer experience. Learn what customers really want and how businesses can understand the psychology of each customer or business that they engage with. We will be looking at technology, leadership, customer service charters and strategies, training and development, complaint management, service recovery and so much more!
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Now displaying: September, 2016
Sep 27, 2016

Chloë Thomas is an Author, International Speaker and Host of her own podcast, eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast. Chloë has been working in eCommerce since 2003, learning how to increase orders, up customer retention and recruit new customers cost effectively. Working with businesses from the High Street right down to start ups, eCommerce MasterPlan is the result of Chloë’s years of experience, the books, blogs and courses have all been created to help eCommerce business owners and Marketers to make the right decisions as they build their own path to eCommerce success. The eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast exists to bring a weekly dose of inspiration direct to the desk of eCommerce business people all over the globe. Power Retail Australia named Chloë as one of the 10 top eCommerce Commentators in the world and within 6 months of launch, the podcast was already the top eCommerce podcast in the UK. Chloë is also the Author of “Customer Manipulation: How to Influence your Customers to Buy More and why an Ethical Approach will Always Win.”

 

Questions

  • Tell us a little bit about yourselves and your journey
  • How do you feel about Customer Service in the UK?
  • Give 2 companies that you really admire in terms of they are doing customer service and doing it well
  • What are some everyday solutions you believe can help improve customer experience?
  • Can you share a little more about the book, what inspired you to write it and who the book is targeted to and how can it help them?
  • Do you find that companies are moving towards marrying the relationship between marketing and customer service? Or is there still a divide in terms of there is a marketing department separate from a customer service department?
  • How do you stay motivated every day?
  • What is the one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your business?
  • What are some books that have had the biggest impact on you?
  • If you where sitting across the table from another business owner and they said to you that they feel they have great products and services but they lack the consistently motivated human capital, what advice would you give them to turn their team members and turn their business around to create more success?
  • In doing your research for your book Customer Manipulation, do you find that if the company has poor leadership, that it translates into a poor customer experience?
  • What is one thing you are working on right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people?
  • Where can our listeners find your information online?
  • What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?

 

Highlights

  • Chloë grew up in the United Kingdom (UK) in a rural area called Cornwall (located right down the far South West of the UK), she stated the she was lucky to get into Oxford University and from there was lucky enough to get a job at Barclay’s Bank working in Marketing and quickly realized that smaller businesses is where she wanted to go. She left the very large bank and started to work in retail for a High Street Retailer in the UK and that sparked her love for data and marketing, and how you can improve results and optimize. Over the last 13 years she has been honing that skill until 4 years ago she launched eCommerce MasterPlan and so now 4 years and 4 books later here we are!
  • Chloë stated that she thinks that the UK is okay at Customer Service but is nowhere as amazing as it is in America. She said one of her favourite things to do in America is to go to the mall and find a nice Department store and wander around until someone goes “Can I help you?” It is just amazing how they care about you. There’s more customer service ethics in America, it is more valued as a job in the Hospitality and Retail Sector but in the UK, eCommerce Sector, it has been heartening over the last 12-18 months to hear everyone from the smallest to the largest businesses talking about how important it is to listen to the customer and to deliver what the customer needs and that’s a real turning point because up until then the conferences were just full of bright, shiny, exciting new pieces of tech and clever marketing campaigns but now, everyone’s talking about the customer and that’s a real benefit. Chloë stated that there is a paradigm shift in terms of how people are being more adjusted to customer experience. It’s because the industries have come of age, they are no longer in that early adaptor stage and now moved into an early majority at which point people have got to stop trying to be bright and shiny, you’ve got to say, “We are great at what we do, this is who we are, this is why you should buy from us and why you should buy our products.” Which is more powerful and interesting and quite a relief for her as a consumer as well.
  • After asking Chloë if she could share with us one or two companies that she would recommend as offering great customer service – she lightly shared that she will share some unconventional companies as possibly everyone is expecting her to share Zappos and Amazon. Chloë shared that the companies that she admires are Project Repat (https://www.projectrepat.com), an American company who turns t-shits into blankets, so they’ll take all your old college t-shirts, cut them up and sew them up into a blanket and send them back to you. They really nailed one of the most powerful ways in eCommerce of helping customers, which is to gather the email addresses as quickly as you can and then build a phenomenal welcome sequence. What they are doing is absolutely fascinating on that clear focus and their welcome emails are beautiful. They listen and respond to what the customer is worried about. The other is a UK company called Miso Tasty (https://misotasty.com/#) which sells Miso Soup which Chloë says she thinks is a brilliant business name. They spend a lot of time getting their product right and they realize they’re going to be bringing new flavor sensation to the UK, it is an Asian flavoring that they are not used to. She stated that what she loves about Miso Tasty is the way the products are structured; they reduced the risk to a customer buying, not wanting to spend £20 (which is difficult) on buying this thing to try it out. What they have created is a 2 soup pack that only costs £2 and they can do free postage and packaging. So for customers to try out their products on their website, it only costs them £2 and that’s less than the cost of a pint of beer and it’s just amazing how they thought of the customer’s journey.
  • Chloë shared that often people think Customer Service and they immediately think of the Call Centre down the corridor but real Customer Service embodies the entire process and experience with your business – it is everyone’s responsibility to do true customer service and that is why she truly appreciates the 2 businesses mentioned above Project Repat ad Miso Tasty. For example - It is not about waiting for someone to pick up the phone and say, “How long do I have before getting those T-Shirts to you before I have to buy again?” – they have listened and placed it in the welcoming email so they provide that knowledge to the customer without them having to call up. Chloë says of course there is a financial benefit to the fact you will get more conversions and less people having to answer the phone but there is the whole embracing of that experience through your marketing, strategies and products which is really important.
  • Chloë shared some everyday solutions that she believes can help improve Customer Experience is everything really. She shared that she thinks a couple of really simple tools would be User Testing usertesting.com which is a fantastic site where you can go and just put up almost a job where someone from a certain segment of the population takes a look at your website and answers some questions. For example – you could put your website up there and say buy a lawnmower and then you get a video of that person trying to buy a lawnmower on your website and talking you through it and it is such a great way because sometimes we all sit around with great ideas saying, “Oh I think we should do this website, or oh I think we should do this with the website…” but to actually get some real human data on how someone who has never seen your business before is struggling with it is a great way of improving your user experience. It is great because if you have been looking at your analytics and you find people are dropping off somewhere or they are not going to that page and you can’t figure out why…..User Testing is a great fast track to solving that problem!
  • Chloë then shares the other everyday solutions she would recommend for a business is Web Chat Services – that service that pops up on a website and says, “May I help you?” She shares this one in the UK is getting a lot of big players in eCommerce, they are playing around and working out how best to use it, rather than thinking of it as a customer service tool, think of it as a sales tool as well. When they notice places where people are getting stuck, they’ll activate it and say, “Can we help you?” or “What’s happening?” Usually found on product pages or elsewhere so they are creating a very tailored service for the customer and that is something which is a really easy solution, it doesn’t cost much to put in place and it’s something that even a small business can do and can make a massive difference to customer service and therefore the sales.
  • Chloë shared that the reason she called the book “Customer Manipulation” is because as it all gets more competitive online and consumers are able to voice their opinions so much more easily and as marketers we want to be successful. We need to embrace the fact that every email sent is aiming to manipulate someone to buy from us, every tweet we send is aiming to manipulate someone to think better about us. If we can embrace that then we can get under the skin of the science of manipulation and the way of using manipulation but it is our choice whether we manipulate for good or for evil. If you choose to manipulate for evil then you are very quickly going get found out and it will be the end of your business. Chloë also shared the inspiration for her book and she says it had been a few years since she has done a big book and she had this model that she sometimes refers to as the “Customer Journey” or the “Customer MasterPlan” lurking around in her head and making its way onto slides, chats with clients and networking and then finally it was ready to be turned into a book. The role of the model is to help people, rather than thinking they need to do Social Media or to think they have a problem turning visitors from their website into enquirers to people who have given their email address and what is the best way of solving that problem. Can Social Media have an impact on it and which part of Social Media might it be? It’s kind of another way of the industry growing up rather than thinking oh email, oh Social Media, oh pop ups, it’s about thinking this is our current problem and the problem is turning visitors into enquirers, it’s getting people to the website, it’s getting enquirers to become first time buyers, it’s getting first time buyers to become repeat buyers and what are the ways for doing that. The book is structured into the 5 stages of getting people from those different customer relationship levels to the next one and filled with changes you can make to your website, improvements you can make to customer services, improvements you can make to marketing and also to your products where relevant to take you up and to encourage your customers to move between those customer relationship levels.
  • Chloë says everything that she writes is for the small business owner, so someone with a team of less than 10 and usually for a team less than 5. It is very much for an owner/ head of marketing to help them work out where they should be deploying their resources and lots of ideas of what they can do. However, she knows bigger businesses and other persons have used the book to improve relations in heir B2B’s.
  • Chloë thinks the businesses that are doing customer service well and who will do well in the future are seeing it as one group (Marketing and Customer Service), you may have different departments but they are finding ways to make sure they are working together because there are so many over laps and if you want to do customer service well, it’s got to be through everything you do in the business. Chloë shared that on her podcast a couple episodes back (Episode 55) – she had the head of Brand from Tesco, one of the five largest retailers in the world (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/055-tescos-tamara-duschl-talks/id1005744797?i=1000371058713&mt=2) - she asked her guest just out of interest on the eCommerce side what does the eCommerce team do and what does the Marketing team do as per getting people to the website. The guest stated the eCommerce team sits in one building and they look after the website and Marketing team looks after the promotions and the traffic and they are in a different building. So Chloë shares Tesco does have a way to go as you can’t mothball the conversation – everyone needs to be integrated for a seamless Customer Experience.
  • In asking Chloë how she stays motivated everyday she stated that she is just very lucky to be doing something that she loves and has spent some time over the last few years working out how to structure her days and her work load so that they suit her and having to do the things she likes and not having to do the things she doesn’t. She stated that motivation is something that comes naturally and wished she understood it as she reckons she could write that book but she can’t explain it.
  • Chloë shared that the app that she use frequently is Asana (asana.com) , which is a team and task management tool for organizing. She uses it to organize herself and part-time/out-source people in her business. She further stated in her business that it is her and a lot of part time people so it does keep it all together. There is a web version and also available as an App.
  • Chloë shares that 2 books that have had the biggest impact on her are: “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown which is all about prioritization and working out what you should be focused on in your business and your life. It helps you on the journey to becoming a person who knows how to prioritize as well as giving you tricks and tips along the way. The other book she loves is “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain which is all about introvertism. She stated that this book helped her to embrace who she is and to learn how to make the most out of it. Chloë shared she is an extremely introverted person and that book helped her tremendously.
  • In answering our question on what’s the one piece of advice she would give a business owner who lacks the constantly motivated human capital – Chloë lightly shared she would just change the people as often times it is easier to motivate new people than old ones but that’s not very possible at times due to legislation and other things. Therefore, Chloë shared that is starts at the core, what is the vision of the business, what is the mission, and what are the values. Often times when businesses take a leap forward or an about turn from a bad pathway, it’s because they got really clear about what their vision and mission is and they have reintegrated that into the business and got that back to the heart of what they do. If you can get your people embracing that and believing that and understanding this is what they do then it becomes a lot more straight forward.
  • Our trigger question for Chloë was how did she feel leadership and the lack there of translates into a poor customer experience – she shared she thinks that a business with poor leadership will struggle with delivering good customer services. She made reference to Tesco, stating the problems they have had with falling profits and sales was because the leadership got lost and they lost track of where their mission was and the vision and what they brought to the world. They quickly realized unless they go back to their roots, they are finding they are getting the success back again. That would be an example of where bad leadership led to a decline in customer experience and now they are turning it around.
  • When we asked Chloë what’s the one thing she is excited about that is going on in her life right now - she stated this is her favourite time of the year when this podcast is being recorded (August) that she is not traveling for conferences for a few weeks so she is excited about analyzing lots of data, doing reports and surveys to work out what is the next thing she should do. She is weighing some options as to what her customers need her to produce next in terms of should it be an online course, should it be a Master Mind group, should it be a Membership Site or maybe even another book. She’s super excited about all that probably for launch in January 2017.
  • Chloë says listeners can find her on her website eCommerce MasterPlan Website , she also shared the best way to get in touch with her is through Linked In and Twitter (@chloe_ecmp).
  • Chloë shared that the quote that she always uses to keep her focused during times of adversity and challenges is “Keep Optimizing” (a quote she came up with) which reminds her that if something hasn’t worked, then that’s okay because we’re just going to optimize it, we’re going to learn and move forward, or if she is trying to make something too perfect before putting it live, she’ll remember this quote.

We would welcome a subscribe, rate and review for the show and also that the listeners can come hang out at Navigating the Customer Experience Community on Facebook. This is a private Facebook group for our listeners and past guests to come over share insights and industry trending topics and discussions on business and customer experience – click here!

 

Links

Sep 20, 2016

Brian is the founder of Brian K. Wright International whose mission is to motivate and inspire others to discover their unique talents and follow their dreams in life. With extensive experience teaching and training in academics and corporate environments, he understands that many people live far beneath their potential, primarily because they don’t believe they deserve success. Through his experience and research, Brian has learnt and practiced the principles he teaches in his book Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group. Brian is also the host of the Internet Radio Talk Show Success Profile Radio on the Rock Star Radio Network. Brian holds a Degree in Communication Studies and holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the University of Nebraska in London. He discovered a passion for speaking and influencing audiences by speaking competitively in High School and College and by being heavily involved on campus while in school.

 

Questions

  • Tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey
  • Can you give an overview of some of the topics in your book?
  • How do you feel about customer service as a customer yourself?
  • What are two (2) everyday solutions that you believe that can help improve customer experience on a global level?
  • How do you stay motivated everyday?
  • What is the one online resource, website, tool or app you absolutely cannot live without in your business?
  • In helping to write books, do you help clients from conceptuality throughout the writing process?
  • What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you?
  • What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people?
  • Where can our listeners find you?
  • What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?

 

Highlights

  • Brian stated that he got his Degree in Adult Education at the University of Nebraska and taught at a Business College for almost 5 years where he taught Public Speaking, English Composition, and Business Mathematics (a really fun combination of classes). He expressed when someone is taking a class that is required – you have to make it fun. He further expressed that he taught at this college and even though it was a private college they ran it as a business. He also shared that most of the students that attended the school were non-traditional aged students. He stated that he wrote resumes to help people find jobs which was fun. Fast forward a few years later, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona and is now hosting a personal development radio show entitled “Success Profiles Radio” where he interviews world class achievers and learns how they succeeded and what they overcame and what lessons we can learned from that. A few of the persons he has interviewed includes Darren Hardy, Jack Canfield, Dr. John Demartini from “The Secret”, Laura Longmire, Sharon Lechter and James Malinchak – ABC Secret Millionaire.
  • Brian stated that “Student Leadership Strategies: 21 Easy Ways to Become a Center of Influence in Your Group” is his first book and has been out for a little while. He stated that when writing the book, he wanted it to appeal to young people. Brian says that he thinks leadership is absent in a lot of arenas and the types of people that are in leadership positions maybe can do a better job or they are very self serving and that is not leadership and he wanted to write a book about that. At the beginning, he started to ask himself what makes a great leader?  And his goal was to come up with 21 answers to the question. He ended up with 30 and as he started writing, he realized that some of the topics were similar and those 30 topics turned into 21, so he was thankful that he still made his goal. The number one thing that he wrote about was that excellent leaders have a vision for the future.
  • Brian stated when you think of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series, he just created this whole entire vision for what he thought the future should be like, an opportunity for people to explore space, somewhat Utopian! Brian even gave mention to the Wright Brothers who created the first airplane and Elon Musk as a modern day example who created PayPal and changed the platform and functions of eCommerce completely and even created Tesla and SpaceX.
  • When you can have people buy into your vision, you’re going to be much more successful because no great leader can accomplish anything by themselves. Just like politicians, they have to sell their vision of what they want to do in order to get elected and get enough people to believe in that vision and that’s an amazing accomplishment, which leads to another thing that is important to being a successful leader and that is the idea of networking. And going back to the political example, you have to have a huge rolodex of people you can count on in order to accomplish anything. The key is not just getting them to do what you want to do but getting them to believe that what you want them to do is something that they also want to do. He also stated that excellent leaders make people feel welcome in their presence. If you’re a leader and you don’t feel comfortable following someone or you don’t feel comfortable with way that the leader is acting, you are not going to stick around for long so helping people feel comfortable in your presence means creating a culture and that is something you help people buy into. Brian shared most people like certain companies better based on the Culture they have created. In his examples he shared if you have a company that has theme days, a vending machine or foosball table in the break room – these small components help to set your company culture apart. Creating an environment of fun and that is welcoming where people want to continue coming and that’s what excellence leaders do.
  • Brian shared as a customer he has had some good and bad experiences. He stated that what really gets to him is when people don’t listen which is one of his biggest pet peeves. A question is being asked and they are not answering the question being asked or they are answering the question they feel like answering. This mostly is because they have a script, they don’t really know, so they just fall back to a script that they are comfortable with. A customer may request to speak with a supervisor and sometimes people are happy to pass the call over and other people may get a little upset because they want to help but they are not being helpful, people want to speak with someone that can answer a specific question. He shares that what irritates him the most is when he would have to be calling over and over for an on-going issue and no one bothered to take notes about the first call. He mentioned a situation that happened and he had spent 45 minutes on the call with a representative, when he called back a few months later for a follow up on the issue that he spoke about before, he asked about the company fee’s for what they were doing for him and the answer he got from the first representative was great but then when he called back the second time and asked the same question, that representative stated that there are no notes about that, he was not happy that he had spoken about that issue for 30 minutes out of the 45 minutes conversation that he had with the representative. He felt annoyed the representative didn’t think to make notes. Brian also mentioned that if you say that you will follow up with a phone call or an email about a resolution, do what you can to make that happen and follow up. Making proper notes and listening are absolutely critical in customer service.
  • Brian recommend that business owners should spend a day in the trenches with their team so that they can see and hear exactly what is going happening on a daily basis. You get to meet the people on your team; you get to learn what they are going through every single day. Let them train you as to what they are doing and why they are doing it and if you sit with enough people in one day where you take some calls, you will get a much better sense of what’s going on with your team and then you can make training recommendations. That will be outstanding because you be able to feel and experience what your team is feeling and experience or even better you could be a mystery shopper, call your company, call your customer service departments and see how they treat you, see how they handle things. Mystery shop your company to see the kind of experience you are receiving to see if it is aligned with your mission and use it as a training opportunity for your company to do better. Brian shared if your company is interested in doing better and performing at a world-class level – you will engage and do some mystery shopping on your business and then move into some well-needed training.
  • Brian stated that staying motivated has to do with hanging around persons who have similar goals and missions. He mentioned a quote by Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you are not experiencing financial success, look at the 5 people you are hanging around, chances are they aren’t either. If you’re 30 pounds overweight and you wish you have a better body, look at the 5 people you are hanging around, they are probably eating oreos on the couch after work too. If you want to lose weight…..find 5 people who look great, feel great, have a handle on they’re eating pattern and ask them what they are doing, ask them for advise even get a personal trainer if you need to. People who want to help you become a better sales person, people who want to help you with online marketing, so if you want to learn those things, know who you can tap into and get some help with.

Brian also mentioned that he enjoys walking and running out in nature but in Arizona it is too hot so he is a member at a gym. He says he is able to enjoy his own thoughts when he walks and runs. He further believes that if you take care of yourself and who you are; you will have much to give to others very much like when you travel and the Flight Attendant states in her safety briefing place the mask on yourself first and then help the passenger next to you – you must be able to help yourself first before you can help others.

  • Brian shared that the one app that he frequently uses and cannot live without in his business is Facebook. He stated that the guests that he gets for his Podcast show is mostly through Facebook and people that he admires and he also receives guest referrals. He stated that he also helps people write their books, so there is a lot of dialogue through Facebook as well. Brian said that he hasn’t done any ads via Facebook as yet; he has been talking with persons and will be starting that soon. Brian says he believes everyone has a book inside him or her; he helps them find their story within and helps them connect and find a way to connect with the world.
  • Brian stated that he does help with the conceptuality of writing books, as he believes that everyone has a book inside them somewhere, somehow. He talks with them about their topic and what makes their topic unique. So if they want to write a book on customer service as an example, there are many books about that, it’s a very common topic. So he would ask, what spin would they place on that topic that would make their book interesting to read and would not be like the other books out there? And that would be an exploration of their background and what they’ve gone through. He coaches them on what topics that can be talked about in the book, create on outline together and the life stories that they would share because people relate to stories kind of how Jesus taught through his parables. He also stated that he helps with the self-publishing aspects as well, he has resources for format and layout of the book, designing the book cover and also printing of the book.
  • When we asked Brian what’s the one thing that he is excited about and working on in his life to develop himself or his people right now, he happily shared that he is currently working on a book called “Conversations with High Achievers.” He has some of the interviews transcribed and he is doing some editing as well as he has some extra writing to do and hoping to release the eBook version before December 2016. Just the idea that the book could be a huge springboard for more speaking opportunities and for an opportunity to do a live event someday and having some of these great speakers come to speak at his event is exciting and also providing opportunity for people to learn and develop themselves. He says as he re-visits all of these great interviews that he has been reviewing – he has learned so much and it has been a huge blessing for him. Brian shares listening to interviews with successful people is one major thing people can do to develop themselves.
  • Brian says listeners can find him on

Facebook - www.facebook.com/Success-Profiles-Radio-166132613536941/

Twitter - www.twitter.com/MrBriankwright

Radio Show Page - toginet.com/shows/successprofilesradio

Personal Website - www.briankwright.com

Email - brian@briankwright.com

 

  • We asked Brian for one quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge helps him to re-focus and re-engage - Brian said he had a moment earlier this week where he was feeling overwhelmed by things and he recalls a verse from the Bible Isaiah 43:19, as he frequently reads the Bible – “Behold, I will do anything for you. He stated that it is a promise that is given and means that you are not going to stay where you are forever, something new is on the horizon for you, something wonderful, something great, something fantastic that will change your life.

 

Links

 

Sep 13, 2016

Tony Bodoh is a #1 best selling author and he’s the founder and co-founder of 5 companies ranging from Customer Experience Consulting to Small Business Training to Television, he easily navigates the International stage, speaking at both personal growth seminars as well as the Uber Nerdy Technology conferences. Tony writes his business blogs, personal growth essays and children’s stories. While he now coaches executives, he has taught High School for 1 year and in the Business Department of Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee for 7 years. As a passion believer in the power and possibility that is contained in each moment of the human experience to alter the course of history; Tony financially supports the building of sustainable villages in Africa and Haiti.

 Tony learned at an early age the power of listening and letting people know they have been heard. He started a lawn care business at 11 years old, while his friends had 1 or 2 lawns to cut; Tony kept busy all summer with 16 clients including the local Post Office and Post Master’s lawn. He learned that while quality lawn care mattered, most people just wanted to connect and be acknowledged for who they are.

Questions

  • Tell us a little about yourself and your journey
  • As a Customer Service Consultant, what do you think are 3 challenges that people face why their customer experience is not consistent in their business?
  • What are some everyday solutions that you believe that can help improve customer experience on a global level?
  • How do you stay motivated?
  • What is one online resource, website, tool or app you cannot live without in your personal life or business?
  • Do you think that customer experience is linked to a company’s bottom line?
  • What are some of the books that have had the biggest impact on you?
  • What is one thing in your life right now that you are really excited about – something that you are working on to develop yourself or your people?
  • Where can our listeners find your information?
  • What is one quote or saying that you live by or that inspires you in times of adversity?

 

Highlights

  • Tony started by sharing that he grew up in Central Wisconsin, it was a place where there was not much exposure to the outside world. When he went off to college in Virginia, he began to see the world that he didn’t know existed and it lead him to start asking questions and really looking deeper into what he wanted to do with his life. He then got a Liberal Arts Degree as that was the path he was on. He shortly realizes that he wanted to run multiple businesses and went and got his MBA. He worked several corporate jobs for large companies where he built analytical systems. While on that journey building those systems, he learned things that he could do to look at data and understand behaviour from data. Tony was given the opportunity to take over the customer experience world in the hospitality company he worked for to do surveys and understand what the guests and meeting planners were saying. Tony started a consulting company in 2009, which focuses on customer experience and was able to bring growth to other businesses that he started. It has spread from the customer experience consulting to small business training and consulting and now building businesses in the television industry.
  • Tony stated the challenges people face why their customer experience is not consistent in their businesses is the human connection – the shared experience that an employee has with a customer or a leader has with an employee is what drives the value for the customer. We talked about the customer’s side and that it starts with the leader and employee and the engagement they have with each other and how they are connecting. Also, the ability to listen, often times we are caught up in our own lives and our minds are distracted. The employee may come to work and because of the challenges in their life they get distracted and are not playing at the top of their game. They are not able to connect in the same way. He also mentioned that there is a disconnection if you don’t believe in the products or services you’re offering and you don’t have the confidence to speak boldly about it. If you don’t believe that you can solve a problem that a customer has, that is a huge disconnection as well. If you’re not unreasonable in your commitment to the product and services that you offer and commitment to solve a problem, you are not going to have a consistent experience over time.

 

  • On a global level, he believes that people need to experience the product that they are working with, the company that they are working for needs to be willing to invest in their people. Anywhere from 50% to 85% of a customer’s experience is based on the connection they make with the person. Connection is #1 and you have to hire the right people who know how to connect and you have to train them up from there. So you want to keep that skill set growing, keep finding ways for them to connect with challenging people, with people in different scenarios or even if they are having a bad day, how do they build up their emotional ability to connect and to take control. Mindset training is one of the biggest things a company can do.

 

Tony also stated that as a company, we should be asking what is it that our customers are feeling? What do we want them to feel? If we want them to feel this way, what benefit will move them there and what features create those benefits. Do that and we will end up with an amazing product that people will say, how did you do that? It’s because you started with the end in mind.

 

  • Tony shared that he keeps motivated by running multiple businesses; there is a lot of stuff going on, so one of the things he does every morning is visualization and meditation.

 

“Visualization is geared towards what is it that I am grateful for and what is it I want to achieve today, what are my intentions for the day. And a part of that is to always focus on the abundance around me. Sometimes we get easily caught up with everything, instead just allowing the abundance to flow.”

 

  • Tony shared that the one app/tool that he frequently uses is Evernote. He is a huge fan as he is able to put every idea, blogs, emails and anything he can in Evernote. It also enables him to upload video and pictures as well. He uses Evernote because he has a lot of ideas to pull from whilst dealing with his clients.

 

  • He mentions that customer experience is not about statistics, we can use it to measure but it is about a particular experience in the moment. As it is only in the moment that we have the power to change our trajectory whether it’s our personal life, as a leader or as a business. We can’t change it in the past, we can’t change it in the future, and we only have this moment.

 

Tony stated that Customer Experience is the opportunity to turn this world around in so many ways because when people have good experiences just even a smile or a connection with the person behind the counter, if we were all a little more empathetic, it would change the world. When someone experiences an act of kindness or another person sees an act of kindness or someone does an act of kindness all of this leads to a better world.

 

 

  • Tony shares that he is currently working on a project called Beast Mode Live. He is working with one of the leading mental performance coaches in professional athletics, who has worked with Olympians and they are taking the principles that he has taught for years to professional athletes and bringing it to corporate life and using it with team members in his company. They are now bringing it into the US military on a global scale. They are doing it where it is not funded by the Federal Government or the Politicians but by corporate sponsors so that they can help the military. Tony says, “We are really passionate about it because we have found that 35 - 40% of the military that have completed the service, end up leaving the service and they don’t have a job and many times end up homeless. The sponsorship will help them to touch every member of the military, so that they are at a higher level of performances and when they leave the service they will have control over the money and their emotions and can go out there and do something great because they have done such great service already. Most of them have never had a job outside of the military because they went in right after high school and college and so they don’t understand how their skill sets translate into the corporate life and they want to help them with that. They don’t understand how their skill sets translate into the corporate world. He says this is definitely a passion project and they are putting a ton of effort into it. Tony Bodoh believes that mindset is where everything starts at because that is how he changed his own life.

 

www.twitter.com/TonyBodoh

www.linkedin.com/in/tonybodoh

 

  • Tony shares that this is a quote he has been using lately and it’s from his mentor. She shared it with him in a time where he wasn’t seeing the results he wanted to see in a particular area of his life, he sometimes go back to it as he has it is on his desk.

“If the thinking and actions you’ve been doing produced what you were in love with, I’d say keep at it but clearly it’s time to wire a new set of thoughts and then grow them through reputation into new and more expansive results.”

We would welcome a subscribe, rate and review for the show and also that the listeners can come hang out at Navigating the Customer Experience Community on Facebook. This is a private Facebook group for our listeners and past guests to come over share insights and industry trending topics and discussions on business and customer experience – click here!

New Online Course - Mastering Customer Experience and Increasing Your Revenue - 50% off for all who sign up in September.....A Must Have Course for all Business Owners, Entrepreneurs - http://bit.ly/50OFFMCXIR

LINKS:

www.tonybodoh.com

www.twitter.com/TonyBodoh

“Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics” by Richard Thaler

  “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Jack Canfield

Sep 6, 2016

Jenny Green Powers is the CEO of Running With Heels. Running With Heels is a New York Invitation Only Society for the “On-th-Go” “In-the-Know” Women Executives and Entrepreneurs. It is a members-only event series designed to elevate your personal and professional life through curated connections and inspiring conversations.

Jenny is a lifelong New Yorker and she is a graduate of the New York University and she doesn’t believe in strangers only people she hasn’t met as yet. In 2012, she became extremely tired of and exhausted in attending a series of awkward and just plain awful networking events and so she set out to create a different kind of Networking Event, one where women were excited to attend and left feeling educated, entertained, empowered and eager to attend future events.

As a first step she hosted a focus group and the criteria to participate was that YOU had to be a workingwoman who hated networking and networking events! These women were not hard to find, they were everywhere and they were all too happy to share why networking made them cringe. Armed with their plentiful feedback, Jenny took their advice and re-created the traditional networking event and Running with Heels was born. Today she hosts Women Networking events for women who hate networking and they love them. She is also mom to a lovely little girl who says she is going to be the President of the United States when she grows up whereupon she intends to move The White House to Brooklyn Heights.

  • Jenny Powers started by sharing that she was the Vice President of a non-profit organization for a decade and she was going to networking events to just meet colleagues of other non-profits, potential donors and she realized the networking events just had this “salesy” feeling to them, everyone was just pressing business cards into your palm, everyone felt uneasy like they were being sold to. Jenny shared even though as consumers we all like to buy, no one likes to be sold to. Jenny shared that it was at this point she realized “Networking needed a Facelift.” Jenny shared that there are so many different industries that have dynamic changes from year-to-year and she said networking is not one of them. She further emphasized that networking has been the same forever and that she was sick of the “old boys club” and she was sick of the women events that she was going to that felt like sororities and that is when she brought the focus group together to find out what women wanted to see in a networking event and what they did not like. She then explained that is exactly how she built the first platform for Running with Heels based on the feedback she collected.
  • Jenny shared the top 3 main reasons coming out of the feedback why the women hated the networking events. They hated because they felt as if they were being sold to, they did not feel as if it was authentic, they felt like people were coming to simply fill their quota. There was no time for that Know, Like and Trust Factor. It was just like everyone was being looked at like a cheque book. Jenny also shared there wasn’t any agenda and you go in and get a name tag and you move around aimlessly, there was no programme and so you just wait to be spoken to and if you went alone it can feel very uncomfortable and awkward. So that is when she created a format for Running with Heels and so all of her events has speakers which allows you to come and get educated but it also serves as an ice breaker for when seated together to all hear the same conversation and discuss the topic afterwards. Jenny said the final reason for women hating the networking events was there is either no food or bad food. Jenny then said as a result most of their events now are dinner parties. What she identified was most women would come along and be standing holding their briefcase, coat, gym bag, umbrella in their heels extremely uncomfortable. Now you can check everything in when you arrive and sit down at a table. Jenny says that she pre-matches all of her guests with different dinner companions. The example she gave was if I attended one of her events - I would be seated with five (5) different women that Jenny thought I should know based on my profile, however, at each course during the meal I would sit with another five women. She believes the awkwardness would be minimized because I would be already seated with people matched for me.
  • Yanique shared that she does not really enjoy attending networking events and she feels there is usually never a direct strategy to actively engage the participants/attendees to engage in conversation with each other. Jenny agreed and added that is one of the reasons why she has a strict agenda that focuses on the guests being strategically seated in order to eliminate that awkwardness.
  • Jenny shared that if you are in business, regardless of what business it is - you are always in Customer Service. Jenny says that she thinks Customer Service can always be improved upon. Jenny says that for her whether as a client or for her own clients - she wanted to treat everyone like a VIP. She says it is indeed true when someone is happy they will tell someone but they are unhappy they tell everyone.
  • Jenny shared that curating the guest list and paying such attention to detail for the pairings has been critical to the success of Running with Heels. Jenny shared when she just started one of her clients who was at the time her business coach said, “This is first event I have ever gone to that I don’t want to leave.” Jenny said in a 2-hour dinner - her client shared that she ended up calculating that she brought in over US $16,000.00 worth of business. Jenny shared that she wasn’t handing out business cards, writing down names etc. but instead having these authentic conversations with people that followed up with her, hired her for coaching and then referred her. So in one event she saw US $16,000.00 of revenue and has been coming to Running With Heels events for four (4) years now.
  • Jenny shared that right now - she's running the business as a “One Woman Show” with her assistant but she has plans to have pop up events in other major cities around the United States and see if the Running with Heels brand will be a success there. Jenny is very committed to spreading the word on more people knowing that Networking is all about building relationships.
  • Jenny’s first tip for business owners to be a success with Customer Experience is to ask and ask often. Jenny shared that she believes women in particular believe that asking may appear as if they don’t know how to do something or make them seem vulnerable. Jenny says that for her asking actually shows a sign of strength. Jenny says many times women are told to just do everything yourself, or fake it until you make it but asking for something is actually okay. Jenny says her #2 tip is about accountability, being a soloproneur - it can be hard as you do not have a board of directors or mentors…so who do you have? Jenny says for her having a Mastermind is critical - she said Masterminds are not new as explained in “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Jenny said her mastermind is her brain trust. Jenny says she has a mastermind comprising of four (4) persons who meet monthly and they do deep diving and it allows you to talk about things in your business and get into the weeds. Jenny’s #3 tip is try it….you only fail if you quit! She said her favourite quote in the world is “Never be afraid of something new remember amateurs built the arc, professionals build the Titanic.” Author Unknown 
  • Jenny said that she reached out to her network of persons, not necessarily her clients or persons that she was close to but someone who had a podcast that she loved and another person that had a book she really liked - people who were doing things that she wanted to do. She reached out to them and explained that she wanted to start a group so she could have an accountability partner and it was a great match. One of the two ladies that Jenny reached out to brought someone else into the group - when they all sat down and looked at their strengths; they realized they were lacking a member that had a strong financial background and that’s when they found their final partner - Farnoosh Torabi of the So Money Podcast. Farnoosh has written five (5) books on finance - many of them for millennials and even one for women breadwinners. So Jenny recommends just going into your network and finding people you admire and people who have done something already that you want to do. Jenny suggests no more than five persons for a Mastermind group. She shared that she loves doing her Mastermind in person but it can also be done via Skype, Zoom or just a conference call. She says there is just something about those monthly in person meetings that just cannot be replaced.
  • Jenny says that she loves to read and she is always in hand or have a book in her handbag. Jenny says that she is always reading self - improvement books as they confirm things she already knows or she has the opportunity to learn new things. Jenny says another big motivation for her is self-care - she says she sees so many women entrepreneurs with families who always put themselves on the back burner. Her example was when you travel and the chief flight attendant/purser announces place the mask over yourself first and then help the person seated next to you is a key example of placing yourself first. Jenny says, “Every morning when I wake up I ask myself what oxygen mask am I going to put on today and what is going to take care of me so that I can be a better wife, mother and business owner?” It could be meditation, reading one of these self-improvement books but self-care is very important.
  • Jenny shared that the one app/website that she absolutely cannot live without is LinkedIn - Jenny says that she is a huge evangelist of LinkedIn and it is how she has gotten most of her clients as it is an invitation only society - you can profile the persons that you will be connecting with. She has secured almost all of her speakers through LinkedIn. Jenny has her own podcast “Broadcast: Broads Building Businesses” for the past year and she has gotten most of her guests through LinkedIn.
  • Jenny shares one tip she would recommend for entrepreneurs using LinkedIn - she shared there is that default message that goes out when you send a request - “I would like to add you to my LinkedIn network” - but Jenny says that is just the lazy way out as you could be sitting there clicking on 100 people. Jenny says if she is sending a request for someone to be a speaker she will explain in her request that she came across their profile and they seem like great fits for one another’s business and she would love to have them as a speaker and that she wants to connect with them and share some more information. This way her message is not perceived as this random arbitrary thing that seems it is just another standard message sent to everyone else. She further shared it is the same approach she takes when someone reaches out to her with some specific details as to why they are connecting.
  • Jenny says the best advice that she could give to a 9-5er looking to launch on the entrepreneur road is surround yourself with people who have done what you want to do.
  • Jenny shares one thing she is super excited about is that she already runs Live Masterminds in New York called Running with Circles and it is framed after the Mastermind that she developed for her own personal group but what she is even more excited about is that she is going to start doing Virtual Masterminds Online as a way to connect with people around the globe. Jenny says the Virtual Masterminds Online will start in October 2016 and promotions for this programme will start in September 2016.
  • Jenny explains what inspired the name of her company - “Running With Heels” - she says as women we all know that we are running everywhere and usually running in high heels. She said it all started when she was in this high end shoe store in New York City, Bergdorf Goodman and she was trying on these expensive heels and it is a very sophisticated, serene and quiet atmosphere and she was in there all of a sudden and she stood up in the shoes and she thought to herself….”the only way I am going to buy these shoes is if I am able to run in them because I run everywhere - to the subway, to pick up her daughter from school” and so she did a bit of a sprint around the sofa in the store and everyone was looking at her as if she was nuts and the salesman looked at her like she was running off with the shoes. The salesman then asked her, “Are you okay? What are you doing?” Jenny said she responded by saying, “In order to know if I should spend this kind of money on these shoes, I need to know if I can use them?” She said she observed all the women just looking up and their expressions were like I totally get that. She further shares that is where her inspired name came from because she knows it resonated with so many women.
  • Jenny shares a quote that she lives by so much - she actually has it tattooed on her right inner wrist - “Choose Your Own Adventure” - Jenny says don’t live by how someone else thinks you should be living, what your guidance counselor says, your boss, your mother…..choose your own adventure!

We would welcome a subscribe, rate and review for the show and also that the listeners can come hang out at Navigating the Customer Experience Community on Facebook. This is a private Facebook group for our listeners and past guests to come over share insights and industry trending topics and discussions on business and customer experience – click here!

LINKS:

1