Most of us would prefer to love our customers, but the feeling isn’t always mutual. Customers can be unruly. They can hate your brand, openly or privately. They can ignite social media firestorms with a single click on a smartphone. The risk only grows in complexity when employees can get burned out and lose faith in your brand. Understanding why is a solid step toward getting in front of the problems. Here are five recent peer-reviewed scholarly studies on the stormy side of

President Biden’s new executive order (EO) on customer experience lit up the social streams like nothing I’ve seen in quite some time. That made me happy. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the CX work being done in government—all governments. I held one of the U.S. federal government’s first agency-level CX leadership roles way back when… during the Obama administration. Since leaving government, I’ve advised colleagues and clients on the technicalities of U.S. federal govern

When you make customers jump through hoops, negative things are bound to happen. One of those negative things is customers eventually stop jumping. When that happens, it shouldn’t be any big surprise. That is the main point of Cass Sunstein’s book, Sludge: What Stops Us from Getting Things Done and What to Do About It. The book rarely mentions the word “customer.” But make no mistake. The book’s 153 pages are about the many ways in which sludge—those pesky hoops that companie

By Stephanie Thum, CCXP Show of hands. Who’s setting business priorities for 2022? How the world understands customer and employee...

Hi, friends! I'm so excited to share with you my new collaboration with SAGE Publishing, the global academic publisher of books,...

Podcasts, blogs, reports, and books are great for staying sharp on the fundamentals and trends in customer experience management (CX). On...

The White House's updated CX accountability framework adds equity and updates the definition of CX in the U.S. federal government. Here are the five of the most interesting things about how federal agencies are expected to think about customer experience now.

Too many rules and too much sludge can lead to a host of negative employee and customer experiences. Sludge audits can help attach a dollar cost to the customer and employee pain.

Collecting customer feedback has become a mainstay for companies that want to reap the benefits of customer-centricity. There are now more ways and more tools to collect customer feedback than ever before! But one of the biggest mistakes many organizations make is assuming that customers should just know—without the benefit of your communication—what you are doing with their feedback. Feedback can be rich with ideas for: Business development. Managing business and operational

Surprise! I never expected in a million years that my little Dictionary of U.S. Federal Government Customer Experience Terms, Phrases,...

We have learned a lot about virtual teams over the past few years. Now we need to understand hybrid teams. Hybrid teams are fluid. Some...

Data breaches, hacks, and leaks have become so ridiculously common that sometimes you can't help but wonder, "Should customers just expect to have their data stolen as part of their experience with a company?" If you’ve replaced your credit card over the past few years due to a breach or two or three, then it is possible you have wondered the same thing. No industry has been immune to data breaches. Tens of millions of customers have had their personal bank account numbers, c

Is it ever possible to have too many communication tools at work? There are a lot of ways to think about this, and opinions can vary. For...

It has been argued that trust is the currency of business. Earned in drops, lost in buckets, as they say. Nobody has mastered the basics of trust. And yet, the subject of trust grows more complex and more critical for businesses and government agencies, every day. We all want customers to trust us. We all want our businesses to thrive. But customer trust has to be earned. At the same time, you must avoid breaking trust. Here are five trust-building strategies to follow. 1. Un

Selling to a new client is one thing; the service and retention work after the sale is another. But are the two things really all that...

Organizational change is everywhere, all the time! Not just in the realms of customer experience and employee experience, but everywhere!...

This post is sponsored by Pegasystems. Digital transformation is no longer a subject on the periphery for customer experience...

Gene Sutch knows not everyone who took a travel hiatus during the pandemic is ready to get back to flying. “But we’re here for customers...