In this episode, we're joined by Michael Doyle, the founder and CEO of Brand Iron, to dive into the powerful influence of branding and business development. Michael's insights shed light on how consistency plays a vital role in building relationships and establishing trust with customers. Rather than focusing solely on self-promotion, he emphasizes that effective branding and marketing strategies should center around assisting clients in achieving their desired outcomes and paving their path to success. According to Michael, this approach is not only smart but also fosters a genuine connection with customers. Michael is a marketing expert who collaborates with companies to refine their brand image and messaging. He and his dedicated team work tirelessly to synchronize efforts across all departments, ensuring a seamless process for successful branding. This involves meticulous tracking and measuring of leads, carefully inputting them into a comprehensive database, and then quantifying, qualifying, and monitoring their progress. Additionally, Michael highlights the importance of timely evaluation and measurement of processes and systems. To ensure everyone is on the same page, he starts engagements by clearly outlining goals and objectives, and implementing regular checkpoints along the way. He also recommends identifying KPIs to track progress and assigning responsibilities accordingly. Establishing a weekly meeting to review advancements and facilitate effective communication is another valuable practice he advocates. Michael cautions against blindly investing substantial resources in brand building without specific goals or campaigns in mind. Timestamps 00:03:00 Conversation on Coordinating with Sales and Marketing Teams for Brand Refinement and Lead Management 00:04:00 Conversation on Branding and Digital Transformation Strategies 00:09:00 Effective Marketing Strategies and Two Bad Things 00:10:00 Conversation on Transparency and Alignment with Clients 00:14:00 Discussion on the Impact of Bad Customer Service and Negative Publicity 00:17:00 The Importance of Creating a Great Brand Experience for Customers 00:18:00 Conversation on Consulting Services, Ethical Issues, and Innovation 00:20:00 Exploring the Components of a Successful Pitch Deck 00:27:00 Building a Scalable and Repeatable Business Model

Will Curran, founder of Endless Events and mastermind behind the #EventProfs Community shares his experience in event planning and content creation, strategies for avoiding burnout, scaling a business, and maximizing the value of attending conferences. In our discussion, Will delves deeply into the benefits of participating in conferences and events, offering valuable advice on how to make the most of your attendance. He explores the diverse objectives that attendees might have, such as gaining knowledge, networking, sharing expertise, or cultivating close relationships with a select group. Will also presents useful tactics for engaging with like-minded individuals and creating your own community. Ultimately, Will's philosophy is to attend conferences only if it's a "hell yes," meaning that there are specific people to meet, topics to learn about, or other goals to achieve. Will also shares with us some of his favorite app/tools and covers the importance of building your own platform rather than relying on rented social media land. Overall, this episode is packed with valuable insights into event planning, content creation, and personal growth. Endless Events #EventProfs Community #EventIcons Event Brew Event Tech Podcast Timestamps 0:03:24 Event Planner Burnout and Strategies for Avoiding It 0:09:07 Conversation on Utilizing Energy and Taking Care of Your Body 0:10:17 Understanding the Challenges of Event Planning in a Global Crisis 0:13:44 Empathizing with Event Planners in Times of Crisis 0:15:00 Conversation on Scaling a Business and Letting Go of Control 0:19:15 Incorporating Customer Experience into Events: Challenges and Solutions 0:21:13 The Challenges of Event Logistics and Creative Problem-Solving 0:26:27 Networking, Thought Leadership, and Personal Growth 0:29:43 Discussion on the Value of Attending Conferences and Events 0:30:53 Applying the "Hell Yes or Hell No" Motto to Life Decisions 0:32:40 What Makes a Good Company Booth? 0:37:43 Investing in Brand Recognition and Removing Sales Aspects 0:39:02 Discussion on the Impact of Knowledgeable Customers on the Sales Process 0:45:03 Reflection on Building a Tribe: A Conversation on the Benefits of Connecting with Like-Minded People 0:45:48 Conference Networking Strategies 0:49:13 Pro Tips for Optimizing Your Reddit Experience 0:53:01 Discussion on Social Media Algorithms and Platforms 0:57:03 Will's Insights on Building Your Own Land and Avoiding Rented Land Highlights ”When someone really knows what they're doing and they don't want to have that salesperson experience, then they need to figure out how do they now get out of the way as fast as possible” “Sometimes just having a one-hour conversation can make the flight being there for three days, being away from family, being away from work, a hundred percent worth it.” “I learned very early on having a trusted group of people who are either smarter than you or think the exact same way that you do. So you can brainstorm and build upon ideas. Once you start getting that together, that can make conferences 100% worth it.” “I like to think like, yeah, “maybe here's how I would've done this a little bit differently”. But I try not to get too caught up in that because if you get to that point where you're always looking for how you could have done something better than someone else, you're always working basically at that point.” “In theory, like as a business you should be always designing something like you're building a machine that has gears and moves around and if you design a process it limits the room for error”

Michelle Salatto, the Product Support Director at Entertainment Partners, sat down with us on The Startup Smoothie and shared insights on balancing proactive customer support with customer needs. We discussed the importance of proactive outreach and ensuring customer adoption and engagement with products. On the support side, we talked about capturing data, understanding clients' pain points, and sending this information to the appropriate teams to improve the client experience. Michelle also discussed representing customer needs to developers and engineers, and shared techniques on how to do this effectively. We talked about quantifying the customer's pain and using data to convey this, as well as using objective measurements like NPS and product satisfaction surveys to represent the voice of the customer. We also discussed the importance of aligning different departments for a successful customer experience. Michelle emphasized the need for relationships with the team to communicate customer sentiment. We talked about training teams on effective communication and cross-functional meetings to discuss client feedback. By taking these measures, it is possible to foster successful collaboration between departments and open up lines of communication. Timestamps 0:03:23 Representing the Voice of the Customer in a Team of Developers and Engineers 0:05:11 Strategies for Building Relationships and Communicating Effectively" 0:06:42 Opening Lines of Communication and Building Out a Customer Experience Team 0:10:14 Exploring Scalable Solutions for Client Communication and Agent Experience 0:11:45 Conversation on Technology's Impact on Customer Experience 0:17:52 Discussion on the Value of Investing in Client Support Teams 0:23:03 The Challenges of Frontline Support Agents 0:24:59 Retaining Support Team Members: Tips for Customer Experience Leaders 0:27:00 Conversation on Engaging Disengaged Support Agents and Unlocking Their Potential Highlights “I think when you have a really diverse team in every sense of the word, you have a stronger team. My strongest teams have had different backgrounds, different experiences, different skill sets, different strengths. And you want to make sure that you're always hiring for who are the value adds, right, not the fit in. And that's really something that I've been really mindful of and on an inclusive side of things, just making sure that we're not just making decisions that impact employees without trying to bring some of those employees into those conversations as well.” “I think support is such a great department and team because these are problem solvers, they're collaborators, they have great interpersonal skills, they have great soft skills, they're eager to learn. And I'm speaking for 99.99% of all the support people I've ever worked with.” “Yeah, I mean that's why they're the front lines, right? And you don't want it to be the metaphor of being in battle. You want them to be the advocates and the people who are making people's day over and over and over again because they're answering questions and solving problems and able to own issues from start to finish and they have the resources they need to solve the problem. Not creating silos and friction. If you do that for the agent, if you're creating silos and you're creating friction for the agent, you're definitely doing the same for the client.”

We had the pleasure of talking to Sarah DeGeorge, a digital marketing strategist and mentor who specializes in helping business owners reduce their marketing-related stress. Sarah highlighted the significance of creating marketing materials that accurately reflect a business while remaining faithful to its objectives, products, and services. We also delved into the importance of comprehending a client's voice, mission, and target audience as the first step in the marketing process. The subject of social proof was brought up, and we agreed that it needs to be revamped in order to be more effective. Rather than focusing on awards or accolades, Sarah suggested that companies should focus on results and actionable things that they have helped with. Our conversation also touched upon the significance of humanizing and authenticating marketing efforts, PR as a marketing strategy, and of course, AI. To learn more about all of Sarah's services, visit her personal service site at this link. Timestamps 0:02:58 Discussion on Authentic and Unnerving Marketing Strategies 0:04:41 Discussion on the Benefits of Bold Marketing Strategies in the Digital Age 0:06:05 Conversation on the Psychology of Marketing and Social Proof 0:11:22 Setting Expectations for Companies 0:12:41 Understanding Client Goals to Create an Effective Marketing Plan 0:14:06 Setting Limits and Reevaluating Goals 0:16:09 How to Check In Regularly and Connect Internal Teams for Positive PR Outcomes 0:20:48 Conversation on the Importance of Effective Communication and Collaboration in the Workplace 0:22:54 Discussion on the Difference Between Marketing and Sales 0:24:16 Discussion on Landing Pages and AI Marketing Products 0:28:46 Exploring the Benefits of AI for Marketers Highlights "The goal in mindful marketing is not to wait for those past or future tense marketing conversations, but make those micro adjustments as they come up. You'll find that you're more focused and in alignment but also spending less time on marketing efforts that are not paying off." "I think there are a few ways in which marketing teams are perceived. I think sometimes the biggest problem is that people don't know what marketing is any more or what marketing isn't." "When you have your teams working internally using the same framework, not to just think about the product or the operations, but how the tangible items can lead to positive outcomes, good reviews, return customers or good word of mouth, you create this pipeline that connects the internal communication lines. I think we've seen more than one time that when the internal is not communicating with each other, the external result is just like crash and burn."

Lydia Day, the Customer Operations Manager at CharlieHR, imparts her insightful beliefs on enhancing the employee experience and emphasizing customer obsession. We began by discussing the role of HR professionals and how HR departments prioritize the organization's interests and advocating for employees. Lydia's input here is especially significant as she shared her experiences working with HR professionals and explained how HR departments can prioritize both employee growth and wellbeing, as well as the organization's interests. She emphasized the importance of having customer obsession come from the top down in support by the CEO and customer function for delivering excellent customer experiences. Moreover, Lydia discussed how Culture Ops, or HR, must align closely with the outcomes of an organization to be successful. She discussed how involving people across the organization in customer support and sharing customer stories can bring more people into the customer's world. Subsequently, we delved into the topics of upholding a careful balance between providing meaningful and strategic perks to employees and the importance of fostering growth opportunities within one's team. As our discussion drew to a close, Lydia offered valuable guidance to job seekers and underscored the importance of recruiting individuals who possess fervor for your product and customers. Furthermore, we touched upon the significance of job seekers prioritizing their search for a company that genuinely piques their interest. All in all, it was a great conversation. Lydia's perspectives provide valuable insights into how to align your Culture Ops with organizational goals, create customer-focused cultures from the top down, and maximize both employee satisfaction and customer obsession. Timestamps 0:04:36 Exploring Customer Obsession 0:06:33 Striking a Balance Between Employee Perks and Pay Increases 0:12:23 Exploring the Impact of Consumer Experience on CX Management 0:14:13 The Benefits of Offering High-Quality Customer Support 0:16:51 Creating a Positive Customer Experience Culture 0:20:07 Fostering Growth and Development within a Support Team 0:21:56 Open and Honest Communication for CX Professional Development 0:26:48 Supporting Team Development and Empowering Customer Teams 0:30:10 Empathy and Passion for Product Development 0:32:54 Conversation on Job Search Strategies and Mistakes to Avoid Highlights "At Charlie, we've coined the term Culture Ops, which describes lots of different functions and roles that would traditionally be responsible for HR. Our Culture Ops team is responsible for leading and iterating on our company processes which could be OKR processes, planning processes, how we communicate progress. As a business, it's really important that all functions feel that they play a part in this, but especially our customer function." "A big part of our culture at Charlie is that all functions within our organization feel that they have a voice and a platform to be heard." "My biggest piece of advice for anyone who is currently in their job search or thinking about their next move is to treat the interview process as a two-way process. I think the best interviews are the ones where both parties are asking questions that are helping them to determine whether this is the right fit." "We have a progression framework. Everyone within our organization is given a level within that framework on their different tracks. It could be a customer success associate or it could be a product designer. Whatever your kind of expertise is, you'll essentially have a level within that progression framework and it will be really clear about what is expected from you at the next level, and that's something that has been created by our Ops team."

In our conversation with Somya Kapoor, CEO and Co-founder of TheLoops, we delve into the evolution of CX from its beginnings to the present and future. One critical point that Somya emphasizes is the significance of contextualized data. She stresses the importance of not burdening the customer with finding their position in the product journey and avoiding exposing complexity to them. As well as the fact that she believes CX leaders play a vital role in advancing businesses, as they possess essential data from the front lines, which is valuable for product teams to align data management with the overall business strategy. The conversation centered around the importance of Customer Experience professionals changing the perception of CX as a cost center in order to have a seat at the table. They discussed the fascinating experience of Tesla as a tech product and how CX leaders need to collaborate across organizations in order to achieve retention. Timestamps 0:02:35 CX Professionals Gaining Influence and a Seat at the Table 0:05:59 The Value of Automation in Customer Service Experiences 0:07:43 Exploring the Impact of CX on Product Consumption 0:09:16 The Journey of Starting The Loops and a Business During the COVID-19 Pandemic 0:13:59 Leveraging Support Data to Enhance Customer Experiences 0:15:48 The Benefits of Contextualizing Customer Data for Improved CX 0:18:13 CX Professional Perspectives on Net Promoter Score and Streamlining the User Experience 0:20:32 The Evolution of NPS and the Importance of Customer Experience in Purchasing Decisions 0:21:51 Conversation on Customer Experience, Retention, and Loyalty Programs 0:26:32 Exploring the Future of Support Operations 0:28:25 The Role of CX Leaders in Leveraging Data to Drive Retention and Product Development

Scott Benson, a compliance and risk veteran with an impressive background in the startup industry, joins us on podcast to discuss the importance of compliance in ensuring excellent customer support. Scott explains why compliance should not be seen as simply a cost of doing business, stating that if companies are operating in a regulated space without the controls that are mandated by their regulatory obligations, it can be fatal for their business. He adds that compliance may not generate revenue like other functions, but it is still essential to ensure the longevity of the company. Scott also touches on the concept of business ethics and how they are applied today. The conversation will help startups better understand the importance of compliance in customer support and how to ensure they are operating in a compliant way. Scott discussed the importance of having a strong relationship between customer support and compliance, stating that customer support is often the team that best understands the interconnectedness and capabilities of a platform. He said that it is important to have a compliance team, no matter the size, that is engaged with the other teams and that customer support should be included in this engagement. He also highlighted that customer support often interacts with customers on a daily basis and, as a result, has a better understanding of the back end and front end of the platform and is often the best team to turn to when questions arise. Timestamps 0:02:56 Discussion on Assigning Value to Compliance Efforts 0:04:27 The Benefits of Early Compliance Involvement in Fintech Product Development 0:07:26 The Importance of a Strong Relationship Between Support and Compliance 0:09:32 The Role of Customer Support in Compliance and Fraud Monitoring 0:12:44 The Benefits of Open Engagement Between Compliance and Customer Support Teams 0:14:40 Compliance and Risk Teams: Balancing Innovation and Structure 0:17:15 Exploring Flexibility and Creative Solutions for Compliance and Customer Satisfaction 0:18:48 The Fine Line Between Over and Under Communication in Customer Experience 0:25:35 The Impact of Risk Aversion on Brand Management 0:31:32 The Regulatory Landscape of Fintech Companies 0:33:33 Regulatory Competency and Banking as a Service for Fintech Platforms Quote Highlights "So without a doubt, over the last ten years, ten years I've been in the financial services, fintech industry, regulators have definitely become more experienced, they're more knowledgeable. Your ability as someone who is operating a fintech platform or who hopes to operate a fintech platform. If your plan is to go in and kind of razzle-dazzle a regulator with a lot of techie type buzzwords because you think you're going to overwhelm them and the regulator is just going to slink away, not the case anymore." "Just even this recent experience that you have just reinforces why fintech companies became so popular and have blossomed over the last however many years. That was due in no small part to the fact that your legacy financial institutions, the Citigroups, the J. P. Morgans, the bank of Americas of the world, they struggle with customer support, they struggle with customer experience." "It's very possible that you've got a one person team, you might have one compliance person, one fraud person, you might have one person doing compliance and fraud. There's got to be active and open engagement between compliance staff, your customer support team, your CS team. When you have a good level of communication between these two different teams, that's how you identify trends. That's how you identify patterns and trends and patterns that automated monitoring may have overlooked or it might not be something that your automated monitoring solution isn't even structured to detect."

Devon makes a sincere attempt in this TLDR episode to explain what's going on with Congress and the potential ban on TikTok. Despite the complexity of the subject, there are various theories circulating regarding Congress' motives and the potential implications for the future of the tech industry, particularly for innovators in foreign industries.

We sit down with Alexandria Shrader, the Support Lead at Slite. Alexandria is a knowledge management expert with over a decade of experience in tech support. Alex explains the importance of customer centricity and the “red flags” that indicate when a company is not taking it seriously. She emphasizes the need for the support team to actively use customer feedback to inform product decisions and to feel empowered to be the champions of the customers. Alexandria also talks about the challenges of having one person write the knowledge base and suggests that it is the wrong approach. Alex and Devon are discussing the importance of customer support and how it should be treated. She shares her experience from working in software as a service and tech support, and explains how data can be used to show that supporting customers while in freemium can lead to retention. They both agree that support should be given the respect it deserves. The conversation between Alex and Devon focused on the importance of internal knowledge bases for companies and how to encourage employees to contribute and utilize them effectively. Internal knowledge bases can help to address distributed knowledge issues in an organization, such as what teams do, and what they know. Alex suggested that companies should go into creating a knowledge base with the mentality of encouraging everyone in the company to contribute and keep the content up to date, as the product can change quickly. She also suggested having a knowledge manager and empowering everyone to write policies and keep the documents fresh. Lastly, she warned against the idea of only having one person maintaining everything. Alex and Devon discuss how knowledge management can be used to enhance the customer experience. Alex discussed how at her company Slite, they use an all-hands support framework where everyone in the company, even the CEO, has traditionally done support shifts every week. Overall, it was clear that knowledge management plays an important role in ensuring a great customer experience. Timestamps 00:03:00 Exploring the Impact of Customer Experience on Retention and Revenue 00:04:00 The Benefits of Internal Knowledge Bases and Encouraging Employee Contributions 00:08:00 Conversation on Enhancing Customer Experience Through Knowledge Management 00:10:00 Fact or Fiction Segment 00:17:00 Exploring Slite's AI Assistant Feature, "Ask" 00:20:00 Conversation on Empowering Support Teams and Replacing Weekly All Hands with Written Updates 00:21:00 Experiments in Collaboration: Exploring New Features and Cutting What Doesn't Work 00:26:00 Conversation on CX Trends and Documentation Challenges in Rapidly Growing Startups

Guest Mel Dalton spends her birthday with us to discuss emotional intelligence and self-awareness in the workplace and how it relates to customer experience. Mel, who spent over 25 years in talent management and founded Melissa Joy, LLC, a coaching practice, shares insights on bridging generational gaps and helping leaders adjust, grow, and develop in today's fast-changing economy. Mel also talks about the importance of understanding our brain's filtering mechanisms and our capacity for emotional intelligence. Don't miss out on this engaging and informative conversation. Timestamps 0:02:33 Exploring the Boomer Generation and the Challenges of Intergenerational Communication 0:04:27 Exploring the Link Between Emotional Intelligence and the Brain's Capacity to Process Information 0:08:31 Discussion on Authenticity in the Workplace 0:10:35 Dealing with Negative Coworkers: Strategies for Maintaining a Positive Mindset in the Workplace 0:12:29 Resolving Conflict Through Empathy and Positive Mindset 0:14:12 Using Emotional Intelligence to Receive Negative Feedback and Build Rapport with Employees 0:19:02 Integrating Emotional Intelligence and Self-Awareness into Customer Support Teams 0:21:56 The Benefits of Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence in Customer Support Quote Highlights "You have to have the emotional intelligence, the social ability and agility to be able to navigate through that. So the self awareness, you have to have it. That is the car that's driving. But you can't drive that car without the emotional intelligence, without that engine in that front of that car, it's just not going to work. So the two really go hand in hand because you need them to be able to turn this into an experience, connect with them and hear them, to understand them. Not just to make money off of them, not just to be able to say, you service the largest client in this industry, but to really be integrated as part of their external family team." "When we're talking about customer experience and self awareness as well as emotional intelligence, when you're looking at the self awareness, you need to understand the skills and ability to be able to connect and be able to react to your commerce. Right. You want to be able to make sure that it's an experience that they're going to remember. If you're not self aware about how you are wired to respond and react, how the client isn't going to respond or react, you're going to miss delivering on the needs." "So they're holding on to things themselves, and they have all these generations of leaders that are waiting to butt up underneath them. And to me, it takes a special type of person to be able to work with the older generation. Because I was raised by the silent and the boomer generation. I can partner with them and help them to just flex inside of the way that they already are, but just help them update their belief systems so that they can pass that wealth of knowledge to the next generation so that we can get them set up for success."