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If you’re exhausted by traditional approaches to CX, impatient with the stunning lack of progress in the field, and done re-hashing the “best practices” that don’t change anything, you’ve found your podcast. Here’s what we know: Companies gain competitive advantage through exceptional customer experience, and customer insights are the best decision-making tool there is. But traditional CX approaches have run their course and it’s time for the next revolution in CX. Tune in every two weeks as Richard Owen, co-founder of OCX Cognition, hosts conversations and interviews with business leaders, academics, and thinkers whose ideas can guide the CX profession to think in new ways about what success looks like. Most of them aren’t CX professionals, but all of them have something to teach us about CX. We’ll take a clear-eyed look at the problems that have hampered the discipline and explore the compelling ideas behind a re-engineering CX for a modern world. Come disgruntled, leave inspired. Find us at www.ocxcognition.com
47 Episodes
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In the second podcast of this two-part series, Mauricio Duarte and Richard Owen go deeper into the transformative role of AI in customer experience (CX). Richard highlights AI as a generational shift, resembling the advent of the internet in its ability to transform our work, and discusses its potential to revolutionize CX measurement and personalization. He emphasizes that while AI can enhance contact center operations and hyper-personalize digital experiences, it must be used thoughtfully t...
In this first of a series of two podcasts, Mauricio Duarte, CEO of Opinat, interviews Richard Owen, CEO of OCX Cognition, about the evolution of customer experience (CX) and the future of AI as a way of improving customer retention and growth. Richard shares his own CX journey, starting at Dell Computer, where he recognized customer experience as a key differentiator. He later joined Satmetrix as CEO, where he and his team were top contributors to worldwide adoption of the Net Promoter Score ...
In this episode, Richard Owen speaks with Joe Pine and Dr. Louis-Etienne Dubois about Starbucks’ journey of rediscovering its core identity as a "third place" — a welcoming environment between work and home. They explore how Starbucks' focus on retail efficiency and loss of employee-customer connection led to its decline, while highlighting the brand’s unique strengths that competitors haven’t been able to replicate. With the new CEO aiming to return to the company’s roots, there’s optimism f...
2024 was a great year for the CX Iconoclast, thanks to the amazing guests we were able to host. It may be no surprise to you that one of the topics that came up repeatedly was the value of long term customer relationships. Long term CLV and customer retention are now vital metrics in B2B success, focusing on relationship management beyond the immediate sale. What makes long-term customer relationships so crucial in the B2B space? In this highlight from the CX Iconoclast podcast series, Richar...
2024 was a great year for the CX Iconoclast, thanks to the amazing guests we had. One of the topics that came up was the nature of technology-driven CX enhancements. As you might imagine, technology, especially automation and AI driven support tools, has enabled companies to offer streamlined, consistent, and highly proactive customer experience. In this 'Best of' episode of The CX Iconoclast, Richard Owen highlights great insights from two leading voices in customer experience innovation: J...
2024 was a great year for the CX iconoclast due to the amazing guests we had. In this recap, we look at the topic of operational resilience and flexibility, especially in supply chains. Discover how leading experts Chris Gopal and Kevin O'Meara are reshaping supply chain strategies to prioritize resilience and flexibility in response to today's complex challenges. From balancing risk and agility to leveraging supply chains as competitive assets, this 'best of' episode highlights the transfor...
In this 7-minute highlight reel, Richard Owen, CEO of OCX Cognition, explores how AI and predictive analytics are transforming B2B customer experience by providing actionable insights, improving operational efficiency, and personalizing customer engagement. Featured Guests: Chris Bishop (Conga): Shares how predictive analytics moves businesses from reactive problem-solving to proactive growth.Sean Albertson (Call center expert and author of 4ROCKS): Discusses leveraging AI to pr...
In this special 8-minute episode, Richard Owen, CEO of OCX Cognition, shares highlights from 2024's CX Iconoclast podcast series, showcasing how top companies are embracing customer-centric transformation to drive retention and loyalty. Featured Guests: Simon Paris (Finastra): Explores how open finance shifts focus from products to personalized customer journeys. Chris Bishop (Conga): Explains how embedding customer success into every role drives growth and celebrates customer-focused achi...
Richard Owen and Amir Hartman explore the challenges companies face in adopting AI, particularly the high failure rates of AI projects. Owen compares the current AI landscape to previous technological waves, where early excitement led companies to invest in sandbox projects with little return. These projects are often ill-conceived or difficult to scale, resulting in wasted resources. Hartman agrees and points out that while most companies are investing in AI to "keep the lights on," few are ...
Richard Owen and Jean-Christophe Barland discussed the complexities facing the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in relation to healthcare delivery and the aging population. Barland emphasized the diversity among physicians in terms of their engagement with new technologies and their competence, which can lead to varying patient outcomes. A more data-driven, scientific approach could help address these inconsistencies. Internally, pharmaceutical companies must ensure a strong corporate cu...
In the latest CX Iconoclast conversation, Michel Claassens and Richard Owen dive into AkzoNobel's journey of digital transformation, demonstrating how a traditional paint company is innovating and continuing to grow in a rapidly changing landscape. Claassens shares insights on how AkzoNobel strategically targets specific business units to harness digital initiatives, driving both revenue growth and cost efficiency. One fascinating takeaway is the discovery that hybrid customers—those who enga...
In this episode of the CX Iconoclast podcast, host Richard sits down with Bob Cooper, a leading expert in AI and business strategy, to explore the true impact of AI across various industries. Bob and Richard note the contrast between the highly visible, consumer-facing AI applications, such as robo taxis and smart devices, and the less glamorous but profoundly impactful uses of AI in engineering, product development, and back-office automation. Bob shares real-world examples from industries l...
In this episode of the CX Iconoclast Podcast, Richard Owen hosts Joe Pine, thought leader, academic, and author of The Experience Economy and several other influential books including Mass Customization, Authenticity, and Infinite Possibility. The conversation with Joe Pine covers the evolution of The Experience Economy over the past 25 years, the impact of digital technology, the shift in consumer preferences, and the role of AI in creating transformative experiences. It also explores the ch...
In this episode, Richard Owen speaks with Eric Tagliere, Chief Technology Officer at Humana, about the challenges and opportunities present in the healthcare industry. They emphasize the importance of a customer-focused approach and the convergence of technology and consumer expectations, highlighting the potential for significant progress in the industry over the next five to ten years. Additionally, they explore the influence of external companies like Amazon on shaping consumer expectation...
In this episode, Richard Owen sits down with Don Peppers, a global authority on marketing and business competition, to discuss the intricacies of customer behavior, customer-centric companies, and the evolving landscape of customer experience (CX). Don, renowned in the world of CRM for co-authoring the landmark book "The One to One Future," shares his invaluable insights on the challenges and opportunities facing CX professionals today. Here are some of the main points they discussed: ...
This new edition of the CX Iconoclast podcast is a timely panel discussion on the evolution of language understanding. Richard Owen hosts three panelists: Brian Curry, Co-founder and Head of Engineering Customers at OCX Cognition; Maurice FitzGerald, Head of Content at OCX Cognition; and special guest Alyona Medelyan, CEO and co-founder of Thematic. Alyona, originally from Ukraine, holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, making her even more highly qualified to discuss this quickly evolving a...
In this episode hosted by Richard Owen, Stanford professor Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and a contributing author to the recent HAI report on the current state of AI on the planet, discusses the impact of AI on productivity. He highlights the rapid technological advances in AI and the significant productivity gains observed in various sectors. Erik emphasizes the importance of focusing on proven use cases and creating business value rather than getting distracted by the hype around AI. Eri...
Join Richard Owen's discussion with Simon Paris, the visionary CEO of Finastra, a leading force in global enterprise software solutions tailored for the financial sector. Here’s a summary of their engaging conversation: Empowering Banking Evolution Finastra, a powerhouse in enterprise software, caters primarily to banks and related entities worldwide. With a robust suite covering lending, payments, treasury, capital markets, and retail and digital banking, they serve clients across 130+...
In this episode of the CX Iconoclast, Richard Owen hosts Kevin O’Meara, a supply chain expert and head of business transformation at Shaw Industries. After discussing Kevin’s transition from military to commercial life, the conversation moves to supply chain logistics, where Kevin underscores its evolution from a cost-cutting focus to a competitive weapon for companies. He attributes this shift to technological advancements in inventory management and transportation management post-2000...
In this episode of the CX Iconoclast Podcast, host Richard Owen welcomes guest Chris Gopal, a renowned global supply chain expert. Chris shares his insights on the challenges faced by companies in managing their supply chains and how AI and analytics can enhance predictability and mitigate risk. Chris Gopal’s extensive experience in supply chain management includes leading the corporate transformation of Dell’s manufacturing logistics in the 1990s and holding key positions at Ernst & Youn...
In this podcast, Joe Wheeler, Richard Owen, and Maurice FitzGerald discuss the evolution of customer experience. Wheeler, author of ‘The Digital-First Customer Experience’, highlights how AI and machine learning drive growth and scalability in companies like Spotify and Lemonade. The trio explores the economic implications of AI in businesses, balancing cost reduction and job creation, and the importance of understanding customer segments. They discuss real-world examples like Budweiser and C...
Is customer success indeed dead? That’s just one of the questions answered during this discussion. (Spoiler alert: it may well be dying at your company.) Join host Richard Owen and Chris Adlard, co-author of ‘The Customer Catalyst’, as they discuss the essence of customer transformation. Chris introduces us to the ‘C-change diagnostic’, a tool that companies can use to evaluate their CX progress and receive extensive suggestions on the next actions each major function should take. Chris empha...
In this podcast featuring Sean Albertson, a call center expert and author of '4ROCKS', host Richard Owen explores the dynamics of customer experience and business challenges. Sean's four metaphorical rocks—Sedimentary, Metamorphic, Igneous, and Meteoric—symbolize layers of complexity, organizational changes, unexpected events, and external factors affecting customer struggles. The discussion unfolds as Sean emphasizes the need for action based on the results of research results, moving...
Das Narayandas is the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. In this engaging podcast hosted by Richard Owen, Das reflects on their early connection and dives into decades of B2B client relationship expertise. Das shares insights from his groundbreaking marketing dissertation, emphasizing the nuances of long-term supplier-customer dynamics. The conversation seamlessly transitions to the critical aspects of customer selection, service, and the ev...
In this insightful podcast with host Richard Owen, Joe Pinto reflects on his years at Cisco and the transition to his role as Chief Customer Experience Officer at Pure Storage. Moving from Cisco to Pure, Joe notes the significant size difference and praises Pure's CEO for championing Customer Success. Managing the challenge of maintaining high NPS during rapid growth, Joe highlights Pure's achievements in handling escalations efficiently and the seamless, "hitless" upgrade process. Customers ...
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. These short extracts from the full discussions cover some great sales and marketing views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics in the digital age. Richard Owen’s four guests in this short video are: Bill Binch - Former sales & marketing leader at Marketo and at Pendo, now an advisor at VC company Battery Ventures.Richard Watts - 33-year veteran of ...
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. These short extracts from the full discussions set out some fascinating marketing-centric views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics. Richard Owen’s three guests in this video are the famous marketing cartoonist Tom Fishburne, marketing veteran Andy Lark, and Breeze Airways CMO Angela Vargo. The first extract is from Richard's discussion with Tom Fishb...
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. Join us in this captivating episode as we explore the remarkable journey of Chris Bishop, Chief Customer Officer at Conga, a trailblazer in revenue lifecycle management software. From Advocacy to Data Science Mastery: Conga's Evolution Chris unfolds his five-year odyssey at Conga, illuminating the transformation of the Chief Customer Officer role. Discover how he shift...
CX Iconoclasts are people who break with tradition by bringing new ideas and new ways of doing things to our attention. Where better to find such thinking than from major thought leaders and academics, who do not have to live with the restrictions imposed by quarterly business targets and results. These short extracts from the full discussions set out some fascinating views on the future of customer experience strategies and tactics. Richard Owen’s seven guests in this video are Peter Fader (...
2023 was a great year for our CX Iconoclast podcast Richard Owen interviewed many business leaders, and we have picked out some highlights in these short videos. You will get interesting and entertaining advice in these clips from Mark Templeton (Citrix), David Tudehope (Macquarie Telecom), Tom Monahan (CEB), and Steve Byrne (Travel Counsellors). Richard is of course a CX industry veteran and nevertheless felt he learned a lot from these discussions. You can of course find the full versions o...
Today, we sit down with Joe Wheeler, the author of the insightful book “The Digital First Customer Experience.” We dive deep into the design strategies used by top brands like NIKE, Amazon, and Starbucks, and how these strategies have evolved to meet the demands of an increasingly digital marketplace. Highlights: Insights from “The Digital First Customer Experience”: 1. Discussion about the book and its revelations on customer experience strategies. 2. Joe Wheeler shares his inspiration for...
Today's conversation explores several key themes, including the intensely personal nature of B2B relationships, the impact of generative AI on the buying process, and the many changing roles in today's corporate landscape. Richard Owen, Liam Fahey and Ralph Oliva delve into the evolving nature of B2B marketing within various industries, particularly those facing competition from innovative startups. It examines how risk-averse cultures can hinder growth and how some firms are investing heav...
Have you ever experienced something like “marketing funnel vision?” Been trapped in a “sub-silo?” Feared a case of “data-blindness?” What a relief to laugh at the challenges of business, which is what cartoonist Tom Fishburne helps us do. Tom Fishburne took an unconventional career path, which might be true of all cartoonists. He started cartooning as a child and continued through his time at Harvard Business School, where his cartoons were featured in the student newspaper. But for man...
Why do only software companies and drug dealers call their customers “users”? Has “CX washing” diluted to overall impact of CX in the business world? Why do so many acquisitions fail to consider the customer experience? And could OCX Cognition really be in pursuit of the “holy grail” of CX? Just a few of the questions our guest, former Citrix CEO Mark Templeton, discusses in this episode. Everybody’s career begins somewhere, but even so, you might be a little surprised to learn that Mark Temp...
Our guest Steve Byrne would almost certainly not have a business to run if it weren’t for the differential power of the customer experience. He’s the CEO of Travel Counsellors, a company that works hard to live by its own rules and to do right by every person involved in its value chain – customers, employees, and partners. Steve had a lot to say about how he approaches these interconnected obligations, and about how the business is thriving despite what could be considered countervaili...
Our guests today are business partners and academic collaborators: Peter Fader and Daniel McCarthy. Their entrepreneurial and academic pursuits are intertwined in interesting ways. On the entrepreneurial side, they co-founded a predictive analytics firm, called Zodiac, that they sold to Nike in 2018, and now they are co-founders and directors of Theta, a predictive customer value analytics company. Theta’s work draws heavily on customer lifetime value, along with an output of Peter and ...
When the customer experience is poor, should the sales team take the blame for failing to consider the long-term health of customer relationships? Not so fast, says our guest Bill Binch, a sales leader at some of the tech industries fast-growing companies. It’s a bit more complicated than that, and if you’re a leader whose role include ensuring that customers either get value from your solution or deliver value to your bottom line, you’ll learn a lot from this episode. Bill is an operating pa...
In any successful industry, leaders must answer an existential question: How do you evolve and adapt as the world around you changes? Our guest David Tudehope, CEO of Australia’s Macquarie Telecom Group, looks to customers to as the ultimate guide. In doing so, he takes a very unusual approach in an industry known for its poor customer experience. David explained that Macquarie Telecom Group strives to be what he calls “un-telco.” The company was founded just as the telecommunications m...
How do you know you’re getting value from your investments in innovation? Our guest Michael Schrage got that same urgent question from his students and clients: In response, he’s become laser focused on measurement, and his thinking has deep applicability to CX. Michael is a researcher at MIT’s Media Lab and a Visiting Fellow in the Imperial College Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He has served as an advisor on innovation issues and investments to major firms, including Google,...
What on earth makes your customers tick? That’s easy, according to our guest Paul Marsden, because it’s the same for everyone. And CX leaders would do well to keep the three core needs of fellow humans. Paul Marsden, CPsycol, is a consumer psychologist who helps businesses understand consumers. The conversation in this episode covered a lot of ground based on his unusual specialization. Paul shares many opinions, but – perhaps unusually – they’re grounded in data, research, and analytics. Pau...
Does your company mourn the loss of customers as much as it celebrates their acquisition? It should, and it should back up that grief with resources to stop a repeat, says our guest Richard Watts. Richard Watts serves on several boards, including the board of Farmers Insurance, where he’s on the audit committee. It’s a sensible follow-on to his 33 years at Progressive Insurance. From the time Richard joined in 1977 to his retirement in 2010, Progressive grew from a relatively small insurer wr...
Feeling threatened by an upstart competitor -- or the looming possibility of one? Don't fight back using the same CX practices that got you where you are, urges our guest Martin White. Before he founded his consulting firm Blackwood86, Martin White was CMO at MS Amlin, and before that he held executive and leadership roles in the financial services space at Experian, Morgan Stanley, GE Money, American Express, MBNA, and more. Customer experience was often part of his remit in those rol...
Sometimes, it’s unexpectedly good news for all involved when technology limits the role of people play in the customer experience. But during times of unavoidable glitches in the customer experience, humans are critical, says our guest, Angela Vargo, VP of Marketing at Breeze Airways. Breeze calls itself America’s newest and nicest airline. With a focus on leisure travel, Breeze offers affordable, nonstop flights to underserved routes. A start-up airline is, of course, rare enough that it’s p...
Will AI put CX leaders out of work? Nope, but it should prompt a fundamental reimagining of the discipline, says our guest Erik Brynjolfsson. What’s at stake? “The companies within each industry that are using digital assets effectively are pulling away from their competitors,” he explains. Erik is a professor at Stanford as well as a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, the Director of the Stanford Digital Economy Lab, the Ralph Landau Senior Fellow at the Sta...
Most companies today don’t have any tangible value, points out our guest Tom Monahan. It’s all concentrated in relationships with customers and the experiences companies provide. Tom Monahan led CEB for decades, developing a compelling suite of research, benchmarks, and decision-support tools and services and eventually selling the company to Gartner. His work at CEB included the development of the Customer Effort Score, at the time a revolutionary way of thinking about the customer exp...
Should you be worried about loving your customers? Or working to make your customers love you? Our guest Andy Lark has a simple answer: No. Andy Lark, a CMO and chief customer officer several times over, thinks critically and creatively about brand, customer experience, and the trends affecting business today. Today, Andy is CMO at Dubber, world's leading provider of cloud-based call recording and voice AI, but he’s had executive leadership positions at Dell, Sun Microsystems, Nortel, Commonw...
If you’re exhausted by traditional approaches to CX, impatient with the stunning lack of progress in the field, and done re-hashing the “best practices” that don’t change anything, you’ve found your podcast. Here’s what we know: Companies gain competitive advantage through exceptional customer experience, and customer insights are the best decision-making tool there is. But traditional CX approaches have run their course and it’s time for the next revolution in CX. Tune in with ...
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