CX Passport

The One With the American Medical Association CX – Gloria Gupta E252

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...Gloria Gupta leads CX transformation at the American Medical Association.Not a small lift. Not a short-term initiative.A 200-year-old institution.450 million in revenue.Physicians as customers.Patients as the ultimate impact.In this episode, Gloria shares what it really takes to unify service, build enterprise CX, and make customer experience a measurable attribute of brand and culture.5 Key Insights• The AMA’s primary customer is the physician … but the physician’s customer is the patient• CX transformation began by unifying service into one omnichannel team serving 98% of AMA service interactions• More than 900 improvements have been implemented across the enterprise, many of them significant• 400 employees are directly involved in CX … one in four across the organization• The shared mission: identify and remove customer frictionCHAPTERS00:00 Intro and Rick’s personal AMA connection02:00 Who is the AMA customer?04:00 Why CX matters at a 200-year-old institution08:00 Healthcare evolution … EHRs, COVID, telehealth, and AI13:30 Unifying service across the enterprise17:00 Authentication friction and enterprise CX launch20:00 Building trust through measurable wins22:30 First Class Lounge26:50 900 improvements and aftercare strategy30:30 AI, policy, and the future of healthcare CX33:00 Real data, real outcomes, real collaborationConnect with GloriaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloria-gupta-rdh-ms-fcxp-4760939/Listen: https://www.cxpassport.comWatch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassportNewsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

The One With the Answers in the Field – April Sabral E251

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...Technology is loud. Agentic AI. Automation. Platforms. Dashboards.Meanwhile, the person who greets the customer at the door still determines whether that experience succeeds.April Sabral spent more than 30 years leading over 350 physical retail stores. In this episode, she explains why the answers to better customer experience aren’t sitting in a conference room … they’re already in the field.And y'all will not want to miss the Starbucks name-on-the-cup story … including how it started in a Miami Beach store and solved a real operational problem overnight.What You’ll LearnWhy frontline managers … not technology … determine store performanceHow the Starbucks “name on the cup” idea started as a simple operational fixThe danger of promoting high performers without leadership trainingWhy skill-building beats “just be friendly” every timeThe leadership test: If you left your job … would your team follow you?CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction to April Sabral02:00 Where the CX conversation misses reality05:00 The Starbucks name-on-the-cup origin story08:20 Why simple solutions outperform complex tech10:40 Bridging the gap between field and head office14:15 What actually makes in-store CX work19:40 Process discipline vs. customer experience23:40 Would your team follow you?26:00 Why retail promotes too fast29:00 The future of physical retail in an AI world31:00 How to connect with AprilGuest LinksWebsite: https://www.aprilsabral.com/Listen: https://www.cxpassport.comWatch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassportNewsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

The One With Designing The Ending - Joe Macleod E250

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...CX to sin. Peak-end to forgiveness. Episode 250 won’t be what you’re used to.This milestone episode examines how experiences actually end, and why organizations avoid designing that moment. In a wide-ranging conversation with Joe Macleod, CX Passport connects customer experience to religion, environmental responsibility, shame, and the circular economy. The conversation challenges the idea that endings are merely operational details rather than emotional and moral ones. Joe also becomes the show’s first guest from Sweden, adding a perspective shaped by consensus, systems thinking, and responsibility.5 Key Insights from the EpisodeMost organizations never ask “How does this end?” as an experience, only as an operational handoffThe customer journey builds empowerment and agency, then abandons customers at the moment of exitShame appears when responsibility for disposal, data, or materials is shifted entirely to the customerReligious and cultural frameworks offer richer language for endings than modern consumer systemsPoorly designed endings damage brand memory and trust long after the relationship is overChapters00:00 Intro02:00 Designing beginnings while ignoring endings05:20 Shame vs guilt at the end of the customer journey08:40 Dark patterns, abandonment, and off-boarding11:30 Consumption and environmental responsibility13:10 Sweden, the UK, and systems thinking16:45 First Class Lounge21:30 Religion, forgiveness, and consumer psychology24:50 Buddhism, Shinto, and product endings28:00 Brand damage caused by poor endingsGuest LinksAndend website  https://www.andend.coLinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephmacleod/Ends (book, affiliate link): https://amzn.to/3M3zDKLEndineering (book, affiliate link): https://amzn.to/4atZWmy Ends ebook — https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/744267 25% off discount code: NCKEVEndineering ebook — https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1116883 25% off discount code: NCKEVIntroduction to Endineering course — https://www.andend.co/introductionendineering-125% off discount code: 7D7AQF5Continue the JourneyListen: https://www.cxpassport.com Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.DisclaimerThis podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

The One Where She Works Past the Metrics – Frances Chapireau E249

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...Metrics are useful. Until they become the destination instead of the signal.In this episode, Frances Chapireau joins CX Passport to talk about what happens after measurement. The conversation focuses on turning market research into insight and insight into decisions that actually influence the business.This is a practical discussion about dashboards, interpretation, and the discipline required to move beyond reporting. It is about understanding customers well enough to act, not just measure.Key InsightsMetrics describe outcomes, not underlying needMarket research only matters if it informs decisionsDashboards can distance teams from customer realityInsight comes from synthesis, not volumeCX maturity shows up in how organizations act on what they learnCHAPTERS00:00 Welcome and episode framing02:34 Frances’ background and path into CX06:12 Market research versus performance metrics11:05 Where dashboards help and where they fall short17:48 Turning data into usable insight19:33 First Class Lounge24:30 What organizations miss when they chase numbers31:10 Making insight relevant to decision makers38:22 Practical advice for CX teams trying to go deeper43:55 Closing thoughtsGuest LinksFrances Chapireau on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/frances-chapireau-62644b38/Listen: https://www.cxpassport.com Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

The One With B2B CX – Kári Thor Runarsson E248

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...B2B customer experience is often treated like B2C with bigger contracts and longer sales cycles. That shortcut causes real problems. In this episode, Rick talks with Kári Thor Runarsson about why B2B CX needs its own thinking, its own metrics, and far more attention to relationships that quietly drift long before renewal.Kári has spent his career in B2B, including startups and non-tech industries, questioning borrowed frameworks and shallow measurements. The result is a grounded conversation about silence, contracts, commoditization, and why experience is often the only real differentiator left.Key TakeawaysB2B decisions involve multiple stakeholders with competing success metricsSilence is one of the strongest churn signals in B2B relationshipsNet Promoter Score breaks down quickly in complex B2B environmentsCustomer experience becomes decisive as industries commoditizeStartups often overestimate how well they understand customer dissatisfactionCHAPTERS00:00 Introduction and first Iceland-based CX Passport guest 02:00 Marketing and CX are more fluid than organizations admit 04:50 What B2B leaders misunderstand about customer experience 07:45 Silence, contracts, and how churn really starts 10:40 Stakeholders, misaligned objectives, and missed signals 14:20 CX maturity across regions and markets 16:00 First Class Lounge 20:30 Why CX matters most outside of tech and SaaS 24:20 Where B2C thinking hurts B2B CX efforts 27:00 CX advice for B2B startups 28:50 Where to find Kári and closing thoughtsGuest LinksKári Thor Runarsson on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/karithor/Cliezen: https://www.cliezen.comListen: https://www.cxpassport.com Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).