The CX Iconoclast
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
The CX Iconoclast
Martin White – Navigating the Push and Pull of B2B CX
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 roles, so we wanted to get his thoughts on where CX should fit within organizations, and the special challenges facing marketers and CX leaders at B2B companies.
Martin and Richard also talked about the interplay between incumbent businesses and their challengers. The changes within financial services in recent years are familiar to Martin, and offer lessons for CX leaders in any industry where incumbency both confers a benefit and puts companies at risk of disruption – in other words, almost all industries.
As you listen, some of Martin’s thoughts you might listen for and consider:
- There should by rights be a strong alignment between the customers’ interests and those of the company, so marketing provides a good home for CX.
- In B2B, Martin says, marketers and CX leaders get pushed and pulled in many directions, given the difficulty of getting meaningful CX insights in a B2B environment coupled with customer expectations shaped by consumer experiences.
- Companies threatened by upstart competitors are unwise to try to defend their incumbency using the same techniques and approaches they were using when they lost their dominant position. CX insights are unique, Martin says, in their ability to guide innovative responses to turmoil.
Find Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-r-white/
Blackwood86: https://blackwood86.com/
Find out how predictive CX analytics can help your business: https://ocxcognition.com/
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ocxcognition/
Connect with Richard Owen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richard-owen-98ba3
