The Account Experience Podcast

Is TrustID the new Net Promoter? w/ authors Ashley Reichheld and Amelia Dunlop

Can you define trust? Is it possible to measure it? The answers are yes and yes. In this episode Adam Dorrell talks with Ashley Reichheld and Amelia Dunlop, the authors of the new book “The Four Factors of Trust”
They talk about how it’s possible to measure trust - by understanding Humanity, Transparency, Capability and Reliability for both company as a brand, and for employees. And they introduce the new metric, TrustID which they have open-sourced (in a very transparent and trusting way!) to help make the world a better place. 
Ashley talks about how different cultures treat trust, and what to look for in the measurement. Amelia brings very practical examples of how to apply the lessons. 
Trust could be the next frontier in customer experience - it’s a must-listen and also a strongly recommended read from the CustomerGauge team. 
 
Check out the Four Factors of Trust here: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Factors-Trust-Organizations-Lifelong/dp/1119855012

Speaking Truth to Power w/ James Pannett of William Grant & Sons

Adam Dorrell is joined today by James Pannett - Commercial Director of the UK family-owned distillery group William Grant & Sons. You’ll know the brands: leading whiskies like Glenfiddich, The Balvenie, Tullamore, the distinctive Hendricks Gin (Adam’s choice of drink for the podcast), and newer brands like Discarded. His background includes Mars and Molson Coors. 
James talks about how joint business plans should not be just fiction - or a nice piece of paper that gets ignored. He highlights the importance of Speaking Truth to Power - making sure that the buyer wins just as much as the seller. He describes how he aims for the “Triple Win” and how he is addressing the brand's aims are just as important as “Don’t screw up the basics”.
This is a fascinating dive into the workings of a well-known beverage company, and how taking into account the experience of the channel is all important. 
https://www.williamgrant.com/gb/we/#our-brands

The 2022 Account Experience Year in Review

Wow, 2022 is officially over and what a year it was for Account Experience! In this episode, your host, Adam Dorrell, takes us through some of the highlights in Account Experience for 2022 and chats with a few of our resident "Gaugie" experts about their favorite moments. 

How BILT Improved Their Customer’s Customers NPS by 30 Points

In the latest episode of the Account Experience podcast, Adam Dorrell welcomes Nate Henderson, CEO of BILT Incorporated, a SaaS company that improves assembly instructions into a user experience revolution that fundamentally changes the way users interact with the brands and products they buy.
Nate explains the impact of having digital interactive instructions for brands like Weber and Siemens. Of course, it reduces paper, but analyzing the way users interact with instructions helps continually improve them, and the immersive environment helps with registration and voice of customer feedback.
According to Nate, BILT’s 3D Intelligent Instructions increase Net Promoter Scores by up to 30 points. Reviews with higher star ratings have a dramatic impact on revenue. And the improved out-of-the-box experience also leads to fewer returns and up to 45% fewer calls to customer support.
Nate is also a passionate believer in the principles of Net Promoter and “Winning on Purpose”, the latest book by Fred Reichheld. He uses the book to provide a common purpose for the entire company and asks all prospective BILT employees to read the book before being interviewed. But Nate takes it a step further with a company book club to ensure the ideas of Customer Love are fully embraced by all employees!
This is an inspiring talk with a customer leader that has built a culture of empowerment. If you love NPS, you will enjoy listening to Nate.
Book suggestions:
How Will You Measure Your Life? - Clayton M Christensen
The Innovator's Dilemma - Clayton M Christensen
The Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselves - The Arbinger Institute
From Impressed to Obsessed: 12 Principles for Turning Customers and Employees into Lifelong Fans - Jon Picoult
For more information on how to start a CX bookclub, click here.

Solving the CPG Experience Paradox

Nigel Tordoff is the former Chief Customer Officer USA  for the brewer Molson Corrs. Now semi-retired he continues his passion for customers, in particular the independent trade, and is now chair of the industry group Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Experience Council.
Nigel talks about what he learned in a 4 am discussion on the brewery product line - using the concept of positively framing a seemingly unsolvable paradox. 
And with more than 2% of the global working population involved in the CPG value chain, he talks about how it’s more important than ever to spread best practices of customer experiences. He’s a passionate believer that companies can pool resources to go beyond the capabilities of today - and that’s for the greater good of all the employees in the traditional trade. 
Nigel Tordoff can be contacted via https://www.cpgexperiencecouncil.org/
 

The Untapped Potential for CX in the Caribbean w/Roger Nicholas

Today Adam Dorrell chats with Roger Nicholas of Caribbean Based Cite-Up, which is a leading regional distribution and promotion company, giving  real-time feedback on in-store product performance. The company covers 20 territories in the Caribbean, representing 180+ brands, in nearly 1000 outlets with nearly 6000 visits a month. 
Roger is based in San Fernando, Trinidad & Tobago. He calls himself “the hunting dog” because of his deep experience in companies large and small. He is also a certified Net Promoter professional. 
Adam is fascinated to learn the cultural differences - and Roger talks at length about how customer service in the Caribbean is different to the US or Europe. According to him,  it’s initially less urgent - but way more friendly. There is an opportunity to deliver even better service, and with the mineral wealth of the country, and the highly educated workforce, he says this is a new frontier of growth. 
And now Roger is starting a “Customer Experience movement” in Trinidad and Tobago - his vision is to bring the untapped potential of the country for happy business relations, and make the connection to sustainable revenue. His  goal is to get the Caribbean to better CX as soon as possible. 

The Prospect Experience Needs Disarming Honesty w/ Adam Clay @Tomorrow.io

Today Adam Dorrell speaks with Adam Clay, who takes us to upper stages of the sales funnel and talks about the prospect experience. Two Adams on a podcast is obviously better than one! 
Adam Clay is Chief Revenue Officer for Tomorrow.io, where he leads the global sales and channels teams. He brings experience scaling revenue teams for growth-oriented SaaS organizations - Beyond Identity, Logz.io. Black Duck Software (acquired by Synopsys), Mendix (acquired by Siemens)
We often talk about Account Experience - which for most people sits in the post-sales stage. Adam encourages us to think about  what happens before you even close a deal. Adam is passionate about this - he contends that most selling is NOT customer centric. In fact it can be an off-putting and terrible experience.
To make it work he talks about using Disarming Honesty and Self Deprecation. And this can be hard for salespeople. Few companies are disciplined in this. 
Adam Clay maintains its better to qualify out opportunities that are not a good fit - it makes better use of everyone’s time. And that’s equally useful as an experience carrier. 
If you are in sales or account management there is a lot to unpack in this episode. Adam Clays approach is calm and measured - it’s not just his content but his style that is good to learn from.
 
Don't forget to join us in Amsterdam September 13th-15th for Europe's biggest and most exciting VoC conference of the year! Fred Reichheld (inventor of NPS) will be headlining with a great supporting cast of brands with Heineken, Coca-Cola, SuperOffice, Briggs, WAJAX, etc. 
 

The Resident Experience w/ Russell Markou of Quintain

In today’s podcast Russell Markou of Quintain Living talks to host Adam Dorrell about the growing area of CX - that of asking Resident Experience for private individuals and companies that rent living and working space. 
He talks about “Home is where the heart is” - and how important the personal touch is to making sure residents are content - this impacts retaining the renter and making referrals. 
Russell is Head of Operations at Quintain Living, the management and operations platform of Quintain’s Build to Rent business, effectively a platform that designs, manages, owns and operates homes for renters. Capturing Resident feedback based on Net Promoter is essential to the ongoing success of the brand.
He joined the Quintain business in 2015 as Head of Operations to support the growth of Quintain Living, the management and operations platform of Quintain’s Build to Rent business, effectively a platform that designs, manages, owns and operates homes for renters – BTR is a relatively new sector in UK, renters benefit from an elevated level of customer service along with well thought out designed homes with additional amenity spaces exclusively for Residents to enjoy.  
Russell talks about how his previous roles in Radisson Blu and Hilton Hotels helped shape the service expectations for joining Quintain.
At Quintain, Russell oversees the operations for a portfolio of over 3,000 apartments across nine developments at Wembley Park. His original remit of 141 apartments in 2016 demonstrates the growth the business has achieved.
 This is an interview that has a lot of insight into the new and growing business of build to rent, and shows how Account Experience is becoming mainstream in a number of segments. 
Find out more about Quintain living. https://www.quintain.co.uk/quintainliving

In the Crisis of Disconnection, the solution is Customer Love with Maureen Burns

Today on the Account Experience Podcast (the intersection of b2b Account Management and Customer Experience) host Adam Dorrell talks with Maureen Burns, Senior Partner in Bain & Company's Boston office. She is a leader in Bain's Customer Strategy and Marketing Practice, advising clients on a range of issues including corporate strategy, customer experience transformation, especially with digital channels. And of course, implementing the Net Promoter System - in both b2c and b2c contexts. 
Most interesting to listeners of this Podcast, she is a co-author of our book of the year, “Winning in purpose” together with Fred Reichheld. 
She talks about how the book came about - how she was initially skeptical about “customer love”. Find out how she becomes a convert.
She gives her view on Earned Growth, and how it may (or may not) become an accounting standard. The difference in b2b vs b2c Net Promoter programs. And talks about how in the race to provide digital experience, companies can find themselves in a Crisis of Disconnection. The solution? Love. 
Not only is Maureen a leader in the Net Promoter movement, but she is also entertaining to listen to - in fact, we need to get her back when we do our deep dive into Winning on Purpose!

Breaking Glass: Getting from 6 to 60 NPS in Two Years With Martin Troughton, Safestyle

On this episode, Adam Dorrell’s guest is Martin Troughton, Marketing Director, of Safestyle PLC, the UK market leader in replacement windows and doors. 
Martin describes his career as “triple-glazed” - and his story is impressive - from starting measuring NPS consistently just over two years ago in the business they have worked on improving customer experiences and improving their score. The rise is from NPS of 6 to where it’s hovering now in the 50s and 60s. 
The learnings were sometimes simple: Martin explains that even where the installers park their vans has an impact on the score. And providing extra sets of keys was also an improvement point. 
The most powerful section is when he opens up about a recent cyber attack. The Net Promoter score was sensitive enough to  track the outage time period - and after they recovered, the NPS bounced back in a short period. 
And for trivia fans, you get to find out which company is the biggest buyer of dust sheets in the UK. 
As an ex-ad-man, Martin is a hugely entertaining guest. And it’s a wonderful story of how the small things make a difference to the experience. 
 
Postscript: 
Martin made some Book Recommendations (titles published in the last year) and we list them here: 
Business:
 ‘Can’t sell won’t sell’ by Steve Harrison. Subtitled “why adland has stopped selling and started saving the world”
‘Go Luck Yourself’ by Andy Nairn. The book points to lessons in luck and really how to make your own. Well written, practical and insightful.
 
Pleasure:
‘The Curious Rise of Alex Lazarus’ by Adam Leigh (a credible candidate for the nicest man in advertising). It’s the story of a 90’s dotcom start up and the behind the scenes rivalry when money and success are involved.
The Bombman’ by Andy Green - written as a tribute to his father who was in bomb disposal in Ireland during the troubles. A great adventure story with genuine insight into the personality and rivalry of bomb maker vs bomb disposal technician.