Customer Smarts

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Feb 2025

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About the show

If you’re a marketing or CX leader you’re probably feeling the pressure of customer expectations growing much faster than you can implement change in your organisation. A recent study shows that 95% of executives feel the same as you do. Which is why we’ve created the Customer Smarts podcast. To help you discover smarter more efficient ways to deliver great customer experiences. The core topics we cover are: · Operations - how to unite your organisational silos to deliver great CX · Customer intelligence – how to structure segmentation and data to drive your CX program · Engagement strategy and design – how to overcome impatient short term product centric thinking to deliver customer centric experiences · Tech – how to better utilise technology to achieve your customer goals

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29 recent

February 24, 202553 min

AI Strategy into Action - Lucio Ribeiro - Australia’s #1 AI speaker - ex 7 Network and Optus

Turning AI strategy into business impact is something a lot of businesses are trying to do right now. So, I wanted to create an episode focussed on how to develop an AI strategy and put it into action. My guest in this episode, Lucio Ribeiro is recognised as Australia's number one speaker on AI. He’s consulting with some of Australia’s largest organisations on AI transformation and has held executive roles with the Seven Network and Optus. He's also a Forbes columnist on AI. In this episode we dive into: AI maturity inside organisations Challenges organisations are facing with AI AI strategy fundamentals How to build an AI team How to put an AI strategy into action Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.co Lucio can be found on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucioribeiro/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

February 2, 202550 min

The AI-Powered CMO - Leandro Perez - Salesforce CMO ANZ

AI is transforming how CMOs are running their marketing program. Many marketing departments would like to spend more time focussing on the innovative long term programs of work to progress the organisation. However, in the past, they often get pulled back into delivering short term gains and managing the always on tactical programs. With AI, CMOs finally have the chance to get ahead. To explore this topic I had the CMO of Salesforce ANZ Leandro Perez join me on the Customer Smarts podcast. It was a fascinating discussion as Leandro has a great perspective on the demands of CMOs but also has amazing insight into AI and how CMOs can best leverage it. In this episode we dive into: What makes a great CMO? Agentic AI boosting the impact of the marketing department Managing AI workers as part of your marketing team Having many agents specialising in specific tasks Customers will start to have their own agents Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

November 25, 202433 min

Designing Experiences for the Future – Oliver Weidlich

Every time a new technology is introduced it creates new ways to interact with customers. In recent times AI is flipping the world on it’s head but we’re also seeing progress with spatial computing and 3D experiences with devices like Apple’s vision pro. So, I wanted to get a perspective on how these new technologies are changing the way we need to approach design. To get an understanding of how we need to change how we design experiences I had Oliver Weidlich join me on the Customer Smarts Podcast. Oliver, has been in the UX design space for a long time working with leading brands like Qantas, Optus, Atlassian and CommBank. He’s an expert when it comes to understanding how humans interact with new technologies and devices especially in the spatial computing space. In this episode we dive into: • How technology is driving designers to design differently • Creating 3 dimensional experiences • Designing for the AI Age • The future of design Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

October 21, 202433 min

How to drive a customer centric culture – Dr Chris L Brown

Building customer centric culture is smart, but it’s hard to do. It’s smart because it’s more efficient for the business and better for customers. Win + Win. The problem is, many large organisations are still structured around key product areas and work in siloed ways. So, trying to transition to a customer centric culture and operating model is an enormous task. My guest in this next episode Dr Chris Brown is a global expert on building and maintaining customer centric cultures. He has worked with many large corporates in Australia and the US to help them embed, benchmark and monitor cultural change. In this episode we discuss: Why having a customer centric culture is so important What’s holding organisations back from being customer centric? What organisations have the most customer centric cultures and what advantage does it give them? How to embed a customer centric culture Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

September 16, 202440 min

Scammers are using AI in scary new ways – Tracy Hall – Author & Scam Expert

Last year Australian’s were scammed out of $2.74 billion dollars, that’s an insane amount of money. The scary thing is that scammers are innovating at a speed that’s authorities are finding impossible to keep up with. And they are now using AI in scary new ways like using AI to fake the voices of family members to scam people for money. Smart well educated people are now getting targeted and caught out. In this episode of the Customer Smarts podcast I explore the dark world of scamming with Tracy Hall. Her story is like something out of a horror film. Tracy is an ex client of mine when she was Head of Marketing at Ebay. She’s super smart and someone who I never would have thought would become a victim to fraud that would rob her of her life’s savings. Her story has been featured in the channel 7 documentary “King Con, The Life and crimes of Hammish Mclaren”. The podcast series “Who the hell is Hammish?” and she’s also written a book “The Last Victim” detailing her harrowing experience. She’s now dedicating her time to helping prevent other Australians from getting scammed, which is truly inspiring. So, in this episode we’re going to dive into Tracy’s unfortunate fraud story The 2.7 Billion dollar scamming industry you need to know about How scammers are using AI in scary new ways How to protect yourself Tracy’s book The Last Victim it’s a fascinating read, if you’re looking to become more aware about scamming then it’s a great book. She also does thought provoking keynotes and workshops tackling issues surrounding financial resilience, empowerment, security and wellbeing. Info on her book and her speaking engagement can be found here if you’re interested https://tracyhall.com.au/ Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

August 26, 202435 min

What corporates need to learn from start-ups – Vijay Solanki – Launch CMO at Shazam & Ex-Unilever

Innovating inside corporates is harder than it should be… New ideas often get bogged down in politics and red tape. So, when it comes to innovating and getting new ideas to market, there is a lot corporates can learn from start-ups. My guest in the next episode of the Customer Smarts Podcast Vijay Solanki has an amazing perspective into corporate and start-up world. He spent time as launch CMO of Shazam and last-minute.com. But also worked with large corporates like Unilever, Philips and Blackberry helping to drive their innovation programs. So, he has a tonne of amazing stories to share. In this episode we discuss: What makes innovation inside corporates challenging What’s different about start-up culture? What corporates need to learn from start-ups Some really inspiring start-up stories Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

July 29, 202433 min

How to drive customer centricity at scale – Khachig Kabakjian – ex CommBank

Becoming customer centric is smart, but it’s hard to do… It’s smart because it’s more efficient for the business and better for customers. Win + Win. The problem is, it’s a massive shift for large organisations, many have been structured around key product areas and work in siloed ways. So, trying to transition to a customer centric culture and operating model is an enormous task. My guest in the next episode of the Customer Smarts Podcast Khachig Kabakjian has climbed that very mountain and successfully driven customer centricity inside massive organisations like CommBank and Standard Chartered Bank in Asia & Africa. He was heavily involved in CommBank’s successful customer decisioning program. And, most recently worked with Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore to drive customer centric change at scale, across multiple markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia & UAE. He has now moved tech side working for Pegasystems in an advisory role to help organisations drive customer centricity at scale. In this episode we discuss: Why customer centricity is so important The barriers to overcome Some great examples of driving personalisation How to drive customer centricity across multiple markets. Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

July 9, 20241 hr 4 min

AI that’s blowing the minds of CX Leaders – Bruce Temkin, Brad Anderson

The speed at which AI is changing the customer experience space is mind blowing… Qualtrics invited me to record an episode of the Customer Smarts Podcast at their X4 Summit in Sydney last week. Every guest I interviewed was genuinely blown away and excited by the amazing new Gen AI driven capabilities, things like: conversational feedback in surveys - where Gen AI adapts questions based on how the person responses to get more robust insights. As well as Managers Assist on the employee experience side an AI feature that acts as a manager coach to help managers better understand staff and make better decisions.I had the privilege of interviewing 6 amazing guests including: Bruce Temkin – also known as the godfather of customer experience, because he pioneered the whole industry. Bruce shared many pearls of wisdom about driving customer centric change and how to approach KPIs. Brad Anderson – President at Qualtrics who not only shared some amazing perspective on the new Gen AI features but also some great advice on driving customer centric change from all the CX leaders around the world he advises. Steven Issa - Steven Issa Former Chief Digital Officer at Australian Digital Health Agency. Ashley Taylor from Flight Centre. Melanie Disse at Ecosystem and Steve Bennetts, Head of EX at Qualtrics This episode is a compilation from the 6 conversations. Jam packed with a broad range of insights about AI, CX and EX and how organisations are closing the insights to impact gap. I hope you enjoy. Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

June 18, 202434 min

The Power of Creativity - CEO of AFR’s Most Innovative Company 2023 - Lee Simpson

Will AI make us less or more creative? AI and automation have stolen the spotlight in the last couple of years, so I wanted to explore the impact it’s having on the creative industry and what it means for the future. To help explore that question and dive into what drives great creativity I had Lee Simpson join me on the Customer Smarts Podcast. Lee has won some of the most prestigious creative awards in the world including the rare D&AD Black Pencil and 2 Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. He’s worked with companies like Volvo, Westfield and CommBank. And most recently as CEO of WhiteGrey, led them to win AFR’s Most Innovative Company in 2023. In this episode we discuss: The role of creativity What great creativity looks like today How to build a creative culture Using creativity to solve real world problems Creativity in the AI age Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 20, 202435 min

Has your transformation been superficial? – Simon Belousoff ex Bupa & IAG

Many transformations have been superficial… In the last 30 years there’s been transformation after transformation, digital, data, customer centric and now AI. The problem I’ve seen is that many organisations have added new technology and capability, but haven’t necessarily transformed how they operate at their core, leading to somewhat superficial transformations. They then get stuck in a cycle of continually swapping out technology and expecting change. To get some insight into this challenge I had Simon Belousoff join me on the Customer Smarts Podcast. Simon has spent the last 20 years in senior roles helping organisations like Bupa, IAG and Transport NSW with their transformation journeys. We explored: Why some transformations, end up being superficial How to deliver a successful transformation 13 leadership sins of enterprise transformation Examples of the best transformations globally Host Bio - Justin Stafford has spent the last 20 years working on digital transformation and CX strategy projects all around the globe with brands like Samsung, Virgin, Lexus, eBay, PayPal, CommBank and even the Air Force. You can connect with me on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-stafford-cs/ If you’re looking for help in the customer strategy & experience design space go to www.customersmarts.coSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.