How do we do this customer experience thing anyway? Join award-winning customer experience (CX) expert Jeannie Walters as she answers real questions from overwhelmed leaders! Let's turn ideas into ACTION! From company culture to employee experience (EX) to customer service, Jeannie wants to help you demystify the process for enriching the customer experience. With over 20 years investigating the best and worst in CX, this international keynote speaker has heard it all... and now she's here to give you the answers you need! You won't want to miss an episode! Do you have a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail!
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September 15, 2026Episode 18313 min
Speak the Language, Know the Value, Know Your Worth
Your customer experience metrics might be accurate and still fail to move the people who control budget, headcount, and priorities. We’re tackling the uncomfortable truth: when CX leaders lead with NPS, journey maps, sentiment analysis, or dashboard reporting, executives often hear “interesting CX update” instead of “material business risk.” The fix is not more slides. It’s learning to walk into every room as a business leader first. We break down three shifts you can use immediately. First, we flip the sentence so outcomes lead and metrics follow: renewal risk, retention risk, growth impact, and cost to serve become the headline, with NPS and CX data as proof. We also talk through why vague requests like “we need more empathy” can backfire with a CFO or CRO unless you connect the effort to fewer repeat calls, fewer refunds, and less negative word of mouth. Then we zoom out to what’s crowding CX out of the spotlight right now: operational efficiency, cost optimization, digital acceleration, and the push for AI transformation and AI engagement. Next, we get practical about proving value. If you can’t answer “How much is a customer worth?” or “What does a 1% retention lift mean in revenue?” it’s time to partner with finance, use industry benchmarks, and make assumptions you can refine. Finally, we close with the mindset piece: owning your worth as a CX leader who brings both empathy and business acumen and can spot problems before the numbers scream. Subscribe, share this with a CX leader who needs a stronger executive voice, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show. Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
September 8, 2026Episode 1827 min
Inside vs. Outside: Rethinking Who Sees Your CX Mission
Should your CX mission statement stay behind the curtain or belong in the hands of the people who actually deliver your customer experience? We tackle a sharp listener question: in a B2B organization with an exclusive customer relationship, can sharing your customer experience mission statement improve alignment, especially when that customer shows up as your retail front line? We start with what a CX Mission Statement is really for: a universal, aligned internal language that acts as a North Star for decisions and behavior. I explain why strong mission statements avoid corporate jargon, internal acronyms, and empty superlatives like “best” or “greatest,” and why the focus has to move beyond products and services to the real outcomes customers need. Then we dig into the risk of sharing it externally. If the mission is even slightly aspirational, customers can treat it like a promise and hold you to it when you’re not meeting it perfectly. But partnerships change the equation. When a distributor, channel partner, or exclusive customer is helping deliver the experience, we can’t leave them out. I share a practical way to bring partners into alignment: identify overlapping moments in the journey, translate the mission into clear expectations, and provide “mission moments” that show what the mission looks like in real life. We also connect the dots to B2B buyer trust, where competence matters most and consistency and dependability sit right behind it. Subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a quick review so more CX leaders can find the show. Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
September 1, 2026Episode 1813 min
Experience is Everything - New Podcast Name
The show has a new name, and it’s the kind of change that brings everything into focus. We’re now Experience Is Everything: The CX Podcast, because “experience” is bigger than a customer touchpoint and more demanding than a quarterly metric. It’s the thread that connects what your customers feel, what your employees carry, what your partners deliver, and what your leaders tolerate. We talk through what stays the same and what the new name signals: a clearer alignment with the book and the work, and a renewed commitment to a practical customer experience (CX) approach. My mission doesn’t shift one inch: create fewer ruined days for customers. That means giving you the information, resources, tools, and ideas to show up in the best possible way for your customers, your organization, your colleagues, and yourself. Experience management takes the right mindset, a real CX strategy, and the discipline to back it up. You’ll still find weekly conversations and the CX Pulse Check format, where special co-hosts help us look at what’s happening right now in the world of customer expectations. I also want to hear from you, because your real questions keep this show honest and useful. Send a voicemail or question at askjeannie.vip and it may get answered on a future episode. If this resonates, subscribe, share with your team, and leave a quick review so more CX leaders can find the show. Resources Mentioned: Sign up for our newsletter -- https://experienceinvestigators.com/newsletter/ Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
August 25, 2026Episode 1809 min
The AI Trust Gap
AI is moving fast into customer service, but customers are pushing back. With 59% saying AI agents feel frustrating, "set it and forget it" automation is not enough. We break down the AI trust gap, why fast answers do not equal helpful outcomes, and how to hold AI agents to the same standards as human ones: empathy, clarity, and responsible decisions. You will learn why most customers want AI and humans working together, with a clear path to a real person when things get complex. Walk away with practical steps: mystery shop your own AI agents, test messy real scenarios, and find the moments of truth where trust is won or lost. Subscribe and leave a review to help more CX leaders find this conversation. Resources Mentioned: Sign up for our newsletter -- https://experienceinvestigators.com/newsletter/ Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
August 18, 2026Episode 17912 min
Intentional Struggle
Escape rooms have a weird superpower: they make people feel confused, stressed, and slightly panicked and customers still walk out saying it was the best hour of their week. That’s not an accident. It’s a blueprint for intentional friction, where the experience is challenging enough to feel rewarding and supportive enough to stay fair. We unpack what escape rooms get right about customer experience design, including why most players don’t actually “win” and still recommend it, and why repeated obstacles without help feel less like challenge and more like abandonment. From there, we connect the dots to everyday product and service design: the IKEA effect and why DIY increases value only when customers can succeed, CrossFit and other coaching models where accountability is the value proposition, and gamification mechanics like streaks that tap loss aversion to improve retention. If you’re doing journey mapping or service blueprinting, you’ll leave with a clearer way to remove unintentional friction while keeping the designed struggle that builds pride, loyalty, and lasting memories. Subscribe for more customer experience strategy, share this with a teammate who designs journeys, and leave a rating or review so more people can find the show. Resources Mentioned: Contact Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.com/contact/ Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
August 11, 2026Episode 17824 min
Values Need to Lead the Way with Vincent Davis (CX Pulse Check - August 2026)
AI is forcing every customer experience leader to choose: chase efficiency at any cost, or scale service without losing the human heart. Jeannie Walters sits down with Vincent Davis, Chief Customer Officer and SVP of Customer Experience at PG&E, to unpack what it takes to build empathy, accountability, and trust in a world where automation is everywhere and customer patience is thin. We dig into Chewy's approach to empathy at scale, and why values beat hype in an AI strategy. Customers don't feel your intentions, they feel the experience, especially during outages, service interruptions, and billing issues. We look at crisis readiness through United Airlines' handling of irregular operations, then dig into PG&E's work across digital channels, contact centers, billing, and insights. Vincent explains how an IVR named Peggy boosts containment and satisfaction while freeing agents for higher-impact work. We also cover customer obsession, employee experience, process simplification, and why customers measure every brand against the best they've had, from Amazon to Uber. If you care about customer experience strategy, AI in the contact center, proactive communication, and building trust when things go wrong, subscribe, share this with a CX leader, and leave a review with your biggest question about empathy and automation. About Vincent Davis With more than two decades of experience in the energy industry, Vincent Davis leads with the conviction that customer experience is not one department’s job, but a standard for the entire company. As Chief Customer Officer at PG&E ( https://www.pge.com/ ), one of the largest customer experience organizations in the utility industry, he leads a team of roughly 2,000 coworkers, overseeing more than $22 billion in annual revenue and a portfolio of programs and products spanning everything from smart meters and billing to digital channels and customer service. Davis is the driving force behind Customer at the Heart, PG&E’s award-winning initiative that has changed how the company approaches customer experience, with the mantra that the company will build trust by delivering a 10 out of 10 experience in every interaction. He believes customer trust is earned by being present in the communities PG&E serves and ensuring customer voices are reflected in business decisions. Davis’s path to this role has taken him through nearly every part of the customer function, from leading PG&E’s Energy Efficiency Programs group to directing a $1 billion demand-side management portfolio and spearheading an $850 million Advanced Meter Replacement initiative. Earlier in his career at Duke Energy, he led the Envision Charlotte program, a public-private sustainability partnership recognized by the Clinton Global Initiative. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of South Carolina and an MBA from Queens University of Charlotte. He has executive management certifications from Stanford and UNC Chapel Hill. In 2022, he received the Leadership Excellence Award in Energy at the Energy Inclusion Conference. Follow Vincent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-davis-6436a01 Articles Mentioned: - Chewy’s CEO Is Chasing ‘Empathy at Scale’ (Inc) -- https://www.inc.com/stephanie-mehta/chewys-ceo-is-chasing-empathy-at-scale/91358987 - Amazon Connect Customer Brings Live Sync and the Agentic CX Designer to CCW – Here Is Why That Matters (CX Today) -- https://www.cxtoday.com/ai-automation-in-cx/amazon-connect-customer-brings-live-sync-and-the-agentic-cx-designer-to-ccw-here-is-why-that-matters/ - KeyBank modernizes its digital experience with customer relationships front and center (CX Dive) -- https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/keybank-modernizes-digital-experience-customer-relationships/823575/ Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
August 4, 2026Episode 17714 min
I'm Sick of Defending CX ROI
You can do great customer experience work and still lose the budget conversation if you walk into leadership meetings with the wrong proof. We’re tired of being asked to defend CX ROI with scores that don’t match the company scorecard, and we’re even more tired of watching smart CX leaders “white knuckle” their way through budget season. This conversation is about changing the starting point so ROI becomes obvious, credible, and repeatable. We talk through why proving return on investment is so hard when the work begins with tactics and ends with rationalizing the spend. Instead, we start with organizational goals and translate them into what executives already track: more revenue and fewer expenses. We break down how words like scale, growth, market share, and even workplace of choice can become measurable outcomes, and how a simple blueprint helps you identify the leaders who need buy-in, the levers you can pull in the customer journey, and the behavior changes you expect to see. Then we get practical about customer experience metrics. NPS and CSAT can be helpful feedback indicators, but they’re not enough on their own. We dig into behavioral metrics and analytics that connect CX strategy to business impact, including retention, churn, conversion, friction points, complaint trends, and operational cost to serve. If your goals don’t mention “customer,” we show you how to stop worrying and start proving how customer behavior drives every business result. If you want more funding, more trust, and a stronger CX business case, listen through and then write down your top organizational goals and start there. Subscribe, share this with a fellow CX leader, and leave a review so more people can find the show. Resources Mentioned: Article: Want Greater CX Success? Build Your CX Success Blueprint -- https://www.experienceinvestigators.com/how-to-build-cx-success-statement/ Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
July 28, 2026Episode 1768 min
The Customer Service Phrases That Break Trust
"We value your feedback.” “Thanks for your patience.” “We apologize for any inconvenience.” Most of us have heard these lines so many times that we can feel our skepticism kick in before the sentence even ends. That reaction isn't cynicism for no reason. It's what customers learn when the message sounds caring but the experience doesn't match the promise. We get honest about how organizations "fib" to customers without meaning to, from org charts dictating the customer journey to feedback that vanishes with no follow-up. We also tackle the biggest expectation gap of all: overpromising, and why the goal isn't perfection, but believable, honest CX leadership that keeps the promises we choose to make. Subscribe, leave a rating and review , and share it with a teammate who owns messaging, handoffs, or service promises. Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
July 21, 2026Episode 1757 min
Why Empathy Training Beats More Tools
Calling empathy a “soft skill” sounds harmless until you see what it does to your customer experience and your retention numbers. We dig into the uncomfortable pattern where leaders say they want people to feel heard and valued, then invest almost all training time in systems, process, and compliance. The result is predictable: frontline teams feel unsupported in the moments that require judgment and compassion, customers sense the disconnect, and both groups walk away. From inconsistent experiences that erode brand trust to the steep cost of attrition and lost institutional knowledge, we connect “soft skills” investment directly to business outcomes. If you’re ready to turn customer experience into a winning business strategy, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a leader who owns onboarding, and leave a review with the one “human skill” you want your organization to take seriously. Looking for more help with CX strategy? Contact Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.com/contact/ Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
July 14, 2026Episode 17429 min
Stop Chasing Wow And Start Eating Your CX Vegetables with Nick Westergaard (CX Pulse Check)
Consistency sounds boring until you realize it’s the fastest path to trust and the easiest way to spot what’s broken. In this CX Pulse Check episode, Jeannie Walters is joined by Nick Westergaard, host of the On Brand podcast and author of Brand Now and Get Scrappy , to look at what actually moves the needle in customer experience (CX) and brand building when attention is scarce and expectations are high. We dig into why major brands point to reliable basics as the key to their turnarounds: better training, smoother checkout, smarter inventory, and fewer “almost good enough” moments. Nick shares a simple mental model for this kind of work: stop chasing one huge “wow” and start raising the floor everywhere. When customers know what to expect, they don’t just come back, they give you more grace when something goes wrong. Then we zoom in on neuroscience and cognitive load, the hidden force behind friction. Customers live in constant partial attention, and every extra step, confusing choice, or unnecessary question drains their mental energy. We talk about why simplification often beats adding features, how AI customer service earned distrust through bad early experiences, and what it takes to use automation without getting in the way. We close with brand storytelling and cultural moments, including what we can learn from campaigns that hit at the right time and why even a small change like a Spotify icon can spark big feelings in a deeply personal product. If you want a sharper CX strategy, better customer journey design, and a clearer brand experience, hit play, subscribe, and share this with someone who owns a form, a flow, or a brand decision. If you have a question for the podcast, leave a message at askjeannie.vip. About Nick Westergaard Nick Westergaard ( https://www.nickwestergaard.com/ ) is an author, educator, and speaker. He’s spent his career building standout brands at organizations of all sizes—from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to President Obama’s Jobs Council. Nick teaches at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, where he leads the Story Lab program. He’s the author of the books Brand Now and Get Scrappy, a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, host of the popular On Brand podcast, and a Moth StorySLAM Champion. An in-demand keynote speaker at conferences throughout the world, his work helps those struggling to stand out in our crowded, distracted world. Follow Nick on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nickwestergaard Follow Nick’s Podcast – On Brand - https://www.nickwestergaard.com/on-brand-podcast/ Follow Nick on Instagram - https://instagram.com/nickwestergaard Articles Mentioned: - Why 3 major brands see a consistent experience as key to their turnarounds (CX Dive) -- https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/3-major-brands-consistency-key-turnaround-efforts/822944/ - Rethinking CX: The role neuroscience plays in developing the customer experience (Retail Customer Experience) -- https://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/blogs/rethinking-cx-the-role-neuroscience-plays-in-developing-the-customer-experience/ - Every Brand Has a Story to Tell — CMOs Decide How and When to Tell It (Variety) -- https://variety.com/2026/biz/news/walmart-cmo-nfl-spotify-loreal-cannes-lions-variety-1236788926/ Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn !)
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