The Top Influential Customer Experience Leaders of 2020

Adam Toporek

Customer experience expert, keynote speaker, customer service trainer

Adam Toporek is an internationally-recognized customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and customer service trainer who helps organizations transform their relationships with their customers through better strategy, training, and communication. He is the author of Be Your Customer’s Hero, the founder of the popular Customers That Stick® blog, the co-host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast, and the creator of multiple virtual training courses on customer service and experience.

“Most of the discussions I have heard about empathy lately have focused on shifting mindset, simply trying to have more empathy by attempting to understand the other person’s perspective, their journey, and most importantly, their feelings.

This openness and willingness to understand others is a crucial first step to empathy.

However, once a person commits to this mindset, they are confronted with the very real challenge of how to approach this change.

For, empathy requires not only a shift in mindset but a specific set of skills that help facilitate the changes in perspective and understanding that lead to empathy.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“Be flexible and prepared for rapidly shifting conditions.”

Amit Bhatia

Customer experience expert, senior analyst, advisor, keynote speaker

Amit is a Senior Analyst at Forrester. He covers the various facets of customer experience (CX) – including strategy, design, measurement, and organizational maturity. His latest research includes uncovering what emotion means in a digital world, and how firms can leverage employee experience (EX) to improve CX.

Amit advises executives in India and APAC on both CX and EX. He is also a frequent keynote speaker, having spoken at forums in APAC, Middle East, and the US. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Pune.

“Commercial activity has slowed considerably because of COVID-19. While some industries cannot sell due to lockdowns, others struggle to sell due to consumers’ decreased consumption. Customer interactions have reduced to a trickle, but brands want to stay top-of-mind. And many are using the pandemic to engage consumers. Customers will despise any frivolous, opportunistic, or superficial communication more than usual, however, because of heightened emotions. So remember to put out the fire first, infuse empathy into words and actions, and use brand purpose as an anchor.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“As firms go into survival mode and cut costs, remember to not do this at the cost of CX. Cutting costs and keeping customers happy are not mutually exclusive things. In fact, happier customers are cheaper to serve.”

Annette Franz

Customer experience thought leader, coach, keynote speaker, author

With almost 30 years in the customer experience field, Annette Franz, CCXP is founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc. She is an internationally recognized customer experience thought leader, coach, keynote speaker, and author of Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the “Customer” in Customer Experience (and at the Heart of Your Business). She is also the 2020 CXPA Board Chair and a Certified Customer Experience Professional.

“If your organization is customer-centric, and if you are working to improve the customer experience every day, then today (this year) is no different in terms of what you should be doing to deliver a great experience. Consistency in the experience is key, regardless of the time of day, the time of year, or a pandemic that lasts months or longer.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

The biggest change that I’ve seen during the crisis is the increased focus by CEOs in placing their employees and their health and safety above all. I hope this trend continues post-pandemic because when employees have a great experience, customers will, too.

Blake Morgan

Customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, bestselling author

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker and the bestselling author of The Customer Of The Future. She is also the host of The Modern Customer Podcast. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com.

“Being customer centric is about more than just offering a good product or staffing a contact center. It becomes a cultural way of life for the company and impacts everything from employee engagement to customer experience. Customer-centric companies live and breathe their customers and are laser-focused on providing amazing experiences. They are innovative and do good in the world.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

This is not the time for businesses to quiver in fear and count their losses, but be a leader in helping customers get back on their feet. Business can do this through customer experience and understanding the current customer mindset.

Colin Shaw

Customer experience thought leader, bestselling author

Colin is Founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy LLC who helps organizations grow by improving their Customer Experience and identifying hidden unmet needs. As a result, the Financial Times selected Beyond Philosophy LLC, as one of the best management consultancies for the last two years.

• Colin is recognized by Linkedin as one of the ‘World’s Top 150 Business Influencers’ as a result he has 286,000 followers of his work.
• The Top 50 Customer Service Experts of the Decade (2010–2020) Nextiva
• Brand Quarterly readers also voted him one of the ‘top 50 Marketing Thought Leaders’ over 50′ for two years in a row.

Colin has written seven bestselling books on Customer-driven growth. He is the co-host of the highly successful Intuitive Customer podcast.

“Customers are irrational! To gain growth you need to understand their behavior at a deep level and design an experience that embraces this irrationality.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

COVID is accelerating change in your markets. This is a great opportunity for you to reimagine your customer experience to gain a competitive advantage by understanding Customer behavior.

Dan Gingiss

Customer experience coach, keynote speaker, author

Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker and customer experience coach. His 20-year professional career consistently focused on delighting customers, spanning multiple disciplines including customer experience, marketing, social media and customer service. He held leadership positions at three Fortune 300 companies – McDonald’s, Discover and Humana.

Dan is the author of the book, Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences on Social Media, a host of the Experience This! podcast and The Experience Maker Show, and a regular contributor to Forbes.

“There is a better way, and that is to focus on your existing customers rather than constantly trying to acquire new ones. Listen to your customers, engage with your customers, and they will become your best marketers. That’s right, your existing customers will actually help you acquire new customers, so stop constantly saddling your sales teams with unreasonably increasing sales goals every year, and start paying attention to your ‘leaky bucket.’ You see, almost every business has a leaky bucket. Most businesses are so focused on sales and bringing in new customers that they’re forgetting about the fact that the existing customers are the ones that fund their paychecks. Without our existing customers, we’re out of business.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“Customer experience has never been more important than right now, because when the pandemic is finally behind us, customers will remember which companies treated them well during this difficult time.”

Dave Fish

Customer experience consultant, consumer psychologist, academic, professor

Dave Fish is the CEO and Founder of CuriosityCX a Consumer Research and Customer Experience Consultancy. A Consumer Psychologist with over two decades of applied research experience on both the client and supplier side. He knows the business first hand, having launched over 50 large scale CX programs across multiple industries. He received his MA and Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University in Psychology and his undergraduate degree from Shippensburg University. He is a contributing member of CXPA and a columnist for CustomerThink. He is an Adjunct Professor at University of Arkansas and advisor at Michigan State University.

“The biggest failing of the market research industry over the last 100 years is in its impotency in exacting meaningful change. Those in the CX and Insights business need to move away from viewing themselves as passive collectors and disseminators of information. The industry needs to move to a more active stance as creative change agents armed with data. Otherwise, we are going continue lack of efficacy and a loss of interest in customer insight, not because it isn’t relevant, but because nothing is done with it.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“For some crisis is disaster, for others it is opportunity. It is a choice most can make. Don’t give up.”

Ian Golding

Customer experience coach, keynote speaker, author

Ian Golding is a global customer experience professional and customer experience specialist. Ian has supported hundreds of companies to deploy a structured approach to managing the customer experience in 44 countries around the world and across multiple industries. Ian shares knowledge with employees from the C-suite to the front line as to how to effectively apply the ‘science’ of customer experience, teaching the Golding CX Framework. As well as being the first person in the world to be authorised to teach the CCXP (Certified CX Professional Accreditation), Ian’s book, ‘Customer What? The honest and practical guide to customer experience’ has received worldwide acclaim.

“I have always believed that the most important underlying principle of customer experience is the principle of Empathy. The ability to understand and share the feelings of another person – empathy – is a core driver of sustainable business growth. Empathy builds advocacy with a customer – it turns them into ‘fans’. Fans become loyal. The more loyal customers a business has, the more they will spend and the more likely they are to recommend you to others.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“The global crisis has taught us the power of adaptability and collaboration. If we continue to work together for the good of our organisations, whilst removing unnecessary bureaucracy, we can create leaner, more efficient, and more people (customer and employee) focused business!”

Ingrid Lindberg

Customer experience consultant, consumer psychologist, academic, professor

Ingrid Lindberg, a serial Customer Experience Officer, has long been on the forefront of the experience industry. As one of the founding leaders of the CXPA, she has been charting the path for practitioners for years. She is the founder of Chief Customer, a customer experience consultancy focused on helping companies connect the employee experience to the customer experience. She is an internationally recognized speaker and coach. She is also the co-founder of aubreyAsks, a consumer understanding platform.

“Companies are nothing without their employees and their customers. I believe that the companies who do the right thing, right now, for both their employees and their customers are the ones who will win as we start to come out of this. Hilton – with their almost immediate status pledge is a fabulous example. And then they quickly followed it up with their #HotelsforHeroes program – helping keep both employees employed and their community members safe. Delta – being the first to waive fees and simply rebook – and then being the first airline to announce their loyalty extension plans for 2020 customers.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“The silver lining is that people across the world are watching companies big and small, and seeing how they react and respond. And for those who can vote with their wallets, I believe they’ll be voting for those who did the right thing.”

Jeannie Walters

Certified customer experience professional, coach, speaker

Jeannie Walters is the CEO & Founder of Experience Investigators,™ a global Customer Experience consulting firm. She has 20 years of experience helping companies improve loyalty and retention, employee engagement, and overall customer experience. Jeannie is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP,) a charter member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA,) a Professional Member of the National Speakers Association, a Forbes Coaches Council Member, a C-Suite Network Advisor, a LinkedIn Learning instructor of 20,000+ learners, and a TEDx speaker. Learn more here.

“Your Voice of the Customer data isn’t the whole story, it’s only the first chapter. When you see a change in your Voice of the Customer metrics, ask why, and that will help you find the story.”
“When you recognize how events going on inside the organization correlate to your VoC metrics, you can begin to anticipate changes in customer sentiment, effectively turning it from a less-useful lagging indicator to a more useful leading indicator.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“If you have a journey map, there’s never been a better time to use it. During times of change when nothing seems predictable, journey maps can create stability and help you resolve points of friction, vet new processes, and envision long-term changes to keep your organization thriving while creating fewer ruined days for customers.”

Jeremy Watkin

Customer service & experience professional, thought leader, speaker

Jeremy Watkin has more than 19 years of experience as a customer service and experience professional leading high performing contact center teams. Jeremy co-founded the Customer Service Life blog and has been recognized numerous times as a thought leader for his writing and speaking on topics including workforce engagement management, outsourcing, customer experience, all things contact center, and more. When not working you can typically find him spending quality time with his wife Alicia and their three boys, running with his dog, or dreaming of native trout rising for a size 16 elk hair caddis. Be sure to connect with him on Twitter and linkedin.com/in/jtwatkin.

“A CX role should influence the entire organization, not just customer service. To label your customer service team as the CX team could significantly limit the CX effort and strategy for your company or possibly add to the confusion as to who’s responsible for the CX.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

Stop yourself from saying “when things return back to normal.” In reality, this is the new normal and we as CX professionals must seek to understand and adapt to the ever-changing needs, feelings, and preferences of our customers.

Jim Tincher

Customer experience expert, journey mapper, author, speaker, entrepreneur

Jim Tincher, CCXP, is a nationally recognized customer experience expert, journey mapper, author, speaker, and entrepreneur.

Jim led customer experience programs at Best Buy and United HealthGroup before launching his innovative CX consultancy, Heart of the Customer. The firm now helps start-ups to Fortune 50 organizations use voice of the customer research to drive customer-focused change, improve loyalty, manage customer journeys, and boost revenue. His book, How Hard Is It to Be Your Customer?, is considered a must-read for leaders focused on customer experience.

“Understanding your customer experience is the key to improving it…and to reaping the financial rewards that go hand in hand with increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Find out what customers do, think, and feel while interacting with your company to drive action efficiently and effectively, and generate the greatest return on your investment (ROI).”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“As we emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns, CX leaders should be focusing on forging a path forward, not bouncing “back.” The landscape has changed. So it’s imperative to understand your customers’ Moments of Truth as they are now, not as they used to be, in order to build effective solutions against those critical interactions.”

Nate Brown

Customer experience professional, speaker, author

Nate Brown is a perpetual student of the world’s greatest experiences and the people who create them. Having spent the first decade of this career managing a complex technical support environment for Occupational Health and eLearning software, Nate transitioned to Customer Experience 2015. After authoring The CX Primer, Brown was dubbed the “CX Influencer of the Year” by CloudCherry in 2019. As a passion project, Nate created CX Accelerator, a first-class virtual community for Customer Experience professionals. Nate currently serves as the Chief Experience Officer for Officium Labs and can be found at a variety of conferences speaking and training on the CX topics he loves.

“We want our customers to have a meaningful relationship with our brand and to think highly of it. So highly, in fact, that our customers become brand ambassadors and join us in accomplishing our unique mission. It’s the job of the CX leader to unify the entire organization under the cause of making customer’s lives better and easier!”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

The days of “butts in seats” as both a physical reality and a management style are OVER. Successful CX leaders will be those with the capability to engage a remote workforce, creating both an exceptional employee and customer experience with a decentralized team.

Rajat Chawla

Certified customer experience mentor, CX expert, speaker, author

Rajat is a CEO of Koyopo, a global employee and customer experience transformations firm. He is an Author of the ‘Customer Experience Design Book’. He is Asia’s 1st Certified Customer Experience Mentor from CXPA, USA. He is among the Top 200 Who’s Who of Global CX Experts. Rajat has been an invited Judge to various CX Leadership Awards, including CX Leader of the Year. Rajat has been invited speaker at prestigious organisations like – Google, Cisco, Nasscom, Gallup, GHCI. Rajat received CEO Innovation award in the area for building a customer-centric company.

“With the un-precedented change and disruption across the world, the business growth is still possible through cutting edge product innovation, or making technological advancement or with innovative business model.
But the most definite way to achieve lasting growth is by using customer obsession as the basis of designing and delivering great experiences.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“No one can fully predict what the future holds for us now. But there is a high probability of success for the leaders who can design their services and products with deep Customer Empathy. Focusing on Customer Empathy can be a true differentiator.”

Shep Hyken

Customer service/experience expert, keynote speaker, author

Shep Hyken is a customer service/experience expert and keynote speaker. He is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including Moments of Magic®, The Cult of the Customer, Amaze Every Customer Every Time, and The Convenience Revolution. He also created The Customer Focus™, a customer service training program.

“I can’t think of any business that wouldn’t want their customers to come back. I have written many times about how your goal is to always focus on the next time. In other words, what are you doing today to get the customer to come back next time? Assuming what you sell is a good product that does what it’s supposed to do, the way you manage the customer’s experience is what will increase the likelihood of the customer returning.”

“You May Not Know It, But You’re in the Subscription Business”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“The important thing now is to adopt the ‘new normal’ and adapt to make the continuation of doing ‘business as usual’ safe for everyone.” – Shep Hyken, “Post-Pandemic Predictions”

Steven Van Belleghem

Author, speaker, entrepreneur, academic

Steven is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and academic. His core expertise is the future of customer centricity. The combination between customer-centric thinking, the latest technologies and the human touch is the guiding principle in Steven’s stories.

“What if customers start to have expectations that go beyond digital convenience? Companies will have to play an active role in their customers’ life journey. As a company how can you help consumers’ dreams come true and eliminate the obstacles in their day-to-day lives? And finally, companies have the opportunity to tackle concrete world problems together with the customer. The world is facing unprecedented challenges: climate, healthcare, mobility… How can a company involve its customers in the solution to these problems? The combination of automation, being a partner in consumers’ lives and solving actual social issues will be the guiding principles for the successful business of the next decade. For consumers, the combination of all these elements constitutes an offer they can’t refuse.”

Post-COVID Bounce Back Advice:

“I truly believe this is the time to invest in a long-term relationship with your customers. Help them with their personal worries. Become a partner in their life. Offer them emotional convenience. At the same time, understand their worries about society and find the opportunity to leverage your core strengths to add value to the world.”