Be Customer Led

Today's episode features Nick Glimsdahl, a contact center strategist and podcast host, for a deep dive into the evolving role of AI in customer experience. Nick, recognized as one of ICMI's top 25 thought leaders of 2025 and author of "The Heart of Service", shares his unique perspective on blending empathy with technology. 

The conversation delves into real-world challeng...

Noam Fine, CEO of Hear.ai, joins today's episode to explore how generative AI is revolutionizing customer experience (CX), particularly within contact centers. Noam explains the shift from using multiple specialized tools to a single autonomous AI platform that learns from customer interactions, enhances compliance, automates quality assurance, and delivers real-time insights.

Highlighting a $2M cost-saving success story, he shares ...

Today's conversation explores the impact of storytelling, emotional intelligence, and employee empowerment on crafting exceptional customer experiences. 

Ken Hughes, a renowned keynote speaker and consumer behaviorist, shares his journey to becoming the "King of Customer Experience." He explains the concept of the "blue dot customer," highlighting the shift toward customer...

This episode features Martin Palamarz, co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at TheyDo. Martin shares his global career journey, working with iconic brands like IKEA, Volvo, Nike, and Adidas from Sweden to the UK. He explains how his passion for customer behavior and Agile practices led to co-founding TheyDo to help enterprises act on customer feedback at scale. 

Furthermore, Martin introduces the concept of journey management,...

In this episode, we meet Dr. Chitra Ranganathan, Head of Data Science and Analytics at Atlassian. She shares her inspiring journey from academia to top roles at Microsoft, Amazon, and now Atlassian. Dr. Chitra talks about designing better employee and customer experiences using data, including her work on Amazon's groundbreaking feedback system, Amazon Connections. She explains how AI and machine learning help turn data into action...

Meet Brett Frazer, a seasoned customer experience leader with a career spanning Microsoft, Adobe, and Sunbasket and co-founder of Service Matters. Brett emphasizes the vital link between employee and customer experience, illustrated through real-world examples and his Five A's framework—Acknowledge, Align, Assist, Advise, and Ask. Throughout the conversation, Brett explains how these principles drive lon...

In today's episode, Zach Riggar, Vice President of Digital Marketing for Major League Soccer (MLS), shares his extensive career journey, highlighting his work with big brands and his role in the evolution of digital marketing in sports. He discusses MLS's growth, fueled by innovative technology, high-profile players like Lionel Messi, and the upcoming 2026 World Cup. Zach emphasizes the emotional nature ...

Meet Tim Mueller-Hickler, the Founder of Thinc-Performance and a former VP at Snap Inc. and Amazon, specializing in customer obsession, platform integrity, and employee services. 

In this conversation, Tim talks about his career journey and deep expertise in customer obsession. Tim shares insights from his time at American President Lines, Sun Microsystems, Amazon, and Sna...

Discover how businesses can shift from transactional models to customer excellence enterprises!

Today's episode features Tom DeWitt, Ph.D., a globally recognized leader in customer experience management. As the founder and director of CXM at Michigan State University (MSU), Tom pioneered North America's first academic program in customer experience management. He is also the co-author of The Customer Excellence Enterprise, a book th...

Today's episode features David Edelman, Harvard Business School fellow and author of Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI. David shares his career journey from consulting at BCG to leading digital transformation at Digitas, McKinsey, and Aetna. He explains why personalization is more than just a marketing tactic—it's a strategic tool to enhance customer experience and drive business growth.&n...

This week’s episode of the Be Customer Led podcast features Amanda Ono, Chief Human Resources Officer at Kroll. When she was in college, her passion was the interaction between teams and leaders and how they worked together to drive results. She worked in a wide range of positions, including recruiting, trainin...

Today's episode of Be customer Led features Kimberly Wiefling, founding member & global consultant at Silicon Valley Alliances. Her superpower is uniting people of different nationalities, cultural backgrounds, and aesthetic preferences to accomplish a common goal. Kimberly has worked in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Also, she has visited Japan more than a hundred times to work...

The CEO of Wine Access, Inc., Joe Fisch, joins Bill Staikos on this week's episode of Be Customer Led. Through careful selection, engaging narratives, and impeccable provenance, Wine Access makes finding and enjoying the world's most inspiring wines simple. During this episode, Joe discusses a variety of the experiences, insights, and perspectives that he has gained throughout his time wo...

This week on Be Customer Led with Bill Staikos, we interview Stacy Salvi, Vice President of Strategy at Movano Health. Movano Health is creating a portfolio of purpose-driven healthcare products to bring medical-grade, high-quality data to the forefront of consumer health devices. They are on a mission to empower and inspire you to live a healthier, happier life by integrating crucial hea...

Janet Polach, executive coach, speaker, author, and retired marine, joins Bill Staikos for this week's episode of Be Customer Led. Janet has extensive training and expertise as an executive coach and leader-builder. Leaders throughout the world have benefited from her coaching and guidance. She has a Ph.D. in Organizational L...

Trey Hoffman, Vice President of Customer Experience at Fleetio, joins the Be Customer Led podcast for this episode. Fleetio's software enables global organizations to track, analyze, and enhance fleet operations. In today's episode, Trey, who has a deep-seated interest in assembling formidable teams to aid clients in achieving their goals by employing novel approaches, discusses his exper...

The current generation of chatbot technology utilized in business and consumer settings has significant shortcomings, such as a lack of long-term memory, interactive learning, deep contextual knowledge, and the inability to reason or explain itself, making conversing in a meaningful manner impossible. Our guest today is Peter Voss, the founder/ CEO/ chief scientist at AGI Innovations &...

“Part of the instinct of getting started with new products, for me, is starting with real human motivations and the customer base you are going after.”

Adam Nash, CEO & Co-Founder at Daffy, joins Bill Staikos on this episode of Be Customer Led. Daffy is a non-profit organization founded on the principle that everyone should set somethi...

“The best gift you could give your employees is to put them in a position where they can earn a life of meaning and purpose through service to others that get recognized and rewarded by teammates.”

This episode of Be Customer Led with Bill Staikos features Fred Reichheld. Fred is one of the world's leading customer and employee loyalty exp...