Strategic Advisory Committee for CX Success
Executive buy‑in is essential for any successful CX or EX transformation. In this conversation, Natalie K. Jackson sits down with Ashley Hayslip, Ross Sylvia and Laralyn Colestock as they share practical guidance on strengthening cross‑functional listening, communicating wins effectively, and engaging leadership throughout a customer experience journey.
This roundtable with Natalie, Ashley, Ross and Laralyn discusses the following:
How CX and EX stall without executive buy‑in.
Tips for strengthening cross‑functional listening and learning—and for showing executives the real impact of a CX transformation.
Great CX doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a leader who can influence, collaborate, and keep teams focused on what matters most.
Explore what it truly takes to earn executive buy‑in and lead CX with clarity, alignment, and confidence.
View the full transcript as Natalie, Ashley, Ross and Laralyn discuss CX success:
Welcome. We're here to talk about customer experience and how to bring that to life across an organization. To me, one of the most important things to
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have in place is executive buyin. So, that's the conversation I wanted to have today with you all. I've invited three key leaders in their space who I've
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worked with and I've seen deliver on this exceptionally and I'm sure they all have their stories to tell today. So, let's first begin with a quick fact.
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Organizations with strong customer experience leadership, including executive buyin, experience 25% higher
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customer satisfaction and loyalty. To me, that says a lot. Uh, and then just for definition, customer experience is
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brand activation across all touch points. Every single one across from emails to phone calls to website to web
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presence, all of it. And that's no small feat to take on. Uh, customer experience is a growth driver and it is measurable.
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I know some think it isn't, but think of retention and think of lifetime value and think of referrals. Uh, and I could go on for a very long time about the
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other metrics. Perhaps we'll come up with some today to talk about. And before a brand can design a full endto-end experience to bring to life
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their touch points, they need to ensure leadership is fully on board and gets it so that employees can understand how to show up for each other and for their
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customers. So, I'd like to surface some of this today. Um, let's do some introductions about our panelists who are here with us. First, we have Ashley
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Hastlip, market president of Enterprise Bank and Trust. Ashley is the San Diego market president. She leads the
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relationship management and business development teams to expand the bank's client base, reinforce and grow the bank's culture, and develop community
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and nonprofit partnerships in the region. I've seen how she shows up as a people first leader and has gotten to know so many in the community. Then we
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have Ross Sylvia, chief commercial officer at Exxalta. Ross is a purposeful and authentic people leader, vision
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creator, and growth driver with years of global multifunctional experience and award-winning success in the medical
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device, health sciences, consumer technology, and biotechnology industries, building and leading businesses and people. Ross and I have
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worked closely together, and I've seen how he brings the discipline of customer experience and employee experience into what he does. and the results have been astounding.
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Next, we have Laura Lin Coloultock, director of strategic initiatives at Satara. Lauren Laurelyn is an exceptional experienced leader with a
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demonstrated history of leading crossf functional global teams to achieve strategic direction of largecale
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divisional programs. Solutionsdriven managers skilled at conceptualizing and executing programs in a complex culture
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requiring flexibility to change and shift priorities. Skilled in operations management, crossunctional team leadership, project portfolio
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management, and managing risks while achieving overall company goals.
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Laurelyn brings the lens of customer experience and employee experience to complex transformations. And I've seen her do it dayto-day. Thanks all for
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being here. I really appreciate it. And this conversation excites me very much given how I have seen lack of executive
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buyin get in the way of progress and change and I've also seen the flip side of it working really well which is why each of you are here today. I'd love for you to be able to share your knowledge.
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I think others can learn from that. Uh let's jump into the questions. So let's start with you Lauren. How critical is
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executive buyin for successful customer experience or transformation efforts in your organization?
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In my organization, I think it is the number one item that you must complete before you start planning and execution
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of any transformation program. The executive buyin gains you
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a few things, right? You you get strategic alignment right across what could be turf wars like between each of
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the different divisions or departments however big the transformation uh program spans. But it also provides legitimacy to the actual program.
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Everybody's busy and all of us know that when you're running a transformation program or any event program, there's always the few folks who have to do
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everything in each of the different divisions. And so when there is executive buy in to such a the sweeping
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changes that we do in our organization um it visibly says to the teams this is a legitimate program. We want you to
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focus on it. We're visibly supporting it and we will support removal of obstacles
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uh resource allocation budgets and help to speed up decision- making.
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Very good. Can you share an example where perhaps you didn't have that in place and what happened when something you had a real blocker and you didn't
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have leadership supporting and reinforcing perhaps the why behind what you were working on.
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Sure. So there is a transformation program that I did work
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on that had our sponsor was a seale executive and this seale executive would prefer to
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have a smaller group of folks in the room having conversations and driving decisions and so there were seven of us
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consistently having a conversation about this transformation initiative. So if you think about seven people in a room
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trying to determine the change and the sweeping amount of work that you have to do in any
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transformation program and you start executing on it, it's very difficult to get folks outside of those seven to feel like they were part of the conversation.
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Especially when they are leaders that we have to rely on that, you know, they
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they manage 30, 40, 100 people. If they're not feeling like they were part of the conversation or part of the
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decision making, then we then I had a lot of conversation while we were executing, explaining the why, getting
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them to buy in, having them feel like they were part of the conversation and part of the decision- making when they initially didn't. So, we spent a lot of
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time just covering ground that we could have covered prior if we had a little bit more um seale visibility
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in in into the organization. Does that make sense? Like have them visibly stating themselves and modeling the
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behavior that they would expect their teams to.
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I think there are going to be quite a few tips and nuggets that come out of the conversation. I think the overarching theme of having executive
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buyin is critical, but you're touching on which I'm curious when you we go through the questions in more depth.
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Having employees and other leaders feel that sense of belonging and have that sense of ownership. It saves quite a bit
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of time, effort, and boosts employee engagement considerably. And I'm curious to hear what what Ashley and Ross think about that as well. Thank you, Laurelyn.
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Let's go to you Ashley. So same question and feel free to take it wherever you would like. How critical is executive
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buyin for successful customer experience or transformation efforts in your organization? So, I would really echo um I think everything that's been said, but
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obviously critical, probably maybe the most important thing. Um and I I would just add one little piece to it, which
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is I think not only the buy in, but they have to be able to articulate the why, which is basically exactly what you were
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saying. And so, um you know, that's hard for people sometimes. And and but but that that part of it I think is probably the most important part. Mhm.
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How have you gotten to the why as something to articulate at the beginning of a transformation?
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I think a lot of it is is giving you know either seuite level executives or whoever you know giving them the
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problem. So, you know, collecting the data, showing where the organization is
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and that seems to always be a little bit of a shock and and then, you know, maybe from there, you know, there's there's a
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lot of of ownership and and buy in, but but I think, you know, I mean, I guess the key in everything is always making
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people feel like they have the problem and it's not you or the change management group. Mhm.
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And you know, yeah, that would be my advice.
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Yeah. Can you give an example just to expand on that of what type of transformation it it was or an example
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of what one might be? I mean, I think um you know, I worked at a a previous bank
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and you know, customer experience I think at bank took a little bit longer to to get
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to banking maybe from some of the other industries. Yeah.
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Um for a few reasons because it's also very complicated in banks because you have the clients going to so many different channels. you have the
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branch, you have online, you have, you know, and and to try to get metrics from all of those places and then the leaders of all of the different areas always
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think their area is doing great, you know.
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So, um, I think, you know, it really just starts with collecting data on the customer satisfaction. um even if it's
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very simplistic um you know employee retention and you know really really probably
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those two alone you you could you could do a lot with um but those are probably the first steps.
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Yeah, thank you for that and the idea to root things in data. Who can argue with that if the numbers are accurate and right as
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a way and then to say here is what we've done since or here we've made this change. Let's prove it out. If we had 32
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emails going to clients over here and these satisfaction scores and then we reduced that down to five that are more meaningful and that led to happier
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employees because it was less and more engaged customers and and and it's such a ripple effect just by surfacing something.
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Yeah, thank you for that. Going to ask you the same question, Ross. How critical is executive buyin for successful customer experience or
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transformation efforts in your organization, past or future? Right.
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Yeah. And we've worked on two of these um in our past.
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Uh I would echo the same comments that Lurlin and Ashley said. I think the first step is recognizing you have a problem because most times the transformations
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don't actually happen be unless you have a problem.
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Uh I think for the seauite it's it's to your point getting them to see that data so that there's a buy in that you need
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to do something but I think even and the whole process isn't linear so you have to continue to get that buy in in that
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next layer down which I think Lauren you alluded to to me that's more important than the executive buyin because that's actually where the work happens
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and it's it's showing them it's less about the data it's showing them how you can make their lives easier how we can
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actually do better for the whether it's the patient patient, the customer, the physician, whoever you were you're providing that experience for. So, I
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think that that buyin is important. Um, but ultimately, I actually see that next layer down as more important because you
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can get that next if you can get that next layer down, it helps get it helps push up.
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If you only get the top and you don't get that next layer down, the I've seen the project stall, fail, whatever the case is.
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Yeah. and then having to keep doing that because it's not it's it's not a once uh get that buy in once sort of situation in my experience.
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When you say kind of that next level down, can you give some examples of the type of roles that you're talking about and who really needs to be a part of
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that first conversation and iterative process of kind of teaching everyone why we need to go do this.
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Yeah, I mean I think it's um whether it's the depending on the organization, it's the director to VP level. I mean that's That's where the management is
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going to happen, but then also where the message is then going to trickle down to the teams that are actually going to help implement whatever changes or
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transformations you want to try to take place. So, very good. Thank you. All right, let's move to the next question. We'll start
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with you Ashley this time. What barriers have you faced in securing executive buyin especially in a regulated or risk averse environment?
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I mean, I think I mean, I think maybe in a regulated environment, we're slower to adopt, but
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but I'm I mean, I think because banking is such a service business, you know, I don't know if we've really I don't know
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if I've ever experienced any, you know, executive that that didn't understand, you know, once we show the data. I guess it's kind of back and then I guess
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banking helps because, you know, we're numbers people, right? Right. So um but yeah I don't I don't I don't I can't even think of a time where once we showed the problem uh
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the executive team you know didn't buy in.
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Okay I'll think of some thank you for that and there there's a follow-up question to that just from doing work like customer experience journey mapping
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certain friction points surface and some of them are this form is really long and complicated and yeah but we do it for a
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reason says you know risk and compliance are legal. So sometimes there are those smaller touch points and moments that perhaps it's not executive buyin that we
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need but maybe there's budget to change or maybe it's the CFO or the CRO or someone else that needs to weigh in. Do you have any examples or any of you of
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something like that where you realize it's not the best customer or employee experience but there were some barriers in getting a change made?
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Okay. Yes, I have run into that.
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Um I was going to say I'm going to get into banking if you don't have that problem.
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you know, I've seen it. I've seen it and I've seen it. So, I think um I think this kind of goes back to to what what everyone's been
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saying, which is, you know, I think the e it has to start with the executive level, but the key to success is that
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second, you know, the the first level of manager and the second level of manager.
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And I think that same kind of philosophy of of giving them the problem, let letting them actually try to come up with different solutions on on why we
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have these problems. Um, and then when you get to the customer journey mapping and it's a problem emerges, you know,
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hopefully they're more receptive to a change. Mhm.
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Um, you know, I think it's really easy, especially in a regulated industry, to be like, well, the regulation says that you need these 40 things.
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And that's actually where I think maybe I'm a little different than the other industries where that's where the executive buy in really comes in. And
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it's like, you know, okay, let's challenge ourselves to really like it's
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easy to say we need 40 things, but what if we asked a question differently
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and we got multiple answers and then it was only 25 things or or 15 things. And it's that it's that creative thinking on
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on how to structure questions that you're asking clients where I think I don't know. I think that's where, you
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know, and hopefully your organization has someone with a superpower of that.
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Um, and and normally they're not in the regulatory side of the house, you know, I mean there that so it's it's kind of getting the marketing and the regul more
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regulatory-minded people together to kind of, you know, solve that problem.
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Yeah, I was just going to add on because in in a broker dealer, same, right? Like highly regulated, you have a 40, you
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know, questionnaire in order to get anything done.
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Sometimes the answer is that's the way we've always done it or you know there was some rule that came out so we added
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this question and so where I think the executive buyin helps with this is when
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you ask the team just like you said think about it in a different way does it have to be 40 can it be 25 or do you even have to do it at all and when the
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executives are aligned right with the transformation effort they can help act.
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They could help realize for the individuals that are kind of on the ground making the decisions to tell them
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it's okay for you to reimagine this process. It's okay to say let's go down to 25 or get down to 25. We don't want 40. Right?
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Just give them that empowerment to do such a thing. Right? I I think that that really helps and that's you know we've
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done that a couple times. It takes a couple of cycles for people to really believe that they're allowed to go down to 25 questions from the 40,
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but you eventually get there as as long as there's still kind of that support and buy in and safety for the teams to make those decisions.
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Yeah, that's huge.
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Yeah. Yeah. And I'll just um add one thing that I've seen work really well when you're doing this is is definitely put like a small focus group on it
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that's definitely cross functional, but then have um like a strategic advisory committee that's that's their bosses or
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maybe oneup or two-ups where they can kind of report the successes to. Um and that kind of helps with you know kind of
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linking the executive buyin to the to the team level and also kind of gets um you know different layers of the
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organization visibility to executive management which I think you know kind of helps all around as well. Mhm.
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had a a situation in my past which is similar to what you guys are describing which is there was a lot of pages in a form to fill out and we wanted to cut it
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down was we've seen it done at other companies with much less um and we knew we could do it in a legal compliant uh
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way. Uh but there was push back. Well this isn't causing a problem. Well we have the ability to reduce friction. Why
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wouldn't we want to take that? Well, if this isn't causing a problem, well, we common sense tells you it's causing a problem.
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But it wasn't until we were able to tie that back to a specific number of how many people abandoned the process as a result of that.
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Um, and so that took additional days to get that data when we wasted four days
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in my opinion. Common sense tells you if you can reduce friction without a ton of lift, you should do it at at every
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step of the way. Obviously you don't want to be doing you know small things for small return but if you can get a good return by doing things that are
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just common sense and you know it can be done. Uh I think that's one of the challenges is is then who are whose
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buyin are you trying to get what language do they speak and trying to put it in that language and unfortunately a lot of that is wasted time but it's something you have to do to make sure
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that you don't have those those roadblocks. So yeah, thank you. And building that muscle and getting the momentum and I
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mean as a chief commercial officer, I think we know how you might set the stage. So thank you for that. Very good.
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Okay, next question for you all. Let's start with Ross. What trends do you see shaping the future of customer
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experience and how should executives be preparing now?
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Um, I think it's uh we were talking about how CX is something that's a fairly new
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um discipline if you will or or because every company has always done CX but they haven't done it in an intentional way and I think that's the main shift
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that's taking place is um and having done this at at two companies getting something started at an existing organization and then trying to build up
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the function at a brand new organization um setting it up so that that is the quarterback of the customer experience
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and there's so many elements that go into that. It's having that quarterback is incredibly important. So I think the trend is that is just being more
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intentional about it and there's plenty of companies that are not doing that and there's other companies that are leading the way and I think those are the companies that are going to see the
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benefits of of the transition to um fullfunnel customer experience and having that focus. Mhm. Can you give an
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example of how that might be felt for the customers or consumers or patients if someone is doing CX or they're more mature in CX?
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Yeah, I think it's a a consistent experience throughout rather than a disjointed one and I've certainly been at companies that have provided both. uh
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but when you have somebody uh that is is in a dedicated CX function and it takes I think a very special person to lead
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that because we've talked about some of the cross functional challenges um in many ways uh obviously we've worked with you in the past having somebody come in
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that is objective and can say let's map this out with all the groups and somebody can pinpoint the challenges
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which make no mistake people in the company already know but if somebody and the company is saying it, then it's one team versus another as opposed to
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somebody coming in and saying, "Here's your fullfunnel customer experience.
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Here are some of the hiccups or the challenges." Um, so I think having that lens is going to
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provide that streamlined experience, whereas there's plenty of companies that are providing a great experience in steps one and four and really bad in
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steps two and three. But who if you don't have someone dedicated to that, who's going to notice that? Cuz two and three don't think they have a problem.
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One and four know they're doing great.
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And so if one and four stop pointing the finger at two and three, it's just a battle. So you need somebody that's in that role that's dedicated and
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intentional about viewing it full funnel. Um that can can ultimately drive transformation that we've been talking about.
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Very good. And I want to come back to the earlier part of question, but what you mentioned made me think about sort of finding the right fit for someone who
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leads customer experience and you know having someone for me you know I like to share when someone has expertise in as a customer experience strategist etc.
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access. So access to the leaders, access to employees, access to data, influence.
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They are seen as a champion. They're seen as someone who can make change happen and can care very much about it
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so others buy in and believe it. And um budget, honestly, I could say resources, but budget. So having their co a cost
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center, being able to work cross functionally, being able to have make suggestions or make quick changes to forms or whatever that might be to me
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those are the ingredients. I'd be curious about what you think about that and then we can come back to the other question.
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Um, yeah. I mean, I think I actually think the in the ability to lead through influence is probably the
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most important part of a of someone that is in CX because I mean, you have to have the data ability or, you know, but but sometimes that can be outsourced.
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But I think like that influential leadership is a very unique skill. Um because if especially if you're doing it and you actually work for the
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organization, you have to be able to change people's mind without offending them.
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Um which is which is hard.
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That's really hard. We could spend 90 minutes on that.
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Yeah. So um so I actually think that's the most important part.
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I was Yeah, go for I was going to add influence management, but high energy as well because you're going to get beaten down and you need to have high energy
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and keep bringing people back to this is for the customer. This is, you know, this isn't for me. This isn't for this team. It's not for that team.
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It's for the customer. So that higher energy because you're going to consistently be told no, we can't do that or here's why we can't do that or that's not the way
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we've done it in the past. So higher energy, influence management, and just a true team player. Uh to me, those are the three things. Yeah. Optimism.
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No, keep going. Anything is possible. Yes. Even when it's not.
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That's absolutely right. Yeah, I think that's great. And that brings us to it's the human side of it. So this, you know, customer experience transformation,
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putting forth a consistent experience across everything, across every single touch point, every channel, and having employees be bought in. It's it's
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complicated, and it does take what you're describing. I think there's there's that. Um I don't need to say more about that one.
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Let's go back to the question about the future of customer experience. Um curious what trends you think uh we'll
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we'll be seeing and also just a quick moment. I did a little bit of research about positions out there and
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experiential seuite members. They're not all called a CXO, but that's there's been such a shift. You know, looking
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back to I think it was 2009, there were less than 50 positions listed out job postings wise, and then this year, there
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are over a thousand plus others that aren't named that way in the customer experience space. Uh, so trendwise,
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we've seen an uptick in the highlevel positions that are out there and the acceptance of the discipline. What am I
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missing? What else do we think is going to come?
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So, I agree with what Ross said. It's still relatively new, but I think what is even newer that'll impact is AI. So,
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not only are you managing an experience based on people and systems, but now you you would have to manage kind of the
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machine portion of the experience, right, as part of the full experience.
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That's just kind of what went to my mind as you were saying, "Oh, this is new." I'm like, "Oh." But then we also have AI that's so so new. How does that play
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into the processes, the transformation, all of the work that we do to modernize and our our world?
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That's a great question. I hadn't brought up AI yet. I didn't know if I was going to, so I'm glad that you did, but what came to mind when she brought up AI around customer experience?
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I'll let you go first.
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Um for me it's uh and you and I this is not a novel thought you and I talked about this in
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that um every company sells an experience and the product is just one way that you provide that experience and
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uh I think is with AI coming in you can use it to supplement and make yourself more efficient but at the end of the day
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AI is not going to provide a better experience in my opinion than a human
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being. Um, and so how do you use AI to help supplement and provide a better experience and do the things that can be
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done offline? Um, but ultimately providing that experience is is about the human element in my opinion.
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And so I think that the companies that embrace AI to supplement and make more efficient as opposed to replace
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are going to be the ones that provide the best experience and ultimately um will will win. So that's my thought.
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Thank you. I see Ashley.
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Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, I think it's it's people compleimemented by technology, not people replaced by technology.
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But I also think there's a little bit of a component of um there are definitely people out there who prefer technology over people
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and then there's also people who prefer people over technology. And I think kind of figuring out who those customer segments are and delivering it because I
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actually went into Whimo for the first time last week weekend. So I'm kind of like thinking about Whimo and I had a very interesting I mean it's kind of an
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interesting one, right? I mean it's not AI but it's it's a technology that you know I have friends that went in and they're like oh my gosh it's the best thing ever. Um, I got dropped off.7
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miles from my destination. So, it was not the best thing ever for me. But, uh, but you know, so I just think it kind of goes back to the kind of some people are
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going to love that technology option, whether it be AI or whatever, no matter what.
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And then and then some people like me probably will always like people. So, like the early adopters, right? Yeah. Or meet them where they're at.
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We've exper I've experienced that as well is just best way to find out how somebody wants to be interacted with is just to ask them.
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Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I think that's one of the most important CX questions actually. Mhm.
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Um I think as far as the future of CX and kind of what's next and and maybe maybe neither of you will think this is
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new, but I think one of the most novel things for CX for me is is getting that feedback back to the person who can
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change that experience as fast as possible. And so, um, I've seen some new technologies where, you know, you you
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collect the piece of data and, you know, it's it's basically in the hands, um, hopefully being rectified or used for
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good, you know, within, you know, 30 minutes. And I think that the speed of that delivering that feedback back is is
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really what the future of CX is is going to be. or maybe all your companies already do that. But
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that's I mean I I have worked across many industries and and I have not seen that. Okay.
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It I think that's an incredible one to bring up because we do talk about the need for a feedback loop, right? You have your customer feedback
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loop and you you listen and you prioritize and make sure that you're closing the loop to say yes, we did did make that change or at least in some capacity and then that just keeps going.
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you're talking about amplifying that, speeding it up, putting it in the right hands, and then hopefully there is that reporting back to whoever whoever made
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that change. And the same thing for voice of the employee. How are we listening? How are we adapting? I'm sure it's applicable there too. Yeah. Any
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reaction to that, the feedback side of it and how to make change faster?
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My initial reaction um is we do at least in my firm, we have a lot of listening activities, right?
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We're listening to our financial professionals. We're listening to our, you know, um, big producers. The
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challenge when the feedback comes back is that we aren't always set up um or have laid the foundation to take the
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feedback and go, right? It makes sense that we should make the change or that you know the suggestion came through but
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it's harder on the execution side because one comment to remove friction could actually impact five departments,
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20 systems, a new data model, you know, all of the things that are we take for granted as u foundations already built
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because our clients are seeing um they're just they have the experience but they don't realize that there's actually a wizard behind the curtain.
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It's not a magical entity that makes things happen quickly.
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Um that's just the initial once we get there I think feedback loop etc. quick easy to do.
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Thank you. Yeah I think that brings up the importance of having all the technology in place the right tools we you know we talked about people
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a little bit today but you know people process tech those haven't gone away. We still need the right technology to enable those things and to be set up for
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execution and having the right group together across functionally who can make those changes. And then you add that we're all highly regulated, right?
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You have that last check to make sure whatever change, whatever feedback just came through is acceptable to our compliance and risk teams.
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Right. Yeah. Very interesting. A little bit longer.
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That's right. It made me wonder about the industries that are not highly regulated and if they face the same types of challenges and foresee the same
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in the future or if they might be more nimble.
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Well, they're definitely more nimble than our industry. Yeah, there's a tea up there, right? Okay. As we think about um finishing out our
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conversation today, I could talk with you for a lot longer than this and dig into all the stories and successes that
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you've had. Um, but I'll leave us with what advice would you give to a CX leader or one who wants to be more
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experientially minded trying to get support around the change that they think should happen?
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I mean, I would say uh map out your customer journey to an insane level of detail and then set up the KPIs and the
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metrics that you want to track. Um because even though some things may seem like common sense that oh that's a problem, we need to fix it, there's
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somebody else in the organization that you may need on your side that's going to say yeah but what's the impact? Um and uh so those are the the two things
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and then obviously tracking and and trying to uh pick and choose and prioritize and then uh as you mentioned making sure that any changes you make
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you're thinking about it from all the different lenses. But for me, the most important aspect is mapping out that journey to an insane level of detail and
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then uh making sure that you're tracking the right things so that you can ultimately make the case for even the most simple the most simple things.
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Very good. Thank you. What about you?
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Yeah, my my advice would be very similar um uh maybe slightly different order, which is definitely start with the metrics um and and don't overdo the
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metrics. You know, three to five max for a program. Um, I also think people get caught up in the perfection of the
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metrics. You can perfect the metrics over time. Put a number on a piece of paper and then see how many people think it's wrong and hopefully that number
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gets less as you go along. And you'll actually learn stuff about the number, too. I mean, numbers are kind of weird, you know, like you think that this will
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be perfect and then you, you know, you get six months into it and you realize the fault. So, it's it's um, I guess kind of let let go of perfection is the
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other piece. And then um and then I think just uh I think I touched on a little bit earlier, but kind of setting up a structure of kind of a core focus
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team like an advisory group and then executive leadership. I mean I think that is just a way to to really kind of
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um uh kind of exponentially uh make the project visible to the organization but
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still make them nimble enough to to move forward. So very good.
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I love that answer in terms of letting go of perfection and just focus on getting better. That's a great point.
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Very good. So I agree with both of them as always. Um I I would say that besides
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planning down to the details, you know, all all of that for sure. Um plan the moments where you're going to require
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ask the executives to visibly endorse your program. visibly speak about the metrics and what we're trying to change
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and the hypothesis behind it and all of the wise because I think once you once you have that down right then it's
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easier to get that statement cascaded into the organization and I would say you can't underestimate
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and I know you guys said it in kind of optimism and energy you can't underestimate the amount of times you're going to have to repeat the purpose of
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the transformation program and what you're trying to change. That is where the optimism comes in. We will make the change. And the energy to just
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constantly be on repeat because then eventually as folks maybe further down in the organization start repeating it
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back to you, you're like, "Yes, we're getting, you know, it's the program is making an impact."
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Very good. Thank you. And I do have just one more question. And I I realized that today we didn't surface too much about
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those like direct customer or client or financial advisor or patient or provider
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stories. And if there's anything that you found was, let's say, very heartwarming or very rewarding for you
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when interacting with or hearing, even if it's a testimonial from someone who is doing an interview where you realize that the change that you were making to
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have that deliberate customer experience and put that in place had impacted you and made you want to keep going.
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Yeah, I mean I would say um building a team that uh just speaking about working with patients and making sure and you
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were with us when we were doing this in terms of what's the type of person we want to hire for that role and there's a lot of things you can hire for technical
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and you know and experience and background and ultimately the most important aspect for the team that I'm thinking about was empathy because of
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the people we were trying to support were really dealing with years and years and years of struggle and just hearing
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then patients come back to us and say um you know you guys have saved my life not this product which obviously it's the
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product that did but you guys helped change my life um meaning the person that was calling to check in make sure
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they had the support. So um so to me that was kind of full circle to say you know we really identified empathy as the
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number one through that customer journey and truly understanding where that specific customer in this case the patient where they were coming from and
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where they were at that point in the journey um and what they needed and so that helped us hire the right team for specifically um that role.
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Thank you.
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Yeah that that's an amazing one. I think for me it was more um when when someone
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we were doing some project or we were making some change to something and um someone that was really kind of not on the core customer experience team
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actually said something like well how will this impact the client and I I actually think in this example was actually a risk person that was on the
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cross functional team and I just thought wow like that person probably wouldn't even have asked that question two years ago and now here they're the person, you
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know, leading the charge. And and I think that I think probably for any thing that's so influential, it's the
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success is basically when you don't have to say it is when other people in the organization say it instead of you.
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Um, and that's so I think that's probably the biggest success. Thank you. What about you?
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I think mine just stemmed from one of the programs I was working on with service and operations. So their daytoday is impacting our clients.
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Either they've got the touch point of the phone call or processing a piece of paperwork. And so our our charge was to reduce friction out of that experience.
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And so it was a little bit opposite in knowing that we we did it because it was not necessarily a pat on the back, but
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it was less noise in terms of escalations coming through going to the top of the house and then coming down.
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It was just quieter. And you know in that if you measure the metrics around escalations and time for uh completion
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time for um calls, OSAT scores etc. you just saw them go in the right direction.
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And that, you know, by itself was such a great feeling of accomplishment that people heard, our our clients are experiencing it and
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our our people are living it, right? Yeah.
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Proved it out. Yeah. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for sharing. So, just to kind of wrap up, each of you showing up for your teams, with your
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customers, with your clients, with your patients, with your providers, whoever it might be, makes all the difference in the world.
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And thank you so much for spending time with me today. I think we all probably learned something from each other and I look forward to continuing elevating the
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customer experience discipline. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Thank you.
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