Advisor & Fractional Exec
Fractional Executive Strategist, Accomplished Speaker, Author, Turn-Around and Growth Specialist, Angel Investor and Serial Entrepreneur
Advisor & Fractional Exec
Fractional Executive Strategist, Accomplished Speaker, Author, Turn-Around and Growth Specialist, Angel Investor and Serial Entrepreneur
Bio & Info
Steve has built a career transforming, growing, expanding and turning around businesses. He has created successful companies by delivering remarkable customer experiences. Steve makes sure each employee has the actionable knowledge necessary to make better decisions, build great culture and serve customers in a way that increases loyalty, referrals, sales and satisfaction.In his recent role with Panviva, the knowledge cloud company, Steve expanded the Australian software company successfully into the US to a market powerhouse position. Steve also advises many companies annually on their CX strategies. Industry associations, publications, and Fortune 500 companies invite him to speak and write about CX best practices in healthcare, finance, utilities, insurance, and telecommunications.A successful entrepreneur in his own right, Steve has built and sold six companies. He has spent many years cultivating his approach to CX and each company has held to the mantra of “the customer is at the center of the universe.
Bio & Info
Steve has built a career transforming, growing, expanding and turning around businesses. He has created successful companies by delivering remarkable customer experiences. Steve makes sure each employee has the actionable knowledge necessary to make better decisions, build great culture and serve customers in a way that increases loyalty, referrals, sales and satisfaction.In his recent role with Panviva, the knowledge cloud company, Steve expanded the Australian software company successfully into the US to a market powerhouse position. Steve also advises many companies annually on their CX strategies. Industry associations, publications, and Fortune 500 companies invite him to speak and write about CX best practices in healthcare, finance, utilities, insurance, and telecommunications.A successful entrepreneur in his own right, Steve has built and sold six companies. He has spent many years cultivating his approach to CX and each company has held to the mantra of “the customer is at the center of the universe.
In fact, his first CX initiative was a college Honors project where Steve redesigned the student registration system to ease the process of registering for classes and enhance the student registration experience. He then went on to running an Technology Division with over 12,000 employee customers, while working for one of the largest global government contractors. All the while addressing internal customer expectations and increase customer satisfaction and productivity.Next, he perfected the concepts of personalization with marketing automation tools to better target and deliver one-on-one communication with customer messaging. Now, Steve is focused on helping business leaders build great strategies to deliver the ultimate in customer experiences and drive their business to new heights.When he is not driving CX strategy or launching companies, Steve plays the guitar and mentors startup business. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and sons.
In fact, his first CX initiative was a college Honors project where Steve redesigned the student registration system to ease the process of registering for classes and enhance the student registration experience. He then went on to running an Technology Division with over 12,000 employee customers, while working for one of the largest global government contractors. All the while addressing internal customer expectations and increase customer satisfaction and productivity. Next, he perfected the concepts of personalization with marketing automation tools to better target and deliver one-on-one communication with customer messaging. Now, Steve is focused on helping business leaders build great strategies to deliver the ultimate in customer experiences and drive their business to new heights.When he is not driving CX strategy or launching companies, Steve plays the guitar and mentors startup business. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and sons.
Media And Events
Stephen is joined by Greg Ortbach (CX Engagement, Catalyst) and Roy Atkinson (Senior Writer/Analyst, Informa Tech). In this new webinar they talk about keeping up with new CX technology and our customer’s changing expectations.
Recent Articles
Customer Experience:How to Create a Customer Success Plan Aligned with a CX Strategy (March 2022)
Customer Experience:In 2022 Your Business Needs to Develop a Customer Promise (March 2022)
Customer Experience:Have Remote Working and Work from Home Been Good for Customer Experience? (March 2022)
Customer Experience:Why Your Business Always Needs to Measure Customer Experience (February 2022)
Customer Experience:Are You at Risk of Eroding All of Your Built-up CX? (February 2022)
Customer Experience:Have We Gone Too Far with CX and Have We Created CX Monster Consumers that Have Expectations We Cannot Meet in Today’s Economic Climate? (February 2022)
Customer Experience:How Can You Continuously Improve Your CX Strategy? (February 2022)
Customer Experience:How Can You Engage All Employees to Follow the New CX Strategy? (January 2022)
Customer Experience:How Often Should You Seek Customer Feedback, and Should You Pay for It? (January 2022)
Customer Experience:How to Build Your Core CX Team (January 2022)
Customer Experience:How Can You Get a Customer’s Attention and Keep their Attention?(January 2022)
Customer Experience:What Factors Beyond Your Control or Awareness can Affect Your Customer’s Experiences? (December 2021)
Recent Events
StartupGrind: Overcoming Key Obstacles for Startup Success
General Assembly: Mastering Customer Experience to Drive Growth
AI World: Automation & Future of Work
AMA Boston: Why Bots & Humans Need to Collaborate to Drive Customer Experience
NEHAM Annual Regional Conference: CX and Bot
Podcast: The Science Of CX
Paula Courtney is the CEO of The Verde Group, a leading customer experience consultancy.
Her focus is on customer retention and how to quantify the financial risk associated with poor customer experience.
Paula’s work involves linking customer experiences with the behaviors that make organizations money, such as buying more and recommending the business to friends and family. She has developed tools and techniques to identify the specific experiences that degrade loyalty the most and cost businesses the most money.
On today’s episode, I sit down with Paula to dive into the science of customer experience and the importance of identifying and addressing pain points to boost revenue.
We also discuss the growing need for human connection in business settings and the challenges companies face in bringing employees back to the office.
Paula shares her expertise in customer experience, improvement, and retention, highlighting the three key things every business should focus on; identifying and eliminating customer friction, having a solid problem-resolution system in place, and encouraging and measuring customer engagement outside of the purchase cycle.
We also touch on the importance of involving frontline staff in the design of customer experience programs and how to avoid the common problem of projects having a slow death after the initial excitement.
Overall, today’s episode provides valuable insights on how to improve customer experiences and drive revenue growth.
Key Takeaways
- The importance of identifying and addressing pain points in boosting revenue
- Focusing on the negative experiences, and why such experiences are more predictive of market action
- The impact of digital transformation on the customer’s perspectives and expectations
- Challenges in returning to the office: Companies are facing challenges in bringing employees back to the office, with more and more employees having a preference for hybrid work arrangements
- The need for better metrics: There is a growing need for better metrics for understanding where to invest and grow a business
- Engaging customers outside of the purchase cycle, and why it’s important for companies to constantly seek new ways to engage with customers outside of the purchase cycle
Timestamps
[00:04:25] “Boosting Business Revenue Through Customer Retention”
[00:10:30] “Traditional Surveys Are Losing Favor Among Customers”
[00:18:31] “Involving Frontline in Customer Experience Programs”
[00:22:33] “AI not yet a threat to Frontline jobs”
[00:28:12] 2023 Predictions: More Digital, Value & Adaptability
[00:34:07] “Fundamental Business Growth Strategy: Moving Beyond Technology”
[00:39:24] “CX Stash: Your One-Stop Shop for CX Tech”
Quotes
- “Customer Experience: It’s dissatisfied customers. It’s those negative problem experiences that actually predict negative market action.”
- “The Importance of Leadership in Building a Successful Customer Experience Program: ‘It’s really a long game and it’s definitely a marathon.’ “
- On involving the Frontline in Customer Experience Change Management: “If you just keep it in the boardroom and then expect these soldiers to carry out these orders, you’re going to have a mutiny on your hands without question.”
Connect with Paula
Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-courtney-3b23861/
Website – https://verdegroup.com/
