10 Powerful Customer Experience Leaders to Follow in 2019
If you are a customer experience beginner, the world must seem both scary and exciting to you. What awaits you there and what new things will you learn tomorrow? There are so many questions you want to find answers to, you don’t even know where to begin.
When you’re making your first baby steps into the unknown, there always need to be someone you can look up to. Thankfully, the world nowadays makes it easy to find and connect to influential figures.
Everybody starts somewhere, and even these influencers were, once upon a time, green behind their ears and just like you looked up to someone more knowledgeable than them.
Today, we’re taking a look at the 10 most influential customer experience bloggers. These are the creators of some the richest, freshest and most innovative content out there, so be sure to check all of them out.
Shep Hyken
“Don’t focus on the sale. Focus on the person.”
Shep Hyken (@Hyken) is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. Shep’s knowledge and experience in customer service is second to none: he has helped hundreds of businesses create amazing client and employee experiences.
Apart from that, Shep is a public speaker. His high energy and motivation make him one of the most enjoyable, and inspiring, presenters to listen to. Some of Shep’s books have appeared as bestsellers on New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and a few other prominent news agencies.
One of his latest books, The Convenience Revolution, shows how providing convenience can result in higher sales and make your organization stand out from the others. The book provides six strategies and various examples to step up your customer service performance.
Shep received the Hall of Fame lifetime achievement award from the National Speaker Association back in 2008. You can get amazing customer service tips at his blog.
Blake Morgan
“Technology can fix the mundane customer issues so companies can focus on high-touch customer experiences.”
Blake Morgan (@BlakeMichelleM) is the customer experience futurist and one of the most passionate CX advocates out there.
Blake is a renowned author and keynote speaker. Her vision of how high-tech solutions impact the future customer experience is both intriguing and inspiring, and she shares it in a simple but engaging fashion.
Her book, More is More, is a must-read for business managers. In it, Blake shares advice on how to turn your customer service strategy around to start providing “knock-your-socks-off customer experiences”.
In addition to her ventures as a writer, Blake is a host of the weekly customer experience video series on YouTube and the podcast on modern customer service. You can follow Blake on her website to enjoy her pearls of wisdom.
Annette Franz
“Customer experience isn’t the next anything. It’s the here and now; it’s the current battlefield.”
Annette Franz (@annettefranz) is the CEO and founder of CX Journey. Her vast experience, particularly in devising reliable customer experience strategies, deservedly puts her on the CX pedestal.
Annette believes that customer experience is a journey that never stops; there is always room for improvements. That’s why she decided to name her blog CX Journey.
With over 25 years’ worth of experience, she has spent the major part of her life studying and analyzing companies and their employees, and then applying her knowledge to the betterment of customer experiences. Now, Annette is one of the 100 most influential tech women, according to Business Insider. For your weekly dosage of Annette’s wisdom, check out #CXChat on Twitter.
Bill Quiseng
“Delivering good customer service is business common sense. Your job is to make it common practice.”
Bill Quiseng (@billquiseng) is a prestigious blogger, award-winning speaker and professional writer who focuses on all things customer service.
With more than thirty years’ worth of experience managing luxury resorts and clubs under his belt, Bill is being consistently recognized as the top influencer in the areas of customer service and customer experience. In 2018, he was selected as one of the Top Customer Service Influencers of 2018 by Fit Small Business.
Previously, Bill has worked as managing director for luxurious golf resorts, which has given him first-hand experience managing customer experiences and opened his eyes to the importance of customer service.
Bruce Temkin
“Don’t waste customers’ time asking them questions unless you are prepared to act on what they say.”
Bruce Temkin (@btemkin) is the co-founder of the Temkin Group and the prominent customer experience transformist. During his career, Bruce has helped hundreds of big companies improve their customer experience journey strategies. Bruce is also a chairman and co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.
Bruce’s Experience Matters blog is a go-to source for learning about customer experience. From devising the customer experience strategy that is relevant to your business to busting persistent customer experience myths, there is a plethora of topics that Bruce dives into on a weekly basis.
Like other people on this list, Bruce is a writer, having published 10 CX Mistakes to Avoid in 2012. The title is self-explanatory: the book teaches how to avoid 10 common customer experience mistakes before they start affecting your business.
Daniel Michaeli
“I’ll happily pay an extra $3 a month for a company that is easy to contact and respects my questions or concerns.”
Daniel Michaeli is the founder of SaleMove. He is an expert customer experience strategist and helps organizations engage their online visitors using a personal approach.
His schemes are very clear to increase web conversions and move customers forward to become repeat clients. He has worked as a consultant for a number of businesses, and helped them strengthen their relationship with customers.
Nate Brown
“Customer experience is people being intentional about making other people’s life easier and better.”
Nate Brown (@CustomerIsFirst) is the co-founder of CX Accelerator and director of customer service experience at UL EHSS. Nate believes that happy customers is what makes the business world go round.
Nate pays great attention to making employees understand the journey of customers. He tirelessly writes about CX disciplines, survey process, customer programs, employee engagement, journey mapping and more. You can follow his expert advice on his blog, CX Accelerator.
CX accelerator itself is a virtual community on Slack. The channel is more of a knowledge base, where visitors can get their questions answered, receive valuable advice and engage in meaningful conversations. According to Nate, the channel has helped lay foundation for partnerships, promotions and numerous success stories.
Ian Golding
“What makes people happy is as much about getting the basics right, as it is about ’wowing’ them.”
Ian Golding (@ijgolding) is a certified customer experience professional as well as a founder member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). He has been traveling around the world, having visited over 60 countries — all to help international organizations that understand the value the customer experience.
His book, Customer What?, is a practical guide to the world of customer experience. The book is separated into four sections, each providing tips and practical activities to help you refine your approach to customer experience. Case studies and real-life examples make it easier for readers to understand the concepts, and engaging writing immerses them in Ian’s vision of how customer service needs to work.
Adam Toporek
“It is not enough to make sure your team is empowered, you also have to make sure they feel empowered.”
Adam Toporek (@adamtoporek) is a CX expert as well as frontline trainer who trains companies and organizations in the art of customer service. Adam believes that customer experience is the core of any company’s success.
In his book, Be Your Customer’s Hero, Adam provides on-point actionable advice that is easy to understand for every reader and can be used for transforming the reader into a hero in the eyes of a customer. The book helped many people from different industries to upscale their customer service skills.
Adam is also a host of the Crack the Customer Code podcast. Together with his co-host, Jeannie Walters, Adam shares valuable CX insights from top entrepreneurs and successful businessmen.
Jeanne Bliss
“Customers who love you will market for you more powerfully than you possibly market yourself.”
Jeanne Bliss (@JeanneBliss) is the founder of Customer Bliss and co-founder of Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). As one of the foremost experts in CX, Jeanne instructs large corporations on how to implement the right customer experience strategy.
Jeanne is a bestselling author, having published I Love You More Than My Dog and, more recently, Would You Do That to Your Mother? Despite silly names, both books provide solid tips on how to earn the admiration and respect of your customers. The latter book shares 32 case studies and stories from businesses, making the concepts that Jeanne talks about digestible and easy to understand.
Harry Southworth is a professional copywriter and certified marketing consultant. He started his freelancing career while studying at University and today balances full-time employment with a passion for writing project insights.
