Customer experience is one of the top motives that influence people when making the decision to buy something, or not. Consumers no longer base their loyalty on price or product; in fact, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for greater customer experience. According to research from PWC, the more expensive the item, the more they are willing to pay.
Steve Jobs infamously said, “you’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology,” during a 1997 Worldwide Apple Developer conference. Since Apple’s success, a generation of CEO’s and founders have built and scaled companies based on a customer-first philosophy. But this philosophy has evolved
Just as technology sparked a revolution of innovative customer experience brands, it is doing the same with companies who understand that their largest asset is not their product or service, but their employees. This has ignited a new generation of “people-first” companies, led by CEO’s who put as much focus on creating a great customer experience as they do an employee experience.
This strategy is proving to be doubly important during a crisis. Adopting a people-first philosophy ensures that customers stay loyal and customers remain motivated and productive at home. Working from home, online shopping, virtual meetings, online learning, and happy hour video calls are enabling people to stay engaged during movement restrictions. CEO’s who understand this are using the latest technologies, including artificial intelligence, to improve the experience.
Here is a list of the Top 10 people-first CEO’s who are leading the next generation of experience obsessed brands, according to Glassdoor’s CEO ratings.
1. Eric S. Yuan
Company: Zoom
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 98%
Why they are 🔥:
People are going full-on virtual, and this video conferencing application has become a go-to service for exercise classes, poker games, remote education, church services and celebrations. It even lets as many as 100 people simultaneously attend a video conference. Zoom meetings have eclipsed 200 million in March, up from just 10 million at the end of 2019.
2. Satya Nadella
Company: Microsoft
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 97%
Why they are 🔥:
The company has seen a 775 per cent increase in its cloud services along with massive growth in daily users of more than 44 million (37% surge) to Microsoft Teams. Software that enables remote collaboration has become essential as companies implement work-from-home mandates to help slow the COVID-19 outbreak.
“In this era of remote everything, we have seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months,” shared Satya Nadella during Microsoft’s quarterly earnings report to Wall Street.
3. Melanie Perkins
Company: Canva
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 95%
Why they are 🔥:
Hailing from down under, Australian software unicorn Canva has newly published financial accounts which indicate the graphic design platform is booming. Valued at US$3.2 billion last year, the company continues to grow with 20 million active monthly users. It also revealed it paid $22 million to buy photography sites Pexels and Pixabay, which they used to launch a “Netflix style” subscription model for paid stock photography. Looks like it’s business as usual.
4. Bob Chapek
Company: Disney +
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 94%
Why they are 🔥:
Since the coronavirus outbreak, this hot new streaming service has almost doubled its global subscriber numbers to 50 million just 5 months after launch. Since then, lockdown continues for much of the world and streaming services are seeing a 20% boost in global usage. People are loving Baby Yoda.
5. Jakob Angele
Company: FoodPanda
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 94%
Why they are 🔥:
Singapore based FoodPanda, also known as Hellofood, is one of the leading food delivery services in the world with partnerships in over 40 countries across five continents. The food delivery giant has seen a growth rate of 10-15% week-on-week since the virus hit. The company has since implemented a two-pronged approach, maximizing convenience for their customers and extending support to restaurants feeling the shocks of the panda-monium.
6. Sudhir Agarwal
Company: Everise
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 94%
Why they are 🔥:
Everise is a next-generation CX transformation company that offers outsourced solutions and technology to Fortune 500 enterprises and high-growth tech companies. Their purpose is in helping businesses to turn their products into passions, and customers into fans. As one of the world’s leading home-based customer support providers, they are hiring thousands of work-at-home support agents around the world to help with the surge of queries coming in due to effects of business from the coronavirus.
“Fostering a people-first culture is the best way to ensure your teams continue to perform well remotely. It’s no accident that Everise has one of the industry’s highest Glassdoor ratings and average client NPS scores,” shared Sudhir Agarwal during a recent webinar on enabling excellence at home with Verint.
7. Tony Xu
Company: DoorDash
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 94%
Why they are 🔥:
Being one of the most popular food delivery options in the US, DoorDash announced earlier this month they are expanding and going beyond delivering just-food. The service is partnering with more than 1,800 Circle K’s, 7-Eleven’s, and other convenience stores to provide easy access to household essentials, over the counter medicine, hot and cold foods, drinks and snacks, and the most important…toilet paper.
8. Reed Hastings
Company: Netflix
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 90%
Why they are 🔥:
Entertainment giant, Netflix, looks like it’s going to be one of the few least affected by the Coronavirus as their business fits right in with a population that has been confined to their home. Just in the first three months of this year, the company reported revenue of US$5.8 billion, while their paid subscribers surged to 15.7 million from the previous quarter. As for the company’s infamous production sector, though filming has been paused, rest assured Netflix executives have said they have a hefty library and bunches of show launches ready for release. Whew.
9. Whitney Wolfe Herd
Company: Bumble
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 87%
Why they are 🔥:
Video and audio dates are surging, and this favorite urban millennial and Gen Z singles dating app can attest to that. Bumble saw messages increase by an average of 25% in US cities under shelter-in-place mandates and recorded a 21% increase in Bumble Video Call usage since late March. We all need a little extra love in our lives right now, even if it’s virtual.
10. Oliver Bate
Company: Medi24
Glassdoor Approval Rating: 87%
Why they are 🔥:
Telemedicine is rocketing through this crisis as the typical clinical landscape is morphing into a virtual one, using telecommunications technologies to enhance health care, public health, and health education. Though Medi24, owned by Allianz group, a special hotline is offered where a caller is directed to a nurse, who then determines if the case should be solved online or if physical intervention is required. They also offer a Corona Check service on their website to gauge if you are indeed infected- handling 6,000 calls daily with 94 per cent of customers reporting high satisfaction with their experience.
Are there any CEO’s not on this list you’d like to see?
Comment and share their Glassdoor scores below.
