Annette Franz
The State of Waiting in Line: There Must Be a Better Way
A couple weeks ago, I shared a story on LinkedIn about an experience I’d had at a follow-up doctor appointment. Check out the post and add your thoughts, but in short, I waited an hour to see the doctor, at which point I popped my…
Connected Experiences Require You to Connect Your Silos: Here’s How
I originally wrote today’s post for Medallia. It appeared on their site on December 14, 2022. Fact: Your brand has connected customers. That shouldn’t be a surprise. These are customers who interact with your brand via your website, their mobile pho...
Eight Tools To Give Employees A Clear Line Of Sight to The Customer
Back in 2014, I wrote a post about six tools to create a clear line of sight to your customers – for your employees. Almost 10 years later, I’m updating that and adding a couple more things. How do you ensure that your employees have…
Let’s Get to the Root of Your Customers’ Issues
I originally wrote today’s post for NICE Ltd. It appeared on their site on December 8, 2022. Your Voice of the Customer (VOC) program is a rich source of data that, when used properly, fuels and informs your customer experience (CX) strategy—providi...
Market Neglect: How a Lack of Research is a Death Knell for Startups
Having been in this profession for 30+ years now, I’m often asked to look at new products in the customer experience technology arena (trust me, it runs the gamut) to get my thoughts on the products (and, hopefully, to recommend them to my clients). I…
Empathy: Can It Be Measured?
Back at the end of January I spoke at the Furniture Marketing Group Symposium in Las Vegas. I talked about building a winning organization and fixing the experience from the inside-out. My focus was on deliberately designing a customer-centric culture,...
Organizational Silos: Impacting Both Employee and Customer Experiences
Last week, I spoke at the Furniture Marketing Group Symposium in Las Vegas. I talked about building a winning organization and fixing the experience from the inside-out. My focus was on deliberately designing a customer-centric culture, getting leaders...
Quiet Quitting: It’s Beyond Time to Focus on Your Employees
I originally wrote today’s post for Coveo. It appeared on their site on November 9, 2022. Probably one of the hottest topics in business over the last year or so has been the Great Resignation (Reshuffle, Reset, Renegotiation, Rethink, Reimagination...
The Importance of A Winning Customer Data Strategy
I am thrilled to share that I took on the role of hosting Concentrix Catalyst’s digital talk show series, Born Digital, which is pioneering new ways to connect through organic, human-centered, creative content. The show features experts from both Conce...
If You Have Employees, Then You Need An Employee Experience Program
I originally wrote today’s post for Medallia. It appeared on their site on August 31, 2022. Employee experience is a hot topic right now. Finally, right? The Great Resignation really turned the focus onto employees and on understanding what’s drivin...
When It Comes to Data, Eight Rights Don’t Make a Wrong
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their site on September 30, 2022. Data is at the heart of designing and delivering a great (connected) customer experience. Without data informing your design and delivery, you really are f...
Change Management Tools: Kotter, ADKAR, or Something Else?
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their site on September 26, 2022. In my last article, I wrote about the need for customer experience professionals to not only build the business case for improvements but to also help exec...
5 Leadership Tools for Decision-Making and Prioritization
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their site on September 12, 2022. As customer experience professionals, the work you do to identify improvement opportunities and other initiatives to design and deliver a better experience...
Five More (of Ten) Foundational Principles of a Customer-Centric Organization
In last week’s post I shared that, in order to get your entire organization thinking differently, you’ve got to first know and embrace the principles and the practices of customer-centricity, and you’ve got to ensure that everyone remains aligned to ac...
Five (of Ten) Foundational Principles of a Customer-Centric Organization
Customer-centricity is an often misused term, but it actually has a pretty straightforward definition: put the customer at the center of all the business does. (It does not mean that we will always say “Yes” to everything the customer asks for, nor does it...
Customer Success Trends & Predictions: An Interview With Dickey Singh
[unable to retrieve full-text content]In this article, Annette Franz reviews five Customer Success trends and predictions posed by Deloitte and asks Cast.app CEO, Dickey Singh, to weigh in with his thoughts on what he’s seeing relative to each trend or...
11 Things You Can Do to Ensure Your Journey Maps Are Actionable
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their site on August 18, 2022. Journey mapping is one of the most powerful tools to help you understand the current customer experience and to design a new experience. But I always like to ...
Employee Listening Is a Must For a Great Employee Experience
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their Reworked site on August 10, 2022. In July 2022, it was reported that Glassdoor had been ordered by a United States court to provide to Zuru, a toymaker in New Zealand, identifying inf...
What’s Driving Your Employees Away – And How To Fix The Root Cause
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their site on July 21, 2022. Probably one of the hottest topics in the business world today is the Great Resignation (Reshuffle, Reset, Renegotiation, Rethink, Reimagination, etc.). I love ...
Values-Based Decision Making
I originally wrote today’s post for CMSWire. It appeared on their site on July 7, 2022. Culture can be defined as core values plus behaviors. Designing a culture is deliberate and purposeful. To ensure that “customer-driven” and “customer-centric” b...