As a business leader, creating a brand identity that resounds with your audience isn’t simply about having a solid business plan, an eye-catching logo and color scheme, or a memorable slogan. It is about leveraging the ultimate customer experience.
Steve Forbes, the Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, believes investing in your brand is the most essential investment you can make in your business. While this will remain true for companies of all shapes and sizes, when meeting customer needs, leaders are now centering their focus on the customer experience (CX). That is, how your business engages with each customer at every point of their buying journey. If your brand is the best investment your company can make today, then CX is what provides the essential backbone of your company brand.
Hiring a CX-focused keynote speaker at your next company event can transform your team’s customer approach, inspire actionable strategies, and promote a customer-centric culture. The importance of choosing the right CX-focused keynote speaker cannot be overstated: In addition to the financial investment, they are responsible for setting the tone for the entire conference and inspiring change and action after the event ends.
In this curated list of can’t-miss speakers, we spotlight CX trailblazers who have captivated audiences worldwide. From memorable anecdotes to actionable insights, these speakers are reshaping the contemporary CX landscape. Consider one of these five CX thought leaders for your next event if your priorities include up-leveling your organization’s customer engagement, retention, and advocacy.
1. Brittany Hodak and Creating Superfans
Brittany Hodak is an award-winning entrepreneur and keynote speaker who wants to help you future-proof your company with a comprehensive customer experience strategy. In the last 15 years, Brittany has helped some of the world’s leading companies, like Amazon and Walmart, discover the secrets to creating a loyal customer base that returns again and again. In her recent best-selling book Creating Superfans, Brittany uses her sharp business insights and clever anecdotes from the entertainment world to provide business leaders with a game-changing CX system.
Brittany knows that every employee has the ability to create superfans: loyal, enthusiastic customer advocates. She brings tools and tips to equip teams to make customer experience a fun and engaging part of their company’s business strategy. Whether you are launching a new business or managing an already successful company, her framework has significant value: effectively telling your brand story, understanding your customer’s story, personalizing the experience, exceeding expectations, and repeating for long-term customer growth. Brittany brings industry-relevant case studies, research, live audience interactivity, and humorous real-life experiences that will inspire change at your next company event and fire up the audience about their roles in turning customers into superfans.
2. Greg Kihlström and First-party Marketing
Greg Kihlström has an extensive background in customer experience, employee experience, marketing technologies, digital transformation consulting, training, and speaking on a national and global level. As the best-selling author of the Agile Brand Guides and recognized as a 2022 Top 10 Marketing and Customer Experience Thought Leader by Thinkers 360, Greg has leveraged himself as a key CX expert to top brands such as Adidas, The Coca-Cola Company, and Dell.
As a regular speaker at national conferences, summits, and global industry events, he is also known as a highly engaging professional speaker who is teaching business leaders how to “stay agile in an experience-first, privacy-conscious, customer-centric world.” That is, how to achieve success with an energetic mindset, create a first-party data strategy, and maneuver customer demands to provide a safe, secure, and personalized customer experience.
3. Scott McKain and Customer Loyalty
When it comes to determining what your customers truly want and what your organization has to offer, Scott McKain sees a significant gap that has been damaging customer loyalty. His decades of research show leaders that profitability isn’t simply about selling your product or service. Instead, it is about recognizing how emotional engagement and relationship-building with customers have the capacity to help your brand stand out from competitors.
By establishing a higher level of customer experience, the Hall of Fame speaker and best-selling author has devised a distinct and influential business strategy that helps establish greater customer trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. Through his live and hybrid speaking events, Scott is guaranteed to help your company take action with tangible and valuable CX insights and achieve exemplary performance in the coming years.
4. Shep Hyken and Customer Service Satisfaction
Every CX professional will tell you how the customer experience landscape is changing and how your business is inevitably being impacted by your industry competitors. Shep Hyken, a Hall of Fame keynote speaker and well-known author, also tells us that business leaders today need to look beyond single experiences and competitor experiences when it comes to customer service satisfaction.
Instead, leaders should focus on each customer’s ultimate customer service experience because today’s customers will always keep their best service experience at top-of-mind. Whether participating in one of Shep’s customizable CX programs or attending one of his energetic presentations, business leaders are bound to experience a touch of magic and laughter that will help build a customer-focused culture for ultimate customer service satisfaction.
5. Jeannie Walters and Company Culture
For the last 20 years, Jeannie Walters, CCXP, has dug deep into customer research focused on investigating the most positive and negative customer experiences. She believes that “Leadership has to embrace and direct the importance of delivering exceptional experiences throughout the customer journey.” Today, Jeannie is recognized as a CX thought leader, podcaster, and internationally endorsed TEDx speaker. Her goal is to eliminate bad customer service experiences by identifying the small, overlooked customer journey moments that impact overall satisfaction and retention. As the innovator of the Customer Experience Investigator™ methodology and CEO of 360Connext, Jeannie is helping business leaders transform their company culture by looking closely at customer thoughts at every step of the customer journey.
Recently, Jeannie spoke to entrepreneurs on how to leverage mapping of the customer journey to gain a competitive edge at the 2023 National Speakers Association’s Influence Conference. You can also catch her at regular CX conferences, training, and workshops in 2024 to learn first-hand how to see things from your customer’s perspective.
Keynote Speakers in an Experience Economy
As customer expectations continue to ebb and flow when it comes to brand engagement and satisfaction, companies need to place greater emphasis on the customer experience. In today’s experience economy, customers aren’t simply interested in the quality of the product or service purchased; they expect company brands to offer a personalized experience that meets their unique needs and demands. To be a business that takes control of its CX strategy in 2024 and beyond, book a customer experience keynote speaking engagement at your next company event.
Image credit: Dani Hart; Pexels
Thank you for including me on this list of amazing customer experience speakers. Much appreciate you, Chalmers!