Customer experience is an emotional reaction: A conversation with Donald Chestnut

This week on Catalyst, Tammy is joined by customer experience pioneer and author Donald Chestnut. He's worked at some of the biggest companies in the world, like Unilever, Target, Disney, General Motors and Coke. He's now writing a book about how customer experience has changed. Donald and Tammy discuss what companies can gain by reframing customer experience as customer-centered growth.

Highlights from the episode include:

• Operationalizing customer experience is hard. Donald explains the challenge in measuring and managing something that everyone defines differently. He presses for leaders to think through what they’re trying to achieve when they focus on experience.
• Customer experience should be reframed as customer-centered growth. Tammy and Donald discuss tying customer experience directly to business objectives and outcomes. Where experience is abstract, customer-centered growth measures impact and is accountable to the business.
• Effective customer care drives loyalty. Donald cites a statistic that shows customers who have issues resolved quickly are 50% more loyal than those who never had a problem. He stresses that care is a strategic opportunity for brands to strengthen relationships and trust.

Check out the full episode to learn more about Donald’s approach to leadership, his new book and the five pillars of customer-centered growth.

Please note that the views expressed in this episode may not necessarily be those of NTT DATA.‍

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