CX Heroes #49 - Brian Porter

CX Heroes #49 - Brian Porter

Learn in this episode: * Why customers can't be fully honest with a sales rep who carries a quota, and who they open up to instead. * How Brian built an entire chief customer officer program with ChatGPT before he ran a single meeting. * The one rule that decides whether an executive ever gives you a second meeting. * What 60 no-agenda conversations surfaced that three years of dinners and ballgames never did. * Why a handwritten note still outperforms every digital follow-up at the executive level. Brian Porter is the Chief Customer Officer at Ernest, where he has helped grow the company from around 65 employees to nearly 800 across a 30-plus year career. Before the C-suite he led client relations across 14-plus division offices, turning a people-first culture into a real competitive edge in a category most people write off as a commodity. -- Want AI support that's is insanely reliable without the setup headaches? Save time and delight customers with Helpfeel's done-for-you deployment and seamless VoC-based optimization. Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin. Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com

CX Heroes #48 - Amanda Carden-Chamberlain

Learn in this episode: - How RJ Young structures three specialized support teams across 30 products to hit 95 NPS - Why most AI vendor pitches fail Amanda's one-question filter - How to build the internal case for AI adoption when your C-suite is getting pitched directly - What Agent Assist looks like in practice at a 70-year-old company - Amanda's 2028 prediction for the support agent role and why most teams are not preparing for it - The career path from journalism to CX and why amplifying customer voices became the mission -- Amanda Carden-Chamberlain is the Director of Customer Success at RJ Young, a Southeast US business technology company that expanded from printers and copiers into full managed IT infrastructure during COVID. She has spent 17 years in CX across food service, e-commerce at 4Patriots, wine and spirits distribution at Saxco, and enterprise technology. In that time she has also been featured on leading CX blogs for her perspective on customer service as an incubator for future company leaders. -- Want an AI support agent that's actually reliable, without the never-ending setup steps? Save time and delight customers with Helpfeel's done-for-you deployment and seamless VoC-based optimization. Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin. Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com [https://en.helpfeel.com]

CX Heroes #47 - Troy Dennis

Learn in this episode: * How a $0.50 problem on a transit card unlocked millions in customer loyalty. * Why removing everyday friction compounds into retention faster than any new feature will. * What intentional AI calibration looks like in practice and why most teams skip it entirely. * How to tell the difference between a product that works and a "boardroom product" that only works in the meeting where it was designed. * Why ESG and community investment at MasterCard translated directly into closed commercial deals. Troy Dennis leads strategy for regional customers at Experian. His career spans JP Morgan Chase, TD Bank, Regions Bank, and MasterCard, where he led North American digital evolution, prepaid products, and community and belonging programs focused on bringing underserved populations into the digital economy. -- * What if you could pair AI self-service tools with unmatched reliability? * Learn how you can with Helpfeel's AI support suite, including done-for-you deployment and self-service optimization. Over 800+ teams choose Helpfeel to serve customers with prepared AI that's saving costs and boosting retention. Find out more: https://en.helpfeel.com

CX Heroes #46 - Joel Sandi

Learn in this episode: - How to move from a manual support model to an automated, intelligent self-service ecosystem. - Why democratizing knowledge creation is a powerful tool for agent retention and cultural change. - The reality of implementing KCS (Knowledge Centered Service) and how to get executive buy-in. - Why a support agent's job is to create a lasting improvement, not just close tickets. Joel Sandi is the Director of Self-Service and Content Strategy at Outreach, where he leads the transformation of technical data into seamless customer journeys. With a background in journalism and strategic support roles at 8x8, Joel is an expert in architecting unified support portals that deliver high-impact ROI and ticket deflection. -- Want an AI support agent that is insanely reliable without all the setup headaches? Save time and delight customers with Helpfeel's done-for-you deployment and seamless VoC-based optimization. Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin. Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com

CX Heroes #45 - Alex Schaeffer

The CX Files has a new name: CX Heroes. Learn in this episode: * Why AI tools should be managed with the same rigor as a BPO partner. * The importance of a neutral arbiter to audit AI performance and quality. * How to identify which customer use cases are ready for AI and which require a human touch. * Why most AI implementations fail due to vertical silos rather than technical issues. Alex Schaeffer is a veteran CX executive with two decades of experience driving global transformation. Having held leadership roles at Ford Motor Company and serving as VP of Customer Experience at Avis Budget Group, Alex specializes in connecting operational data with real-world customer outcomes. -- Want an AI support agent that outperforms? And want it deployed and optimized, ready to go for you, without the setup headaches? Save time and delight customers with Helpfeel's self-service AI agents with done-for-you VoC-based optimization. Join 625 leading businesses using Helpfeel to boost margin. Learn more: https://en.helpfeel.com [https://en.helpfeel.com/]