Last week I blogged a video recap of day one of Forrester’s Customer Experience Forum East, 2014. I had originally planned that post to cover both days of the forum, which has grown to become Forrester’s largest event in our 30+ year history. But at some point I realized that there was just too much material to cram into a single post.

Which led, inevitably, to this post with my video recap of day two.

If you were also at CX East, here’s a reminder of what happened on that second day. And if you weren’t there, here’s a preview of the types of things you’ll see at our Customer Experience West in Anaheim on 11/6 – 11/7 and our Customer Experience Forum EMEA in London on 11/17 – 11/18.

Rick Parrish, Senior Analyst, Forrester

Rick Parrish kicked off the morning with a major update to our research on the customer experience ecosystem, which we define as: The web of relations among all aspects of a company — including its customers, employees, partners, and operating environment — that determine the quality of the customer experience.

That web of relationships often leads to unintended consequences for both frontline employees and customers. Why? Because back office players take well-intentioned but misguided actions – like what happened with the US federal government in this example from Rick. 

 

John Maeda, Design Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers

Next we heard from design demigod John Maeda, the former president of Rhode Island School of Design. In his current position, John sits at the intersection of design thinking, innovation, and investment money (I think I want to build a storefront on that corner). He shared some candid views on what works and what doesn’t for companies trying to tap into that dynamic.

 

Kelly McSwain-Campbell, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Director, U.S. Bank

What would our New York CX Forum be without an executive speaker from a bank? Fortunately, I can’t answer that question because Kelly McSwain-Campbell agreed to tell us about U.S. Bank’s mission to move its customer experience from good to great. In this clip she talks about how they started their effort by focusing on customer understanding – which, by the way, is the right place to start.

 

Jessica Saperstein, Division Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

At Forrester we do a lot of research on B2B customer experience. In the course of doing that research, we’ve bumped into ADP a number of times. Their business is very complex, and they take a highly disciplined approach to managing that complexity.

In this clip of me interviewing Jessica, she talks about how ADP rose to a challenge that confronts many companies: how to deliver a great customer experience when your legacy IT systems put you at a disadvantage compared with new competitors starting from scratch. Answer: If you don’t want to lose out, you step up.

 

Want your customer experience to improve your business results? Here’s the last word on that topic from Forrester’s Megan Burns

Ultimately, Forrester covers customer experience not because it’s a “feel good” topic but because it’s the best way we know to retain customers, get that next sale, and win new customers. That’s why I’m going to close this day two recap with one more clip of Forrester vice president and principal analyst Megan Burns, who explains why we’ve taken the radical step of changing the way we measure CX. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse into this year’s event. We’ll be back in New York next year with Customer Experience Forum East, 2015, on June 16 and 17. See you then!