Top 5 Must-Read CX Blogs for Every Customer Experience Professional ✅

In the digital jungle, we’re all on a safari to spot the rarest of beasts: focus! 🌿👀 Amidst the wild thicket of information, we’ve tracked down the ‘Big Five’ of blogs, as voted by our tribe of savvy members. These blogs will help you tame the wilds of business busyness with wisdom, wit, and a few well-timed roars of insight! 🦁📚

They are Rated by ACX and CPP professionals for their content, objectivity and interesting articles/research into CX and Experience Management (XM).

The most popular blogs to bookmark

Customer Bliss: Jeanne Bliss is the maestro of CX, conducting a symphony of savvy advice and dynamic strategies that’ll have your business dancing to the rhythm of improvement.
https://www.customerbliss.com/

Adrian Swinscoe: Tune into Adrian’s blog for a mixtape of interviews, reviews, and riffs on CX. The backstage pass to insights will have you cheering for an encore.
https://www.adrianswinscoe.com/

Joseph Michelli: Michelli’s blog is a treasure trove of CX gems – it’s like the Swiss Army knife for customer experience aficionados! But wait, there’s more! He’s also the maestro behind a lineup of chart-topping books and the go-to guru for businesses eager to skyrocket their CX to stratospheric heights. 🚀📚
https://www.josephmichelli.com/blog/

CustomerThink: Join the global huddle of business MVPs at CustomerThink, where the playbook is all about scoring big with Customer Strategy, Leadership, and Innovation.
https://customerthink.com/

Shep Hyken: Shep’s blog is like a power chord of customer service wisdom, strumming out amazing experiences with tips so actionable, that you’ll want to stage dive right into implementation.
https://hyken.com/blog/

👉 Frequently Asked Questions related to this post

1. Criteria for Ranking: What criteria or metrics were used to determine the top five customer experience blog rankings?

The professional members of the BP Group (140K people in 137 countries) most often cite these blogs as the ones they visit most often.

Also during the annual survey (now 32 years) we specifically ask “who provides you with the best up to date and engaging information on the web?”

2. Reader Engagement: How do these blogs engage with their readership, and what kind of community interaction can one expect?

In addition to notices from the blogs, their owners also communicate with their LinkedIn followers. The information is usually directly helpful and upbeat, emphasizing the development of Customer and Experience Management.

Here are those LinkedIn connections:

Jeanne Bliss: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannebliss/
Adrian Swinscoe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianswinscoe/
Joseph Michelli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephmichelli/
Bob Thompson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/customerthink/
Shep Hyken: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shephyken/
Steve Towers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers/

3. Blog Updates: How frequently do these top-ranked blogs update their content, and what is their articles’ typical length or depth?

Usually, it is easy to read one-pager, and sometimes, it connects with more in-depth resources. Some blog posters are frequently posted on Linked In and other social platforms like Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook.


Steve Towers, an expert in customer experience, enjoys spreading his enthusiasm for this field through coaching, keynote speeches, books, and social media content.

He helps companies win the triple crown – the simultaneous ability to increase revenues, decrease costs, and enhance service – through the CEMMethod® now in version 15.

With over three decades of experience working with large enterprises worldwide, Steve has distilled the successful strategies of top-performing organizations into a proprietary methodology that can be easily imparted to CX teams and executives.

His forte lies in envisioning the future of customer-centricity, customer experience, process management and realizing long-term benefits from business transformation.
Steve’s approach combines customer-focused thinking, cutting-edge technologies, and a human touch.
Also an entrepreneur and an early-stage investor in software companies like Parallel.

Steve Towers: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers/

Changing While Achieving Stretch Goals (Case study) 👍

It’s difficult to imagine implementing significant change within a large multi-national B2B organisation while dealing with the complexities of COVID and supply chain issues. However, this case study achieves the triple crown of business benefits by increasing revenue, decreasing costs, and significantly increasing value by reducing “time to respond.”

silhouette man standing on road against sky during sunset
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This organisation achieved outstanding results by taking an outside-in approach to customer outcomes and driving results through goal-driven collaboration. As a result, they were able to expand on a large scale during the COVID period.

Let’s take a look at this case study: https://lnkd.in/dZCqFfDZ

LIVE online Outside-In with Steve Towers & Partners

I can’t believe it is this simple…

4 Minute overview of the content of the 6 sessions over 6
weeks at 3 hours per week

Hi Steve here, as an aside I first ran these sessions in December last year and they were very well received, despite being on a Sunday, so ignore my comment in the first few seconds about Sunday because they are through the week as well.

You will join for 3 hours per week in a live interactive video call and put to work the techniques I review in the video. Immediately usable with colleagues (near or far) you will innovate new approaches to work as we all grapple with our new normals.

Available across the planet in time zone friendly sessions – watch the overview and click the links below to review the detail and register.

See you on the inside! (I mention Sunday training but that is up to you)

Please keep safe in our new normal and I hope to see you soon in the online sessions! (Live, interactive and hands-on with real case studies).

Customer Experience world-class online training

The online ACX Masters program gives Customer Experience and Business Transformation leaders the opportunity to go beyond surface-level presentation and get hands-on, practical takeaways to enable their own successful, business-wide transformations.

Attracting 100,000+ global professionals for those handling seismic business change, this Masterclass provides a Fast track look into customer experience management, change, leadership, BPM and CX space, and the challenges that leading industry professionals are overcoming, both on a macro and micro level.

See the full ACX Masters Level 1-5 online agenda at https://www.cxexecutive.com/agenda.html

Gain the insights from the 2020 Amazon Number One bestseller, ‘Dare! Behind The Scenes Of The Best Business Transformation Project In The World.’ And how large and small organizations can transform their people, processes and performance rapidly with an inclusive approach that delivers successful business and customer outcomes.

Transformation 2020 version

30-minute keynote shares the future.

Did you see the Dare! the best selling book launch in February? It features the story of the transformation of Apa Nova, a Veolia company, based in Romania. It is a great story – you can access the book here – https://www.amazon.co.uk/DARE-Behind-Business-Transformation-Project/dp/1916312004/httpwwwstevet-20

In addition, the authors participated in a conference to discuss and share the secrets of success. Here is my keynote from that event.

One Day Masterclass April 21 Business Transformation Hands-on

Developing the skills to ‘see around corners’ is just one of the factors that separate high performing professionals and companies from the also-rans.
That is what this one-day Masterclass, led by Number One Best Selling Author, Global 20 Guru and Consultant to the best, Steve Towers, is all about.

This is an intensive hands-on workshop during which you will gain access to powerful tools that can, with immediate impact, transform your business and customer outcomes forever.

You can review the complete detail here: https://denvermasterclass.eventbrite.com

You will leave the workshop equipped with new tools and techniques, access to all the workshop materials plus a signed copy of Steve’s books Outside-In and his 2020 Number One bestseller Dare! Behind The Scenes Of The Best Business Transformation Project In The World.

You can review the complete detail here: https://denvermasterclass.eventbrite.com

Space is limited so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Testimonials:

You have impacted the lives of many of us in the Business community, in a big way in our career journey. Our success can be attributed to your insights on Outside-In Thinking and Customer Experience, among others.
Mashaba Mulaudzi, Manager Process Innovation, South Africa

This experience has completely transformed how we measure, collaborate, communicate and innovate with the customer in mind. Keen to guide the next willing souls on this journey.
Durrel Ramrathan, ACX Master Coach

Brilliant Workshop. The speaker was awesome and gave great guidance on matters I am finding in the workplace.
Cindy-Lee Muller, Planning & Roadmap Manager, MTN (Pty) Ltd

The workshop is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to simplify and expedite processes thereby enhancing customer satisfaction. The speaker is immensely knowledgeable and demonstrates vast experience in the subject.
David Mulovhedzi, DPSA

Thank you so much for your time, energy, and investment in our growth and success during our Masters course. You shared your wisdom, stories, and made it personalized to us. We are so grateful.
SAP Sales Process Optimization Team, USA

Thanks to you for a fantastic mentoring programme … I am an Outside-In fan now!
Jimmy Cuadra, Director of Information Management, Akzo Nobel Paints, Singapore

Advanced BPM and Customer Centricity (india and the rest of the world)

Just published from a recent interview in India:

Steve Towers is a business process and customer satisfaction expert and the author of “Outside In – The Secret of the 21st Century Leading Companies”. 

In India, he advises the Tata group, Wipro and other BPOs on ways to organise their processes and people better to deliver customer outcomes successfully. Towers, a speaker at the Nasscom India Leadership Forum , took time off for a conversation with Goutam Das.

Q. Have organizations started to worry more about customer centricity these days? 
A
. It is top of the pile in terms of themes. Customer centricity, however, is not always understood. We tend to talk about it from a technology-centric point of view – we tend to think of information technology and front-end systems. We talk about CRM (customer relationship management) systems and things like that. Organizations need to move beyond what we refer to as ‘inside out’ thinking. One of the reasons to move forward is that customers themselves has changed. They have become promiscuous – they are not as loyal as they used to be. They have also become very rebellious – highly choosy in terms of who they want a product from. This causes them to move very quickly versus the longer-term relationships of the past. All our organizations are collections of customers and their expectations have risen with the availability of technology, which gives them access to a lot more information. Those organizations that understand that have been able to look at customer centricity in a different way. We refer to that way as “outside in”. 

Q. Explain your philosophy of ‘outside in’ and how companies have benefited from this. 
A.
 It means identifying what customer needs are and then working backwards to organise the company accordingly. Those organizations that are struggling – the Kodaks, the Nokias, RIM – they are still looking at the world inside out. Those who have been successful have seen the world outside in. They are aligning their business to deliver against customer needs, which can be created. Emirates Airlines creates that need by talking about the experience that they are going to give you once you arrive at the destination. Disney tells a very good story on the difference between wants and needs. They often say the customer does not know what they want. When you arrive at a Disney park, the first question a customer may ask is: “Where’s the toilet?” 

The second most asked question is “What time is the Three O’clock Parade?” Customers are articulating a need within that question and the answer is in the context of that question. A woman with two small kids is not asking what time the parade is – she already knows the time – what she really needs to know is a place where she can go and stand with the kids, where there is a water fountain, an ice-cream vendor. She wants to be away from the hot sun. She hasn’t articulated that but the organization understands that need. Disney works on the basis of needs, not wants. Similarly, Nokia was very successful 10 years back and went on building devices that customers wanted. Other organizations thought differently. Apple made an observation on how many interactions one needs to pull up a telephone number. In an inside out phone, that will be seven-eight key presses. Everyone of those key presses is a moment of truth. And you have to build functionality to support that moment of truth. More functionality means a more complex system. Apple redesigned the interface and there are three moments of truth instead of seven-eight. It is less expensive to do that and offers a better customer experience. That is a principle Nokia has missed. 

Q. Do Indian companies have an outside in perspective?
A.
 There are two kinds of organizations. One: those who are carrying on building efficiencies and effectiveness and use things like Lean (a methodology of eliminating waste in a company) and Six Sigma to remove waste. Eventually, you get to a point where you optimize processes and can’t go any further. Other organizations say Lean and Six Sigma are fine but we want to challenge if a process actually deserves to exist. In India, there is a clear distinction between those organizations that are getting it and those that don’t. 

Q. How do you measure who is getting it right? 
A.
 It is winning the triple crown, which is simultaneously growing revenues, reducing costs and enhancing service. The triple crown can be directly linked to customer success. Instead of starting with resources a company has, then going to market strategy and then finding customers, you start with customers and their needs and then align everything in the organization to deliver that. In India, IndiGo (Airlines) is a prime example of looking at the world in a different way. Contrast IndiGo with Kingfisher – they talk about the customer being the king but the customer can’t be king at the expense of your business. The reason customer is king is that we can grow shareholder value, can create profits and deliver service. Other examples of companies looking outside in are Tata Motors and the transformation of Jaguar. 

For more information see : http://www.bpgroup.org and http://www.advancedbpm.com