Customer Confidential: Untold Stories of Earned Growth

Ep. 268 | Mark Hammond: When AI Becomes the Front Door to Your Business

Episode 268: Companies have spent years designing websites, apps, stores, call centers, and all the other ways for customers to interact with them directly. What happens

Ep. 267 | Daniel Herrmann: By the Time You Quote, Have Customers Already Chosen?

Episode 267: API Heat Transfer was responding to requests for quotation when, according to research in one of its priority segments, buyers had already decided who they t

Ep. 266 | Sam Krause: "That's Not How Banking Works"—Why Chime Takes Risks Traditional Banks Avoid

Episode 266: In Bain's early 2026 Consumer Banking Benchmark, provided by NPS Prism, Chime had the highest NPS among the companies we measured. That raised a basic questi

Ep. 265 | Ryan Fuller: Can You Trust a Five-Star Review Anymore?

Episode 265: Ryan Fuller started questioning online reviews after two terrible stays at highly-rated vacation rentals. Both had 4.9-star ratings. After Ryan posted negati

Ep. 264 | Matt Meeker: 800 Prices, One Promise: What BARK Pays to Reward Loyalty

Episode 264: BARK maintains more than 800 subscription price points because it has promised customers that their price will not increase as long as they remain subscriber

Ep. 263 | Allie Kuehner and Sarah Phelps: Designing the Astronaut Experience: Turning a Half-Million-Dollar, 11-Minute Thrill Ride Into a Moment of Awe

Episode 263: What does it feel like to go into space? To rocket past the Kármán line, float in perfect silence, and return to Earth—all in 11 minutes? Blue Origin's astro

Ep. 262 | Megan Riggs: From Farmers Market Fav to Supermarket Staple: How a Lean Juice Company Scaled Fast

Episode 262: What happens when a cold-pressed juice passion with humble beginnings in your own kitchen counter suddenly meets nationwide demand? Complications arise that

Ep. 261 | Andy Pierce: False Confidence at Machine Speed: How to Make Synthetic Customers Useful

Episode 261: What if you could use AI-generated customer twins to test value propositions, pricing, and demand before you go to market? That is the idea my Bain colleag

Ep. 260 | Jeannie Walters and John Abraham: A Company with No Memory: When Your Systems Don't Remember the Customer

Episode 260: When customers must re-explain the same problem, reopen old tickets, and chase for follow-ups, a shiny new tool won't help unless it's connected to support o

Ep. 259 | Rachel Bicking: Customers' First Micro-Frustration Makes or Breaks the Next Purchase

Episode 259: How do you prevent first-trip hassles such as a room not being ready at check-in, Wi-Fi outages, or service delays from discouraging first-time customers fro

Ep. 258: Charlon McIntosh & Melissa Pint | Accountability is the Product at Frontier: "We Didn't Do Interesting. We Did Effective."

Episode 258: How did two new leaders turn angry customer calls into executive promises to earn customer trust and advocacy?  Charlon McIntosh, Chief Customer Operations

Ep. 257: John Finley | Stop Chasing Surveys: How to Earn the Next Customer Choice

Episode 257: How do you earn the next banking customer's loyalty, one moment at a time? Focus on what customers choose, and why. According to John Finley, head of marke

Ep. 256: Mike Milliron | "We Made It Cool to Care": From CX Resistance to Results

Episode 256: What turns CX skeptics into advocates? A listening engine that makes caring for those you serve the gold standard. At IMG Academy, a private sports academy

Ep. 255: Jason Guardino and Karen San | How Turning 18 Can Break Your Relationship With Healthcare

Episode 255: One of healthcare's biggest blind spots? When patients turn 18. It's the moment they age out of pediatrics and fall headfirst into a system designed to prior

Ep. 254: Gurdeep Pall | The Internet Side of the AI Battle: Why Walled Gardens Fail

Episode 254: What if the future of AI in customer experience is built not by giant platforms but by small, reusable, open source AI agents? Gurdeep Pall, President of A

Ep. 253: Mathieu Staniulis & Séverine Clairet | Blinded by Pride: Inside a 125-Year-Old Co-Op's Return to Customer-Centricity

Episode 253: Desjardins thought its cooperative roots made it member-first by default. Then members started leaving. Desjardins is a 125-year-old financial co-op based

Ep. 252: Erin Wallace | The Data Doesn't Care How Good You Think You Are

Episode 252: Most CX maturity assessments ask how you think you're doing. This one demands proof. Erin Wallace, director of client engagement at MyCX from Bain & Compan

Ep. 251: Mike Valanzola | Many Voices, No Shared Truth: How Dell Revitalized Its Customer Feedback System with Help from the CXRA

Episode 251: In 2018, Dell set out to do something big: turn customer feedback into a system that could not only provide insights, but help set priorities and run the bus

Ep. 250: Sean McEntire | A Decade of Discipline: From NPS Pilot to Outer Loop Powerhouse

Episode 250: Comcast solved the age-old problem of how to make employee suggestions a powerful, reliable source of value-driving improvements at scale.   Sean McEntire,

Ep. 249: Scott Taber | Why Four Seasons Turned Guests Away

Episode 249: When "revenge travel" brought guests roaring back to Four Seasons Hotels, they capped occupancy, turning away guests and revenue. Scott Taber, senior vice