Welcome back to the Digible Dudes podcast. In March 2021, Nicole was approached to be on the advisory board for the Customer Experience Certificate Program at the University of Colorado – Boulder. The University connected with leading experts in the industry, and none other than Nicole, one of our founders, was selected. In today’s episode, we talk about what Nicole learned while following the course and some of the concepts it teaches marketers about maintaining customer success.
We start the discussion with a brief review of the course structure and Nicole’s initial impressions of the course material, and the ideal audience for the course. We also talk about how the universities are introducing more and more new programs that are related to new technologies, concepts, and emerging industry trends.
Two of the key concepts Nicole emphasizes are high touch and tech touch:
High touch is the concept of helping and supporting customers on a human level throughout the buying process and lifecycle.
Tech touch is an approach that more frequent touchpoints managed by software. Nicole shares her thoughts on the pros and cons of each concept and how to keep a healthy balance of the two concepts in a business.
The perception of customer success is something all businesses must take seriously. According to Nicole, some of the stats gathered from the industry show that 80 percent of companies think that they’re providing a superior experience, and 92 percent of customers disagree with that. Nicole dives into why it’s extremely important for companies to take a hard look at this behavior and how to improve their customer experience.
[01:00] Structure – Nicole starts the conversation with an overview of the structure of the course and her thoughts on the course content.
[03:57] Trends in the Academic Arena – Nicole shares her thoughts on how universities are evolving by offering new programs to match newly emerging sectors.
[07:18] Learnings – Nicole’s takeaways from the program related to the onboarding process for customers.
[10:15] High Touch & Tech Touch – The pros and cons of the two concepts and the influence they have on customer success, along with Nicole’s predictions about how the nature of touchpoints may change in the near future.
[14:16] Perception – Nicole identifies perception as a crucial aspect of customer experience. She talks about the huge gap between how service providers think of the success of their service and how customers think about it.
[17:40] Pain Points – The value of identifying customer pain points and how marketers can do it better.
[20:03] Progress – Nicole talks about key takeaways so far and the curriculum and the timeline of the course.
