The Account Experience Podcast

Epizodes

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  "If you wanna have a bestseller, you gotta be a bestseller" with Lou Shipley, author of Unlikely Entrepreneurs 24.12.2025 29min

  In this episode of The Account Experience Podcast, Adam Dorrell sits down with Lou Shipley — former three-time software CEO, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, board member at CustomerGauge, and author of the new book Unlikely Entrepreneurs, already a top-three Amazon bestseller ahead of launch. Adam and Lou reflect on more than twenty years of working together, using that shared history to explore what really separates successful B2B companies from the rest. Lou shares key lessons from his book, including why entrepreneurship doesn’t follow a single path — and why experience, judgment, and empathy often matter more than youthful bravado. A central theme of the conversation is customer and account experience as a leadership signal. Drawing on Lou’s time at Black Duck, they discuss how listening to customers cuts through operational noise, reveals hidden risk, and exposes growth opportunities long before they appear in dashboards or forecasts. The episode also explores what it’s like to build and lead companies later in life, the advantages of pattern recognition and perspective, and why founders and CEOs should treat customer insight as a strategic asset — not a “soft” metric. A thoughtful, practical conversation for founders, CEOs, and B2B leaders focused on building trust, resilience, and long-term value. Find Lou on loushipley.com
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  Taylormaking Your B2B Experience: Ken Hughes on Lessons from Pop's Biggest Brand 12.11.2025 30min

  In this episode, Adam Dorrell chats with CX royalty, Ken Hughes (the King of CX), about the human side of experience. They explore how emotion drives loyalty and trust, drawing lessons from B2C giants like Taylor Swift for the B2B world. Ken shares some great anecdotes about how storytelling and vulnerability make ga reat CX experience. He emphasizes that CX is a philosophy, not just a department, and shares insights on building genuine emotional connections with customers. Ken’s new book is Taylormaking — get the details from  https://www.taylormaking.com/
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  The Man Who Interviewed 10,000 Customers 06.11.2025 27min

  In this episode, Adam Dorrell, CEO of CustomerGauge, speaks with Mark Fonseca, Partner at Pragmetrics, about his experience conducting over 10,000 customer interviews. Mark shared his unique three-question approach to B2B customer loyalty assessments, focusing on Net Promoter Score, understanding the "why," and identifying what it takes to achieve a perfect score.  Mark spoke about the importance of creating a "safe harbor for the truth" and building trust quickly to uncover candid insights.  He also discusses how his role as an agnostic third party allows customers to share feedback they might not otherwise, leading to surprising discoveries about customer loyalty and potential revenue opportunities.  
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  Lights! Camera! Experience! With Chris Savage of Wistia 07.07.2025 37min

  In this episode of the AX Podcast, Adam Dorrell sits down with Chris Savage, CEO and Co-Founder of Wistia, to explore the growing role of video in customer experience.   Video has become a powerful tool in sales and marketing, but how can it be leveraged to improve account experience and customer retention?   Drawing from the world of storytelling and the classic “Hero’s Journey” narrative, this episode unpacks how video can be used to create deeper emotional connections and more impactful communication in B2B relationships.   With over 14 years of experience as a Wistia customer, Adam has seen firsthand how Wistia’s product and approach foster long-term loyalty and engagement.   The conversation covers: Why storytelling is essential in CX How businesses can use video to drive retention Wistia’s customer-centric philosophy and lessons learned This episode is ideal for B2B professionals seeking to enhance their account experience strategy through engaging content and effective communication.
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  Your First Customer Is Your Colleague 23.06.2025 27min

  Host Adam Dorrell welcomed back the outspoken and often hilarious Ben Phillips, CCXP, leader of Customer Experience in Fortune 500 companies, for the second time! He’s an author, CX professional, and top voice in the customer experience world — truly one of the few real experts in B2B CX. The two dove into the strategy gap in B2B CX programs and how internal experience is as important as measuring customer experience. You won't want to miss this lively episode. Ben is reachable on https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-phillips-ccxp/
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  The Two Speeds of Change in Customer Experience 09.06.2025 35min

  What happens when Customer Experience (CX) moves from buzzword to boardroom priority?In this episode, Host Adam Dorrell was joined by Nienke Bloem, a globally recognized CX leader and educator with CSP and CCXP qualifications. She’s dedicated to working with customer experience leaders and elevating their CX impact. If you’ve seen her live or watched her videos, you’ll know her contagious energy and practical approach to making CX strategies work! Nienke and Adam discuss why CX isn't just a department but a company-wide movement, how to get board members to feel the customer truth, and the two speeds of change (and why leaders must master both)If you're passionate about B2B CX and want to drive impact at the highest level, this one's for you.
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  Challenging the C-Suite to Get On the Phone With Customers 04.06.2025 39min

  What happens when traditional B2B customer surveys fail spectacularly, yielding less than 1% response rates and delivering feedback that's months too late to act on?  Gerard Hutchings, Head of Business Development Strategy at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, found himself facing exactly this challenge in the asset management industry. But instead of accepting defeat, he created something revolutionary: a customer feedback program where the entire C-suite: CEO, CFO, COO, and department heads, personally conduct 15-minute customer calls using Net Promoter Score (NPS) methodology.  The result? Nearly 100% response rates, real-time actionable insights, and clients who comment positively on the organizational culture..  In this episode, Gerard shares how he transformed the fear of feedback into executive leadership opportunity, why "now's not a good time" actually means "now is the perfect time" for customer conversations, and how applying scientific methodology to sales relationships can unlock billion-dollar client insights that traditional surveys simply can't capture.
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  Breaking the Mold: What Could a Disruptor Do in CPG Customer Experience? 24.03.2025 31min

  Disruptors have made a large impact and step-changed performance in many othersectors. What if these 3 disruptors did exactly that to established customer experience (CX) approaches: Netflix, Uber, and Amazon? Hosted Adam Dorrell alongside Nigel Tordoff, Chair of the CPG Experience Council, discussed howconsumer-focused technology companies like Amazon, Uber, and Netflix have disrupted traditional industries through a customer-centric approach, data-driven decision-making, and innovative revenue models. They explored how consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies could learn from these disruptors by prioritizing simplicity and customer benefit, leveraging data to enhance the customer experience, and implementing subscription-based offerings that empower customers with choice and flexibility.
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  The Power of Transparency in Leadership: How Getronics Builds Trust With Customers 10.03.2025 33min

  In this episode of The Account Experience Podcast, host Adam Dorrell sits down with Bill Main, Director of Global Customer Success and Customer Experience at Getronics, to uncover the secrets behind building a truly customer-centric organization. Bill shares how Getronics achieves a 50% NPS response rate, why customer experience is more than just a number, and how leadership transparency builds trust. Whether you’re in B2B or just passionate about CX, this conversation is packed with actionable insights to elevate your customer experience strategy.
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  When the Champion Leaves, How Can the Team Pick up the Pieces? 24.10.2024 40min

  In this episode, Host Adam Dorrell spoke with Ragna Ghoreishi, a seasoned Vienna-based customer experience (CX) leader and owner of RagnaDigital, a boutique CX consultancy. Ragna spoke candidly about her experience at a global IT organization working on a large B2B CX project when suddenly the project sponsor and champion left. This is a situation Adam has seen in many companies. He asked Ragna to open up about how it affected her and how she salvaged the project.  Her tips:  Don't focus on just one strong leading figure; build early on a network of strong advocates with closeness to the board. Carry it on the shoulders of multiple strong leaders Make it everybody's topic as part of the growth/revenue targets Ownership needs to be with the functions who can make an impact; make them accountable — you cannot improve CX from a CX team only. It is a business effort! This episode is a great conversation that can help you plan a large project.
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  How Coca-Cola LATAM Aims to Deliver Experiences “Only Coke Can Do” 23.10.2024 22min

  "Our ambition is to be the undisputed LATAM CX leader, delivering experiences 'Only Coke can do.'" In a special edition of the Account Experience Podcast, Adam Dorrell is in Bogota, Colombia, where he was one of the presenters at The Coca-Cola Experience Summit Latin America 2024. For its second year, the conference had 80+ attendees and 31 bottler operations represented, continuously serving as an inspiring and highly operational meeting.  The Coca-Cola team invited speakers across the continent to help evolve the vision of experience in the region, which can be summed up as Coca-Cola's ambition to be the undisputed LATAM CX Leader, delivering B2B experiences only they can do. To understand some of the successes and challenges, Adam interviewed some of the key people there, including:   Luis Carlos Mira Olarte  Customer Experience (CX) Director LATAM, The Coca-Cola Company Mariana Lozano OrtizGil Loyalty and Customer Experience Manager, Arca Continental Christian Nunes Christian Nuñez Customer Experience Manager, Coca-Cola FEMSA, Mexico Mauricio HernandezSenior Consultant, The Click! Paulo MendesLATAM Value to Market & Consumer Head, The Coca-Cola Company,  Cary SelfVice President of CX Education and Development, CustomerGauge  
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  Closing the Loop Is Like a Ghost: Don’t Do It and It’ll Haunt You 26.08.2024 29min

  In this episode, Adam talks with a friend of the podcast and CustomerGauge Vice President of Customer Experience, Cary Self. He’s got years of optimizing experience and energizing entire workforces around navigating customer feedback and managing the follow-up process. Discussion topics include the right timing to follow up (48 hours is just the title of an Eddie Murphy film, not the time it should take you), how to follow up with detractors, passives, and promoters, thank-you notes, and overcoming the “fear of feedback." And they even take a deep dive into whether it should be called “Closing the loop” or “Following up” — what’s your opinion? Listen to this episode and see if you agree! Cary Self can be found on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cary-t-self-41393640/ His popular webinar series “Champions of Change” can be seen here in the archives: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
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  Delivering on B2B Experience When Management Is Obsessed With Everyone Else’s Score 12.08.2024 35min

  Adam’s guest is the outspoken and often hilarious Ben Phillips CCXP, leader of Customer Experience at Fujitsu. He’s an author, a CX professional, and a top voice in the customer experience world — one of the few real experts in B2B CX. Ben is open about how the program is run at Fujitsu, talking through some of his challenges and how the program is evolving. He’s also generous in talking about real benchmarks in the business.  Adam and Ben discuss the pros and cons of competitive benchmarks: when to use them and how not to get tripped up. Ben also makes a good point about CX and how it is nothing like Harry Potter. Ben is reachable at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-phillips-ccxp/ and the link to the B2B benchmarks he refers to is here: https://customergauge.com/ebook/b2b-nps-and-cx-benchmarks-report and https://customergauge.com/ebook/cpg-experience-benchmarks-report
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  Finding Riches in the Wealth Advisors' Experience 11.06.2024 31min

  Jackie Kesterson, Director of Client Experience at Orion Advisor Solutions, opens a treasure chest of B2B experience knowledge. Orion's client base consists of 1000s of investment advisors and wealth managers. As you can imagine, that’s a very demanding customer base! Jackie ensures the voice of the customer is acted on and maintains a client-centric culture to drive business growth.  This discussion covers how rewarding staff on NPS is difficult and asking customers for feedback several times a year is best managed.  Today's episode is a great journey into a real B2B technology company that prides itself on customer experience.
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  Passion and Proving the Numbers Are Key to Beyon’s CX Success 20.05.2024 29min

  Zahra Eid is the Customer Experience Manager at Beyon, a regional Digital Communications/Telco business based in Bahrain. She explains how she energized their customer experience (CX) program, growing it from research roots to a company-wide, silo-busting program based on action and connecting CX measurement to revenue growth. Host Adam Dorrell leads her to talk about the transformation from the Batelco brand to Beyon and how her CX program has become more digital, just like the company's services. Zahra also discusses how the company’s commitment to excellence has helped elevate the brand. She is a pioneer in identifying market trends, optimizing customer touchpoints, and creating a customer-centric culture within the organization. This is a fascinating insight into the diversity of CX programs worldwide and how customer experience is evolving in the Gulf region.
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  B2B Net Promoter for Mid-Market and Enterprise With Involta 08.04.2024 37min

  This week Adam Dorrell sits down with CustomerGauge client Lucas Mistelske, Vice President of Client Experience at Involta. Involta is an enterprise-class IT infrastructure partner that provides advanced colocation, hybrid cloud solutions, superior data center experiences, and connectivity with first-class fiber. Lucas has led the deployment of Involta’s Managed Infrastructure Services offering and spearheaded their Net Promoter Score program. In this episode, Adam dives into the value NPS brings to Involta, the mechanics within the program, and what Lucas has learned throughout the process. You won't want to miss this conversation if you're a mid-market to enterprise company looking to scale your customer experience.
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  B2B Customer Experience Is All About Culture 19.03.2024 28min

  Anna-Maija Tanninen is a female entrepreneur who started CX Agency in Helsinki, Finland. CX Agency helps B2B companies successfully develop and lead customer-centric changes through services like customer experience strategy to business design. Previously she was a partner at Futurelab and a management consultant with Accenture and elevator company Kone. To use a terrible pun, Anna-Maija can LIFT all your programs.  In this episode, she talks about culture: “To understand if we truly are customer-centric, we cannot observe culture from the corporate level only. We should have ways to experience the culture from the frontline, as well.” You won't want to miss Anna-Maija's insights on “Silent Information” and her top three tips for B2B CX.
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  Teledyne Ignites Great Customer Experiences Through NPS 08.01.2024 25min

  To heat things up with the first episode of the New Year, Host Adam Dorrell welcomes Nick Wood, the Global Marketing Director at Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection; a division of Teledyne Technologies Inc. Teledyne is coming up on its 75th birthday, marking almost 100 years of providing reliable customer experiences to its long-standing customers. Adam and Nick dive into why the business made the turn towards a structured strategy (hint: it's all about the data), the importance of closing the loop on feedback, and Nick's lightbulb moments he's had throughout his career that have led to long-term CX success.
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  Americans Discovering the Joy of a Pint of Beer 14.12.2023 12min

  The pint is making its way west, and Americans are now beginning to understand why it's been a staple across the pond. During this quick episode, Nigel Tordoff, Chairman of the CPG Experience Council, joins Adam Dorrell to walk through the article "Americans are discovering the joy of a true pint of beer" in The Economist. Why is this a trend in the market? How might a trend like this affect the convenience store? What might be driving this new experience? Join Adam and Nigel as they break down this market shift through a customer experience lens.
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  The CPG CX Initiative & Strategy w/ Nigel Tordoff 24.10.2023 14min

  When we care, it makes all the difference. Adam Dorrell, CEO & Co-Founder of CustomerGauge, sits down again with Nigel Tordoff, Chairman of the CPG Experience Council, to consider the ways customer experience can grow a business.  Nigel kicks off this episode by sharing his 'CX Hypothesis' on what he thinks is the best approach for reaching customers and making an impact. Adam and Nigel dive into testing the hypothesis through an Airline Industry example along with discussing the four groups of people businesses generally have to please + just HOW many people make up each. If you've been following along with the CPG Experience Council podcast series, this is a fantastic topic to end on.