Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker and customer experience expert who believes that a remarkable experience is your best competitive advantage. His 20-year professional career included leadership positions at McDonald’s, Discover and Humana. Dan is the author of two books, The Experience Maker and Winning at Social Customer Care, and he co-hosted the award-winning Experience This! podcast. He earned a B.A. in psychology and communications from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. in marketing from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Dan is also a licensed bartender and a pinball wizard.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CXO Magazine, Dan shared his professional trajectory, insights on the impact of AI on CX, the major takeaways from his best-selling books, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Dan. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path in customer experience?
I actually spent most of my career in marketing. I managed almost every marketing channel from direct mail through SEO and social media. When I worked at Discover Card, the chief digital officer recruited me to a new role called Head of Digital Customer Experience. I asked him why he recruited me, since I had never done that kind of work before, and he told me it was because he had watched me in meetings and that I was always the person with the “Customer” hat on. I was always trying to solve business problems through the lens of the customer. I didn’t even realize that about myself, but he was right! During that role, I fell in love with the power of customer experience, and I have never looked back.
In today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving landscape, what strategies should leaders employ to maintain a strong connection with their customers and anticipate their changing needs?
A very underrated tactic is to just talk to more of them! I’m always surprised at how companies spend so little time with their customers, the people who are literally paying the bills and keeping the lights on. When we ask customers for feedback, they are more than happy to give it to us. And if we are willing to listen, they will tell us what to start, stop, and continue doing to meet and exceed their expectations.
Have you seen, firsthand, any AI impacts on the practice of CX? What impacts are you expecting in the next few years?
YES! In fact, I am just about to announce a brand-new keynote on this topic, called AI Meets Customer Experience: Expect The Unexpected. It will highlight four key components of how AI is impacting CX: hyper-personalization, predictive analytics, virtual reality, and customer service. I’ve really been diving deep into both the technology and case studies, and it is truly incredible. One impressive example is Starbucks. Starbucks collects over 100 million transactions a week across its 30,000 stores worldwide. This massive amount of data is then fed into an AI engine which helps with everything from demand forecasting to staffing levels to loyalty program offers. It’s a great example of how we don’t need more data; we just need to know how to use the data we already have.
Can you please share the major takeaways from your books, The Experience Maker: How To Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can’t Wait To Share and Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences on Social Media.
The Experience Maker is really the culmination of all of my research and storytelling around customer experience. It makes the case that customer experience is the ultimate competitive differentiator, and actually the most important form of sales and marketing. It also introduces my WISER methodology which stands for Witty, Immersive, Shareable, Extraordinary, and Responsive. Together, these five steps help companies consistently create remarkable experiences for their customers, who in turn can’t wait to tell others about them. It finishes with some tangible steps for implementing customer experience initiatives in any company in a simple, practical, and inexpensive way. Winning at Social Customer Care was one of the first books on the market about using social media for customer service rather than just for marketing. I still believe today that social media is all about engagement, not marketing. The book walks through how to develop a social customer care philosophy, how to find the right technology provider, how to recruit and train social customer service agents, and how to integrate social customer care with the rest of your business.
You have been a recipient of several awards and accolades over the years including World’s Top 30 Customer Experience Professionals and Top Keynote Speakers. Our readers would love to know the secret sauce behind your success.
Honestly, it’s that I am fortunate to be able to do what I love. I am so passionate about customer experience, and I love inspiring others to be the same. I think people connect with me because they find that to be genuine and authentic. Additionally, because I spent 20 plus years in corporate America, I’ve been in the trenches doing the work. so I’m not just a career speaker or consultant, I actually know how to get things done in a corporate environment.
How would you describe your leadership style?
I like to lead by example, and I pride myself in being a strong people leader. I think we need more people leaders in business, managers who help build up their teams and understand that success can and should be shared. I was always so proud when someone I managed got promoted, even if it meant they moved to another team. And I really tried to get to know each person individually so that I could customize a plan for their success.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a CX leader?
I am just one of many public voices talking about customer experience. I love to read and watch what others are saying as well, both influencers and practitioners. The space continues to develop as customer expectations continue to rise, and artificial intelligence is simply speeding up that process. It’s an exciting time to both follow and participate in new and innovative experience development opportunities.
What do you believe are the characteristics and actions that you used to get to where you are today?
I think I’ve always been a pretty good influencer, and I don’t mean that in a social media sense. I was known in Corporate America as an idea guy, someone who is always looking for creative solutions to problems. That’s what I love about customer experience; while many initiatives are based on hard data and analytics, the best ones also leverage a healthy dose of creativity. That’s how the most memorable and remarkable experiences are developed. But being an idea guy isn’t enough if you can’t help to influence others to help achieve the vision. I accomplished that by developing strong teams who worked together, played together, and celebrated successes together.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
I really found my passion with keynote speaking, especially in the customer experience arena. I definitely hope to continue that and be speaking in front of even more people in the next 5 years. I do believe that my message is important for all companies to hear, and I’m honored to be a promoter of this growing, critical area of the business. I think you’ll definitely see at least one more book from me and several new speeches to keep things current.
If you could give any advice to someone striving to be a CX Leader, what would it be?
Pay attention to the little things. The customer journey has so many interactions, and it’s often the little things that stand out the most. this is true whether they are little positive things or little negative things. Too often, companies get stuck with this concept that customer experience needs to be a multi-year, multi-million-dollar transformational project. Unfortunately, that often means it never gets done at all. But when we look at customer experience as a series of little things, it becomes so much more approachable. Keep in mind, though, it’s an endless series of little things. So, we have to enjoy the journey, because as of yet there is no destination!