#118 Innovative AI Solutions for CX with Marbue Brown
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
Release Date: 01/09/2025
#142 Leadership Blind Spots and How to Avoid Them
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
What if the key to sustainable business growth isn’t just about generating new leads, but about truly understanding and retaining your existing customers? Are you aware of the invisible forces sabotaging your efforts to create a loyal customer base—and, more importantly, what you can do to fix them? In my latest episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, I sit down with Roger Nicholas, co-author of The CX Lighthouse and a seasoned business growth leader who brings over 25 years of experience in revenue training, business operations, and CX execution. Roger breaks down the real reasons...
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#141 Designing for Trust: Building Confidence from First Click to Last Mile
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
What if you could close the gap between what you think your customers experience and what they actually feel—using raw, unfiltered feedback you can see and hear for yourself? In a constantly evolving digital landscape, the journey from a customer’s very first click to their final interaction is more complex—and crucial—than ever before. But many leaders believe that their customer experience is far better than it really is—a costly blind spot that leads to missed opportunities for building trust and loyalty. How can organizations truly see their products and services through their...
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#140 Measuring the True Cost of Negative Customer Experiences
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
What if negative customer experiences matter more than you think—impacting your bottom line far beyond any single complaint or glowing review? In the latest episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, we dive into why negative experiences carry outsized influence on customer loyalty and business revenue. Many leaders mistakenly chase the most frequent irritants, but as our guest explains, it’s not about quantity—it’s about which problems have the greatest financial impact. If you're a CX leader struggling to prove the ROI of your work, you’ll want to tune in for innovative strategies...
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#139 Client Onboarding and The Trust Equation - Part 2 of 2
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
What’s the secret to building unshakeable trust with your customers—especially when you’re not face-to-face and your product passes through layers before it ever reaches the end user? That question has been top of mind for me, and it’s exactly why I was so excited to sit down with Lisa Schwartz, Chief Operating Officer of Mathematica, on the latest episode of the Delighted Customers podcast. If you’ve ever wondered how trust really forms—not just in simple transactions, but in complex relationships where intermediaries stand between your company and your customers—you’re not...
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#138 Client Onboarding and The Trust Equation-Part 1 of 2
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
Note: This is Part 1 of a 2-part series What does it take to create an onboarding experience so powerful that clients can’t imagine working with anyone else? For executives and customer experience leaders, the onboarding process is much more than an administrative formality—it's the first date, the pivotal moment when a client decides whether to pursue a deeper relationship or walk away. In this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, Mark Slatin sits down with Lisa Schwartz, COO of Mathematica, to unpack the psychology and structure behind onboarding experiences that build...
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#137 From Oprah to Branson: 5 Celebrity Archetypes Every CX Leader Needs
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
What if you could unlock executive buy-in—and real alignment—by channeling the breakthrough strategies of world-famous celebrities in your customer experience approach? In this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, guest Ania Rodriguez flips the script on how CX leaders can influence their C-suite and drive transformative change. By drawing on the archetypes of iconic figures like Oprah, Lady Gaga, Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, and Taylor Swift, Ania reveals how leaders can meaningfully connect with stakeholders, avoid the "hero's trap," and move from mere buy-in to active...
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#136 Beyond Tools & Tactics: "Becoming a Trusted Guide" - New On-Demand Course
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
Are you struggling to cut through organizational resistance and win real buy-in for your customer experience (CX) initiatives? You’re not alone. Even the most skilled CX professionals and change leaders often face the uphill battle of influencing executives and key stakeholders—especially when budgets are tight and positional authority is limited. That’s exactly why the launch of the new on-demand course, "Becoming a Trusted Guide: Empowering CX Leadership," is so exciting for anyone looking to make meaningful change in their organizations. Gabe Smith, CCXP, Content Manager and Associate...
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#135 Emotional Imprinting and the Future of Experience Management
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
Join us for a special episode featuring Lou Carbone, widely regarded as the father of the experience management movement. As the founder, president, and chief executive, Chief Experience Officer of Experience Engineering, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm dedicated to customer and employee experience management, Lou brings over 30 years of expertise to the discussion. He pioneered the field with his groundbreaking 1994 article "Engineering Customer Experiences," which may have originated the term "customer experience." Lou is also the author of the book Clued in, How to Keep Customers...
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#134 "It's Not About the Coffee": A Starbucks President's Recipe for Delighting Customers with CX
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
"It's Not About the Coffee": A Starbucks President's Recipe for Delighting Customers with CX Join us for an insightful conversation with Howard Behar, a pivotal figure in Starbucks' legendary growth. As the President of Starbucks North America and the founding President of Starbucks International for 21 years, Howard participated in the company's expansion from just 28 stores to over 15,000. He also served on the Starbucks board of directors for 12 years before retiring. He's also authored two books on leadership titled "It's not about the Coffee" and "The Magic Cup," book titles that...
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#133 Future of Agentic AI: Transforming Customer Journeys
The Delighted Customers Podcast with Mark Slatin
What if AI-powered technology could not only solve your customers' problems faster but also anticipate their needs—and why do so many organizations still get it wrong? On this episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, we unlock the real reasons why companies struggle to implement AI and automation tools effectively, even as consumer expectations for personalization and seamless experiences reach new heights. Greg Kihlstrom, martech and CX expert, demystifies the hype around chatbots and agentic AI, showing us where most companies stumble and what it really takes to reverse-engineer...
info_outlineIn this thought-provoking episode of the Delighted Customer Show, we are thrilled to welcome back Marbue Brown, the visionary founder and CEO of Customer Obsession Advantage. An authoritative voice in the intersection of AI and customer experience (CX), Marbu has recently contributed to the bestselling book, "The AI Mindset: Thriving in Civilization's Next Big Disruption."
Marbue discusses his chapter, "Transforming Customer Experience with AI Strategies and Innovation," where he refutes the common belief that AI-driven interactions lack personal touch. He shares insights on utilizing AI to tackle long-standing challenges in customer service, such as optimizing onboarding and training processes to improve proficiency and reduce costs. By leveraging AI to simulate training scenarios, companies are enhancing their customer support capabilities while drastically cutting their training times and expenses.
He shares real-world applications, highlighting how AI is revolutionizing business operations, especially in call centers, where quicker information aggregation and comprehensive customer journey insights are leading to improved agent performance and customer satisfaction scores. Marbu stresses the importance of selecting trustworthy AI providers and starting with clear use cases rather than getting lost in the technological allure.
Marbue also provides actionable advice for businesses, emphasizing maintaining an open mind and a learning posture towards AI opportunities while recounting his own enlightening experiences. I personally loved the example he shared about how Sam's Club is using AI to improve the checkout process for customers.
Tune in for a deeply insightful dialogue that addresses how AI can not only solve existing problems but also unleash new possibilities for businesses to thrive in the next big disruption.
Meet Marbue
B. A. Marbue Brown is author of the book Blueprint for Customer Obsession and the Founder and CEO of The Customer Obsession Advantage (customerobsession.net), a firm dedicated to helping companies achieve extraordinary business results through customer obsession.
He is an accomplished customer experience (CX) executive with a track record of thought leadership and signature business results at some of the most iconic companies on the planet, including JP Morgan Chase, Amazon.com, Microsoft Corporation, and Cisco Systems.
His expertise has been featured in premier media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fox Business, CNN Business, CBS News, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes, The Baltimore Sun, The New York Post, Wharton Business Daily, and KTLA-TV.
The new book is The AI Mindset: Thriving in Civilization's Next Big Disruption. You can find it here.