5 Women Who Are Leading the Charge in B2B CX
In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating five women who are leading the charge in the field of customer experience.
A few years ago, I wrote about how women’s contributions to martech were being underestimated—sometimes even by women themselves. This year, in honor of Women’s History Month, I wanted to celebrate some of the women who are advancing the critically important field of B2B customer experience (CX).
During DemandLab’s early days, women far outnumbered men on the team. While the gender balance has since evened out, the talents and expertise of women have always been instrumental to the success of my agency and the clients it serves. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working with so many smart, visionary women, and the contributions of those who are leading the charge in CX are especially important right now.
The B2B customer experience has matured less rapidly than its B2C counterpart, but B2B marketers are recognizing that CX can’t be ignored. Business transactions are being reshaped by “consumerization”: as the consumer experience becomes exponentially more personalized and friction-free, consumers are taking those CX expectations into their place of business. According to a 2019 Salesforce survey, 84% of customers say the experiences provided by a company are as important to them as its products and services.
Here are five women who are established leaders and innovators in the field of CX. These are women that I’ve personally followed over the course of my career as a B2B Marketer and CEO and whom I still look to for ideas and inspiration as I advise my clients on their brand’s CX.
Jeanne Bliss: The Godmother
Website: Customer Bliss
LinkedIn: Jeanne Bliss
Twitter: @JeanneBliss
With a career that spans more than 35 years of industry experience, Jeanne Bliss has earned her title as the “Godmother of CX.” One of the first to recognize the importance of the CX function, she has spent years championing the need for deeper, more memorable relationships between businesses and their customers.
As Chief Customer Officer for Lands’ End, Coldwell Banker, Allstate and Microsoft, and later as a leadership consultant, she has helped companies deliver unforgettable experiences by asking: “Who will remember you?” “How do you want to be remembered?” “Where will you fit into the story of people’s lives?” “How will you contribute?” “What will your business do to make lives better?”
Tune in to this Revenue Rebels podcast where Bliss shared her latest insights into the customer experience with me.
Jeannie Walters: The Investigator
Website: Experience Investigators
LinkedIn: Jeannie Walters
Twitter: @JeannieCW
For nearly two decades, Jeannie Walters has worked with some of the world’s leading companies to help them pinpoint the gaps and shortcomings in their CX. Walters takes a forensic approach to CX, meticulously examining every “micro-interaction” that can drive customers away before businesses are even aware that they have a problem.
She is now the Chief Customer Experience Investigator™ at 360Connext, where she helps enlightened leaders strengthen their CX through keynotes, consulting, her CX Cultural Transformation™ program, and customized workshops and webinars.
She is a founding member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), a LinkedIn Learning Instructor, and a Certified Customer Experience Professional. She was named Business Woman of the Year in 2001 by The Business Ledger.
Catch Walters’s weekly podcast, Crack the Customer Code, to learn the ins and outs of creating a great customer experience.
Blake Morgan: The Modernizer
Website: Blake Morgan
LinkedIn: Blake Michelle Morgan
Twitter: @BlakeMichelleM
Morgan brings a unique perspective to CX, urging companies to recognize that their customers are constantly evolving, and their needs and expectations are changing. She has worked to modernize CX for companies including Comcast, Allstate, Genentech, Accor Hotels, Accenture, Adobe, Cisco, Parker Hannifin, Ericsson, Verizon, Omron and more.
In addition to her client work, she is advancing the CX discipline as a guest lecturer at Columbia University, the University of California, San Diego and as adjunct faculty at the Rutgers executive education MBA program. She is the host of The Modern Customer podcast and posts videos regularly on her YouTube channel.
Her most recent book is The Customer of the Future: 10 Guiding Principles for Winning Tomorrow’s Business.
Annette Franz: The Empathizer
Website: CX Journey
LinkedIn: Annette Franz
Twitter: @annettefranz
Franz is at the heart of CX, urging companies to empathize and understand their customers on a deeper level. For over 25 years, she has helped companies learn to understand who their customers are, what problems they need to solve, and what jobs they need to do so that they can design experiences that enable customers to achieve their goals.
She has enriched the field of CX significantly through her coaching, consulting, and workshops as well as her extensive contributions to the field’s thought leadership. She shares insights regularly on her blog, co-hosts the weekly #CXChat on Twitter, writes for publications including Forbes, Business2Community, CustomerThink, Quality Digest, and APICS Magazine.
Read her recently published book, Customer Understanding: Three Ways to Put the “Customer” in Customer Experience and at the Heart of Your Business, to learn how companies can put the customer at the heart of all that their business does.
Megan Burns: The Transformer
Website: Experience Enterprises
LinkedIn: Megan Burns
Twitter: @MeganBurnsCX
Burns has been involved in the field of CX for more than two decades, and has become an expert in leading CX and cultural transformation across the organization. Prior to becoming a CX keynote speaker, facilitator, and executive coach, she developed Forrester’s Customer Experience Management Maturity Model to help organizations benchmark their CX efforts.
Today, she helps leaders spark a culture of customer-centricity by changing personal and organizational habits that stand in the way of delivering truly exceptional customer experiences.
Get bite-sized insights into the best ways to get organizational buy-in for CX transformation by watching Burns’s snackable collection of CX videos.
Spark Your Own CX Transformation
Ready to become a CX advocate and help your own B2B organization become more customer-centric? This free digital boxed set gives you the concepts, frameworks, and usable templates you need to spark the transformation. Download the eBook + playbook boxed set for Change Agents: The Radical Role of Tomorrow’s CMO.