All Things Experience: Edition 8

Happy Monday, and welcome back to All Things Experience.

This week, we’re inviting you to hang out with us at Forrester CX North America, providing you with another set of books to add to your reading list, and diving into the importance of excellent employee experience. It’s a busy week, and we’re happy to have you with us along for the ride.

Now let’s get into it.

See You There | Forrester CX North America

Attending the Forrester CX North America conference in Nashville this week? We’ll see you there! Ride the wave with us and stop by booth 207 to chat with a Medallia expert.

We’re also hosting several sessions that you should join us for:

• How Albertsons Companies Is Using Technology & CX Strategy to Win Customers’ Hearts and Minds | Tuesday, June 13 (12:10PM CT)
• Medallia Spotlight Session | Wednesday, June 14 (11:25AM CT)
• Lunch & Learn with AAA-The Auto Club Group : Using Conversation Intelligence to Drive CX Strategy, Insights, and Action | Wednesday, June 14 (12:40PM CT)

CVS Health : Activating a Culture of Customer Centricity to Create More Meaningful Customer Interactions | Wednesday, June 14 (2:20PM CT)

In every session, we’re proving why Medallia has been named The Leader in the Forrester Wave?: Customer Feedback Management, Q1 2023.

We look forward to connecting with you in person! But even if you’re wanting to tune in from afar, stay connected with Medallia on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram as we’ll share live updates from Forrester ’s conference throughout the week.

Hit the Books | Best Contact Center Books to Read in 2023

Today’s contact center is far from what it was just a few years ago — we went through a global pandemic, emerging technology has reshaped workflows, and customers expect a lot more out of their favorite brands. To stay on top of it all, it’s time for you as a contact center leader, supervisor, manager, or agent to hit the books.

Here’s a list of acclaimed contact center books to read in 2023 to stay on top of your craft and deepen your understanding of how to delight your customers:

• Contact Center Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in the New Era of Customer Experience ( Brad Cleveland )
• Customer Service Tip of the Week: Over 52 Ideas and Reminders to Sharpen Your Skills ( Jeff Toister )
• AI Is My Friend: A Practical Guide for Contact Centers ( Mikhail Naumov )
• Be Amazing or Go Home: Seven Customer Service Habits That Create Confidence with Everyone ( ?Shep Hyken )
• Powerful Phrases for Effective Customer Service: Over 700 Ready-to-Use Phrases and Scripts That Really Get Results ( Renee Evenson )
• Empathy In Action: How to Deliver Great Customer Experiences at Scale ( Tony Bates , Dr. Natalie Petouhoff )
• Enable Better Service: A Customer Service Contact Center Story of Breaking Away from the Norm Through Creativity, Technology, and Innovation ( Aarde Cosseboom - CX Expert )
• Your Call is Important to Us: A Beginner’s Guide to the Contact Center and Customer Experience Technologies ( Boris Najafov )
• Thanks for Coming in Today: Creating a Culture Where Employees Thrive & Customer Service Is Alive ( Ryan Minton )
• Blueprint for the Contact Center of the Future: The IT Guide for Relevancy, Resources, and Results ( Erin Wilson )
• 4 Essential Keys to Effective Communication in Love, Life, Work — Anywhere ( Bento Leal )
• Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service ( Disney Institute , Theodore Kinni )

Every book in the list is available in a physical copy and as an ebook, and some you can also purchase as an audio book for on-the-go listening.

If you’re looking to build out your reading list further, we’ve also compiled lists of the best customer experience books, employee experience books, and digital experience books to read in 2023.

Worth the Read | Is Your Team’s ‘Employee Experience’ Where It Needs To Be?

It’s important not to sacrifice your employee experience (EX) in the name of customer experience (CX). Tiffani Bova , Global Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce , shares her insight into this problem and how companies can avoid it.?

According to Bova, a surefire way to get customers to love your brand is to get employees to love their jobs. Yet, so many executives don’t realize the importance EX plays in improving their CX, or what EX metrics they should be focused on improving.?

• Here are Bova’s questions to ask yourself to determine if your workforce is highly engaged:?
• Is there strong cross-functional collaboration?
• Are projects completed on time and within budget?
• Do employees sign up for stretch projects?
• Are new hires coming from internal referrals?
• Does your company make any ‘best place to work’ lists?
• Are you developing talent and promoting from within?

For more tips on how to improve your employee experience, and by extension your customer experience, head over to Rodger Dean Duncan ’s article for Forbes .

See You There | Customer Contact Week Las Vegas

If you're in Las Vegas for Customer Contact Week 's event next week, we'll see you there! We're attending #CCWVegas (booth 711) and have a breakout session with HelloFresh that you don't want to miss.

Quick Hits | Notable News & Notes

Before you go, here are a few things we thought you might find interesting:

• Take notes from these companies that are getting customer experience right.
• Prioritizing customer experience is a guaranteed way to boost revenue. Get the Executive’s Guide to Driving More Profitable Growth to learn how to make customer experience your secret weapon.
• A strong employee experience can help you scale. Fast Company explains how to turn EX into a lever for growth.
• Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for an exciting Medallia announcement you don’t want to miss.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

- Madeline Buyers , Content Marketing & Social Media Senior Specialist