Experience Strategy Podcast Newsletter: People Helping People: How CEO Lee Roquet Leads with an Experience Mindset
Welcome to the Experience Strategy Podcast Newsletter! Like our popular and long-running Experience Strategy Podcast, this newsletter is dedicated to those who design, manage, and lead experience strategies for companies large and small. Our big purpose is to catalyze the growth of experience strategy by sharing the tools, techniques, and ideas that are used by the most impactful teams and companies.
In each newsletter, you’ll find practical, actionable concepts, drawn from our most popular podcast episodes, that you can use to serve your customers, employees, and company.
Join us in the latest episode and newsletter of the Experience Strategy Podcast as we are joined by our special guest Lee Roquet, CEO of Finch, an e-commerce marketing powerhouse. Tune in as Lee shares invaluable lessons from his transition from Chief Customer Officer (CCO) to Chief Executive Office (CEO). Discover how he leads companies with an unwavering experience mindset, and master the art of fostering a people-first approach in team leadership.
In this episode, Lee Roquet shares his journey from Chief Customer Officer to CEO. Shifting from a purely customer-centric focus to a CEO’s broader responsibilities demands a strategic mindset shift. Roquet advocates for aligning customer experience initiatives with the overall business goals. His advice is a beacon for leaders, emphasizing the importance of breaking down silos and understanding the intricate relationship between customer-centric practices and the organization’s landscape.
Orchestrating Companies with Experience
Leveraging his experience, Lee Roquet emphasizes the importance of weaving a customer-centric approach into the core of an organization’s culture. Leadership plays a pivotal role in fostering a business culture deeply committed to exceptional customer experiences. Whether through specialized experience programs or strategic decision-making, the fundamental message is that companies flourish when customer experience is a fundamental value throughout the entire business. This transcends individual programs, shaping the overall organizational culture and encouraging experience strategists to assume a leadership role.
Lee’s Take on Understanding Client Needs
Lee places significant emphasis on identifying the “jobs to be done” for clients, stressing the need to delve deep into client requirements to serve not merely as service providers but as strategic partners capable of delivering tailored solutions and fostering enduring client relationships. He recommends a continuous process of seeking feedback, deciphering pain points, and adapting solutions. Going beyond conventional survey methods, Roquet promotes active listening and recalibration based on evolving client expectations.
Team Leadership
Lee's people-first philosophy transcends into his team leadership. He underscores the paramount importance of understanding team dynamics, cultivating transparent communication, and appreciating the individual contributions of team members. Prioritizing the well-being and engagement of your team fosters an environment where each member feels valued and acknowledged, and a safe space that ultimately drives customer and business success.
Strategic Decision-Making
Drawing from his CEO experience, Roquet offers invaluable insights for experience strategists on the challenges of strategic decision-making. Emphasizing the art of saying ‘no’ and the importance of prioritization, he suggests aligning initiatives with the overall health of the business. This involves a strategic focus on client retention, differentiation, and achieving quick returns to align with broader organizational goals.
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Addressing challenges associated with customer feedback mechanisms, Lee advocates for a departure from the conventional Net Promoter Score (NPS). He encourages strategists to explore alternative metrics like Customer Effort Score (CES) and real-time feedback. This approach highlights the importance of adopting diverse metrics to gain a more accurate understanding of customer satisfaction and overall experience. By diversifying metrics, experience strategists can capture a holistic picture, moving beyond the limitations of NPS, fostering continuous improvement in customer experience.
Conclusion
Lee Roquet’s insights serve as a guiding light for leaders and experience strategists, illustrating how an experience mindset transforms organizations, fosters sustainable success, and positively impacts client relationships. Listen to the full episode now!
Dave, thanks for having me on the show, it was great to share my story. Best, Lee