Today’s interview is with Annette Franz, an author, speaker and founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc. She is also an old friend of the podcast and appeared back in 2019. She joins me today to talk about her new book: Employee Understanding: A Three-Pillar Framework for Designing a Great Experience and Driving Business Success, the difference between employee engagement and employee experience, the time that Annette was working at JD Power & Assocs and W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard Schlesinger (both from Harvard and two of the authors of Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work) came to their office and what leaders should do first if they want to design and deliver a great employee experience.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Without context, an insight is worth nothing – Interview with Jochem van der Veer of TheyDo – and is number 546 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Here are the highlights of my chat with Annette:

• Annette just published her third book, called Employee Understanding: A Three-Pillar Framework for Designing a Great Experience and Driving Business Success.
• The three-pillar framework in the book is to help leaders really understand employees and to help design an experience that is a great experience for them.
• Ultimately, when we focus on our employees, we achieve a great customer experience, and that leads to business success as well.
• How can you expect to deliver like a standout experience if you haven’t got standout people or an environment where the people can stand out?
• Great customer experience is a function of employee experience.
• Employee engagement is an outcome of a great employee experience.
• The three pillars that the book is based on are:
  • Culture
  • Insight
  • Empathy
• Fix the culture, fix the outcome.
• Create the right environment to listen to your employees.
• Getting feedback from employees is not just about surveys.
• Annette used to work at JD Power Associates and met W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard Schlesinger, both of Harvard and he authors of Putting the Service Profit Chain to Work, which was originally published in 1994.
• It really is interesting that this has been around for 30 years and we’re still trying to push that noodle up the hill and make that connection.
• If you start anywhere, then start with your culture.
• Core values often end up just as posters on a wall, but they often don’t match what people say and do.
• Culture is core values plus behavior.
• You have to define your core values and then the associated behaviors.
• Burnout is a big part of what drives employees away because they want to do meaningful work, and meaningful work that adds value.
• So if we can automate some of those menial tasks, some of those repetitive tasks, and we allow them to free up some of their time so they can do those more value-added things, building stronger relationships with customers, et cetera, et cetera, I think that in the end will contribute to a better employee experience.
• I’ve done employee surveys in the past where the last question on the survey is: Do you think your leadership team will do anything constructive with this feedback? And I mean, talk about eye-opening answers.
• Don’t start something if you are not going to finish it.
• Annette’s best advice: Deliberately build your culture.
• Annette’s Punk CX brand: Tony Hsieh of Zappos

About Annette

Annette Franz is a globally recognized thought leader, author of three books, and speaker in culture transformation, employee experience (EX), and customer experience (CX). As the founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc., she helps organizations build strong, values-driven cultures that empower employees and drive exceptional customer experiences.

With over 30 years of experience, Annette has worked with brands across industries to develop strategies that foster engaged employees, enhance customer relationships, and create long-term business success. She is passionate about ensuring that culture is the foundation for meaningful change, believing that fixing the culture fixes the outcomes.

Check out Annette’s work at CX Journey Inc., all three of her books on Amazon, and feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn here.

Credit: Photo by Mario Gogh on Unsplash