Global Gurus

For over three decades Ron Kaufman has helped companies on every continent build a culture of uplifting service that delivers outstanding business results year after year. Making transformation his mission, Ron is one of the world’s most sought-after educators, consultants, business thought-leaders and one of the best customer service motivational keynote speakers on the topic of achieving superior service.

Any business can say the customer is king, and many spend a lot of time and money on incremental service improvement. But Ron understands the only reliable way for a company to achieve and maintain a competitive edge is to build a culture that empowers every employee to surprise and delight customers and colleagues every day with truly uplifting service.

Ron is the Founder and Chairman of Uplifting Service, one of the world’s best customer service culture building programs, currently translated into 15 languages for use by clients in every major industry. Ron works with a successful clientele of government agencies and multinational corporations including Singapore Airlines, HP, Nokia Networks, Marina Bay Sands, and Changi Airport. He delivers powerful business insights and global best practices enabling organizations to gain a sustainable advantage through service.

Ron’s methodology includes a set of proven service principles, leadership rules, culture-building blocks and implementation roadmaps that apply effectively across all industries and cultures. This methodology is easily customized to suit the unique needs of each organization, including all departments and team members from leadership to frontline.

Ron is a columnist at Bloomberg Businessweek. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Uplifting Service and 14 other books on service, business and inspiration. Ron has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today. Ron’s proprietary architecture for building an uplifting service culture is now available in one comprehensive volume, Uplifting Service.

Finally, leaders at all levels have a blueprint for making uplifting service a part of everything they are and everything they do.

International Award Winning Customer Experience Expert, The BizShui Creator, Keynote Speaker & Consultant

Claire Boscq is the No2 on the Global customer experience gurus list with three decades of expertise, Claire, is an authority in the customer experience industry.

 International best seller author with 4 published books, she is an international media influencer with her work published in Brazil, Philippines, India, US & Europe.

 Claire has spoken in over 20 countries; she delivers fast paced and high-energy presentations in French and English.  Winner of the Institute of director award, she is also a on the board of Virtual Speaker Association.

 She brings a more holistic and comprehensive approach to organisations and individuals with her BizShui™ Method; creating powerful flow in businesses by integrating a blend of the traditional Feng Shui principles with modern business & personal needs turning people and places into prosperity.

 Now she isn’t restricted to a zoom room, there is no stopping her from travelling around the world again!

John Tschohl is the guru when it comes to customer service, service strategy, empowerment, service recovery and helping organizations create a service culture. John speaks all over the world. He has  developed a 3 -4 year service culture plan for organizations serious about creating a service culture from his suite of 29 customer service programs of which 12 are available online. Available in 7 languages. John Tschohl is the author of eight best-selling books, which are also available in in a variety of languages. Relentless, is his new book, Achieving Excellence Through Customer Service now in its 13th version. Empowerment: A Way of Life. Loyal for Life (Service Recovery), Ca$hing In, The Customer is Boss; e:Service,  and Moving Up.

Jeff’s first customer service interaction ended in a service failure. Vowing to learn from that experience, he became obsessed with customer service.

Today, he is an author, consultant, and trainer who helps organizations develop customer-focused cultures.

He’s written four books including The Service Culture Handbook. More than 10,000 customer service professionals around the world subscribe to Jeff’s Customer Service Tip of the Week email. More than one million people on six continents have taken one of his video-based training courses on LinkedIn Learning.

Jeff has been recognized as a top influencer by many organizations:

• Top 30 customer service professional in the world (Global Gurus)
• Top customer experience influencer (Unymira and Panviva)
• Top contact center influencer (ICMI and ProcedureFlow)

In 2023, the global Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA) named Dr. Joseph Michelli the winner of the Impact Award for his contributions to the Customer Experience (CX) profession.  Joseph was appointed as a visiting Professor of Service Excellence at Campbellsville University and released his 12^th CX book, “Customer Magic: How to Reimagine Customer Experience to Transform Your Business.”  Throughout the year, he has conducted over 60 in-person keynotes and masterclasses across the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Ireland.  Additionally, he has conducted dozens of virtual presentations for clients worldwide.

Dr. Michelli is an inductee into the Customer Experience Hall of Fame and has been chosen as one of USU’s Top 10 Customer Experience Influencers.  Joseph is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Nielson BookScan, and New York Times #1 bestselling author of:

• Stronger Through Adversity: World-Class Leaders Share Pandemic-Tested Lessons on Thriving During the Toughest Challenges
• The Airbnb Way: 5 Leadership Lessons for Igniting Growth through Loyalty, Community, and Belonging,
• Driven to Delight: Delivering World-Class Customer Experience the Mercedes-Benz Way,
• Leading The Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customer, Your Products, and Your People,
• The Zappos Experience: 5 Principles to Inspire Engage and WOW,
• Prescription for Excellence: Leadership Lessons for Creating a World-Class Customer Experience from UCLA Health System,
• The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary,
• The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and
• When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace which was co-authored with the owner of the “World-Famous” Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle.

Joseph holds the Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) designation from the Customer Experience Professional Association and the Certified Speaking Professional designation (CSP) from the National Speakers Association (NSA). He is a member of the Authors Guild and is on the founders’ council of CustomerExperienceOne. Dr. Michelli has served on the board of M-ize, an award-winning warranty and service management company with operations in the United States and India and is on the BonfireDW advisory board (a company that focuses on digital wellness for children and adolescents).

Joseph’s other achievements include winning the Asian Brand Excellence Award and being named a Top Five Customer Experience Global Guru for six years. He received his master’s and doctorate from the University of Southern California. Having journeyed with a close family member through a six-year battle with breast cancer, Dr. Michelli is committed to social causes associated with curing cancer and decreasing world hunger.

Luke Williams is coauthor of Why Loyalty Matters (2009), a national best-seller, and The Wallet Allocation Rule (2015). Luke is a passionate, progressive and curious researcher, finding joy in the pursuit and unraveling of complex strategy and research problems. His motivation is intimately tied to making a difference for companies, enabling them to understand their customers better, create better strategy, and make decisions witth a direct linkage to financial improvement.

Luke is currently a vice president at Ipsos Loyalty, where he leads the day-to-day activity of large-scale research engagements for the firm. He specializes in research methods and design, analytics planning, and activating strategy beyond mere research results.

Mr. Williams has co-authored four book chapters in scholarly books and co-written a Harvard Business School case study. Luke also has also authored numerous articles that have appeared in publications such as: The Wall Street Journal, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management, Quirks Marketing Research Review, Marketing Management, Training & Development, and The Wise Marketer.

He was a core member of the research team that discovered and developed the Wallet Allocation Rule. The Wallet Allocation Rule has won the NextGen Disruptive Innovation Award and was introduced in the Harvard Business Review. He was also a finalist for Best Practitioner at the annual 2014 Frontiers in Service conference.

Luke received a master’s degree in Social Research Methods from the University of Durham (UK) and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Rutgers University (USA).

Chip R. Bell is a world-renowned authority on customer loyalty and service innovation.  Dr. Bell has authored twenty-four books and over a thousand articles and blogs for many business journals and websites.  In 1989, with his co-author the late Ron Zemke, he invented what is now practiced around the world as customer journey mapping. In 2005, he created the now patented practice of customer forensics. He has appeared live on CNN, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg TV, ABC, NPR Radio’s “Marketplace,” and his work has been featured in Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Businessweek, Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, Success Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, CEO Magazine, and Fast Company magazine.  He is a regular contributor to Forbes, CEO World Magazine, Money, and Real Leaders. He has authored nine national and international best-selling and award-winning books including The 9½ Principles of innovative Service; Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do about It; Managing  Knock Your Socks off Service; Customers as Partners; Magnetic Service; Take Their Breath Away:  How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers; Sprinkles: Customer Awesome Experiences Through Innovative Service; Managers as Mentors and Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles which won a 2017 Best Book Award and a 2017 North American Book Award.  His newest book, published in 2020, is Inside Your Customer’s Imagination which won a 2021 Axiom Business Book award.  It was ranked #1 on the Amazon bestseller list for books on business innovation. His books have been translated into numerous languages and been endorsed by the CEOs or presidents of such service greats as Four Seasons Hotels, Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, Morgan Stanley, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Southwest Airlines, Marriott, JetBlue, and Zappos.  HR.com awarded him their Leadership 500 Excellence Award for his innovative customer service training programs. One of his programs was awarded a 2018 Stevie Award for “Most Creative Classroom Training Program.  He owns the Chip Bell Academy which has partnered with On3 to produce innovative mobile based customer service training using AI to produce super high retention and transfer of learning rates.

Marilyn Suttle, CVP works with companies that want to stand out as a provider of choice, and with teams that want to work well together. She’s a leading authority on customer service and employee wellbeing – a killer combination that keeps teams resilient and customer-focused. After working with Marilyn, her clients have won industry awards, raised customer satisfaction levels, and improved employee engagement.  She’s the CEO of Suttle Enterprises, LLC a personal and professional growth training company based in Metro-Detroit.

Company leaders have made her presentations available to thousands of employees, improving the way they communicate with difficult people, while raising their quality of life and passion to excel in their professions.

Marilyn presents virtual and onsite keynotes, training, and coaching with professionals at Fortune 500 companies, universities, medical, and mid-sized companies. She also works directly with entrepreneurs.

Marilyn’s three bestselling books include, “Who’s Your Gladys? How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customers into Your Biggest Fans”, “Taming Gladys! The Busy Leader’s Guide to Fierce Customer Loyalty”– co-authored with Lori Jo Vest, and most recently she authored the activity book “Color Their World: The Art of Creating Strong Customer Loyalty.” Marilyn was handpicked from over 150 of North America’s top speakers to be featured in the online course The Customer Service Roadmap.

Regularly featured on TV news, radio, and press, Marilyn Suttle helps teams make “Suttle” Shifts for breakthrough success with customers. Marilyn is a triple-certified virtual presenter with 20 years of experience speaking to multi-cultural audiences.

Shep Hyken, CSP, CPAE is the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. As a speaker and author, Shep works with companies and organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. His articles have been read in hundreds of publications, and he is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling business author of “Moments of Magic,” “The Loyal Customer,” “The Cult of the Customer” and “The Amazement Revolution.” He is also the creator of The Customer Focus program, which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset. Shep Hyken’s most requested programs focus on customer service, customer loyalty, internal service, customer relations and the customer experience. He is known for his high-energy presentations, which combine important information with entertainment (humor and magic) to create exciting programs for his audiences.

James used to be an actual, real-life, legitimate, award-winning rockstar. He played guitar in a heavy metal band, released albums and tore up stages all over the world, James is now the CX Evangelist at Pegasystams where he researches extreme fandoms to understand how companies can create their own ‘Hyperfans’. He shares those strategies through transformative training, engaging video content and inspiring keynote talks.

Pegasystems is revolutionising how leading organisations optimise customer experience and automate operations. A worldwide leader providing ‘Better Business Software’ which enables Digital Transformation across a range of key industries including Banking, Insurance, Telecommunications, Public Sector, Manufacturing and Life Sciences.

James was awarded The UK’s #1 CX Influencer by Customer Experience Magazine in 2020, The UK’s Most Outstanding CX Keynote Speaker by Corporate Vision Magazine in 2021, The World’s #10 Customer Service Guru by Global Gurus in 2021, as well as countless other notable mentions in industry publications like Business Insider, The Times and Forbes.

James is also a two time #1 Best Selling Author and the Ex-host of Amazon Prime’s weekly topical CX show, ‘This Week In CX’.

Teresa Allen a recognized customer service expert for over 20 years, is owner of Common Sense Solutions, a customer service training and consulting firm focused on bringing profitable common sense customer service strategies to business organizations. Teresa Allen is author of two customer service books: Common Sense Service: Close Encounters on the Front Lines, and is co-author of The Service Path: Your Roadmap for Building Strong Customer Loyalty. A thought leader in the world of customer service, Teresa is often asked to share her expertise as a customer service keynote speaker for business and association events across the U.S. and abroad. Her Get Common Sense Blog and timely customer service updates in social media are followed by thousands of customer service professionals worldwide. Teresa is a 2015 recipient of the Customer Service Training Practice of the Year Award from the International Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service.

Jeanne Bliss pioneered the role of the Chief Customer Officer and is an architect of the customer experience movement. Since 1983, she’s been a five-time Chief Customer Officer, holding the first ever CCO role for over 25 years at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker and Allstate Corporations. Reporting to each company’s CEO, she moved the customer to the strategic agenda, creating transformational changes to each brands’ customer experience. She has driven achievement of 95 percent loyalty rates, improving customer experiences across 50,000-person organizations. As CEO of CustomerBliss, Jeanne has coached over 15,000 global executives on how to earn admirable growth by improving lives, delivered over 1,500 keynotes, written four international best-selling books on Customer Experience, and cofounded the Customer Experience Professional’s Association. Her CCO books and podcasts are often the first resources executives in customer leadership roles acquire, and they look to Jeanne to guide them and their C-Suite to success in their business transformations.

Certified customer experience (CX) and marketing speaker, advisor, author, and host of the award-winning DoingCXRight podcast. Known for her Heart & Science™
proprietary framework that produces profitable clients and brand loyalty–fueled by a workforce where people feel heard, empowered, and valued.

Stacy’s been walking the talk for 25 years as a strategist and practitioner at companies of all sizes and industries, i.e., Verizon, Liveops, Schindler Elevator Corp, Wilton Brands, AT&T. She’s also a board advisor at multiple universities, featured in Forbes and other top rated publications.

Her Why: To Influence and foster deeper connections and authentic relationships so that people experience greater fulfillment in their work and life.

Learn about Stacy’s CX mission to help people like you ➡️www.DoingCXRight.com

With 20+ years in the hospitality industry and a lifetime of customer service experience, Steve DiGioia uses storytelling to share real-world tips and tactics to improve your customer service, increase employee morale and provide the experience your customers’ desire.

A certified trainer, coach, author, speaker, and known as “the ops guy” during his tenure at Hilton Hotels, Steve has redefined the operational and service standards for multiple food and beverage departments for some of the best names in the industry. Using a hands-on approach, he has developed numerous training programs and personally mentored countless employees who have successfully moved on to senior management and leadership positions. He is also a featured contributor to the leading hospitality and customer service websites.

Steve continues his pursuit of excellence on his award-winning blog sharing his best strategies on customer service, management, and leadership. Follow Steve on Twitter @Steve DiGioia.

Lior Arussy spent the first part of his career in various executive positions at world-leading firms, such as Hewlett-Packard. It was at this stage that he recognized that the old, traditional methods of change management were flawed, and simple didn’t work for most companies. Lior took it upon himself to create a different methodology – one which recognizes that the key to truly driving a company’s change for success, is in putting its most important resource at the center of its transformational efforts: its employees. The idea being that, in order for customers to choose your product and get the most out of it, you not only have to have an exceptional product, but a great, dedicated, happy team that stands behind that product’s success.

Today, Arussy is one of the leading global authorities in the fields of Customer Experience, Employee Engagement, and Strategy Execution. He is a Corporate Culture expert, a ‘success accelerator’, and a proven, passionate change agent. Called “a triple threat of transformation” by William Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company magazine, Arussy has helped many of the world’s top brands achieve unprecedented goals in customer satisfaction, growth, and profitability. Among these are Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Thomson Reuters, HSBC, E.ON, FedEx, SAP, and the University of Pennsylvania, to name a few.

Lior’s methodology enabled Mercedes-Benz to reach the much-coveted #1 position in customer satisfaction. Another client, a European logistics corporation, leaped from 3% annual organic growth to 44% annual organic growth in just two years!

In 2003, Arussy founded the Strativity Group, a strategy firm specializing in customer experience consulting, employee engagement programs, journey mapping, and business growth. In addition, Lior has written seven books on business strategy, customer experience optimization, and achieving the ultimate success. He has also written over 300 articles for publications around the world, including the Harvard Business Review, and Chief Executive media, for which he is a regular contributing author.A recipient of numerous awards worldwide, Arussy’s accomplishments, insights, and publications have been cited and recognized by leading media, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The Times of London, Smart CEO Magazine, ABC, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and MSNBC.

Mr. Arussy currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and five children. He completed his undergraduate degree at Case Western Reserve University, and received his MBA from Weatherhead School of Management

Heverton Anunciacao was born in Brasilia, lived in São Paulo for 20 years, and now living in Curitiba/Brazil.

He is a Consultant in Systems Requirements and Project Manager / Project Leader with experience in designing, managing projects for Integrated Systems (ERPs), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Social CRM and Customer Service; Digital Marketing, computer networks, Web sites, Call Center Solutions, and integration of different technologies. Scrum Master Certified.

Heverton has experience in Technologies to attend Backoffice, Frontoffice, and Marketing Digital.

He is a Writer and author of many books since 1995 regards Project Management for CRM, Unix, Linux, Uniware, Corporate Social Responsibility, Family, and Charity.

He had many famous articles published in important Brazilian magazines. He acted as a Lecturer and Teacher for CRM. More details at www.heverton.com.br

He was Honorary chair (Jurado) to select 3 best cases in Brazil for CRM by ABT Association in 2013, and He was Honorary chair to select the best case in 2018

For the past three decades, Heverton Anunciação has helped companies of all sizes to differentiate themselves based on information technology and excellent customer service. Its mission is to make companies profit from their data and offer excellent experiences to their customers, whether in pre or after sales.

His books published in Brazil and abroad are references in Universities and in the training of new or already experienced professionals. Heverton had its innovations and articles published in magazines and newspapers, such as Exame and Veja SP.

In addition to its vast knowledge in Information Technology, Heverton manages to unite with its vision of project management using the most up-to-date methodologies to guarantee quality, cost and satisfaction of its customers.

Lisa Ford is a speaker with over 20 years of experience presenting to businesses, associations and government. She speaks throughout the United States and internationally on topics of customer service, leadership, team issues and change. Lisa is best known for her work in the areas of customer service. She is the author of the videotape series How to Give Exceptional Customer Service, the #1 selling business tapes in the U.S. for over 3 years. Her other videos and audiotapes include: Developing a Customer Retention Program, Building a Customer Driven Organization: The Manager’s Role and Personal Power. Her recent book is Exceptional Customer Service Going Beyond Good Service to Exceed the Customer’s Expectations. Lisa designs content personalized to the audience and issues they face. She has also customized numerous videos for clients to use in their ongoing education efforts. Lisa’s experience includes working with Pfizer, Viacom, Edward Jones, CSX, Kaiser Permanente, Morton’s of Chicago, Citgo, American Gas Association, American Diabetes Association and American Veterinary Medical Association. In 2002, Lisa was inducted into the Speakers Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association. She is one about 200 speakers who have been honored over 30 years. She also serves a Board Member of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tennessee.

Donna Cutting, CSP is the Founder and CEO (Chief Experience Officer) of Red-Carpet Learning Systems, Inc. She leads a team of customer service experts that train organizational leaders to turn prospects into delighted customers; and delighted customers into raving fans.

Rolling out the red carpet for others is as natural to Donna Cutting as breathing. Her fondest memories from childhood include the occasions when her mother and Memére, her French grandmother who was the mother of fourteen children, would roll out the red carpet for family members “returning home” to Fall River, Massachusetts. This tradition made a lasting impression on Donna and resonates with her to this day.

A stage actress and dynamic keynote speaker, Donna’s mission is to inspire you to experience the “thrill of the red carpet,” where your customers matter, your work matters and you matter. Her passion for rolling out the red carpet and creating exceptional customer experiences moved her to found Red Carpet Learning Systems, Inc., through which she and her team help organizational leaders turn prospects into customers and customers into raving fans!

For over 30 years Nicholas has worked with some of the top brands in the world to help them achieve customer experience and customer service mastery. His number one best-selling book, What Customers Crave is used by some of the Top Organizations in the world to Design their Customer Experience Strategies. His training organization, LearnLogic provides Certification Training to organizations across dozens of B2B and B2C Industries. His training programs include, The Certified Master of Customer Experience, Certified Customer Experience Advocate, and the Certified Customer Champion Training Program. Nicholas also provides Custom Customer Service Boot Camps and Virtual Customer Experience and Customer Service Training.

His upcoming book for 2022, What Customers Hate, will be in bookstores worldwide in paperback and in audio formats. In this powerful book, Nick describes the 10 things that customers hate and how to avoid them to deliver exceptional customer service across the entire customer’s journey throughout a range of customer personas. As a Keynote Speaker, Nicholas speaks at more than 70 major events worldwide on the importance of delivering exceptional Customer Experience and its impact on Growth and Revenue. Nicholas is listed with every major speaker bureau in the world, and his new virtual studio allows him to deliver Virtual Keynotes and Workshops. Nick is well known as one of the Top Experts in the world on how to architect the right strategies, systems, tools and processes to drive measurable improvements in Customer Satisfaction and Growth. He has been featured in Fox News, CNBC, CNN and other major news outlets. Nick is also an Award-winning Documentary Filmmaker and successful innovator. His Award-winning Inventions include Consumer and Healthcare Technologies. He has been awarded over 40 US Patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Nicholas realized that his expertise in innovation was precisely what the Customer Service Ecosystem needed. As it turns out, Customer Experience and the things that need to be created to deliver it, is in fact, an Innovation Activity.

John DiJulius is redefining customer service in corporate America today. He didn’t read the books on customer service, he wrote them: Secret Service, Hidden Systems That Deliver Unforgettable Customer Service, What’s The Secret? To Being a World Class Customer Service Organization, The Customer Service Revolution,  The Best Customer Service Quotes Ever Said, and The Relationship Economy One of the most captivating and charismatic speakers today, John’s keynotes and workshops are used by world-class service companies to provide unforgettable customer service every day. In his high-energy presentations, he uses powerful visuals as he discusses the 10 commandments of customer service and explains how to improve the service aptitude of employees at all levels.

As the authority on world-class customer experience, organizations across America use his philosophies and systems for creating world-class service. He has worked with companies such as the The Ritz-Carlton, Lexus, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Panera Bread, Nestle, Marriott Hotel, PWC, National City Bank, Cheesecake Factory, Progressive Insurance, Harley Davidson, State Farm, Chick-fil-a, and many more, to help them continue to raise the bar and set the standard in service that consistently exceeds customer expectations.

John is not just telling others how to do it. His strongest attributes may not only be that he has the experience of working with extremely large companies, but knows how to translate those processes to fit small business models as well. Not only is John the Owner, President and Chief Revolution Officer of The DiJulius Group, he is also the Founder, President and Owner of John Robert’s Spa; Named one of the Top 20 Salons in America with multiple locations (and over 150 employees), which he uses as living laboratories to test his findings and theories.

David Brownlee is the world’s most viewed customer success expert in the world.  He is a number one, best-selling author, speaker and coach.  He has trained over 1 million individuals and businesses through his online courses, live events, coaching programs and consulting.  His clients include from small businesses to Fortune 500 Companies across various industries.  From Google and LinkedIn in the tech world, to Amazon and Walmart on the retail side, David’s passion is helping you and your organization succeed.  He is one of the top LinkedIn Learning Instructors with over 100k students on the platform.

Louie Gravance, a native Californian, is literally changing the consciousness of business in America through his speaking and consulting skills. A premiere example is the work he has done is helping Bank of America navigate what he calls a “culture shift.”

MONEY MAGAZINE credits these efforts with “making the banking experience more pleasurable with changes that have improved customer satisfaction.” This was done through an initiative Gravance introduced to high level executives and employees entitled “The Bank of America Spirit.” Gravance was a perfect fit for this project, thanks to skills learned and honed during twelve-year tenure at The Walt Disney Company in Orlando, Florida. Beginning with the training and orientation program “Traditions” at The Disney University, Louie designed, developed, and delivered countless presentations. First, at the University for literally thousands of Disney World employees from all disciplines, and then for visiting corporate clients through the Disney Institute Professional Development Programs. He has also traveled North America , teaching “Showmanship in the Workplace” to large companies like Mutual of Omaha, Fisher Scientific, Toys ‘R Us and BMW of Canada, just to name a few.

“You have to do what you DON’T have to do, in order to win,” is a quote that represents much of the philosophy behind a Louie Gravance presentation.

Prior to moving to Florida, Mr. Gravance began a show business career at the age of twelve. He spent the next two decades in Los Angeles appearing in stage shows, sitcoms, motion pictures and over 35 national television commercials. While at Disney, he led, trained, and performed with the improvisational comedy show “Streetmosphere” at the Disney / MGM Studios from the first year of its inception in 1989. It is now the longest running show of its kind in theme park history.

Currently, Louie Gravance Creative Concepts provides consulting and motivational talks to companies and municipalities all over the world, and is based in Orlando, Florida.

A seasoned practitioner with over 35 years of hands-on experience, Steve is one of industry’s noted experts in Customer Experience, Advanced Business Process Management (BPM) and Performance Transformation. He heads the Research & Professional Services network within the BP Group.

As a co-founder of www.bpgroup.org in 1992 Steve developed the world’s first and premier network for Business Process Management & Performance professionals. Now in 118 countries with membership of 95,000+ and 25+ global partners.

A noted leader Steve works as a mentor, coach and consultant and has helped pioneer through research and ‘hands-on’ exposure to the world’s leading companies the evolution to Advanced BPM aka ‘Outside-In ‘. Recently recognised as a global thought leader in ‘Outside-In’ Steve continues to evolve process thinking towards a customer centric view of business.

An inspirational speaker (he has chaired and keynoted at more than 25 international conferences since 2001), contributor to leading journals and author of several books including
– A Senior Executives Guide to BPR (1994)
– In Search of BPM Excellence (2004)
– Thrive! How to Succeed in the Age of the Customer (2005)
– CEM – Success without Exception (2006) and
– Outside-In. The secret of the 21st century leading companies (2010)

Steve previously worked for Citibank where he led restructuring and business process transformation programs both in the US and Europe.

Advisor to several boards across the globe and sits on the steering panel of the influential California based BPM Forum, a group of distinguished ‘C’ Levels heading up Global 500 companies.

He received the “Lifetime Achievement Award for contribution to Business” at Gartners Annual Summit in 2007.

Carol Buehrens is an author, keynote speaker and educator, focusing on constructing extraordinary customer experiences for over 30 years for major companies such as Liberty Mutual, Northrop, McDonnell-Douglas, Bechtel, GE, Mercury Marine, and ICW Group Insurance Companies. Her passion for improving customer experience has resulted in numerous awards, including the “CX Innovation Award” from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), ICW Group CEO Award, and the Liberty Mutual Star Award.

Carol provides workshops as well as University-level education on Customer Experience. As a Rutgers University Adjunct Professor and Founding Board Member of the nation’s first graduate-level Customer Experience Program, Carol provides real-world curriculum and fosters the leadership qualities it takes to drive business success in today’s rapidly evolving, customer-driven global economy. The Customer Experience Certificate Program at Rutgers is offered in connection with the Masters of Business and Science Degree and the Professional Science Master’s Degree. http://cx.rutgers.edu

Carol Buehrens is also an Adjunct Professor at California State University Fullerton and University of California San Diego. She is a Founding Member and Expert Panel Member of the international Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), and an active member of the San Diego Customer Experience Special Interest Group (CX SIG).

Learn more about Carol and how to contact her for your next event: http://carolbuehrens.com

Also by Carol Buehrens, Adam and the Magic Marble, DataCAD for the Architect, VersaCAD Tutorial, A Practical Approach to Computer-Aided Design, and VersaCAD on the Mac.