Jon Picoult

If you’re aspiring to satisfy your customers, then you’re aspiring to mediocrity. That’s the intriguing premise behind this keynote, and it will fundamentally change how you think about creating a successful, beloved business. Jon explains why building customer loyalty requires not just satisfying customers, but impressing
them – forging indelible memories that drive repurchase and referral behavior (the lifeblood of any thriving business).

With fascinating case studies and engaging stories, Jon shares key elements of his “12 Principle” framework – science-based strategies that legendary companies use to create truly impressive brand experiences… the kind that turn more sales prospects into customers, and more customers into lifelong fans. Whether you serve external or internal customers, you’ll emerge from this program with specific, actionable ideas for turning your organization’s customer experience into its greatest competitive advantage.

The key to delivering a great customer experience? It’s all in your head! That’s because creating a great impression on customers isn’t just about shaping their experiences, it’s about shaping their memories. In this intriguing program, Jon explores a central tenet of his customer experience philosophy – the
notion that customers’ memories can be strategically “sculpted” to create competitive advantage.

When done correctly, it means people will remember the best parts of their experience with your business, while the less favorable parts will evaporate from their recollection. It’s a technique that has obvious benefits for how customers perceive a brand, as well as their willingness to engage with it in the future. If you want to grow your business by cultivating customer loyalty, then you need to be skilled in memory sculpting – and this keynote will equip you with the knowledge and skills to do it effectively.

How do you create a workplace that works – for both employees and customers? It requires aligning all of an organization’s “backstage” components (e.g., hiring practices, performance metrics, reward systems, etc.) with the “onstage” customer experience you aspire to deliver. That’s easier said than done – which is why, when businesses achieve such alignment, it creates sustainable competitive advantage.

In this thought-provoking keynote, Jon describes the critical role business leaders play in engineering that alignment, thereby shaping a workplace that fosters customer experience excellence. Through both the work environment they create, and the personal interactions they engage in, leaders have an unparalleled opportunity to keep their teams’ focus where it belongs – on their customers. This keynote shows them precisely how to accomplish that.

Lots of companies fly the “easy to do business with” banner. Few ever actually fulfill that promise, as most consumers can attest. In this captivating talk, Jon will challenge your audience to raise the bar – showing them how to make it not just easy for customers to do business… but truly effortless.

Using eye-opening statistics and amusing real-world examples, Jon explains why an effortless customer experience is such a rare and powerful competitive differentiator. He describes the two primary sources of loyalty-sapping effort (physical and cognitive) and shares actionable strategies for mitigating both. Oftentimes, it’s not the best product or service that wins in the marketplace – it’s the one that’s easiest for people to access, to comprehend, to buy, and to use. This keynote will show you how to create that kind of competitive differentiation in your business.

In 2008-09, during the height of the Great Recession, Hyundai Motors increased its market share by a remarkable 40%. Starbucks lost half its market value during that same economic downturn, yet emerged stronger from the recession, outperforming the S&P 500 by more than six-fold.

Just a few years after the Covid-19 pandemic’s Great Cessation decimated the air travel industry, Delta Airlines bounced back strong, delivering a shareholder return that was more than twice that of its peer group.These are just three examples of companies that skillfully leveraged Customer Experience strategic principles to not just survive a period of crisis, but to thrive in the aftermath. In this fascinating and timely program, Jon reveals the techniques that smart companies use to strengthen customer loyalty during even the most challenging times.