#30: The "Customer Chair": The Power of Storytelling, Richard Dorfman, MBA, Vice President, Customer Experience, Eastern Bank

The Customer Chair: The Power of Storytelling, Richard Dorfman, MBA, Vice President, Customer Experience, Eastern Bank Influencing decisions in the C-Suite requires an appeal to both the logical and emotional sides of the brain. Sure you have to have data to support big decisions, but emotions are always linked to influence. Stories are a powerful way to engage leaders to get your ideas accepted.  Rich Dorfman, the CX leader at one of the largest Boston-based banks, shares his real world experience as a CX practitioner and how he used the power of storytelling to influence key decision-makers. In my opinion, there’s nothing like hearing from someone who has learned real life lessons to lead a customer centric culture. Some of the highlights of the episode include: The Customer Chair - How Rich borrowed an idea from Clint Eastwood to influence senior leaders The “Axle-breaking Moment” - the power of knowing your audience Building relationships with key stakeholders Partnering with key stakeholders to create allies Meet Rich For more than nine years, Rich has led Eastern Bank’s customer experience efforts managing all aspects of this strategic initiative from program design to Voice of Customer (VOC) measurement and management to analysis and reporting to being the “customer-first” catalyst of the company. The result of Rich's relentless pursuit of this critical outside in perspective has focused and aligned the bank around customer-centric behaviors and attitudes. Key accomplishment include: > Created a Customer Experience (CX) governance council empowered to identify and repair CX pain points, which then communicates these customer and institutional “wins” to all impacted stakeholders > Designed customer feedback programs in every line of business with robust closed loop management processes > Integrated VOC insights into business plans to drive CX enhancements > Developed a comprehensive and actionable CX financial linkage analysis that strongly correlates customers' sentiments to their banking business and profitability > Embarked on a CX maturity benchmark assessment to uncover a defined strategic roadmap for future CX improvement initiatives Prior to Eastern, Rich’s banking career included strategic marketing positions at Chemical Bank/Chase in New York, Shawmut Bank/Fleet Bank in Boston and as principle of his own strategic consulting firm focused on delivering differentiated value to high-revenue small business segments. Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richdorfman/ Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Podcast so you don't miss an episode: https://www.empoweredcx.com/podcast Subscribe to The Delighted Customer Newsletter for practical tips and insights: https://www.empoweredcx.com/delightedcustomersnewsletter