Audrey Stone – CX Lead in Cybersecurity at JP Morgan Chase [CX Metrics]
Audrey Stone discusses CX, UX and EX, the definition of each experience, and the risk of not sticking to these definitions.
Nick Glimsdahl 0:03
My guest on the podcast today is Audrey stone. Audrey is the customer experience lead in the technology area JPMorgan Chase. She’s also started the first ever, customer experience day at JPMorgan Chase. Welcome to the podcast, Audrey. Thanks. So
Audrey Stone 0:18
happy to be here in it.
Nick Glimsdahl 0:19
Yeah, me too. So explain to to my audience, what, what you did for cx day.
Audrey Stone 0:29
I started at the firm, just very recently, actually, and about a month and I asked, hey, what do you guys do for customer experience day thinking very large, firm, you know, of course, they have to have this going on. And I was told what? So, you know, I kind of explained, you know, customer experience Day is a worldwide day recognized on a specific day. And because gpmc is so large, you know, sometimes they’re able to have their own days, right. But this is something that I wanted to make sure. When folks came in to the firm, that it was something recognizable as an industry standard. So I’m asking my manager, like, Hey, would you care if I took this on and created a pilot? And I got the shirt? Yeah. Okay, no problem as kind of like, yeah, you’re the new girl. Sure. I’m sure this is gonna go through
this Well, okay.
But I’m a huge networker. So I just started talking to different people and found, you know, found my people is what I call them, you know, other experienced professionals in the firm. And I was able to eventually find a sponsor, you know, leadership sponsor, senior sponsor, and we were able to do a pilot, and it was really great. Um, there was huge collaboration, right. So once I explained to people, you know, this is kind of what I’m thinking, you know, would you be interested? Oh, my gosh, yes. Oh, my gosh, yes. So by no means, did I do this all by myself. I mean, there was a huge amount of people. But I will tell you, I called in every single favor, as you know, very well, Mr. Nick, um, for all of my speakers, because everybody was external. until until we had one inside panel in regard to my, you know, the the direct experience managers that I deal with.
Nick Glimsdahl 2:40
Yeah, so I got to experience it. And it was amazing. Can you explain a little bit to the group? What success you did have?
Audrey Stone 2:52
Yeah, absolutely. So I’ve found my successes in a lot of different ways, not necessarily how people might think about it. We did have live sessions, but we also broadcasted and recorded them, so that our counterpart counterparts around the rest of the world could see and participate. So we had almost a full room the entire day. And even people who may have just signed up for one session, they ended up staying for multiples, or coming back after lunch and bringing some friends, which I thought was huge, right? Like people are like, what is this? What is customer experience? And we really spoke about, you know, we’re not just talking about our external clients were talking about each other, because those that build things and create things for other employees to use, or are creating the culture, that’s employee experience, right? So
I think
with the educational value, that was a big win for me, meeting other experienced folks, and keeping and maintaining that relationship on such a positive note was a big one for me. And, and selfishly, just kind of getting that attention from some of the higher ups in regard to it. You know, that was that was really great. Being a brand new employee, and then cultivating and keeping those relationships with speakers like yourself and, and others that attended. Those are all big ones. But the biggest one of all was that there’s going to be a year to the pilot went amazing.
Nick Glimsdahl 4:29
Yeah, that’s exciting. And so maybe explain a little bit about what you guys have planned for year two.
Audrey Stone 4:35
So year two is kind of gonna be another pilot, right? Um, we’re not doing anything in person because of the wonderful COVID-19 that’s that’s going on right now. So I’m actually planning everything virtual. However, the change this year is we’re going to have some breakout sessions. So we’re, you know, we’re kind of going towards what my my beginning goal was. Which was to celebrate the experience successes within the firm. But last year was all educational. So this year, we want to have a little combination and see how that goes. And so we’ve since brought attention to the experience field, people are aware of it, we can celebrate some more successes, and still have, you know, well, I’m not in that field right now. But maybe I want to be or I’m in this field, but I don’t have that much experience and want to learn more. And we’re also talking to our counterparts around the world, to host their own sessions in their own time zones. So we can celebrate it all day long, when experienced when customer experience day starts.
Nick Glimsdahl 5:42
That sounds like a blast. You know, what advice would you have for anybody else that’s interested in starting the CX day, but they don’t really know where to start.
Audrey Stone 5:53
So my suggestion, my very first thing is figure out what your goal is, you know, like, I knew my first year goal was going to be to educate. So I was going to have to find people outside of where I worked. If you have those professionals, where you work, you might be able to start with, you know, more of a success day, and let’s celebrate. And once you really have to network and see if there’s interest and people actually to present. That’s where I started, I started with my presenters, Hey, would you be interested? Here’s what I’m trying to do. Right? Um, and then senior leadership buy in? Can I can I find a sponsor? If there’s money, you know, to be put towards this event? Step three, would be ask for help. Ask for help, you know, you know, I am not the end all be all of everything. I don’t know how to do everything, you know, hey, Miss designer, can you design something for me? You know, Hey, Mr. AV person, can you hook me up this way? Let people you know, do their thing. Give them that autonomy, because it, it makes the day so much better. Because everybody wants to do their best because they know it’s, you know, there, but not there. But online. But it’s it’s their recognition for for something brand new, but you definitely have to have you know, the initiative and the drive, because it’s above and beyond, you know, regular business hours.
Nick Glimsdahl 7:27
Right? Yeah, it’s not technically even what you’re measured on either because it’s never started before. I would say the last thing is what you did was have some awesome swag to bring in and hang out and, and to share with the people that attend. So
Audrey Stone 7:45
yeah, show appreciation. I mean, you know, I don’t believe and walking around, you know, with my nose in the air and my chest puffed out, I believe in Hey, look at what we did. Thank you so much for coming, because you help to make this a success. Right? So it’s just there like my customers, my customers aren’t there. There’s no reason to have experienced day.
Nick Glimsdahl 8:08
Yeah, no, it’s great point. So how did you get started in customer experience?
Audrey Stone 8:14
It’s funny, um, I, you can probably honestly attribute it all the way back to when I was in high school. I was working retail customer service, right. And then I started with an insurance company. And I was doing claims, again, customer service, trying to make the one on one experiences. And as I moved around within that company, you know, I really helped people, but I, I wanted to make more than the one on one difference, I wanted to make a greater difference. So it just so happened that a position came up and I was like, Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know this existed.
This is how did they get inside my head? This
is exactly what I want to do. You know, like, I love numbers, and I love data and trying to figure out, you know, the root of the problem. And so, I started in 2016 and customer experience, and honestly, it’s been my passion like I and how many people can say they love their job? You know, I don’t mind working. I love
Nick Glimsdahl 9:21
what I do. Yeah,
yeah, you are you are fired up about customer experience. That is for sure. You know, the main topic I wanted to talk about today it just a small topic called. It’s around cx and UX and UX. So you know, if we could just boil the ocean today, that would be great. But, you know, the goal if we want to start at the very beginning, you know, what is the standard definition of each.
Audrey Stone 9:55
So for customer experience, you know, it’s it’s all transactions, the perception of somebody the feeling has of dealing with your company, right. And there are established best practices, of course, we like to be certified in this area, right. And with user experience, you know, user experience is making the best of that single touch point. So when I was a claims adjuster, that was a user experience touchpoint, in regard to a customer having insurance with my company, right. And for employee experience, it’s going to be the technology, culture, and physical space that we have as employees that really give us the full experience. And so what I’m very passionate about is correctly using these terms.
Because
I think it’s really important to understand that no matter where you are, you know, you have to kind of stay in your lane, right? You have to, you have to know where to stay. But these each use, you know, cx practices when you’re actually practicing the techniques. Yeah, you know, just because somebody is talking to an external customer, doesn’t mean that their research techniques, or how to create a great survey or conduct a focus group changes if they’re doing UX or dx.
Nick Glimsdahl 11:27
Yeah. So is there people that are in customer experience, employee experience, field, who don’t necessarily stick to the standard definitions of each? Oh,
Audrey Stone 11:39
I think that’s anywhere you go. Yeah, I really do. Because some people might be called business analysts, but they’re actually doing experience work. Some people might be in marketing, but they’re actually doing, you know, experience work. They’ll be like, Oh, I’m a market researcher. But once you get kind of deep diving into what they do, it’s more of maybe the research portion of UX or the research portion of customer experience.
Nick Glimsdahl 12:06
Yeah, it gets kind of blurry too, because how wind does their job and and your job again? And how do you run parallel or eliam, these opportunities and say, Aha, from what I heard was, you’re working on this? I’m kind of doing the same thing over here. Can we maybe work together and learn from one of my strengths? Or maybe what you have visibility on and kind of drive this mission forward?
Audrey Stone 12:36
Absolutely. And and I also believe on, you know, how mature an organization is, and what the capacity is of their experience team?
Nick Glimsdahl 12:44
Yeah. So what is the risk of not sticking to these standards? Because there’s obviously some sort of risk of saying, well, this is interesting. And here’s the gray area.
Audrey Stone 12:56
Oh, my goodness, yes. So my, you know, employee turnover is real for everybody. And when you’re a person, who I mean, I mean, I’ll just tell you, for me, like, I’m totally passionate, I went and got a certification, it’s not the certification yet. Once things starts again, but you you learn these best practices, and you learn these standards. And it’s a whole different language. So if I go to, you know, start a new career, you know, with a new company, but in the same field, and they’re speaking a different language, but trying to get the same results as what my results are supposed to be. It’s incredibly confusing. And not only do you have to learn the new business acumen, you’re you’re trying to understand your own field. You know, when you’re using industry standard versus company standards, you know, what they created?
Nick Glimsdahl 13:56
Right? Yeah, that could definitely be frustrating, and, and complex if you’re not going up a base of what the standard is, because you’re kind of making up your own version of the truth.
Audrey Stone 14:06
And you might end up you know, even if different silos aren’t talking to each other, you may end up with duplicative roles. You know, and nobody wants that. I mean, we want to be as efficient as possible. So,
Nick Glimsdahl 14:18
right, regardless of the size, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a fortune 50 company or a SMB company, they’re, you know, they’re they’re still you try to drive efficiencies and to lean into business outcomes. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So what? back you started back in 2016. In customer experience, obviously, all the way back to read your retail days. But in 2016, what do you wish you had known then that you know now
Audrey Stone 14:46
nothing happens overnight. Nothing happens overnight. It is a lesson. I think it’s a life lesson for me, you know, not just in this particular area. But, you know, I’m thinking about, you get so ramped up and you get so excited because there’s all of these opportunities. And you’re like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, it takes a long time for change to happen, you know? And you also have to be okay with not necessarily always getting the recognition. And I’m totally fine with that. Because when others succeed, I know how I contributed to that. I don’t mean, oh, good job.
Nick Glimsdahl 15:33
Yeah. No, it’s it’s um, so sometimes it’s the, it’s the quick wins, or even the complaints that you will take the brunt end because you are the face of the customer. And your your job is to always do what’s best for the customer. And it might not be what that counterpart is measured on. Yeah. And so still being in putting your neck out there a little bit to, to doing that. And I think you’re spot on being patient being strategic on what you’re trying to accomplish, and maybe lose a battle to win the ultimate conversation of the ultimate outcome. Is is, you know, great advice. So I wrap up every every podcast with two questions. So no pressure. The first one is, what book or person has influenced you the most in the past year? And the second one is, if you could leave a note to all the customer service and customer experience professionals, what would it say?
Audrey Stone 16:39
Okay, so the first one, because of where I am within the firm, and really having to hone my skills, even more, has been Jacob Morgan’s employee experience advantage book, for sure. I have not only read it, but I’ve referenced it and tried to solicit it to other people, like no read this, read this, you have to read this. Because that’s how, you know, incredibly passionate that I am about learning from others strengths, as well, as you know, what didn’t work previously. I think that’s just as important. In regard to leaving a note to all customer service or customer experience professionals. I really think that I would have to say, being in the service industry, or being in the experience industry, really takes a type of person. It’s not just who I am at work, it’s who I am in life. You know, if you know I have I have a son, he’s eight. For his birthdays. I don’t just like to Oh, here, isn’t this present? Awesome. Here? Isn’t that present, you know, we had a little birthday party for you. I like experience birthday parties, you know, like,
let’s,
let’s all go somewhere and do something or, you know, don’t worry about presents, everybody bring their, you know, 10 or $20. And let’s go ice skating or roller. But you know, something like that. Because the things don’t matter. People aren’t going to remember the things. They’re going to remember how they felt about an experience. And so if you’re a type of person that can give like that, and once truly at heart the best for somebody else. There’s no stopping you in this industry.
Nick Glimsdahl 18:35
Yeah, I think that’s amazing advice. I don’t know that quote. Exactly. So I might botch it. But it’s, it doesn’t matter what people say or do it’s how they make you feel. Absolutely. And and I like that and that goes back to both customer service and customer experience. So what is the best way for my listeners to connect with you?
Audrey Stone 18:58
So I would definitely invite anyone that wants to connect to look me up on LinkedIn and just reference that hey, you know, I heard you on next podcast and I was really interesting and just being a connection and maybe you know when everything settles coffee if they’re in the local area,
Nick Glimsdahl 19:19
non virtual coffee,
Audrey Stone 19:20
virtual coffee.
Nick Glimsdahl 19:21
Thank you so much, Audrey. Appreciate your time.
Audrey Stone 19:24
Thank you.
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The Press 1 For Nick podcast is both educational and engaging, and each episode offers listeners a dynamic blend of insightful stories, best practices, and invaluable lessons.
Nick’s guests – each with a unique wealth of knowledge – include leaders from a variety of backgrounds and industries. Some of his guests include:
Customer service & customer experience leaders- A hostage negotiator
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- Former VP of Disney’s Magic Kingdom
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- What book or person has influenced you the most in the past year?
- If you could leave a note to all the Customer Service and CX professionals, what would it say?
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