Annette Franz

Head of marketing and customer experience initiatives

CX Journey Inc.

Annette Franz, a certified customer experience professional (CCXP), is founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc. She has 25 years of experience in helping companies understand their employees and customers and identifying what drives retention, satisfaction, engagement, and the overall experience—so together we can design a better experience for all constituents. She’s an author (she wrote the book on customer understanding!), a speaker, and a customer experience thought leader and influencer. She serves as vice chairwoman on the board of directors of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), is an official member of the Forbes Coaches Council, and is an advisory board member for CX@Rutgers.

Wed, 07/17/2024 - 12:01
You Can’t Transform Something You Don’t Understand Why is journey mapping important?
Wed, 02/11/2015 - 11:14
I kicked off 2015 in a big way. Isn’t that what a new year is all about? Every year is a new year to get it right—on a personal or professional level and on an organizational improvement level, i.e., employee and customer experience. For me it was…
Do Your Customers Talk About Your Products or Your Ads? A great customer experience is worth its weight in ad dollars
Tue, 01/27/2015 - 13:59
On the eve (sort of) of the biggest day of the year for the advertising industry (for commercials, anyway... love those Super Bowl commercials), I’d like to share some thoughts about the common disconnect between advertising and the customer…
Customer Takeaways: Should It Be the First or Last Impression? Trick question, obvious answer
Tue, 12/16/2014 - 15:31
As you think about the customer experience, which impression has the most effect: the first one or the last one? Which one is the lasting impression? Let’s think for a moment about the customer experience life cycle, particularly when the customer…
Is Self-Service Good for Your Business? It depends
Thu, 12/11/2014 - 11:42
I wrote about technology and the customer experience a couple times last year. After all, that’s what self-service is all about: technology, such as ATMs, online flight check-in, self-checkout grocery lanes, interactive voice response, online FAQs…
Are You Putting Marbles in a Bowl? Listening without understanding is pointless
Tue, 12/02/2014 - 13:24
Probably the most important component of listening to the voice of the customer is acting on what you hear. To do that, we must first optimize how we are listening. What do I mean? When we ask customers for feedback, it’s imperative that we make…
Do Customers Really Care About Brands? Design a customer experience that’s worthy of loyalty
Wed, 11/19/2014 - 12:13
  A couple weeks ago, SDL shared a post that included 25 facts about customer experience, including a variation of this one published by Havas Media: Most people worldwide wouldn’t care if more than 73 percent of brands disappeared tomorrow. The…
Listen to Learn, Listen to Earn Lay the foundation for a successful VoC program
Mon, 10/20/2014 - 14:12
If you’re new to designing and implementing a voice of the customer (VoC) program, you’re probably scratching your head and wondering where to begin. There are a lot of components to consider as you dive in, from executive buy-in to organizational…
Journey Map or Life-Cycle Map What’s the difference?
Thu, 10/02/2014 - 12:02
What’s the difference between a customer experience life-cycle map and a customer journey map? I thought it was worthwhile to clarify because the difference is in the details—literally. The customer experience life-cycle map The life-cycle map…
Do Your Customer Experience Improvements Rob Peter to Pay Paul? Sure you want to do that?
Thu, 09/18/2014 - 15:03
I recently read an article about a new dress code being imposed on Walmart employees (effective later this month). The purpose of the new dress code is to help customers more easily identify employees. I don't have a problem with that; given my…
That’s How We Do Things Around Here Business lessons from the Five Monkeys Experiment
Thu, 09/04/2014 - 16:47
When a colleague asks you why you do things a certain way, do you find yourself responding, “I don't know. Because we’ve always done it that way?” Many years ago, I worked for a couple companies where that was the stock answer, and it was so…