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Increase satisfaction and improve product adoption with complimentary training.
CX Confessions, the definitive podcast for digital CX leaders
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A customer experience podcast with Khoros Customers
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20+ years experience, built from Spredfast and Lithium
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We’re hiring — come build the future of customer experience
Need anything? We’re here for you
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Digital-first, omnichannel platform built for enterprises
Agent efficiency, automation, and operational insights
Self-service support, education, and collaboration
Content management, publishing, and governance
Create a space for customers to get answers, connect with peers, and share new ideas
Connect with customers on SMS, Messenger, WhatsApp, & more
Chat with customers in real-time or anytime on your website
Start the conversation with automation, increase agent efficiency, triage, & more
Protect your brand & drive loyalty across social media and review site
Orchestrate social campaigns that drive business results
Understand social trends from customers, the market, and competitors
Find, curate, and share the best social media content
Deflect inquiries to messaging channels and self-service communities
Automate conversations with our intuitive drag-and-drop platform
Supercharge agents with AI tools & intuitive workflows
Build brand awareness with a user-generated knowledge hub
Drive higher conversion rates and more revenue
Secure solutions to keep customer information safe
Cutting-edge tech to innovate and inform your customers
Deep insights to keep a pulse on customer demands
Real-time capabilities to stay connected with consumers
An integrated platform to nurture the customer journey
Our in-house experts in social media and community management for Khoros customers
More than onboarding and implementation, this is where our partnership begins
Increase satisfaction and improve product adoption with complimentary training.
CX Confessions, the definitive podcast for digital CX leaders
Guides, tipsheets, ebooks, on-demand webinars, & more
Integrations to connect with your customers, wherever they are
Technical overviews and links to developer documentation
Join us for live webinars and other events, like Khoros Engage
Insights, tips, news, and more from our team to yours
Case studies with successful customers to see how they did it
Connect with 70K+ customer engagement professionals
A customer experience podcast with Khoros Customers
Check out our social content and follow us on every major platform
20+ years experience, built from Spredfast and Lithium
Meet the team that leads the team
Press releases and other announcements
Data integrations for better customer experience
We’re hiring — come build the future of customer experience
Need anything? We’re here for you
Our commitment to do more and do better
CX Confessions | Episode 5
Guest | SANGEETA MUDNAL
In this episode Sangeeta Mudnal, VP of Customer Experience at Crown Castle, joins us to talk about building mutually beneficial relationships with consumers by delivering thrilling customer experiences.
In an increasingly connected world, customer experience has become a make-or-break asset to any company. B2B brands are now being faced with the choice to adapt or age out. You don’t want to miss these important topics:
Sangeeta Mudnal is a creative product leader known for devising innovative solutions and strategies, with expertise in software application development, AI technologies, and customer experience excellence. As the Vice President at Crown Castle, the nation's largest provider of communications infrastructure, she is responsible for facilitating the ownership of customer experience excellence throughout the company. Before her role in Crown Castle, she worked at Microsoft for 21 years in various Engineering and Product leadership roles. She was the Group Program Manager for Responsible AI in Microsoft Research NYC, and previous to that, she was the product leader for Excel on the Mac platform.
The future is going to be a hybrid CX model, which is a combination of physical and digital and AI.
— Sangeeta Mudnal
First, you have to make sure that the customer’s lifetime value increases with repeat purchases, and then you want them to become advocates of your company.
— Sangeeta Mudnal
One of the CX goals we have at the company is how to ease speed and predictability — and that thrilled our customers.
— Sangeeta Mudnal
INTRO
You're listening to CX Confessions, brought to you by Khoros. In each episode, we’ll share the customer experience stories and insights you need — straight from the sharpest minds in CX — to better connect with your customers and create customers for life. Let's start the show.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Hello, hello and welcome to CX Confessions, the customer experience show. I'm Katherine Calvert, CMO for Khoros, and I'm the host of the show and joined as always by my fabulous co-host, Mr. Spike Jones, head of our Strategic Services business. How are you doing, Spike?
SPIKE JONES
Yeah, I’m good! I'm still here, still here, you know, like I said, you can’t get rid of me. But it’s always a pleasure, always a pleasure.
KATHERINE CALVERT
And today is going to be a great day because we have a very fabulous guest joining us. You ready for a great conversation?
SPIKE JONES
Yes, please. Yes, please. I've been looking forward to this one so I am ready. Yes.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Awesome. Well, I would love to introduce you and our audience to the fabulous Sangeeta Mudnal. She is vice president of Customer Experience at Crown Castle. Now, if you don't know Crown Castle, that's okay, but you probably should. It is the nation's largest provider of communications infrastructure. That is serious technology. We're talking about towers, small cells, fiber networks — they bring it all together to help us literally stay connected. So, Sangeeta’s here to share a little bit about her journey. She joined Crown Castle from Microsoft where she had her fingerprints all over the global adoption of Microsoft Excel and others. She's got some great stories to tell. Welcome to the show, Sangeeta.
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Thank you, Katherine, for that really nice introduction, and hi, Spike, nice to meet you, and I look forward to our conversation today as I talk about my journey from Microsoft B2C world to Crown Castle B2B world but, yeah, look forward to the conversation today.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Fantastic. Let's dive in. We are so excited to have you here. We love to bring in a mix of senior execs from both, from companies that serve B2B audiences as well as B2C audiences, and, you know, Crown Castle is technically a B2B company. You sell to mostly government agencies, if I got that right. I'd love to get your take on what that means. Is there even a difference: B2B, B2C?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Yeah, I think so, you know. Thanks Katherine and Spike for having me over as, you know, one of your B2B guests. We’ll definitely talk a little bit about B2C versus B2B. But just kind of stepping back, Crown Castle is, you know, one of the nation's largest providers for communication infrastructure, so we work with our wireless providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Dish, and all the others — we have a fiber offering as well. So, it's kind of, and then we work with the jurisdictions and governments and what have you to help streamline the experience for our customers.
SPIKE JONES
Doesn't sound complicated at all. Doesn’t sound complicated at all. It sounds really easy.
[Laughter]
SANGEETA MUDNAL
So before we talk about B2B and B2C, I would again like to start with the customer in the, you know, the industry and the macro trends that we are seeing. So today, as we know — and we are living it every day — we are in the age of customers, right. We as customers can access information about products and services, pricing, revenue, reviews, what have you, anytime, anywhere. So customers are really empowered, and then when you couple that with the digital transformation that is going on in so many industries, those two come together and they are really remaking markets and creating risk for companies, whether it's B2C, or B2B.
So that's how I think about kind of the overall kind of customer phase, customer experience phase that we are in. There's a really great saying from Blake Morgan, who's one of the CX leaders, and it goes like this: the buyer is having these delicious, seamless customer experiences from companies like, you know, Netflix, Amazon, Spotify or Apple products. And then they go to make a large work purchase for their company, and they have terrible customer experiences as a B2B customer. So what's happening is, many of these B2B companies are realizing that they are held to the same standards as these consumer-friendly, customer-focused companies, and they really need to start thinking about that customer experience.
So that's kind of, you know, one of the things from like B2B versus B2C. So yes there are differences, you know, and we’ll talk through some of it in our conversation today. You know, when it comes to, you know, customer experience strategies for both, I truly believe, at the core, it's all about customer loyalty, right, and working that positive customer emotion. And when I talk about customer loyalty, it's about retention, it’s about repeated purchases and advocacy. And as you can see that is definitely what is really consistent when it comes to B2B and B2C — you want to retain your customers, these customers, you know, you have to make sure that their customer lifetime value is increased with repeated purchases and they, you want them as advocates for your company.
So that's kind of one of the core similarities that I've seen in that kind of overall transition. But also talking through the B2C versus B2B, one of the key differences that I've seen is when we are trying to get customer feedback via customer surveys or other tools. So when it comes to B2C you field a survey with your customers in your community, you know, like companies like yours that support a lot of that and get feedback and then you close the loop with them, either through the communities or the channels that you have.
But when it comes to B2B, you have to really think deeply about that customer organization that you're working with, right. You have to think about the frontline employees, the mid-level management, and then the VP level and the exec level. And when you're fielding these surveys in kind of Voice of Customer channels you want to be very mindful of that. Because what we have realized is that there might be key decision makers in that organization hierarchy who you want to get feedback from and address potential concerns. And then at the end of it is, you really want to retain them if they are on the verge of switching providers when it comes to companies like Comcast and all of that. So that's one key difference that I saw apart from the similarity that we talked about.
KATHERINE CALVERT
I think I was just gonna add, Sangeeta, I think that’s the heart, the way you're talking about that individual within the org, is the heart of that similarity that, and we, when we first met, we talked a little bit about that, right. B2B is, you're still selling to a person, there's someone in that company, it's not a company that signs the contract, right, it's, it's probably a group of people, and so having that orientation and understanding, as you describe it, about what each of those different catalysts or detractors or, but their heart, people care about and how you might be able to make their life easier. That's true B2B or B2C.
SPIKE JONES
Yeah, there's, there's a lot to unpack there. So, A, thank you for saying loyalty instead of satisfaction. That made me very happy. We were on with Don Peppers and we were talking about the differences between those two things and how to work people up that loyalty ladder to advocacy, which is very, very important. And the other part too is you know, old school, old school Spike way back in the day learned that B2C is people want stuff, and B2B is people want information — how do I get better at my job, how do I. But that's, it seems like and you know, in your experience and in the experience that you've had along the way, those lines have very much blurred, and they are there are so many similarities now between the two for sure. Sure, distinct differences but distinct similarities as well so to get a B2B company to think that way. I mean was that, was that difficult? What's that journey look like to get that buy-in from the folks that you work with?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think when I took, you know, it's been one year at Crown Castle for me. So prior to that I was in Microsoft, and here I joined Crown Castle in the midst of pandemic so not having met any, you know, actual teammates in person, to come in and start a new function which is the customer experience function is not in Comcast but many companies are just starting on this new CX function. And not only to have visions try than even actual initiatives and then kind of rally the, you know, the stakeholders, the leadership, the teammates. So definitely, you know, one of the challenging moves I've made in my career.
But it's been really great so far, right, you know, I kind of went back to basics, like okay when you're trying to kind of roll out the CX vision you know that experience that you intend to deliver you need to have a vision around it. And when you’re trying to build that vision you typically use the framework that you leverage with that vision and so what I did was typically as you do for building your vision and strategies, you know, understand the company culture. In Crown Castle there’s the concept of V3 values, just be an owner and kind of have that ownership mindset, also looking at our three lines of businesses. So as I mentioned to you, Katherine, earlier, we have fiber business, we have wireless, and power business, and small cell. And then, the key thing that I did was, you know, as part of my listening tour and soliciting contracts, that meant a lot of stakeholders in the company to understand what are the emerging CX themes already in the company — where the company's already doing well, and how do we take it, take that and take it to the next level.
So for example you know one of the — AT&T is one of our biggest customers, and when we finished 2020 we were ranked first among all the vendors in 20 of the 24 markets, and there was a generous improvement from the previous ranking where we were 14 out of 24 markets. So a lot of these, you know, such good CX initiatives that were already operational, I learned from them, and then decided to work with the stakeholders to come to the next level and have a new vision, or CX, for Crown Castle.
And so our vision is, you know, Crown Castle is one of America's most trusted infrastructure platforms providing innovative, connected solutions and we relentlessly orchestrate customer success, success across all teams, to provide a delightful customer experience. So I really wanted our brand to evoke customer emotions around trust and delight, and they should form the pillars of everything we do. Customer trust as we know is built by delivering on promises consistently, and customer delight is surprising the customer by exceeding his or her expectations.
So obviously there was a lot of discussion around customer delight. Should we talk about customer value that we are providing, given that we are in a B2B world, but I truly believe, and I talked about how customer delight can help differentiate us, our product, and services from the competition.
So those were some of the aspects of that journey — to come up with that vision and then into the strategy and bring along our stakeholders. So, you know, kind of really where we are now is in addition to the CX vision that I just talked about when we are talking about sales and profitability and company goals. One of them that we have at the company level is how ease, speed and predictability, thrill customers. So it's really great to see that journey of, you know, overall company from delighting the customers and so just sharing some stories there.
SPIKE JONES
Yeah, for sure, I mean you know delighting customers is something, as marketers, that we hear — surprise and delight — and delighting customers. And so but you've now, you've thrown a new term in there. You're writing a big check when you talk about thrilling customers. Taking them from delight to thrill. I mean, that's a tall order, my friend, like what is, what does that look like in your mind, especially when it comes to your business?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Yeah, so I think now that you know we talked about the vision, we want to break it down into the strategy, and then you know like really execute on projects with keeping that in mind and like how do we thrill customers. So one of the key pillars that you know we are starting to look at is our customer segmentation, right, we really want to understand our customer segments, and what specific needs and aspirations those customer segments have, and how do we bring our innovation to the forefront to help solve their problems and develop that customized solutions for them.
So that's what we think about CX differentiation that looks like for Crown Castle, and one very quick example that I can talk about is we launched a program called WispGO. So it's a customer force program that was built specifically for this business — wireless internet service providers who serve many of the rural areas in America.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Wisp, yeah that’s so neat, yeah okay, Wisp.
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Yeah. We are ready to go with this new form of this program that takes a very different approach, whether that, whether it's pricing, tiered support, it's all centered around making it simple and easy. You know, the FCC has announced like $16 billion ROF fund which is the rural digital funds over the next 10 years. And so we want to partner with Wisp as they navigate the toughest deployment challenges and get them on air faster. So that's what thrilling customers is all about right, like, you know, really helping with their tough, toughest problems and getting them on air faster.
And apart from just like launching this program, at a personal level, I'm pretty excited about this program because it's really enabling and reducing that digital divide that exists in the country so it really helps bring purpose to my job. So that was one of the exciting pieces about this goal, but, you know, answering your question like, that's kind of a continued CX strategy — how do we look at segments of customers, cohorts of customers, either based on CLV vertical industries or, you know their deployment patterns or solutions, and then how do we have customized solutions to offer to them, and that's an ongoing part of a strategy that we are continuing to execute.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Thank you. The Wisp story is amazing, Sangeeta, and you, you just mentioned that notion of the digital divide. And what does that mean to you, because I think it's really, it's answered so beautifully in some of the ways that you talk about closing that gap. But can you remind the audience: what do we mean when we talk about the digital divide?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
So I think when we look at the digital divide at the basic level, it's access to, you know, our most common resource that we talk about as internet right, and you know internet and this whole technology revolution that is being delivered through the internet is very, you know focused in certain urban areas, and not as much in terms of the internet access, whether it's upload or download, within the rural areas. And during the pandemic, it became even more of a significant problem, that digital divide, because we know everybody was working from home or learning from home, and if you don't have that, you know, foundational connectivity, you know, you’re left behind. And so that's something that, you know, we are really passionate about at Crown Castle.
We definitely had, during the pandemic, a lot of offers that we give to our customers — healthcare, hospitals — where we you know, we improved our bandwidth offerings to them at a very competitive pricing so we really think about the digital divide about really helping everyone get the same level of access when it comes to connectivity to the internet.
KATHERINE CALVERT
I know this must be, I know you just said it inspires you and helps you get purpose, and it must be, what a great mission for the team. And you know we talk on the show about community and what that means for connecting your customers, connecting you to your customers, connecting your customers to each other. And I was really struck by the way Crown Castle, which has such incredibly complex technology, really talks about the offering, in, in the value, in very humanistic terms. You talk about community and keeping, keeping communities connected to what they care about most. What is, how do you all think about that from the point of view of what you're bringing to market?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
So I think, as you just mentioned, right, it's like we work with a lot of the communities, whether it's government agencies or the districts and the jurisdictions, all the way to you know our big three customers and the Wisp customers and fiber. So definitely, you know, a huge surface area that we cover when it comes to communities.
We have our, you know, obviously, dedicated government affairs team and marketing team that has a lot of programs that work very closely and in a very targeted fashion when it comes to, you know, the newest technologies, whether it's 5G or edge computing or, you know, all the way to the Wisp, which is you know, providing connectivity in rural areas. So we have, like, really great teams and strategies around that.
For me, I think, when I think about community, one of the examples that really stands out is when I was working in Microsoft, and, and how we built a community around Excel. As we all know, Excel is one of the most popular office products from Microsoft, with over half a billion users. And so how do you create that community and connection with our Excel customers at scale? So, so that's one thing that we will you know when we started when I started out in the team, we were one of the first teams in the office that introduced the concept of a community website, and we did a lot of social engagement like Reddit AMAs and bloggings and other engagements. And also what we realized is like, you know, we can have a lot of marketing, and like community efforts, but we also wanted to make sure that you know we go beyond that so we really look at, there is a really good MVP program that Microsoft has, the Microsoft Valuable Professional program, and we activated it further, and then we reached out to a lot of influencers worldwide, whether it's the YouTubers and the folks who are training on Excel or blogging or have a lot of expertise in Excel that they're already sharing with their customer base today.
And so we leverage them as a megaphone to build awareness for new features and capabilities, and when, you know, some of the exciting moments were when we had the user voice community in Excel and we used to list out the capabilities that we want to build, what customers want us to build, and then we would actually share our roadmap with them. And then we kind of build those features and capabilities and release it, that announcement would go out. And so that, like, that validation that used to come from customers was like, yeah that's awesome to see that you're actually listening to us and engaging with us and building the product based on our needs. Obviously, we would take that as part of our strategies and building the features in Excel, but it was one of the key strategies that we had.
So, I just wanted to talk about that experience on how did we do the community outreach within Excel and try to scale our engagement in a meaningful way.
SPIKE JONES
Yeah you, I think one of the things people often forget is when we create these powerful communities you have built in focus groups of people who are just clamoring to give you free feedback that you do not have to pay for. They will tell you what they want and they're not afraid. I think that's a, that's a great thing to point out, and I would gladly join the Excel community if someone could teach me how to do a pivot table.
Anyway, you hit on it a little bit before when you're talking about this digital divide, but we know, especially during the pandemic, this idea and this concept and this belief, and this brand starting to embrace social good. And really, what does that mean from company to company because we know now, you know, especially the millennials and Gen Z, like they want to deal with companies that believe in something bigger than themselves, and they want to have this connection point. So when it comes to what you're doing and what you've seen and Crown Castle, what does that concept of social good mean to you and how are y'all putting it out there in the world?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
So you know we talked about like you know what Crown Castle has done within like the, you know, the community since last year because connectivity became such a critical asset that we want to really have high reliability and availability and the right pricing and enable the healthcare companies to schools to what have you. So a lot of, you know goodness that has been kind of spread through the various initiatives, not only this year and for the last year, but through many years of Crown Castle being that infrastructure provider.
And for me I think technology and social good are definitely an area of passion, right, when I talked about my last role at Microsoft, you know, I was helping drive some of the responsible AI product scenarios, right, and as we all know, AI technology, and a lot of this has transformed from vision to reality. It's creating tangible benefits for people and enterprises around the world. But like any great technological innovation, it poses complex and challenging questions about the future we want to see.
So, one of, some of the things that we did at Microsoft was develop a toolkit for assessing and improving fairness in AI. And what does that really mean, right, like, you know, assessing and improving fairness in AI? So I give an example from when I used to be at Microsoft. So, at that time, you know, Microsoft was partnering with a large financial lending institution to develop a risk scoring system for loan approvals. They train an existing industry model using the customer's data. On conducting the audit of that system, it was discovered that while it only approved low risk loans, all approved loans were for male borrowers only. So the training data reflected the fact that the loan officers historically had favored male borrowers and inspecting that system allowed the team to identify an address that bias, before the system was deployed. So that's kind of why, what I how I mean about like, you know, bringing technology and social good. It's really important for us to understand that. And then, you know, not have the unintended consequences.
SPIKE JONES
Yeah it's like data for good, right. It's using the tools that you have. That's really, that's really interesting. So there's two questions that we ask every guest, so of course we want to, we want to hear from you as well. So the first one is: what is a commonly held belief or industry practice that you passionately disagree with?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
So I think it's very much kind of continued from my previous answer that I had around social good and AI. So one of the industry beliefs is that AI will be replacing jobs in the future. So we know that employees in industries ranging from healthcare to agriculture to industry sectors can all expect to see disruptions in hiring or losing their jobs to AI. So my belief, there is, yes, AI will replace certain sets of jobs, but most importantly it will be actually empowering the existing jobs with new enabling tools and mechanisms that will help you do your job better, right, and that's kind of where I see the most potential for AI to empower your existing jobs.
And then finally, you know, AI is going to create many more new jobs. So, so I'm not too worried about AI replacing our jobs, that kind of stuff I keep hearing about that in the industry, you know obviously AI can help it, you know, creating, you know, wherever there is streamlining workflows and processes, replacing repetitive processes or error free execution, and many, many more scenarios that we are aware of in terms of AI.
But when it comes to, for example, customer experience, right, establishing that trust, that human-to-human connection, is going to be more important than ever before, especially in the B2B world. So it's not all going to be AI driven. I, my belief is the future is going to be a hybrid CX model which is a combination of, you know, physical and digital and AI. And that like, that certain element of the human intuition and connection and creativity, definitely AI cannot replace, and that's kind of what my belief is.
KATHERINE CALVERT
I think that's so powerful, Sangeeta. I think we've seen that fear-mongering around the risks and the challenges, but to your point, I think we've also seen that it can make those, it gives you more space to have those more powerful human interactions and then even can inform those and make those, those real human moments smarter and better when you have better insights and better visibility into what your customers are trying, really trying to tell you through their behavior and their engagement.
SANGEETA MUDNAL
RIght, yeah. And I think the key thing there is, it's not just about the AI developers or the engineers or, you know, the teams that are working on AI. It's actually the domain experts and the existing, you know, experts in the industry-based industries, they'll need to work hand in hand and make that vision come true, versus just expecting things to just work, right, it's not just going to be a one-sided kind of experience. It has to be working together.
SPIKE JONES
Yeah, I went to this great SXSW talk back in the day when it was actually held in person, and the one I went to was about, like, robots taking over the world and the guy got up, he goes, look, the people have been panicking about this for, for since forever, since the first technology was invented. He said when the combine was invented the farmers were out in the streets like protesting because they're like, “you're gonna take away my job,” but he's like no, that innovation helped them learn new skills and go on to do better things, too.
So I still think it's an evolution of that. And then I love your point on, which is what we very much believe too at Khoros, it's a combination of people and technology for sure to make, to make things better. That's great.
So along your, your prestigious career, you know, I love the thoughts that you have and what you're bringing to the table when it comes to your current role and past roles too, but having those belief systems and putting those in place, those are things that we pick up along the way, but one of the reasons we pick them up is because we have failures along the way, too. So can you share — this is CX Confessions, so we're asking you to confess a little bit — about one of those maybe hard lessons that you've learned along the way that you've been able to apply new ideas and things to make them better the next time?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Definitely. You know, this was not just the hardest lesson but one of the hardest questions. And, but when it, you know, so as I was thinking about this question I was thinking like, you know, coming to this B2B world, and, you know, looking at you know like, maybe like the 70% of revenues coming from three to four big customers, when it comes to moving the needle on CX, I feel, you know, it takes a lot of time and energy and passion and persistence, the right business case and prioritization you pilot, you trade. I think that's something that I feel is going to be critical, you know, not only for Crown Castle but a lot of the B2B companies is that, the passion and persistence to try and keep iterating, because there is no perfect solution in answers today. There is no silver bullet, or you know that, when it comes to getting the customer experience right, when it does like with respect to like just the top two or three customers who are bringing in like, you know, the lion's share of the revenue.
One of the things that we are continuing to work on and learn is how does NPS, which is a key industry metric, how is it applicable and actionable in such a scenario where you're talking about just two or three customers bringing in this, you know, 80% of the revenue. So we are kind of on that journey to kind of break down the CX metrics, whether they’re KPIs for customers, and thinking through creatively and innovatively on how to do that.
And one of the hardest lessons here is, you realize it's not just a one-sided thing. You actually have to work with your customers and they have to come along with you, when it's all these big three or four customers. So you can't just impact change because they, we are working so closely. And so that's the hard part, is like how do you not, you know, have the customer experience mindset that you want in your own company, but how do you do that with your customers and they co-create with you and plan with you and partner with you to deliver, get that enhanced customer experience.
So that's kind of the hardest part is not just things that aren't in your control but working with our customers to get them to help us to help them.
KATHERINE CALVERT
All right, Sangeeta, well thank you so much for telling us that — sharing that story and for telling us a little bit more about your perspective. As we've talked about, the heart of great customer experience is about connection and personal connection.
So Sangeeta is not just an incredibly accomplished senior leader of customer experience, she's also an incredible athlete and passionate about philanthropy. We just want to get to know you a little bit better so we have our confession of five quickfire questions. You ready to jump in? So, let us know a little bit more about you.
What was your first concert?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
First concert. Ah, Celine Dion. She was one of my favorites.
SPIKE JONES
Oh, nice.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Oh, I'm so jealous. I am so jealous. That is on my post-pandemic list.
SANGEETA MUDNAL
And she was just like one person on the stage. It wasn’t like, it wasn't like 100 people, you know, dancing and all of that. It was just one person. And she, you know, just delighted and thrilled the audience, as you can imagine, like never before. So.
SPIKE JONES
How about your first job?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
So I worked at Intel as a hardware design engineer. And you know, working on one of the chips. Not the Pentium chips, the chips before that. Like we call it the 386 and the 486. So I was one of the engineers working on that chip set.
KATHERINE CALVERT
That’s incredible.
If you couldn't do what you're doing today what profession, other than your own, would you attempt?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Fashionista. I love fashion. I love dressing up and, you know, taking part in fashion shows and pageants and all of that so yeah that's, and Manhattan's perfect for that.
SPIKE JONES
I was about to say, you're living in the right place. Yes. So what's your favorite app on your phone right now?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Right now it's Seamless. Seamless is a food ordering app which I’m told is very optimized for Manhattan for quicker service and delivery. So I love it. You know you can get the best food from the various restaurants here without, you know, stepping out of your home. So it's been really great.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Yeah it is the, the answer in New York and I'm getting hungry. It's only the morning out here. Speaking of yummy things, what is your biggest indulgence? Our last question, your biggest indulgence?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
For me I think I, you know, my favorite is Indian food and so I love, I've developed a taste for a lot of other cuisines, but whenever it comes to like Indian street food, that's kind of my favorite still. So, that's kind of my indulgence. Anytime I get like some street food, kind of a restaurant in from India, then that's kind of where I would go.
KATHERINE CALVERT
What's your favorite dish?
SANGEETA MUDNAL
It's called, the dish is called pani puri. So it's this small, literally small, pockets of, you know, of crisp, and you fill it with a bunch of liquids and then you put it in a mouth and it just, you know, kind of blows up in your mouth — that liquid — and it’s just sensational. Your mind, your mouth, and everything. So it's really amazing.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Yeah, I'm googling it now. That sounds divine. Well thank you for that. That was so fun. Thank you for sharing a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your journey as a CX leader. We're grateful for your story and your time. Thanks for joining us and thanks to all of you for listening in.
SANGEETA MUDNAL
Thank you, Katherine and Spike, it was really a great conversation and you know, as you prepare for some of these we actually learn through that, right, so the conversation itself, you know, pre versus post this podcast has made me smarter. So thank you for that.
KATHERINE CALVERT
Yeah. Our pleasure. We've learned a lot and we hope you have too. Thanks for listening in and we'll see you next time on CX Confessions.
KHOROS
Your customers expect to be understood — their likes and dislikes, their history with your brand, and their communication preferences. But so many companies struggle to connect the dots of the interaction across their own teams and channels and its creating customer experience challenges and disasters. That's where Khoros can help. Khoros is the award-winning customer engagement platform built to turn those siloed interactions with your customer into enterprise value. Khoros works with more than 2,000 of the world's leading brands and powers more than 500 million digital interactions every day. Khoros is the award-winning platform for digital-first customer engagement. Ready to create human connection across the digital customer experience to create customers for life? Learn more at Khoros.com.
Thanks for listening to CX Confessions, brought to you by Khoros. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure the hit subscribe in your favorite podcast player and give us a rating. See you next time.
Have a topic idea or feedback for our podcast? Email us at podcast@khoros.com
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