155: How to Build Customer-Obsessed Cultures (That Don’t Burn Out Your Team) | Van Battle
Release Date:
April 17, 2025
Release Date: Apr 17
“73% of customers say experience is a key factor in their purchasing decisions just behind price and product quality,” according to a report from PwC.
Customer experience is no longer just a support function of your business... it’s a leadership strategy.
In this episode, we’re joined by Van Battle, a seasoned customer experience leader who has first hand experience on how it can improve a company’s success based on his career working with brands like Jamba Juice, Urban Remedy, and The Sharper Image.
What You’ll Learn:
The real difference between customer service and customer experience
How to turn your support team into your company’s most strategic asset
Why empathy is a leadership skill
How “minor league” development programs can retain top talent
What most companies get wrong when using AI in customer experience
How to empower reps to resolve issues without escalating every time
What leaders must do to instill a culture of ownership
In This Episode:
00:16 – Leading through stewardship: what it looks like
01:09 – Lessons from the restaurant world: empathy starts on the frontlines
03:26 – The invisible value of busboys and call center reps
05:18 – Why Van sends reps into stores and orders their own products
06:58 – Customer service vs. customer experience
08:46 – Anticipating issues before they happen
10:23 – Turning reps into “insight engines”
12:32 – Avoiding burnout: how to distribute workload fairly
13:40 – Baseball, development, and team balance
14:57 – The “minor league program” for career growth
17:11 – Upskilling with Learnit: real examples that worked
19:03 – Creating a culture of learning and mobility
20:04 – Training teams to own the resolution
22:45 – Building confidence through empowerment
23:39 – When the customer isn’t right—and how to respond
25:22 – Tracking patterns to prevent abuse
26:52 – Balancing trust between customer and employee
29:36 – How to turn customer data into internal action
32:01 – Getting specific: “friendly” means what exactly?
33:18 – How customer expectations have evolved
35:52 – Humanizing digital experiences in a tech-first world
37:49 – What Southwest’s shift says about customer loyalty
39:14 – What AI should never replace
41:04 – Will AI replace frontline workers?
42:47 – Van’s biggest leadership lesson about customer experience
