Customer Experience Program |
Learn to Make Customer Experience Your Differentiator
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Companies providing excellent customer experiences set themselves apart from the competition. They understand how they deliver to their customers can be as or more important than what they deliver. The Customer Experience Program offered through Minnesota State Mankato may be one of the most important investments your company can make.
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Learn what it takes to create brand experiences to drive loyalty, achieve higher revenue gains, and reduce costs. Develop deeper insights and integrate innovative strategies to help your organization see the world through your customer's eyes.
The Minnesota State Mankato Customer Experience Program is designed by industry experts for professionals seeking practical tools for this fast-growing discipline. From your initial CX maturity assessment, vision development and goal setting, persona and journey design, to empathy stories and cultural engagement, be ready to roll-up your sleeves and apply your new skills in this hands-on, interactive course. |
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The Customer Experience Program meets the same high academic standards of the Minnesota State Mankato graduate programs, with a challenging interdisciplinary curriculum designed to prepare you to analyze, create, and deliver unique customer experiences.
Each module builds your skills, helps you develop strategies, and provides you a full CX Ultimate Toolkit with OVER 60 workshop booklets, team-focused activities, templates, assessments, and planning guides, and culture posters. All to help YOU on the road to immediate success.
We develop CX professionals that do extraordinary things for their organizations. Throughout the program, you're encouraged to work on your own projects. By the end of the program, you'll have completed your Customer Experience Portfolio, with real solutions to apply immediately to the challenges in your workplace.
Each module builds your skills, helps you develop strategies, and provides you a full CX Ultimate Toolkit with OVER 60 workshop booklets, team-focused activities, templates, assessments, and planning guides, and culture posters. All to help YOU on the road to immediate success.
We develop CX professionals that do extraordinary things for their organizations. Throughout the program, you're encouraged to work on your own projects. By the end of the program, you'll have completed your Customer Experience Portfolio, with real solutions to apply immediately to the challenges in your workplace.
Module 1 - Customer Experience Introduction
Define the concept of Customer Experience. Find out what makes a beloved company and the essential elements that endear these brands to us.
- Identify Customer Experience leaders and laggards.
- Discuss what sets these types of experiences apart from others, making you less likely to advocate for a certain brand.
- Create your comparison scorecard to identify critical elements that set leaders apart from the rest.
Module 2 - Customer Experience Strategy For Success
Learn why Customer Experience isn’t a project with a start and end date, and why this isn’t a state of mind – it’s a state of your organization and it starts at the top. Integrating Customer Experience into business strategy, and skillfully executing, leads to enormous rewards. You’ll achieve higher customer engagement, reduced churn, increased revenue, and greater employee satisfaction.
- Develop insights into what a customer-centric organization looks like and how to get there.
- Discover elements that comprise an effective and strategic customer experience plan.
- Create critical goals and roadmap to help reach your customer experience vision.
Module 3 - Your Customers, Their Journey
Customer Experience Journey Maps are arguably the most important instrument for capturing your customer’s true interactions, emotionally and cognitively, with your company’s brand. Discover your customers and their experiences, and use these strategic tools for communications, analysis, planning, management, and innovation.
- Develop insightful customer personas and stories that promote cultural empathy and impact decisions.
- Identify critical customer views of interactions throughout multi-channel touchpoints.
- Use journey maps to capture experiences and emotions and improve the lives of your customers.
Module 4 - Accelerate & Improve Decisions With Data
Customer Experience initiatives fizzle quickly if you don’t connect the dots between your customers’ perceptions, touch points, service delivery, cost savings and ROI. Customer churn rates, share of wallet, Net Promoter Scores, average handling times, and cost of acquisition, can and need to tie to your bottom line.
- Explore leading practices that drive ongoing business improvements.
- Link customer perceptions with operational costs and profitability.
- Discover the most relevant, actionable metrics for your organization to drive desired business results.
Module 5 - Customer-Focused Innovation
Customer-Focused Innovation is the perfect blend of theory, practice, strategy and invention. Innovating on behalf of your customers doesn’t start with a problem statement – it starts with your customer. Learn to use empathy techniques to break through the culture barrier at your company and close the “knowing-doing” gap.
- Apply creative strategies that support innovation.
- Gain insights to understand the needs of your customers.
- Work to improve customer experience while adding value they’ll rave about.
Module 6 - Principles Of Customer Relationship Building
Customer Experience is multi-faceted and relies on the strong relationships you build with your customers. Use the Customer Relationship Development Model to identify and define core elements to build relationships and improve overall experiences. Through collaboration and ideation, you create a maturity matrix specifically for your business.
- Apply modern relationship building models.
- Develop your own Customer Experience-based Customer Relationship Maturity Matrix.
- Discover essential elements and apply the Technology Framework for CRM and Customer Experience.
Module 7 - Customer First Culture
Great customer experience start with great employee experience. Educate yourself and your workforce on how to foster a customer-first culture that positions you for the greatest, longest-term success. This isn’t “blowing up” the culture you already have – it’s embracing what you have and collaborating to make a difference for your customers.
- Accept the reality that your customer experience will never exceed your employee experience.
- Engage the hearts and minds of your people.
- Determine how to work together to deliver your brand promise and great customer experiences.
Module 8 - Navigating Politics Of Change
Change is hard, people are resistant, and the market is becoming more fiercely competitive every day. Organizations must quickly evolve or be left behind. It takes a special leader to navigate these waters and get your entire organization marching to the same drummer. Arm yourself with these indispensable leadership skills.
- Discover how to drive adoption across your entire organization.
- Successfully jump start your role by gaining quick wins and bring others along with you.
- Become a successful change-agent for experience-first thinking and inspire change.
Capstone Project: Your Customer Experience Strategic Plan
The program culminates in your very own strategic plan for your organization. To achieve the highest return-on-investment, you're encouraged to add to the capstone throughout the program. By following your strategic plan, you'll operationalize and infuse customer experience ideals into your cultural DNA. As an added bonus, by the end of the class you'll have completed your very own professional Customer Experience portfolio.
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Carol BuehrensCarol is the author of ‘Happy RAVING Customers!’ and is a leading CX expert. She has a wealth of skills and expertise to draw from, constructing customer experiences for over 30 years for major companies such as Liberty Mutual, Northrop, McDonnell-Douglas, Bechtel, GE, Mercury Marine, and ICW Group Insurance Companies.
Carol’s passion for improving customer experience has resulted in numerous awards, including the prestigious “CX Innovation Award” from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), ICW Group CEO Award, the Liberty Mutual Star Award, and is listed in the World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals. A Founding Member and Expert Panel Member of the international Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), Carol is also an active member of the San Diego Customer Experience Special Interest Group (CX SIG), and Professor at California State University Fullerton and University of California San Diego. |
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Michael TruettMichael is known for creating, improving and executing collaborative Design Thinking sessions and Customer Experience frameworks across diverse industries at different stages of growth. He has worked with companies such as Spotify, The New York Times, Dow Jones, Tech start-ups, and Telecom providers globally.
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Erich DietzErich is the Vice President of Worldwide Strategic Accounts for InMoment. He has over 15 years of executive experience spanning consulting, business development, and solutions architecture. He is also a designated CXPA Expert and regular contributor to the community’s Google+ Hangouts and other events.
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JP Saini As Chief Information Officer for TRC, JP focuses on leveraging technology to digitally transform business and support profitable growth through improving customer experiences. JP is passionate about the mix of CX and technology and the impact of ensuring infrastructure is reliable, maintainable, scalable, flexible, and secure for all customers.
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Stephene KleinStephene Klein is a trailblazer whose academic and professional journeys stand as a testament to her relentless pursuit of excellence. She holds three master's degrees - an MBA, MPH, and MPHA - from Everglades University, Boca Raton, FL, where she graduated summa cum laude, marking her place at the pinnacle of her class with an unrivaled 4.0 GPA. This academic titan not only delivered the Graduate Commencement keynote address, inspiring a crowd of over 1,000 attendees, but she is also a notable faculty member guiding the next generation of leaders. Her profound insights and wealth of knowledge have shaped countless C-suite executives, fostering excellence and innovation on a global scale.
Outside of academia, Stephene has consistently made a global impact. She is a Gold Medalist, Storytelling Writing Award Winner (2024), and the recipient of the Global Vision Award for Brand Strategy (2023). She was also the featured cover story of South Florida Magazine (2021), and has etched her place in the global business echelons. Her dynamic role at Zschool, saw her spearhead over 500+ Advisory Board meetings, annually, shaping the strategic direction for over 10,000 CxOs and senior executives worldwide. With over 20 years of award-winning business development and engagement marketing experience, coupled with more than 15 years of senior leadership roles, Stephene consistently drives sustainable revenue growth for leading global companies. Her extensive experience across multiple domains, including sales, marketing, and partnerships, and her well-established global network, position her as a catalyst for success in complex business environments. |
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Tiffany CraftTiffany Craft is a global business leader specializing in international expansion, strategy, marketing, and advertising. She has successfully driven growth for brands like Calvin Klein across Latin America, Asia, and Europe, leveraging cultural insights to boost international revenue.
With expertise in strategic partnerships, retail, media, and entertainment, Tiffany has developed innovative marketing initiatives that enhance brand engagement and visibility. Her ability to merge traditional and digital strategies has led to award-winning campaigns and impactful business growth. Tiffany excels in fostering partnerships, leveraging digital innovation, and integrating AI to enhance efficiency. A sought-after speaker and mentor, she champions a culture of belonging and strategic transformation in global business. |
Instructor Team Contributors
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Melissa FlicekMelissa Flicek is a senior executive dedicated to building high-performing teams and developing technology solutions that exceed strategic goals. With expertise in mobile, social media, eCommerce, digital marketing, and in-store/hospital digital solutions, she has led innovation across Target, Medtronic, and Optum (UnitedHealth Group). Passionate about simplifying healthcare and enhancing the patient experience, she is committed to driving impact and empowering teams to reach their full potential.
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Udhaya Kumar DayalanDr. Udhaya Kumar Dayalan, an Engineering Manager at Trane Technologies for 16 years, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, USA. With expertise in HVAC, IoT, 5G, and Machine Learning, he has secured 36 patents and published 10+ papers in esteemed journals. Beyond his impactful research, he serves as a reviewer at top IoT, Networking, and Technology events globally. Dr. Dayalan's extensive contributions include chairing conferences, speaking as a keynote, and participating in over 170 technical program committees. Recognized for outstanding work in computer science and engineering, he receives acclaim for his prodigious accomplishments. His research in HVAC, IoT, and 5G is widely referenced, solidifying his status as an exceptional and influential industry researcher.
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Gabriel SchlakeGabriel Schlake is an executive leader specializing in developing, scaling, and optimizing customer success teams for small and mid-sized SaaS and services companies. With 15+ years of experience, he excels at integrating people, processes, and technology to enhance efficiency and accelerate business outcomes. Skilled in navigating complex, matrixed environments, he implements data-driven, scalable solutions that drive revenue retention and growth in rapidly evolving markets.
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Mentor Team Contributors
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Mukund MohanMukund Mohan is a seasoned IT leader with over 25 years of global experience delivering innovative solutions and services across banking, retail, automotive, and government sectors. Committed to customer success and excellence, he leads by example, embracing a data-driven approach while fostering a culture of integrity, respect, and accountability. His expertise in IT strategy and execution drives impactful outcomes, ensuring business growth and technological advancement.
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- Elif McCain, Fraser
"Becoming a CX expert doesn't happen automatically or overnight. It requires on-the-job training AND taking a course at a reputable university. That's exactly what I did and recommend you take the same program offered by Minnesota State Mankato. Read about my #CX class experience and how you can differentiate your brand, too!"
- Stacy Sherman, MBA, CUA, Customer Experience Leader
- Stacy Sherman, MBA, CUA, Customer Experience Leader
"This program has done a great job of putting customer experience front and center for our organization. The concepts and lectures in the program are engaging and easy to follow, and the worksheets allow me to easily apply the concepts to my daily work. I recommend this CX program for anyone looking to bring customer experience to the forefront of their business."
- Jenny Baranowski, Awards Director, SIIA
- Jenny Baranowski, Awards Director, SIIA
"The course has been great for me and my company. It has given us new ways of thinking, allowed us to look at different ways of doing things and pull from successes in other industries that have translated into successes in our business that we wouldn’t have explored before."
- Brett Fish, Cognizant, Senior Director Business Development
- Brett Fish, Cognizant, Senior Director Business Development
To learn more about the Minnesota State Mankato Customer Experience Program and how it helps companies and executives, schedule a call with the program manager.