Ty Givens, founder and CEO of CX Collective, joins Craig Andrews to break down the overlooked power of customer experience. Ty argues that customer experience isn’t just about fixing problems—it’s about preventing them. Through real-world examples, from Starbucks to five-star restaurants, Ty highlights how small touches—like empathy and initiative—can turn a moment of friction into long-term loyalty.

She shares her early career misstep that changed everything: thinking she was just an employee instead of the brand itself. That shift in mindset launched a career helping brands—from startups to Fortune 500s—reshape how they engage customers at every level.

Ty also opens up about the power of leadership that sees potential in others. A former bookstore manager changed her trajectory with one simple act of belief, reminding us that leadership isn’t always flashy—sometimes it’s about sending someone to a job fair.

This episode challenges companies in every industry to rethink how they listen, act, and lead through customer experience.

Want to learn more about Ty Givens' work? Check out their website at https://cxcollective.com.

Connect with Ty Givens on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tybryantgivens/.

Key Points with Time Stamps

• 00:01:11 – Ty’s career focus: Building CX systems that lead, not lag.

• 00:01:53 – Why customer experience is proactive service, not just reactionary support.

• 00:03:34 – Starbucks fail: When automation breaks trust in customer promises.

• 00:05:23 – Net Promoter Score: What it is and why it matters for brand perception.

• 00:07:00 – Ty’s early mistake: “I didn’t know I was the brand.”

• 00:08:48 – Calorie restaurant story: Exceeding expectations creates lifetime advocates.

• 00:11:12 – Dress code disaster: When rigid policies cost long-term loyalty.

• 00:13:23 – CX isn’t just for hospitality—every business has customers.

• 00:15:12 – Why the most casually dressed person may be your most powerful client.

• 00:19:09 – The magic of Barnes & Noble: Experience over convenience in a digital age.

• 00:20:02 – A bookstore boss changes Ty’s life by seeing her potential.

• 00:26:38 – Self-assessment: 3 ways to evaluate and improve your customer experience.

• 00:27:36 – Quantify friction: Small fixes can massively reduce customer effort.

• 00:30:36 – How to connect with Ty and get CX help.

Transcript

00;00;05;20 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;07
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;11;03
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome Ty Givens She is the founder and CEO of the CSS collective. She partners with ambitious brands to build customer experience programs that don't just keep up. They actually lead ever a career. Ty has transformed a number of,

00;01;11;03 - 00;01;22;23
Craig Andrews
support operations at every stage, from scrappy startups to their first helped us to fortune 500 thinking how they serve millions of customers.

00;01;22;25 - 00;01;24;13
Craig Andrews
Ty welcome.

00;01;24;16 - 00;01;27;04
Ty Givens
Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here.

00;01;27;07 - 00;01;34;17
Craig Andrews
You know, I, I was looking forward to this interview.

00;01;34;20 - 00;01;40;23
Craig Andrews
Because I think you cover a area that most businesses don't think about, right?

00;01;40;23 - 00;01;48;02
Craig Andrews
You know, it's collective and firm, right? That stands for customer success stands for customer Experience.

00;01;48;05 - 00;01;49;01
Ty Givens
Yes.

00;01;49;04 - 00;01;51;19
Craig Andrews
Okay. In a nutshell. What is that?

00;01;51;22 - 00;01;53;04
Ty Givens
Yeah. So think of,

00;01;53;04 - 00;01;59;09
Ty Givens
customer experience of at every touch touchpoint that your customer has with your business or your company.

00;01;59;12 - 00;02;16;12
Ty Givens
A lot of times we focus on marketing, which is part of the customer experience sales, which is part of the customer experience. Service is usually where most people see customer experience because they see it as an afterthought or reactive.

00;02;16;14 - 00;02;34;10
Ty Givens
But in reality, customer experience is proactive service, if you will. Getting ahead of what marketing is doing so that what goes out is what the customer needs or intends for it to be, so that you can cut down on questions later. So yeah.

00;02;34;12 - 00;02;41;12
Craig Andrews
Let me give you an example from this morning and tell me if this is some of what you're thinking about. Customer experience. So I told you in the green room,

00;02;41;16 - 00;02;45;00
Craig Andrews
we just moved. So my wife and I just moved into a new house.

00;02;45;02 - 00;02;45;20
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;02;45;23 - 00;02;55;04
Craig Andrews
Our coffeemaker is. Who knows where. It's. It's somewhere in one of these many boxes stacked up to our ears.

00;02;55;06 - 00;03;13;17
Craig Andrews
And my wife in particular likes coffee in the morning. So this morning I wake up before I pull out my Starbucks app. And I order one of these little travelers, which is like a little turd or a carafe of coffee that you can bring home. And it tells me that my coffee will be ready in 6 to 9 minutes.

00;03;13;17 - 00;03;17;28
Craig Andrews
So I'm thinking, well, that's great. That's about how long it takes me to get to Starbucks. Yep.

00;03;18;04 - 00;03;31;23
Craig Andrews
A couple things to wrap up. And I jumped in my car. I drove over at Starbucks and it was 6:13 a.m.. Okay. And I said, I walked up to the counter and they're like, did you call something? I said, yeah, I,

00;03;31;23 - 00;03;32;14
Craig Andrews
called in a,

00;03;32;14 - 00;03;34;00
Craig Andrews
a traveler.

00;03;34;03 - 00;03;51;14
Craig Andrews
Oh, well, that takes 30 minutes. I take my phone and hold it up, saying expect it to be ready at 609. Yeah. I show it to her. I said, well, it says it should be ready now. She's like, oh, well, I wouldn't believe that. This is Starbucks.

00;03;51;16 - 00;03;52;29
Ty Givens
Yeah. Problem.

00;03;53;01 - 00;04;01;07
Craig Andrews
And I say, well, can I have some coffee while I wait for my coffee? She's like, yeah, just meet me over at the register. We'll sell you some coffee.

00;04;01;14 - 00;04;07;10
Ty Givens
Sell you? Yeah. Sorry. That's.

00;04;07;13 - 00;04;11;20
Craig Andrews
So that was my customer experience at Starbucks this morning.

00;04;11;22 - 00;04;16;16
Ty Givens
Yeah. And that's not ideal.

00;04;16;19 - 00;04;29;11
Ty Givens
So. Okay, so let let me tell you that in that scenario, the opportunities that I see one, it's a small things, which is it's common sense. Right? If someone orders,

00;04;29;11 - 00;04;41;19
Ty Givens
the travel or coffee, then instead of it defaulting to the 6 to 9 normal prep, you know, time for a cup of coffee or a latte, you automatically updated to 30 minutes.

00;04;41;22 - 00;04;43;07
Ty Givens
That's opportunity one.

00;04;43;10 - 00;05;01;00
Ty Givens
And I guarantee you, you're nice. Now, I've got some friends of mine who I laugh and. But, I mean, I do this work, but they are the customer service police. And I laugh because I'm like, they would have been that they would have called corporate and raised all kinds of hell. So they they got lucky.

00;05;01;01 - 00;05;05;06
Ty Givens
So that's one. The other opportunity is to,

00;05;05;08 - 00;05;23;03
Ty Givens
one show empathy for the mistake that Starbucks made. So because at the end of the day, putting 6 to 9 minutes is their mistake. That's not yours. You showed up. You gave them ample time. You followed their protocol. It's not on you. And then when you say, can I get a cup of coffee the way you should not have had to say that.

00;05;23;03 - 00;05;47;10
Ty Givens
It should have been. Can I get you a cup of coffee while you wait? Because I don't know if you've ever heard of Net Promoter, but Net promoter is the, It's a it's a, it's a wacky formula that basically says that people are promoting you in different or they're detracting and it's typically rated from 1 to 10 and it is based on a trusted resource.

00;05;47;12 - 00;06;07;02
Ty Givens
So anyone listening to your podcast likely trusts your voice. That's why they listen to you. You've just given them an experience that you had at Starbucks, an honest account, and that will make someone say, well, the next time I need to order a travel or pack, I'm not going to go to Starbucks, right? Simply off of your experience.

00;06;07;04 - 00;06;21;04
Ty Givens
So in this case, you would be a detractor, not because you're trying to take anything away from him, from them. That's just what happened. And so part of the customer experience is about creating promoters and getting ahead of those little moments. And,

00;06;21;07 - 00;06;32;11
Ty Givens
doing the little tweaks that turn customers into promoters. So I would venture to say, you know, going back to when I used to answer phones,

00;06;32;14 - 00;06;34;21
Ty Givens
I was not the best rep.

00;06;34;24 - 00;07;00;24
Ty Givens
And part of the disconnect is that I didn't understand that I was the brand. I still saw myself as a person who worked at this company. So when and this was like I used to work for Office Depot at the time. So I remember my last day on the phones before I went into another role. A customer told me to go home and start all over again, and he told me to do that because he had caught about patterns and I was so frustrated.

00;07;00;24 - 00;07;24;05
Ty Givens
One I hated being on the phone, but two, I was so frustrated with this question about pins because I'm thinking in my mind, I didn't pack the order because no one taught me that I was Office Depot. It didn't matter who packed the order, I was Office Depot. So in this instance, you didn't say Maggie at Starbucks. You just said, I went to Starbucks and this happened.

00;07;24;13 - 00;07;28;15
Ty Givens
She is the brand. Whereas her manager. That's the question.

00;07;28;18 - 00;07;35;12
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, let me give you an opposite experience. Okay. So this happened years ago.

00;07;35;15 - 00;07;38;15
Craig Andrews
I grew up in I grew up in Maryland, and,

00;07;38;18 - 00;07;40;23
Craig Andrews
my wife and I flew up to DC,

00;07;40;26 - 00;07;49;17
Craig Andrews
for Thanksgiving. Society before Thanksgiving. And we decided to spend the night in the city before going out to my brother's place in Harpers Ferry.

00;07;49;20 - 00;07;51;03
Ty Givens
Okay.

00;07;51;06 - 00;08;11;18
Craig Andrews
We land once on the Saturday night before Thanksgiving. We had gotten a really good rate at a hotel room like two blocks north of of the white House, and it was between the white House and K Street. And so I pull out my Yelp app and I start looking for restaurants. They're all closed. Well, every one of them is closed.

00;08;11;18 - 00;08;31;09
Craig Andrews
And there turns out there's a reason K Street is where all the lobbyists hang out. Okay. And and so the Saturday before Thanksgiving, there, there were no poems degrees. So there was no need for any of the restaurants to be open because all of the, all the clients, you know, the customers were lobbyists or they were they were trying to do business with somebody in DC.

00;08;31;11 - 00;08;48;09
Craig Andrews
Yeah. I found one restaurant. It was a mediterranean restaurant. It had two little dollar signs, which was what we were looking for. We retired. We were looking for something simple. The next day we were going to a very nice restaurant in Georgetown that was going to be our nice meal in the setting. And so we be bop over to this restaurant.

00;08;48;12 - 00;09;06;21
Craig Andrews
We're wearing jeans and, you know, jeans and t shirt type attire. Except it was a little bit colder. So with a coat or something and we walk in this restaurant, we're expecting just kind of a simple joint. And I get to the hostess station and I realize that I'm standing in a five star restaurant.

00;09;06;23 - 00;09;08;15
Ty Givens
Boy.

00;09;08;17 - 00;09;09;02
Craig Andrews
And,

00;09;09;05 - 00;09;27;09
Craig Andrews
And just to put it in perspective, like in the two months leading up to my wife and I walking in there, Hillary Clinton had had dinner there. The president of Mexico had had dinner there. And we're there in jeans and t shirts. Oh, wow. And they say, oh, we're going to find you a very romantic table.

00;09;27;12 - 00;09;33;22
Craig Andrews
And they did, but one by the kitchen but also wasn't in main view. And it was a nice table.

00;09;33;24 - 00;09;34;19
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;09;34;21 - 00;09;58;04
Craig Andrews
And my wife looks at the menu and she's like, yeah know flipping out. And I said look we're here. Enjoy it. Just we're going to have a good meal. And we eat the meal and they treat us wonderfully. And we're at the end of our meal and the waiter shows up with a complimentary dessert. Just as amazing. I mean, the dessert was like a meal by itself.

00;09;58;04 - 00;09;59;11
Craig Andrews
It was ginormous.

00;09;59;13 - 00;10;00;22
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;10;00;24 - 00;10;14;26
Craig Andrews
And the name of the restaurant was calamari. And you can imagine I've told that story so many times. And I've told people, if you're ever in D.C. around K Street, you should eat a calorie.

00;10;14;29 - 00;10;15;20
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;10;15;22 - 00;10;28;11
Craig Andrews
Because they treated us nicer than we deserved based on how we were dressed. And they didn't shame us for showing up in their restaurant. And Gene and DC is a very formal city. You don't shop at nice restaurants in jeans.

00;10;28;13 - 00;10;39;02
Ty Givens
Yeah. Yeah I think that's amazing. I mean, my grandfathers passed on me here at my, one of my favorite people. He passed away not too long ago.

00;10;39;02 - 00;10;45;09
Ty Givens
And for his, I believe, his 92nd birthday. We were taking him to dinner.

00;10;45;14 - 00;10;50;16
Ty Givens
And the restaurant that we were going to is one that we had frequented a lot, but,

00;10;50;19 - 00;10;55;02
Ty Givens
it is, you know, I use ethical foods when I call it upscale.

00;10;55;04 - 00;11;03;08
Ty Givens
But, like, I would go there sometimes just if I'm out shopping, you know, like, oh, I'm just going to go have lunch with my mom or whatever. So anyway,

00;11;03;11 - 00;11;12;12
Ty Givens
I get there before the rest of my family. I'm inside. I'm waiting for my family to arrive. We have a reservation. My mom calls me and says they won't let us in.

00;11;12;14 - 00;11;31;18
Ty Givens
What do you mean they won't let you in? Your sister has on sweat pants that she has on designer high end sweat pants. So it was like a whole athleisure look. But they won't let her in. And I have not been back to that restaurant, and. And I even talked to the manager about it, and I'm like, look, we come here all the time.

00;11;31;18 - 00;11;52;23
Ty Givens
It's my grandfather's 92nd birthday. I'm sorry. We have a very strict dress code. Well, what have been nice is to say, you know what? We do have a dress code. I see that you've come here pretty frequently. Next time, just so you know, this is how it is. But let me get you guys seated. That restaurant is Levy's.

00;11;52;26 - 00;11;57;02
Ty Givens
I used to love the food, but I'll never go back. So I am like.

00;11;57;04 - 00;11;57;28
Craig Andrews
Let's see, what

00;11;57;28 - 00;11;58;12
Craig Andrews
was it?

00;11;58;12 - 00;11;59;11
Craig Andrews
Freshwater grill.

00;11;59;18 - 00;12;17;21
Ty Givens
Yes, yes, there's one down in Manhattan Beach, and I kid you not, like, ever since they opened, we used to love the patio. We'd go, they had these great little lobster tacos, just like, you know, cute place, fun. Nice ambiance.

00;12;17;24 - 00;12;18;13
Ty Givens
Other hold,

00;12;18;13 - 00;12;27;27
Ty Givens
business centers there. Everything. And it was so unfortunate to, you know, especially when I gave, like, it's my granddad's birthday.

00;12;28;00 - 00;12;30;19
Ty Givens
He's 92. That was his last birthday.

00;12;30;22 - 00;12;31;18
Craig Andrews
On my.

00;12;31;20 - 00;12;51;01
Ty Givens
Right. And that we ended up going down to Fleming's and had a fine time, but it just it was disheartening. And so there are like, you know, when we talk about situations like this, there are different policies and things that are put into place that are not always put into place with the forethought of how,

00;12;51;04 - 00;12;57;02
Ty Givens
it could affect, you know, the 20% of your, you know, you're 80% of the time is going to be fine.

00;12;57;05 - 00;13;03;06
Ty Givens
And then there's that 20%. And some people lack the discernment on when to flex on that.

00;13;03;09 - 00;13;23;15
Craig Andrews
Right. So so you know, we talked about Starbucks. We talked about calorie restaurant. We talked about EVs. Yeah, I mean those are obvious choices for customer experience. Yeah. Is this just something for the service industry?

00;13;23;17 - 00;13;30;20
Ty Givens
I don't know, I don't think so because every company has customers, like literally every company has a customer.

00;13;30;23 - 00;13;36;06
Ty Givens
I mean, even you as a, as a podcast host, your listeners are technically your customers.

00;13;36;09 - 00;13;47;09
Ty Givens
We all have an opportunity to build an experience for people who engage with us in a way that makes sense for them. Otherwise, why would they continue to come back?

00;13;47;11 - 00;13;49;10
Ty Givens
So as companies, you know,

00;13;49;10 - 00;14;13;14
Ty Givens
it doesn't matter what your product is, there's an audience out there who's going to be consuming that product, whether you sell it or you gifted or whatever that is. You have to have something that keeps them coming back to you. And the customer experience is a good way to do that, like listening to what they what they say or even what they don't say.

00;14;13;16 - 00;14;14;00
Ty Givens
Right.

00;14;14;03 - 00;14;18;10
Ty Givens
Just analyzing behaviors, really paying attention to,

00;14;18;13 - 00;14;24;18
Ty Givens
what your customer or your listeners expect of you and delivering that.

00;14;24;20 - 00;14;29;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah. No, I think so. It's,

00;14;30;00 - 00;14;34;02
Craig Andrews
I would say especially so for, you know, if you have a high ticket service.

00;14;34;04 - 00;14;36;02
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;14;36;04 - 00;14;45;13
Craig Andrews
If you have a high ticket service, it should be easy to bake in the margin to deliver, you know, a little something extra in the in the experience.

00;14;45;16 - 00;14;49;10
Ty Givens
Yeah. And, you know, I mean, the example that you gave of the restaurant in DC,

00;14;49;13 - 00;15;12;09
Ty Givens
my first inclination was that there is a very clear understanding that they have to deliver a certain experience for their customer because of who their customers are. And, you know, some of the wealthiest people and the most important people walk around in jeans and t shirts.

00;15;12;11 - 00;15;36;19
Ty Givens
You never know who you're serving or who you're talking to or who you're dealing with. So it is to their benefit to treat everyone with the utmost respect, because you don't know who that person is. And especially in high end environments. I think that in high end environments, the person who is dressed down the most is probably the most important person in the room.

00;15;36;21 - 00;15;40;02
Craig Andrews
It's funny you mention that. So here's another one of my stories from L.A..

00;15;40;05 - 00;15;41;05
Ty Givens
Okay.

00;15;41;07 - 00;15;42;28
Craig Andrews
So I used to travel to Asia a lot.

00;15;43;02 - 00;15;57;29
Craig Andrews
And on my way back, I'd usually my first stop in the U.S. was often in LA, and I would go to the admirals Club and take a shower to get ready for my next flight. And I come out of the shower and I go up to the bar in the Admirals Club,

00;15;58;02 - 00;16;00;20
Craig Andrews
to get, like, a Diet Coke or something.

00;16;00;23 - 00;16;18;07
Craig Andrews
And I look and there's a scrawny little short dude standing next to me, literally, like, two feet away. He's got tattoos up and down his arms. His wallet is one chain, and I just kind of look at him. I'm not proud of this, but I kind of look, I'm. I'm like, who let him in?

00;16;18;10 - 00;16;19;02
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;16;19;04 - 00;16;26;18
Craig Andrews
And I go sit down, and I hear somebody whispering, and I hear Tommy Lee.

00;16;26;21 - 00;16;28;03
Ty Givens
What exactly.

00;16;28;05 - 00;16;35;28
Craig Andrews
Is that, Tommy Lee? They're like, yeah, right. Yeah. And then I look at, for those who don't know, the drummer for,

00;16;36;01 - 00;16;37;12
Craig Andrews
what what was his band?

00;16;37;12 - 00;16;40;03
Craig Andrews
That boy was a poison or.

00;16;40;05 - 00;16;49;15
Ty Givens
No, I, I, I mostly remember him from Pamela. From his wife. I don't remember. I don't remember the band.

00;16;49;17 - 00;16;56;02
Craig Andrews
Yeah, I forgot the name of that. But. Yeah, if you're into heavy metal, if it's like one of the big heavy metal. Yeah. You know, hard rock,

00;16;56;04 - 00;17;04;17
Craig Andrews
bands and and I'm just drawing a blank where it was. But, yeah, he was married to Pamela Anderson for a while. And,

00;17;04;19 - 00;17;13;18
Craig Andrews
and when I looked over I saw this ginormous dude about ten feet away, I'm like, oh that's how I would have met if I'd made some move towards right.

00;17;13;21 - 00;17;16;28
Ty Givens
His bodyguard. Yeah.

00;17;17;00 - 00;17;19;25
Craig Andrews
Yeah. But no, I, I think that's

00;17;19;25 - 00;17;28;07
Craig Andrews
you know, and when I moved to Austin, that was one of the first things that people told me. They said, there's an area called Oak Hill, which is somewhat near where I used to live.

00;17;28;10 - 00;17;29;04
Ty Givens
Okay.

00;17;29;06 - 00;17;48;16
Craig Andrews
And they said, if you're at a restaurant, no kill. And you see someone that looks like they're on the edge of homelessness. They're probably a multimillionaire. And that's just kind of the way it was. And so, yeah, I mean, you I think the point you're making is you should treat everybody exceptionally, regardless of how they look, because you never know who you're dealing with.

00;17;48;19 - 00;17;57;23
Ty Givens
100%. Just don't judge. You literally never know. You never know. And like in L.A., that's, you know, that's the thing. Because,

00;17;57;26 - 00;18;00;07
Ty Givens
another high end restaurant that I like,

00;18;00;07 - 00;18;11;25
Ty Givens
is Mastro's. I love Mastro's. And so my favorite thing about Mastro's is you come as you are. No one is going to say anything to you about what you're wearing, how you're dressed.

00;18;11;26 - 00;18;29;00
Ty Givens
There are people who get dressed up very nicely to go to Mastro's, and then there are some people who just happen to roll through, but you don't get treated any differently regardless of what you're you're wearing. And that's the way that it should be, because you just never know who's who.

00;18;29;02 - 00;18;38;21
Craig Andrews
Right. You know, there's a business that I would love to meet with the CEO just to figure out how he's surviving.

00;18;38;23 - 00;18;39;23
Ty Givens
Okay.

00;18;39;26 - 00;18;42;05
Craig Andrews
In the era of Amazon.

00;18;42;08 - 00;18;42;29
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;18;43;01 - 00;18;47;02
Craig Andrews
Barnes and Noble still seems to be a viable business.

00;18;47;04 - 00;18;48;01
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;18;48;03 - 00;18;53;10
Craig Andrews
I'd love to know what it is that they've done, but they obviously have done something in the customer experience.

00;18;53;12 - 00;18;54;12
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;18;54;14 - 00;18;58;26
Craig Andrews
To get people instead of ordering from Amazon to come in and buy books from them.

00;18;58;28 - 00;19;09;17
Ty Givens
I can't speak for everybody. I mean, I love books. I love the smell of books. I love to hold a book. I love the ambiance of Barnes and Noble.

00;19;09;20 - 00;19;15;15
Ty Givens
I like to take my laptop there and sit in the little cafe bar and and do my work.

00;19;15;18 - 00;19;21;17
Ty Givens
There's something very nostalgic about being there. So much so that I was like, if I had free time because I used to.

00;19;21;17 - 00;19;26;02
Ty Givens
Okay, I used to work for Waldenbooks. I get it in second. But when,

00;19;26;04 - 00;19;42;00
Ty Givens
I would say if I had free time, I would actually go and work at a bookstore just to be in that that atmosphere, just the it smells lovely is so nice in there. And,

00;19;42;00 - 00;19;47;03
Ty Givens
when I was a teenager, I was about 18. I worked at Waldenbooks.

00;19;47;06 - 00;19;49;28
Ty Givens
And it was in this mall, downtown L.A., super small,

00;19;50;04 - 00;19;51;25
Ty Givens
mall. And,

00;19;51;25 - 00;19;57;03
Ty Givens
tell you funny story. So I, my boss, her name was Leslie, and,

00;19;57;03 - 00;20;02;02
Ty Givens
we're still in touch to to this day, 25 years later, I ran into her at,

00;20;02;02 - 00;20;05;10
Ty Givens
CVS, and I got so excited. But anyway, I was just wanted to hug her.

00;20;05;10 - 00;20;07;18
Ty Givens
She's just this lady of the world. And,

00;20;07;18 - 00;20;09;17
Ty Givens
while I was working there, we used to sell these,

00;20;09;17 - 00;20;19;29
Ty Givens
preferred readers cards. Barnes and Noble has some of the very similar. So, like, basically pay a certain fee for the card and then it gets you discounts the rest of the year. So ours was $10. You,

00;20;19;29 - 00;20;22;07
Ty Givens
spend $250 in one year.

00;20;22;11 - 00;20;23;22
Ty Givens
You get a $5,

00;20;23;25 - 00;20;28;00
Ty Givens
certificate for every $200 you spend. So for me,

00;20;28;03 - 00;20;39;06
Ty Givens
once I understood that I was my coworker Kurt, I would listen to him talk to people about it. And he would, he would he had this way of saying, like, if you. Oh, you're you're total today is, you know,

00;20;39;06 - 00;20;41;26
Ty Givens
30 some dollars. So,

00;20;41;29 - 00;20;44;29
Ty Givens
today the car would cost you seven, right?

00;20;45;01 - 00;21;09;20
Ty Givens
And when I was listening to him, people were not like biting at that. But I always found that if it was over $50, spin, they would do it. So I would start talking to people. I would ask them if they had one of the purchase was under $50. If they didn't. No problem. When it was over 50, I you know, it's only $5 today because it applies.

00;21;09;23 - 00;21;26;02
Ty Givens
And it was a no brainer. So I was like, clean it up. I'm selling these preferred readers cards. I didn't get anything for it though. That's the funny part. Like there wasn't like there was an incentive or it was just I in my mind, I was like, it's a no brainer for you. I'm helping you and get 10% off on all your purchases and blah, blah.

00;21;26;02 - 00;21;35;06
Ty Givens
Anywho, apparently loss prevention thought I was working some sort of magic and they didn't like it because it's like, how is this person selling so many of these cards? And

00;21;35;09 - 00;21;37;15
Ty Givens
they were coming out to interview me.

00;21;37;18 - 00;21;51;20
Ty Givens
And in that, my boss, I remember she took me to Coffee Bean. At the time, she didn't tell me what it was about, but she's like, look like.

00;21;51;20 - 00;21;53;05
Ty Givens
And it was my first time buying,

00;21;53;08 - 00;22;00;20
Ty Givens
coffee too. So, like, my first, like, $5 latte. I remember this very vividly. Anyway, we go there and she said, you know, there's a job fair in the,

00;22;00;23 - 00;22;09;19
Ty Givens
in the building, like, would you want to go who's boss tells them to go to a job fair. But she said to me, you have way too much potential to stay here selling books.

00;22;09;21 - 00;22;16;11
Ty Givens
Why don't we just go see? Okay, so we go to the job fair.

00;22;16;14 - 00;22;23;01
Ty Givens
And they do on the spot interviews, and I get selected to go and talk to Office Depot to,

00;22;23;03 - 00;22;30;02
Ty Givens
join the call centers that they're building in the L.A. area. There were, you know, six total across the US, but they were building one two in L.A..

00;22;30;02 - 00;22;53;18
Ty Givens
But anyway, I go there, I get hired. I tell her I got the job, and she's like, oh, I'm so glad. Then she tells me why she suggested it, and she's like, because I know you wouldn't do anything. I know that's not your way. And I want to see you be successful. And you know, when you have people who see things like that and you like when I saw her, let me a little emotional because when I saw her, I.

00;22;53;20 - 00;23;17;07
Ty Givens
I was like, you, like, you're responsible for, like who I become because it's my loyalty, the way that my loyalty is set up. I would have stayed at Waldenbooks for a long time, like my goal was to be a key holder. That was all I was seeing at the time. And so if she hadn't said to me, like, let's go do this thing, I'm like, who would I have become?

00;23;17;09 - 00;23;18;00
Ty Givens
I owe her

00;23;18;00 - 00;23;20;09
Ty Givens
so much.

00;23;20;11 - 00;23;27;29
Craig Andrews
Well, let me ask this. After she did that, how many people did you send her way that were looking for jobs?

00;23;28;01 - 00;23;57;25
Ty Givens
Well, I didn't really have anybody to send her way because transparently, I was making $6 an hour there. And, you know, at Office Depot, I was making $10 an hour. So you know, I didn't really have anybody to send her way. But she had a very special and still has a special place in my heart. And so we ended up we of course, we lost touch for a period of time, but it's like now I'll never lose touch with her again, you know?

00;23;57;28 - 00;24;06;06
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And where I was gone with that was I think there's, you know, kind of circling around to the customer experience.

00;24;06;09 - 00;24;07;11
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;24;07;14 - 00;24;13;29
Craig Andrews
You know, I would say it's something even bigger. It's just the experience everybody has with touching your business.

00;24;14;01 - 00;24;14;22
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;24;14;25 - 00;24;24;09
Craig Andrews
That you want to create an experience where people normally would willingly give you an endorsement, but would actively give you an endorsement.

00;24;24;11 - 00;24;27;04
Ty Givens
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's,

00;24;27;07 - 00;24;38;21
Ty Givens
it's free promotion from a trusted resource. So someone who you've built a rapport with saying you should try this thing or, you know, this was great for me.

00;24;38;24 - 00;24;44;22
Ty Givens
It's more that's a no brainer. They're not even. They may or may not even look for deals or entry rates or anything like that.

00;24;44;25 - 00;24;50;22
Ty Givens
Someone I know and trust said that I should try this thing. I'm going to try this thing, you know?

00;24;50;24 - 00;24;59;15
Ty Givens
And I think that if there's, there's a job to be done around quantifying what that looks like from, you know,

00;24;59;15 - 00;25;13;14
Ty Givens
a profitability standpoint. And there are some studies out there, but I guarantee you that Net Promoter is is probably one of the strongest way to actually retain new customers.

00;25;13;17 - 00;25;15;14
Ty Givens
Yeah, I kind of like having it,

00;25;15;14 - 00;25;19;20
Ty Givens
almost like an affiliate program there. It it depends on who the affiliate is. But like,

00;25;19;20 - 00;25;30;21
Ty Givens
some relationships with affiliates. Well, that affiliate will be the person who kind of like, follows you through the journey, or they get a percentage of your fee or whatever that is as long as you're a customer.

00;25;30;26 - 00;25;45;05
Ty Givens
So if you're ever thinking about leaving and then suddenly the person who engaged with you initially is like, well, what's going on? Because you've already built a rapport with them, it's likely that they're getting, you know, a little bit of a kickback on the end. But, you know,

00;25;45;05 - 00;25;51;04
Ty Givens
at the same time, you have a relationship with them and you're likely to tell them the truth about what's happening.

00;25;51;07 - 00;26;02;25
Ty Givens
And ideally, they should be sharing that with the company, like, well, these were the opportunities. And this is why this person may be leaving. And if you lose them, you lose them. But then there's opportunities to do better in future.

00;26;02;28 - 00;26;06;07
Craig Andrews
So as we're wrapping up,

00;26;06;10 - 00;26;11;21
Craig Andrews
for a company that's heard this, I mean, so I believe very much in what you're doing, customer experience. And I think,

00;26;11;24 - 00;26;21;25
Craig Andrews
I think we need more people like you out there, but there are probably some folks that are saying, I'm not, you know, I'm not in a, you know, hospitality business. Yeah.

00;26;21;25 - 00;26;37;20
Craig Andrews
Customer service doesn't matter what what are like 3 or 5 steps. What what would you recommend for somebody listening to do kind of a self-assessment or kind of a self-evaluation of, hey, is there room for me to improve in my customer experience?

00;26;37;23 - 00;26;38;11
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;26;38;11 - 00;26;41;16
Ty Givens
Well, one way to do it is simply to ask,

00;26;41;19 - 00;26;59;02
Ty Givens
ask, ask your customers one like, would you recommend this service product, this business to someone that you you know and love, a friend or family member you're looking for all yeses? You can also,

00;26;59;02 - 00;27;08;04
Ty Givens
do some sort of like posting agent survey or depending on how often you guys engage, maybe after you have conversations,

00;27;08;07 - 00;27;09;11
Ty Givens
you can also,

00;27;09;11 - 00;27;09;28
Ty Givens
do interviews.

00;27;09;28 - 00;27;22;29
Ty Givens
It used to be, okay, I'm aging myself. These follow me homes. This what they would call it, where you would actually go into the home of your client or go to their business or whatever that is, to hear directly what's happening.

00;27;23;02 - 00;27;25;04
Ty Givens
And then you can also just look at,

00;27;25;07 - 00;27;29;25
Ty Givens
what they're asking you for the and, and quantify that.

00;27;29;25 - 00;27;36;20
Ty Givens
And I think that's one of the things where people say, oh, I don't need that. There's so much in quantifying,

00;27;36;23 - 00;27;50;29
Ty Givens
the types of requests that you get that tells you exactly what most of your customers are feeling, even though you might feel like you're seeing it 101. Once you look at it, you're like, oh my gosh, 20% of our customers are saying that, you know,

00;27;51;02 - 00;27;51;13
Ty Givens
I don't know.

00;27;51;13 - 00;28;09;04
Ty Givens
Whenever they reset their password, it's going to spam. Like, can we fix that? Because if you can fix that little thing, which is just to make sure that that message doesn't go to spam, then what happens is you've reduced, you know, getting too technical about your cost per contact. You don't have to have a person engaging with them on that.

00;28;09;04 - 00;28;16;28
Ty Givens
They could be engaging with helping them to grow. You know, their interaction with your brand, not handle problems. So I would say,

00;28;17;01 - 00;28;35;14
Ty Givens
find ways to get information from them, quantify that information, and then take action on the most impactful things and continuously chip away, because I don't think there's ever going to be a time what we're not solving for customers, but having a listening mechanism and an action plan is important.

00;28;35;16 - 00;28;42;16
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And as as you're going through that, I thought of an example this morning, not with a customer.

00;28;42;21 - 00;28;54;22
Craig Andrews
So I'm in a I'm in a networking group. I actually am president of a chapter of a networking group. Right. And we were we have a leadership meeting immediately before our regular meeting,

00;28;54;22 - 00;28;59;04
Craig Andrews
and everything was done on zoom. And one of my officers was,

00;28;59;04 - 00;29;01;01
Craig Andrews
was in the wrong zoom waiting room.

00;29;01;03 - 00;29;21;03
Craig Andrews
I was like, where is she? And she talks to me. She's like, I'm in the waiting room. And I had some the same thing happen the week before with another one of my officers. And so when she came in, I just said, hey, you know what? This happened to Kyle last week? Can you tell me what you did that put you in the wrong waiting room?

00;29;21;05 - 00;29;22;03
Ty Givens
Yeah.

00;29;22;05 - 00;29;45;27
Craig Andrews
And she said, oh, it was the the meeting link for the leadership meeting as opposed to the regular meeting. And I realized it was a mistake I made. Yeah, I own the mistake and said, you know what? I need to fix that. Yeah, but it's when, you know, I would say that. I would say that that's an internal customer, but it's all about improving the experience.

00;29;45;27 - 00;29;57;00
Craig Andrews
Instead of saying, well, you did this wrong, let me stand by while I shame you and tell you all the things you did wrong. You find your coffee takes 30 minutes. You know?

00;29;57;03 - 00;30;02;09
Craig Andrews
Instead she should have said, wow, when were you expecting the coffee? And then figure out what broke.

00;30;02;11 - 00;30;05;26
Ty Givens
Exactly? Inquiry versus advocacy. Yeah.

00;30;05;26 - 00;30;14;06
Craig Andrews
And once I figured out what happened, I was like, well, I can fix that. And that's not only can I fix that, but it's mine to fix anyway.

00;30;14;08 - 00;30;26;16
Ty Givens
Yeah. And you will reduce efforts in the future just by making that one little fix, because she may not have been the only person that would be impacted by that moving forward. You saved yourself some time.

00;30;26;19 - 00;30;36;04
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, Ty, this has been really interesting. I love what you do. I think people should invest in customer experience. How can they reach you?

00;30;36;06 - 00;30;37;02
Ty Givens
Yeah. So,

00;30;37;02 - 00;30;38;08
Ty Givens
our website is,

00;30;38;08 - 00;30;59;10
Ty Givens
CSS collective.com. And if you add a forward slash and tie at the end of CSS collective.com/ty, I kind of just give you like an overview of anything that you could possibly want to know or if you, even if you just set up 15 minutes to say hello, that's cool too. So no problem.

00;30;59;13 - 00;31;01;21
Craig Andrews
Excellent. Well, thanks for coming on Layers and Legacies.

00;31;01;28 - 00;31;12;28
Ty Givens
All right. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

00;31;13;00 - 00;31;34;20
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;31;34;20 - 00;31;36;15
Craig Andrews
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00;31;36;17 - 00;31;59;27
Craig Andrews
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00;31;59;29 - 00;32;08;06
Craig Andrews
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00;32;08;06 - 00;32;18;15
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.