Irene F. Lefton is an author, Customer Success strategist, and longtime advocate for the voice of the customer. Recognised multiple times as a Top 100 Customer Success Strategist, she has built and led global professional services, support, and customer success teams across the US, Europe, and Asia — spanning industries, business models, and companies of all sizes.

Her career has been driven by a simple belief: that centring the customer is not just the right thing to do, it’s good business. Today, she speaks, advises, and consults with companies on improving results through outstanding customer experience, including the thoughtful use of AI. She holds a degree in Economics and an MBA from the University of New Mexico.

Irene grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and now lives in the Silicon Valley area of California. She is semi-retired but very much still engaged — writing, speaking at conferences, mentoring professionals at all career stages, and doing selective consulting with early-stage companies. She serves on the boards of two nonprofits, where she leads initiatives focused on community engagement.

When she’s not working, you’ll find Irene cooking, attending the theatre, and spending time with friends and family. She travels whenever possible — for concerts, new places, and the people she loves. She is, at heart, a curious lifelong learner who enjoys sharing hard-earned wisdom.

• In this episode, Irene F. Lefton talks about her book “Who Speaks for the Customer? Improving Results within a Customer Centric Network”. Irene believes that fundamental human connectivity and human attention to customers remain critical even as technology progresses. While every organisation claims that they are customer-centric, the truth is that real customers who deal with them most often do not feel so. The outsider looking in view is therefore very important for companies to get a feel of the customer requirements.
• New departments such as “customer success” do spell progress, but the field has not matured enough, and the right metrics to measure customer success have not been implemented yet. Cultural differences, generational differences and large customer bases make it difficult to cater to everyone with the same messaging, and often companies find it difficult to make the right choices in terms of which requirement becomes critical. This applies even more when the business is scaling, as well as when customers are scaling, leading to shifting goalposts on both sides.
• While AI can help in aggregating and analysing diverse data, it still takes a human to understand which data is relevant and what to do with the data. New roles such as “Forward Deployed Engineers” are fulfilling that role, leveraging their deeper understanding of the customer voice along with their technical knowledge of AI.

Run time – 01:11:32 mins.

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