← B2B Agility with Greg Kihlström™: MarTech, E-Commerce, & Customer Success
B2B Agility with Greg Kihlström™: MarTech, E-Commerce, & Customer Success
#59: Maintaining customer centricity by knowing when to automate with Jeanne Duca, BCN
00:17:36
With customer centricity being top of mind, is the rush to automate and hyper-personalize making things better or is it making customers feel less connected to their favorite brands? Agility requires keeping the human elements of empathy and...
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Welcome to the B2B Agility Podcast where we look at the factors that drive success in B2B marketing with a focus on the people, processes, data and platforms that make B2B brands stand out and thrive in a competitive marketplace. I'm your host Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on MarTech marketing operations and CX, bestselling author and speaker. Now let's get on to the show. With customer centricity being top of mind, is the rush to automate and hyper personalize making things better, or is it making customers feel less connected to their favorite brands? Agility requires keeping the human elements of empathy and understanding visible and audible beneath growing layers of automation tools. Today we're going to talk about how a human centric approach to managed network and technology solutions drives loyal long term customer relationships. Tell me discuss this topic. I'd like to welcome Jeanne Duca, Chief Marketing Officer at bcn. Jeanne, welcome to the show.
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B
Thank you Greg. It's wonderful to be here with you today.
- [02:14]
D
Yeah, looking forward to talking about this with you. Before we dive in though, why don't you give us a little background on yourself and your role at bcn.
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B
Sure. I've been with BCN for nine years. I am the Chief Marketing Officer. I assumed this role in January of 2025 after having been the Vice President of Brand and Experience eight years prior to that. I've been in the technology industry for my entire career at, you know, publicly traded companies big and small had my own consulting firm for about 10 years focused on brand and working with small companies, large companies to help them build their brand and create their brand. And it's just been, it's been a wonderful career doing that. So I'm really happy to talk with you about all of those concepts today.
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D
Yeah, well, yeah, let's, we're going to cover a few things here, but I want to start with what I teased in the intro. Just the, that idea of how do we keep things human centric while benefiting from technology and so, you know, being human centric at scale. So BCN, you know, has thrived for more than 30 years by putting personal connections ahead of some of those highly automated Martech stacks and things like that. But you know, how, you know, how do you look at protecting that, you know, that human centric kind of relationship ethos as AI power tools are, you know, they're going to automate, they're, you know, they're, they're continually automating more and more, you know, customer touch points.
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B
Right. You know, it's easy for us in the respect that our business is, is really relationship based. So that drives us to continue that human touch and that human connection. A little bit about bcn. So we are, we go to market exclusively through the indirect communications and technology channel. We don't have a direct sales force. So our ability to get in front of the customer and get that opportunity really comes from building the strongest relationships possible with those technology advisors in that indirect channel. We know that this business is absolutely relationship based. There are a number of options for these technology advisors to bring in when they have to work with customers on digital transformation or any other kinds of networking technology requirements. So those relationships are really key. Use technology is to make sure that the solutions we bring them are better, the way we communicate with them is better and really creating the best possible experience. But we will never lose that human touch and that relationship portion of our focus.
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D
Yeah, yeah. So you also mentioned, you know, you're relatively recent to the CMO role. I know you've been at BCN for several years, but recent to the CMO role and congrats for that. I know it's been a few months at this point, but still congrats in your first few months as cmo again having been at the Org. But you know, what did you put in place or you know, what, what is your thinking around keeping to supporting what you just said? Really, you know, keeping your teams talking to customers and having that interaction versus, you know, merely talking about them sure.
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B
What's really interesting is that at bcn, remember we're talking about two audiences. So we have our channel partner audience and we have our customer audience. We also have the audience of the companies from whom we buy services to resell to those customers. And those are the major carrier and network providers and technology partners in our industry. So we've got hundreds of those partnerships as well. What we find is here we are in the middle, right? We buy from here, we sell through here to the customer. Listening is something that we have done a really good job at and it's something I'm really focused on making sure that we continue to do. We listen to those from whom we buy services, we listen to our channel partners. What do they need? What can we do better? What are your customers telling you? We listen to our customer base. What do you need? How are things changing for you? How is the economy and the tariffs? How are all of those things affecting you? What can we do better? And maybe most importantly is we listen to our own team because that's where the experience starts, whether it's the partner experience or the customer experience. We've got a three legged stool and you can't have a happy partner if you don't have a happy employee and you can't have a happy customer if you don't have a happy partner. Listening and making sure that all of our teams are focused on doing that has really been central to my work here as the Chief Marketing Officer.
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D
Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely a lot to balance and keep in place. But you know, and with relationships kind of at the center of all of that, you know, speaking of that, you know, the, the network aspect of, of BCN and everything, you know, is, is, is very technical. But the trust part of again we're talking about, you know, multiple relationships and, and, and the buying and the selling that, that you described. Building trust is an emotional thing even, even if you're in a technical business, what day to day practices translate BCN's, you know, collaborative culture and, and that relationship of mutual respect into customer interactions?
- [07:49]
B
You know, for us it really starts with a core belief that we need to be as easy to do business with as possible. A lot of things cause a lot of people stress in this world. We don't want to be one of those. So our processes, our engagement is meant to deliver a great experience. People want to work with us because we are flexible, we're agile. You have support from the top down, whether it's in the contracting process or the implementation and service delivery process or throughout the life cycle of a customer, even when it comes to service assurance, upgrades, migrations, all of those things, we want to be easy to do business with. And I'll give you an interesting fact. So our NPS score is a 65, which is more than double the average NPS score in our industry. So we're very proud of that. One of the reasons that customers and partners cite for that is the ease of doing business with bcn. So again, that's how we maintain those relationships, how we deliver on the promises that we make. And we find that all of that really builds to the strength of the partnerships and the ongoing support that we offer those partners.
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D
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's very impressive. NPS score in an industry not necessarily known for great scores, in other words. So kudos to that. And I think that does speak to the relationship, the trust, all of those things we've talked about so far. And yet with technology offers us the ability to scale and to do things more streamlined and stuff with, with the caveat that hyper personalized content can, you know, sometimes it works fine and you know, there's lots of use cases where it works well. But I think some of the things that we're talking about here where trust and the subtleties of voice and things can, you know, it matters in some of these, in some of these relationships. So how do you, how do you balance the need to automate? Because there is, there is in any company, there's a need to automate. You know, how do you balance that with making sure that customers feel like they're being understood and not just a marketing channel?
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B
Sure. You know, I love that question. And I think it's all about providing the customer or the partner in our case, because we do have those two key audiences with what they tell us they need. So if you go back to my earlier comment about listening, when you listen and when you act on what you hear, you know what people need. So we're not big into hyper personalized content right now. It's not something that we are engaged in. We believe if you listen to people, they tell you what they need, you deliver what they need and you check back in and you make sure that you got it right, that you understood what they told you, that what you've delivered is really solving the issue they needed solved, or adding value to the work that they're doing. And we find that to be the most efficient way and the best way to go about things.
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So when I ask, what is Odoo, what comes to mind? Well, Odoo is a bit of everything. Odoo is a suite of business management software that some people say is like fertilizer because of the way it promotes growth. But you know, some people also say Odoo is like a magic beanstalk because it grows with your company and is also magically affordable. But then again, you could look at Odoo in terms of how its individual software programs are a lot like building blocks. I mean, whatever your business needs, manufacturing, accounting, HR programs, you can build a custom software suite that's perfect for your company. So what is Odoo? Well, I guess Odoo is a bit of everything. Odoo is a fertilizer, magic beanstalk building blocks for business. Yeah, that's it. Which means that Odoo is exactly what every business needs. Learn more and sign up now@odoo.com. that's o-o o.com.
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D
Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, you mentioned NPS, you know, is a method of measurement for you. What other measurements do you use to make sure that you're maintaining customer relationships in a successful way?
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B
Well, I think, you know, as a company we have, you know, major KPIs that we measure ourselves against. When we talk about measuring the the outcome of our relationship focused approach, that really is really easy to see. And if you think about referrals that you get from customers for other business, when you think about customers continuing to grow with us, our average customer 10 years is more than 10 years. So we've got customers that come, they stay, they grow with us. We bring them along the technology path as new things come along. What you really find is that when people talk about you when you're not in the room, when they share great Things about you that's advocacy. And when you have that kind of advocacy, I think that's a KPI that may not be as quantifiable, but it really is one of the most important.
- [13:57]
D
So now I want to talk looking further out a little bit and also looking at your role as a CMO. BCN's mission promises both security and simplified complexity to goals that, you know, may not always, may not always be aligned in every organization. So, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a good balance to be able to have. Where do you see marketers kind of over indexing on either the security aspect or the simplification over indexing on one at the expense of the other? And you know, how do you find that right balance?
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B
It is difficult. I mean the, the world that we work in, the, the things that we develop and the solutions we put together for customers, they can be very complex. The requirements of customers can be very complex. What we find is that being clear, transparent, truthful about what you're about to get into is the best bet. We don't try to be clever, we try to be clear. And with that clarity, I think a common understanding of what we're about to embark on together as partners. And I think that is what ends up simplifying the process for people. Knowing what to expect, knowing that they can trust us to be by their side. Every step of the way in this complex process in the end simplifies it. Now for bcn, basic simplification comes through the fact that a customer with many, many locations in a variety of industries from mid market to enterprise can come to us, we can craft and curate a solution that addresses all of their needs across locations. We do that with one contact for support, one service delivery team, one bill for all services. So there's that kind of simplification as well that we really pride ourselves on.
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D
Yeah, and I love that, you know, some of those aspects are tied together. You know, you're able to actually tie two things together. That again, I think that, I think a lot of companies struggle with some of that because security can get very technical and sound complex, even if it's, you know, for the end customer, you know, it's, it's, it's relatively straightforward. So I think being able to.
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B
And what we're finding is that the security comes. So we start with the basic, you know, the Internet connectivity, lots of diversity in that for customers, and then layering on a technology called SD WAN that often comes with advanced security features like sase, because we're curating the solution based on the customer's needs and again, being very clear about what we can give them, how it works, what's required on their part, what's required on our part, and keeping that all upfront and transparent really helps them see their way through it.
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D
Yeah. Yeah, I love it. So we've returned to the idea of automation a few times here, but as a CMO, you're a fellow, fellow CMOs are feeling pressure to automate everything all the time. And, you know, how can you, how can you create an efficiency pretty much everywhere you look? How would you, you know, what, what's your case to your stakeholders? And, and so, you know, your, your peers, stakeholders as well, of how much is too much. How do you, how do you kind of calm some of that down when it, when it doesn't necessarily make sense to, you know, some things make plenty of sense to do, some things don't. To everything that we've talked about, whether it's the relationship building and maintaining that. So, like, how do you, how do you talk with stakeholders that are seemingly more and more focused on we got to automate everything and all.
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B
Well, I think that, that you really have to have a lens that you're looking at these things through. And our lens is always this making things better for our partners or our customers. Is it having no effect or is it actually making things worse? And I think if you look through that lens, that helps us make those decisions. Always taking a step back and not rushing and feeling like the next big thing is going to take care of everything for us or solve all the issues that you may be facing. Because that's never true. Right. It's never one thing. It's always a collection of things meshed together and done with foresight and careful planning. And that's what I would say is take a step back. Why are we doing this? Who needs it? Who asked for it? Who told us? How do we think this is going to help?
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D
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's always the technology is going to. Technology can do great things, but, you know, it's always like the platform or the technology is going to solve all our problems, but it's really the people in the process that end up making it successful. Right.
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B
I couldn't agree more. Absolutely.
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D
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jeanne, thanks so much for joining today. One last question before we wrap up here. What do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it. It consistently?
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B
That's a good question. So agility for me means taking the time to think every day. Take a little bit of time away from the meeting schedule and the phone calls and just really think about what are we doing? What's the next thing we have to focus on. Being agile, I don't think has to mean you're fast about things. I think it has to mean that you understand what people are facing, you have the ability to pivot, you've thought through alternatives, and you can, you know, marshal the forces that are necessary to do whatever is needed.
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D
Yeah, I love that definition. Well, again, I'd like to thank Jeanne Duca, Chief Marketing Officer at bcn, for joining the show. You can learn more about GENIE and BCN by following the links in the show notes. Thanks again for listening to the B2B Agility podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to subscribe. Subscribe and leave us a rating so that others can find the show more easily. You can access more episodes of the show at www.b2bagility.com. That's B2B agility.com while you're there, check out my series of best selling agile brand guides covering a wide variety of marketing technology topics. Or you can search for Greg Kilstrom on Amazon. Until next time, stay focused and stay agile.
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