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The Leading Edge


Nov 17, 2021

Douglas Longenecker is the CMO, CEO, and Chief Collaboration Officer at //NKST, a growth acceleration firm. He is an entrepreneur and leader who specializes in fostering environments of listening, curiosity, and innovation to help businesses and brands evolve. Longenecker is passionate about creating an atmosphere of open possibilities and forging human connections to drive real results.

Tara Baumgarten is the Head of Public Relations at //NKST. She has experience providing creative senior counsel to corporations, professional service firms, consultants, authors, and more. As a PR and marketing strategist, Baumgarten specializes in thought leadership, executive visibility, messaging, and customer experience.

Patricia O'Connell is the President of Aerten Consulting, a content strategy firm that helps companies define their stories and refine their cultures. She is the co-author of Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight, alongside Thomas A. Stewart. O’Connell is also the host of This is Capitalism: CEO Stories, a podcast where she discusses entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation in the free market.

In this episode:

Customer have more power than ever--which means companies must do more than ever to understand and meet their expectations and to forge relationships that last. To get the latest insights, Thomas A. Stewart invited Douglas Longenecker, Patricia O’Connell, and Tara Baumgarten to join him on The Leading Edge — a place where new ideas emerge and are sharpened, and where leaders look to find the edge that brings success for themselves, their teams, and their enterprises.

The customer experience encapsulates everything a consumer sees, feels, and touches — and it’s up to companies to design a winning experience strategy across all tiers of their organization--not just in branding, not just in sales or service, but in every place and at every moment where company and customer interact. That’s where Longenecker, O’Connell, and Baumgarten come in. With expertise in marketing innovations and relationship-building, they are helping companies meet this new demand for a tailored, defined, and satisfying experience.

How? For Longenecker, O’Connell, and Baumgarten, it begins with the employee. Empowering and equipping your employees with the right capabilities, knowledge, and incentives can help them understand what customers expect and equip them to meet those expectations. When you deliver on your brand promises from bottom up and top down, you can create a company that lives and breathes success.

In this episode of The Leading Edge, Thomas A. Stewart talks with Douglas Longenecker, the CMO, CEO, and CCO at //NKST, Tara Baumgarten, the Head of Public Relations at //NKST, and Patricia O'Connell, the President of Aerten Consulting, to discuss how to develop customer experiences in a consumer-controlled world. Together, they talk about executing a winning brand strategy, organizing expectations within your company, and exploring new ideas and processes to revolutionize your marketing.