The One With Simpler CX - Luis Carrillo E247

Customer experience doesn’t need to be complicated to work.
In this CX Open To Work episode, Luis Carrillo shares why simpler CX creates immediate impact…for customers, teams, and the business. From removing friction to building trust, this conversation focuses on CX that actually works.

5 CX Insights from the Episode

• Simpler CX delivers results customers, employees, and leaders can feel
 • Listening to customers beats guessing every time
 • Returns are a trust moment…not a policy problem
 • Training and QA quietly power great experiences
 • CX drives revenue when effort is reduced

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome + CX Open To Work
01:32 Why simpler CX creates immediate impact
04:18 Reducing friction without punishing good customers
07:24 CX as a revenue engine
10:52 Recovery, trust, and loyalty
12:03 First Class Lounge
16:17 What companies still miss in CX
19:15 What’s next for Luis

Guest Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luiscarrillo-21a70520/

Listen: https://www.cxpassport.com
Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport
Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signup

I'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.

Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

Transcript

Rick Denton (00:22)
Welcome back, CX Passport listeners. Today we get to welcome Luis Carrillo. Luis brings 24 years of a record across CX with an experience in analytics, contact center leadership, training and quality. In industries as wide ranging as retail, nonprofit, subscription and e-commerce. And he's our next CX Passport open to work guest. So here's the CX Passport audience's chance.

to help accelerate his path to that next great opportunity. Across his career, has shaped customer experience efforts in all kinds of environments, which gives him a practical, adaptable approach to solving problems. He's ready to bring that mix of skills and perspective to a new role. Luis, welcome to CX Passport.

Luis Carrillo (01:09)
Thank you, Rick. It's a pleasure having ⁓ been here with you. Thank you for inviting me.

Rick Denton (01:14)
Yeah, and folks, it's weird. I'm in Texas, Luis is in Southern California, and we're both really chilly today. And it's very odd for that to be the case. You wouldn't expect that. Luis, I'm curious, what is it that draws you to customer experience? Why is this world important to you?

Luis Carrillo (01:32)
I love it. I've always loved helping people, And CX kind of gave me that way to do it at scale. I enjoy fixing kind of messy problems and making things easier for customers and teams. ⁓ It's one of the spaces where you can see the impact immediately. In my opinion, when you improve the experience, the customer feels it, the team feels it, that works with you.

Rick Denton (01:36)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (02:01)
and the business feels it. And honestly, I've always believed customer deserve better, right? Great service builds trust, in my opinion. And when brands get that right, everything else becomes simpler.

Rick Denton (02:16)
Yeah. Ooh, I was listening to the first part, but then you hit it right at the end. Everything gets simpler. Tell me more about that.

Luis Carrillo (02:28)
Yeah, in my opinion, once you do customer experience the right way, It should not be about having friction points, about making the experience harder to navigate. It should be about having a seamless experience in whatever industry you are in, whether it is retail, whether it's sales, whether it is nonprofit.

Rick Denton (02:44)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (02:56)
financial industry, whatever it is, it's about making the experience simple all the time.

Rick Denton (03:02)
I would just want to sit on that for a second. Well, okay, let's talk about that. If you feel that way, that gives me the sense that you have done this for customers in the past. So how have you created an experience that your customers wanted in the past?

Luis Carrillo (03:19)
Yeah, that's a really good question. So one of my companies, ⁓ you know, that is about sales, e-commerce, subscription base. You have to listen to the customers closely. You have to listen to what they're telling you, not just assume what they want, because we can all assume all day, but you have to really listen with intention. And I use data kind of like, you know,

in social listening to real conversations to kind of redesign flows and reduce the effort for them. ⁓ Little things like simplifying returns or tightening our productive comms made a huge difference to be honest with you. ⁓ I also invested heavily in training. Training, coaching and QA are so underrated, but there are the backbone.

Rick Denton (04:05)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (04:18)
to make sure that your agents could show up with confidence and empathy. When your frontline feels supported, in my opinion, they deliver the kind of experience the customers remember.

Rick Denton (04:20)
Mm-hmm.

You said you made returns simpler. And I guess I'm feeling that a little bit right now as I engage with one particular e-commerce firm that will not be named and has now been fired from any of my merch production work that I do with my business. And it came down to their approach to returns. How did you make it easier in your past?

Luis Carrillo (04:37)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think it's about creating, like I said, a simple experience. And in my opinion, a lot of businesses look at putting a lot of friction around the returns ⁓ for obvious reasons, right? Losses, ⁓ you know, and into the entire ⁓ revenue cycle.

Rick Denton (05:06)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Luis Carrillo (05:27)
But to me, you have to treat the customer different. And you have to show that you value the customer. You have to build fraud detections as a one-off, not to the everyday member. When you treat it like that, when you put the right measurements from a fraud detection on the one-offs and not for everybody,

Rick Denton (05:44)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (05:54)
then you'll be able to simplify the returns. You need to trust your clients. It's as easy as that. So that's the way that I've always been approached is build your fraud and retention process around the one ops, not the everyday members.

Rick Denton (06:38)
yeah. that I imagine that took work right there, because it's, I may be overstating this. Well, I'm a Texan, I exaggerate, but it's kind of lazy to implement it for all. Whereas to find the one offs and actually put it some thought into what does it actually look like to be the fraud and the one off process for that. There's a lot of operational work in what you describe what you're talking about there. And

Earlier when you said valuing, training, QA and all that, those are operations elements. How have you woven what a lot of folks, and I'm one of them, a business process background, that's the inside out, with the outside in of a customer approach, how do you weave those together successfully?

Luis Carrillo (07:24)
Yeah, that's a really good question. ⁓ I think it comes down to listening to what the customer really wants or what they're looking for. If you don't ⁓ listen intently, as I said before, you're just guessing what they're looking at, what they want. Looking at what they're really saying, where are the pain points? Where are they getting frustrated? Is it at returns?

Rick Denton (07:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Right.

Luis Carrillo (07:53)
Right? In your experience, it was a returns, right? If we listen more to what the customers are telling us and less of what we assume the customer wants, that's where I think is the line of making it simpler and putting a lot of, like you said, lot of processes, but the processes are there to help the customer or should be there to help the customer not to put friction into it.

Rick Denton (07:56)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, something that we always would say in the process world, it was usually more internally focused, but if the customer would pay for this process step, then it's a value add. If it is something that the customer would be like, why on earth are you doing that? That's a waste.

Luis, that all gets at business results. And sometimes the customer experience world isn't viewed as being as focused on, well, the business results as we should be. How have you seen the delivery of customer experience influence business results?

Luis Carrillo (08:56)
Yeah, I think that has changed though over the last years. In my experience, ⁓ at the start of my career, the contact center was viewed largely as a cost center. I over the last maybe 10 years, the paradigm has changed ⁓ because CX can be a revenue engine, right? Whether companies admit it or not. In my opinion, when you reduce effort and solve problems,

Rick Denton (09:09)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (09:25)
customer stays with you longer. They buy more and cost less to support. And I've seen it firsthand, Rick, lower repeat contacts, right? Better retention. The lower repeat contacts is huge. The faster and the better that you can resolve someone issue within one contact is huge. ⁓ And better retention, right? It yields better retention. Millions say,

Rick Denton (09:28)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (09:54)
just by fixing a few processes. ⁓ In my opinion, strong experiences also protects your brand. Customer forgives mistakes. I've forgiven many brands mistakes when their recovery is solid. But when the recovery is not solid, ⁓ I don't tend to forgive mistakes when the recovery is not solid. And in my opinion, that's where loyalty really lives.

Rick Denton (10:02)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Louisa, it's like building up that kind of forgiveness equity as long as you're you're building up that great experience for the customer that there's there's a space in that drawdown of the equity that a customer can can pull from. Have.

You talked about in that restore the relationship or the recovery of the relationship being a case where a lot of that can be built. Where have you seen that be really successful? Have you have some experiences from your past?

Luis Carrillo (10:52)
Yeah, we, ⁓ so one of the brands that I worked, which I won't mention the names, but, we did have a recovery program and it was more of a, you know, seeing what we could do after the fact. So was, it was a little bit reactive, but if you have the right approach of a, from a recovery perspective, you can reach out to customers to understand where we felt, right. ⁓ at what point did we fail? Was it?

Rick Denton (11:00)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (11:22)
at the pre-purchase side, was it during fulfillment, was it post-purchase, was it in the digital experience, and be able to learn from it. That's what I said, you need to have a close the loop tied to your recovery program so that you can put it to work for your brand and for your customers. Because if you have a close of the loop process,

Rick Denton (11:31)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (11:50)
just to be able to check boxes, that doesn't work. That is not helping.

Rick Denton (12:03)
Luis, I 100 % agree with you. There's no value in a check the box, close the loop scenario. I've seen some airlines that have lounges air quotes here that are very much a check the box experience and it does nothing to build the warmth of my equity and feeling towards that brand. However, today I'm going to invite you to stop down on the CX Passport First Class Lounge, which I know is going to be a delightful experience for you. Join me here in the First Class Lounge.

We'll move quickly here and hopefully have a little bit of fun. What is a dream travel location from your past?

Luis Carrillo (12:39)
Hands down doing an island hopping in the Philippines was the best time and I'll tell you the Philippines the Philippine people are the best kind of

Rick Denton (12:53)
Tell me more about that. ⁓ What makes them the best kind of people?

Luis Carrillo (12:58)
They're so warm hearted, they're welcoming you and they don't have a lot Rick, but yet they're so given with everything and they're always with a smile. I haven't seen a Filipino person that doesn't greet me with a smile. They're truly genuine people in my opinion.

Rick Denton (13:06)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Boy, I love that warmth there. I guarantee somebody in the entire country has had a bad day somewhere along the way, the overall spirit, the overall smile, the overall positive approach to life. What about a dream travel location you've not been to yet?

Luis Carrillo (13:36)
You know what? I was talking to my wife about this the other day and we both agree Bora Bora with the free of drinks for sure.

Rick Denton (13:44)
Okay, yeah, there's a winning choice right there. think especially as we talked about being chilly, suddenly Bora Bora sounds a lot better than it might have in the middle depths of summer. What is a favorite thing of yours to eat?

Luis Carrillo (13:50)
yeah.

I'm a griller, so anything I can grill on. So give me a good cut of meat and I'm really happy. My favorite, a good old rib steak.

Rick Denton (14:09)
⁓ yes, give me a ribeye. I actually just picked up our Christmas meat. I won't detail what it is. At Costco an hour or so ago. So I too appreciate the value of a good grilled meat. What about the other way? What is something you were forced to eat growing up but you hated as a kid?

Luis Carrillo (14:32)
As a kid and as an adult, I might add. I can stand olives, can stand them. Funny enough though, I love olive oil. I just don't like olives, but I love olive.

Rick Denton (14:38)
Really?

Okay. You know,

huh, I'm not sure that I've heard anybody say olives as their signature item that they just can't stand. What is it about the olive?

Luis Carrillo (14:58)
It's about the acidity, it's just about the taste. I think it's more the acidity because I don't like vinegar. So I don't like vinegar because of the acidity, therefore probably don't like olive because of the acidity.

Rick Denton (15:05)
huh.

comes there. Well, no olives here in the first class lounge. We will make sure that ⁓ any martini that is served to you is with a twist and no olives. Sadly though, it is time for us to leave the lounge. What is one travel item not including your phone and not including your passport that you will not leave home?

Luis Carrillo (15:29)
That's a good one. But for me, it's a good portable charger. Especially as you have your phone for extended period of time, you need a good portable charger.

Rick Denton (15:38)
Mm-hmm.

Luis, I have a specific place in my backpack where my portable charger goes. So it is one of my, I gotta have it items as well. You know, thinking back to customer experience, there's a lot of the things that you described. You've been a part of companies that did it well, that have turned it the right way. I'm thinking about today. What are companies missing in customer experience today and how can they improve on?

Luis Carrillo (16:17)
Yeah, I believe a lot of companies claim to be customer centric, Rick. I think, you know, some of them that are claimed, they're probably on the right track, but a lot of them are not. And that's okay. You don't have to be customer centric. Just be truthful. A lot of companies, in my opinion, miss the human side. They collect tons of data, but they don't connect it to the real emotions of the member experience.

Rick Denton (16:23)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (16:46)
So you don't tie

Rick Denton (16:47)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (16:47)
the data to a storytelling from the emotion side of it. They also make customer work too hard for whatever they want to do, either purchase or return, a ⁓ refund. Self-service is often built for the company, not the customer. ⁓ And in my opinion, improvement starts with listening and removing the friction.

Rick Denton (16:57)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Right. Right.

Okay.

Luis Carrillo (17:14)
I go back to making things simpler, right? Empowering teams to solve problems without jumping through hoops. And you can use AI, but use AI to reduce the effort, not hide behind AI.

Rick Denton (17:27)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, boy, there's a lot of truth to that. Okay. Well, now, how can you specifically help companies improve in the ways that you're describing to make things simpler, to listen to the customer better, to implement AI in a way that is helpful to the customer rather than a shield for the company?

Luis Carrillo (17:49)
Yeah, I always like to say that I bring clarity first and I lead with empathy, right? I want companies that have the human side of it, but then I lead with empathy. I can walk into a messy operations and I can really truly identify what's driving, whether it is repeat contacts, where the friction lives and what changes will create the right impact. I'm super big on coaching. ⁓

Rick Denton (18:12)
Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (18:19)
building the automation, but building it from a strategy standpoint and building processes that scale without losing the human touch. My focus has always been the same. You can lower the cost to serve your clients while improving customer feeling at the same time. Those two things can coexist, if you're looking at it way, when you build the right system behind it.

Rick Denton (18:29)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay. The clarity that you're describing is certainly something that that process element of it, the customer oriented element of it, that's very appealing. And I can see why a company would want to bring that in, especially when you're describing that it ties to business results. So Luis, what's next for you? What's next with customer experience?

Luis Carrillo (19:15)
Loaded question over there, Rick, but ⁓ I am really looking for the right team to join and a brand where I can truly build something meaningful again. I am a very, I have strong cultural values, I, a place that values people, know, data and innovation more than anything, right? ⁓ Whether that is in e-commerce, subscription, healthcare, ⁓

Rick Denton (19:23)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Luis Carrillo (19:45)
I am a industry agnostic in that way. I want to help a company grow and remove the friction ⁓ that creates experiences that people actually enjoy. That's where my next chapter is.

Rick Denton (19:49)
Mm-hmm.

Okay, this sounds like a great next chapter. I'm looking forward to you being able to write that next chapter and I'm definitely looking forward to the CX Passport audience helping you write that next chapter. If folks wanted to get to know a little bit more about you or help write that next chapter or build networks with you, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Luis Carrillo (20:21)
Now I'm a LinkedIn fanatic and I live in LinkedIn, live and breathe LinkedIn. So you can find me at LinkedIn as Luis Carrillo, CX strategist. I am there. Please connect with me. I'll be happy to connect with anybody.

Rick Denton (20:39)
That's awesome. Well, I will get that in the show notes as always, folks, you don't even have to hit pause, just scroll down, click the link and start that conversation with Louise. Louise, I've enjoyed the conversation today, both what attracted you to customer experience and then more specifically, how can you help customer experience and companies do customer experience better all with the eye towards how can that influence actual business results? Louise, it was a delight for me today. Thank you for being on CX Passport.

Luis Carrillo (21:07)
The pleasure was all mine. Thank you, Rick, for the invite. Happy holidays to all of you.