The Art & Heart of CX

Georgie Stayches

Dedicated to celebrating leaders shaping Customer Experience (CX) across a variety of dynamic industries, including events, community groups, venues, retail, travel, the arts and sport, The Art & Heart of CX welcomes a special guest each episode to chat all things CX.Consumers and guests are more discerning than ever and we all have the power to enhance (or diminish) the Customer Experience.Whether you’re seeking fresh ideas, a dose of inspiration or a peek into the latest trends, this podcast will be for you. Each episode provides insightful stories, practical tips and a behind-the-scenes look at what’s driving exceptional customer experiences in different sectors.

  1. Jul 28

    Neeta Lachmandas

    A coffee machine worth over $2,000 gets delivered upside down and balanced precariously on a gate, and nobody wants to own the problem. That one story opens up a bigger conversation about modern customer experience in the latest episode of The Art & Heart of CX.    In this episode, Georgie is joined by Neeta Lachmandas, founder of ConsciousService, to unpack what great CX looks like. What started as a chance meeting in Singapore earlier this year, continues in this conversation as they explore why customers tolerate self-service for most of the journey, yet feel abandoned when it’s impossible to reach support, and how blame-shifting between platforms, resellers and delivery partners destroys trust. They share real examples from call centres, retail and hospitality, and what AI could do well if it’s designed to support staff rather than replace care.    They go deeper than surface-level “empathy” and focus on trust, employee experience, and service recovery. Neeta explains why empowered teams solve problems faster, why complaints are free research (not a nuisance), and how broken feedback metrics can make frontline staff feel punished for system issues they didn’t create.  If you care about customer loyalty, customer service, customer journey mapping, and building a brand people actually want to come back to, this conversation is for you.    Subscribe to The Art and Heart of CX, share this with someone designing a CX or AI rollout, and leave a review with your biggest “automation gone wrong” story. Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Neeta Lachmandas

  2. Jun 30

    Derrin Brown

    A great live site makes strangers feel like teammates, and a bad one makes you wonder why anyone left the couch. Georgie is joined by returning guest Derrin Brown to pull apart what the FIFA World Cup is teaching us about customer experience in Australia, from the joy of communal watch parties to the frustration of councils and venues that still treat fan engagement like an afterthought.    They get specific about what works and what doesn’t at places like Fed Square, AAMI Park and Parramatta Square: crowd flow, sound, screens, family-friendly design and the simple decision to keep games on when the crowd clearly wants to stay. Derrin shares behind-the-scenes insights from major tournaments, including how “rule books” can help or hurt, why measurable standards beat brand-name checklists, and how Qatar approached alignment with a single clear mandate.    From there they widen the lens to the full fan journey: host city logistics, public transport realities, tipping culture surprises for international visitors, and the messy truth of third-party vendors who can make or break an event precinct.     If you care about event management, placemaking, hospitality, or CX strategy, hit play for practical ideas you can use immediately. Subscribe, share with a mate who loves a live site, and leave a review, then tell us: what one change would most improve the fan experience in your city? Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Derrin Brown

  3. May 19

    MEP Meetings & Exhibition Planners

    This episode comes straight from The Meetings Show floor in Singapore, as Georgie chats with Richard Soo from MEP talk about this client experience, and explore what “great customer experience” actually looks like when clients are stressed and timelines are tight. They go beyond buzzwords into the real-world habits that keep relationships strong and teams steady.   Kindness is the centre of the conversation, but not as a vague value statement. They talk about the long shadow of tough, pedestal-style leadership, what it does to early-career confidence, and why those experiences still show up years later in the way teams respond to pressure. From there, they dig into boundaries: how we stop bending over backwards, how we protect our people first, and why that protection is often the fastest path to better client satisfaction, repeat business, and trust.  If you care about customer experience, employee experience, and sustainable event delivery across Asia and beyond, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who’s always “saving the day”, and leave a review with the one boundary you wish you’d set sooner.  Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    MEP Meetings & Exhibition Planners

  4. May 6

    Ready Set

    Searching for clothes, trying them on and choosing them can be stressful enough, but imagine if there is more to the story. In this episode, Georgie is joined by Cynthia Kralik, CEO of Ready Set, a charitable organisation helping job seekers facing disadvantage, walk into interviews and jobs with confidence, dignity and real support behind them. Together, Georgie and Cynthia unpack how Ready Set goes far beyond providing interview and job outfits. They discuss how combining high-quality clothing with thoughtful, personalised styling can create an experience grounded in respect, care and hope. This isn’t just about trying on clothes; it’s about rebuilding confidence and creating a sense of possibility.   They dive into the importance of deeply understanding your customer and the customer journey, and why equipping volunteers and teams with context, so they truly understand the “why”, is critical to delivering meaningful, human-centred experiences. The conversation also explores the impact of a calm, considered physical environments on the customer experience. Think spacious, light-filled change rooms and genuinely welcoming spaces that put people at ease. If you care about customer experience, retail or great service in general, this episode offers practical ideas you can apply anywhere. Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the episode with someone who’d value it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Ready Set

  5. Apr 20

    Season Opener with Katrina de Jersey

    You can’t “deliver a great event” if you don’t first sell a believable story.  In this opening episode of Season 2, Georgie is joined by strategic communications and crisis management specialist Katrina de Jersey, whose career spans Olympic Games, Winter Olympics, FIFA, city projects and the high-stakes world of bid strategy. Georgie and Katrina talk about the hidden craft behind major international events: narrative, trust and the way a bid book becomes a promise you may have to live with for a decade. They get practical about customer experience and fan engagement, from persona workshops and behaviour changes to why the end of the event matters as much as the opening moment. Katrina shares examples that stick: using local PR talent on the ground to win attention where it counts, turning a transport bottleneck into an authentic fan trail, and learning from venues that redesign the post-concert exit because that’s where frustration spikes. Culture is a through-line too. What works in Sydney can flop in Doha unless you build with local insight and give teams permission to challenge the “experts”. They also go into risk mitigation and crisis readiness, including scenario planning that feels unlikely until it happens, and why common sense and fast decisions often save the day. If you care about CX, event management, sports marketing, storytelling, and crisis planning, this conversation will sharpen your lens.  Subscribe, share this with someone who runs events, and leave a review so more people can find The Art And Heart Of CX. Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Season Opener with Katrina de Jersey

  6. 12/22/2025

    Season Finale with Lucy Keeler

    What if the best tech in the room is not the headline, but the quiet partner to story, sound and people? In the finale of Season 1, Georgie is joined by Lucy Keeler, Board Member at the National Art School, former curator of Vivid Sydney Light Festival and until recently the Head of Strategy Experiences at Luna Park Sydney, to discuss this very question. This episode sees them talking about designing feelings first, why audiences tire of spectacle without substance and how the most memorable moments still hinge on human performance.   It is the perfect episode to wrap up the season as they discuss culture, sensory design, storytelling, why rest spaces matter and why handcraft, drawing and live skills are resurging as audiences seek authenticity they can feel, not just see. In fact this episode includes many side quests, each as fun and as interesting as the one before.   Tune into this episode and you’ll leave with practical ways to use sound, pacing and narrative to lift memory and meaning, plus a reminder that the cast, not the console, carries the promise.  Enjoy the episode, share it with a friend who builds experiences, and leave a review to help others find the show. Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Season Finale with Lucy Keeler

  7. 12/12/2025

    Australian Events Industry Collective

    Ever left a venue thinking, that could have been so much easier? In this episode, Georgie is joined by Derrin Brown as they dig into the small, human decisions that turn chaos into calm and moments into memories. Previsualisation, crowd science, pressure points, pedestrian flow, language, personas, sensory design, toilets, hand gestures, signage and are just some of the topics they cover.  From the first sign you see to the last word you read on your way out and everything in between, that can enhance or diminish the Customer Experience.  They talk queues that flow, wayfinding you can feel and the art of building anticipation so well that the experience starts before the doors even open. They unpack the pressure points everyone encounters: confusing registrations, single-point bottlenecks and signage that accidentally creates anxiety.  They explore how active participation outperforms passive luxury.  They discuss Robbie Williams concerts, Cirque de Soleil, cruise ships, Contiki tours, Bathurst, Disney, Doha and so much more. The throughline is simple: remove friction, respect attention and design for how people actually behave: tired, excited, distracted, hopeful.   This episode will inspire you to soften a queue, rewrite a sign or simply place a guide at the right escalator. Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Australian Events Industry Collective

  8. 11/27/2025

    Tennis Australia (Australian Open)

    Step behind the gates of Tennis HQ and discover how a Grand Slam designs for joy, speed and inclusion at massive scale.  In the latest episode of The Art & Heart of CX, Georgie Stayches sits down with Karen Clydesdale, Head of Customer Experience and Customer Relationship at Tennis Australia, to unpack the Australian Open’s human‑centred blueprint. They talk customer segmentation, service design and data – and how to turn a busy precinct into a place where fans see more tennis and feel less friction.   KC walks us through some of the AO’s core segments, Tennis First, Family Fun, Entertainment Seeker, and how the team maps journeys across physical and digital touchpoints.  KC and Georgie chat all things CX and what makes the AO a leading international event, from the larger strategy to the smaller detail. They explore how:     - Small choices make big differences.    - Biophilic design cools and calms queues with shade and greenery.    - Clear comms and itinerary tools help fans plan their day.    - Brand sound deepens memory across arenas and socials     Crucially, the AO preserves the human touch: opt‑in facial recognition for express entry sits alongside friendly staff and legible signage because choice builds trust.   If you lead CX in any industry, this conversation gives you a practical playbook.   Tune in now to get behind the action of this iconic event. To find out more about the Australian Open, visit https://ausopen.com/ Georgie Stayches, host of The Art & Heart of CX, brings a human lens to how businesses design Customer Experience (CX). She explores how every little detail impacts how a customer interprets, experiences and recalls a situation - from our senses to the built and natural environments - and how this can impact brand loyalty, word of mouth marketing and revenue. Each episode she invites a special guess from all works of life and industries to share what they consider the art and hear of CX. Want to hear more from Georgie? Her keynote presentations inspire audiences with real-world strategies to elevate CX, understand human behaviour and build lasting audience loyalty.  Find out more at georgiestayches.com

    Tennis Australia (Australian Open)
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About

Dedicated to celebrating leaders shaping Customer Experience (CX) across a variety of dynamic industries, including events, community groups, venues, retail, travel, the arts and sport, The Art & Heart of CX welcomes a special guest each episode to chat all things CX.Consumers and guests are more discerning than ever and we all have the power to enhance (or diminish) the Customer Experience.Whether you’re seeking fresh ideas, a dose of inspiration or a peek into the latest trends, this podcast will be for you. Each episode provides insightful stories, practical tips and a behind-the-scenes look at what’s driving exceptional customer experiences in different sectors.

Information

  • Creator
    Georgie Stayches
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Art & Heart of CX
  • Show Website
    The Art & Heart of CX