Would Recommend: Real Stories From Businesses Worth Talking About with Nikki McKnight

Nikki McKnight
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship

Some businesses get reviewed. Others get raved about. Would Recommend goes behind the five stars with the founders who earned them. Every episode is a real story from a real business that figured out how to turn their client experience into their most powerful growth engine, without more ad spend, without more content, just by designing something worth talking about. Host Nikki McKnight is a CX and operations strategist with 15+ years across wildly different industries and geographies. Each week, she talks with founders about the specific decisions, the costly experiments, and the moments of truth that separate a satisfied client from a raving one. Some episodes are solo deep-dives into a CX principle or framework. Others bring two founders from the same industry together to show how the same problem can be solved two completely different ways, and why both work. This is not a marketing podcast. Client experience is not a layer on top of your marketing strategy; it is the growth engine your marketing can't replace. If your clients are happy but not referring you, this show is for you. Would Recommend is for founder-led businesses in retail, hospitality, food and beverage, professional services, wellness, events, and beyond.

  1. 6d ago

    Why Doing MORE Won't Make Your Client Experience Better

    Why isn't all this extra effort making my clients any happier? In this Nikki Talks episode, Nikki looks at the reflex almost every founder has when they want a better client experience, which is to add MORE.  What you'll hear in this episode: How Nikki's "value stack" turned into a value lack, and why her clients couldn't use most of what she gave themWhy the same resource can overwhelm a client in week one and be exactly what she needs in week sixWhy precision is more generous than volumeWhere to look this week to find out which parts of your client experience are landing and which are just noise A better client experience comes from choosing where your effort goes, and the moments your clients can feel are the ones they'll recommend. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  2. Sep 29

    How Do You Sell Without Being Salesy? Why Your Sales Process Is Part of Your Customer Experience

    Is your sales process built to get past your customer's resistance, or to help them make the right decision?  In this Nikki Talks episode, Nikki breaks down two ways of selling: selling as convincing and selling as helping. The one you choose shapes a lot more than whether someone buys; it shapes whether they trust you, whether your delivery can keep the promises your sales made, and whether anyone recommends you afterward. What you'll hear in this episode: Why selling as convincing turns every conversation into a tactic for overcoming resistance, and what that costs you even when you get the yes.Why every sales conversation is a promise your delivery has to keep, and what customers feel when your sales and your delivery run on two different standards.How charisma-driven sales builds a ceiling into a founder-led business, and why selling as helping is the version you can teach and hand to your team.Why convinced customers give you a sale and helped customers give you referrals.One of the biggest moments that matter in your client experience is the sales conversation, and this episode is about making sure yours feels like the beginning of something people want to recommend. And thank you to Kristen VanderHoek for hosting the original panel that inspired this episode. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  3. Sep 22

    80% of Businesses Think They Deliver Great CX. Only 8% of Customers Agree ft. Erica Wood & Katrina Scarlett

    Eighty percent of businesses believe they deliver a superior client experience but only eight percent of their customers agree. Is this a delusion, or an urgent gap in perception? Nikki is joined by two of her new favourite people, Erica Wood of Client Journey Advisors and Katrina Scarlett of Scarlett & Co., to react to the data, argue with the word "superior," and pull apart why so many founder-led businesses have convinced themselves they are delivering something their customers are walking away from.  What you'll hear in this episode Why the word "superior" is a red flag on its own, and what it tells you about a leadership team's self-awareness before you even look at the numbersThe Yelp problem: how a five-star rating means something completely different to your CEO than it does to your sales team, and why an uncalibrated rubric turns every dashboard into decorationHow to design a feedback loop that actually catches problems, including why you should incentivize the act of giving feedback, not the rating itselfThe "I sure f*****g hope so" test for figuring out whether what you are calling a benefit is actually just the bare minimum About My Guests Erica Wood Erica Wood is the founder of Client Journey Advisors, where she helps service-based businesses turn client experience into their biggest growth strategy. With more than 20 years spanning pediatric healthcare, virtual staffing, and founder-led service businesses, Erica has built her career on one belief: retention is not an accident, it is designed. Website: https://www.clientjourneyadvisors.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericadwood/ Free resource mentioned on the episode — Client Experience Audit Checklist Katrina Scarlett Katrina Scarlett is a partnership-centric Client Experience Strategist and founder of Scarlett & Co. She works with relationship-driven founders to get ahead of client-related issues before they ever happen by helping them rethink their client experience as an intentional business strategy. Website: https://scarlettandco.ca LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinascarlett/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/scarlettandcoltd Free resource mentioned on the episode — 17 Ways to Reduce Friction & Frustration in Your Client Work: https://scarlettandco.ca/reduce-friction/ For Your Enjoyment: Lean More About Entreprenistas The Conversations Founders Avoid That Are Costing You Your Best People (and Your Best Clients) ft. Lia Garvin What Is Customer Experience and Why Does It Matter for Your Business? How to Layer Surprise and Delight For a Big Payoff (Without a Big Budget or a Big System) Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  4. Sep 15

    Marketing Earns the Yes. Then What? [Would Recommend Part 2]

    What actually happens between the yes on the sales page and the moment the engagement  falls apart two weeks later?  Nikki opens this episode with a five-figure cautionary tale, the kind most founders have lived through on both sides of the invoice, and uses it to unpack the first paradigm shift in the Would Recommend Standard: Would Buy.  This is part two of the Would Recommend Standard deep-dive series and the follow-up to What Disney, Lego, and 11 Madison Park Know About Growing a Business. What you'll hear in this episode: The bait-and-switch story that made Nikki rethink what a working "yes" really looks likeWhy Promise is not a tagline or a mission statement, and how The Ritz-Carlton's laminated card turns a standard into a decision-making toolHow Ikea engineered every step from front door to soft-serve on purpose and how you can do the sameWhy an ideal client avatar built on age, income, and zip code is a filter setting on a Meta ad account, not a PersonWhat changes across marketing, delivery, and retention when Promise, Path, and Person are firing togetherThe yes at the sales page is easy but the yes at renewal is the one that means your business is working. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  5. Sep 8

    5 Event Ideas That Change How Guests Feel Before They Walk In

    Nikki has been going to business events since she was five (retail-exec dad, family vacations spent at produce marketing conventions with 40,000 of her closest friends), she spent a decade running them, and she once managed a half-million-dollar-a-year event portfolio.  So when someone in a recent peer mastermind asked what everyone had seen at events that they loved and wanted to steal, she lit up like a kid at a LEGO store.  What you'll hear in this episode: Why a two-minute cell-phone walkthrough of your venue does more for guest anxiety than anything elseThe checkout-form question that surfaced a breastfeeding mom, a hearing-impaired guest, and a wheelchair user before any of them walked in the doorThe "recovery corner" concept from an Austin biohacking event that Nikki still thinks about ten years laterAn event is a customer experience that just happens to have a start time and an end time; most of the work that decides how it feels happens before anyone walks in the room. Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  6. Sep 1

    How Do You Design a Business Clients Choose, and Keep Choosing? ft. Alli Arruda

    Some gyms are places you have to go, but some? People choose to go, and this becomes the entire brand promise.  In this episode, Nikki sits down with Alli Arruda, co-owner of Benchmark Fitness in downtown Burlington, to unpack how she and her husband Matt built one of the most talked-about wellness clubs in the region by obsessing over the details most gym owners never think twice about; the scent in the room, the way the towels are folded, the music that plays overhead, and the culture their team lives out loud every single day. What you'll hear in this episode Why Alli banned spray bottles and dingy cleaning cloths from day one, and what she put in their placeThe Equinox-inspired detail Alli turned into a Benchmark signature (hint: it involves peppermint and a very specific type of towel)How Alli handles the awkward moment when a member walks in with wet, dirty shoes or leaves 45-pound plates on the squat rackWhy Benchmark's attrition looks nothing like the standard gym-industry churn model, and the number that will make most gym owners do a double takeWhat "we're a choice gym, not a need-to-have gym" actually means for pricing, positioning, and who they attractAbout My Guest Alli is a passionate entrepreneur, podcast host, fitness advocate and proud co-owner of BENCHMARK FITNESS alongside her husband, Matt. She is also the host of ‘Inspire + Move’ a podcast for anyone looking to grow, connect, be inspired, or celebrate community.  When not working or working out at BENCHMARK, Alli enjoys traveling, personal development, fine wine, coffee and spending time with her husband and three dogs. She believes in fuelling her body with the best energy through movement, nutrition, self-care and a positive mindset, while inspiring others to design a life they love! https://www.instagram.com/alliarruda/  Alli’s Podcast Inspire and Move : https://inspireandmove.buzzsprout.com/  https://www.benchmarkfitness.ca/ https://www.instagram.com/benchmarkburlington/  Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  7. Aug 25

    What Disney, Lego, and Eleven Madison Park Know About Growing a Business [Would Recommend Part 1]

    How does any of this actually make me money?  That's the question that eventually shows up in almost every conversation Nikki has with a founder, and it's exactly where this Nikki Talks episode lands.  Kicking off a miniseries on The Would Recommend Standard, Nikki walks through the model she has been building for years; the one that explains why fixing your client journey in isolation is a little like painting a house that hasn't been built properly yet, and what to build instead if you want a business people can't stop talking about. What you'll hear in this episode The big myth that keeps most founder-led businesses stuckThe three questions your business is either answering or dodging; and why answering them is the difference between running your business and being run by itWhy Disney parks, Eleven Madison Park, and Lego each get name-checked as the gold standard for one of the three outcomesWhy being the best at what you do will always lose to being the best known, and what that actually looks like in a founder-led businessIf you're ready to stop patching the paint and start building the standard, this episode is where the whole miniseries begins.  Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

  8. Aug 18

    The Conversations Founders Avoid That Are Costing You Your Best People (and Your Best Clients) ft. Lia Garvin

    Four out of five people at work right now are checked out. That is not a Threads hot take, that is Gallup, and it is the exact deficit most founder-led businesses are running on while trying to deliver a five-star client experience out the front door. In this episode, Nikki sits down with ex-Google, Apple, and Microsoft team-and-ops strategist Lia Garvin to talk about the piece of client experience nobody wants to look at directly, which is the people delivering it, and the leadership choices that either turn your team into brand ambassadors or slowly turn them into the CVS cashier who looks up like you've personally ruined her day. What you'll hear in this episode: The Platinum Rule that beats the Golden Rule every time, and the one question to ask your team (and your clients) that changes how you celebrate every single one of them.Why fewer, more consistent culture rituals will always beat nineteen initiatives that fizzle by June, and what your team is actually learning when the book club never has a second meeting.Thesit-down" script Lia uses to run the hard conversations founders avoid, and why starting with accountability from you is what disarms defensiveness in them.Why the way you operate on the inside of your business is the way your customers experience you on the outside, and how systems (not personality) are what make that consistent.If you are a founder-led business owner who is wondering why your team isn't as bought-in as you are, or why your client experience feels a little diluted the further it gets from you, this is the episode for you.  About My Guest Lia Garvin is a 3x best-selling author and fractional CEO to high-growth entrepreneurs. She is a former leader at Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Lia is known as the team whisperer for a reason. She comes into a business and, within minutes, can tell you where things are working, where they're not, and what to do with your team to make it more profitable. Bringing a decade working in big tech, she didn't observe from the sidelines, she built the teams that others studied. Now she brings those strategies to entrepreneurs and business owners so their teams can make them more money instead of just costing them https://www.liagarvin.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lia.garvin/  Managing Made Simple (Apple // Spotify) Free resource: The Sticky Conversations Guide (scripts for the five hardest conversations on a team): liagarvin.com/convo Connect with Nikki on Instagram: instagram.com/iamnikkimck  The Would Recommend Standard is a free guide to the five principles behind businesses people can't stop talking about.  Grab it here: theopsshop.biz/wouldrecommend-standard  A Spark Session is a 90-minute strategy session where you and Nikki dig into your client experience and figure out exactly where it's working and where it isn't.  Book yours here: theopsshop.biz/sparksession

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Some businesses get reviewed. Others get raved about. Would Recommend goes behind the five stars with the founders who earned them. Every episode is a real story from a real business that figured out how to turn their client experience into their most powerful growth engine, without more ad spend, without more content, just by designing something worth talking about. Host Nikki McKnight is a CX and operations strategist with 15+ years across wildly different industries and geographies. Each week, she talks with founders about the specific decisions, the costly experiments, and the moments of truth that separate a satisfied client from a raving one. Some episodes are solo deep-dives into a CX principle or framework. Others bring two founders from the same industry together to show how the same problem can be solved two completely different ways, and why both work. This is not a marketing podcast. Client experience is not a layer on top of your marketing strategy; it is the growth engine your marketing can't replace. If your clients are happy but not referring you, this show is for you. Would Recommend is for founder-led businesses in retail, hospitality, food and beverage, professional services, wellness, events, and beyond.

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