Ep. 236: David Tudehope & Joseph Michelli | “Zig When They Zag”: Macquarie's Customer-Centric Revolution

Episode 236: When telecom rivals offered lower rates and bigger networks, Macquarie bet big on customer loyalty—and won.

David Tudehope, Macquarie Technology Group’s CEO, joins Rob Markey to discuss Macquarie’s competitive differentiator: a bold, customer-centric approach.

David co-founded Macquarie to prioritize exceptional customer experience over price and network quality competition. Joining David is Joseph Michelli, author of Customer Magic: The Macquarie Way, who shares a key moment about how a product launch was postponed and short-term profits were sacrificed due to customer need misalignment.

"We weren't living our purpose if we proceeded. We had to take our medicine and accept stakeholder disappointment," David recalls.

That leadership decision reinforced Macquarie's culture. Transparency and real-time feedback improved employer-customer interactions, workforce engagement, and Net Promoter Scores. Sharing real, exceptional service examples inspired employees to excel when creating memorable customer experiences.

Impressive results include exceptional shareholder returns and consistently having Australian telecom’s lowest per-customer complaint volume.

Guests: David Tudehope, CEO of Macquarie Technology Group, and Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., author of Customer Magic: The Macquarie Way

Host: Rob Markey, Partner, Bain & Company

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Time-stamped list of topics covered:

(00:00:13 - 00:01:12) Identifying market opportunities by recognizing underserved and overcharged segments in telecom

(00:01:12 - 00:03:09) Initial business strategy to develop a better billing system and the importance of customer experience

(00:03:03 - 00:04:54) Customer experience as a core value and how making tough decisions helps prioritize customer satisfaction

(00:04:54 - 00:06:33) Navigating industry competition and differentiating through customer service in a price-focused market

(00:06:28 - 00:12:06) Empowering employees with transparency, real-time feedback, and engagement strategies

(00:12:18 - 00:18:19) Overcoming challenges like billing complaints and learning from feedback

(00:18:19 - 00:26:28) Cultural reinforcement and how storytelling can inspire employees

(00:26:19 - 00:28:12) Continuous improvement in NPS through cultural shifts

(00:28:15 - 00:31:32) Self-propelled learning and institutional growth and how to develop a sustainable model for continuous improvement

Time-stamped list of notable quotes:

(00:05:55) "The customer experience is the compass from which we make hard decisions.”

(00:05:43) "Our purpose is making a difference for customers that are underserved and overcharged."

(00:8:09) "Macquarie has between zero and two complaints a year."

(00:17:03) "Our real-time feedback of customer experience scores to staff has been very powerful."

(00:17:38) "When we took our hands off the big levers, we actually got significant change."

(00:34:42) "We found that when we educated the person on their bill, they became an advocate for us."

(00:30:21) "Storytelling has been transformational for our business."

(00:35:55) "Our model is self-learning and self-propelled, and it has been that way for 10 years."

Additional Resources:

Read Joseph Michelli’s book: Customer Magic: The Macquarie Way