Rick Denton: 0:05

You're listening to CX Passport, the show about creating great customer experiences with a dash of travel talk. Each episode we’ll talk with our guests about great CX, travel...and just like the best journeys, explore new directions we never anticipated. I'm your host Rick Denton. I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport. Let's get going. Thank you for flying CX passport airlines today, we've reached 10,000 feet so feel free to lower that tray table. It's a 13 hour flight to Tokyo so man oh man, I hope you brought a book yeesh that is an announcement we realistically could have heard. Alright, maybe without the saltiness at the end and another earlier era of long haul flying. I actually remember flying in a DC 10 as a kid and being really excited that it had this one screen for a movie at the front of the cabin was a movie that I certainly didn't get to choose and with likely was incredibly dated, but oh there it was. How thankful Are we that we have inflight entertainment now Can I get an amen? Well, the ever think about how that inflight entertainment comes together. How is content selected? How is it delivered? How does technology keep up? How does the overall dare I say it experience come together? That's exactly what today's guest Corinne Streichert obsesses over. With years of experience in the airline industry, Corrine now through her firm, IFECtiv LLC consults with a wide range of clients to ensure a great and flight experience. And of course, you know that Corinne's going to have some great travel stories that we'll talk about. As a pre pandemic very frequent flyer, I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for Corinne. I am eager to hear her stories today. Corinne Welcome to CX passport.

Corinne Streichert: 1:53

Thanks, Rick. It's an honor to be here today. Huge fan of your show.

Rick Denton: 1:57

Oh, thanks. That's a kind words gets me all excited. Just starting off here, you got me with a smile? Well, let's before we even talk about inflight entertainment, you've had quite a run of customer service and customer experience career growth, primarily in the airline industry. Tell me a little bit about your customer experiencing experiences, especially around the contact center.

Corinne Streichert: 2:17

That's right. Um, you know, I first started out working in contact centers many years ago back in Australia, I won't date myself. But I was straight out of university and I joined a relatively new telecommunications company at the time. Looking back, it was one of the best learning experiences, you know, getting in as a contact center representative. And starting off there really gave me a great insight into the business, and really how important customers services to the success of a business. What was kind of really interesting about this company, is that they were really one of the first back in Australia to make customer service a product in itself, it was one of their key features, it was how they differentiated themselves in the marketplace back in the 90s and 2000s, in Australia, where they were introducing competition into the telecommunication space, which was previously a monopoly. So they found that, you know, creating customer service as a product, offering that exceptional experience with the customers following through on customer issues, as they call it, not keeping the customer unnecessarily, you know, on hold from making your experience to be able to resolve those issues. So it was quite interesting. And they were very successful at doing that. And again, this was many years ago back in Australia, but you know, that was one of the best experiences. And even today, I do recommend to, you know, some people that I you know, kind of coach and mentor, it's a great place to start a career to get into business.

Rick Denton: 3:49

That is something that when I've talked to folks from customers, I didn't come out of the contact center environment, I think I missed out on something, I came out of a process improvement operations sort of area, and had to learn that customer service, it can get exposed to it later. But there's so much value in coming out of that the folks that come out of that space really seem to have that, that we hear it way too much. But it's still true, that empathetic heart for the customer, because they've had to listen to those customers on the other end of whatever that contact center mechanism is.

Corinne Streichert: 4:22

Absolutely, I mean, you do really have i and that's something that over the years, I think has stuck with me. Whenever I'm developing products or experiences. It's like, okay, who is this for? And what you know, and try and address the issues, you know, that you anticipate that they may have, you know, and also you think of your frontline. And I tend to always think of you know, the ones fielding those calls because, you know, to have a successful product, you need a successful team that can successfully answer the questions and really support the customer. So, again, it was a great insight and I felt it was a great way to start my career and helped to make me better offering products and services that customers can use, and then our teams can support.

Rick Denton: 5:04

Gosh, you realize we could spend the entire episode just talking about that. There's so many things that you said in there, talking about how just coming out of the contact center, so great. And then also the idea of customer experience as a product. And let me let me use that as perhaps a way to take us to the main point of what I'm hoping to talk about today. And that's that in flight experience at inflight entertainment, so it's become incredibly important to just the overall experience, and many would argue it's just simply a base expectation that there is inflight entertainment there how, how did you make that pivot? How did you find yourself getting into the world of inflight entertainment?

Corinne Streichert: 5:41

Yeah, it was almost kind of by accident. I mean, I started off supporting contact centers back in the airline business and then through, you know, opportunities and change transitioned to a group within product marketing that was focused on emerging technologies many years ago, I have a passion for technology and how we can use it to improve our products and services. So that's kind of how I got into inflight entertainment in the very early days, when inflight Wi Fi was starting to become a thing. You know, there wasn't what we call air to ground service that recently launched, but I worked on the first satellite Wi Fi installations and products for North American airline. Welcome. Yeah, it was really interesting time. Very, very exciting, you know, to be involved in that. And it was quite interesting. At the time, it was starting to come out in the industry, everybody was saying, Oh, this is going to be the death of seatback screens, everybody's wise, but has you know, as history has shown us in time, you know, that is not the case that I don't feel that's happening anytime soon. But it's on that's kind of how I got into this space, a passion for technology, taking up an opportunity to get into emerging technologies group within product marketing, which led to the Wi Fi link to the overall various types of inflight entertainment products.

Rick Denton: 6:59

I am, I'm actually trying to channel a memory that was probably around 1996. And I remember being just excited that there was a phone on a plane, remember those phones that you put the credit card, and you walk up to the front of the cabin, and you get that phone? And then go back and make a call? And I remember actually I was an early consultant and I was trying to find an excuse to use the phone was probably what$10 A minute or something. Yeah. And, and the thought of that first satellite Wi Fi experience, it just, it just it makes me realize how fast we've evolved. And it's so much of that I'm sure has to be you're listening to your customers, you're understanding what their their needs are. And I'm thinking about that, in the sense of content. Now, we talked about Wi Fi there. But let's talk about content for a second. How does an airline even choose the content that goes into in flight entertainment? And what are the partnerships look like? How do they bring that to the customer?

Corinne Streichert: 8:02

Yeah, it's it's quite a process. And it can involve many players, it really depends on what form of entertainment is available. You know, at the moment, you know, there are a lot of various types of entertainment available in flight on different carriers, whether it's streaming entertainment embedded, or the airline might offer devices to customers with pre loaded content, you might have live television. So each of those different products have different ways of acquiring that content. But I guess probably at a very high kind of level, I'd say you know, there's a lot of people involved team, a content committee, working with third party content providers, distributors of content, who sources on behalf of the airline works with system providers to get you know, the content, any related metadata loaded, or made available within the various systems. So a lot of partnerships, you know, on the distributor side, the hardware provider side, and there are groups that focus on this type of service as well in terms of curating content, and partnering with the wants to deliver that to their customers. So unfortunately, there isn't like an easy answer because ways of doing it, but I'm definitely involves a lot of great people and a lot of time and, and a lot of effort to carefully select the content that your customers will enjoy.

Rick Denton: 9:20

Customers will enjoy. And probably also, there's a sensitivity element to it to making sure that it's content that is at least reasonably appropriate to be consumed on a plane. I just can't even imagine going through all that and then also needing to refresh it on a on a current basis. Is that something that you find has been somewhat of a challenge in the inflight entertainment space is making sure that things are fresh enough for customers, especially one that might be you know, say a frequent traveler that's on there, at least twice a week and maybe even more often on the same plane.

Corinne Streichert: 9:53

Yeah, you know, historically refreshing the content was a challenge particularly with embedded systems. It's quite a process. To get that content on average, I'll say within the industry, it can be refreshed, I guess over the years over a month to two month period because of what's involved to do that. But as now with technology, the ability to light content wirelessly, or if it's a streaming product coming through the internet, you have the ability to really shake it up very quickly. So technology is bringing a lot of benefits to the industry to make it more real time, make it easier to be able to load that content. But again, it depends on the type of you know, entertainment offering, onboarding, and how that gets updated, but definitely quite a process.

Rick Denton: 10:35

Well, I'm very thankful for that process being in place.

Your CX Passport Captain: 10:39

This is your captain speaking. I want to thank you for listening to CX passport today, we've now reached our cruising altitude. So I'll turn that seatbelt sign off. While you're getting comfortable, hit that follow or subscribe button on your favorite podcast app so you'll never miss an episode. Love it if you'd tell a friend about CX passport, leave a review so others can discover the show as well. Now, sit back and enjoy the rest of the episode.

Rick Denton: 11:05

Now I'm gonna I'm gonna put you inside the seat. Now you even talking about how you create the great content for those of us that are sitting in the seat. Let's put you in the seat now. You mentioned working for cuantas you've also I know have worked for United you've got a lot of in this airline industry background there. I've got to imagine that that's provided some really great global travel stories. I I joke, it's one thing for folks here in the US to say hey, let's go to Vegas for the weekend. But you could reasonably do that from Australia, couldn't you?

Corinne Streichert: 11:35

Oh, absolutely. Yes. I'm a little secret not a secret. Actually people that know me know, this. I used to you know, born and raised in Australia, proudly Australian, started working for the airlines in Sydney. And it was like, just doors opening for me. It's like, wow, I could go you know, anywhere really, I wanted to go. Um, you know, I have to say I had to use on my side. Amazing what you can do when you're youthful. But yes, I used to come to you know, Los Angeles. And you know, Las Vegas, pretty much the west coast for the weekend, how I would do that I'd take a holiday or vacation day, on a Friday or Monday, I'd leave Sydney Friday morning, I'd arrive in the US Friday morning, is at the time difference. Have the weekend, Sunday be back at the airport, so did two nights in the US and then arriving to Sydney Tuesday morning around 6am. And I was fortunate that my office was just across the road from the airport, get in the cab, get to the office, have a shower downstairs in the office and be

sitting at my desk at 8: 12:37

30am Tuesday morning, really to start work, how the rest of the day unfolded was quite interesting. But again, you know, the key criteria to pulling that off is youth. And it was very many years ago. Yeah, I was very young at the time and single no responsibilities. But it was a fantastic opportunity. You know, I see the world you know, being born and raised in Australia everywhere kind of seems really fun. And then having the opportunity to, you know, work for an airline. And that opened up so many opportunities, I thought, Okay, this chance will never come again, let's just make the most of it. I traveled a lot. Um, you know, when I was within Australia, I just made the most the opportunities to see as much of the world as I could before, obviously getting older and settling down.

Rick Denton: 13:25

That um, that's I think that sounds like such a fantasy to those of us that do enjoy travel, the thought of being able to show up at the airport, and look at the board and go Hmm, where do I want to go today? And I remember asking that question of Loreena who I think you and I she was a podcast guest several episodes ago. And at that small world of United even Lorena, I said the same thing. You're looking up at the board. Where is it that you want to go today? What a nice feeling that must be for the weekend. And we talked about these big international trips, okay, so Australia to the West Coast of the US. But imagine there's a lot of places that you know, I'll pop over to, I don't know, Perth, I'll head to Melbourne for the weekend. These are the kinds of things that could be really fun to do.

Corinne Streichert: 14:07

Absolutely. And it just reminded me my husband and I when we're living on the East Coast of the USA, you know, had the weekends off and didn't have anything to do we'd say let's just go to the airport look on the board for a name that we didn't recognize. See if we can get a seat and go and the number of times we did that was like really really fascinating. We ended up I really got to see a lot of the USA obviously for weekend we really wanted to keep it domestic but or even into to Canada or Mexico but it's a great way to you know see the world and see the US by doing it that way and you know I think anyone that has a passion for travel or exploration I encouraged them to explore opportunities in this industry

Rick Denton: 14:58

Wow, Corinne that just I love that thought I love the idea of staring up at the board and saying, All right, let's just go there. But I got Imagine you've probably been in some situation where like, Okay, this is enough travel. I need a little change of pace here. I need to hit the lounge. And so I'm going to invite you today, Liz, why don't you join me here in the first class lounge, we will move quickly here. And let's have a little bit of fun. What is a dream travel location from your past?

Corinne Streichert: 15:22

I would have to say Athens. I had the privilege of going there. Just a few years ago, I got to see the Pattanaik Stadium, which was the first big stadium, the ancient theater of Epidaurus, which is known to have the most perfect acoustics and aesthetics, and ancient Greek theater. It was the most amazing city. And I was there for about two days and did the tour I recommend just the history. Yeah, and all the towns I got to visit fantastic.

Rick Denton: 15:54

I would love to see all the sights of course, we didn't even talk about food, but the brilliant food there, but tell me about that acoustics. I've never heard that before. That's really interesting.

Corinne Streichert: 16:02

Yeah, it's it's called the ancient theater of Epidaurus. And it was one of the stops on one of the tours that I did. And it's an ancient stadium where the way it's constructed really enables incredible acoustics and aesthetics and they didn't have microphones and and all the technology that we have today and a tour guide actually gave a demonstration the way it is built and designed you could be in the middle and be surrounded by you know 1000s of people and the sound still carries up to the top level as if you're standing right in front person it's just I'm not doing justice probably like when I'm explaining it it was just so remarkable and incredible but it's really cool one to add on you know on the on the to why it was amazing. Just Oh everything about Athens was amazing in the history and to be able to see it and touch it and yeah, obviously what's great maybe I love it a bit too much.

Rick Denton: 16:59

We may be talking about food here in a little bit but yeah, that that's really neat. You have now given me a new destination to go to speaking of future trips. What is a dream travel vacation? You've not been to yet

Corinne Streichert: 17:10

I probably say Seychelles Are you familiar? Yes Seychelles is in the Indian Ocean. I've been fortunate enough to to visit a lot of places but unfortunately I've never got to Seychelles I don't know if I mentioned my origins are from a tiny country in the Indian Ocean call Mauritius where my family's from and but obviously born and raised in Australia but some Seychelles is north of that and it's another tropical island destination and known for its beautiful beaches and everything I've read about it and I've always wanted to to go visit and then have a look So yeah, that would be the dream

Rick Denton: 17:49

Well the problem with me doing this show is now I have another destination that I want to get to I do not recall hearing Seychelles yet but I know I have heard about it. I want to go there it definitely looks lovely. So yes, I agree with you on wanting to get there sometime in the future. We talked about food and grease but what is a favorite thing of yours to eat?

Corinne Streichert: 18:10

I did mention baklava. I can't live off sweets. Unfortunately, I probably say lentils I love everything about really? Yes. I believe it's the secret to eternal youth I was used to say that when I was younger that was just interesting. I always get asked for Id even when I was you know quite older like oh you don't look your age don't get slim tools. Um, I really just love lentils cooked in so many different ways. And you just really enjoy they're a great source of protein as well.

Rick Denton: 18:43

I have never I can assure you not once if I had somebody say lentils on favorite thing to eat I'm used to hearing pasta dessert pizza not not lentils I like that. Very good on you Corinne Well, I don't know where this is gonna go then this next question What is something your parents forced you to eat but you hate it as a kid

Corinne Streichert: 19:04

that comes to mind i i probably say would be sheep's brains.

Rick Denton: 19:10

Oh, you're gonna Oh, sheep's brain. Oh yeah, well, that would probably be something I wouldn't want to eat either.

Corinne Streichert: 19:15

Yeah, it's as a kid I didn't know any better you know as I got older it's yet to being in you know, certain countries, Africa Middle East area, and the way it's cooked. But I remember as a child, the way it was prepared, it's like oh, try it ate it. And I Oh yum. This is tasty. And what is it and they want to find out what it was it was like okay, now I'm out. To the vitamins was like, thinking about it makes me

Rick Denton: 19:43

there's a lot of things of vitamins. I'll go with something else but yes, I different cultures, different foods. I am not here to judge but I'm not sure that I would try it. Well, I would try it. If I were asked to try it. I would but I don't know that I would be enjoying it as well. So with all those travels that you've had, what is one travel item I'm not including your phone that you will not leave home without.

Corinne Streichert: 20:05

I never leave home. I guess without my little portable music studio, I think I've mentioned to you I do a lot of music and songwriting. And I found, especially when you're traveling, you never know when inspiration is going to hit. So you're always find I mean, that's probably one of the things I pack before lots of things. Um, I like to travel with, you know, my laptop, my equipment and my gear because as I said, you get inspired by the people, the places you see, and you never know when it's gonna hit, you want to capture that idea?

Rick Denton: 20:41

Correct. That's really, really cool. I've heard a lot of great answers to that one, but I've not heard the music studio before. And I love that idea of bringing inspiration from where you are the the, the places you're traveling, the people you're interacting with, they have a different style, they have a different voice, they have a different experience. And that can be something that provides that inspiration for your music studio that that that you can tell, even in my words that you've got me stumbling, because I think that's really neat. It does, it reminds me of something kind of related. And I've had a lot of great guests on CX passport, one of whom was Kate brouse. And I think it's way back in episode 15. She opened my eyes to the disability community, even teaching me a hashtag hashtag Nothing about us without us. And thinking of inflight entertainment that's got to be responsive to a wide range of abilities, languages, cultures. So how do you make sure the product in the airplane aligns with that spectrum of the customer base that's also inside that employee? Airplane?

Corinne Streichert: 21:44

Great question. Um, yeah, I did hear the podcast with Kate Brouse. She's doing some amazing work, isn't she? Yes, absolutely. And yeah, grateful she's doing that. So I think you're really, really great. In terms of, you know, making sure that you know, the products and services you offer do cater for customers of all these abilities, languages and cultures. It's really involving the customer, you've got to know your customer, I think, you know, to build a product, you're not building it for yourself, you're not building it for your leadership, you're building it for your customers, you know, the people that will be, you know, in the instance of inflight entertainment that will be flying, it will be traveling and consuming this content, you want to have a system that's easy to use, regardless of the customer's ability. And by customer's ability. I mean, whether they have hearing visual or mobility challenges, or it may just be a language barrier. So you know, that system needs to be accessed, and to be able to be used and interpreted from people, varying abilities. And the best way you know, is to include them in that development process, every step of the way, from requirements, gathering, testing, feedback sessions, and then post implementation reviews. That is really, really critical to have a successful product that your customers can use.

Rick Denton: 23:01

How, you know, that makes a lot of sense having as wide of a community as you can as possible. In your design, in your testing in your evaluation. How do you make sure that that's bought in across the entire organization? Because I imagine that adds complexity might add cost in certain situations? How do you kind of ensure that the whole organization is on board with making sure that the inputs of others are considered when it comes to inflight entertainment?

Corinne Streichert: 23:29

Well, I guess I've been fortunate enough to work for companies that have put a priority on diversity, equity and inclusion, um, and have been supporters and advocates of, you know, accessibility. So I've been really lucky. You know, I haven't, I wouldn't know of a company that hasn't kind of done that. But again, from my experience, I've been really lucky to have the full support of organizations. So going to present to stakeholders getting buying across the group was really quite easy, because everybody realized it's the right thing to do. We need to cater for everybody, regardless of ability. So it's never been a challenge. And I haven't faced a situation where it's been a challenge. Over the lines, I've been lucky

Rick Denton: 24:10

that that is really lucky, because there are plenty of companies out there and it sounds like you have not worked for them. But there are plenty of companies out there that might say that that is a focus area. And then the moment that the budget gets considered certain elements of that get cut. And it's it's good to hear that that was not the case for you. So how I'm trying to think of it almost as if I'm a customer I'm on a plane I'm experiencing my in flight entertainment. And what my experience is, I don't know how the airline knows that. How are you helping those in the airline industry actually listen to the customer's voice. How are you bringing that customer's voice into the decisions that are made

Corinne Streichert: 24:47

to firstly I think to bring the customer's voice into the decision making process, you need to listen to it, and how do we listen to it? You need to hear it, whether it's verbal, whether it's written, so there's obviously Several feedback mechanisms and opportunities to engage with your customers on a day to day basis. But then there's also the opportunity of focus groups, and working with various communities, to be able to get representatives of those communities and bringing them in, I do recall, on the projects that I've worked with actually meeting face to face with customers, going out to the airport, going to various community groups associations, where, you know, whether they're, you know, trade shows or certain events to be able to speak one on one. I mean, granted, you can't have a conversation with everybody. Sure. There's so many tools available to us, you know, surveys, post flight, pre flight surveys, you know, there's so many organizations that can help support in that way. So to be able to implement it, you need to hear it. And it's using those tools that are available to gather that feedback from your customers.

Rick Denton: 25:50

Got it. And it sounds like a key element. That was great. I listened to it. But now I'm going to do something with it. And that's a key element of getting that great inflight entertainment that's matching what your customers really want. Now, I'm taking a look at the clock. And we're getting close to being at a time which disappoints me, but I do want to ask you one thing. And it's related to something that you had said earlier, you talked about how you know, I don't know that we're going necessarily everybody thought we were going to go to 100%, bring your own device model. And now maybe that's not going to be the case. But I'm just sort of curious. The nuts and bolts of choosing an inflight system. This is not easy. This is not like just going I'm gonna joke here, go into Best Buy and buy an A TV and slap it into the back of a seat. How does that process work? And where do you see in flight entertainment going?

Corinne Streichert: 26:36

Great question. Exactly. It's not easy. And I probably couldn't articulate it within a few minutes.

Rick Denton: 26:45

episode two...

Corinne Streichert: 26:46

Yeah, for sure. For sure. But not a simple question. There are a lot of moving parts, the first step really is deciding what type of experience you want to offer your customers is an experience that aligns with your brand, who you are wanting what you want to be an offer as an airline, and your overall product experience in the cabin. So understanding that knowing that that is pretty much the first step, then into then it's going out and you know, working with suitable vendors and working those agreements, to get the hardware and then software, then you've got your content. So it's a mammoth, you know, huge process to be able to bring that on board. But you need to know who you are, what you want to be. And what you want to offer, I think really is a first step in making that decision. In terms of do I say it going to 100% Bring Your Own Device model, there are some airlines that do offer that it works for them, it aligns with their business model, the markets that they serve. So that is out there. But there are what the offer more than one option for in flight entertainment, I think longer term down the track, there will always be a place for more than one in the cabin in the cabin. A lot will depend on the airline, the markets they serve the customers they serve as well. So that I think they'll always be that variety often. But technology will come as it does at a very rapid pace, and then bring new ways of doing things. But for the moment, I think it will all coexist in various shapes and forms.

Rick Denton: 28:15

That is, and I think maybe that's the theme that will close out on it so much of in flight entertainment. While we think it's it is it's really cool to me as a traveler and it is mind blowing to think back to that old DC 10 that I'm describing. And now I've got live TV on my plane to be able to watch and now I get crabby if it doesn't have the particular channel that I want to watch. But how far that's evolved. But so much of it comes back to the fundamentals of customer experience, which is listening to what the customer is telling you they want. And then finding a way to implement that inside of your brand, your brand promise your brand, your brand style and what your brand stands for. Corinne, I've learned a lot from you today. Thank you so much for that. If folks want to learn more about in flight entertainment if they want to get in touch with you what's the best way for folks to get in touch with you?

Corinne Streichert: 29:01

Sure. Um, I can be reached by my website ifective.aero if a CT IV dot aero or feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn more than happy to connect and, and talk more about it.

Rick Denton: 29:13

Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being on the show today. learned a ton and safe travels wherever they take you to next Corinne.

Corinne Streichert: 29:22

Thanks so much, Rick. It's been a pleasure.

Rick Denton: 29:28

Thanks for joining us this week on CX Passport. Make sure to visit our website cxpassport.com where you can hit subscribe so you'll never miss a show. While you're at it, you can check out the rest of the EX4CX website. If you're looking to get real about customer experience, EX4CX is available to help you increase revenue by starting to listen to your customers and create great experiences for every customer every time. Thanks for listening to CX Passport and be sure to tune in for our next episode. Until next time, I'm Rick Denton, and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.