Keynote Sessions
The Service Culture Journey
Jeff Toister, Bestselling author of The Service Culture Handbook
Imagine you could build a service culture.
The type of culture where employees are obsessed with customers. They encourage each other, proactively solve problems, and go the extra mile.
Getting there isn’t easy. It’s a journey that takes full commitment.
This entertaining and informative presentation shares three steps to build a service culture. It uses experiential activities, real examples, and cutting-edge research to map out how to get your own employees obsessed with service.
Participants will gain the following:
- Experience three ways that culture can influence employees’ actions.
- Identify the essential elements of a service culture.
- Create a plan to get your employees obsessed with service.
Why CX Is No Longer Just Support, It’s Leverage: The Shift from Cost Center to Business Advantage
Ty Givens, Founder & CEO of CX Collective and CX Collective Advantage
Customer Experience has evolved far beyond managing tickets and resolving issues. Today, CX holds some of the strongest signals a business has about friction, loyalty, and growth, yet many teams are still structured and measured like cost centers.
In this session, Ty Givens breaks down how CX leadership has evolved, why execution is often the real constraint, and what has to change for CX to become a source of leverage across the business.
Attendees walk away with:
- A clearer view of where CX creates real business leverage
- Why many CX teams stay busy but struggle to drive impact
- Practical shifts leaders can make to move from reactive support to growth-driven CX
Technology Panel: When CX Leads, Technology Follows
This panel brings together senior leaders working at the intersection of customer experience and technology to explore a critical tension facing many organizations today: how to ensure technology investments enable customer experience strategy rather than allowing tools and features to define it. Through real-world perspectives and practical examples, the panelists will share real-world perspectives on aligning digital investments with customer needs, business priorities, and long-term outcomes, moving beyond feature-driven decisions to experience-driven impact. Attendees will gain insight into governance, decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration approaches that help technology become a true accelerator of customer-centric strategy, as opposed to a constraint on it.
Attendees walk away with:
- How to keep CX strategy in the driver’s seat
- Real-world decision frameworks, not theory
- Bridging the CX–IT divide
Featuring Panelists:
Siva Balu
Position title: Chief Information & Digital Officer, Sr. VP, Quartz Health Solutions
Nicole Joraanstad
Position title: Director of the IT Customer Engagement Center of Excellence, TDS Telecommunications
Christopher Neuharth
Position title: Chief Experience Officer, Children's Wisconsin
Lisa Pavelski
Position title: Director of Digital Capabilities, TruStage
Lightning Talks
Sponsor Case Studies
Customer Experience Success: Trust, But Verify
Presented by David Beinhacker, Chief Research Officer, Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC)
Most organizations have ambitious customer experience goals but fall short because they obsess over scores instead of acting on what customers are telling them. In this fast-paced case study session, you’ll see a practical example of how to move from navel-gazing at VOC metrics to mobilizing insights that measurably improve experiences and business outcomes.
AI, Without the Hype: What Actually Works for CX Leaders
Presented by Gannon Harris, Enterprise Account Executive, NiCE
A practical, experience-based look at why many AI initiatives stall—and how CX leaders can use an operating model to de-risk AI, prioritize what matters, and deliver real outcomes.
Agenda
All times listed below are in Central Time.
8:30 am: Networking and opening remarks
9:00 am: Keynote Presentation – The Service Culture Journey, with Jeff Toister
9:45 am: Sponsor Case Study – Customer Experience Success: Trust, But Verify, presented by David Beinhacker, CCMC
9:55 am: Keynote Presentation – Why CX Is No Longer Just Support, It’s Leverage: The Shift from Cost Center to Business Advantage, with Ty Givens
10:40 am: Break
10:55 am: Sponsor Case Study – AI, Without the Hype: What Actually Works for CX Leaders, presented by Gannon Harris, NiCE
11:05 am: Technology Panel: When CX Leads, Technology Follows, with Siva Balu, Nicole Joraanstad, Chris Neuharth, and Lisa Pavelski
12:15 pm: Lunch
12:45 pm: Lightning Talks by UW–Madison’s own Katie Gaertner, Xiaoyang Long, and Giustina Parisi
1:15 pm: Networking and closing remarks
What To Expect
What to Expect:
- Keynote Speakers: Hear from renowned CX leaders who will share their insights on building exceptional customer experiences.
- Panel Discussions: Dive into interactive conversations on the future of CX, customer loyalty, and digital experience transformation.
- Lightning Sessions: See how thinkers at our UW are leveraging data and strategy that can be used to improve customer experience, and create future professionals with relevant CX skills.
Who Should Attend:
Whether you are a CX professional, marketing leader, or business strategist, this event is designed to help you unlock the power of customer experience to drive long-term success, differentiate your brand, and deliver ROI.
Symposium Venue
The symposium was held at the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. As one of the most beloved and historic destinations on campus, Memorial Union is the place to come socialize, relax, study, eat, and enjoy all the beautiful sunsets and lake views that Madison has to offer. Situated on the shores of Lake Mendota, the classic architecture of the building boasts a picturesque lakeside view as well as a terrace with 600 colorful sunburst chairs.
2026 Steering Committee
Tom Eberhardt
Position title: Manager, Consumer Experience & Operations, Delta Dental of Wisconsin
Andrew Fjerstad
Position title: VP of CX, CROPP/Organic Valley
Dana Moyano
Position title: CX Director, nvisia
Johnathan Murphy
Position title: Associate Manager Customer Experience, TDS
Sponsors
We’re grateful to our sponsors for their generous support in making the Wisconsin Customer Experience Symposium possible and for their continued commitment to advancing customer experience excellence.
Customer Care Measurement & Consulting (CCMC)
CCMC is a full-service CX survey partner empowering Fortune 500 market leaders from every industry with expertise that transforms customer feedback into action—enabling companies to sustain excellence and outperform competitors through practical, insight-driven change.
NiCE
NiCE is transforming the world with AI that puts people first. Our purpose-built AI-powered platforms automate engagements into proactive, safe, intelligent actions, empowering individuals and organizations to innovate and act, from interaction to resolution. Trusted by organizations throughout 150+ countries worldwide, NiCE’s platforms are widely adopted across industries connecting people, systems, and workflows to work smarter at scale, elevating performance across the organization, delivering proven measurable outcomes.
Create a NiCE world.