Web Analytics Made Easy - StatCounter

CX17 Leaders: Brooke Allen

brooke_allen_article.jpg

Brooke Allen, CX Class of 2017

"Without a comprehensive understanding of the customer experience how could I truly do my job well?"

What attracted you to MKTG 6800: Customer Experience Design?

My reason for taking the class is threefold: 1. it compliments my educational and professional background, 2. general interest, and 3. the professor teaching the class. Reason number one: My background is Communication Design—how to effectively communicate to one’s audience, whether in print, online, or in a three-dimensional form. I have over 15 years of experience in the field but I have not specifically studied the design of the customer experience. While my communication design expertise is an essential component of Customer Experience Design, it is not the only component. I want a holistic understanding of the entire methodology because it will provide me with the proficiency I require to advance my marketing career and provide customers with the best possible experience, where ever I may be working after graduation. I would like to work for a sports apparel company or in the outdoor sports industry as I am a huge fan of the outdoors, which is about actively being engaged with the environment around you. Without a comprehensive understanding of the customer experience how could I truly do my job well? Reason number two: I love learning (this is my second masters) and I love design. Reason number three: you cannot be an MBA student without knowing who Markus Giesler is and if you don’t know who he is then you need to Google him to understand why MTKG 6800: Customer Experience Design is one of the most popular class at the Schulich School of Business. 

What’s the biggest design challenge you want to tackle this fall?

I am an avid traveler and thus would love to tackle the challenge of making air travel a better experience for the customer. It doesn’t matter what airline I travel on—I am continuously filled with dread and anxiety at the thought of having to deal with lineups at airport security (and I have a Nexus card). After you get through security, it only gets worse from there knowing you then have to suffer thought sitting on an airplane for hours where unless you can afford to sit in business class, the experience can be insufferable at times. The Air Transat incident where passengers were stranded on the tarmac for 6 hour was an extreme case but unfortunately situations like that happen a lot. While airport navigation has been addressed in some airports—Vancouver’s YVR, Terminal 2, The Queen’s Terminal at London’s Heathrow, Charles du Galle in Paris, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, The Frankfurt Airport, and Schipol in Amsterdam (to name a few), have excellent navigational signage but this is just one component of the customer experience when travelling by air. Just because the industry is an oligarchy and has a captive audience does not mean the passenger experience should be overlooked.

What are you looking for in a future employer?

I am looking for an employer who values creating a strong organizational culture, provides a stimulating work environment, and invests in their employees, allowing them to learn and grow with the company.

 

Markus Giesler

Markus Giesler draws on concepts from economics, technology studies, and sociology to inform his research in marketing. He determines how ideas and things (products, services, experiences, technological innovations, intellectual property, brands, etc.) are made valuable over time, with research focused on improving marketing strategy through an understanding of markets as evolving social systems. Giesler's research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the European Research Council (ERC) and published in top-tier academic journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing. Giesler has an extensive entertainment industry background. He founded his own record label at age 17 and has worked in various production and marketing responsibilities for over a decade. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

© 2020 Markus Giesler | Disclaimer | drgiesler