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Steven van Belleghem

Author •
Futurist

Best-selling author, entrepreneur, customer experience enthusiast and global keynote speaker

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About

Gender: Male

Nationality:

Languages: English

Travels from: Belgium

Engagement Types

Topics

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biography Highlights

Steven van Belleghem has written six books, including the latest titles: ‘Customers the Day after Tomorrow,’ ‘The Offer You Can’t Refuse,’ and ‘A Diamond in the Rough.’ His focus is on Customer Experience, Digital Customer Experience, and Customer Culture.

Biography

Meet Steven Van Belleghem

Steven Van Belleghem is a customer experience enthusiast! His mission is to inspire companies to become more customer centric.

Steven believes in combining common sense, new technologies, an empathic human touch, playing the long game and taking social responsibility to win the hearts and business of customers over and over again.

To achieve his mission, he has written 5 international bestsellers (>150,000 copies sold); he shares new ideas on his social channels (including his YouTube channel with more than 7 million views); he delivers keynote presentations all over the world (>1,500 keynotes in >45 countries) and his ideas are often shared by media outlets such as Forbes, The Guardian, WARC …

Steven finds his inspiration by visiting companies all over the world. He is the co-founder of Nexxworks, an inspiration agency that organises inspiration tours in all corners of the world to inspire executives to improve their customer experience.

Steven is also an investor in customer experience related companies such as Hello Customer and IO Digital.

Steven complements his entrepreneurial activities with his work as a part-time marketing professor at Vlerick Business School and guest speaker at London Business School.

Some personal facts:

Steven is a huge Disney fan and had a dream come true when he was offered a small cameo in the Flemish-language version of Cars 3.
Steven is an avid Club Brugge supporter. He was thrilled to be involved in the development of the team’s social media strategy. As a result, in 2010 Club Brugge was the first Belgian team to professionally use the up and coming social media communication channels at the time.
Steven lives in a small rural town in Belgium, a place where he thoroughly enjoys the analogue world.

Videos

Popular Talks

Cx Strategy: The offer you can’t refuse

Having a great product and offering good service is a minimum requirement in today’s market space. It’s your ticket to ride, not your ticket to win. And the same can be said about digital convenience. Convenience is a commodity these days: if you have it, ‘fine’; if you don’t, it becomes a negative differentiator. Buying a quality product in a convenient way creates a strong transactional relationship but if you want to give your customers ‘an offer they can’t refuse’, you need to do more. In this keynote, Steven inspires you to become a ‘partner in life’ of your customers. A partner in life understands what people need and provides it at the right time in a completely personalized way. In addition to this strategy, more and more customers expect you to use your strengths to change the world for the better. The moment you can be a partner in life and create value for society on top of your minimum requirements, that’s when you’re presenting your customers with ‘an offer they can’t refuse’. This keynote will inspire you with examples from companies from all over the world who adopted this approach to make a difference for their clients.

Available: Virtually

Creating a Strong Customer Culture: The diamond in the rough

There is a big paradox in the world of customer experience right now: every company has wonderful intentions to make their customers happy but in reality the quality of execution is often average to low. In many cases, the best intentions don’t progress beyond the PowerPoint presentation. Over the past twelve years, Steven has spoken extensively with thousands of CX professionals and his conclusion is that most companies are a ‘diamond in the rough’ in terms of customer experience: they want it so badly but they don’t succeed. In this brand-new keynote Steven explains how to transform that diamond in the rough into a shiny diamond. This is a story about infusing your organization with real Customer Culture. This narrative will help you understand why teams don’t act upon your request to become more customer centric; it will make you see how small changes make a huge difference and it will give you the right tools to install a customer culture throughout your organization.

Available: Virtually

Transform the role of humans in CX: When digital becomes human

There is an urgent need for an extreme transformation of the customer relationship. Customers live in a world of self-service, big data, customer automation and the integration of the online & offline world. Failing to implement the digital relationship puts your company’s future on the line. A successful digital transformation is key but it will not be enough. Due to the digital evolution, your customer relationship needs to change on a human level as well. The key challenges in this regard are both numerous and interesting: finding a balance in the relationship between man and machine, outlining the role of the human touch and using the power to connect people with people to maximum advantage. Steven guides you through his famous story ’When digital becomes human’. It’s a narrative about the combination of the digital and the human transformation in your customer strategy. This story takes you on a journey to the future. It is provocative, exciting and scary at the same time. Enjoy this amazing ride!

Available: Virtually

Customer Experience and AI: Customers the day after tomorrow

Artificial Intelligence has the power to change the customer relationship forever. We all believe tech is cool and shiny but our focus on the tech part can blind us to other aspects. In this keynote Steven demonstrates that not tech but customer benefits should be the guiding star in your decision making. Using AI to create faster than real time service, hyper personalized offerings and the highest convenience levels possible generate value for your organization. In this presentation you will find inspiration on how to get ready for that customer relationship of the day after tomorrow. You will hear concrete examples and anecdotes on how artificial intelligence really makes a difference for your customers.

Available: Virtually

Books

A diamond in the rough: Over a 100 specific tips to build a strong customer culture

This book shows you how to build a customer-oriented corporate culture. Turn your rough diamond into a beautiful, shiny jewel. Many companies have the intention to be customer-oriented, but only a few succeed in making the customer really happy. The key to success is building a customer-centric culture: a culture where both leaders and employees of an organisation are aware of their role towards the customer at all times. In this book you will learn in very concrete steps and clear tips on how you can develop a customer-oriented corporate culture. Success or failure is often in details and in having the right attitude.

The Conversation Manager: The Power of the Modern Consumer, the End of the Traditional Advertiser

Mobile devices, new digital technologies and the increasing popularity of social media all contribute to the ever-growing gap between internet-savvy consumers and traditional means of advertising. With the old tried and tested techniques no longer being effective, marketers, who do not want to fall behind, need to find novel ways to engage with the new-sprung breed of consumers. To do this, learning to listen and communicate with your consumers is critical. Based on four years of primary research, The Conversation Manager explains the evolution of the modern consumer and clearly demonstrates why traditional advertising no longer works. Illustrated with an extensive number of examples of advertising campaigns, this book is full of practical tools to help you transform your company strategy and kick-start conversations with your customers.

When Digital Becomes Human: The Transformation of Customer Relationships

In an age when customers have access to vast amounts of data about a company, its product and its competitors, customer experience becomes increasingly important as a sustainable source of competitive advantage. But success doesn’t just rely on digital engagement and excellence, but also on combining a digital-first attitude with a human touch. In When Digital Becomes Human, Steven Van Belleghem explores and explains the new digital relationships. Packed with global examples from organizations that have successfully transformed their customer relationships, such as Amazon, Toyota, ING, Coolblue, Nike and Starbucks, When Digital Becomes Human presents a clear model that companies can easily implement to integrate an emotional layer into their digital strategy. This guide to combining two of a business’s most important assets – its people and its digital strengths – covers the latest issues in digital marketing and customer experience management, including omnichannel and multichannel experiences, big data and predictive analytics, privacy concerns, customer collaboration (ie crowdsourcing) and more.