Marginally Better

About Marginally Better

Marginally Better is a thought-provoking business podcast from Joe Taylor Jr., a Master Certified User Experience consultant and customer service veteran. It explores how investing in exceptional customer experiences drives sustainable growth and profitability. Join Joe as he explores the intersection of business performance and customer satisfaction, revealing how companies can achieve what seems impossible: improving their margins by investing in customer experience. Each episode explores triumphs and cautionary tales in customer experience, from industry giants to emerging disruptors. Through deep-dive analysis and compelling storytelling, Marginally Better examines how businesses navigate the delicate balance between innovation and customer needs in today’s rapidly evolving marketplace. Whether you’re an executive, entrepreneur, or passionate about excellent customer experiences, Marginally Better delivers actionable strategies and thought-provoking perspectives on building businesses that truly put customers first. Thoughtful, engaging, and always focused on practical insights, Marginally Better is essential listening for anyone interested in the future of business, innovation, and customer experience.

Publisher

Joe Taylor Jr.

Category

business · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Jan 2025

Latest episode

13 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

26 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Aug 2026

   Your Next Customer May Never Visit Your Website

   Cloudflare and the Crawl Economy Cloudflare - Control Content Use for AI Training (https://blog.cloudflare.com/control-content-use-for-ai-training/) Cloudflare - Crawlers Click AI Bots Training Data (https://blog.cloudflare.com/crawlers-click-ai-bots-training/) Cloudflare - Content Independence Day: No AI Crawl Without Compensation (July 2025) (https://blog.cloudflare.com/content-independence-day-no-ai-crawl-without-compensation/) Cloudflare - Content Independence Day: New AI Options (July 2026) (https://blog.cloudflare.com/content-independence-day-ai-options/) Search Behavior Research Pew Research Center - Google Users Are Less Likely to Click on Links When an AI Summary Appears (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/) Microsoft NLWeb and R.V. Guha Microsoft - Introducing NLWeb: Bringing Conversational Interfaces Directly to the Web (https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/company-news/introducing-nlweb-bringing-conversational-interfaces-directly-to-the-web/) Microsoft - How 6 People Behind Well-Known Technologies Are Shaping AI at Microsoft (https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/innovation/how-6-people-behind-well-known-technologies-are-shaping-ai-at-microsoft/) Shopify and Google Agentic Commerce Shopify - Agentic Commerce Momentum (https://www.shopify.com/news/agentic-commerce-momentum) Shopify - Agentic Commerce Executive Guide (https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/blog/agentic-commerce-executive-guide) Google - Agentic Commerce: AI Tools and Protocol for Retailers and Platforms (https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/) Google - Universal Commerce Protocol Overview (https://developers.google.com/merchant/ucp) Google - UCP Merchant Profile Guide (https://developers.google.com/merchant/ucp/guides/ucp-profile) Google - UCP Checkout Guide (https://developers.google.com/merchant/ucp/guides/checkout) Stripe Agentic Payments Stripe - Introducing Our Agentic Commerce Solutions (https://stripe.com/blog/introducing-our-agentic-commerce-solutions) Stripe - Agentic Commerce Suite (https://stripe.com/blog/agentic-commerce-suite) Measuring AI Visibility Adobe - 2025 Holiday Shopping Season Results (https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/01/adobe-holiday-shopping-season) Adobe - Introducing Adobe Brand Visibility (https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/06/introducing-adobe-brand-visibility) Similarweb - Generative AI Statistics and Brand Visibility (https://www.similarweb.com/blog/marketing/geo/gen-ai-stats/) Johns & Taylor (Internal Spots) Experience Helpdesk (https://experiencehelpdesk.com/) Website Reality Check (https://websiterealitycheck.com)

2. 

   6 Aug 2026

   What If Software Only Got Paid When You Succeeded?

   For decades, software companies got paid the same way whether you succeeded or failed. You bought the licenses, you paid the bill, and if nobody at your company ever figured out how to use the thing — well, that was your problem. A new generation of companies is making a much riskier promise. If the software doesn’t deliver the result, you don’t pay. We’ll look at the support platforms betting their revenue on something they call an outcome — and the surprisingly slippery question of what counts as one. We’ll meet the former Salesforce co-CEO trying to rewrite the business model he helped build. And we’ll visit a 1960s jet engine factory that figured all of this out before software existed. Sierra and Outcome-Based Pricing Sierra - Outcome-Based Pricing for AI Agents (https://sierra.ai/blog/outcome-based-pricing-for-ai-agents) Sierra - Outcomemaxxing (https://sierra.ai/blog/outcomemaxxing) Sierra - Bret Taylor on AI Agents, Outcome-Based Pricing, and the OpenAI Board (https://sierra.ai/resources/podcasts/bret-taylor-of-sierra-on-ai-agents-outcome-based-pricing-and-the-openai-board) Fin (Intercom) Outcome Pricing Fin - Pricing (https://fin.ai/pricing) Fin - Pricing Outcomes Explained (https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/13975800-fin-pricing-outcomes) Fin - Pricing FAQs (https://fin.ai/help/en/articles/13975799-faqs) Fin - Pricing Metric Update (https://fin.ai/updates/fin-pricing-metric) Zendesk Automated and Verified Resolutions Zendesk - About Automated Resolutions for AI Agents (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5352026794010-About-automated-resolutions-for-AI-agents) Zendesk - Announcing Changes to AI Agent Reporting (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10677925692698-Announcing-changes-to-AI-agent-reporting) Zendesk - Analyzing AI Agent Performance (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9510024609178-Analyzing-AI-agent-performance-with-the-reporting-dashboard) Zendesk - Announcing Unified Conversation Statuses (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10608277085466-Announcing-unified-conversation-statuses-across-all-AI-agent-channels) Zendesk - About Automated Resolution Tiers (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9570369117338-About-automated-resolution-tiers) Zendesk - AI Trust at Zendesk (https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/9196781863578-AI-Trust-at-Zendesk) Salesforce Agentforce Pricing Salesforce - Agentforce Flexible Pricing Announcement (May 2025) (https://www.salesforce.com/news/press-releases/2025/05/15/agentforce-flexible-pricing-news/) Salesforce - Agentforce Pricing (https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/pricing/) Salesforce - What Are Flex Credits? (https://www.salesforce.com/blog/flex-credits/) Chargeflow Success-Based Pricing Chargeflow - Pricing and Success Fee (https://www.chargeflow.io/smb-demo-v1) Chargeflow - Chargeback Recovery (https://www.chargeflow.io/blog/chargeback-recovery) Chargeflow - How Automated Dispute Management Transforms Chargeback Recovery (https://www.chargeflow.io/blog/how-automated-dispute-management-transforms-chargeback-recovery) Rolls-Royce TotalCare / Power by the Hour Rolls-Royce - TotalCare (https://www.rolls-royce.com/products-and-services/civil-aerospace/services/totalcare.aspx) Rolls-Royce - TotalCare Explained (https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/our-stories/discover/2017/totalcare.aspx) SEC Filing - Hawaiian Airlines TotalCare Agreement (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1172222/000117222215000012/exhibit1082.htm) Morgan Lewis - A Practical Guide to Aircraft Engine RPFH Agreements (https://www.morganlewis.com/pubs/2024/01/a-practical-guide-to-aircraft-engine-rpfh-agreements) Metrics and Incentive Research Manheim & Garrabrant - Categorizing Variants of Goodhart’s Law (arXiv) (https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.04585) Thomas & Uminsky - Reliance on Metrics is a Fundamental Challenge for AI (arXiv) (https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.08512) NBER Working Paper 31353 - Pay-for-Performance in Dialysis (2023) (https://www.nber.org/papers/w31353) Johns & Taylor (Internal Spots) Experience Helpdesk (https://experiencehelpdesk.com/)

3. 

   16 Jul 2026

   The Wrong Metric

   The Stopwatch CMS Provider Data Catalog — Hospitals: Timely and Effective Care (public reporting of ED time measures) (https://data.cms.gov/provider-data/topics/hospitals/timely-effective-care) The Joint Commission — ED-1: Median Time from ED Arrival to ED Departure for Admitted ED Patients (specification manual) (https://manual.jointcommission.org/releases/TJC2026B/MIF0164.html) Thompson DA, Yarnold PR, Williams DR, Adams SL — “Effects of actual waiting time, perceived waiting time, information delivery, and expressive quality on patient satisfaction in the emergency department,” Annals of Emergency Medicine, Dec. 1996 (1,631 respondents; actual waiting times not predictive of overall satisfaction; perceptions, information delivery, and expressive quality were, P < .001) (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8953956/) Sonis JD, Aaronson EL, Lee RY, Philpotts LL, White BA — “Emergency Department Patient Experience: A Systematic Review of the Literature,” Journal of Patient Experience, 2017 (107 studies; staff–patient communication cited 78 times, wait times 56, staff empathy and compassion 45) (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6022944/) Rick Evans — “Healthcare’s communication puzzle is getting more complex,” Becker’s Hospital Review, May 21, 2026 (“At its heart, improving the patient experience is all about communication.”) (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/patient-experience/healthcares-communication-puzzle-is-getting-more-complex/) Mattson C, Bushardt RL, Artino AR — “‘When a Measure Becomes a Target, It Ceases to be a Good Measure,’” Journal of Graduate Medical Education, Feb. 2021 (Goodhart 1975; Strathern phrasing; GME examples) (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7901608/) The Feature: Sven Gierlinger and Northwell Health Becker’s Hospital Review — “3 Questions with Northwell Health Chief Experience Officer Sven Gierlinger,” Dec. 5, 2017 (Ritz-Carlton background; “First came a tingling in my fingers and toes; and within days, I was paralyzed”; “for 90 days and nights, I was 100% dependent”; “crystal chandeliers” quote; gratitude reflection) (https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/becker-s-9th-annual-meeting-speaker-series-3-questions-northwell-health-chief-experience-officer-sven-gierlinger.html) Sven Gierlinger — “‘Hospital food not fit for a dog,’” Northwell Health Insights, July 7, 2023 (2000 hospitalization: three months, intubated, feeding tube; 2014 CXO start; verbatim patient comments; 9th → 84th percentile food scores; Bruno Tison; 10M+ meals/year; budget-neutral overhaul; Dowling letters; originally in MedPage Today) (https://www.northwell.edu/news/insights/hospital-food-not-fit-for-a-dog) Barden A, Kalman J, Gierlinger S, Baker D, Giammarinaro N, Rousseau N — “From Monologue to Dialogue: The Pursuit of Relationship Centered Communication Across a Large, Integrated Healthcare System,” Journal of Patient Experience, Jan. 2024 (2015 baseline 29th percentile; RCC design; 46 volunteer faculty; COVID/Zoom pivot; June 2017–June 2023: 3,300+ providers trained; doctor communication 36th → 58th percentile rank vs. Press Ganey national peers; “Listen” +24 points; likelihood-to-recommend 42nd → 64th; adult hospitals at/above median 4 → 8; authors’ caveat that RCC “may not be the only factor”; faculty quote) (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10793185/) Khan A, et al. — “Patient safety after implementation of a coproduced family centered communication programme: multicenter before and after intervention study,” The BMJ, Dec. 2018 (Patient and Family Centered I-PASS; seven North American hospitals; harmful medical errors down ~38%) (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6278585/) Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine — “Study Finds Harmful Medical Errors Fell 38% Following Implementation of a Multicenter Program to Improve Doctors’ and Nurses’ Communication with Families” (https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/news/study-finds-harmful-medical-errors-fell-38-following-implementation-multicenter-program) The Counterweight: The On-Time Machine Forbes SJ, Lederman M, Yuan Z — “Do Airlines Pad Their Schedules?”, Review of Industrial Organization, 2019 (1990–2016: schedule times grew more than actual flight times; recorded delays fell while flights take longer; DOT 15-minute on-time definition; airlines speed up flights near the threshold, per Forbes, Lederman & Tombe 2015) (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11151-018-9632-1) Background Reading David Maister — “The Psychology of Waiting Lines” (1985; the classic on perceived vs. actual waits) (https://davidmaister.com/articles/the-psychology-of-waiting-lines/) Products Mentioned Experience Helpdesk (https://experiencehelpdesk.com/) Johns & Taylor (https://johnsandtaylor.com/)

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 33 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

54

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.