Marginally Better
by Joe Taylor Jr.
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-provokin
Episodes
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Surviving Your Tech Career
I’ve had the rug pulled out from under my career (at least) twice. This is my survival guide for PIPs, layoffs and pivots, recorded live at BarCamp Philly 17.
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Your Next Customer May Never Visit Your Website
Cloudflare and the Crawl Economy Cloudflare - Control Content Use for AI Training Cloudflare - Crawlers Click AI Bots Training Data Cloudflare - Content Independence Day: No AI Crawl Without Compensation (July 2025) Cloudflare - Content Independence Day: New AI Options (July 2026) Search Behavior...
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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...
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The Wrong Metric
The Stopwatch CMS Provider Data Catalog — Hospitals: Timely and Effective Care (public reporting of ED time measures) The Joint Commission — ED-1: Median Time from ED Arrival to ED Departure for Admitted ED Patients (specification manual) Thompson DA, Yarnold PR, Williams DR, Adams SL — “Effects…
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The Capacity Catastrophe
The Season You Saw Coming TIGTA — “The Internal Revenue Service’s Readiness for the 2026 Filing Season” (memorandum, Jan. 26, 2026: staffing down ~19,000/19% to October 2021 levels; key processing inventories at ~2.0 million items in Dec. 2025 vs. 871K pre-pandemic; phone level-of-service goal...
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The Onboarding Opportunity
The Cost of a Bad First Window Fenergo — “Global Financial Institutions Struggle with Rising Client Losses and Compliance Costs as AI Adoption Increases” (2025 survey of 600 senior decision-makers; 70% lost clients to slow onboarding, up from 67% in 2024 and 48% in 2023; onboarding abandonment...
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The Forgotten Middle
The Gym: Paying Not to Go DellaVigna & Malmendier, “Paying Not to Go to the Gym,” American Economic Review 96(3), 2006, pp. 694–719 (members on flat monthly contracts averaged ~4.3 visits/month, >$17 per visit vs. a $10 ten-visit pass; monthly members slower to cancel than annual) Full...
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The Review Revolution Reversal
The Research: Why Perfect Doesn’t Sell Northwestern University Medill Spiegel Research Center — How Online Reviews Influence Sales (purchase likelihood peaks at 4.0–4.7 stars; “five stars is too good to be true”) PowerReviews & Northwestern’s Spiegel Research Center — Five-Star Product Ratings…
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The Hidden Cost of Disengagement
The Cost of Disengagement Gallup — The World’s $8.8 Trillion Workplace Problem (State of the Global Workplace) Employee Experience Drives Customer Experience Glassdoor Research — The Link Between Glassdoor Reviews and Customer Satisfaction (Chamberlain & Zhao) Harvard Business Review — Engaged...
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The True Cost of Bad Customer Experience
What do a billion-dollar retail collapse, a broken app, and an abandoned shopping cart have in common? They’re all part of the same hidden bill, and most companies don’t realize they’re paying it until it’s too late. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the true cost…
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The Repair Relationship Revolution
A century ago, companies deliberately made products that wouldn’t last. Today, that model is being dismantled—by regulators, by consumers, and by a new generation of businesses built around repair, not replacement. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the repair...
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The Community Currency
A productivity app on the brink of collapse rebuilt itself in a small apartment in Kyoto—and a decade later became an $11 billion company with 100 million users. What changed? Not the product alone, but the people around it. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the rise…
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The Transparency Tax
Everyone says customers want transparency — open salaries, open supply chains, open decision-making. But when does sharing become oversharing? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. examines the transparency trap: how brands like Buffer and Everlane learned the hard way that...
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The Senior Surge Opportunity
By 2030, all 73 million U.S. Boomers will be 65+—and they control the majority of household wealth. So why do so many products, stores, and apps ignore them? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the trillion-dollar gap between who has the money and who businesses…
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The Waiting Game Winners
Americans spend 37 billion hours a year waiting—about 118 hours per person—but smart brands are turning that dead time into delight. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. breaks down the psychology of waiting (why underpromising and overdelivering works, why occupied time feels...
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The Ghost Kitchen Customer Catastrophe
Ever ordered from three “different” restaurants and gotten the same fries, same sticker, same address? This episode of Marginally Better digs into the ghost-kitchen gold rush—and the trust crisis it sparked. Joe Taylor, Jr. unpacks how virtual brands multiplied behind a single line, why customers...
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The Repair Renaissance
What if telling customers not to buy is the smartest growth move you can make? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the Repair Renaissance—from Patagonia’s “Don’t Buy This Jacket” ethos and Minnesota’s nation-leading right-to-repair law to the global rise of Repair Cafés...
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Designing for Trust: Inside the Privacy Economy
In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. unpacks the “privacy paradox” where 86% of people claim to care about data protection, but most will hand over personal details for even the smallest convenience. We’ll explore why privacy is becoming a luxury good, how small businesses are...
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The Death of the Phone Call (And Why That's a Problem)
In a world where Gen Z would rather lose a finger than make a phone call, how do businesses keep real human connections alive? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the rising “telephobia” reshaping customer service, why voice calls still convert better than any other...
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The Privacy Paradox
What do your customers really want: personalization or privacy? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the “Privacy Paradox” reshaping modern business. We’ll unpack why 81% of consumers now believe data collection risks outweigh the benefits, and how innovative companies…
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Breaking Things, Returning Things, and Getting Things Right
“Move fast and break things” might’ve been the startup mantra of the early 2000s—but in 2025, it’s costing companies customers, credibility, and billions in returns. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. unpacks how the speed-at-all-costs philosophy is being replaced by something...
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The Screen We Ignore, The Skills We Discard, and When Organizations Forget Why They Exist
Struggling to check out on your phone? You’re not alone. In this episode of Marginally Better, host Joe Taylor Jr. uncovers why most mobile experiences still fall flat despite making up the majority of web traffic. From jaw-dropping statistics on e-commerce conversion gaps to the dramatic…
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Small Is the New Smart: Why Simplicity Wins in Customer Experience
Is your small business secretly holding the upper hand? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores why the tiniest companies are winning big in a world of sky-high customer expectations. With 88% of consumers demanding Amazon-level convenience from every brand they encounter,...
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When Customer Experience Goes Wrong: AI Promises, Survey Fatigue, and Subscription Traps
AI gone rogue, broken feedback loops, and cancellation nightmares—this episode of Marginally Better exposes how even well-intentioned CX efforts can backfire. Joe Taylor, Jr. unpacks why 64% of customers want AI out of customer service, how survey fatigue is killing Net Promoter Scores, and why…
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The Experience Revolution: From Broken Systems to Billion-Dollar Opportunities
What do a $13 trillion market, a groundbreaking government initiative and viral customer service disasters have in common? They're all reshaping the future of customer experience. In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores how accessibility, government innovation, and the...
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From Feedback to Fallout: What 2025 Teaches Us About Customer Experience
Why are customer loyalty scores plummeting—even when satisfaction metrics are strong? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the disconnect between Customer Experience data and tangible business results. From the surprising collapse of TGI Fridays to the 20% of companies...
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Experience & Excellence: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of Customer-First Companies
Join host Joe Taylor Jr. as he explores the fine line between customer experience triumphs and costly missteps. From Starbucks’ turnaround to Walgreens’ recent struggles, Joe breaks down what happens when businesses lose sight of what truly matters—delivering a great customer experience at its...
About this show
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-provokin
Hosted by
Joe Taylor Jr.
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