Creating Human Delivered, Digitally Enabled Services | Mario Baddour

Hey CX Nation,

In this week's episode of The CXChronicles Podcast #265, we welcomed Mario Baddour, President & CEO of InteLogix, based in Park City, UT. 

InteLogix provides customer experience (CX) solutions and accounts receivable management (ARM) operations that enhance customer loyalty and revenue for their clients. 

They combine human engagement with digital tools and automation to minimize customer effort and boost loyalty by offer long-term value through scalable CX and both first-party and third-party ARM operations.

Their mission is to make lives better by engaging, listening, and resolving consumer concerns and obligations with empathy and innovation. And advocate for their clients brands and reputations as their own.

In this episode, Mario and Adrian chat through the Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback. Plus share some of the ideas that his team at InteLogix think through on a daily basis to build world class customer experiences.

**Episode #265 Highlight Reel:**

1. Focusing on building an elite Team above all else to drive success & growth
2. Solving problems for your customers & providing constant value 
3. Structuring & configuring your data before finding the optimal tech-solutions
4. Building & deploying living playbooks to propel your team forward rapidly
5. Taking customer data & feedback to drive product development

Click here to learn more about Mario Baddour

Click here to learn more about InteLogix

Huge thanks to Mario for coming on The CXChronicles Podcast and featuring his work and efforts in pushing the customer experience & customer contact space into the future.

For Apple & Spotify podcast listener friends, make sure you are following CXC & leave a 5 star review so we can find new members of the "CX Nation". 

You know what would be even better?

Go tell your friends or teammates about CXC's custom content, strategic partner solutions (Hubspot, Intercom, & Freshworks to name a few) & On-Demand services & invite them to join the CX Nation, a community of 15K+ customer focused business leaders!

Want to see how your customer experience compares to the world's top-performing customer focused companies? 

We launched CXC Healthzone, an intelligence platform that shares benchmarks & insights for how companies across the world are tackling The Four CX Pillars: Team, Tools, Process & Feedback & how they are building the pillars upon an AI-powered foundation for the future. 

Huge thanks for being apart of the "CX Nation" and helping customer focused business leaders across the world make happiness a habit!

Transcript

All right, guys.Thanks so much for listening to another episode of the CX Chronicles Podcast.I'm your host, Adrian Brady Cesana.Super, super excited for today's show, guys.We have an awesome guest.Mario Badour, uh, CEO of Interlogix is here on the show.Mario, say hello to the CX Nation, my friend.Adrian, thank you.Um, um, uh, hello to CX Nation and I'm, uh, super excited to be here.Um, although it's early morning for me in Utah, but I'm still, I'm still, uh, looking forward to this episode, and, um, uh, I, I can't wait to, uh, see what, uh, Adrian has for us here today.well, number one, number one, there's no way you got to where you are today-without being a little bit comfortable waking up bright and early and doing all the fun calls at all hours of the day.But never the less, super appreciative, Mario, I really am.I- I had such an awesome- our conversation the other week, man, you just left me with so many ideas, so many questions, so much more that I was pumped to jump back into today.But let's start off like we start off every one of the episodes, brother, I'm gonna give the microphone to you.Just spend like a minute or 2, um, before you got to the seat that you're in today as the president and the CEO of Interlogix, uh, Park City, you had all these ridiculously cool experiences.Spend just a couple minutes setting the stage for our- our audience and for our listeners.How'd you get into this world, man?How did you find yourself into this world?And- and- and how did you find yourself in the position that you're in today leading Interlogix?Look, um, um, thank you for the question.And I- I'll- I'll try to summarize it very quickly.You know, um, I wasn't supposed to be here.I went to architectural engineering school, and I had this dream to go build an airport or something, or design- design a museum, and just, uh, and just get rich and- and be out.So, that's what happens when you're 18 years old and eager and- and, uh- Hey man, that's okay to dream, baby.It's okay to dream.Uh- uh- uh, right?So anyways, halfway through my engineering school, I realized I needed to learn AutoCAD because that was, um, drafting everything manually wasn't gonna get me a job, and I needed to go learn, um, AutoCAD.At the time it was AutoCAD 13, so- so they're well beyond that right now.Anyways, long story short, I got this internship at Hewlett-Packard, and um, and uh, it was a fascinating company at the time.Um, and uh, I was very lucky to be part of a group, um, of- and a company that had a vision and, uh, was on the edge of technology, creating, inventing.I mean, I- I remember we were part of the team, um, talking about the first photo smart camera, the first digital camera ever released on the market at the time.So, there was a lot of great experiences that happened at HP.I spoke languages that helped me to, um, um, get into the customer service side of the business, um, as we built our first call center in Canada at the time.Um, as you know, Canada, um, ha- has, uh, regulations where you have to deliver services in- in both national languages, um, French and English.And um, um, that's how I got into the business, and uh, it evolved from there.I had the opportunity to, uh, meet, uh, great partners that we had.I eventually, um, uh, crossed over, uh, the fence to- um, to the BPO side or the vendor's side, the partner's side, and um, it was fascinating and- and I would never go back.I couldn't see myself going back at the time to a slower pace or- or a, um, you know, on the- on the client side, I've always thought we're, um, an inch wide and a mile deep.Uh, in- in BPO you're a- um, uh, a mile wild and- uh, wide and- uh, and a mile deep.Uh, you get to specialize in various industries.Yeah.You get to experience various industries.And- and, um, I spent, uh, the last, um, 20 years in BPO, uh, and I've been doing this for 25 years, so, um, um, so it's been great journey.Lived on 4 different continents as- as a- an expat.That's awesome.Engaged in, uh, uh, multiple- multiple, uh, countries.Um, um, probably worked over- in over 40 countries in total.Wow.Wow.Uh, it's been a great experience.And um, and uh, that led me to put it all together, package it all together and come and do something pretty magical here at Interlogix.That's fantastic, man.So, number one, um, 40 countries, man.Like I- I- I consider myself extremely fortunate because I'm coming up on 30 countries, traveled to, not worked in, right?So like- and then I got to be honest with you, Mario, I tell all of these incredible people like you, man, these incredible leaders and these- these guys and girls that are running some of these incredible companies, I don't know that there's a better form of education and learning and understanding and like connection than travel, brother.There's- there isn't.Like you go and see how different people live, how they eat, how they talk, how they- how they work, how they- how they socialize, man.That's a game changer.And then I- I gotta be honest with you, but I've always thought like with me, like maybe- maybe- maybe deep down part of why customer experience, working with customers, being able to- being able to, um, you know, manage up to- to- to executive teams, but then being excellent at managing down to- to all the guys and gals who gotta get shit done every damn day, I always attributed to like having the fortune of traveling and meeting all these people and then getting comfortable with uncomfortable and like stretching.Yeah, so that's- that's amazing, man.Super, super cool.Um, uh, uh, so- so thank you for sharing that.Let's- let's talk about Interlogix, man, 'cause I'm- I'm pumped to get into this.Let's jump into the first pillar of- of team.Spend a couple minutes talking about, number one, the team that you've put together and the team that you've built at- at Interlogix, and then I'd love for you to kind of get into just some of the things that, you know, as you were building the business and as you were really kind of pulling this amazing team together that you've- that you've built today, spend a few minutes just kind of talking about team, man, and spend a few minutes kind of talking about the Interlogix team to give our listeners for a sense for all the different, uh, players that you've put out on the pitch to- to- to bring your customer experiences every single day.Thank you, Adrian.I- I think, first of all, I mean, think that's a very important topic.Um, I, um, many-Many have various ideas in what does a CEO do, and, um, you can- uh, you can explore that topic for hours, but for me, it comes down to 2 very simple things, and I continue to learn and evolve as a leader, but- but that's what I know so far.Number one, 90% of es- of, uh, um, the value of the CEO is to be able to assemble a team, an effective team, period.You're not here because you know how to run the business.You- you- that's table stakes.You- you've loo- for sure, you know how to run the business.That's something that's given at this point.You've learned that, um, in various roles and- and var- and throughout your journey.But the ability to assemble a team and the ability to identify a team, um, is- is very critical, and as simple as it sounds, not many can do that.Not many can scout the talent required for the stage of the journey that the company's in, 'cause the company goes through various stages.Absolutely.Yep.Well said.And- and it's- it's- I- I- I like not to give this example because it's a little bit bold, it's a little bit rough, some- it rubs people the wrong way, but it's almost like trade day in- in- in NFL, where you're trading players, okay?Yep.And- and doesn't mean the player is no longer good.They're amazing.They're all great players.These are ama- this is an- an amazing talent you're dealing with, but the strategy for this team for this particular season may differ from last season;therefore, you need a different player on the team this year.Yep.Yep.Hence the trade.And- and, umYep, different chemistry, different- different- different interconnections, all that.There- there are- there are people that I have enjoyed working with, that I have learned so much from, but they simply weren't fit for a particular stage of the game that we were in, strategically, tactically, et cetera, and that's the hardest part.And how do you kinda not select these individuals?Or how do you part ways with these individuals?Or how do you shift them to a different role within the organization because they're no longer fit for that particular, um, uh, phase or stage of that- of that journey?So assembling a team was critical, and we can talk about this forever, but I'll- I'll n- net it to this.Interlogix was not Interlogix.The company, um, was, uh, incepted in 1968.Um, um, was a financial institution, a collection agency, for lack of a better world, uh, word, um, an- an agency that serviced government entities, uh, banks, financial- large financial institutions, and, um, student loans, et cetera, and that passed forward and- and became almost a- a billiondollar company in the '80s, okay?Uh, this was a very large organization, and then the world changed.Um, uh, technology changed.Um, when- when you're in the finance business, you are heavily regulated.Um, policies impact your business.Fast-forward to various administrations in- in recent years.Policies around collections changed.Reg F came into the business, into the industry, that regulated how you collect money and receivables.Um, you had, uh, student loans policies that changed.One administration said, "Let's not collect on student loans."Others said, "Let's collect differently," et cetera, about collect it captively in-house versus outsourcing it.So there was a lot of different dynamics in the marketplace that impacted this business.Fast-forward from 1968 to ni- uh, 2018 or so, this wasAnd then COVID happened.The- the asset was in distress, and there was a need.Uh, our investors and new investors saw this need to transform this business.Uh, there was a great talent in the company.Um, we had assets, facilities across this nation, and there was this need to go do something, um, very different with it.So if you takenot only cyber security, but also physical security.It's a platform that's enabled, that enables you to detect whether it's Mario behind a camera or Adrian behind a camera, and that's facial detection, right?You gotta have that.It's a platform that allows you to detect whether there's a, a, a cellphone or mobile next to you or not, um, whether you have a paper-free environment or not.Um, it's a platform that enables you to, um, do things that you used to do.You asked me, "What do you miss?"You used to listen to a call in the field and walk out to some- walk up to someone and say, "Adrian, that was an amazing call.Thank you."Yeah, yeah, yeah."You know, I'm inspired by hearing you talking."You'd tap them on the shoulder, you give them a w- w- wha- Walkin' the floor, baby.little reward.A- and, and you kindaThat, that cheering factor went away a little bit.Yeah.Yeah, yeah, yeah.Now, how do you replace it?How do you replace it?There are gamification platforms that you can embed into your technology today where you could do the same thing.You can, you can send someone a, a high five and a, and a, uh, certain point system through that gamification platform.And with some points, you can, uh, uh, turn them into real money and purchase something or buy something from the Interlogix store: apparels, et cetera.Uh, uh, tchotchkes, you know?Um, so, so that's, that's the kinda stuff that you could, uh, uh, y- you could do now to gamify and, and, uh, apply alternatives to what you had before when you used to be in the site.Um, talent management.We're dealing with people.Before, we used to go and ask someone to kinda join you on the side and have a conversation with them, from a human to another human- Yup, yup.apply a lot of empathy and say, "Look."Look them, look them in the eye and say, "Tell me, what, what's going on?What can I help you with?There's something off.You're not performing well.Let's just try to work out a plan together."How do you do that remotely?Well, there are platforms today that you can also, adjacencies and ancillaries, that you can attach to your tech to be able to do that and to collaborate.Um, so when I say work at home, no, this is not, "Let's VPN into the desktop," okay?Or into the network, or, or, "Let's remote desktop to another box in the, in the site from home."No, I'm talking about this entire ecosystem that gives you secure, a level of security, a level of performance management, a level of talent management, a level of, uh, rewards and recognition that you have to have to run an efficient operation.Because, at the end of the day, no matter what technology is here, we're still dealing with humans.yup.I couldn't agree more, man.I could not agree more.Um, one quick thing before we jump into, into, into, into tools.Um, man, what you just said is spot on.Like, I, I, I think the thing2 biggest things that I miss about, likeAnd don't get me wrong.We're still in a, uh, uh, uhYou know, here at CXC we're in a, we're in a hybrid role.We go to our customers, but a lot of times we're doing what me and you are doing right now, Mario, where we're talking on, on videos and we're doing working sessions, we're doing consultation, you know, through video with, with teams all across the world, which has become super-duper normal, right?Um, and frankly, COVID, for a business like CXC, I don't know that we'd be able to do this if COVID didn't truly normalize this.Because now everybody's used to seeing their teammates like this, right?Correct.And then every now and then, or hopefully you're working at a company where at least once a year or a couple times a year you still get to go in the flesh, 'cause nothing is better than when you get to go break bread with your team or break bread with your customers or have a beer, go watch a game, or, like, be humans, right?Like, not just work, work, work, work, work;be humans together, right?People like to work with people they like.the one, the one big thing that you just mentioned that I, I couldn't agree more: walking the floor, man.In our type of game, where you've got guys and gals that are talking to customers all damn day, messaging with customers all damn day, dealing with problems, let's call it what it is.Most customers don't call and say, "Mario, I just called to tell you I love you and you're amazing and everything you're pro-" No, no, no, no.The, like, our, our people that are here to take frontline support, usually shit breaks down or there's some consternation or there's an issue or there's aSo anyway, walking the floor for me, man, I'll never forget.Like, like, when you hear some of those incredible conversations or you see some guy or gal who's just an absolute all-star, high energy, justAlmost talking in a call center, as if that person's literally sitting at the opposite side of the desk from them and just killing it.I used to love hearing that and then being able to go commend it or, or celebrate it.used to love hearing that and then being able to go commend it or, or, or celebrate it.And then the other big thing I miss is, um, the water cooler stuff.Not everybody loves the water, misses the water cooler 'cause, let's call it what it is, there's a lot of bullshit conversations that happen at the water cooler.But for me, I remember some of the collisions, um, meaning you would beYou have t- 90 seconds to go from a conference room, go take a bio break, freshen up your coffee, hit the water cooler and go right back.But, uh, sometimes in those 90 seconds, you would bump into someone on the team thatLet's say that you're on sales, you'd go bump into an engineer friend.Or let's say that you're on the operative side, you'd go bump into one of your mar-And then, so like, in those little short collisions, right, being able to be like, "Hey man, I, I, I heard about this thing that you guys are working on, that's fucking brilliant."Like, like, so I miss those collisions and I know collisions are, I think, becoming a little bit more difficult because we have so much noise in the remote and the hybrid world, you kind of negate collisions, right?Negate, and the collisions are almost distractors, whereas in the real world, it wasn't that way.You'd bump into somebody in the team, whether you're the CEO or whether you're an entry level person, you go to fill up your water at the same time, there's gonna be a natural humanSo I miss that part.Adrian, there is a, um, there's a symbiotic relationship between what we do and what you just described.What do we do at the end of the day when we are helping assisting, um, customers?We are building a connection of some sort.You spend 8 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes on the phone with someone talking, whether it's about their private life, because you're building a healthcare plan with them to, to fit their needs and their illnesses, et cetera.Whether it's because you're, uh, setting up this amazing vacation that they have saved for all their lives, right?Uh, whether it's, um, um, uh, helping them pay a bill that's a utility bill that they can't afford, but you're trying to devise a plan with them on as to how to do that.You need the lights to stay on at home, or, or the heat to stay on, whatever.Um, so these are very meaningful connections that you have, not only you have to solve.Yeah, at the end of the day the end result is the metric, I guess, is, is the, first call resolution.The metric is the resolution to, to solve the problem.But bef- before you get into the metric, you're also building a connection.And, um, we can't today talk about work at home, and we have all the tools and the tech, if we forget the importance of connections.And I see it, and we have to practice it at all levels of the organization.Um, we alternate today, as an executive team, we have our E-team meetings virtually, but we, we make it a point, at least, um, once every 4 to 6 weeks, to schedule, ahead of time, the f- eh, e- an E-team session that's face to face in our headquarters, okay?Excellent.Um, and, and I will tell you the energy, uh, whether it's serotonin, whether it's dopamine, whatever you wanna call it, but, but that connection- Yep.and the fact that you're sitting next to each other.Yep.Um, that, that energy and the passion and the renewed energy that the team, um, uh, usually leaves with, it's worth every nickel, every penny for, uh, their, their travel and, and, and, uh, the cost to, to make these meetings happen.Uh, I would not replace them, I think it's important.Um, I do not, in our industry, believe in the old traditional headquarters, because, um, you need to force the executive team to meet, like I said, every, every now and then, and have these meetings not in a headquarters.Have these meetings in our facilities so, so the employees can see their leaders, can, can see us walking in, spending a day on the, in their site.Having, uh, that connection with them, having that interaction, interaction with them.And rotate, rotate different facilities, different sites and, and, um, get everybody to see you and everybody to, to get to know you.So, I think there's a lot of, uhUh, the industry evolved a lot.Uh, yes, um, fif- 1950s I think Coca-Cola started the concept of BPO, and it was simply, um, a labor arbitrage model augmenting resources.Sure, sure.Fa- fast forward, uh, now there's no such thing as a traditional BPO.A tech-enabled BPO is stable stakes- Yep.Yep.you have to have a tech-enabled.It's a, it's an investment grade platform.Yep.Um, and that, that's how you look at it, and, um, um, and, and, and I think, um, disruption is no longer operational.It's, uh, it's structural.It has to be part of your company.Uh, it has to be part of the foundation of the company.You have to be able to build a future-proof enterprise value as you do, as you enable tech, as you run this model the way I describedUm, I view it as a- an- you're increasing, you're cr- it's value creation to the asset, and you're, you're increasing your enterprise value overall when you do these things.100%, man.I couldn't agree more.Um, Mario, I'd love to talk about tools, man.So, number one, Interlogix has got a bunch of incredible tools and solutions that they, that they deliver to their customers every single day.But before even getting into that, with your background and all the companies that you've been a part of, and then being on all the different sides, right?You've seen, you've seen literally the whole, the whole 9 yards.Um, how do you kind of think aboutHow companies go about, number 1 and then, I love- and this is g- a cool one for you, man, because of what you had to do with Interlogix.But, like, some- so- some- some founders, CEOs, executives, they need to build a tech stack from scratch.It's a brand new thing.They get the benefit of being able to build from the foundation up and be strategic and thoughtful.Other executives have to come in and they've gotta do renovations and rehabs.They've got, they've gotta have a stadium built, they have to almost strip a stadium down, or they've gotta bring it down to the studs, bring it down to the- and then they gotta rebuild.I'd love to just kinda hear how you think about, um, number one, tech- tech stack, um, investment and tech stack construction.And then I'd love to think, 'cause you're smart and you're super mathematical and you're super, y- you think very, very pragmatically around this.And then, how have you kind of thought about, or how have you gotten better as you've gotten deeper in your career with, once the tech stack is built, or once the tech stack is given to one, how do you sort of think about tech stack optimization, and then how have you kind of gone about thinking about, how should some of tomorrow, some of the listeners today, how should they be thinking about tech stack utilization, and how should they be thinking about- like, and think- and think aboutMario, not- not all of our listeners are running big companies.A lot of these people are ru- are building tomorrow's leading companies, so they're small, they're scrappy.But, like, I- I- I'd love to kind of just understand how you think about tech stack construction and just general management, and then I'd love to think about, uh, hear how you've thought about or gotten better as you've gotten deeper into your career with tech stack utilization and making sure that you've got a lean, mean, understandable, comprehendible tech stack that everyone can show up to work and really kind of understand exactly what's expected of them from a tools usage perspective.thank you for that question, Adrian.That's, um, y- um, definitely another packed, uh, question with many topics-but le- let's see what we can pull out- We don't, we don't do-and, and deal out of it.We don't do the simple ones here, man.No, I'm kidding.I'm kidding.Uh, um, so, so- This is, this is a mixed space, you know?Yeah, no, I appreciate that.I love that you said renovation, because that touches on when we talked about teams.You definitely, you have assets where you have to build, you have assets where you have to renovate first, and then rebuild.Rebuild, not build, because it was already built.You're just renovating it.Um, um, uh, rebuilding it, and then growing it, and then continue to innovate so you can continue to grow it further, okay?And that's that journey of that whole value creation that I'm talking about.Um, you have to create a resilient, uh, cash flow, um, uh, asset.At- at the end of the day, cash is king, okay?Um, I've, um, I've always said, um, uh, revenue is vanity and margin is sanity at the end of the day, right?You can, you can grow a company all you want.I like it.If- if- if you don't, if you don't, um, if it's not EBITDA accretive or if it's not, uh, cash accretive, then- then- then the- the- there's no use for it, right?Especially in a business that, uh, that we are in where you're trying to, um, can continuously, um, compete by reducing your clients' total cost of ownership.So, so what does all that mean?It means you have to be very intentional when you bring tech.I mean, we have a cacophony of tech right now.Everybody talks AI, everybody's talking, um, various tools.And- and we have to be intentional.What are you trying to solve for?And- and are you ready to start bringing tech in, okay?Because whether it's generative AIWhether it's RPA, RPO robotics, whether it's generative AI, whether it's agentic AI, w- no matter how evolved your digital strategy, and at the end of the day, these are nothing but a very sophisticated code that answers certain questions or certain queries from a source.That well, if the water in that well is contaminated, if the source is no good, then no matter how sophisticated the code is- Yep.you're not gonna get the, uh, desired outcomes- Yeah, absolutely.that you want.Yep.I see, I see competitors, I see, uh, other leaders in the marketplace talking about the latest tech they got.But hold on a second, your source is still not structured.I encourage everyone to go build a data warehouse that's structured first.Structure your data so your source is well defined, and then bring the tech on, okay?Because you can't bring, pile on tech if your source is not structured, if your source is not good.So I think that's very foundational.You gottaAny company, any size, you have to think as to, before I go and, and build this facade that I have all this tech, do you really have a structured source first, and, and, and a good content first, right?Um, look, uh, um, uh, in layman's terms, I mean, you put, uh, uh- if you have, if you put crap in, you get crap out.That's, that's, that's really the, uh, that, that's in simple words what I'm trying to say here.Yeah.So, so- Yep.so make sure you have meaningful content and be intentional.Once you have that, then you s- kinda step back and say, "All right, now I got everything structured.What do I wanna get out of it?Do I want my tech to be, um, serving my team internally?"Yeah."Do I want my HR, democratize my HR and make, make the agents, um, have a self-serve platform?"If you want a letter of employment, you need to go and queue up behind the HR office, try to ask for an employment letter, or you can actually go on an app and get it yourself.Um, right?Because you wanna get a loan or w- whatever, whatever the need may be.Um, do you want your finance team to quit, um, uh, running spreadsheets and, and, and have a, um, AI-enabled platform that you can call out any report you want and customize it the way you want and pivot to any table you want in 2 seconds?Or, or, orSo there's a lot of internal digital strategies you can apply to, to, uh, extract capital from the field, reduce your cost, and, um, and, and, and allow you to be competitive, or you could have a different strategy.You could say, "My strategy, my AI strategy is very external.I want to make my client's life easier, and I want to focus, uh, intentionally on applications that will help me win business, um, and, and bring tech to my clients that, uh, potentially they are not aware of."Uh, or you could do both if- Yep.if you, if you can run- Yep.track one, track 2 at the same time.Yep.Okay?Yep.But you gotta decide, what are you doing?You can't just automate a spreadsheet internally then get an app to sell it to a client, then your content is not working.And, oh, by the way, um, all that AI you're buying, you're buying the cheapest license that's coming your way.And the license is so cheap, you're getting it for $2 versus $50 because that license is designed in a certain environment, in a certain geography where there's no regulations.And now you get into ethical AI and- Yep.the source is not- Yep.ethical.So, so, so the data could be compromised.Uh, uh, you could put your clients and your company at a cybersecurity risk because you bought a cheap license.I mean, there's- And, and we're seeing those stories.There's been a bunch, Mario, just the last couple weeks, man.There's a bunch of these stories of some of the leading AI building companies, having, risking their client's information or losing- 100%.their client's information orSo, like, you're spot on, man.Like when- And boards are held accountable.I mean, if you're a board member today, you, there is a whole new journey you have to go through and relearn as to, from a fiduciary standpoint- Yeah, interesting.how do you- Interesting.make decisions on approving- Yep.approving tech in a company that has an ethical, ethical source, because- Yeah.because then- Yeah, yeah.you're responsible if you're making these bad decisions as well.Yep.Super interesting.Um, Mario, I'd love, I'd love to jump into process.Um, and I know I always joke that this is the least sexy of the pillars, but it isn't.And then, as I was learning from you last week, man, and you were kinda talking through all ofJust the background of some of the businesses that you've been a part of building, growing, sp- you know, buying, selling.Process isn't unsexy.Process is oftentimes the glue and the rebar that then holds these things together.Um, throughout your career, man, how have you kind of thought about, number one, wrangling process and/or how have you thought about the expectations that you've set for your extended leadership team?'Cause I understand CE- CEO seat is different, man.Like, there's a lot of things going on, and you've got to trust the guys and the gals that you put in key seats to get shit done.I understand that.But as you've gotten deeper and deeper into your career and as you've seen more and more and more and like, dude, you've been a part of some huge deals and you'veAnd then on the private equity side of things, like you understand, uhUh, folks that don't understand a lot about private equity, I, I, I, I, I urge them to stop and pause at this part of the episode just go learn a little bit about it.I'm not saying you gotta get into it, I'm not saying you gotta do anything about it, me and you were laughing the other day, we know a lot of smart people that don't know anything about private equity.We know super rich people that don'tWell, that's not true, 'cause once people get rich, they know.They start to learn about private equity, butUm, what has been your playbook, man?Like, how have you kind of wrangled process?How have you thought about sort of your Mario living playbook as you got deeper and deeper and deeper into your career?How do youUh, what are the, some of the important things that you mandate with your extended leadership team or with your executive leadership team?And then what are some of, like, the tricks or the tipsthat you've got for some of our listeners today, they're gonna be tomorrow's leaders, when it comes to process and things that they should be thinking about, things that shou- they should be thoughtful and maybe things that they shou- where areas that should be flexible and areas that they should be a bit more draconian.I'd love to just kind of hear you talk about process for a few minutes.Yeah, Adrian, uh, I think that's very important.When I talk about we're building an investment-grade platform, what does that mean?I mean, you- you- it's beyond the words here.We're building a, um, a- an investment-grade platform for me, which what Interlogix is, it's an asset that's at the end of the day is and will remain and will continue to be highly interesting for investors.This is the business that we're in.This isn't a charity at the end of the day.So we're all in this to- to actually create value.Um, um, and- and value creation for financial investors, um, e- and strategic investors has to be, um, a- an asset that is resilient in cash flow, that's scalable, um, that has the ability to continue to- to grow and the ability to continue to, um,improve on value creation.Okay?None of that happens without process.Uh, I- a process is the backbone of any operating business.You have to follow process.Otherwise, it's the- the- the land of misfit toys, okay?Everybody's doing their own thing.Um, and- and, uh, what do- what do- what do- what does that mean?It means consistency.It means, um, you have to build a process that ensures outcomes aren't dependent on humans, on individual heroics, I guess, for lack of better words.Um, when someone tells me, "This department will fail if I'm not here," well, you already failed.If you built a department- Yeah.that basically is 100% dependent on you as a person- Yep.Yep.you've already failed.So- You failed.Yep.So- so- so- so might as well talk about this right now, because the- the failure just happened already, okay?If you're admitting this.Every- every client interaction, every workflow runs- has to run predictably.Okay?We can't be, especially with the tech that we talked about, especially with AI, um, I mean, prediction in AI is the infancy of AI.It's so passe at this point.Uh, AI has evolved from, it used to be prediction, it evolved to idea creation, and now it has evolved even further to decision-making and strategy, and that's the agentic phase.Okay?So if we're still talking about a model that's not predictable in a world of AI where predictability was the- the infancy stage of AI, like 3, 4 years ago, then- then we definitely have a problem.So the company has- process is important so we can deliver consistency.Process is also important because, um, you- you have to deliver scalability through process.Without strong process, growth, in my opinion, multiplies chaos.Because if you don't have predictability and a consistent process, you have a chaotic, uh, environment in the company, and you could grow, but as you grow, you're multiplying chaos even further.And- and- and that's why process is important, to scale also, scale quickly and deliver predictable results.Also, process is important, in my opinion, uh, because we learned it during COVID, it gives you resilience.Uh, in disruption time, um, w- what we all lived during the COVID pandemic, uh, and we continue to live with tech shifting in different, different ways, um, process keeps operations stable and recoverable.So it builds resiliency.So not only it gives you consistency, it allows you to scale, but it also gives you the resiliency that's needed to operate a business, uh, in any, uh, uh, in any kind of times that, that, uh, we, we experience.And all that, Adrian, is value creation.I go back to value creations.Investors and clients don't, don't just look at the top line growth.They, they want operational discipline and operational excellence.And you know what?This is where we, um, coined the term, um, nothing sells better than operational excellence, and that comes through the process, disciplines that I just talked about.I love it.Mario, I love it.You know, recently, I was listening to, um, an episode of 20VC with Harry Stubbings, and he had the, he had the Databricks CRO Ron Gabrisco on, and this dude was awesome.And guys, I'll put this in the show notes, but like, Ron talked about, Mario, what you just said.Harry asked a very simple question.He's like, "How did you"'Cause, uh, for folks that don't know Databricks, right, they went from like $0 to 3.7 billion in revenue in a very short period of time.And Harry asked a simple question, similar to what I just asked Mario, um, "Ron, how did you kind of build this playbook?"And he had a, itso everything you just said, consistency, predictability, um, the- Resilience.re- resi- and then the, and then the, and then to your, you just said this, the value being baked within that, and then he brought it one step further, he said, "If I can't build a playbook that I know unequivocally I can then go and hire my first and then my tenth and then maybe even my fiftieth one million dollar a year sales rep, then I'm doing a shit job."Because if I'm go- if I, if I understand everything that Mario just laid out for us, guys, and guys, every one of our businesses is different, right?So like, Mario's different variables with Interlogix are gonna be different than Databricks, are gonna be different than CXChronicles, are gonna be different than Coca-Cola.But what Mario just said, guys, spot on.We're like, there has to be some point in the process where this stuff is laid out in a way where any, um, you know, excellent guy or gal can pick that up, understand it, maybeand then over time, it is okay to make, to, to start toI- we at CXC, Mario, we build living playbooks for our clients because they should be living.Every at bat that you have with a customer, every at bat that you have with a lead, every at bat that you have with a partner, you're gonna learnif you're doing your job well, you're listening, you're learning, you're pitching, you're pivoting.So living playbut like, I think it's fascinating how many companies, you know, we come across.There's almost like a devaluation of this, Mario, and I, and I just think that we're in a world now whereand then you layer AI on top of that, shit, like this is like, thinking about how your playbooks and how your processes are going to be written and challenging your executive team to make sure that they've got a badass playbook ready to deploy to their sales, their marketing, their operative, their engineering team, that's gonna be a big part of it.Um, Mario, let's jump into the fourth and the final pillar of feedback, my friend.Um, this is an interesting one for you, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna kind of, I'm gonna tee this one up to you to be able to kind of, um, talk through the different areas that you guys have to think about at Interlogix.But say, simply, what are some of the ways that you guys are always asking for or leveraging your customer feedback, and then what are some of the ways that you're always asking and leveraging for your employer and your partner feedback?I'd love for you to, to kind of close up today's episode, just kind of spend a couple minutes, what are some of the things that have worked really well for you in your career with making sure that you can take feedback, convert it into actionable calls to action or actionable steps, and then most importantly, turn that into money-making, turn that into retention, turn that into time, into time to value?Some of the stuff that we know that is critical on a, you knowUm, yeah.That's, that's, that's another great question, too, Adrian.I, umone of the fundamentals of marketing, they, they teach you that in, in the first hour of, uh, marketing class, is before you get into how you market a product and, and, um, and how you design th- the label or the, the packaging or how the product should work and all, all that kind of stuff, you have to get into identifying the product, first of all.What pr- what's the product?How do you identify a product?In any business, like even at Interlogix, how do we identify a product today?We have to go and identify a need.No product exists in the market today if you don't understand what the market need is.So you have to go and identify the need.Once the need is identified, you start designing the product, and then, and then you have ayou start ideating, uh, on the whiteboard and coming up with a product.So back to your question, how do you guys take feedback?Feedback is the backbone of everything we do with our clients.We want to sit with our clients in quarterly business reviews and monthly business reviews, and, and, and, uhand I, by the way, I'm not a fan of these meetings because they've been the same since the '90s.You go in and you start going through scorecards.It's a, it's a compliance meeting, it's not necessarily a business review meeting.Some clients, I won't, um, say everyone, but some clients are highly sophisticated that their quarterly business review is, "I don't really care about your KPIs.I see them every day."Yeah, yeah."I have access to your report."Yeah, yeah."Let's sit and talk-" Yep.about the top 10 reasons why my clients are calling your call center."Yeah.Yeah, yeah.And let's ideate around how do we reduce that or how do we solve for that?How do we evolve beyond that?"That, for me-is usually an awesome business review, where you can actually put people with various walks of life, from various experiences, um, into one room and try to ideate and solve.And that's how a product usually is born, because- Yeah.and a product in our industry may not beor at Intologix may not be a, a, a, a tangible product.It could be a process, right?Yeah.We just talked about processes.It could be a certain service.Uh, so real-time surveys.I call these real-time surveys.When you talk to clients, when you check in and ask the right questions, um, give you that kind of, um, pulse check and, and, and, um, insight as to what you need to go build.And by the way, then you get into tech again.Before, we used to have these quality analysts that we hire, and they will go and survey 8, 10% sample size of all the volume that we handle.And you have a subjective person using whether, you know, you're relying on their knowledge and how they feel today- Yeah.and they will have to kind of score that particular, uh, c- call and come up with analysis on how, um, that call went and how, umwhat the problem was.put all that aside right now.You got AI on your platform, a platform that's digitally enabled.Every single call is surveyed.You have telemetry coming in from 100% of your calls, crunched and analyzed in real time, and then, as an operator, you get real insights with scientific, um, uh, evidence as to what the problem is.So, so take that as a feedback, right?And then what do you do with that now?You know?So, so- I like how you- I like how you say that, "Take that as a feed-" Like, it's all right there.Yeah.All of it's right there.It's right in front of you, and right now, it allows you to be present, it allows you to be innovative, it allows you to put your entire energy and effort on actually ideating and coming up with an awesome product to solve for the, the, the, um, issue at hand that was given to you, that's scientifically backed, um, through the data and the analysis that an AI-driven sentiment, uh, platform, uh, uh, furn- furnishedyou with.That, before, wasn't available to us.The sample size was not enough.There was always that margin of error because of the, um, uh, uh, minimal sample size.Plus, you had a lot of subjectivity in it.So oftentimes, companies in this space would go and solve and cure a problem that's not a problem to begin with, and you spend a lot of money doing it, right?And then you bring the consultants to try to kind of augment that problem even further.So, so now, eh, we have scientific analysis, um, uh, that's backed by an AI-driven platform that gives you exactly the issues, uh, exposes the issues, and, uh, you just have to go and truly analyze them and ideate and, and solve for them.Uh, most importantly, at the end, um, we talked about different various ways of gaining feedback, Adrian.Closed loop feedback is the most important.Absolutely.We don't just wanna collect feedback.Absolutely.Absolutely.We wanna act on it and show what has changed- Yup.put it back in the curriculum so you can- Yup.train on it so it doesn't happen again.A 100 uh, Mario, there's been so many clients we've worked with that, "Hey, we need help with auditing our NPS, CSAC, customer effort scoring, product satisfaction," whatever the hell, ENPI, whatever they're trying to do.And the first question is excellent.What are we gonna do with it?What are you gonna do with it?Where, uh, wh- how are we going to be able to create a loop?So that if we're gonna go out there and help you fetch a bunch of stuff, because it makes it worse.If you could go get a million survey reviews tomorrow, guys, if you don't have any type of loop strategy around acknowledging we received it, here's what we're gonna do about it.And then the segmentation piece that happens behind the scenes of when and where and how somebody literally comes back to you.Whether it's an automated message, if it's, if it's the easy, breezy, low severity shit, or whether it's literally a director or vice president calling a customer back if it's high severity, and it's like, "Holy shit.This is, this is churn land world right here."Like, somebody's got to reach out immediately.Um, I love that, Mario.And the last- And Adrian, that's all external.But you know who your real sensors also, uh, are?The, the, the, the employees are the sensors on the ground.Top liners.100%, man.100%.Right?Yeah, yeah.I mean, I mean, if you're not listening to them, if we're not listening to them, we're blind.Absolutely.I love getting emails from employees.And, and I will go on record here in public to say I act on them and my team knows that.The employees know that.Yep, yep.Um, uh, you can't react on every single email you get, but, but for me, there's no, uh, smoke without fire.So you gotta- Yes.EveryThe, e- For that email to come your way, someone took their time after a lot of, uh, sadness- Concentration.pain, challenges.Concentration.Yes.They did that phone call- Yes.50 times to have the nuts to call Mario and say, "Dude, this is your company, bro.""What's go- I've seen this 50 times."And, um, I couldn't, I couldn't agree with that more.And then the last part too is just like, there's validation that comes from the front line.I can't tell you how many times we'll start the conversation with a vice president or a senior director, and then as we start to put together the, the task force of the guys and gals that's gonna unpack what that journey concentration points are, you get to those, that front line and you s- and you get to ple- One of my favorite parts of this job, brother, this is why I keep doing this, you get to the front line and you find some b- some awesome A player who's been doing this shit, you know, 100 calls a day for 7 years.They know the system, they know the journey, they know what customers love, they knowYou start there, or I oftentimes start there, because they're gonna be validators and then m- almost 95% of the time before some consultant can give a CEO top 3 possibilities or top 3 probabilities or top 3 opportunities.Your A player on the front line already knows, knows what those are.You don't need to give McKinsey The, the, the feedback is, is the raw material or the raw data for innovation at the end of the day.Uh, that literally, that, w- They know firsthand what's happening.Yeah.They're your eyes and ears and, and they're listening to, uh, how the prod- um, what the customers are saying, how the product is behaving and how the, how, um, all the defects in the product, et cetera.And, and you ought to hear them out and, and, and you know, be able to filter as to what's real, what's not.But that's where the, that's where the raw data for innovation is, in my opinion.Love it, man.Um, Mario, this has been absolutely fantastic, brother.I'm super duper appreciative of you coming on the CX Chronicles podcast, sharing your story, sharing the story of Interlogix.I hope this is the, uh, the first of many, my friend.Before I let you go, uh, where can people get in touch with you or your team at Interlogix if they wanna learn more about what you guys are doing or if they want to learn more about the incredible stuff that you guys are putting out there into the world every single day?Look, um, uh, interlogix.com, www.interlogix.com.That's our website.And, um, it's pretty straightforward.You can, um, um, to us through our website.You can email me directly, mario.baddour@interlogix.com.And, um, um, um, we're, we're there for you.So, um, thanks Adrian for today's, um, interaction.I enjoyed it and hopefully we'll do more of these.Awesome.Thank you so much, Mario.I appreciate it.Thank you.Take care.Have a great day.