Marginally Better S01E03 The Experience Revolution: From Broken Systems to Billion-Dollar Opportunities

June 25, 2025
Marginally Better, Podcast
12 min read

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 delicate balance between UX and CX are redefining what it means to serve customers in the digital age. From Fortune 500 companies ignoring basic accessibility to New York’s bold move toward citizen-centric design, this episode offers powerful lessons on why designing for everyone isn’t just good ethics—it’s good business.

Episode Links:

Additional Resources:

Transcript:

[00:00:05] Announcer: From the global headquarters of Johns & Taylor in beautiful New Jersey, it’s Marginally Better. Here’s your host, Joe Taylor, Jr.  

[00:00:17] Joe Taylor, Jr.: On the show this week, we’re diving into the accessibility revolution that’s not just changing lives, but creating massive business opportunities. There’s a huge market for accessible web services, and yet 94% of Fortune 500 companies are completely ignoring it.  

[00:00:36] Plus New York just did something no state has ever done. Their new chief customer experience officer is treating the Empire State a little more like a startup, and the results are exciting.  

[00:00:48] And we’ll explore the great experience divide where brilliant user interfaces meet catastrophic customer service. 

[00:00:57] That’s all coming up after the break on Marginally Better. 

[00:01:05] Welcome to Marginally Better, a show about business, innovation and the American economy. I’m Joe Taylor, Jr.  

[00:01:15] Picture this, there’s a market worth as much as $13 trillion, just hiding. And yet, 94% of the world’s biggest companies are completely ignoring it. We’re not talking about cryptocurrency. We’re not talking about artificial intelligence. We’re talking about people with disabilities who control nearly $2 trillion in annual spending power. Now the numbers vary depending on how disability is defined, but they’re massive regardless.  

[00:01:50] The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 billion people around the world experience significant disability. In some places that’s as much as 16% of the population. The Return on Disability Report uses an even broader definition, and that includes temporary and situational disabilities. They get to a number that’s closer to 1.85 billion people. And when you include their families, friends and colleagues, who influence spending decisions, that market grows even higher. 

[00:02:26] And that’s where we get $13 trillion. Now we, that’s a possibly completely made-up number. But it really just shows you that, if you think about it, this is a market that’s potentially larger than the entire economies of China and the European Union combined.  

[00:02:46] So let’s meet Margaret, a 78-year-old grandmother with declining vision, trying to order groceries online. The text is tiny, the contrast is poor, the navigation is a maze. And after 45 minutes of struggle, she gives up frustrated, empty handed.  

[00:03:07] I want you to imagine Sarah who faces the same visual challenges, but encounters a website with adjustable text, high contrast colors, and screen reader compatibility. She can complete her order in under five minutes.  

[00:03:23] This isn’t just about accessibility, it’s about universal design that helps everyone. The same features that help Margaret can also help a parent shopping while holding a crying baby, someone with a migraine who’s just trying to read, or anyone using a typical smartphone in bright sunlight. 

[00:03:47] Target learned this lesson the hard way. In 2006, they faced a major lawsuit for website inaccessibility. The cost millions of dollars in legal fees, plus a complete e-commerce platform overhaul. But here’s the twist, the accessibility improvements didn’t just help disabled users. They enhanced the shopping experience for everyone, leading to increased sales and customer satisfaction. 

[00:04:17] Under James Green’s leadership at Chase Bank, the company has embraced a philosophy that accessibility is not just about meeting compliance standards, but about creating seamless and efficient experiences for everyone. That’s a phrase that they used in their award-winning approach to inclusive banking design. 

[00:04:40] Baymard Institute has put out some research recently. It reveals that 94% of top grossing e-commerce sites fail basic accessibility tests. We’re talking about billion-dollar companies with massive budgets. And 82% of these websites have image issues. 73% have link problems. 58% have problems with their form fields. 

[00:05:07] These are not small startups that are just struggling to ship a website, these are giants. These are the places that we bank with and shop with daily.  

[00:05:20] Now, if you are in this situation and trying to think about your own business or thinking about somebody that you’re working with, here is something to think about to close the deal. Every dollar invested in accessibility returns a hundred dollars in value over time. Companies that embrace accessibility aren’t just doing good. They’re accessing untapped markets, they’re avoiding costly lawsuits, and they’re creating better experiences for all of their customers. The question isn’t whether you can afford to make your business accessible, it’s whether you can afford not to. 

[00:06:05] After the break, what happens when your state government acts like a startup? I. It’s Marginally Better. 

[00:06:16] It is Marginally Better, I’m Joe Taylor, Jr.  

[00:06:24] In October 2023, something unprecedented happened in American government. New York appointed the nation’s first governor level chief customer experience officer. Tanya Webster, with more than 20 years transforming customer experiences at Blue Cross Blue Shield, Comcast and Citigroup, faced her biggest challenge; fixing how 20 million New Yorkers interact with their state government.  

[00:06:53] Governor Kathy Hochul’s vision was bold, as she stated in the October 2023 press release announcing the appointment. Her quote, “obtaining a service or benefit from a government agency does not have to be challenging, painful, or frustrating.” 

[00:07:10] But Webster discovered a familiar corporate nightmare playing out in the background. Citizens weren’t dealing with New York state, they were ping ponging between more than 50 separate agencies each with different systems, processes, and customer service standards. Getting a driver’s license, applying for health benefits, filing taxes. These all feel like dealing with completely different companies that happen to share a name.  

[00:07:41] “How customers interact with us shouldn’t be agency by agency,” Webster explained in a November 2023 interview with CX Dive. And her quote, “but really based on you as a customer, what you need.”  

[00:07:57] Webster built her approach on five pillars; treating government like a unified company rather than a collection of departments. 

[00:08:06] First, removing unnecessary steps that waste citizens’ time because time is money, especially for working families who can’t afford to take days off for government appointments.  

[00:08:19] Second, citizens expect Amazon level experiences from government, Webster’s team integrated AI, chat capabilities and auto enrollment systems across agencies. 

[00:08:32] And third, ensuring services work regardless of location, income, or disability status; digital equity as a government responsibility. And the results speak for themselves. The state direct file tax pilot achieved a 95% satisfaction rate. That’s better than most private companies. The division of minority and woman-owned business development eliminated a years long application backlog. Thousands more New Yorkers gained access to DMV and Health Department services through new technologies.  

[00:09:08] But the most dramatic proof came from unexpected places. Remember United Airlines huge stock drop after the whole United Breaks Guitars incident many years ago? That’s the power of customer experience in the social media age. It’s become the textbook example.  

[00:09:29] Webster understood that every frustrated citizen could become a viral story. But more importantly, every satisfied citizen becomes an advocate for effective government. “Public and private chief customer experience roles are fundamentally similar because they have a common thread – customers.” 

[00:09:48] That’s a quote from Webster’s interview with CX Dive in 2023. It also continues, “but public roles bring unique considerations. Leaders have to contend with outdated legislation, legacy technology systems, and complex data sets and siloed processes.” The irony, government is often held to higher standards than private companies, but with fewer resources and more constraints. 

[00:10:18] Webster’s bridging that gap by applying corporate discipline to public service. Other states are watching. Nations are studying New York’s model. Webster isn’t just transforming how New York works, she’s pioneering a new approach to government that puts citizens first. The question isn’t whether other states will follow, but how quickly they can catch up. 

[00:10:42] After the break, the great experience divide. When UX meets CX and everything goes wrong. 

[00:10:54] It is Marginally Better. I’m Joe Taylor, Jr.  

[00:11:01] Here’s a distinction, user experience, UX, is about making individual interactions work, like a website form or a mobile application. Customer experience, CX, is about the entire relationship over time. Think of UX as designing a great restaurant meal. CX is ensuring customers want to come back, recommend you to friends, and become loyal advocates. The Nielsen Norman Group puts it simply. CX is UX over long periods of time.  

[00:11:42] Barbara’s Amazon Order shows how even tech giants can fail at CX. She was mysteriously charged $7,999 in shipping for a simple toilet paper order. Amazon’s platform worked perfectly. She could browse, order and track her purchase – very good ux. But when she contacted customer service about the astronomical shipping charge, representatives repeatedly told her it was a third-party seller problem and they refused to take responsibility. For months, Amazon’s customer service reps passed her between departments each claiming they couldn’t help. The company’s technical systems functioned flawlessly, but their customer experience philosophy involving hiding behind technicalities, avoiding accountability, and leaning on whatever data a third party seller had entered into the platform, nearly destroyed that customer relationship. Only after Barbara contacted her local TV station and story went viral, did Amazon finally act. Two and a half months later, she was reimbursed. Their platform had worked perfectly. Very good UX in the moment, but their CX broke down.  

[00:13:02] Let’s shift gears and take to the skies. Hasan Syed’s 2013 experience with British Airways perfectly illustrates how good UX can coexist with terrible CX. The airline’s website worked perfectly. Again, he could book flights, he could check in online, he could track his journey. But when BA lost his father’s luggage, the CX became his nightmare. After hours of unproductive customer service calls, Syed took an unusual step. He paid to promote a tweet that simply read, ‘Don’t Fly British Airways. They’re customer service is horrendous.’ That promoted Tweet reached 76,000 users, bridge Airways, took eight hours to respond. Now that’s plenty of time for the complaint to go viral and generate even more widespread negative publicity. 

[00:14:00] The lesson BA’s digital infrastructure worked fine, but their customer experience, which at the time involved slow response times, poor luggage handling, inadequate service recovery, turned what would’ve been a routine travel problem into a public relations disaster.  

[00:14:20] Here’s one more example. Virgin Media’s 2013 billing disaster. It chose how automated systems can create human nightmares. When a customer passed away, his bank properly notified Virgin Media that the account holder was deceased, and direct debit payments would stop. But Virgin’s automated billing system was only able to record payment failed, and it started adding a 10 pound late payment charge to that deceased customer’s final bill. The bill notation read direct debit denied payer deceased, followed by the late fee. The customer’s son-in-law, Jim Boyden posted the bill on Facebook with this message. “Dear Virgin Media, I’m really sorry for my father-in-law not paying his bill last month, but what with him being dead and all, it’s probably slipped his mind.” The post went viral, shared over 90,000 times. Virgin Media’s response was swift and comprehensive. They immediately closed the account. They removed all charges. Most importantly, they redesigned their automated billing system so it could flag deceased customer notifications and route them to a specialized team. 

[00:15:34] So here’s the lesson for businesses: automation and systems, they can save money but they need human oversight, especially for sensitive situations. Virgin learned to build more empathy into the design of their systems. When certain keywords appear humans have to take over. Your automated processes should have similar safeguards. 

[00:15:58] Now, here’s the success formula that I talk about with our clients at Johns & Taylor. Companies that get both UX and CX right understand that they’re designing for the entire journey, not just individual touchpoints. They know that in our connected world, every bad experience can become a viral story. But more importantly, every great experience creates advocates who drive business growth. 

[00:16:26] The lesson? You can have the most beautiful functional interface in the world, but if your customer experience is broken, you are one viral moment away from disaster. The companies that thrive aren’t just making things that work, they’re making customers feel valued throughout their entire relationship. In the age of social media, customer experience isn’t just a department, it’s your brand’s survival strategy.  

[00:16:52] From the $13 trillion accessibility market to New York’s government revolution, to the viral failures that cost companies millions. One truth emerges, customer experience isn’t optional anymore. It’s the difference between growth and irrelevance, between loyal advocates and viral disasters.  

[00:17:13] The companies and organizations that win aren’t just thinking marginally better, they’re thinking fundamentally different. They’re designing for every. Everyone organizing around citizens rather than systems, and understanding that every interaction is an opportunity to build trust or to destroy it. 

[00:17:32] The question isn’t whether you can afford to prioritize experience, it’s whether you can afford not to.  

[00:17:40] Thanks for listening to Marginally Better. If you like what you heard, please help us out. Leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts. It will help us spread the word about the show to people just like you, who care deeply about great customer experiences. 

[00:17:54] If you wanna get behind the scenes notes from me and the rest of the team, and you wanna get the show notes that include all of the citations for all of the studies and data that we pointed at during this episode, go to marginallybettershow.com or follow the link in our show notes.  

[00:18:10] Marginally Better is a Calufrax radio production. Our producer is Nicole Hubbard with research by Connie Evans. I’m Joe Taylor, Jr.  

[00:18:18] Calufrax… mean little planet. 

After a decade in broadcast media, Joe developed early online platforms for NPR, PBS, and AOL. Today, he helps our clients tell compelling brand stories through audio, visuals, and software.

You may also like

Get Expert Website Help