In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews author Temma Frank, who wrote People Shock: The Path to Profits When Customers Rule. Frank shares a pivotal story from 2001 when her company Web Mystery Shoppers accidentally flooded 600+ customers with duplicate emails due to a looping system. When her five‑year‑old daughter suggested calling each person to apologize, Frank did so, discovering that even angry customers were willing to help. The anecdote illustrates the power of personal, human connection and owning mistakes. Frank then explains why customer experience (CX) is a win‑win: it creates happier customers, more satisfied employees, and higher profitability by exposing inefficiencies. She advises business leaders to regularly talk directly to customers and prospects, asking tough questions like “Why would you leave us?” and truly listening. Reflecting on early sales attempts, she notes that logic alone doesn’t sell; an emotional story that resonates with the buyer’s frustration must precede rational arguments. For personal fulfillment, she says happiness comes from balancing personal enjoyment with helping others. Drawing on Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive, she emphasizes managing people by leveraging strengths rather than fixing weaknesses. Her favorite writing principle comes from Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style: “Omit needless words,” a rule she applies to all communication. The episode closes with Frank’s online presence: frankreactions.com, LinkedIn @temafrank, Twitter @temafrank, and a Facebook page.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
¡Hola!
¿Cómo estás? All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Temma Frank with us. She's the author of People Shock: The Path to Profits When Customers Rule. So welcome to the show.
Thank you. It's great to be here.
Of course. Thanks for joining us, and we'll dive in. The first question that I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, for me, I think it was, I had started a business in 2001 called Web Mystery Shoppers. So it was an internet-based business and I had moved to a new location and we knew that the site was gonna have to be down for a couple of days. And so my tech guys had said, no problem, we'll just send an email to the 600 and something people in your database to let them know. And then I started getting phone calls from people saying, why are you bombarding me with email? And it turned out there was a loop in their system. So the first person got theirs. Then when the second one went out, the first person got two and so on and so on to the point where we were flooding email boxes. And I thought, oh great, I'm running a business where I'm supposed to be telling people how to be better on the web. And we've just messed up this badly. And I figured it was the end of my business. And my 5-year-old daughter, I had a home office and she wandered in and asked what was, wrong. And so I tried to explain to her. And she said, why don't you just call them all and tell them you're sorry? And at first, I was gonna say, I can't call 600 people. And then I realized, of course I can. And so we started phoning my— the IT guy and I, everybody on that list. And what I discovered was, first of all, even the people who were threatening to sue originally ended up offering to help us make those calls. So, what I learned is ultimately talking to people and making that human personal connection and owning up to mistakes makes a huge, huge difference. Be human and accept that you're human.
And what's the most valuable piece of information that we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, I work with helping organizations improve customer experience. And I think the most valuable piece of information is is that customer experience makes life better for everybody. It means happier customers, but also happier employees and a more profitable company, because by making things better for customers, you're also invariably finding ways to make your systems more efficient and to grow.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, and not necessarily industry-specific?
My best piece of overall business advice is just get out there and talk with your customers and prospects. And ask really tough questions like, if you were to leave our company, why might you do that? And then really listen to what they're telling you.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
It would be don't expect that logic alone will be enough to sell your products or services. I mean, when I was selling web mystery shoppers in 2001, trying, you know, and it was logical to me, you're putting all this effort into trying to get people to your website. Of course you want to make your website effective at converting them. And people didn't get it because it was too early for the market. Now, I would approach it with an emotional story first about the frustrations of someone using their site. And then I would use the logic to back up why it was important. But fundamentally, I thought sales was all about logic and it really isn't.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
I think it's about finding a good blend of things that you enjoy personally. As well as ways that you can help others. I don't think full happiness is attainable just doing one or the other. You need both.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I think Peter Drucker wrote a book back in the 1950s, I think, called "The Effective Executive." And you have to get over the fact that he's always talking in the word "he" rather than gender neutral, but that was the time. But the main message from that book was that when you're managing people, you want to build on their strengths instead of trying to change their weaknesses. If you're just trying to change their weaknesses, you're not going to succeed. Whereas if you instead, as a manager, try and shape the job structure so that you can really leverage each person's strengths, it'll be way more successful.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
You know, I thought about this because I'm not really an inspirational quote kind of person. And when I think about the quote that I've probably used the most, it's from another book that I highly recommend by Strunk and White called— oh God, I'm blocking on the name of it. Anyway, it's about writing and writing well. And their big thing was omit needless words. So whenever I'm writing, I take that to heart. I reread and think, do I need that word? Or do I need that 3-syllable word? Can I replace it with a 1-syllable word?
Yes, I love that. Thank you so much for coming on, Temma. The last question that I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Well, there are a few places they can obviously visit frankreactions.com and find out a lot about me there. And also I'm available on LinkedIn, so it's @temafrank on LinkedIn or Twitter. It's just @temafrank. Or there is a Frank Reactions Facebook page and I'd love to hear from your listeners.
Perfect. Thank you again. We really appreciate you coming on.
Thank you. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.
