Journey Mapping Consultants

Jim Tincher

Mapper-in-Chief

Meet Journey Mapper Jim Tincher.

Jim is our Mapper-in-Chief and lead consultant. Jim sees the world in a special way: through the eyes of customers.

With a lifelong passion for customer experience, Jim founded Heart of the Customer to help companies of all sizes increase customer engagement. Before launching the company, Jim led customer engagement initiatives at Best Buy, Gallup and UnitedHealth Group. In the process, he became an expert in using Voice of the Customer research to identify unmet needs, develop new products and improve customer service. His Heart of the Customer Journey Maps™ are a powerful tool designed with one simple goal: customer loyalty. Customers ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies use his processes to improve customer-focused results.

His fascination with customer experience led him to test himself by becoming a Certified Customer Experience Professional, only the second in the world to earn such a designation. He also has served as an adjunct instructor at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He is an active member of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), serving as one of their CX Experts, providing advice to members worldwide. Jim was named one of Feedbackly’s “10 Biggest Influencers in Customer Experience Around the World” and was featured in “9 Customer Experience Influencers to Start Following Now” by Influencer Marketing.

Jim leads a team of CX experts that can transform your business.

- - - Map your customer journeys from emotional highs to frustrating lows
    - Determine the Metrics that Matter for measuring your unique customer relationships
    - Lead workshops to help your teams walk in your customers’ shoes

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Our Clients

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The Heart of the Customer Team

Kathleen Hoski

Lead Consultant

Kathleen’s career has been driven by a passion to help companies create value by being customer experience-focused. She has built and led insights teams, and has worked as an internal customer/user experience consultant and leader for Hewlett Packard and Best Buy. Her accomplishments include envisioning and conducting pioneering multi-channel customer experience journey studies.

As a social/cultural anthropologist, Kathleen is passionate about helping our clients develop a holistic view of their customers’ experiences. Our clients appreciate her not only for her research expertise but also for being a collaborative partner and engaging presenter who brings their customers to life while delivering actionable insights.

Nicole Newton

Lead Consultant

Nicole’s passions include leading customer experience improvement efforts, infusing the voice of the customer into decision-making and strategy, and improving every employee’s ability to connect to customers. She has built and run customer experience and marketing research functions within a Fortune 500 organization. Nicole is a RIVA-certified focus group facilitator and her work focuses on customer loyalty and retention, new product development, product and usability improvements, and identification of growth opportunities. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Minnesota and a Masters of Business Administration from Fordham University. Nicole is also a CCXP – 8th in the world.

Jean Fasching

Lead Consultant

Jean has focused her entire career on deeply understanding customers and their experiences. She has led customer value teams at telecommunications, manufacturing and client services companies. Her past & recent customer experience consulting clients include: Best Buy, Sears, Gerber, General Mills and Select Comfort. She is an industry expert in qualitative and quantitative market research. She is a skilled group facilitator and in-depth interviewer and uses her acute active listening skills to create and maintain an atmosphere of trust and respect.
Jean gives back to her professional community often and is a Past President as well as a Current Program Chair and Board Member of the Insights Association, Upper Midwest Chapter. Jean holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in Sociology and Business Administration from Hamline University, a Masters of Business Administration and Marketing Management from St Thomas University and an Executive Degree in Advance Program Management from University of Denver - Daniels College of Business.

Julie Mack

Senior Project Manager

Julie is a seasoned leader with 15+ years of experience managing health care marketing and program development for Optum and Cigna. Prior to that she led the project management team for Larsen, a Minneapolis graphic design firm, and introduced project management best practices to the firm. Working on the agency and client side, she understands the need for speed and agility, and develops effective tools that aid in delivering all projects in scope, on time, and on budget. She believes that with the proper tools, training, and change management strategies, companies can realize greater human potential, retain customers, and achieve financial goals.

Julie’s B.A. is from Concordia University, St. Paul, in Marketing Management, and she is a continual learner, having completed two Mini MBA courses from St. Thomas University in Business Management and Nonprofit Management. Julie is a hospice volunteer and a member of the Board of Trustees for Allina Health Hospice Foundation.

Erica Ashfeld

Project Manager

Erica’s passion for delighting customers and continuous improvement has led her to her dream career working in Customer Experience! With a background in healthcare and managing large scale projects, Erica helps align big picture strategy with executing results. Erica holds a Bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire and a MBA from Bethel University.

Cathy McLane

Project Manager

With over 20 years of experience on both the client and agency sides of business, Cathy brings a breadth of program management expertise to Heart of the Customer clients. As a communications professional with a passion for strategy, she advocates for the role and importance of the customer journey regardless of the media, believing in the power of insights that deliver results. As a project manager, she believes in balancing strategy, schedules, and accountability with flexibility, effectiveness, and fun. Cathy received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, and a Master of Fine Arts from University of California-San Diego, California.

Laura Bates

Project Manager

With a 20+ year background in brand development, strategic insights and positioning, account management, and multi-channel marketing, Laura has planned and led assignments for blue chip brands including: American Medical Association, 3M, Fairview Health Services, Medtronic, Microsoft, Piper Jaffray, Prime Therapeutics, Norwest Equity Partners, Nuveen Investments, Sony, Star Tribune, Target, and U.S. Bank. Laura’s skill is uncovering and infusing strategic insights into the work of cross-functional teams to create alignment, a shared vision, and the roadmap for achieving results. She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BFA, with post-graduate studies in marketing and business administration at St. Thomas and the U of M. Laura also holds certifications in qualitative research from the University of Minnesota and RIVA Institute, making her a strong advocate for voice of the customer and customer experience.

Corey Pawlak

Project Manager

Corey is a marketing strategist and project manager with extensive experience delivering B2B marketing initiatives for clients and agencies alike. She employs an analytics-driven approach to defining innovative strategies and managing programs for business success. Corey is committed to helping clients understand their customer‘s journey and craft audience-centric strategies and programs that optimize the customer experience. Corey holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Stefan Hartmann

Mapper

Stefan Hartmann has over 15 years of consumer research and competitive intelligence experience, working with personal and business technology clients, many of them global organizations. Previously, Stefan worked for the technology and entertainment division of Ipsos, a top-five global market research firm, and for the technology research group at TNS. As Research Director, he successfully led large multi-country studies for major technology firms as well as many ad-hoc research projects for small to mid-size businesses. He has presented in front of executive audiences and many of his reports have directly influenced long-term strategic business decisions.

Stefan has the curiosity of a journalist combined with the analytical mind of a seasoned market researcher. He is fluent in English and German and holds a master’s degree from the Free University (FU) in Berlin, Germany with a major in History and double minors in Political Science and Journalism. In his free time, he likes to sail, read, and travel.

Kristen LaFavor

Data Visualization Designer

For over 20 years, Kristen has helped mission-driven companies and nonprofit organizations define and build their brands, create awareness, and improve the customer experience. Beginning with a thorough understanding of strategic groundwork, Kristen crafts graphic identities, customer journey maps and info graphics, digital and traditional communications, and initiative brands. Often working with cross-functional teams, Kristen applies her passion for design excellence and technical know-how to create ideas that will grow with her clients as they expand and prosper.

Ben London

CX Capabilities Lead

Ben is obsessed with helping companies view their business from the customer perspective. He established an enterprise-wide customer experience practice from the ground up at MoneyGram Intl. and has developed and matured best-practice customer experience disciplines in other industries including manufacturing and banking, in B2B, B2C, and B2B2C organizations. He is experienced at enabling global-scale cultural transformations that grow from the ground up and are led from the top down.

He focuses on turning employee and customer intelligence into strategies and actions that create measurable value for the organization and customers, and knows that creating sustainable change involves embedding customer thinking and capabilities into all parts of an organization.

His successes are in part derived from prior roles that provided vastly different perspectives on how be customer-oriented from any corner of an organization, including through work in the areas of corporate strategy, IT strategy, organizational readiness, user testing, operations, project management, sales, finance, hospitality, retail, market research, and customer experience. He is also certified in customer journey mapping.

Susan Tincher

Ops Guru

Susan, an expert in administrative stuff, is the Ops Guru at Heart of the Customer. Prior to working at Heart of the Customer, she worked at the Broadhead ad agency for four years, serving as the office manager. Earlier in her career, she was the research and mapping director of a non-profit. She also does demographic mapping. She has a BA from Macalester College and a master’s in geography from the University of Minnesota. She hopes all clients of Heart of the Customer prosper.

Jim Tincher

Meet Journey Mapper Jim Tincher.

Our Clients

The Heart of the Customer Team

Kathleen Hoski

Nicole Newton

Jean Fasching

Julie Mack

Erica Ashfeld

Cathy McLane

Laura Bates

Corey Pawlak

Stefan Hartmann

Kristen LaFavor

Ben London

Susan Tincher

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