Customer Experience Improvement

Chris Hodges is a Vice President leading JD Power’s Customer Experience Solutions practice. His focus is helping clients drive top-line revenue growth and increase operational efficiencies with effectively executed customer and employee experience strategies. As an accomplished problem solver, project manager, and change enabler, Chris works with executive-level leaders across multiple channels and business units to align technology strategies and solutions with business goals.

Prior to joining JD Power, Chris spent 20 years in business and technology consulting at Accenture, West Monroe Partners and Infosys Consulting leading digital customer experience initiatives for an array of Global 1000 enterprises across many industries including Automotive, Financial Services & Insurance, Energy & Telecom, Software & High Tech, Healthcare, Private Equity, Retail & CPG, Life Sciences and Manufacturing. 

Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems at Florida State University.

Mark Miller leads the JD Power Global Customer Service Advisory and is responsible for thought leadership, solutions development, strategic alliances and client support. He leads customer service, technical support and sales performance improvement and certification initiatives for the company.

Mark has over 20 years of performance-improvement consulting experience working with small, medium and Fortune 500 clients in more than a dozen industries to improve sales, customer service and technical support operations. Through his work leading the JD Power Certified Customer Service Program across channels, Mark has had the opportunity to interact with over 600 high-performing contact centers, which has given him a unique understanding of what customers want and what top performers across industries actually do to deliver an outstanding experience. With this perspective to draw from and with access to the most comprehensive research data around what defines and drives an outstanding customer experience, Mark is one of the foremost authorities on what top performers do to create a differentiated customer experience.

Prior to joining JD Power in 2000, Mark served as a strategy and operations consultant to senior-level management, as well as an executive in the sporting goods, computer and networking services, offshore software development and Internet security industries.

Mark has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA in marketing (with honors) from Regis University. He was selected as a member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society.

Rich Bongiorno is Managing Director, Customer Service Advisory at JD Power. He is responsible for the management of the company’s Customer Experience Management product, including the Voice of Experience (VoX) data and analytics technology platform, which is  JD Power’s solution for customer experience management. In this role, he sets the strategic direction and product development road map in this space for JD Power. Additionally, he supports business development efforts as a subject matter expert within the organization. 

Mr. Bongiorno joined JD Power in 1998. Prior to his role in Product Management, he led a global business transformation initiative for JD Power, which focused on improving the way the company designs, executes and delivers its syndicated and proprietary data and insights products to the market. This initiative involved global teams across the company organized into work streams.

Earlier at JD Power, Mr. Bongiorno held several roles of increasing responsibility across several syndicated and proprietary research engagements. He was responsible for the management and execution of some of the company’s most respected and watched syndicated studies across the automotive industry. 

On the proprietary side of the business, Mr. Bongiorno has been responsible for some of JD Power’s largest and most complex proprietary tracking engagements across several different industries. During his tenure in this role, his team was nominated for and received the American Honda Premiere Partner Award multiple times.

Mr. Bongiorno received an MBA from Pepperdine University. He holds a certificate in Pragmatic Product Management and a Lean Six Sigma green belt certification. 

Scott Killingsworth is Director, Customer Service Advisory at JD Power. He currently manages the JD Power Customer Service Certification programs and is responsible for developing and maintaining the standards and operational benchmarks for the program. He also manages both internal teams and external partners in the execution of certification surveys and on-site evaluations of client operations.

Mr. Killingsworth has more than 20 years consulting experience to both B2B and B2C clients across a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, travel and insurance. Prior to joining JD Power, he was a market manager for Tecnol, Inc., a manufacturer of contamination control products for semiconductor, pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Amit Aggarwal is the Managing Director of JD Power’s Digital Solutions Group, which helps our clients benchmark and improve the digital products and experiences of their customers. Websites and mobile apps are our jam. We start with customer research, develop actionable insights/ recommendations, and deliver via consultative workshops with our clients.

We are research nerds, CX geeks, digital professionals, and advisors to C-Suite, senior management, digital teams/agencies, and research managers.

Amit is a recognized subject matter expert for digital user experience across a variety of industries, including automotive, financial services, utility, and telecommunications. He is well-versed in Internet trends, experienced working with digital teams, and a trusted client partner.

Amit has an MBA from UCLA and a BS in Computer Science and Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction from Stanford University.

Denese Waiters is Director in the Customer Service Advisory practice at JD Power. Serving as a subject matter expert, Denese is responsible for delivering high impact customer experience solutions, cross industry benchmarking, and operational best practices.

Denese joined JD Power in 2022, bringing years of experience providing both strategic direction and tactical leadership in the contact center space. She has led several enterprise-wide, cross-functional projects to streamline processes and improve operational efficiencies and has a diverse background ranging from management consulting, strategy facilitation, business development, project management, and sales.

Prior to joining JD Power, Denese held several senior level roles with increasing responsibility for Carnival Cruise Line, ADP TotalSource, American Express and Arthur Andersen.

Denese has an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and a B.S. in Marketing from Hampton University.

Scott Yamauchi is a Managing Director in JD Power’s Customer Experience Solutions practice. Scott is responsible for managing the implementation and ongoing execution of all Customer Experience research programs in the U.S.

Scott has 20 years of experience working with clients to help them achieve their CX goals. Additionally, he supports the strategic efforts to apply best practices in Customer Experience research across our global offices. 

Scott earned bachelor's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Sociology and Business Administration. He has received a JD Power Award of Excellence, a JD Power Technology Transformation Award, and the Honda Premier Partner Award. 

Jon Sundberg is a Director in JD Power’s Digital Solutions practice. Jon manages a portfolio of digital research studies across a variety of industries, including automotive, insurance, utility, and financial services. With nearly 10 years of digital research experience, Jon is passionate about good digital experiences and keeping up with current digital trends. He spends much of his time translating study results into actionable insights for clients.

Along with his role at JD Power, Jon also teaches at local universities.

Jon earned a Master of Business degree in management and organizational behavior from California Lutheran University and a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University.

Wade is a Director for Customer Experience Solutions practice, responsible for the implementation and ongoing management of Customer Experience (CX) programs at JD Power. He specializes in automotive retail engagements focused on improving dealership sales and service satisfaction and retention. His team delivers end-to-end professional services from program design to CX platform configuration and insights delivery.

Prior to JD Power, Wade held an account management role at Ipsos, supporting advertising, branding, and product planning research along with business development.

Wade earned a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising with an emphasis in Business Marketing from Pepperdine University.