CX Summit 2025: Prioritizing the Studio 3 Client Experience

In digital marketing parlance, “UX” is shorthand for “User Experience,” the relative quality of experience that a website provides to its users. 

While the marketing services and day-to-day tasks we engage in at Studio 3 revolve around websites, algorithms, leads, and a world of bytes and bits, at the heart of it all are the people and businesses we serve: our clients. 

It was in this spirit that more than one hundred Studio 3 employees traveled from across the U.S. to meet in Austin, Texas for a week-long company training program focused on how to strengthen the experience and results we as an agency deliver for our clients. This is the story of the 2025 CX Summit. 

Every month our Chief of Accounts, Angela Wearn, leads what she calls “Book Club.” All Digital Marketing Managers and Accounts personnel read the same book on a topic related to brand strategy, marketing performance, or customer service. The team then assembles to discuss the concepts and how we can apply them to improve our services.

In preparation for the CX Summit, every Studio 3 team member read The Art of Client Service by Robert Solomon for a company-wide Book Club. Authored by a longtime agency executive and consultant, Solomon’s text is widely considered a foundational guide for delivering thoughtful and professional service in the creative and marketing industries.

“Your first duty is to deliver on the client’s company goals.”

“Live the client’s brand.”

“Listening is more important than talking.”

“Good work is the enemy of great work.”

“Never compromise your integrity, honesty, or sense of fairness.”

“Judgment overrides any rule.”

These are some of the book’s ideas that shaped discussions and group exercises at the CX Summit.

The five-day agenda included only five keynote presentations to keep lectures to a minimum. Instead, the majority of the schedule was devoted to interactive workshops and breakout sessions built around analyzing and addressing actual client websites, campaigns, and everyday concerns. 

To foster greater end-to-end understanding of the full Studio 3 client experience, group exercises paired staff from a variety of departments together. Web designers worked with SEO techs, Digital Ads specialists with Accounting personnel, web developers with salespeople, and so on.
 
Led by Chief Operations Officer, Lynsey Moore and veteran Accounts staff, workshop exercises included:

• Analysis 101: identifying the most common root causes for performance fluctuations.
• Data Driven Analysis: various ways to use digital data to drive and measure marketing outcomes.
• Being a Growth Partner: how to help clients scale and diversify with holistic marketing strategies.
• Connecting Marketing to Outcomes: methods to connect marketing analytics with revenue events.

Two of the five keynotes focused on aspects of the Studio 3 brand and staying true to our company’s ideals. The history, values, evolution, ethics, and goals of the agency were presented and discussed in detail, all leading up to the unveiling of the brand-new Studio 3 website. 

Revealed by Chief Creative Officer, Andres Cuervo, the new website was described as a “northstar” for Studio 3. A website conceived to be more than merely displaying marketing services and case studies; rather one that expresses the ideals we as an agency aspire to and expect ourselves to live up to for clients. Ideals like, “Your marketing agency should care about your business as much as you do.” And, “Your marketing partner should be communicative, proactive, and effective.” 

In another keynote, Chief Accounts Officer, Angela Wearn covered the four Studio 3 Pillars. While every business we work with is individual, with unique values, needs, and objectives, these pillars are what we to be essential for every client we serve:

• Creative branding, design, and marketing services that distinguish, differentiate and enhance our client’s brand. 
• Performance marketing services that drive measurable outcomes and increased revenue. 
• Service that is attentive, responsive, proactive, thoughtful, and fast. 
• Relationships that are engaged and invested in the success of our client’s business; a true partnership, more than a vendor executing a list of contracted deliverables. 

Chief Technology Officer, Jesus Lizama opened his keynote with this quote from Steve Jobs, “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology, not the other way around.” He then proceeded with live demonstrations of the latest technology his software engineers have been developing, including a fully custom, all-inclusive CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that we’re calling, “Agency”. 

Studio 3’s organizational model and offerings require close collaboration between departmental teams. As a national agency with offices in three time zones, sometimes these interactions must occur over Zoom. 

One of the many ideas that went into planning the CX Summit was bringing together teammates who work side-by-side and speak daily, but across screens. After full days of workshops and breakouts, each evening was dedicated to unscripted conversations and unexpected connections at Front Yard, LT Corner Pub, Smoked BBQ at the Oak BBQ, and the Lakeway Resort. There was karaoke, kickball, pickleball, putting contests, and even a boat outing on Lake Travis. Our Chief Financial Officer, Matt Shepherd, hit every high note of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive,” while Accounts Director Monica Bosan remained undefeated on the pickleball courts.

As it turned out, some of the most insightful ideas on how to improve our processes and services came from casual conversations at those nightly activities. 

The final keynote of the Summit was delivered by Chief Strategy Officer, Ken Bosan, on the subject of AI and the evolving future of digital marketing. 

The presentation was so rich with facts and insights that we transcribed and summarized his talk into a three-part series of articles that anyone can now read on the Studio 3 website, here in the S3 Feed. 

Since returning home from Austin, our executives and team have been working to implement the advances and ideas covered and conceived at the week-long event. As a company, we hope and expect to look back at the CX Summit 2025 as a milestone in Studio 3’s brand evolution and our ongoing efforts to provide high-quality services and results for clients. 

For the final takeaways on this year’s Summit, here is some of the survey feedback from those who experienced it.