CORY BENNETT

Insight-driven, multi-faceted, process-oriented CX leader with a proven track record of successfully architecting holistic, 360-degree content strategies rooted in the science and art of storytelling to achieve established growth, engagement, and KPI objectives. Leads all aspects of the content ideation, development, and activation cycle to deliver a highly differentiated customer experience, achieve organic growth goals, and optimize the brand experience across multiple touchpoints.

Professional History

Director - Content & Experience Strategy
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

July 2022 - Present

Provide leadership, oversight, and strategic direction for a 15-member team of Content Strategists and Experience Strategists to develop CX strategy, drive the creation of internal publications and white papers, and deliver a highly differentiated customer experience.

• Led the Customer Experience Content and Experience Strategy team to develop current state journey maps, define strategic opportunities for the team, identify architecture capability enhancements, and content management upgrades.
  • Recruit, train, mentor, and retain a highly qualified team; hold them accountable against key performance objectives
• Led the development of the CX-Brand Connection White Paper and business case for living out AT&T’s brand purpose and developing content and campaigns that connect with AT&T’s customers and employees.
• Led the creation of the Integrated Content Strategy and communication plan for its adoption.
• Produced white papers covering a range of subjects such as the CX-Brand Connection, An Integrated Content Strategy, and more.
• Administered a $10M+ annual CX budget; including people capital and expenses, ensuring the optimal allocation of departmental resources.

Associate Director - CX Content Strategy
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

July 2020 - July 2022

Provide leadership, oversight, and strategic direction for a 15-member team of Content Strategists and Content Analysts; define and develop the content vision, create a forward-looking content strategy, drive the development of internal publications and white papers, and contribute to a highly differentiated customer experience that fosters brand loyalty.

• Lead the newly established Customer Experience Content Strategy team; develop current state journey maps, identify and define strategic opportunities for the team, and design integrated customer experiences that inspire action.
  • Recruit, train, mentor, and retain a highly qualified team; hold them accountable against key performance objectives.
  • Optimized the customer journey across all digital touchpoints, including: shop and purchase, learn and discover, onboarding and activation, managed products and services, and support.
• Established the CX Tracking and Metrics team to evaluate CX journey-based analytics and address root cause issues.
  • Routinely identified and eliminated friction points to strengthen the customer/AT&T relationship.
• Led the development of Journeys that Matter and Friction Mapping processes; employed quantitative and qualitative analytics/research to understand customer behavior and identify improvement opportunities.
• Produced white papers encompassing a variety of subjects such as eSIM, multi-tenancy, and value-added services.

Associate Director - Content Engineering
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

June 2019 - June 2020

Partnered with an agile Experience Insights team to manage and optimize all content engineering, personalization, strategy, and analysis activities. Provided leadership for a team of 20 direct reports to define a 3-5-year future state, foster a top-down culture of innovation, and position AT&T as an authoritative thought leader in the content strategy/engineering/analysis space.

• Established data-informed processes and SOPs governing content modeling that employed immersive storytelling to enhance audience engagement.
• Led the development of AT&T’s Content Strategy Toolkit, a comprehensive framework encompassing training, guidelines, documentation templates, project planning, and project archives.
• Created training modules and a digital educational series (Content Series) that employed videos, case studies, infographics, interactive quizzes, and gamification to educate and evangelize the importance of content.
  • Broke down silos, encouraged and incentivized collaborative interactions, and enhanced the synergy between design, content strategy, and research teams.
• Led the development of the ‘Virtual Life’ concept; managed a team of CX Researchers, Designers, Copywriters, and Producers to predict future state digital interactions.
  • Successfully predicted the accelerating reliance on digital experiences caused by the pandemic.

Associate Director - Content and Editorial
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

October 2017 - June 2019

Led a team of 20-26 UX Content Writers, Content Strategists, and Editors to develop a pipeline of thought leadership content; upheld AT&T brand standards (voice, tone, style, and values) in all communications collateral.

• Consolidated the B2B and B2C content teams to ensure greater alignment in brand standards and content development SOPs.
  • Contributed to a highly collaborative culture to improve team synergy and cohesiveness.
• Managed the content development process for Buy Flow, Self-Service, and Support across the following channels: att.com, directv.com, directvnow.com, uverse.com, native apps, post-sales email, SMS, and push notifications.
• Evolved the brand voice and tone. Conducted deep dives to analyze and optimize existing tools, processes, and procedures governing content development.
• Facilitated the Personalization Summit, a gathering of 30+ leaders across multiple organizations with the goal of leveraging customer data to present contextual, relevant, and personalized information to customers.
• Co-lead the creation of the AT&T Techbuzz blog, responsible for driving significant traffic increases to att.com sales and support digital experiences.

Associate Director - User Experience
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

June 2014 - October 2017

Provided leadership and operational oversight for a team of 20+ direct reports (including Content Strategists, UX Content Writers, Editors, and third-party agencies) to develop and execute an integrated content strategy, model, and roadmap across the following channels: for mobile, tablet, desktop, email, chatbots, conversational UI, SMS, and social media.

• Designed a skill transformation training strategy to provide the consumer content team with a strong foundation in digital content development best practices.
  • Lobbied for and secured the budget for 150 Content Science Academy certifications to accelerate digital transformation.
• Developed a strategy to guide the redesign of the att.com home page, upper funnel sales landing pages, global header/footer navigation, upgrade experience, and login widgets.
  • Drove a 200% increase in customer engagement metrics post home page and upper funnel redesign.
  • Achieved the highest customer review scores for the myAT&T app (4 of 5 stars).
  • Reduced header/footer navigation links by 60% post redesign.

Technical Director - Site Optimization Content
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

April 2013 - June 2014

Managed a team of UX Content Writers and Content Strategists to oversee the content ideation, development, and activation process across the sales, services, and support user journey.

• Designed and launched a training and onboarding repository/wiki for the team.
• Created and delivered brown bag training sessions to instill UX and content development best practices in AT&T partners.
• Established and tracked strategic KPIs including online sales attributions, click-throughs, conversions, and willingness to recommend scoring for sales experiences.

Built and mentored a highly qualified team of 7 UX Content Writers and Editors to develop self-service and support content for the myAT&T application.

• Established success metrics and KPIs to accurately measure content quality and throughput, including: reduction of admin time, ticket completion % of tickets completed on time, overall team utilization, and willingness to recommend scoring for service and support experiences.
• Decreased non-capitalizable time coding from 45% to <18% over two years.
• Scaled overall team content ticket completion rates from <70% to >90% within two years.
• Achieved 103% of target for the willingness to recommend scoring for services and support metric (2013).

Lead Content Writer
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

December 2010 - April 2012

Progressed to Lead Content Writer in 2011 where I led a team of 10 third-party vendor UX Content Writers to define the content strategy for the redesign of the AT&T Services and Support website, mobile and desktop apps.

• Defined our agile development and lean content design processes, improving efficiency, and increasing collaboration across all creative, technical, and business teams.
• Hired, onboarded, and trained 10 new UX Content Writers.
• Participated in the inaugural AT&T Twitter Ambassador program; a small group of AT&T employees tasked with creating a favorable brand association with consumers and key social media influencers through credible and accessible dialogue.

Content Writer
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

December 2008 - December 2010

Wrote content for the myAT&T mobile application and att.com self-service website.

• Developed content responsible for an increase in paperless bill acquisitions, auto-payment signups, device and plan upgrades, and customer authentication success.
• Defined content strategy for site redesigns and implementation of new CMS and DAM technologies.
• Selected as the 1st “Dad Blogger” for the AT&T sponsored Calm, Cool, and Connected blog, a partnership with Fleishman Hillard.

Content Writer/Implementation Specialist
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

October 2007 - December 2008

Wrote and published content for the att.com/support desktop experience.

• Researched business and technical requirements, user flows, analytics and user feedback to develop helpful support content.
• Used content management tools to curate content modules, find and reduce inaccurate content, edit and publish support content for sbc.com and att.com.
• Wrote and published content using a homegrown CMS application, TeamSite, and coding HTML from scratch using both Notepad and Dreamweaver.
  
• Identifyed, implemented, and communicated process improvements throughout the publishing workflow.

Senior Analyst
SBC/AT&T | St. Louis, MO

July 2005 - October 2007

Progressed to the role of Senior Analyst at SBC/AT&T in 2005. I led a small team of contractors who developed content and design requirements for sbc.com digital projects.

• Provided oversight of content projects for SBC/AT&T Internet and intranet sites.
• Project managed quick-to-market projects (Rapid Deployments) and writing business requirements.
• Served as video conference coordinator for 12 locations spread across 8 states, coordinating team video conferences and providing troubleshooting and support for over 200 employees and contractors.

Analyst
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

December 2003 - July 2005

• Translated project strategy directives into successful tactical plans to execute on-time deliverables.
• Oversaw project planning and development, quality control, and final review to control milestones and deliverables.
• Liaised with team to define project scope, timelines, resources, and requirements.
• Interacted with clients throughout projects to present updates, incorporate feedback, and redirect concerns.
• Developed actionable mitigation strategies and contingency plan to evaluate potential risks.

Associate Analyst
AT&T | St. Louis, MO

June 2002 - December 2003

• Oversaw project planning and development, quality control, and final review to control milestones and deliverables.
• Liaised with team to define project scope, timelines, resources, and requirements.
• Interacted with clients throughout projects to present updates, incorporate feedback, and redirect concerns.
• Developed actionable mitigation strategies and contingency plan to evaluate potential risks.

Education

Saint Louis University
Bachelor of Science, Management Information Systems (May 2002)

Activities: Phi Kappa Tau (Pledge Class President - 2001, Social Chair - 2002), MIS Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Make-a-Wish Foundation volunteer.

AT&T 2021 Management Development Program
- Graduated November 2021

Skills & Tools

Digital strategy, content strategy, leadership, complex problem solving, relationship building, negotiation, conflict resolution, research, Adobe Marketing Cloud (Experience Manager, Analytics, Target), Adobe Creative Suite (Acrobat Pro, Photoshop), Sketch, InVision, Figma, Quantum Metrics, Thunderhead, Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Visio), Mural, Dreamweaver, JIRA, SharePoint, TeamSite, CQ, WordPress, HTML 5, CSS, Java, Confluence.

Awards & Recognition