In the past, we scoured the interwebs for those who are influential and knowledgeable about topics such as Big Data, Analytics, Mobility, Cloud Computing, Finance, Sales 
and Marketing, and Human Resources…and we’ve done it again.
This time, we’re focusing on trends and topics that are changing the way we do business, interact with others, and innovate processes. The first influencer list focuses on Customer Experience (or, as known in the Twitterverse, #custexp).
When it comes to customer experience, there are some thought leaders who are making big strides and providing thought-provoking insights and ideas. To help you get an edge and learn from the best, we’ve done our research (using a variety of tools and good old research) and compiled a list of influencers who know what they’re talking about and are ready to share.
Below are the Top 60 Customer Experience Influencers and some companies who are sharing some good stuff. Enjoy!
Top Executives
1. Ted Coine - Ted is a Web TV host and co-CEO of The Human Side of Business #humanbiz. He was named one of Forbes Top 10 Influencer.
Twitter: @tedcoine - Website: http://switchandshift.com
2. Alan See - Alan is a Chief Marketing Officer along with a Social Media Marketing Magazine most followed CMO and Kred Top 1% Influencer
Twitter: @AlanSee - LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alansee
3. Ann Handley - Ann is a best-selling author, social media and content marketing keynote speaker, the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, and a monthly columnist for Entrepreneur magazine
Twitter: @MarketingProfs - Website: http://www.marketingprofs.com
4. Mark Johnson - Mark is the President and CEO of Loyalty 360. He has a passion for Loyalty Marketing, but an even greater passion for his family and Denver Broncos Football
Twitter: @MJohnsonLoyalty - LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/loyaltyexpo
5. Ted Rubin - Ted is a leading Social Marketing Strategist, Keynote Speaker, Brand Evangelist and Acting CMO of Brand Innovators and in 2009 started using and evangelizing the term ROR: Return on Relationship™. He believe ROR is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database
Twitter:@TedRubin - Website: http://about.me/tedrubin
6. Kent Huffman - Kent is the CMO at BearCom. He is also an author of 8 Mandates book, co-publisher of SMMmagazine, creator MarketerMonday, B2B, and B2C. Finally, he is a marketing and customer experience advocate.
Twitter: @KentHuffman - Website: http://www.KentHuffman.com
7. Dave Tidwell - David is the COO of Anana Ltd which is a Contact Centre Solutions. He is an innovator in Customer Service and Social Customer Service Solutions for modern brands.
Twitter: @dave_t_pilot - Website: http://www.anana.com
8. Stephanie Thum - Stephanie is VP of Customer Experience. She is focused on feedback, success measurements, follow-through, teams, and org development.
Twitter:@stephaniethum - Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniethum
Customer Service Professionals
9. Shep Hyken - Shep Hyken is a customer service expert, business speaker and New York Times bestselling author. He works hard to help companies deliver AMAZING customer service and experiences
Twitter Handle: @Hyken - Website/Blog: http://www.Hyken.com
10. Barry Dalton - Barry is a leader in customer service and enterprise collaboration. He uses his viewpoint to add value for people and never stop learning.
Twitter: @bsdalton - Website: http://www.barrydalton.com
11. Annette Franz - Annette is great at listening to customers. She has run Services departments for companies focused on improving both customer and employee experiences by utilizing their software tools.
Twitter: @annettefranz - Website: http://about.me/annettefranzgleneicki
12. Kate Nasser - Kate is a speaker, trainer, and founder of The People-Skills Coach. Overall, she turns diverse interaction obstacles into business assets especially in tough times of change.
Twitter: @KateNasser - Website: http://katenasser.com
13. Marsha Collier - Marsha is an author of 45 books: Social Media Commerce, eBay, Online Customer Service. In addition, she was on Forbes Top Influencer List, GigaOM, and Pro Analyst.
Twitter: @MarshaCollier - Website: http://bit.ly/marsha_collier
14. Robert Bacal - Robert is an author, trainer, customer service, management, performance appraisal, leadership, and experience handling difficult customers.
Twitter: @rbacal - Website: http://work911.com
15. Roy Atkinson - Roy is a senior Writer/Analyst by trade, but also tweets about customer service.
Twitter:@RoyAtkinson - Website: http://royatkinson.blogspot.com
16. Steve Curtin - Steve is the author of Delight and a fan of exceptional customer service.
Twitter: @enthused - Website: http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog
17. Michael Lytle - Michael is not only a director-award winning customer service organization, but he is also a Father, Husband, and Bass Fisherman. He is a customer service advocate.
Twitter: @Michael_Lytle - Website: http://buff.ly/QaFG8S
18. Kate Leggett - Kate is a Principal Analyst at Forrester Research for Customer Service, focusing on market trends, research, opinions, best practices, and technologies.
Twitter: @kateleggett - Website: http://blogs.forrester.com/kate-leggett
19. Bill Quiseng - Bill is a Customer Service Blogger. Is a source to improve your business customer service.
Twitter: @billquiseng - Website: http://facebook.com/billquisengdotcom
20. Emily Yellin - Emily is a journalist, author of Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us (Simon & Schuster, 2010), a journey to find the heart of customer service.
Twitter: @EYellin - Website: http://www.emilyyellin.com
Social Media/Marketers
21. Tristan Bishop - Tristan is a Senior Director of Social Marketing at Informatica Corp.
Twitter:@KnowledgeBishop - Website: http://knowledgebishop.com
22. Brad Bennett - Brad has more than seventeen years of experiences in CRM, ERP, and Contact Center. He has lots of experience in both the vendor and customer side of the industry. Plus, he leads a very successful Sales Team.
Twitter: @BradBennett - Website: http://bit.ly/bradbennett
23. Frank Eliason - Formerly @ComcastCares. He is the author of @YourService, Director Global Social Media for @Citi, and board member for @BBB_US and @Socap.
Twitter: @FrankEliason - Website: http://www.frankeliason.com
24. Paul Greenberg - Paul is CRM and SCRM author, consultant, and speaker.
Twitter: @pgreenbe - Website: N/A
25. Graham Hill - Graham works in service innovation, marketing operations, and loyalty management as a value management specialist and aviation private equity specialist.
Twitter:@GrahamHill - Website: http://www.customerthink.com/gurublog/graham_hill
26. Steve Keating CSE - Steve is improving the sales profession and developing the next generation of leaders, who only uses his Twitter to inform and not sell.
Twitter: @LeadToday - Website: http://www.stevekeating.me
Customer Experience
27. Stan Phelps - Stan is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and experience architect.
Twitter: @9INCHmarketing - Website: http://www.9inchmarketing.com
28. Jeanne Bliss - Jeanne has led Customer Experience for five major U.S. corporations. In addition, wrote Chief Customer Officer and I Love You More Than My Dog.
Twitter: @JeanneBliss - Website: http://customerbliss.com
29. Bruce Temkin - Bruce has customer experience and is a transformist along with a Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.
Twitter:@btemkin - Website: http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/
30. Mike Wittenstein - Mike is an experience and service designer, consultant, and global speaker. He has worked for 20+ years, in 25 countries, and for 300+ companies.
Twitter: @mikewittenstein - Website: http://www.MikeWittenstein.com
31. Arie Goldshlager - Arie is an unconventional wisdom on marketing, customer strategy, customer insight, and innovation.
Twitter: @ariegoldshlager - LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/goldshlager
32. Peter Lavers - Peter is a customer management and experience expert @WCL. He has worked at Rolls-Royce/Bentley for 17 years. He also loves family, passionate about service, and interested in cars and apologetics
Twitter: @PeterLavers - Website: http://www.w-c-l.com
33. Guy Kawasaki - Guy is a well-known social media thought leader and advises Motorola. He is also an author of APE.
Twitter:@GuyKawasaki - Website: http://apethebook.com
34. Greg Levin - Employee engagement and customer experience writer, speaker, and humorist. He’s also a published novelist.
Twitter: @greg_levin - Website: http://www.offcenterinsight.com/
35. Colin Shaw - Colin is a founder of Beyond Philosophy and Customer Experience Consultancy. He was featured on LinkedIn’s Top 150 Business Influencer and is a best-selling author.
Twitter: @ColinShaw_CX - Website: http://beyondphilosophy.com
36. Nancy Porte - Nancy is a VP of Customer Experience at Verint. He is passionate about making the world a better place for customers.
Twitter:@nporte - Website: N/a
37. Mitch Lieberman - Mitch is a Customer Experience Architect and Strategist, focusing on customer service, contact centers, CRM, and social CRM. He has interests in running, hiking, and photography and is a dad.
Twitter: @mjayliebs - Website: http://www.dri-global.com
38. Jeannie Walters - Jeannie is a customer experience leader and student. She is fascinated by social media and is a working mom.
Twitter: @Jeannie Walters - Website: http://about.me/Jeanniecw
39. James Sorensen - James is a reader of great customer experiences, quality systems, process improvement, and ISO.
Twitter:@expertinservice - Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamessorensen/
40. Kerry Bodine - Kerry is a coauthor of Outside In and a Forrester analyst. She focuses on customer experience, design, and the organization complexities that influence customer interactions.
Twitter: @kerrybodine - Website: http://blogs.forrester.com/kerry_bodine
41. Melissa Kovacevic - Melissa loves to help contact-center and retail service clients integrate.
Twitter: @MKCallConsult - Website: http://www.socialoomph.com/profiles/mkcallconsult
42. Lynn Hunsaker - Differentiate customer experience by busting silos for cross-functional collaboration. Annual B2B CEM Best Practices Study
Twitter: @clearaction - Website: http://clearaction.biz/blog
43. Aimee Lucas - Aimee is a fan of sports, sunshine, exceptional customer experiences, and marathoning to find a cure.
Twitter: @Aimee_Lucas - Website: http://www.linkedin.com/in/aimeelucas
44. Mark Turner - Mark is the director of Content at CloserStill Media focusing on the cloud, the data centre, emerging technologies, and customer experience.
Twitter:@marklturner - Website: http://marklturner.wordpress.com
45. Andrew McFarland - Andrew is a growth through high-value B2B customer experiences.
Twitter: @andy_mcf - Website: http://pivotpointsolutions.net/blog
46. Paul Hopkins - Paul is constantly researching new ways to improve the online and offline customer experience.
Twitter: @futurecustomer - Website: http://www.customerfuturology.com
47. Becky Carroll - Becky is the author Hidden Power of Your Customers book. She taught social media @UCSD and contributes to NBC-SD SM.
Twitter: @bcarroll7 - Website: http://customersrock.net
48. Linda Ireland - Linda is an owner-partner of @AveusLLC. She is an author of Domino and helps leaders boost performance by using customer experience.
Twitter: @LindaIreland - Website: http://aveus.com
49. Bart de Craene - He is a customer experience advocate, runner, and bass player.
Twitter: @bartdecraene - Website: http://www.bartdecraene.net
50. Richard R Shapiro - Richard is a customer retention expert and founder of The Center For Client Retention. He is also the author of The Welcomer Edge: Unlocking the Secrets to Repeat Business.
Twitter: @RichardRShapiro - Website: http://richardrshapiro.com/
51. Colin Taylor TRG - Colin is ranked in the top 100 for Customer Service. He is an experienced Customer Experience Consultant and Chief Chaos Officer
Twitter: @colinsataylor - Website: http://www.thetaylorreachgroup.com
52. R Ray Wang - Constellation research analyst; provocateur; keynote speaker on topics such as disruptive tech, and innovation; author; strategist; contract negotiator; chairman; and founder.
Twitter: @rwang0 - Website: http://blog.softwareinsider.org
53. Flavio Martins – Flavio is VP of Customer Support at @DigiCert. He is a Customer Experience and Atlanta 2013 Huffington Post Top 100 Social.
Twitter: @flavmartins - Website: http://winthecustomer.com
54. Bob Thompson - CustomerThink founder and global evangelist for customer-centric business. Hi top buzzwords include CRM, CEM, and Social Business.
Twitter: @Bob_Thompson – Website: http://customerthink.com
55. Bruce Tempkin - Customer experience transformist and Chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.
Twitter: @btemkin – Website: http://experiencematters.wordpress.com
56. Neal Schact - Customer experience evangelist specializing in SAP BCM Contact Center end-to-end solutions and CEO of CommunitTech Services. Lover of great wine and food.
Twitter: @nealschact – Website: http://communitechservices.com
57. Shep Hyken - Customer service expert, business speaker, and New York Times bestselling author helps companies deliver amazing customer service and experiences.
Twitter: @Hyken – Website: http://hyken.com
58. Andrew McInnes - Customer experience and voice of the customer thinker, writer, and speaker. Director of Product Marketing at Allegiance. Formerly, a Forrester analyst.
Twitter: @apmcinnes - Website: N/A
59. Stan Phelps - Best-selling author, keynote speaker, and experience architect. Designing customer experience and employee engagement solutions that win the hearts of customers and employees.
Twitter: @9INCHMarketing – Website: http://9inchmarketing.com
60. Doc Searls - Author of The Intention Economy, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto, and variously connected with stuff at Harvard, NYU, and UCSB.
Twitter: @dsearls – Website: http://searls.com
Top Companies
1. Forrester Research - Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.
Twitter Handle: @forrester - Website/blog: http://forrester.com
2. Loyalty 360 - Loyalty 360 is an association focused on customer, channel, employee and brand loyalty engagement, CEM, and CRM.
Twitter: @Loyalty360 - Website: http://loyalty360.org
3. Fast Company - Inspiring readers to think beyond traditional boundaries and create the future of business.
Twitter: @FastCompany - Website: http://www.fastcompany.com
4. Zappos.com CEO – Tony - The CEO of Zappos.com, a company that excels and knows all about customer experience.
Twitter: @tonyhsieh - Website: http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/
5. CustomerThink - The global thought leader in customer-centric business management.
Twitter: @customerthink - Website: http://www.customerthink.com
6. CustomerManagementIQ - Customer ManagementIQ is an online community featuring articles, podcasts, videos from experts on call-center management, customer service, FCR, AHT, IVR, and more.
Twitter: @CustomerMGMTIQ - Website: http://www.customermanagementiq.com
7. MyCustomer.com - News and advice on customer relationship management, customer service, and social CRM.
Twitter: @MyCustomer - Website: http://www.mycustomer.com
8. Gartner - Gartner is the leading global provider of independent and objective technology related research and advice.
Twitter: @Gartner_inc - Website: http://www.gartner.com
9. CX Journey™ - Customer Experience (#CX) is a journey, not a destination. | DECIDE | DISCOVER | DO | DELIVER | DELIGHT | …and do it all over again! #custexp #cem
Twitter: @CXJourney - Website: http://www.cx-journey.com/
10. CXPA – CXPA is a global non-profit organization positioned to guide and enhance the growing field of customer experience management. #CXPA #CX
Twitter: @CXP_Assoc – Website: http://cxpa.org