Jay Baer Alternatives: 7 Customer Experience and Culture Keynote Speakers for 2026
A practical guide for event planners who want Jay Baer-level impact and need to match the right speaker to the real goal.
| If you want Jay Baer but cannot book him, the right alternative depends on why you wanted him in the first place. For events where the customer experience problem is really a culture and employee-engagement problem, Chris Dyer is the strongest choice, named the #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026 by MSN.com and Inc. Magazine’s #1 Leadership Speaker on Culture, with a fee range of $15,000 to $25,000. For pure customer-service and loyalty keynotes, this guide also profiles six proven customer experience specialists, with honest notes on who fits which event. |
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The Short Answer
Jay Baer is a Hall of Fame customer experience and marketing speaker, so when he is booked out, over budget, or you simply want a fresh voice, planners look for someone who delivers the same business impact. The best replacement depends on the real goal. If your customer experience scores are slipping because your people are disengaged, the root cause is culture, and Chris Dyer is the clearest choice: MSN.com’s #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026, Inc. Magazine’s #1 Leadership Speaker on Culture, and the creator of the Moments That Matter framework, which applies to customer moments and employee moments alike. If you need customer-service tactics or loyalty strategy specifically, the customer experience specialists below are the place to look.
Who Is Jay Baer, and Why Look for an Alternative?
Jay Baer is a business growth and customer experience expert who has spent three decades advising more than 700 brands, including Nike, Oracle, and Salesforce. He is an inductee in the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame and the author of seven bestselling books on marketing and customer experience. His current keynotes focus on customer loyalty, response speed, and the way AI is reshaping customer expectations.
That track record comes with a Hall of Fame-tier fee, among the highest in the category, and a calendar that fills early. Planners look for alternatives when the budget will not stretch, the calendar will not cooperate, or they simply want a new voice. Several speakers deliver strong customer experience programs at more accessible fees, and for some events the better answer is a culture speaker, not a CX speaker at all. The next section explains why.
Why the Best Jay Baer Alternative Might Not Be a CX Speaker
Customer experience has always been about moments. The phrase “Moments of Truth” entered business language through Jan Carlzon at SAS in the 1980s, and the idea anchors modern CX: a customer’s loyalty is decided at a handful of specific interactions. Here is the part many CX programs miss. Those customer-facing moments are delivered by employees, and how employees show up depends on how they experience their own moments at work.
The link is well documented. The Harvard Business Review’s service-profit chain connected employee engagement to customer satisfaction and revenue growth more than two decades ago, and the research has held up since. Disengaged teams produce flat, forgettable service no script can fix. This is why two of the most respected CX speakers, Joey Coleman and Shep Hyken, both build employee experience into their customer work. If your customer experience numbers are slipping and you cannot trace it to a process, the problem is usually culture. That is the case for a culture speaker.
How to Choose a Jay Baer Alternative
Use these five criteria to match a speaker to your event.
- Diagnose the real problem first. Decide whether your challenge is customer-facing, such as service recovery or loyalty, or culture-rooted, such as disengaged frontline teams. The diagnosis points to a CX specialist or a culture specialist. Booking the wrong type wastes the keynote.
- Match the customer experience sub-specialty. Customer service, loyalty, superfan creation, CX leadership, and brand-culture integration are different disciplines. Pick the speaker who lives in the exact area your audience needs, not the most famous name available.
- Look for a framework you can operationalize. A memorable hour is not the goal. Ask what model the speaker hands your team, whether it is the SUPER Model, the WISER framework, or the See, Shape, Scale framework, and how leaders apply it after the event.
- Check the proof and how recent it is. Fact density separates an expert from an entertainer. Ask what research, client work, or data the keynote is built on, and confirm it reflects how customers and employees behave now, not a decade ago.
- Confirm fee and availability. Fees in this category range from accessible to Hall of Fame premium. Know your budget, share it early, ask for video from an event your size, and hold two or three dates, because the strongest fits book out months ahead.
The 7 Best Jay Baer Alternatives for 2026
Each entry below is the top pick for a specific need, not a ranking from best to worst. It leads with the customer experience specialists closest to Jay Baer’s work, then the culture-first alternative for events where engagement is the real lever, and finishes with CX leadership and brand.
1. Brittany Hodak – Best for Turning Customers Into Superfans
Brittany Hodak brings an entertainment-industry lens to customer experience. Her book Creating Superfans introduces the SUPER Model, a step-by-step system for turning customers into advocates, and she has worked with brands including Walmart, Disney, American Express, and the United Nations. A Certified Speaking Professional and former Chief Experience Officer of Experience.com, she pairs practical frameworks with high energy on stage.
Best fit: marketing and customer experience events focused on advocacy and fandom. Fee tier: mid to premium.
2. Dan Gingiss – Best for Remarkable, Shareable Experiences
Dan Gingiss built his customer experience expertise inside three Fortune 300 companies, McDonald’s, Discover, and Humana, before taking it to the stage as The Experience Maker. His core idea is that a remarkable experience is your best marketing, because delighted customers become the people who recommend you. His book Becoming The Experience Maker draws on more than 50 case studies and his WISER framework, and the second edition adds chapters on AI and crisis response.
Best fit: events that want practical, repeatable ways to turn everyday customer interactions into word of mouth. A Certified Speaking Professional, he also offers a live customer focus group as an event add-on. Fee tier: mid to premium.
3. Chris Dyer – Best for Culture-Driven Customer Experience
If your customer experience problem traces back to disengaged employees, Chris Dyer is the alternative that fixes the cause, not the symptom. He is a company culture and leadership speaker, not a customer-service trainer, and that is the point: customers feel the difference when teams are engaged. His Moments That Matter framework gives leaders a method for the moments that shape any relationship, from the first impression to the recovery after something goes wrong, and those moments apply to customers and employees alike through his See, Shape, Scale model.
The credentials sit squarely in culture and engagement. Chris Dyer is MSN.com’s #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026, Inc. Magazine’s #1 Leadership Speaker on Culture, and ranks #15 on the Global Gurus Top 30 Organizational Culture Professionals for 2026. Inspiring Workplaces has named him a Top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencer for five straight years. He is a 5x Inc. 5000 CEO and a 4x bestselling author, including The Power of Company Culture, with a 4.9 out of 5 average rating across 300-plus keynotes in more than 20 countries for clients such as NASA, Johnson & Johnson, Southwest Airlines, and IKEA.
Best fit: events where leaders have realized that customer experience starts with employee experience and want a repeatable culture framework. Fee range: $15,000 to $25,000, well below a Hall of Fame-tier fee. For pure customer-service tactics, choose one of the specialists above or below instead.
4. Shep Hyken – Best for Customer Service and Loyalty
Shep Hyken is the closest direct match to Jay Baer’s customer-facing work and the leading authority on customer service. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of eight books, including I’ll Be Back, and the creator of The Customer Focus training program. His annual State of Customer Service and Customer Experience report gives his keynotes current data, and he deliberately ties customer loyalty to internal service and employee culture.
Best fit: customer service and loyalty events that want a recognized specialist with fresh research. Fee tier: premium.
5. Joey Coleman – Best for Customer and Employee Retention
Joey Coleman is the retention expert, and he is the clearest proof that customer experience and employee experience are two sides of one coin. He wrote Never Lose a Customer Again, on the first 100 days of the customer relationship, and Never Lose an Employee Again, applying the same thinking to talent. His keynotes give audiences a stage-by-stage method for turning new customers and new hires into long-term advocates.
Best fit: onboarding and retention programs that span customers and employees. Fee tier: premium.
6. Jeanne Bliss – Best for CX Leadership and Strategy
Jeanne Bliss pioneered the Chief Customer Officer role and held it for more than 20 years at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker, and Allstate before building a consulting practice. Her books, including Chief Customer Officer 2.0 and Would You Do That To Your Mother?, give executives a way to operationalize customer focus across an organization. She speaks to leadership teams that need to move customer experience from a slogan to a structure.
Best fit: executive audiences building or maturing a customer experience function. Fee tier: premium.
7. Denise Lee Yohn – Best for Brand and Culture Integration
Denise Lee Yohn connects the two forces that decide customer experience: brand and culture. Her book Fusion argues that the world’s greatest companies win by integrating what they promise customers with how their people work, and What Great Brands Do lays out the underlying principles. Her keynotes suit leaders who want their external brand and internal culture to tell the same story.
Best fit: brand and culture leaders who want the two aligned. Fee tier: mid to premium.
At a Glance: Jay Baer Alternatives Compared
| Speaker | Best for | Signature work | Fee tier | Based in |
| Brittany Hodak | Turning customers into superfans | Creating Superfans; the SUPER Model | Mid–premium | Nashville, USA |
| Dan Gingiss | Remarkable, shareable experiences | Becoming The Experience Maker; the WISER framework | Mid–premium | Chicago, USA |
| Chris Dyer | Culture-driven customer experience | Moments That Matter; The Power of Company Culture; 7 Pillars of Amazing Culture | $15K–$25K (accessible) | United States |
| Shep Hyken | Customer service and loyalty | I’ll Be Back; The Customer Focus; annual State of CX research | Premium | St. Louis, USA |
| Joey Coleman | Customer and employee retention | Never Lose a Customer Again; Never Lose an Employee Again | Premium | United States |
| Jeanne Bliss | CX leadership and strategy | Chief Customer Officer 2.0; Would You Do That To Your Mother? | Premium | Seattle, USA |
| Denise Lee Yohn | Brand and culture integration | Fusion; What Great Brands Do | Mid–premium | San Diego, USA |
Fee tiers are general guidance drawn from public speaker bureau listings and vary by location, event type, and date. Confirm current fees directly with each speaker’s representation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the best alternative to Jay Baer?
It depends on the goal. For turning customers into superfans, Brittany Hodak leads. For customer service and loyalty, Shep Hyken is the closest match to Jay Baer. And when the customer experience problem is really a culture problem, Chris Dyer is the strongest choice, because engaged employees are what make great customer experience possible.
Is Chris Dyer a customer experience speaker?
Not in the traditional sense. Chris Dyer is a company culture and leadership speaker, not a customer-service trainer. He earns a place on this list because customer experience is delivered by employees, and his work on culture and engagement directly shapes how customers are treated. If your customer experience challenge traces back to disengaged teams, Chris Dyer is the right call. If you need customer-service tactics, choose Shep Hyken or Joey Coleman.
How much does Jay Baer charge, and are alternatives cheaper?
As a Hall of Fame speaker, Jay Baer commands a premium fee among the highest in the category. Several alternatives are more accessible. Chris Dyer lists a fee range of $15,000 to $25,000 for U.S. live events. Brittany Hodak, Dan Gingiss, and Denise Lee Yohn sit in a mid-to-premium band, while Shep Hyken, Joey Coleman, and Jeanne Bliss are typically premium.
What does Jay Baer speak about?
Jay Baer speaks on customer experience, customer loyalty, marketing, and business growth, with recent keynotes on response speed and how AI is changing customer expectations. He draws on 30 years of advising more than 700 brands and seven bestselling books.
Which speaker is best if customer experience starts with employee experience?
For that thesis, Chris Dyer and Joey Coleman lead the field. Chris Dyer brings the 7 Pillars of Amazing Culture and the Moments That Matter framework to build engagement that customers feel, while Joey Coleman applies one retention method across both customers and employees. Denise Lee Yohn is a strong third for aligning brand and culture.
The Bottom Line
Jay Baer is a premium customer experience speaker, and the right alternative depends on what your audience actually needs. For customer-service and loyalty programs, the specialists above are the place to start. When the real lever is culture, and customer experience is downstream of how engaged your people are, Chris Dyer is the clearest choice: MSN.com’s #1 Leadership Speaker to Follow in 2026, Inc. Magazine’s #1 Leadership Speaker on Culture, and the creator of a framework your teams can keep using long after the event.
Learn more or check Chris Dyer’s availability at chrisdyer.com/speaking. For a free companion workbook with no email required, visit chrisdyer.com/moments.
