Podcasts about CX

In this thoughtful episode of The Simple and Smart SEO Show, Crystal chats with fellow SEO expert Crystal Ortiz, founder of Socialhart. With over a decade of experience in digital marketing and a background in education, Crystal O. shares her journey from retail to SEO consulting and why connecting with customers is more powerful than any ranking algorithm. They explore the intersection of SEO, AI, customer experience, and basic business fundamentals, revealing why treating SEO like a tool—not a strategy—is key to sustainable online success.

Customer experience leaders face a familiar tension: do we put employees first or customers first? As organizations scale and adopt AI, that question becomes operational. In this special takeover episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Jacob Morgan shares insights from The 8 Laws of Employee Experience, based on research with more than 100 CHROs. He explains why CX and EX operate as one system—and how leadership decisions behind the scenes shape customer outcomes. This conversation gives CX leaders a practical, systems-level lens to strengthen trust, consistency, and performance as AI raises the stakes. Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Find Diane Magers on LinkedIn, and her book Experience Rules!Find James O'Connor on LinkedInAmplifyXM - a consultancy that helps with CX, rather than a CX consultancy...Connect with Sam on LinkedIn - I share customer experience content multiple times a week, and love hearing from listeners with questions or ideas for topics.Subscribe to my newsletter, Customer Experience Patterns - I publish a new edition with each episode of the podcast.My LinkedIn Learning courses: Customer Experience: 6 Essential Foundations For Lasting Loyalty, How To Create Great Customer Experiences & Build A Customer-Centric Culture. In-depth video series that teach you how to create great experiences, and build customer-centric cultuers.Thanks to my talented colleague Emily Tolmer for the cover art. Thanks to my friends at Moon Island for the music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Learn More About Sponsoring the Podcast Here: https://choicehacking.link/sponsor-the-podFREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly buyer psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

On this episode, we explore the hidden cost of overlooking agent experience — and how it impacts your customers.Your contact center agents handle hundreds of customer interactions every week, from routine questions to complex issues. When your agents feel empowered, they resolve problems with creativity and empathy, turning satisfied customers into loyal advocates and ultimately helping you win the moments that matter. When they don't feel empowered, they deliver transactional service, avoid taking initiative and may even start looking for the exit — sabotaging your CX in the process.Join Ken Hughes, keynote speaker, consumer behavioralist and author, and Estuardo "Ligo" Ligorría, regional vice president of operations for the Americas at TELUS Digital, as they reveal what the best CX leaders get right, what it means for them to truly “show up” for their frontline teams, and how to navigate the tension between efficiency and the human connection.Visit our website to learn more about TELUS Digital.

In this inaugural episode of Leapfrog CX Strategies longform interviews, host Dave Michaels discusses with Vasili Triant, CEO of UJET, the evolving landscape of customer experience (CX) technology. Vasily shares insights from his extensive career, spanning companies like Shoretel, Serenova, and Cisco, before taking the helm at UJET.**Key Discussion Points:**- **Industry Background:** Vasily's journey through various tech companies, highlighting the transition from on-premise solutions to cloud-based services. He reflects on his time at Shoretel as a formative experience, noting the company's significant growth and eventual impact of the cloud transition. Serenova is recalled as a company with potential that faced a challenging path.- **UJET's Evolution:** Vasily discusses his role in UJET's growth, including navigating fundraising rounds and his recent promotion to CEO. He touches upon the company's strategic pivot towards AI-driven CX transformation, emphasizing the integration of conversational analytics and virtual agent capabilities.- **AI in CX:** The conversation delves into the impact of AI on the contact center industry. While acknowledging the excitement around virtual agents, Vasily expresses a nuanced view, suggesting that while AI enhances efficiency, the human element and personalized customer experience remain crucial. He cautions against an overreliance on automation as a sole cost-saving measure, advocating for a balanced approach that leverages AI for proactive and efficient customer engagement.- **The Google Partnership:** Vasily elaborates on UJET's strategic partnership with Google, discussing how it has influenced the company's go-to-market strategy and product development roadmap. He highlights the symbiotic nature of the relationship and the potential for future collaboration, particularly in leveraging Google's reach to drive AI adoption in CX.- **Workforce Management (WFM) and Quality Management (QM):** The discussion addresses the acquisition of Authority, a WFM/QM solutions provider. Vasily explains the rationale behind the acquisition, emphasizing the strategic importance of integrating these capabilities to offer a more comprehensive CX solution. He differentiates between the evolving QM space, which he believes is ripe for AI disruption, and the more established WFM market.- **Future Outlook:** Vasily shares his vision for UJET, focusing on continued innovation in AI-powered CX solutions, strategic partnerships, and expanding into new markets, including a growing presence in Portugal. He expresses a passion for genuinely transforming customer experiences by leveraging technology to create more proactive, efficient, and personalized interactions.This episode provides a deep dive into the strategies and vision driving a key player in the CX technology sector.

In this episode of CX Decoded, Dom Nicastro distills a CMSWire TV conversation with AT&T's John Miller into five essential takeaways on customer obsession. From employee enablement to AI restraint, the discussion breaks down how AT&T turns CX intent into everyday practice at enterprise scale.

Most customer experience goals are meaningless. In this episode, Bob Furniss and Amas Tenumah dismantle the way contact centers set annual CX metrics and explain why leaders keep optimizing numbers that customers neither notice nor value. Using insights from a John Goodman article on CX goal-setting, the conversation exposes the disconnect between executives, customers, and frontline teams—and why automation, deflection, and "respectable" percentage improvements often make service worse, not better. This episode is about shifting from internally convenient metrics to customer-impactful outcomes. What You'll Hear Why CX goals are often chosen because they sound reasonable, not because they solve customer problems How executives chase a single "magic number" instead of understanding service complexity The fundamental incentive gap between customers and senior leadership Why customers and frontline agents are aligned—but executives aren't How automation and bots optimize company metrics while frustrating customers Where AI actually helps: analyzing volume, root causes, and systemic friction Why average metrics (ASA, AHT) distort reality and reward the wrong behavior How poor goal-setting punishes leaders who successfully automate the "easy" work The risk of letting someone else define your goals if you don't take control A real-world example of automation done right—and how bad metrics mislabel it as failure Key Takeaways Vanity metrics don't fix customer experience Deflection and containment may look good internally while actively harming trust CX leaders must own the narrative or be trapped chasing numbers they don't believe in AI should surface customer pain, not just reduce contact volume Goals should reflect customer outcomes, not executive convenience Resources Mentioned John Goodman's article on CX goal-setting (referenced in discussion) HOLD: The Suffering Economy of Customer Service by Amas Tenumah Available on Amazon Signed copies at waitingforservice.com Who This Episode Is For Contact center and CX leaders setting 2026 goals Executives relying on NPS, ASA, AHT, or deflection as proxies for success Practitioners tired of fixing the wrong problems Anyone responsible for explaining service performance to leadership  

Hoy abordamos un tema que va contra la corriente del mercado actual: la supuesta muerte de las berlinas. Nos han dicho que los SUV son el futuro, que son más cómodos y seguros. Pero hoy vamos a demostrar, con la calculadora en la mano y la física de nuestro lado, que la silueta de tres volúmenes no solo no está muerta, sino que es la respuesta técnica necesaria a los problemas de eficiencia actuales. Si le pides a un niño que dibuje un coche, dibuja una berlina: motor, habitáculo y maletero. Es "El Coche" por definición. Durante décadas fue el estándar, desde los taxis de Nueva York hasta el coche familiar de los 90. Sin embargo, en los últimos 15 años hemos visto una "limpieza étnica" automotriz a favor del SUV. Pero te propongo dejar de mirar los anuncios y mirar los datos de los túneles de viento. Berlina vs. SUV: La dictadura de la física Vivimos en la era de la eficiencia obligatoria. En un eléctrico, la mala aerodinámica significa no llegar a destino; en uno de combustión, significa gastar más. La berlina es imbatible aquí. Muchas marcas presumen de que sus SUV tienen un Coeficiente Aerodinámico (Cx) similar al de una berlina (0.29, por ejemplo). ¡Es una trampa! Lo que realmente frena al vehículo es el SCx: el coeficiente multiplicado por la Superficie Frontal. Los datos reales son demoledores. Comparando un Tesla Model 3 contra un Model Y (misma batería y motor) a 120 km/h, la berlina consume entre un 15% y un 18% menos. Eso se traduce en 50 o 60 km de autonomía extra "gratis". En combustión ocurre lo mismo: un BMW Serie 3 gasta casi un litro menos a los cien que un X3 en autopista, con mejores prestaciones. La física no perdona. El salvavidas chino y la rentabilidad industrial Quizás te preguntes por qué marcas como BMW, Audi o Mercedes siguen invirtiendo millones en desarrollar nuevas berlinas si en Europa todos compran SUV. La respuesta está en China. Allí, la berlina es sagrada y símbolo de estatus. Tanto es así que se fabrican versiones de batalla larga (Long Wheelbase) específicas para ese mercado. Gracias a que China compra millones de estos coches, las marcas europeas pueden seguir ofreciéndolos aquí. Además, industrialmente la berlina es más rentable: requiere menos acero y cristal, usa neumáticos más pequeños y baratos, y necesita suspensiones menos complejas al no tener que controlar las inercias de un vehículo alto de dos toneladas. Estatus, imagen y el problema del "Sándwich" Hay un reducto donde el SUV no ha logrado penetrar: el coche de representación. Los líderes mundiales no viajan en todoterrenos, viajan en berlinas de lujo. La berlina sigue siendo el equivalente al traje con corbata: transmite seriedad y elegancia. El SUV, aunque sea de lujo, es como un chándal caro. También analizamos los retos técnicos. El principal es el "efecto sándwich" en los eléctricos: la batería en el suelo eleva el piso del coche, obligando a subir el techo para que los ocupantes quepan, lo que tiende a "gordificar" la silueta. Sin embargo, la ingeniería está respondiendo con soluciones como los "garajes para pies" (huecos en la batería para las plazas traseras) que permiten mantener diseños bajos y afilados, como vemos en el Porsche Taycan o el Audi e-tron GT. La resistencia: ¿Quién mantiene la llama? Hacemos un repaso a los "héroes" que mantienen vivo el segmento, mezclando la tradición europea con la nueva ola tecnológica china: -Tesla y BYD: El Model 3 y el BYD Seal demuestran que, si el producto es eficiente y tecnológico, la gente compra berlinas masivamente. -Alemania: BMW con su i4 y Serie 3, Mercedes con su gama EQ centrada en la aerodinámica extrema, y Audi refinando la fórmula con el A5 Sportback. -La nueva ola china: Marcas como Xiaomi con su SU7 o Xpeng están apostando fuerte por berlinas muy bajas y afiladas, declarando la guerra a la resistencia al aire. -Japón: Lexus y Toyota siguen ofreciendo la opción racional y fiable con el ES y el Corolla Sedan. Conclusión: El regreso de la razón Las modas son cíclicas. Ya empezamos a ver fatiga visual con los SUV; todos parecen iguales, bloques altos y agresivos. La diferenciación y el verdadero lujo volverán a estar en lo bajo, afilado y elegante. Las berlinas han perdido la batalla del volumen masivo, pero han ganado la batalla de la razón y la física. Mientras la autonomía y la eficiencia sean claves, la silueta de tres volúmenes sobrevivirá, evolucionando hacia vehículos más especializados y tecnológicamente superiores. ¿Estamos ante el fin de la era del "tanque urbano"? Tal vez no mañana, pero la eficiencia es la única ley que importa a largo plazo, y ahí, la berlina reclama su trono.

Customer satisfaction has barely moved in over 30 years — despite enormous investment in Customer Experience. In this episode of The Intuitive Customer, Professor Ryan Hamilton and Morgan Ward speak with Forrest Morgeson from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). ACSI has tracked customer satisfaction continuously since 1994 using the same questions and methodology across the entire US economy. And the long-term data tells a story that challenges many comfortable CX assumptions. Rather than steadily improving as CX practices mature, customer satisfaction rises and falls in cycles — heavily influenced by pricing, profitability, cost-cutting, and broader economic forces. This episode explores why satisfaction scores stagnate, why record profits often coincide with declining customer satisfaction, and why CX leaders need to think beyond journey maps and empathy training. Best Quote from the Episode "Customer satisfaction isn't a straight line. It moves in cycles — and when companies start squeezing for profit, customers feel it." Forrest Morgeson, American Custoimer Satisfaction Index Why You Should Listen? If you work in customer experience, marketing, or leadership, this episode will challenge some of the most widely held beliefs in CX. You'll gain: A data-led perspective grounded in 30 years of evidence A clearer understanding of why satisfaction scores fall despite CX investment Practical insight into the economic forces shaping customer experience A more realistic way to think about CX performance and ROI   Resources Mentioned  American Customer Satisfaction Index: https://theacsi.org/the-acsi-difference/us-overall-customer-satisfaction/  Forrest Morgeson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrestmorgeson/   About the Hosts: Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World's Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called "The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things" Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.  Morgan Ward is an adjunct marketing professor, weekly expert guest on The Take—11Alive's in-depth news program that explores timely stories through expert insight—With over 20 years of experience advising clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500s and publishing in top academic journals, she's passionate about decoding the symbolic and cultural forces that shape consumer behavior. Her work focuses on status, identity, and decision-making across sectors like luxury, retail, and tech. Beyond consulting, Morgan serves as an expert witness in branding and advertising litigation, bringing academic rigor to questions of perception, distinctiveness, and influence. Follow Morgan on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgankward-phd/)   Subscribe & Follow  Apple Podcasts Spotify  

ABOUT JENNIFER:LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejenniferwalsh/ Websites:https://www.walkwithwalsh.comBio:For nearly 30 years, Jennifer has been at the forefront of transformative movements in beauty, retail, & biophilic design. As a consummate innovator, she has been dedicated to reimagining the human experience, whether through pioneering retail concepts, creating immersive outdoor experiences, or driving biophilic design solutions across industries.In the 1990s, Jennifer founded Beauty Bar, the first experiential omni-channel beauty brand in the U.S., introducing open-sell environments, curbside service, and men's skincare departments, concepts that reshaped how people shop for beauty. This trailblazing work integrated biophilic principles long before they became mainstream, earning recognition as an industry innovator. After selling Beauty Bar ultimately purchased by Amazon in 2011, she continued to build groundbreaking businesses and brands, always staying ahead of the curve. Another first was created in 2014 with Pride & Glory, a collegiate beauty brand. Today, she guides large and small scale biophilic design projects to create spaces that promote human flourishing. From Recharge Rooms to retail spaces, homes, schools, and urban landscapes, her work transforms environments into ecosystems of opportunity. All inspired from lived experiences. Jennifer helps organizations leverage the neuroscience of nature to enhance experiences, foster resilience, and build deeper connections within their organizations.SHOW INTRO:Welcome to Episode 84! of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast…In every episode we follow our catch phrase of having “Dynamic Dialogues About DATA: Design, Architecture, Technology and the Arts.” And as we continue on this journey, we'll have guests that are thought provoking futurists, AI technology mavens, retailers, international hotel design executives as well as designers and architects of brand experience places.We'll talk with authors and people focused on wellness and sustainable design practices as well as neuroscientists who will continue to help us look at the built environment and the connections betw een our mind-body and the built world around us.We'll also have guests who are creative marketing masters from international brands and people who have started and grown some of the companies that are striking a new path for us follow.If you like what you hear on the NXTLVL Experience Design show, make sure to subscribe, like, comment and share with colleagues, friends and family.The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is always grateful for the support of VMSD magazine.VMSD brings us, in the brand experience world, the International Retail Design Conference. I think the IRDC is one of the best retail design conferences that there is bringing together the world of retailers, brands and experience place makers every year for two days of engaging conversations and pushing us to keep on talking about what makes retailing relevant. You will find the archive of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast on VMSD.com.Thanks also goes to Shop Association the only global retail trade association dedicated to elevating the in-store experience. SHOP Association represents companies and affiliates from 25 countries and brings value to their members through research, networking, education, events and awards. Check then out on SHOPAssociation.org Today, EPISODE 84… I talk with Jennifer Walsh who for nearly 30 years, has been at the forefront of transformative movements in beauty, retail, & biophilic design. Jennifer is an innovator, and has been dedicated to reimagining the human experience, whether through pioneering retail concepts, creating immersive outdoor experiences, or driving biophilic design solutions across industries.Talking about biophilic design isn't new on the podcast, this time though we bolt on retailing, neuroscience and experience. This conversation is more introspective and looks at one's motivation to change to considering our environments and biophilic design from the point of view of sense of well-being and personal growth.We'll get there in a minute but... first a few thoughts…*                     *                          *                          *If you go back to the early episodes of the podcast, you'll come across Bill Browning. Bill and I connected while I was working the hospitality industry and focusing my efforts on the redesign of the Westin guestroom and lobby design strategy.Bill's world is Biophilic – both literally and philosophically, may be even existentially. He literally wrote the book on Biophilic Design's 14 principles, which now includes a 15th with the addition of ‘Awe,' and he has written a more recent publication with Katie Ryan called “Nature Inside,” it is a terrific handbook to implementing Biophilic design principles in built environments.I think a lot about the design of places where nature has been completely eliminated - think major downtown cities in any corner of the world.It is also not lost on me that when I sit working in my Home Office I have the extraordinarily good fortune to lookout on 2 1/2 acres of green space with a rolling hill down towards a creek that when it rains particularly hard overflows and becomes a small river in my backyard. But this point of view to my backyard and the way I feel sitting on my deck having a morning coffee is not just about the warm feeling of my cup in my hands but that there are key principles of biophilic design at play - namely refuge and prospect. Being exposed daily to these perspectives towards a forest at the back of my property I have an immediate body sense of calm, wonder and awe.I see sun rises to the left of my property and sun sets to the right. The re are Canada geese that, like clockwork, fly over my backyard every fall as they migrate South. I'm attuned to the textures and colors of the sky and the varying degrees of light intensity - bright and brilliant and dreary and diffused.All of these features of a natural world have the effect of putting me at ease.In the past few years, I've begun to connect that mind body experience, the somatic experience of natural places, with what I understand about neuroscience and our long evolutionary history of living the largest proportion of our human development among trees - in a real jungle versus the concrete ones that we have now built all around us.It's no surprise that the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku – forest bathing – is actually therapeutic. When we immerse ourselves in a forest atmosphere, using all five senses to connect with nature, we are promoting stress reduction and well-being. Slowing down, and taking mindful walks, appreciating sights, sounds, and smells is so good for us and yet many of us, especially those who are city dwellers, rush from place to place making sure to stay on the clock moving from one appointment to the next and filling our schedules every day with a mind-numbing number of things to check off on our To Do List Taking a moment to disconnect from technology calms the mind and body and has proven benefits like lower stress hormones and boosting immunity.The multi layered, highly textured and colored natural environments that we have evolved from, are often being replaced by environments of banality that actually have deep psychological effects when we are continually exposed to boring buildings.Bringing this intuitive sense, that natural environments support well-being, into the design of built environments, and intentionally creating places that reference biophilic principles, often proves very hard to do in a world where efficiency and productivity leading to increased profitability are what we are taught to drive towards as a reflection of success.Many times, adding plants to a space is an afterthought, like decoration, to make things look better - but they are not really being incorporated as a strategy for building environments to enhance well-being. Interestingly though, when people learn more about how to apply biophilic principles, beyond simply introducing plants as a nod to creating more nature-based experiences, they begin to also understand that their assumptions about adding additional cost may not be well founded. If you consider designing with nature in mind from the get-go, incorporating principles of biophilic design in the places we build as part of the strategy, then managing the costs is totally achievable.Anthropologie stores are a great example of introducing living green walls to their stores. Too be sure, these are not without expense both in their implementation and maintenance but the effect of walking up the grand staircase with this green wall rising from floor to ceiling across multiple levels feels wonderful. I still remember one of my first experiences in the Anthropologie store on Regent Street in London and have since sought to find similar experiences in other retail stores around the world. Design ideas like the green walls in Anthropologie stores is a conscious, intentional, move that enhances experience as well as environmental air quality. We simply feel better when we were places like this and if that turns into reduced absenteeism of associates or increased customer visits then… all the better. There's no question that being under a wash of fluorescent light standing on hard surfaces or sitting in cubicles is perhaps one of the worst ways to be productive and happy in our workplaces. I would imagine that sales associates in Anthropologie stores generally feel better than in big boxes with uniform high intensity lighting, relentless aisles of merchandise, hard surfaces and stale air with no natural sunlight.Full disclosure, when I look back over my career of designing retail places, very infrequently has the design team spent time considering what it would be like to be a sales associate in one of these places. Standing for hours on end in environments that are depleting leads to poor interactions between sales teams and customers. Seems kind of obvious but when people feel better in their workplaces, they're more likely to translate that to positive interactions with guests. More positive interactions with guests could naturally lead to larger basket size and increased number of return visits. All good if you're a retailerAnd yet, we seldom see retail places that fully embrace ideas that support well-being through the strategic introduction of biophilic design principles.New disciplines in the world of neuroscience like neuroaesthetics are beginning to be more widely accepted in the design community and there is a broader recognition about the positive effects of creating environments that apply principles of biophilia that enhance a sense of well-being. And while there is a growing trend of wider adoption of neuroaesthetics we need to keep on beating the drum about environments that are actually good for us.This is where the story leads to my guest Jennifer Walsh.In the 1990s, Jennifer founded Beauty Bar, the first experiential omni-channel beauty brand in the U.S., introducing open-sell environments, curbside service, and men's skincare departments - concepts that reshaped how people shop for beauty. Jennifer says that she just wanted people to feel good when they came into her store and she somehow intuitively knew that introducing elements of biophilia, though I'm not sure that we actually even had a name for it back then, into her store, would attract people, have them stay longer and return more often.Jennifer's integration of biophilic principles, long before they became mainstream, earned her recognition as an industry innovator. After Beauty Bar was ultimately purchased by Amazon in 2011, she continued to build groundbreaking businesses and brands, always staying ahead of the curve.Today, she guides large and small scale biophilic design projects to create spaces that promote human flourishing. In retail spaces, homes, schools, and urban landscapes, her work transforms environments into ecosystems of opportunity. All inspired from lived experiences. Jennifer helps organizations leverage the neuroscience of nature to enhance experiences, foster resilience, and build deeper connections within their organizations.ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:LinkedIn Profile: linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582bWebsites: https://www.davidkepron.com    (personal website)vmsd.com/taxonomy/term/8645  (Blog)Email: david.kepron@NXTLVLexperiencedesign.comTwitter: DavidKepronPersonal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidkepron/NXTLVL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nxtlvl_experience_design/Bio:David Kepron the Retail Studio Principal for the architecture and design firm Little (https://www.littleonline.com). He is a multifaceted creative professional with a deep curiosity to understand ‘why', ‘what's now' and ‘what's next'. He brings together his background as an architect, artist, educator, author, podcast host and builder to the making of meaningful and empathically-focused, community-centric customer connections at brand experience places around the globe. David is a former VP - Global Design Strategies at Marriott International. While at Marriott, his focus was on the creation of compelling customer experiences within Marriott's “Premium Distinctive” segment which included: Westin, Renaissance, Le Meridien, Autograph Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Design Hotels and Gaylord hotels. In 2020 Kepron founded NXTLVL Experience Design, a strategy and design consultancy, where he combines his multidisciplinary approach to the creation of relevant brand engagements with his passion for social and cultural anthropology, neuroscience and emerging digital technologies. As a frequently requested international speaker at corporate events and international conferences focusing on CX, digital transformation, retail, hospitality, emerging technology, David shares his expertise on subjects ranging from consumer behaviors and trends, brain science and buying behavior, store design and visual merchandising, hotel design and strategy as well as creativity and innovation. In his talks, David shares visionary ideas on how brand strategy, brain science and emerging technologies are changing guest expectations about relationships they want to have with brands and how companies can remain relevant in a digitally enabled marketplace. David currently shares his experience and insight on various industry boards including: VMSD magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, the Interactive Customer Experience Association, Sign Research Foundation's Program Committee as well as the Center For Retail Transformation at George Mason University.He has held teaching positions at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T.), the Department of Architecture & Interior Design of Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (L.I.M.) in New York, the International Academy of Merchandising and Design in Montreal and he served as the Director of the Visual Merchandising Department at LaSalle International Fashion School (L.I.F.S.) in Singapore.  In 2014 Kepron published his first book titled: “Retail (r)Evolution: Why Creating Right-Brain Stores Will Shape the Future of Shopping in a Digitally Driven World” and he is currently working on his second book to be published soon. I caught up with Bryan at the SHOP Marketplace event in Charlotte and chatted about his focus on shaping what comes next in digital signage and experiential design. The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound. The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.Make sure to tune in for more NXTLVL “Dialogues on DATA: Design Architecture Technology and the Arts” wherever you find your favorite podcasts and make sure to visit vmsd.com and look for the tab for the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there too.

This week on America on the Road, host Jack Nerad flies solo as co-host Chris Teague tends to a sick dog. Jack brings you road tests of two standout vehicles–North American Truck of the Year Ford Maverick Lobo and Mazda CX-30–and the latest automotive news. Among the stories we cover California Governor Gavin Newsom is making a new EV push; Volvo is targeting range anxiety, and Lucid is unveiling a new robotaxi. Our special guest interview looks behind the scenes at the all-new 2026 Volkswagen Tiguan.

Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, spoke with Rich Tehrani, Chairman of ITEXPO, about why the longtime South Florida event continues to serve as a critical kickoff for the communications, AI, and business technology industries. Now more than 20 years old, ITEXPO brings together enterprises, MSPs, resellers, vendors, and innovators at a time when budgets are forming and technology decisions can shape organizations for years. Tehrani described ITEXPO, organized by TMCnet, as less about gadgets and more about outcomes—career growth, profitability, and informed decision-making. “We're neutral. We don't favor the large companies or the small ones—we do right by the attendee,” he said, emphasizing that the show's open, vendor-agnostic format allows attendees to compare solutions side by side and get direct, human answers that are increasingly hard to find online. A centerpiece of the event is the Tech Super Show model, which co-locates multiple conferences so entire buying teams—AI, communications, cybersecurity, CX, and operations—can attend together. This creates what Tehrani calls a “business technology mall,” where discovery, peer conversations, and partner connections happen organically and quickly, often in minutes rather than weeks. AI is a major focus for 2026, including new programming around AI agents, the Generative AI Expo, and the evolution from IoT to AIoT, alongside expanded tracks on enterprise communications and cybersecurity. For the channel, MSP Expo remains a standout, with increased emphasis on valuation, margins, and building durable businesses, while the new ITAD Connect brings lifecycle and circular economy considerations into the conversation. As the event approaches, Tehrani noted strong momentum from exhibitors and attendees alike and highlighted the appeal of Fort Lauderdale as an accessible, cost-effective destination. “This is where the industry comes together to make better decisions—for your company and your career,” he said. Learn more about ITEXPO at https://www.itexpo.com/east/ and about TMCnet at https://www.tmcnet.com/.

Imagine a world where you can simply look at your journey model and ask it why... Why, for example, is our customer churn spiking this quarter? How close are we to that reality?I invited my good friend ​Jochem van der Veer​, CEO of TheyDo, back onto the show to find out. It's become a bit of a tradition to start the year with Jochem, looking back at our past predictions and setting the stage for what's next in the world of Journey Management.Not so long ago, "Journey Management" was really just an emerging term. Fast forward to today, and I think it's fair to say that the conversation has shifted entirely. We're seeing organizations big and small adopt this practice as a framework that drives real business decisions. In last year's episode, Jochem predicted that by now we'd be able to ask our journeys "Why?" and get instant (and meaningful) answers. In this conversation, we discuss how the technology has arrived and why "Journey Anarchy" is the new hurdle we have to clear.Next, we play a round of "Objection Bingo" where we address the most common roadblocks we hear every day that stand in the way of wider adoption of journey management. From "we don't have the data" to the classic "It's too expensive". And of course, Jochem shares some practical strategies to help you overcome these roadblocks when you encounter them.Finally, Jochem makes some spicy predictions for 2026. Like the emergence of a completely new role in the CX space. So, if you want to stay one step ahead and hear where our field is heading, this is the conversation for you.I would love to know: how do you feel about the state of journey management heading into 2026? A) Mostly "meh" B) Excited! C) Something else...Leave a comment (if you're on Spotify).Be well, ~ Marc--- [ 1. GUIDE ] --- 00:00 Welcome to Episode 24505:30 Revisiting 2025 Predictions10:00 The One Question Most Marketers Forget to Ask12:45 Role of Human Judgment vs. AI Clues14:30 4-Step Journey Framework for 202617:00 Why Journey Mapping is "Dead"21:15 #1 Reason Companies Fail at Implementation24:45 The "Journey Anarchy" Crisis28:00 improving decision making31:00 How Siloed Teams Kill Revenue38:30:00 Another Objection: "It's Too Expensive"42:30 Objection Bingo: Flipping the Script on Stakeholder Pushback46:15 Wildcard: AI Agents vs. Simple Chatbowildcard: AI48:45 Credit Card/Budget Reality Check53:00 Predictions for 202654:15 Shift from Efficiency Cuts to Innovation Growth57:00 Why "Operationalizing Empathy" is the New Competitive Edge58:00 Other Challenges to Watch for in 202659:30 Near Real-Time Journey Monitoring1:03:00 The 10 Million Dollar Problem1:05:00 Connect with Jochem --- [ 2. LINKS ] --- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochemvanderveerThe Experience Edge Podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/4M2BsaT4jC5Oz54eyek0SZhttps://www.theydo.com/ --- [ 3. CIRCLE ] --- Join our private community for in-house service design professionals. ⁠https://servicedesignshow.com/circle[4. FIND THE SHOW ON]Youtube ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/245-youtubeSpotify ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/245-spotifyApple ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/245-appleSnipd ~ https://go.servicedesignshow.com/245-snipd

⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly buyer psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Buying a car isn't exciting at first. It's stressful, confusing, and full of uncertainty.   In this episode of AutoKnerd, “See It From Their Side,” we dig into what actually changes when a sales consultant stops selling at customers and starts seeing the process through the customer's eyes.   This isn't empathy as a buzzword. It's empathy as a practical, operational skill.   You'll learn: Why customers walk into dealerships guarded, not excited How pressure, jargon, and speed quietly kill trust The difference between empathy and sympathy in real sales conversations Why creating safety actually speeds up decisions Simple language shifts that lower anxiety and build confidence How managers either protect empathy or accidentally crush it   If you work in automotive sales, management, or dealership leadership, this episode will challenge how you think about trust, pace, and what customers are really reacting to.   Empathy isn't soft. It's how deals survive long enough to close.  

Mazda May Have Nailed It: Is the 2026 CX-50 Its Best Yet? What if a compact SUV could feel like a luxury vehicle—without the luxury price tag?

Mark Fithian is the cofounder of WideOpen, a consultancy that helps organizations achieve sustainable growth through strategic customer experience. Mark's expertise in CX is informed by more than thirty years of work across industries, partnering with leading brands such as Providence, SAP, PayPal, Optum, IBM, BMW, the American Cancer Society, and Microsoft. Before founding WideOpen, he held leadership roles on both the client and agency sides, as well as in strategic consultancies.Mentioned on the ShowRead Mark's profile on the WideOpen website: https://www.thisiswideopen.com/our-teamConnect with Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markfithian/Get Mark's book, The CX Imperative: https://a.co/d/316xGzXO'Brien and Mark discussed the book Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt: https://a.co/d/9GSTIfN Timestamps(00:00:00) Welcome to People Business with O'Brien McMahon(00:01:45) What is the difference between customer experience and user experience?(00:02:22) And how did you get into this work in the first place? (00:07:24) What is the purpose of business? (00:08:35) Why do businesses struggle with customer experience? (00:11:24) "The Great Distancing": what it is and why it hurts customer experience(00:13:44) What makes good incentives in customer experience? (00:15:15) How does a business know when they are doing CX well?(00:20:08) How does executive leadership get involved in good CX?(00:32:49) Who should be responsible for customer experience?(00:40:41) Mark's 5 Pillars of Customer Experience(00:44:19) What does strategy mean to you? (00:55:21) How to get started with customer experience and how to contact Mark Fithian.

Host Sima Vasa welcomes Carol Sue Haney, Head of Research and Data Science, Engineering at Qualtrics, to discuss the transformative role of AI and data science in the market research industry.  Carol Sue explains Qualtrics’ early bet on generative AI and the development of proprietary LLMs, moving into agentic work and synthetic sampling, which she predicts will rival non-probability human sampling for quick-turn research. She emphasizes the challenges CMOs face with data overload and the fundamental importance of using regression analysis to link customer experience (CX) data, including the surprising weight of marketing messages, to crucial business outcomes like renewal and revenue growth.  Key Takeaways: 00:00 Introduction.03:12 Data research careers spanned decades before computers existed.06:35 Early generative AI investment provides significant competitive advantages.09:20 Synthetic research boosts accuracy using rich, proven seed data.13:02 AI models instantly incorporate new information for continuous improvement.17:09 Regression remains essential for identifying true business drivers.20:42 Curated data and guided AI make regression faster and reliable.24:18 Financial independence through careers empowers women in critical ways.25:42 Mentorship and knowledge sharing strengthen the entire research industry. Resources Mentioned: Qualtrics | Website #Analytics #MA #Data #Strategy #Innovation #Acquisitions #MRX #Restech

As digital products become the primary customer interface, delays in bug diagnosis and resolution now directly affect the customer experience. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Matt Rubright, Chief Customer Officer at Jam, explains how Jam fits into the bug-reporting and support workflow by capturing technical context as issues are reported. That shared context helps support and engineering diagnose problems faster, reduce handoffs, and move toward resolution with greater clarity. The conversation looks at why resolution speed and coordination have become CX priorities—and how AI is influencing the way teams work together when something breaks. This episode is sponsored by Jam.

In this episode of The CX Tipping Point Podcast, Martha Dorris talks with Mark Forman about the evolution of digital government and e-government initiatives, with a focus on the groundbreaking Quicksilver project of the early 2000s. Mark shares how Quicksilver identified 24 priority initiatives across four portfolios to improve service delivery and reduce transaction costs—and what he would do differently if leading similar efforts today.Drawing from his experience leading the 2001 Quicksilver digital transformation initiative, Mark discusses building a cross-agency task force of seasoned government reformers, navigating collaboration and funding challenges, and ensuring long-term sustainability. Together, Martha and Mark explore the ongoing burden of government transactions, the complexities of organizing services around a citizen-centric model, and the lessons still shaping government CX today. The conversation concludes with Mark's vision for “New Federalism 2.0” and how better technology integration could transform citizen services.Thank you for listening to this episode of The CX Tipping Point Podcast! If you enjoyed it, please consider subscribing, rating, and leaving a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your support helps us reach more listeners! Stay Connected: Follow us on social media: LinkedIn: @DorrisConsultingInternational Twitter: @DorrisConsultng Facebook: @DCInternational Resources Mentioned: Citizen Services Newsletter 2024 Service to the Citizen Awards Nomination Form

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...Customer experience doesn't need to be complicated to work.In this CX Open To Work episode, Luis Carrillo shares why simpler CX creates immediate impact…for customers, teams, and the business. From removing friction to building trust, this conversation focuses on CX that actually works.5 CX Insights from the Episode• Simpler CX delivers results customers, employees, and leaders can feel • Listening to customers beats guessing every time • Returns are a trust moment…not a policy problem • Training and QA quietly power great experiences • CX drives revenue when effort is reducedCHAPTERS00:00 Welcome + CX Open To Work01:32 Why simpler CX creates immediate impact04:18 Reducing friction without punishing good customers07:24 CX as a revenue engine10:52 Recovery, trust, and loyalty12:03 First Class Lounge16:17 What companies still miss in CX19:15 What's next for LuisGuest LinksLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luiscarrillo-21a70520/Listen: https://www.cxpassport.com Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

Today's episode of the Punk CX podcast is with Chris Morrissey, who is the General Manager and Global Head of CX Sales & Go-To-Market at Zoom, where he drives strategy and execution for the company's customer experience business. Chris joins me today to talk about why describing yourself as ‘AI-first' these days is a mistake, why reducing effort outweighs everything else in CX, the difference between "lip service personalization" and true personalization and how we should be moving beyond chatbots and what the future of customer interaction really looks like. We finish off with Chris's best advice, his Punk CX brand and his very own good news story. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Brands should avoid making Gen AI or chatbots their sole frontline – Interview with Phil Regnault of PwC – and is number 568 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Eric Krapf, Program Chair of Enterprise Connect at Informa, joined Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, to discuss what attendees and exhibitors can expect from the upcoming Enterprise Connect conference—and why the move to Las Vegas marks a significant evolution for the long-running event. After many successful years in Orlando, Enterprise Connect will take place at Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, with Harrah's and The LINQ directly connected to the venue. Krapf explained that the new location improves accessibility for West Coast and central U.S. attendees, offers a wider range of hotel options at different price points, and reduces the logistical friction that often comes with large conventions. The event will also run concurrently with HIMSS, creating opportunities for crossover between enterprise communications and healthcare technology audiences. On the content side, Enterprise Connect has significantly refreshed its program structure. The conference will now begin on Tuesday, making travel easier for attendees, and will feature flexible one-, two-, and three-day passes. Tuesday morning will open with three half-day summits focused on AI, customer experience (CX), and collaboration/UC, combining panels, enterprise case studies, and small-group roundtable discussions designed to encourage peer-to-peer networking. “We're really trying to balance the need to maintain and modernize legacy environments with the challenge of figuring out where AI delivers real ROI today,” Krapf said. AI will be a central theme throughout the event, reflecting the realities many enterprises face: top-down mandates to deploy AI, uncertainty about value and governance, and long-term career implications for IT professionals. At the same time, the agenda continues to address core enterprise priorities such as reliability, compliance, E911, contact center migration, and hybrid work—acknowledging that most organizations must run stable existing systems while preparing for an AI-driven future. Krapf emphasized that Enterprise Connect remains a uniquely vendor-neutral environment, bringing together large platform providers, emerging startups, solution partners, and channel players in one place. “This is where you can see the whole picture—compare solutions side by side, talk directly to peers, and make informed decisions about what actually fits your organization,” he said. For enterprise IT leaders, channel partners, and solution providers alike, Enterprise Connect continues to serve as a critical forum for education, evaluation, and in-person networking. Learn more and register at https://enterpriseconnect.com/.

In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Krista Phillips, Chief Customer and Transformation Officer at M&T Bank, explains how a Fortune 500 bank turns half a million customer signals into CX execution. The conversation explores how structure, governance, analytics, and AI help move customer insight from feedback into action—while balancing digital growth with trust and prioritizing relationships over transactions. Topics covered include: Anchoring CX in relationships, not transactions Balancing digital convenience with trust-based experiences Turning customer signals into enterprise priorities Using analytics and AI to inform decisions without replacing leadership

What's on your mind? Let CX Passport know...What if customer experience isn't fast, frictionless, or flashy…but deliberate, long-term, and built over years? Sarah Kinard talks about why CX in architecture, engineering, and construction is inherently slow CX…and why that perspective may be exactly what other industries need.5 Insights from the EpisodeCX in AEC unfolds over years…not moments, journeys, or transactions.Clients aren't just buying outcomes anymore…they're buying clarity, foresight, and shared accountability.The post-2009 talent gap created a “missing middle,” weakening CX instincts across firms.CX struggled to scale because it relied on heroic individuals instead of systems.Primary research focused on intent, not opinion, leads to smarter growth decisions.CHAPTERS00:00 Welcome to CX Passport02:00 CX in AEC…from toilets to symphony halls05:20 Risk, confidence, and defensible decisions06:45 The generational talent gap and CX instincts09:40 Why “soft skills” are essential business skills10:55 The role of the SMPS Foundation12:30 Growth, research, and the Flamingo Project15:25 Intent vs opinion in customer research17:20 First Class Lounge ✈️ 20:45 Peak-end rule in a 10-year experience 23:30 Why CX lagged…and why it's catching up 28:15 AEC as the ultimate team sportGuest Links:SMPS Foundation - https://www.smps.org/The Flamingo Project - https://theflamingoproject.com/LinkedIn -  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkinard/Listen: https://www.cxpassport.com Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@cxpassport Newsletter: https://cxpassport.kit.com/signupI'm Rick Denton and I believe the best meals are served outside and require a passport.Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views and opinions expressed are those of the hosts and guests and should not be taken as legal, financial, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified attorney, financial advisor, or other professional regarding your specific situation. The opinions expressed by guests are solely theirs and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of the host(s).

What if the foundation of your digital strategy, your corporate website, is becoming less important than the conversations happening about your brand in places you don't control? Agility requires a fundamental shift in mindset, moving beyond just broadcasting your message on owned channels to actively shaping the narrative across an entire ecosystem you don't fully control. Today, we're going to talk about how generative AI is creating a new layer between your brand and your customers, changing how they discover information and what they trust. We'll explore the surprising new balance of power between owned media and earned media, and what it means for your PR, content, and SEO strategies moving forward. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Mark Nardone, CMO at PAN. About Mark Nardone Mark has been a driving force at PAN since its inception. As part of the executive team, Mark oversees operations and leads strategic growth initiatives across business development and marketing.Mark's acumen sparked PAN's positioning as a brand-to-demand agency forged in PR. With more B2B brands seeking a modern, energetic, agile partner to connect the dots between brand awareness, demand acquisition, and growth, Mark saw an opportunity for PAN to meet those needs on a global scale through integrated, data-driven marketing and PR grounded in real-world impact.Passionate about all things AI and CX, Mark is active in Harvard's Office of Technology Department Expert-in-Residence (XIR) program and the thought leadership realm. You can find his insights on the DMNews Podcast, Heinz Marketing Radio, PR News, Agile Brand, and Evan Kirstel LinkedIn Live. When he's not discussing the latest marketing and PR trends, Mark enjoys golfing and spending time with his wife and two kids. Mark Nardone on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-nardone-807560/ Resources PAN: https://www.pancommunications.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the year for Retail and Brand marketers. Learn more at CRMC 2026, June 1-3. https://www.thecrmc.com/ Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://ratethispodcast.com/agileConnect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Today's guest is Baker Johnson, Chief Business Officer at UJET. UJET is a next-generation cloud contact center platform that leverages AI to modernize the customer experience. Baker joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explain why conversational and agentic AI often fall short in CX, and how legacy processes and fragmented data prevent meaningful results. Baker also offers practical steps for improving ROI — from redesigning workflows before automating them to aligning real-time interaction data with systems of record and building a healthier balance between human and AI agents. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on the 'AI in Business' podcast! This episode is sponsored by UJET.

SEASON 9 COMING JANUARY 6TH, 2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly marketing psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Amas Tenumah explains why customer service is not "broken" but intentionally designed to fail. Drawing on decades inside contact centers, historical research, and real corporate incentives, he argues that long waits, deflection, and automation-first strategies are features—not bugs. The conversation dismantles common CX myths, challenges executive complacency, and frames consumer behavior as the only force capable of triggering real change. Core Themes The Suffering Economy of Customer Service: When service is universally bad across industries, it's systemic. Incentives—not incompetence—drive outcomes. Why This Is a "How Dare You" Book: The indictment is aimed squarely at executives who treat service as a cost center while overfunding marketing narratives. Marketing Replaced Service as Trust Mechanism: Historically, service was marketing. Industrialized marketing severed that link, allowing companies to tolerate bad service and buy growth instead. Metrics That Poison Service: Deflection, containment, and avoidance KPIs reward companies for not talking to customers—while punishing leaders who try to deliver what customers actually want. Wait Times Are Engineered: Hold times are budgeted, modeled, and accepted. They are designed friction, not operational accidents. AI as Distance, Not Salvation: AI is currently deployed to protect companies from customers, not customers from friction. It scales avoidance unless incentives change. Executives Don't Experience Their Own Service: Many leaders despise customer service—just not their own. Forcing executives to call their own 1-800 numbers is revelatory and uncomfortable. The Revolt Is Consumer-Led: Change will not come from CX professionals alone. It comes when consumers punish bad service with their wallets and reward companies that respect their time. Notable Moments The opening story of the 1750 BC clay tablet complaint—the first recorded customer service grievance—reads like a modern Amazon review. The Chipotle refund anecdote exposes time theft: hours of customer labor to recover trivial amounts of money. The contrast between automation done for customers versus automation used to avoid them. Practical Takeaways For Consumers: Vote with your wallet. Pay slightly more. Wait one more day. Call customer service before you buy big-ticket items. For Service Leaders: If your CEO doesn't believe in service as value creation, your job is to change their mind—or change jobs. Data plus customer stories are the leverage. For Executives: Service is deferred revenue protection. Treating it purely as cost is strategic malpractice. Resources Mentioned Book: HOLD: The Suffering Economy of Customer Service — And the Revolt That's Long Overdue Signed Copies & Tools: waitingforservice.com Consumer scripts Cancellation guides Practitioner playbooks No email required  

As the year wraps up, we are replaying some of our favorite conversations from 2025, including this one!What could your CX teams do to strategically move your brand forward if they weren't tethered to dashboards? Agility requires CX teams to move beyond reactive reporting and embrace proactive insight delivery. In an era where insights are instantly available through conversational AI, the strategic role of CX is about to shift—big time.Today we're going to talk about how AI is reshaping customer experience by freeing CX teams from dashboards, static reports, and manual data analysis—and allowing them to lead strategically with real-time intelligence. About Sid Banerjee Sid currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer at Medallia. He has nearly 30 years of experience building companies and solutions focused on customer experience, business intelligence, and AI-powered technologies. He was the Founder, CEO, Chairman, and Chief Strategy Officer at Clarabridge, and most recently served as Chief XM Strategy Officer at Qualtrics. He has held leadership roles at MicroStrategy, Claraview, Ernst & Young, and Sprint. He holds a BS/MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT. Sid Banerjee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidbanerjeewdc/ Resources Medallia: https://www.medallia.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://ratethispodcast.com/agileConnect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

SEASON 9 COMING JANUARY 6TH, 2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly marketing psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

This week's podcast has my predictions for 2026.You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.Here is the link to our Tech Tours.My predictions are:1) It Will be Another Big Year For Google Gemini2) GenAI Data Architecture in Enterprises Will Be the Critical Capability3) AI Service Business Models vs. Platform Business Models Is the Big Question.4) AI Agents and Agent Operating Basics Are the Other Critical Capability for Businesses5) Agentic Ecommerce Will Be a Major Disruption6) AI Cloud Businesses Will Continue to Lead7) China Will Shock the World with Robotics and Physical AI ----------I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to supercharge digital growth and build digital moats.I am a partner at TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in how to increase growth with improved customer experiences (CX), personalization and other types of customer value. Get in touch here.I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.Support the show

As we head into 2026, leaders are facing a familiar challenge in a new form. Expectations are higher. Attention spans are shorter. Technology is accelerating. And yet, the differentiator hasn't changed. In this episode I talk about what is needed to drive employee experience, customer experience, and hospitality to drive business results. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why leadership, hospitality, and CX are no longer separate conversations • How employee experience directly shapes customer behavior and loyalty • Why hospitality is a strategic growth lever, not a "soft" skill • The rise of premiumization and intentional moments that matter • How technology should enable humanity, not replace it • The leadership behaviors that will differentiate brands in 2026 • Practical questions every leader should be asking right now Perfect for: hospitality leaders, business owners, CEOS, COOs, CX/EX professionals, operational managers, retail and service teams, training and development leaders, and anyone responsible for people and performance (and sales growth) in 2026. If you are ready to start 2026 with clarity, confidence, and momentum, this episode is your launch point. Book time with me to learn about our speaking, training, and consulting services: https://calendly.com/thetonyjohnson/strategy  Links & Resources:

SEASON 9 COMING JANUARY 6TH, 2025 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly marketing psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

Happy New Year for 2026 from Peter and Mark at the CX Files podcast. We asked our listeners to send some thoughts about 2025 and the year ahead... If you listen to this episode you will hear messages from the Netherlands, Philippines, UK, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and Brazil... that's North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia all covered! Contributors listed in the order they feature on the podcast: Leo Ooms https://www.linkedin.com/in/leoooms/ Nathan Muniz https://www.linkedin.com/in/bdcoutsourcing/ Lian Rowlands https://www.linkedin.com/in/lian-rowlands-a26119/ Rod Jones https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodjonessouthafrica/ Paul O'Hara https://www.linkedin.com/in/pauloharateleperformance/ Michael Gray https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgray7/ Anna Bessarabova https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-bessarabova/ Michael Clark https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelclarkcx/ Mike Ortegon https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeortegon/ Stephen Loynd https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenloynd/ David Neale https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-neale-08b80011b/ Peter Ryan https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-ryan-montreal/ Mark Hillary https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhillary/ ---- "All I Want for CX-mas (Is the Future)" Composed by Mark Hillary with Suno Verse 1 Snow's falling on the dashboards, Year-end reports are due, Another season of predictions, But nobody knows what's true. From São Paulo to Montreal, Different skies, same screen, Two voices cut through the noise, Talking 'bout what CX means. Pre-Chorus The year's been long, the change came fast, AI hype, then lessons learned, But now we're looking forward, To the value still to be earned. Chorus All I want for CX-mas is the future, Not the buzzwords, not the fear, Just better service, smarter choices, And a little more trust next year. From every brand to every customer, Let's build it human, let's build it right, All I want for CX-mas is the future, And the CX Files on a Wednesday night. Verse 2 Agents, bots, and blended teams, Journeys changing shape, Less about the tech itself, More about escape From broken processes, From friction no one sees, Designing moments that feel simple, Even when the systems aren't easy. Pre-Chorus We've learned that scale needs patience, And strategy beats speed, The future's not autonomous, Unless it serves a real human need. Chorus All I want for CX-mas is the future, Not another pilot that won't land, Just outcomes, empathy, and clarity, Finally working hand in hand. From every continent and culture, One community, one shared view, All I want for CX-mas is the future, And the CX Files guiding us through. Bridge From São Paulo sunshine, To Montreal snow, Two hosts, one question: "Where do we go?" Analysts, founders, leaders, friends, Four hundred stories, and still it never ends. No silver bullets, no easy claim, Just better questions changing the game. Final Chorus All I want for CX-mas is the future, Designed with care, not just code, Where trust is built in every interaction, And experience carries the load. So here's to 2026 and beyond, To curiosity, courage, and insight, All we want for CX-mas is the future, And the CX Files lighting the way each night. Outro So press play, pour a drink, Let the old year fade from view, The future of CX is being written— And it starts with me and you.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Sven Gierlinger breaks down what CX leadership really looks like at scale. As SVP and Chief Experience Officer at Northwell Health, Sven leads experience across one of the largest health systems in the country—bringing hospitality principles, cultural leadership, and practical technology into healthcare.

Did you like the episode? Send me a text and let me know!! AI-Driven Business Playbook: Scaling Your Startup with PiWelcome back, Scoobelievers! In this episode of Business Conversations with Pi, host Jesse (SKoob) and AI co-host Pi dive deep into how entrepreneurs can leverage Artificial Intelligence to gain a massive competitive advantage. Whether you're a first-time founder or a seasoned builder, this episode provides a tactical roadmap for integrating AI into your daily operations.Key Takeaways:Automate to Elevate: Learn how to hand off repetitive tasks like data entry and inventory management to AI tools.Master the Workflow: A 5-step process for choosing the right automation tools (like Zapier or UiPath) and refining your processes.Customer-Centric AI: Using predictive analytics and 24/7 chatbots to provide a personalized, seamless experience.The Scalability Factor: Why AI is the secret weapon for growing your business without exponentially increasing your headcount.[00:00:00] Introduction to Jesse and Pi.[00:01:00] How to gain a competitive edge using AI.[00:02:00] The 5-step framework to automate repetitive tasks.[00:03:00] The 5 major advantages of business automation.[00:04:00] Enhancing customer experience with personalization and predictive analytics.[00:05:00] Can your business survive without AI?[00:06:00] Top 5 book recommendations for AI-driven entrepreneurs.[00:07:00] Final words of wisdom for the Scoobelievers.Featured AI Business Books:"Competing in the Age of AI" by Marco Iansiti & Karim Lakhani"Human + Machine" by Paul Daugherty & H. James Wilson"Prediction Machines" by Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, & Avi Goldfarb"AI Superpowers" by Kai-Fu Lee"The Future is Faster Than You Think" by Peter Diamandis & Steven KotlerFrequently Asked Questions (AEO):How can AI improve customer experience?AI enhances CX by providing 24/7 instant support through chatbots, deli Reclaim your "zone of genius" by letting Opus Clip automatically turn your long-form podcast into dozens of viral-ready shorts—start your free trial today at podnationopus.com For a 15% discount on your first purchase go RYZEsuoerfoods.com use code PODNA15 Thank you for being a Skoobeliever!! If you have questions about the show or you want to be a guest please contact me at one of these social mediasTwitter......... ..@djskoob2021 Facebook.........Facebook.com/skoobamiInstagram..... instagram.com/uepodcast2021tiktok....... @djskoob2021Email............... Uepodcast2021@gmail.com Skoob at Gettin' Basted Facebook PageAcross The Start Line Facebook Community Find out what one of the four hurdles of stop is affecting you the most!!Black Friday coaching Sale now!! 65% off original price! go to stan.store/skoob to book your appointment and take advantage of this limited time offer! On Twitter @doittodaycoachdoingittodaycoaching@gmailcom

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly marketing psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

On this episode, our expert guests from this year's past episodes each share one critical question that customer experience (CX) leaders need to ask themselves to deliver better customer outcomes in 2026.We've compiled the most important questions from our conversations this year — each one designed to reveal where your CX strategy is vulnerable and what to do about it. Join us as we explore those questions with previous guests:Mark Abraham (co-author, Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI)Brian Breslin (vice president, fintech and SaaS, TELUS Digital)Diane Magers (co-author, The Customer Experience Field Guide)Adrian Swinscoe (author, Punk CX and Punk XL)Jelena Bajic (vice president, global operations excellence, TELUS)For more from today's guests, check out these episodes of Questions for now:On The era of AI-driven personalization is here. What now?, Mark Abraham reveals the five key promises brands must fulfill to delight customers at every interaction. On Why do satisfied customers leave?, Brian Breslin uncovers what separates customers who stay from those who leave for a better offer.On Is experience management the new customer experience?, Diane Magers explains the strategic shift to organization-wide experience management practices.On How can you alleviate cost pressures in customer experience?, Adrian Swinscoe and Jelena Bajic share strategies for delivering exceptional outcomes in CX when leaders are asked to do more with less.Visit our website to learn more about TELUS Digital.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly marketing psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Please take 12 seconds to rate and review the podcast because it helps us find new listeners ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐FREE RESOURCES✅ Get a free digital copy of my bestselling book for a limited time, Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings. Get it here: https://www.choicehacking.com/free-book/ ✅ Get FREE weekly marketing psychology insights when you join my newsletter, Choice Hacking Ideas: Join the 10k+ people getting daily insights on how to 2x their marketing effectiveness (so sales and profit 2x, too) using buyer psychology. Join here: https://www.choicehacking.com/read/✅ Connect with host Jennifer Clinehens on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok @ChoiceHacking and @BuildwithChoiceHackingWORK WITH ME✅ Corporate Training: Get your team up-skilled marketing psychology and behavioral science with a workshop or training session. Choice Hacking has worked with brands like Microsoft, T-Mobile, and McDonalds to help their teams apply behavioral science and marketing psychology.Learn more here, and get in touch using the contact form at the bottom of the page: https://www.choicehacking.com/training/✅ Get your own Chief Marketing Copilot for your business when you my new program. Get live Skill Sessions, Implementation Sessions, and one-on-one time with me.Learn more here: https://choicehacking.academy/pro/✅ Buy my book in Kindle, paperback, or audiobook form: "Choice Hacking: How to use psychology and behavioral science to create an experience that sings": https://choicehacking.com/PodBook/ ★ Support this podcast ★

For the first episode in our 2025 Holiday Series we are looking back at our conversation with Augie Ray, Senior Research Analyst and Executive Advisor of Customer Experience at Gartner, about how CX is the most important aspect of marketing and how to focus on customers' unmet needs.

Sales and Customer Experience—two critical functions that should work together, but too often operate at odds. This week, Colin and Ryan explore how traditional sales tactics can undermine long-term loyalty and create organisational silos. They share personal stories (including Colin's car-buying nightmare) and practical advice for aligning sales with your desired customer experience. If you want to sell AND build trust, this episode is for you. Best Quote of the Episode: "If you can't proudly stand behind the experience you're creating, you've got a problem." — Colin Shaw Key Takeaways: ✅ Traditional closing techniques can damage trust, even when they maybe effective ✅ Sales incentives often conflict with customer experience goals ✅ Leadership must deliberately define the experience they want to deliver ✅ Culture matters: a sales-first mentality breeds silos and resentment ✅ Aligning sales and CX is essential for long-term success, not just short-term gains

Why Customer Success Can't Be Automated (And What AI Can Actually Do) In this special year-end episode of the FutureCraft GTM Podcast, hosts Ken Roden and Erin Mills sit down with Amanda Berger, Chief Customer Officer at Employ, to tackle the biggest question facing CS leaders in December 2026: What can AI actually do in customer success, and where do humans remain irreplaceable? Amanda brings 20+ years at the intersection of data and human decision-making—from AI-powered e-commerce personalization at Rich Relevance, to human-led security at HackerOne, to now implementing AI companions for recruiters. Her journey is a masterclass in understanding where the machine ends and the human begins. This conversation delivers hard truths about metrics, change management, and the future of CS roles—plus Amanda's controversial take that "if you don't use AI, AI will take your job." Unpacking the Human vs. Machine Balance in Customer Success Amanda returns with a reality check: AI doesn't understand business outcomes or motivation—humans do. She reveals how her career evolved from philosophy major studying "man versus machine" to implementing AI across radically different contexts (e-commerce, security, recruiting), giving her unique pattern recognition about what AI can genuinely do versus where it consistently fails. The Lagging Indicator Problem: Why NRR, churn, and NPS tell you what already happened (6 months ago) instead of what you can influence. Amanda makes the case for verified outcomes, leading indicators, and real-time CSAT at decision points. The 70% Rule for CS in Sales: Why most churn starts during implementation, not at renewal—and exactly when to bring CS into the deal to prevent it (technical win stage/vendor of choice). Segmentation ≠ Personalization: The jumpsuit story that proves AI is still just sophisticated bucketing, even with all the advances in 2026. True personalization requires understanding context, motivation, and individual goals. The Delegation Framework: Don't ask "what can AI do?" Ask "what parts of my job do I hate?" Delegate the tedious (formatting reports, repetitive emails, data analysis) so humans can focus on what makes them irreplaceable. Timestamps 00:00 - Introduction and AI Updates from Ken & Erin 01:28 - Welcoming Amanda Berger: From Philosophy to Customer Success 03:58 - The Man vs. Machine Question: Where AI Ends and Humans Begin 06:30 - The Jumpsuit Story: Why AI Personalization Is Still Segmentation 09:06 - Why NRR Is a Lagging Indicator (And What to Measure Instead) 12:20 - CSAT as the Most Underrated CS Metric 17:34 - The $4M Vulnerability: House Security Analogy for Attribution 21:15 - Bringing CS Into Sales at 70% Probability (The Non-Negotiable) 25:31 - Getting Customers to Actually Tell You Their Goals 28:21 - AI Companions at Employ: The Recruiting Reality Check 32:50 - The Delegation Mindset: What Parts of Your Job Do You Hate? 36:40 - Making the Case for Humans in an AI-First World 40:15 - The Framework: When to Use Digital vs. Human Touch 43:10 - The 8-Hour Workflow Reduced to 30 Minutes (Real ROI Examples) 45:30 - By 2027: The Hardest CX Role to Hire 47:49 - Lightning Round: Summarization, Implementation, Data Themes 51:09 - Wrap-Up and Key Takeaways Edited Transcript Introduction: Where Does the Machine End and Where Does the Human Begin? Erin Mills: Your career reads like a roadmap of enterprise AI evolution—from AI-powered e-commerce personalization at Rich Relevance, to human-powered collective intelligence at HackerOne, and now augmented recruiting at Employ. This doesn't feel random—it feels intentional. How has this journey shaped your philosophy on where AI belongs in customer experience? Amanda Berger: It goes back even further than that. I started my career in the late '90s in what was first called decision support, then business intelligence. All of this is really just data and how data helps humans make decisions. What's evolved through my career is how quickly we can access data and how spoon-fed those decisions are. Back then, you had to drill around looking for a needle in a haystack. Now, does that needle just pop out at you so you can make decisions based on it? I got bit by the data bug early on, realizing that information is abundant—and it becomes more abundant as the years go on. The way we access that information is the difference between making good business decisions and poor business decisions. In customer success, you realize it's really just about humans helping humans be successful. That convergence of "where's the data, where's the human" has been central to my career. The Jumpsuit Story: Why AI Personalization Is Still Just Segmentation Ken Roden: Back in 2019, you talked about being excited for AI to become truly personal—not segment-based. Flash forward to December 2026. How close are we to actual personalization? Amanda Berger: I don't think we're that close. I'll give you an example. A friend suggested I ask ChatGPT whether I should buy a jumpsuit. So I sent ChatGPT a picture and my measurements. I'm 5'2". ChatGPT's answer? "If you buy it, you should have it tailored." That's segmentation, not personalization. "You're short, so here's an answer for short people." Back in 2019, I was working on e-commerce personalization. If you searched for "black sweater" and I searched for "black sweater," we'd get different results—men's vs. women's. We called it personalization, but it was really segmentation. Fast forward to now. We have exponentially more data and better models, but we're still segmenting and calling it personalization. AI makes segmentation faster and more accessible, but it's still segmentation. Erin Mills: But did you get the jumpsuit? Amanda Berger: (laughs) No, I did not get the jumpsuit. But maybe I will. The Philosophy Degree That Predicted the Future Erin Mills: You started as a philosophy major taking "man versus machine" courses. What would your college self say? And did philosophy prepare you in ways a business degree wouldn't have? Amanda Berger: I actually love my philosophy degree because it really taught me to critically think about issues like this. I don't think I would have known back then that I was thinking about "where does the machine end and where does the human begin"—and that this was going to have so many applicable decision points throughout my career. What you're really learning in philosophy is logical thought process. If this happens, then this. And that's fundamentally the foundation for AI. "If you're short, you should get your outfit tailored." "If you have a customer with predictive churn indicators, you should contact that customer." It's enabling that logical thinking at scale. The Metrics That Actually Matter: Leading vs. Lagging Indicators Erin Mills: You've called NRR, churn rate, and NPS "lagging indicators." That's going to ruffle boardroom feathers. Make the case—what's broken, and what should we replace it with? Amanda Berger: By the time a customer churns or tells you they're gonna churn, it's too late. The best thing you can do is offer them a crazy discount. And when you're doing that, you've already kind of lost. What CS teams really need to be focused on is delivering value. If you deliver value—we all have so many competing things to do—if a SaaS tool is delivering value, you're probably not going to question it. If there's a question about value, then you start introducing lower price or competitors. And especially in enterprise, customers decide way, way before they tell you whether they're gonna pull the technology out. You usually miss the signs. So you've gotta look at leading indicators. What are the signs? And they're different everywhere I've gone. I've worked for companies where if there's a lot of engagement with support, that's a sign customers really care and are trying to make the technology work—it's a good sign, churn risk is low. Other companies I've worked at, when customers are heavily engaged with support, they're frustrated and it's not working—churn risk is high. You've got to do the work to figure out what those churn indicators are and how they factor into leading indicators: Are they achieving verified outcomes? Are they healthy? Are there early risk warnings? CSAT: The Most Underrated Metric Ken Roden: You're passionate about customer satisfaction as a score because it's granular and actionable. Can you share a time where CSAT drove a change and produced a measurable business result? Amanda Berger: I spent a lot of my career in security. And that's tough for attribution. In e-commerce, attribution is clear: Person saw recommendations, put them in cart, bought them. In hiring, their time-to-fill is faster—pretty clear. But in security, it's less clear. I love this example: We all live in houses, right? None of our houses got broken into last night. You don't go to work saying, "I had such a good night because my house didn't get broken into." You just expect that. And when your house didn't get broken into, you don't know what to attribute that to. Was it the locked doors? Alarm system? Dog? Safe neighborhood? That's true with security in general. You have to really think through attribution. Getting that feedback is really important. In surveys we've done, we've gotten actionable feedback. Somebody was able to detect a vulnerability, and we later realized it could have been tied to something that would have cost $4 million to settle. That's the kind of feedback you don't get without really digging around for it. And once you get that once, you're able to tie attribution to other things. Bringing CS Into the Sales Cycle: The 70% Rule Erin Mills: You're a religious believer in bringing CS into the sales cycle. When exactly do you insert CS, and how do you build trust without killing velocity? Amanda Berger: With bigger customers, I like to bring in somebody from CX when the deal is at the technical win stage or 70% probability—vendor of choice stage. Usually it's for one of two reasons: One: If CX is gonna have to scope and deliver, I really like CX to be involved. You should always be part of deciding what you're gonna be accountable to deliver. And I think so much churn actually starts to happen when an implementation goes south before anyone even gets off the ground. Two: In this world of technology, what really differentiates an experience is humans. A lot of our technology is kind of the same. Competitive differentiation is narrower and narrower. But the approach to the humans and the partnership—that really matters. And that can make the difference during a sales cycle. Sometimes I have to convince the sales team this is true. But typically, once I'm able to do that, they want it. Because it does make a big difference. Technology makes us successful, but humans do too. That's part of that balance between what's the machine and what is the human. The Art of Getting Customers to Articulate Their Goals Ken Roden: One challenge CS teams face is getting customers to articulate their goals. Do customers naturally say what they're looking to achieve, or do you have a process to pull it out? Amanda Berger: One challenge is that what a recruiter's goal is might be really different than what the CFO's goal is. Whose outcome is it? One reason you want to get involved during the sales cycle is because customers tell you what they're looking for then. It's very clear. And nothing frustrates a company more than "I told you that, and now you're asking me again? Why don't you just ask the person selling?" That's infuriating. Now, you always have legacy customers where a new CSM comes in and has to figure it out. Sometimes the person you're asking just wants to do their job more efficiently and can't necessarily tie it back to the bigger picture. That's where the art of triangulation and relationships comes in—asking leading discovery questions to understand: What is the business impact really? But if you can't do that as a CS leader, you probably won't be successful and won't retain customers for the long term. AI as Companion, Not Replacement: The Employ Philosophy Erin Mills: At Employ, you're implementing AI companions for recruiters. How do you think about when humans are irreplaceable versus when AI should step in? Amanda Berger: This is controversial because we're talking about hiring, and hiring is so close to people's hearts. That's why we really think about companions. I earnestly hope there's never a world where AI takes over hiring—that's scary. But AI can help companies and recruiters be more efficient. Job seekers are using AI. Recruiters tell me they're getting 200-500% more applicants than before because people are using AI to apply to multiple jobs quickly or modify their resumes. The only way recruiters can keep up is by using AI to sort through that and figure out best fits. So AI is a tool and a friend to that recruiter. But it can't take over the recruiter. The Delegation Framework: What Do You Hate Doing? Ken Roden: How do you position AI as companion rather than threat? Amanda Berger: There's definitely fear. Some is compliance-based—totally justifiable. There's also people worried about AI taking their jobs. I think if you don't use AI, AI is gonna take your job. If you use AI, it's probably not. I've always been a big fan of delegation. In every aspect of my life: If there's something I don't want to do, how can I delegate it? Professionally, I'm not very good at putting together beautiful PowerPoint presentations. I don't want to do it. But AI can do that for me now. Amazingly well. What I'm really bad at is figuring out bullets and formatting. AI does that. So I think about: What are the things I don't want to do? Usually we don't want to do the things we're not very good at or that are tedious. Use AI to do those things so you can focus on the things you're really good at. Maybe what I'm really good at is thinking strategically about engaging customers or articulating a message. I can think about that, but AI can build that PowerPoint. I don't have to think about "does my font match here?" Take the parts of your job that you don't like—sending the same email over and over, formatting things, thinking about icebreaker ideas—leverage AI for that so you can do those things that make you special and make you stand out. The people who can figure that out and leverage it the right way will be incredibly successful. Making the Case to Keep Humans in CS Ken Roden: Leaders face pressure from boards and investors to adopt AI more—potentially leading to roles being cut. How do you make the case for keeping humans as part of customer success? Amanda Berger: AI doesn't understand business outcomes and motivation. It just doesn't. Humans understand that. The key to relationships and outcomes is that understanding. The humanity is really important. At HackerOne, it was basically a human security company. There are millions of hackers who want to identify vulnerabilities before bad actors get to them. There are tons of layers of technology—AI-driven, huge stacks of security technology. And yet no matter what, there's always vulnerabilities that only a human can detect. You want full-stack security solutions—but you have to have that human solution on top of it, or you miss things. That's true with customer success too. There's great tooling that makes it easier to find that needle in the haystack. But once you find it, what do you do? That's where the magic comes in. That's where a human being needs to get involved. Customer success—it is called customer success because it's about success. It's not called customer retention. We do retain through driving success. AI can point out when a customer might not be successful or when there might be an indication of that. But it can't solve that and guide that customer to what they need to be doing to get outcomes that improve their business. What actually makes success is that human element. Without that, we would just be called customer retention. The Framework: When to Use Digital vs. Human Touch Erin Mills: We'd love to get your framework for AI-powered customer experience. How do you make those numbers real for a skeptical CFO? Amanda Berger: It's hard to talk about customer approach without thinking about customer segmentation. It's very different in enterprise versus a scaled model. I've dealt with a lot of scale in my last couple companies. I believe that the things we do to support that long tail—those digital customers—we need to do for all customers. Because while everybody wants human interaction, they don't always want it. Think about: As a person, where do I want to interact digitally with a machine? If it's a bot, I only want to interact with it until it stops giving me good answers. Then I want to say, "Stop, let me talk to an operator." If I can find a document or video that shows me how to do something quickly rather than talking to a human, it's human nature to want to do that. There are obvious limits. If I can change my flight on my phone app, I'm gonna do that rather than stand at a counter. Come back to thinking: As a human, what's the framework for where I need a human to get involved? Second, it's figuring out: How do I predict what's gonna happen with my customers? What are the right ways of looking and saying "this is a risk area"? Creating that framework. Once you've got that down, it's an evolution of combining: Where does the digital interaction start? Where does it stop? What am I looking for that's going to trigger a human interaction? Being able to figure that out and scale that—that's the thing everybody is trying to unlock. The 8-Hour Workflow Reduced to 30 Minutes Erin Mills: You've mentioned turning some workflows from an 8-hour task to 30 minutes. What roles absorbed the time dividend? What were rescoped? Amanda Berger: The roles with a lot of repetition and repetitive writing. AI is incredible when it comes to repetitive writing and templatization. A lot of times that's more in support or managed services functions. And coding—any role where you're coding, compiling code, or checking code. There's so much efficiency AI has already provided. I think less so on the traditional customer success management role. There's definitely efficiencies, but not that dramatic. Where I've seen it be really dramatic is in managed service examples where people are doing repetitive tasks—they have to churn out reports. It's made their jobs so much better. When they provide those services now, they can add so much more value. Rather than thinking about churning out reports, they're able to think about: What's the content in my reports? That's very beneficial for everyone. By 2027: The Hardest CX Role to Hire Erin Mills: Mad Libs time. By 2027, the hardest CX job to hire will be _______ because of _______. Amanda Berger: I think it's like these forward-deployed engineer types of roles. These subject matter experts. One challenge in CS for a while has been: What's the value of my customer success manager? Are they an expert? Or are they revenue-driven? Are they the retention person? There's been an evolution of maybe they need to be the expert. And what does that mean? There'll continue to be evolution on that. And that'll be the hardest role. That standard will be very, very hard. Lightning Round Ken Roden: What's one AI workflow go-to-market teams should try this week? Amanda Berger: Summarization. Put your notes in, get a summary, get the bullets. AI is incredible for that. Ken Roden: What's one role in go-to-market that's underusing AI right now? Amanda Berger: Implementation. Ken Roden: What's a non-obvious AI use case that's already working? Amanda Berger: Data-related. People are still scared to put data in and ask for themes. Putting in data and asking for input on what are the anomalies. Ken Roden: For the go-to-market leader who's not seeing value in AI—what should they start doing differently tomorrow? Amanda Berger: They should start having real conversations about why they're not seeing value. Take a more human-led, empathetic approach to: Why aren't they seeing it? Are they not seeing adoption, or not seeing results? I would guess it's adoption, and then it's drilling into the why. Ken Roden: If you could DM one thing to all go-to-market leaders, what would it be? Amanda Berger: Look at your leading indicators. Don't wait. Understand your customer, be empathetic, try to get results that matter to them. Key Takeaways The Human-AI Balance in Customer Success: AI doesn't understand business outcomes or motivation—humans do. The winning teams use AI to find patterns and predict risk, then deploy humans to understand why it matters and what strategic action to take. The Lagging Indicator Trap: By the time NRR, churn rate, or NPS move, customers decided 6 months ago. Focus on leading indicators you can actually influence: verified outcomes, engagement signals specific to your business, early risk warnings, and real-time CSAT at decision points. The 70% Rule: Bring CS into the sales cycle at the technical win stage (70% probability) for two reasons: (1) CS should scope what they'll be accountable to deliver, and (2) capturing customer goals early prevents the frustrating "I already told your sales rep" moment later. Segmentation ≠ Personalization: AI makes segmentation faster and cheaper, but true personalization requires understanding context, motivation, and individual circumstances. The jumpsuit story proves we're still just sophisticated bucketing, even with 2026's advanced models. The Delegation Framework: Don't ask "what can AI do?" Ask "what parts of my job do I hate?" Delegate the tedious (formatting, repetitive emails, data analysis) so humans can focus on strategy, relationships, and outcomes that only humans can drive. "If You Don't Use AI, AI Will Take Your Job": The people resisting AI out of fear are most at risk. The people using AI to handle drudgery and focusing on what makes them irreplaceable—strategic thinking, relationship-building, understanding nuanced goals—are the future leaders. Customer Success ≠ Customer Retention: The name matters. Your job isn't preventing churn through discounts and extensions. Your job is driving verified business outcomes that make customers want to stay because you're improving their business. Stay Connected To listen to the full episode and stay updated on future episodes, visit the FutureCraft GTM website. Connect with Amanda Berger: Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn Employ Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are our own and do not represent those of any company or business we currently work for/with or have worked for/with in the past.

This week's podcast is about the likely impact of agents on ecommerce. And specifically on tourism.You can listen to this podcast here, which has the slides and graphics mentioned. Also available at iTunes and Google Podcasts.Here is the link to the TechMoat Consulting.Here is the link to our Tech Tours.Here is the mentioned McKinsey report.----------I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to accelerate growth with improving customer experiences (CX) and digital moats.I am a partner at TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in how to increase growth with improved customer experiences (CX), personalization and other types of customer value. Get in touch here.I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.Support the show

Send us a textThis episode is my AI Christmas wish list for CCaaS. Not toys. Not buzzwords. The real AI tools contact centers should already have but don't. Everyone is focused on making AI talk to customers. That's missing the point. AI in CX isn't supposed to just talk. It's supposed to run the contact center. I break down the biggest opportunities CCaaS platforms are skipping, from AI flow builders you can prompt in plain English, to real-time workforce orchestration, predictive routing that replaces “next available agent,” dashboards built instantly by prompt, in-call coaching that actually helps agents in the moment, and real-time billing with zero surprises. This is a wish list, but it's not fantasy. This is practical, achievable AI that would make life easier for the people running the floor every day. If you're tired of AI demos that look good but don't change operations, this episode is for you. All I want for Christmas is CCaaS AI that actually works. Through Expivia Digital, Tom works with contact center leaders on CCaaS platform selection, AI implementations, and NICE Studio and integration services. Same honest, vendor-neutral advice you hear on the Call Center Geek podcast, applied directly to your specific operational challenges. Schedule a consultation at ExpiviaDigital.com to discuss your contact center technology strategy. Click here:expiviadigital.comFollow Tom: @tlaird_expiviaJoin our Facebook Call Center Community: www.facebook.com/callcentergeekConnect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlairdexpivia/Follow on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@callcenter_geekLinkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9041993/Watch us: Advice from a Call Center Geek Youtube Channel OttoQA: try.ottoqa.com Expivia: Expiviausa.com

This week we discuss Cx nationals, MvdP casually winning on his return and the nonstop dominance of Lucinda Brand. Plus, a great tagalong Burley setup, band recommendations and hot wax news.   This podcast is also supported by the generous and amazing donors to the Wide Angle Podium Network, and buy Hammerhead cycling! Visit hammerhead.io to check out the Karoo cycling computer, and use code SLOWRIDE at checkout to get a Heart Rate strap for free! Find us, and other fantastic cycling podcasts on the Wide Angle Podium Network, at wideanglepodium.com! Check out the brand new WAP app available in the Apple and Android app stores! You can email us at theslowridepodcast@gmail.com

Derek Champagne talks with Marvin Alballi, a globally recognized leader in the food and beverage industry, acclaimed for authoring the world's highest-rated restaurant and F&B book, Restaurant Excellence: The Ultimate Guide to Success in the Food and Beverage Industry, available on Amazon. His book was purchased by top hotel and restaurant companies and endorsed by global chefs and CEOs.A recipient of the prestigious Fortune 500 Brinker International “Operator of the Year” award, Alballi has established a reputation as a transformative force in hospitality, with a proven record of turning around struggling businesses and driving sustained growth.With extensive experience across luxury, lifestyle, upscale, mainstream F&B and the restaurant franchise industry segments, Aballi has worked in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. His career includes consulting for celebrity chefs, Michelin-starred restaurants, and award-winning establishments, including MENA's 50 Best #1 restaurant. In addition, Marvin Alballi has consulted for global, local brands, and franchises such as Orfali Bros, Boston Market, Café D'Arte, Famoso Pizzeria, The Great Harvest Bread Company, Peaceful Restaurants, Wing Stop, and Fusion Ceviche.A sought-after keynote speaker, Alballi has been featured at leading conferences and platforms such as Bloomberg Intelligence (NYC), The Future Hospitality Summit, HSMAI, Breaking Travel News, The Fast Food & Café Convention, Dubai Restaurant Week, and the CET World Series convention on CX and Marketing. They are also a regular guest on Dubai Eye Radio's Helen Farmer Show and have spoken for and guided several organizations including Couqley Restaurants, Paramount Hotels, Adyen, Radisson Dubai, Orfali Bros, and Crowne Plaza Muscat.His insights and thought leadership have been showcased on international podcasts including Bloomberg, The Chef JPK, GotLanded (New York), Polaris (Dubai), and TwentyOne06.In addition to creating the groundbreaking Twelve-Point Program (TPP)—the industry's most effective F&B and restaurant performance management system, Alballi has become a trusted authority on brand reputation, guest experience, profitability, marketing, and restaurant economics. His expertise lies in crafting strategic, long-term business solutions that deliver measurable results and elevate operational excellence.A Canadian citizen, Alballi continues to influence the global F&B landscape by driving innovation, quality, and sustainable growth. Alballi currently leads 26 countries and territories at Hilton Asia Pacific with more than 1,100 restaurants and bars in the Asia Pacific region.Marvin's new book, Hospitality Excellence, is available on Amazon (as of February 2026). Business Leadership Series Intro and Outro music provided by Just Off Turner: https://music.apple.com/za/album/the-long-walk-back/268386576

This week we talk Cx, ducks in Cx and what cycling fashion accessory has most transitioned into the mainstream.  This podcast is also supported by the generous and amazing donors to the Wide Angle Podium Network, and buy Hammerhead cycling! Visit hammerhead.io to check out the Karoo cycling computer, and use code SLOWRIDE at checkout to get a Heart Rate strap for free! Find us, and other fantastic cycling podcasts on the Wide Angle Podium Network, at wideanglepodium.com! Check out the brand new WAP app available in the Apple and Android app stores! You can email us at theslowridepodcast@gmail.com