Category Archives: Customer Experience

The Indispensable Role of CX

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Insights from CCW’s 25-Year Journey

LAST UPDATED: October 28, 2025 at 12:00PM
The Indispensable Role of CX

by Braden Kelley

I recently had the privilege of sitting down with Mario Matulich, President of Customer Management Practice, at Customer Contact Week (CCW) in Nashville. As an organization celebrating its 25th anniversary, CCW has been a critical barometer for the entire customer experience and contact center industry. Our conversation wasn’t just a look back, but a powerful exploration of the strategic mandate facing CX leaders today, particularly how we manage innovation and human-centered change in an era dominated by AI and tightening budgets.

CCW at 25: The Hub for Benchmarking and Breakthroughs

Mario underscored that CCW is far more than just a conference; it’s a living repository of industry knowledge. Professionals attend for actionable takeaways, which primarily fall into three categories: benchmarking performance against industry leaders, learning about new trends (like Generative AI’s impact), and, critically, sourcing the right vendors and capabilities needed to execute their strategies. It’s where leaders come to calibrate their investment strategies and learn how to do more with their finite resources.

Mario MatulichThis pursuit of excellence is driven by a single, powerful market force: The Amazon Effect. As Mario put it, customers no longer judge your experience solely against your industry peers. They expect every single touchpoint with your company to be as seamless, intuitive, and effective as the best experience they’ve had anywhere. This constantly escalating bar for Customer Effort Score (CES) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) makes a complacent CX investment a near-fatal strategic mistake. The customer experience must always be top-tier, or you simply lose the right to compete.

The Strategic Disconnect: CX vs. The Contact Center

One of the most valuable parts of our discussion centered on the subtle, yet crucial, distinction between a Customer Experience (CX) professional and a Contact Center (CC) professional. While both are dedicated to the customer journey, their scope and focus often differ:

  • The CX Professional: Often owns the entire end-to-end customer journey, from marketing to product use to support. Their responsibilities and definition of success are deeply influenced by where CX sits organizationally — is it under Marketing, Operations, or the CEO?
  • The CC Professional: Focused on the operational efficiency, quality, and effectiveness of the voice and digital support channels. Their reality is one of doing a lot with a little, constantly asked to manage complex interactions while being, ironically, often looked to as a prime source of cuts in a downturn.

Social media, for instance, is still a relevant customer service channel, not just a marketing one. However, the operational reality is that many companies, looking for cost-effective solutions, outsource social media support to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) providers, highlighting the ongoing tension between strategic experience design and operational efficiency.

“Being a CX leader in your industry is not a temporary investment you can cut and reinstate later. Those who cut, discover quickly that regaining customer trust and market position is exponentially harder than maintaining it.” — Braden Kelley

AI in the Contact Center: From Hypothesis to Hyper-Efficiency

The conversation inevitably turned to the single biggest factor transforming the industry today: Artificial Intelligence. Mario and I agreed that while the promise of AI is vast, the quickest, most immediate win for nearly every organization lies in agent assist.

This is where Generative AI tools empower the human agent in real-time — providing instant knowledge base look-ups, auto-summarizing previous interactions, and drafting responses. It’s a human-centric approach that immediately boosts productivity and confidence, improving Agent Experience (AX) and reducing training time.

However, implementing AI successfully isn’t a “flip-the-switch” deployment. The greatest danger is the wholesale adoption of complex technology without rigor. True AI success, Mario noted, must be implemented via the classic innovation loop: hypothesis, prototyping, and testing. AI isn’t a solution; it’s a tool that must be carefully tuned and validated against human-centered metrics before scaling.

The Mandate for Enduring Investment

A recurring theme was the strategic folly of viewing CX as a cost center. In a downturn, the contact center is often the first place management looks for budgetary reductions. Yet, the evidence is overwhelming: CX leadership is not a temporary investment. When you are leading in your industry in customer experience, that position must be maintained. Cut your investment at your peril, and you risk a long, painful road to recovery when the market turns. The CX team, despite being resource-constrained, often represents the last line of defense for the brand, embodying the human-centered change we preach.

As CCW moves into its next 25 years, the lesson is clear: customer expectations are only rising. The best leaders will leverage AI not just to cut costs, but to augment their people and apply the innovation principles of rigorous testing to truly master the new era of customer orchestration. The commitment to a great customer experience is the single, enduring investment that will future-proof your business.

HALLOWEEN BONUS: Save 30% on the eBook, hardcover or softcover of my latest book Charting Change (now in its second edition) — FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE — using code HAL30 until midnight October 31, 2025

Image credits: Customer Management Practice

Content Authenticity Statement: The topic area, key elements to focus on, etc. were decisions made by Braden Kelley, with a little help from Google Gemini to clean up the article.

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The Voicebots are Coming

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Your Next Customer Support Agent May Not Be a Human

LAST UPDATED: October 27, 2025 at 1:00PM
The Voicebots are Coming

by Braden Kelley

Last week I had the opportunity to attend Customer Contact Week (CCW) in Nashville, Tennessee and learn that the familiar, frustrating tyranny of the touch-tone IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system is finally ending. For too long, the gateway to customer service has felt like a maze designed to prevent contact, not facilitate it. But thanks to the rapid evolution of Conversational AI — fueled by Generative Large Language Models (LLMs) — the entire voice interaction landscape is undergoing a revolutionary, and necessary, change. As a thought leader focused on human-centered change, innovation and experience design, I can tell you the future of the call center isn’t purely automated; it’s intelligently orchestrated.

The voicebot — the modern AI-powered voice agent — is moving past its days as a simple chatbot with a synthesized voice. Today’s AI agents use Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand intent, context, and even tone, allowing them to handle complex, multi-step issues with startling accuracy. More importantly, they are ushering in the era of the bionic contact center, where the human agent is augmented, not replaced. This hybrid model — where AI handles the heavy lifting and humans provide empathy, complex reasoning, and necessary approvals — is the key to achieving both massive scale and superior Customer Experience (CX).

Overcoming the Voice Friction: The Tech Foundation

The shift to true voice AI required overcoming significant friction points that plagued older systems:

  • Barge-In and Latency: Modern voicebots offer near-instantaneous response times and can handle barge-in (when a customer interrupts the bot) naturally, mimicking human conversation flow.
  • Acoustic Noise: Advanced speech recognition models are highly resilient to background noise and varied accents, ensuring high accuracy even in noisy home or car environments.
  • Intent Nuance: LLMs provide the deep contextual understanding needed to identify customer intent, even when the customer uses vague or emotional language, turning frustrated calls into productive ones.

The Dual Pillars of Voice AI in CX

Conversational AI is transforming voice service through two primary deployment models, both of which reduce Customer Effort Score (CES) and boost Customer Satisfaction (CSAT):

1. Full Call Automation (The AI Front Line)

This model is deployed for high-volume, routine, yet critical interactions. The voicebot connects directly to the company’s backend systems (CRM, ERP, knowledge base) to pull personalized information and take action in real-time. Crucially, these new AI agents move beyond rigid scripts, using Generative AI to create dynamic, human-like dialogue that resolves the issue instantly. This 24/7 self-service capability slashes queue times and dramatically lowers the cost-to-serve.

2. Human-AI Collaboration (The Bionic Agent)

This is where the real human-centered innovation lies. The AI agent handles the bulk of the call — identifying the customer, verifying identity, diagnosing the problem, and gathering data. When the request hits a complexity threshold — such as requiring a policy override, handling an escalated complaint, or needing a final human authorization — the AI performs a contextual handoff. The human agent receives the call along with a complete, structured summary of the conversation, the customer’s intent, and often a recommended next step, turning a frustrating transfer into a seamless, empowered human interaction.

OR, even better can be the solution where a single human agent provides approvals or other guidance to multiple AI voice agents that continue owning their calls while waiting for the human to respond (possibly simultaneously helping the customer with additional queries) before continuing with the conversation through to resolution.

Customer Contact Week Nashville

“The most powerful application of voice AI isn’t automation, it’s augmentation. By freeing human agents from transactional drudgery, we elevate them to be empathic problem solvers, enhancing both their job satisfaction and the customer’s outcome.” — Braden Kelley

Measuring the Success of the Handoff

The quality of the transitions between AI and human is the true measure of success. Leaders must track metrics that assess the efficacy of the handoff itself:

  • Repeat Story Rate: The percentage of customers who have to repeat information to the human agent after an AI handoff. This must be near zero.
  • Agent Ramp-up Time (Post-Transfer): The time it takes for the human agent to absorb the AI-generated context and take meaningful action. Lower is better.
  • Post-Handoff CSAT: The customer satisfaction score specifically captured after a complex AI-to-human transfer, measuring the seamlessness of the experience.

The Agentic Future

The voicebots are indeed coming, and they are bringing with them the most significant shift in customer service since the telephone itself. The next evolution will see agentic AI — bots that can dynamically choose between multiple tools and knowledge sources to resolve novel problems without being strictly pre-scripted. The challenge for leaders is to ensure that as this technology scales, our focus remains firmly on the human experience, leveraging the best of AI’s speed and the best of human empathy to create a truly effortless and satisfying customer journey.

🤖 Companies to Watch in AI Voicebots

The voicebot space is rapidly evolving, driven by generative AI, and the recent Customer Contact Week (CCW) in Nashville highlighted several key players. Companies to watch in this generative AI voicebot and contact center space include market-leading platforms like NICE, Genesys, Zoom and Five9, all of whom are heavily integrating generative and agentic AI features—such as real-time coaching and automated post-call summaries — into their core Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) offerings.

Beyond the traditional CCaaS providers, specialist AI firms like Replicant, Voice.AI and ASAPP (who had a significant presence at the event) continue to stand out by focusing on either full end-to-end voice automation for complex transactions or providing advanced Human-in-the-Loop AI features to augment live agents, particularly in regulated industries like financial services.

Additionally, major cloud vendors like Google Cloud and AWS (Amazon Connect) are increasingly aggressive, leveraging their foundational AI models to provide scalable, next-generation AI agents and contact center platforms, ensuring they remain transformative forces in customer experience (CX) automation.

HALLOWEEN BONUS: Save 30% on the eBook, hardcover or softcover of my latest book Charting Change (now in its second edition) — FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE — using code HAL30 until midnight October 31, 2025

Image credits: Customer Management Practice, Google Gemini

Content Authenticity Statement: The topic area, key elements to focus on, vendors to mention, etc. were decisions made by Braden Kelley, with a little help from Google Gemini to clean up the article.

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Why Putting Employees First and Customers Second Works

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Why Putting Employees First and Customers Second Works

GUEST POST from David Burkus

What if your company announced that, moving forward, it would be place customers second on its list of priorities?

Sounds crazy. The customer is always right. Surely the customer is always first as well.

But that’s exactly what Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies did over a decade ago. He announced that the company’s senior leaders would be placing the needs of employees first, and customers second. And the results have been spectacular.

How The Employees First Strategy Started

In 2006, Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL, a digital engineering company based in India, boldly told his clients they were no longer the company’s top priority. Instead, the focus would be put on employees first. His belief was simple: happy employees make happy customers. Nayar labeled employees who actually interacted with customers as the “value zone,” where the real business magic happens — and any employee in the value zone received the dedicated focus of managers and support functions.

To bring this to life, he flipped the traditional management structure. He made the organizational chart look like an upside-down pyramid. Turning the hierarchy upside down required making managers accountable to front-line employees and ensuring that those in the support functions actually supported those front-line employees, instead of just insisting that they follow the hierarchy’s rigid systems.

Nayar focused his attention on two areas to ensure that the management and support functions served the front-line: reversing accountability and building transparency. Specifically, 360-degree feedback evaluations were expanded to include more front-line workers’ feedback for managers and senior level executives (that’s the accountability), and crucially those evaluations were made public so everyone who contributed to the survey could see the results (there’s your transparency). In addition, when problems occurred for front-line workers, they could create and own support tickets that their managers would have to address (usually, it’s the other way around in top to bottom organizations).

It’s important to note that HCL Technologies wasn’t a little start up in a garage or even a 50-person company. This was done at a 55,000 person, multinational organization. And, spoiler alert, it’s now grown to over 200,000 employees. Pulling off this flip was no small feat, but the results speak for themselves. Employee satisfaction soared, customer service improved, and revenues nearly tripled. By 2009, HCL was named India’s best employer.

Contrast this story with an example of what can go wrong when employee experience is overlooked. In 2001, Robert Nardelli was the newly minted CEO of Home Depot. Expectations were high given his track record at his old job at General Electric, where he had led several successful manufacturing operations.

At Home Depot, Nardelli noticed the stores were staffed with knowledgeable, full-time employees, and in his opinion, a bit too many. What do new leaders, wrongfully, do when they want to make waves and save money?

Yep, he downsized to optimize costs.

He decided to hire more part-timers, many of whom had less expertise in home improvement. The results were not what he expected. Customers quickly noticed the absence of their favorite employees and the decline in service quality. It turned out that managing a service organization like Home Depot was very different from managing a manufacturing operation.

This story underscores a critical point: leading a service organization requires a different approach — one that prioritizes employee engagement and expertise.

“Employees first, customers second” is still about serving the customer, but it’s about serving the customer through the employees whose job it is to serve the customer. Weird how that works, isn’t it? Understand that helping your employees helps your customers. These two parties are intrinsically tied together.

Research On Employees First

Nayar’s success story isn’t an isolated incidence of dumb luck. There’s research behind this. Researchers at Harvard University found a link between employee satisfaction and profitability. They took aim at a long-standing assumption in the business world that market share is the primary driver of profitability. If a company can increase market share, the thinking went, it will increase sales while taking advantage of economies of scale to lower costs and thus increase profits.

However, when they examined a variety of companies and the existing research, they found that market share is one factor in profitability. But that another factor better explains the most profitable companies: customer loyalty.

Based on their research, they estimated that a mere 5 percent increase in customer loyalty can yield a 25 to 85 percent increase in profitability.

Here’s how it works in practice: Profits are driven by customer loyalty. Customer loyalty is driven by employee satisfaction. And employee satisfaction is driven by putting employees first. They called this The Service-Profit Chain and managers who understand this can create a thriving cycle where employee and customer satisfaction drive each other, ultimately leading to greater business success.

In simple terms, if your business provides a service that your employees have front-line participation in, they are in essence an embodiment of the company, not you or the CEO. The entire brand, the experience, the service rests on those front-line employees. If they aren’t taken care of — if they aren’t satisfied — the customer tends to notice.

How Employees First Creates Customer Loyalty

Employee loyalty is a deep indicator of future performance for service organizations. It’s worth noting that there is a subtle difference between employee satisfaction and employee loyalty. Satisfaction derives from how happy employees are in their role. Loyalty comes from having a real stake in the success of the business. Without loyalty, employees leave for better opportunities, then high turnover rates drive up recruitment and training costs, disrupt productivity, and can negatively impact customer experiences. When employees stay longer, companies save on hiring costs, maintain productivity gains, and create a more positive environment for customers.

Simply put, loyal employees lead to loyal customers.

Great service leaders recognize that improving employee retention involves providing opportunities for growth and advancement. This approach keeps talented employees closer to the customer for longer periods, which directly impacts customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Take Whole Foods Market, for example. They have crafted their entire system — from their rigorous selection process to compensation methods — to encourage front-line employees to stay and thrive. Teams at Whole Foods are responsible for setting key metrics, making decisions on how to meet these targets, and even choosing what food items to buy locally. They’re rewarded with bonuses based on team performance, which often includes finding creative ways to boost sales to balance out labor costs. After three years on the job, employees receive stock options, which further incentivizes them to stay.

Additionally, Whole Foods allows employees to vote every three years on various aspects of the benefits package, from community service pay to health insurance provisions. All these factors contribute to Whole Foods’ remarkably low turnover rate of less than 10 percent for full-time employees after the probationary period — far below the industry average.

The results speak for themselves: Whole Foods is regularly rated as one of the best places to work, known for excellent customer service, and boasts some of the highest profits per square foot in the grocery retail industry.

This success is a testament to the power of employee loyalty in driving exceptional service. Great service leadership isn’t just about managing day-to-day operations — it’s about creating an environment where employees feel valued, empowered, and committed. By focusing on employee loyalty, service leaders can build stronger customer relationships and achieve sustainable success.

Employees First For All Leaders

You may not have the power in your organization to completely flip the hierarchy. But there’s still an important lesson for leaders at all levels: Flip the accountability. This can look like bringing in more feedback from front-line employees or just seeing the structure of your team differently. You work for your team. Don’t squeeze your team; foster them to do well.

In addition, give your employees real stakes and invest in them. Prioritize training and growth opportunities for your employees so they know you’re committed to not just their output, but their career. Parties, gift certificates, awards, summer Fridays, bonuses — all of these are great. Do those things. But those are more employee appreciation, not real development. Development looks like sending your rising stars to conferences, workshops, night school even, if you have the budget. Things you think will help them grow as employees, spark innovation, and create future leaders.

Conclusion

If I could put a message on a billboard in front of every Fortune 500 company, it would be this:

People don’t work for you.

Smart leaders know that employees work with them, and ultimately, leaders work for their people. Embracing the “employees first, customers second” philosophy means prioritizing the well-being and growth of employees, enabling them to deliver outstanding service. Happy, engaged employees create satisfied customers. When leaders invest in their teams’ success and happiness, they cultivate a culture where customers feel valued, leading to long-term loyalty and a thriving business.

HALLOWEEN BONUS: Save 30% on the eBook, hardcover or softcover of Braden Kelley’s latest book Charting Change (now in its second edition) — FREE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE — using code HAL30 until midnight October 31, 2025

Image credit: David Burkus

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Are You Getting Your Fair Share of $860 Billion?

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Are You Getting Your Fair Share of $860 Billion?

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

According to Qualtrics, there is an estimated $860 billion worth of revenue and cost savings available for companies that figure out how to create an improved Customer Experience (CX) using AI to better understand and serve their customers. (That includes $420 billion for B2B and $440 billion for B2C.) Qualtrics recently released these figures in a report/eBook titled Unlock the Potential through AI-Enabled CX.

I had a chance to interview Isabelle Zdatny, head of thought leadership at Qualtrics Experience Management Institute, for Amazing Business Radio. She shared insights from the report, including ways in which AI is reshaping how organizations measure, understand and improve their relationships with customers. These ideas are what will help you get more customers, keep existing customers and improve your processes, giving you a share of the $860 billion that is up for grabs. Here are some of the top takeaways from our interview.

AI-Enabled CX Represents a Financial Opportunity

The way AI is used in customer experience is much more than just a way to deflect customers’ questions and complaints to an AI-fueled chatbot or other self-service solution. Qualtrics’ report findings show that the value comes through increased employee productivity, process improvement and revenue growth. Zdatny notes a gap between leadership’s recognition of AI’s potential and their readiness to lead and make a change. Early adopters will likely capture “compounding advantages,” as every customer interaction makes their systems smarter and their advantage more difficult for competitors to overcome. My response to this is that if you aren’t on board with AI for the many opportunities it creates, you’re not only going to be playing catch-up with your competitors, but also having to catch up with the market share you’re losing.

Customers Want Convenience

While overall CX quality is improving, thanks to innovation, today’s customers have less tolerance for friction and mistakes. A single bad experience can cause customers to defect. My customer experience research says an average customer will give you two chances. Zdatny says, “Customers are less tolerant of friction these days. … Deliver one bad experience, and that sends the relationship down a bad path more quickly than it used to.”

AI Takes Us Beyond Surveys

Customer satisfaction surveys can frustrate customers. AI collects the data from interactions between customers and the company and analyzes it using natural language processing and sentiment. It can predict churn and tension. It analyzes customer behavior, and while it doesn’t look at a specific customer (although it can), it is able to spot trends in problems, opportunities and more. The company that uses this information the right way can reap huge financial rewards by creating a better customer experience.

Agentic AI

Agentic AI takes customer interactions to a new level. As a customer interacts with AI-fueled self-service support, the system can do more than give customers information and analyze the interaction. It can also take appropriate action. This is a huge opportunity to make it easier on the workforce as AI processes action items that employees might otherwise handle manually. Think about the dollars saved (part of the $860 billion) by having AI support part of the process so people don’t have to.

Customer Loyalty is at Risk

To wrap this up, Zdatny and I talked about the concept of customer loyalty and how vulnerable companies are to losing their most loyal customers. According to Zdatny, a key reason is the number of options available to consumers. (While there may be fewer options in the B2B world, the concern should still be the same.) Switching brands is easy, and customers are more finicky than ever. Our CX research finds that typical customers give you a second chance before they switch. A loyal customer will give you a third chance — but to put it in baseball terms, “Three strikes and you’re out!” Manage the experience right the first time, and keep in mind that whatever interaction you’re having at that moment is the reason customers will come back—or not—to buy whatever you sell.

Image Credits: Pexels

This article was originally published on Forbes.com

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Why Best Practices Fail

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Five Questions with Ellen DiResta

Why Best Practices Fail

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

For decades, we’ve faithfully followed innovation’s best practices. The brainstorming workshops, the customer interviews, and the validated frameworks that make innovation feel systematic and professional. Design thinking sessions, check. Lean startup methodology, check. It’s deeply satisfying, like solving a puzzle where all the pieces fit perfectly.

Problem is, we’re solving the wrong puzzle.

As Ellen Di Resta points out in this conversation, all the frameworks we worship, from brainstorming through business model mapping, are business-building tools, not idea creation tools.

Read on to learn why our failure to act on the fundamental distinction between value creation and value capture causes too  many disciplined, process-following teams to  create beautiful prototypes for products nobody wants.

Robyn: What’s the one piece of conventional wisdom about innovation that organizations need to unlearn?

Ellen: That the innovation best practices everyone’s obsessed with work for the early stages of innovation.

The early part of the innovation process is all about creating value for the customer.  What are their needs?  Why are their Jobs to be Done unsatisfied?  But very quickly we shift to coming up with an idea, prototyping it, and creating a business plan.  We shift to creating value for the business, before we assess whether or not we’ve successfully created value for the customer.

Think about all those innovation best practices. We’ve got business model canvas. That’s about how you create value for the business. Right? We’ve got the incubators, accelerators, lean, lean startup. It’s about creating the startup, which is a business, right? These tools are about creating value for the business, not the customer.

R: You know that Jobs to be Done is a hill I will die on, so I am firmly in the camp that if it doesn’t create value for the customer, it can’t create value for the business.  So why do people rush through the process of creating ideas that create customer value?

E: We don’t really teach people how to develop ideas because our culture only values what’s tangible.  But an idea is not a tangible thing so it’s hard for people to get their minds around it.  What does it mean to work on it? What does it mean to develop it? We need to learn what motivates people’s decision-making.

Prototypes and solutions are much easier to sell to people because you have something tangible that you can show to them, explain, and answer questions about.  Then they either say yes or no, and you immediately know if you succeeded or failed.

R: Sounds like it all comes down to how quickly and accurately can I measure outcomes?   

E: Exactly.  But here’s the rub, they don’t even know they’re rushing because traditional innovation tools give them a sense of progress, even if the progress is wrong.

We’ve all been to a brainstorm session, right? Somebody calls the brainstorm session. Everybody goes. They say any idea is good. Nothing is bad. Come up with wild, crazy ideas. They plaster the walls with 300 ideas, and then everybody leaves, and they feel good and happy and creative, and the poor person who called the brainstorm is stuck.

Now what do they do? They look at these 300 ideas, and they sort them based on things they can measure like how long it’ll take to do or how much money it’ll cost to do it.  What happens?  They end up choosing the things that we already know how to do! So why have the brainstorm?”

R: This creates a real tension: leadership wants progress they can track, but the early work is inherently unmeasurable. How do you navigate that organizational reality?

E: Those tangible metrics are all about reliability. They make sure you’re doing things right. That you’re doing it the same way every time? And that’s appropriate when you know what you’re doing, know you’re creating value for the customer, and now you’re working to create value for the business.  Usually at scale

But the other side of it?  That’s where you’re creating new value and you are trying to figure things out.  You need validity metrics. Are we doing the right things? How will we know that we’re doing the right things.

R: What’s the most important insight leaders need to understand about early-stage innovation?

E: The one thing that the leader must do  is run cover. Their job is to protect the team who’s doing the actual idea development work because that work is fuzzy and doesn’t look like it’s getting anywhere until Ta-Da, it’s done!

They need to strategically communicate and make sure that the leadership hears what they need to hear, so that they know everything is in control, right? And so they’re running cover is the best way to describe it. And if you don’t have that person, it’s really hard to do the idea development work.”

But to do all of that, the leader also must really care about that problem and about understanding the customer.

We must create value for the customer before we can create value for the business. Ellen’s insight that most innovation best practices focus on the latter is devastating.  It’s also essential for all the leaders and teams who need results from their innovation investments.

Before your next innovation project touches a single framework, ask yourself Ellen’s fundamental question: “Are we at a stage where we’re creating value for the customer, or the business?” If you can’t answer that clearly, put down the canvas and start having deeper conversations with the people whose problems you think you’re solving.

To learn more about Ellen’s work, check out Pearl Partners.

To dive deeper into Ellen’s though leadership, visit her Substack – Idea Builders Guild.

To break the cycle of using the wrong idea tools, sign-up for her free one-hour workshop.

Image credit: 1 of 950+ FREE quote slides available at http://misterinnovation.com

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Don’t Make Customers Do These Seven Things They Hate

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Don't Make Customers Do These Seven Things They Hate

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Recently, I had an experience with a company and thought, “I hate this … Why do they make me do this?” This question wasn’t because of curiosity. No, I was thinking that this is something other customers must hate as well, but they make them do it anyway. So, I started a personal brainstorming session to list various processes, requirements, policies, rules, and more that cause customers to question why they continue to do business with these companies. Of course, my mind immediately went to customer service and experience issues, but there’s much more. With that in mind, here are seven practices, steps, processes, and policies that customers hate, but companies make them do it anyway.

Customers Hate:

  1. To Wait – Long hold times and long lines are frustrating and send negative messages, such as the customer’s time isn’t valued or the company is understaffed.
  2. Repeating Anything – Calling customer support and being passed around to different people, having to repeat your story again and again, isn’t fun. Nor is filling out forms that repeat the information you’ve already filled out on previous forms.
  3. Finding Hidden Fees – A stated price should be the price – with no extra fees. I recently checked into a hotel. They told me I had a $30 food and beverage credit as part of my stay – a nice surprise. Upon checking out, I noticed a $30 charge referred to as a “Destination Fee.” I asked about it, and the clerk said it was to cover the $30 food and beverage credit.
  4. Filling Out Bad Surveys – Customers are learning to dislike surveys, especially if they are long. There are right and wrong ways to do surveys. And a bad survey shouldn’t be the last thing a customer experiences when doing business with you.
  5. Listening to Complicated Phone Options – If you’ve called a company and been told to “listen to the following as our options have changed,” so you listen to the many options, and once you choose one, there are even more options … Well, I think you get the picture. There’s better technology to get the customer to the right person or the information they need.
  6. Annoying Pop-Up Windows – If you’ve been on a website and are reading information or an article and pesky pop-up windows keep interrupting you with irrelevant messages and advertising, you’re a victim of annoying pop-up windows.
  7. Anything that Requires Unnecessary Effort – Maybe you have a simple request or question. Why should it take a long time to fill out forms, answer unnecessary questions or more to get an answer?

There is a theme to this list. All of these imply the company doesn’t respect the customer’s time, energy, and effort. The goal should be the opposite: to respect and value your customer’s time, energy, and effort. Don’t create friction and put customers through anything more than necessary to get them what they want. In short, have a goal to be the easiest company to do business with. If you’re serious about it, you’ll find ways to eliminate and mitigate friction. And this list is far from complete. There are many, many other things customers hate doing.

So, here’s your assignment. Sit down with your team and brainstorm all the things they hate to do when doing business with any company. Then, ask what they think customers might hate about doing business with you. This can be processes, steps, policies, and more. Once you have the list, you know what to do. Eliminate all that makes doing business with you painful – or at least make some of the less painful. Don’t make your customers do things they hate doing!

Image Credits: Shep Hyken, Pixabay

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The Secret to Endless Customers

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The Secret to Endless Customers

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Marcus Sheridan owns a pool and spa manufacturing company in Virginia — not a very sexy business, unless you consider the final product, which is often surrounded by beautiful people. What he did to stand out in a marketplace filled with competition is a masterclass in how to get noticed and, more importantly, get business. His most recent book, Endless Customers, is a follow-up to his bestselling book They Ask, You Answer, with updated information and new ideas that will help you build a business that has, as the title implies, endless customers.

Sheridan’s journey began in 2001 when he started a pool company with two friends. When the 2008 market collapse hit, they were on the verge of losing everything. This crisis forced them to think differently about how to reach customers. Sheridan realized that potential buyers were searching for answers to their questions, so he decided his company would become “the Wikipedia of fiberglass swimming pools.”

By brainstorming every question he’d ever received as a pool salesperson and addressing them through content online, his company’s website became the most trafficked swimming pool website in the world within just a couple of years. This approach transformed his business and became the foundation for his business philosophy.

In our interview on Amazing Business Radio, Sheridan shared what he believes is the most important strategy that businesses can use to get and keep customers, and that is to become a known and trusted brand. They must immerse themselves in what he calls the Four Pillars of a Known and Trusted Brand.

  1. Say What Others Aren’t Willing to Say: The No. 1 reason people leave websites is because they can’t find what they’re looking for — and the top information they seek is pricing. Sheridan emphasizes that businesses should openly discuss costs and pricing on their websites. While you don’t need to list exact prices, you should educate consumers about what drives costs up or down in your industry. Sheridan suggests creating a comprehensive pricing page that teaches potential customers how to buy in your industry. According to him, 90% of industries still avoid this conversation, even though it’s what customers want most.
  2. Show What Others Aren’t Willing to Show: When Sheridan’s company was manufacturing fiberglass swimming pools, it became the first to show its entire manufacturing process from start to finish through a series of videos. They were so complete that someone could literally learn how to start their own manufacturing company by watching these videos. Sheridan recognized that sharing the “secret sauce” was a level of transparency that built trust, helping to make his company the obvious choice for many customers.
  3. Sell in Ways Others Aren’t Willing to Sell: According to Sheridan, 75% of today’s buyers prefer a “seller-free sales experience.” He says, “That doesn’t mean we hate salespeople. We just don’t want to talk to them until we’re very, very, ready.” Sheridan suggests meeting customers where they are by offering self-service options on your website. For his pool and spa business, that included a price estimator solution that helped potential customers determine how much they could afford — without the pressure of talking to a salesperson.
  4. Be More Human than Others Are Willing to Be: In a world that is becoming dominated by AI and technology, showing the human side of a business is critical to a trusting business relationship. Sheridan suggests putting leaders and employees on camera. They are truly the “face of the brand.” It’s okay to use AI, just find the balance that helps you stay human in a technology-dominated world.

As we wrapped up the interview, I asked Sheridan to share his most powerful idea, and the answer goes back to a word he used several times throughout the interview: Trust. “In a time of change, we need, as businesses, constants that won’t change,” Sheridan explained. “One thing I can assure you is that in 10 years, you’re going to be in a battle for trust. It’s the one thing that binds all of us. It’s the great currency that is not going to go away. So, become that voice of trust. If you do, your organization is going to be built to last.”

And that, according to Sheridan, is how you create “endless customers.”

Image Credits: Shep Hyken

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of September 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of September 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are September’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. McKinsey is Wrong That 80% Companies Fail to Generate AI ROI — by Robyn Bolton
  2. Back to Basics for Leaders and Managers — by Robyn Bolton
  3. Growth is Not the Answer — by Mike Shipulski
  4. The Most Challenging Obstacles to Achieving Artificial General Intelligence — by Art Inteligencia
  5. Charlie Kirk and Innovation — by Art Inteligencia
  6. You Just Got Starbucked — by Braden Kelley
  7. Metaphysics Philosophy — by Geoffrey Moore
  8. Invention Through Co-Creation — by Janet Sernack
  9. Sometimes Ancient Wisdom Needs to be Left Behind — by Greg Satell
  10. The Crisis Innovation Trap — by Braden Kelley and Art Inteligencia

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in August that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

Build a Common Language of Innovation on your team

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Four Keys to a World-Class Customer Experience

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Four Keys to a World-Class Customer Experience

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

I’m going to start this article with a theme I’ve preached for years: When it comes to customer service and experience, our customers no longer compare us just to our competitors. Their mental benchmark, whether they know it or not, comes from the best experience they have had from any company or brand. It’s companies like Amazon, Apple, Costco, Chick-fil-A, and others that excel in providing an experience that gets customers to come back, that become our customers’ standard for service. When they have anything other than a positive experience, they may say something like, “Why can’t they be as good as _____?” (Fill in the blank with their favorite company.)

With that in mind, I’d like to offer up the idea that if we focus on creating an experience based on trying to be better than a competitor, and that may mean you are the best in your industry, it still may not meet a customer’s expectations. All you are is the best dog in a horse race.

Being best in your industry means best in class, but as I just mentioned, it may not be enough. What you want to do is start comparing yourself – as in your company – to the obvious customer experience leaders. No, you may not be able to do what Amazon or Apple do, but using them as a model can help you move from best in class to world class.

Best in Class Shep Hyken Cartoon

So, how can you make this shift? Start by identifying what makes world-class companies so appealing to their customers. In my annual customer service and customer experience (CX) research, we find the best companies and brands share certain traits:

  1. Consistency – Customers can predict their experience every time. It’s not great one time and the next time just average. Consistency creates predictability, and if the consistent experience is what customers want and know they will get, they come back.
  2. Quick Response – Whether it’s Amazon’s instant confirmation emails or a faster-than-expected returned phone call or email, customers love it when the companies they do business with are fast in their communication.
  3. Empowered Employees – Your customers are frustrated when they are dealing with employees who aren’t allowed to make decisions. If you hire good people and train them well, let them do their job. Not only will customers be happy, but your employees will appreciate the company they work for even more.
  4. Friction-Free – I wrote an entire book on this topic, The Convenience Revolution. Find ways to be easy to do business with. Eliminate anything that is a hassle or has friction associated with it.

Here’s why I love these ideas. You don’t have to be Amazon or Apple to implement any of these. Any company, regardless of size or industry, can do this. You don’t need a technology budget to respond to customers quickly or empower your team.

Look at your customer journey and ask: What would world-class companies, such as Amazon, do at this touch point?” Or, “How would Apple handle this situation?” This exercise can reveal the opportunities you might miss when you’re only comparing yourself to your direct competitors.

Image Credits: Pixabay

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You Just Got Starbucked

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Layoffs, Store Closures & What It Means for Customer Service

LAST UPDATED: September 25, 2025 at 10:58PM
You Just Got Starbucked - Layoffs, Store Closures & What It Means for Customer Service

Exclusive Interview with Mario Matulich

In a world where corporate decisions often prioritize efficiency, the human element can be the first to suffer. The recent layoffs and restructuring at Starbucks, a brand synonymous with a unique, human-centered “third place” experience, have sent a tremor through the industry. In a wide-ranging interview, we will unpack the strategic and operational implications of these changes. Together, we will explore the difficult balance between trimming corporate fat and maintaining a brand built on emotional connection, diving into how these decisions could affect everything from in-store morale to the long-term loyalty of its customers. Central to the conversation is the following strategic question:

How can a company that has undergone significant corporate restructuring and layoffs maintain and restore a premium, human-centered customer experience?

Mario MatulichToday we will explore this question, along with its various aspects with our special guest Mario Matulich, a practice lead at the Customer Management Practice with a diverse commercial understanding in a variety of industry verticals across the customer management sector. He is well versed in market research, product development, sales, marketing, and operations in addition to cross functional management and leadership development.

Without further ado, here is the Q&A I had with Mario on a range of topics regarding the recent Starbucks’ store closures and layoffs and their implications:

The Strategic Context of the Layoffs

Q: Starbucks’ leadership framed the recent restructuring as a necessary step for efficiency and a return to their core mission. From your perspective in customer management, how do these internal changes directly affect the external customer experience in the short and long term?
A: In the short term, layoffs, especially in corporate roles, can create gaps in innovation, brand narrative, and strategic support for store-level teams. Employees on the front lines may feel increased pressure, which can impact morale and the human connection customers expect. In the long term, if these gaps aren’t addressed, the result can be a more transactional experience that erodes both loyalty and trust.

Q: In many companies, layoffs are a last resort. Do you believe this restructuring reflects a failure of previous strategies, or is it a forward-thinking move to adapt to a changing market? What specific market trends do you think are driving these decisions?
A: I don’t view this restructuring as purely a failure of previous strategies, but rather as an attempt to adapt to a changing market. That said, Starbucks’ bigger challenge is restoring its customer experience. Trends such as rising demand for personalized, convenient, and high-value experiences, along with increased competition in the premium coffee market, make it clear that customers are evaluating Starbucks not just on price, but on the overall experience delivered.

Q: The layoffs primarily targeted corporate roles in marketing, technology, and creative. How does the loss of talent in these specific areas impact the company’s ability to innovate and maintain its brand narrative?
A: These areas are critical for innovation, storytelling, and digital experiences that connect customers to the brand. Losing talent here makes it more challenging to maintain a consistent, differentiated experience and risks further disengagement from customers.

Impact on the Human-Centered Experience

Q: Starbucks has long prided itself on the “third place” concept. How does restructuring and potential employee demoralization affect the in-store experience and the emotional connection customers have with the brand?
A: The “third place” experience relies on motivated and supported employees. Restructuring can disrupt this, as uncertainty and low morale may trickle down to in-store interactions. Customers may perceive a decline in warmth, attentiveness, and consistency, which can undermine the emotional connection.

Q: With fewer people in corporate roles, who now owns the responsibility for a seamless customer journey? Does this push more responsibility onto store-level partners, and if so, are they equipped to handle it?
A: While partners remain at the front line, the burden shouldn’t fall solely on them. Leadership must provide tools, guidance, and support to ensure a seamless experience, even as corporate teams shrink.

Q: Customer management is about building long-term loyalty. Do you believe this restructuring risks eroding the trust and loyalty of both employees and customers, and what would your practice recommend to mitigate that risk?
A: Yes, there’s definitely a risk. The key is to go back to the basics and make the experience personal, easy, and fast. Nail those, and customers’ trust and loyalty will .,¬./come back, and the layoffs won’t linger in their minds.

Measuring and Recovering from the Impact

Q: How would you advise Starbucks to measure the real-time impact of these changes on customer satisfaction? Beyond traditional metrics like NPS, what holistic experience measures should they be tracking?
A: Starbucks should look beyond NPS to measure speed of service, personalization, emotional connection, and overall experience consistency. These metrics provide a more comprehensive view of the customer journey and help identify gaps that layoffs may create.

Q: Layoffs can create a perception of instability. What is the most effective way for a company to communicate its recovery plan and rebuild confidence with its customer base after such a significant change?
A: Clear communication focused on restoring the core pillars of customer experience, personalization, ease, and speed, is key. Customers respond when they see tangible improvements in the experience they receive every day.

Q: In your experience, what is the typical timeline for a company to recover from the brand and cultural damage that can follow widespread layoffs? What are the critical milestones they should be focused on achieving?
A: Recovery timelines vary, but visible improvements in customer experience can begin within months if executed strategically. Critical milestones include reestablishing operational consistency, restoring employee morale, and relaunching key brand initiatives that reinforce the premium experience promise.

Future-Proofing for Long-Term Growth

Q: Looking ahead, how can Starbucks utilize this moment of disruption to adopt a more resilient and human-centered organizational model? What key lesson should other companies learn from their experience to avoid similar pitfalls?
A: Starbucks has a chance here to get back to what really made it successful: combining innovative, tech-forward solutions with a human touch, every time. The bigger lesson for any company is clear. Growth and cost-cutting shouldn’t come at the expense of the customer experience. People are willing to pay a premium, but only if the experience feels worth it.

Q: What message does it send that the popular Starbucks Roastery location in Capitol Hill in Seattle is being closed as part of this layoff and restructuring initiative? Why do you think they chose to do it?
A: Closing the Roastery signals a prioritization of efficiency over experiential destinations. While it may make financial sense in the short term, it also serves as a cautionary reminder that iconic, high-touch experiences are critical to maintaining brand differentiation and customer loyalty.

Conclusion

Thank you for the great conversation Mario!

Ultimately, the Starbucks case study is a powerful lesson for every organization. As Matulich’s insights make clear, the pursuit of efficiency and growth cannot come at the expense of the human experience that defines your brand. The true measure of a company’s resilience is not in its stock price, but in the trust it has built with its employees and customers. A single-minded focus on traditional metrics is insufficient; a holistic approach that values emotional connection and employee morale is the only path to sustainable growth. The greatest challenge for Starbucks now is to move beyond reacting to a difficult market and begin proactively shaping its future—not just through cost-cutting, but by recommitting to the core narrative that made it a cultural institution in the first place. The future of any business is not found in a spreadsheet; it’s built on a foundation of human connection, one interaction at a time.

Image credits: Pexels, Mario Matulich

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