Somewhere in most organizations right now, a CX team is under pressure to move faster on AI. A competitor launched something. A board member read an article. The tools are impressive, the demos are slick, and the message from above is some version of: why aren't we doing this yet? So, the question on the table [...]
Ask many SaaS leaders how the business is doing, and you'll get a number. NPS. Net revenue retention. Maybe the Rule of 40. One figure, offered as a verdict on the health of the whole company. It's an understandable habit — but a dangerous way to steer, because no single metric is complete enough to [...]
A while back, I was brought in to do foundational work for a company: segment the customer base, build out the personas, and design the value proposition. It was the right work to do. It also took months — interviews, workshops, data pulls, the slow process of turning scattered signal into something the business could [...]
On a recent Customer Experience Live UK panel I was on, something came up that surprised the room. When customers were given a choice between a live agent and an AI agent to resolve a service issue, many chose the AI one. That seems to cut against everything we hear about customers distrusting AI. But [...]
CX is finally being pulled into the operational core — measured on revenue, cost to serve, and risk, held to the same commercial standard as every other function. That shift is right, and it's overdue. But the rush to get there is quietly dangerous. The market's response to this shift hasn't been coherence. It's been [...]
In my recent CMSWire article, I wrote about how AI search is becoming the new gatekeeper in B2B buying — how buyers are using tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity to research vendors before ever visiting a website, and how the buying decision is increasingly happening before you know a prospect exists. If you haven't read it, [...]
A contact center director I spoke with recently was proud of her team's AI rollout. Automated routing, real-time agent assist, call summarization — the works. Six months in, customer satisfaction scores were trending upward and handle times were down. Then one of her AI-powered chat agents told a visibly distressed customer to "try to look [...]
Welcome to M4 Communications' Five Customer Experience Trends to Drive Value in 2026. 2026 is the year of the horse. And, the year ahead demands something different from CX leaders. It is a time of high energy, bold action, leading with trust, and breaking from the past. It's a time to act. To progress with [...]
At the start of 2025, we made five predictions about customer experience trends that would shape how brands engage with their customers and drive business value. Now that we're at the end of the year, it's time to take a candid look at what happened—and what didn't. The honest answer? Four out of five. Not [...]
I’ve been reading a lot about NPS bashing, and its impending death and replacement in 2025 thanks in large part to Gartner predicting more than 75% of organizations would abandon the metric by 2025. But here's the real problem: we're asking a single metric to solve problems that require culture and strategy. As I noted [...]
One of the things that brought me great fulfilment this year was to serve as Chair of the Inclusive CX Committee (formerly the Diversity Advancement Committee) at the CXPA. As my term comes to a close this December, I find myself reflecting on the evolution our thinking has undergone throughout 2025. The name change wasn't [...]
It's time for refreshed insights on Product‑Market Fit (PMF). If you’ve read my earlier version, this one will feel familiar—but with freshly baked data, investor realities, and real-world examples that reflect where we’re at in 2025. After building VoC programmes for several tech startups, I've seen a troubling pattern: founders obsess over product features while ignoring [...]
This year, my husband and I traveled to Italy. We wandered through Venice's canals, explored Florence's art and architecture, visited Pisa, and spent time in Rome taking in its ancient streets and iconic landmarks. Like many visitors, we were drawn to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Leaning Tower—the places that have witnessed centuries [...]
Sarah had all the right credentials. MBA from a top school, five years at McKinsey, three years leading customer experience at a Fortune 500 company. Her NPS scores were solid, customer satisfaction metrics trending upward, and she'd successfully implemented two major system upgrades. So why was her CEO asking pointed questions about "transformation impact" in [...]
We've had several conversations recently with CX leaders that got us thinking. Their AI chatbots were handling thousands of interactions successfully—until one told a frustrated customer to "calm down." Sound familiar? You're not alone. This scenario is playing out in organizations worldwide, and it's exactly why responsible AI governance has moved from "nice to have" [...]
Introduction Win-loss analysis is one of the most powerful tools a customer experience or marketing leader can use to understand why deals are won or lost, improve customer journeys, and drive strategic growth. While metrics like NPS, CSAT, and CES tell you how satisfied your customers are, win-loss analysis explains why customers make the decisions [...]
I've spent the better part of two decades helping organisations navigate growth strategies—from Silicon Valley SaaS startups to global financial institutions. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the most heated debates in business often miss the most important point entirely. The product-led growth (PLG) vs. customer-led growth (CLG) conversation is no exception. [...]
I was doing some LinkedIn research this week and noticed a colleague I hadn’t engaged with in years was living in my old hometown. Being curious, I asked him about it and where he lived. That simple exchange brought back a flood of memories — the fun our family had, time with friends, summers at [...]
We've had several recent conversations with brands that got us thinking. They were frustrated because their customer service team was drowning in repetitive inquiries while their customers were getting increasingly impatient with response times. Sound familiar? This scenario is playing out across the globe, and it's exactly why artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from "nice [...]
Welcome to M4 Communications' Five Customer Experience Trends to Drive Value in 2025. Before we dive into the Five Customer Experience Trends to Drive Value in 2025, I want to start with a story. I recently had a similar experience to the scenario below. I tried many times to connect to a live agent, it [...]
