Shep Hyken's Blog, page 2
November 3, 2025
Scaling Customer Success with Melissa Puls
This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:
What is customer success?
What is the difference between customer success and customer support?
Why is it important to start the customer success process as soon as a deal is signed?
What impact does proactive customer service have on customer satisfaction and loyalty?
How can businesses use a subscription model to build long-term customer relationships?
Top Takeaways:
A business isn’t just about making money. It’s about getting and keeping customers. Profit will result when you serve your customers well.
Customer success is different from customer support. Customer support helps when there’s a problem or technical issue, but customer success aims to keep problems from happening in the first place. Customer success teams work with customers from the beginning of the relationship to make sure they are fully utilizing the features of a product to serve their business. They proactively reach out before issues even become problems.
The renewals don’t start when a subscription ends. They begin with the very first interaction, making sure that customers are happy and using the product well from the start. When customers are happy, the decision to keep doing business with you becomes easy.
The best companies try to anticipate issues and reach out before they happen. Checking in, providing helpful information, and teaching customers how to get the most from your product are what create loyal customers.
Companies can use data and technology, such as AI, to spot patterns in customer behavior and predict what customers will need next. By paying attention to how customers use a product and when they might need help, businesses can step in with support before a small issue becomes a big problem. This reduces customer churn by giving them confidence that your team will be there for them when needed.
Delivering a great customer experience takes teamwork across marketing, sales, support, and customer success. All parts of the company need to work together to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience.
Plus, Shep and Melissa discuss how every business, regardless of industry, can successfully adopt a subscription model that keeps customers coming back. Tune in!
Quotes:
“Customers buy from other customers. Create advocates in your customer base.”
“The most exciting thing about customer experience is to be able to correlate and collect information that your customers give you to make their experience better.”
“Many people confuse customer success with customer support. In reality, customer success is about proactively ensuring customers never need to call support unless there’s a genuine technical glitch.”
“Anticipate your customer’s needs before they even know they need it. Use the data and technology like AI to predict issues and churn so that you can get more productive.”
“The best companies out there put customers at the center of everything they do. That is how they are going to grow today and into the future.”
About:
Melissa Puls is the Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Customer Success and Renewals at Ivanti , overseeing the entire customer journey from awareness to renewal. She is focused on helping companies enhance every stage of the customer experience.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
What is customer success?
What is the difference between customer success and customer support?
Why is it important to start the customer success process as soon as a deal is signed?
What impact does proactive customer service have on customer satisfaction and loyalty?
How can businesses use a subscription model to build long-term customer relationships?
Top Takeaways:
A business isn’t just about making money. It’s about getting and keeping customers. Profit will result when you serve your customers well.
Customer success is different from customer support. Customer support helps when there’s a problem or technical issue, but customer success aims to keep problems from happening in the first place. Customer success teams work with customers from the beginning of the relationship to make sure they are fully utilizing the features of a product to serve their business. They proactively reach out before issues even become problems.
The renewals don’t start when a subscription ends. They begin with the very first interaction, making sure that customers are happy and using the product well from the start. When customers are happy, the decision to keep doing business with you becomes easy.
The best companies try to anticipate issues and reach out before they happen. Checking in, providing helpful information, and teaching customers how to get the most from your product are what create loyal customers.
Companies can use data and technology, such as AI, to spot patterns in customer behavior and predict what customers will need next. By paying attention to how customers use a product and when they might need help, businesses can step in with support before a small issue becomes a big problem. This reduces customer churn by giving them confidence that your team will be there for them when needed.
Delivering a great customer experience takes teamwork across marketing, sales, support, and customer success. All parts of the company need to work together to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience.
Plus, Shep and Melissa discuss how every business, regardless of industry, can successfully adopt a subscription model that keeps customers coming back. Tune in!
Quotes:
“Customers buy from other customers. Create advocates in your customer base.”
“The most exciting thing about customer experience is to be able to correlate and collect information that your customers give you to make their experience better.”
“Many people confuse customer success with customer support. In reality, customer success is about proactively ensuring customers never need to call support unless there’s a genuine technical glitch.”
“Anticipate your customer’s needs before they even know they need it. Use the data and technology like AI to predict issues and churn so that you can get more productive.”
“The best companies out there put customers at the center of everything they do. That is how they are going to grow today and into the future.”
About:
Melissa Puls is the Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Customer Success and Renewals at Ivanti , overseeing the entire customer journey from awareness to renewal. She is focused on helping companies enhance every stage of the customer experience.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
November 2, 2025
Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of November 3, 2025
Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
Forrester’s Customer Experience Predictions for 2026 by Rhys Fisher
(CX Today) It’s that time of year again: customer experience predictions season. The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping, and CX analysts from across the globe are dusting off their crystal balls. While you can expect an onslaught of predictions over the coming months, very few will have the prestige of Forrester, a leading global research and advisory firm with expertise in the CX space.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five with predictions from Forrester. Everything from over-automation to AI to journey mapping is included in this article. I consider Forrester to be one of the top resources in the CX world.
Verizon ‘Must Shift to a Customer-First Focus,’ New CEO Says by Bryan Wassel
(CX Dive) The company plans to strengthen loyalty, eliminate practices that detract from CX, and leverage AI to simplify offers, CEO Dan Schulman said.
My Comment: There’s a reason why Verizon is successful. They are truly obsessed with the customer experience. I’ve interviewed several of their top executives. This article includes the new CEO, Dan Schulman’s, comments about what they plan to do to keep the customer as their #1 priority.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian Says One Key to Building Customer Loyalty Is ‘Obsessing’ over Your Own Staff by Diane Brady
(Yahoo Finance Canada) Customer loyalty is a tricky thing: hard to get, relatively easy to maintain, and hard to win back once it’s lost. Inertia is a powerful force, which is why consumers keep the same bank account for an average of 17 years.
My Comment: And just as Verizon is obsessed over its customers, Delta Airlines CEO, Ed Bastian, believes the same for employees and is quoted in the article saying, “In our business, everyone focuses on the airline, the aircraft, the technology, the airports, the amazing destinations we get, but it’s the staff that bring it to life.”
The Next Generation of Customer Experience by Greg Cucino
(Inc.) For decades, many organizations have tried customizing certain aspects of their marketing, sales, and customer experiences. Many started small, adding a first name automatically to emails, passing along discounts to repeat loyal buyers, and segmenting behaviors, audiences, and classes by demographics.
My Comment: What’s the next generation of customer experience? According to this author, it’s hyper-personalization. Our annual customer experience research confirms that with a majority of customers rating a personalized experience as an important reason they keep coming back.
American Courts Customers with Premium Experiences by Kristen Doerer
(CX Dive) While main cabin revenue has faltered in recent quarters, premium revenue has grown, and American Airlines is eager to meet the rising demand.
My Comment: Since I included an article featuring the CEO of Delta Airlines in this week’s roundup, I wanted to give a shout-out to my favorite airline, American Airlines, and include this article that focuses on how AA is wooing its customers with premium experiences.
BONUS
Global Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) 2025-2026 by KPMG
(KPMG) A benchmark study now in its 16th year, CEE captures perspectives from over 80,000 consumers across 16 markets worldwide.
My Comment: KPMG has released an excellent CX report. It’s “gated,” so you’ll have to share your name and email address, but it’s worth it. Anytime KPMG releases a report, it’s worth paying attention to.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
Forrester’s Customer Experience Predictions for 2026 by Rhys Fisher
(CX Today) It’s that time of year again: customer experience predictions season. The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping, and CX analysts from across the globe are dusting off their crystal balls. While you can expect an onslaught of predictions over the coming months, very few will have the prestige of Forrester, a leading global research and advisory firm with expertise in the CX space.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five with predictions from Forrester. Everything from over-automation to AI to journey mapping is included in this article. I consider Forrester to be one of the top resources in the CX world.
Verizon ‘Must Shift to a Customer-First Focus,’ New CEO Says by Bryan Wassel
(CX Dive) The company plans to strengthen loyalty, eliminate practices that detract from CX, and leverage AI to simplify offers, CEO Dan Schulman said.
My Comment: There’s a reason why Verizon is successful. They are truly obsessed with the customer experience. I’ve interviewed several of their top executives. This article includes the new CEO, Dan Schulman’s, comments about what they plan to do to keep the customer as their #1 priority.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian Says One Key to Building Customer Loyalty Is ‘Obsessing’ over Your Own Staff by Diane Brady
(Yahoo Finance Canada) Customer loyalty is a tricky thing: hard to get, relatively easy to maintain, and hard to win back once it’s lost. Inertia is a powerful force, which is why consumers keep the same bank account for an average of 17 years.
My Comment: And just as Verizon is obsessed over its customers, Delta Airlines CEO, Ed Bastian, believes the same for employees and is quoted in the article saying, “In our business, everyone focuses on the airline, the aircraft, the technology, the airports, the amazing destinations we get, but it’s the staff that bring it to life.”
The Next Generation of Customer Experience by Greg Cucino
(Inc.) For decades, many organizations have tried customizing certain aspects of their marketing, sales, and customer experiences. Many started small, adding a first name automatically to emails, passing along discounts to repeat loyal buyers, and segmenting behaviors, audiences, and classes by demographics.
My Comment: What’s the next generation of customer experience? According to this author, it’s hyper-personalization. Our annual customer experience research confirms that with a majority of customers rating a personalized experience as an important reason they keep coming back.
American Courts Customers with Premium Experiences by Kristen Doerer
(CX Dive) While main cabin revenue has faltered in recent quarters, premium revenue has grown, and American Airlines is eager to meet the rising demand.
My Comment: Since I included an article featuring the CEO of Delta Airlines in this week’s roundup, I wanted to give a shout-out to my favorite airline, American Airlines, and include this article that focuses on how AA is wooing its customers with premium experiences.
BONUS
Global Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) 2025-2026 by KPMG
(KPMG) A benchmark study now in its 16th year, CEE captures perspectives from over 80,000 consumers across 16 markets worldwide.
My Comment: KPMG has released an excellent CX report. It’s “gated,” so you’ll have to share your name and email address, but it’s worth it. Anytime KPMG releases a report, it’s worth paying attention to.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
October 28, 2025
How to Make Every Customer Feel Like Your Only Customer
The concept of personalization is gaining increased attention. My annual customer experience research found that nearly eight out of 10 customers (79%) in the U.S. feel a personalized experience is important. So, what is a personalized experience? It’s simple. Using a customer’s data and information (with their permission, of course), which could include preferences they’ve shared with you, past behaviors, purchasing patterns, notes from interactions they’ve had with you and more, allows you to tailor interactions, offers, and communications to the customer based on what you know about them.
It also allows you to group customers into segments. For example, if you sell shoes and a customer has bought three pairs of golf shoes in the past year, you wouldn’t recommend running shoes. However, you might inform the customer, and customers like him, about the latest golf shoe technology and suggest other golf-related products. This personalized experience results in customers feeling recognized and valued, rather than just being treated as a generic transaction.
Now, there’s a higher level of personalization, and that’s individualization. Personalization makes customers feel recognized. Individualization makes them feel truly understood. This next level of personalization comes from the amount of data that can be collected from an individual customer, combined with AI’s ability to interpret that data with uncanny accuracy. The best way to describe the difference is that it’s no longer about customer segmentation. It’s about providing truly individualized experiences tailored to each customer.
Why is this important to the customer experience? If you thought personalization made a customer feel recognized and valued, this is that on steroids.
Old-fashioned individualization before AI was the amazing salesperson who always recognized you, remembered what you bought, knew what you liked, could predict what you’d want to buy and might even call you to let you know that your favorite brand had something new that you’d love.
Modern individualization is when you log into Amazon and the website welcomes you, not just promoting the brand of toothpaste you’ve bought in the past, but also reminding you that you may be running low on toothpaste.
And even though AI is making individualization easier, you don’t need expensive AI software to do this. You can start by paying attention. One of my clients is a master at sending out birthday cards with hand-written, individualized messages. And when you call him, he remembers details about you. It’s not magic or AI software. It’s just asking questions, listening to the answers and taking notes so he remembers the details the next time he talks to the client.
The goal is to make every customer feel like they are your only customer. Whether you’re using AI or just old-fashioned attention to detail, the result is the same. Done the right way, customers feel valued and appreciated and respond by saying, “I’ll be back!”
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
October 27, 2025
Happy Customers Create Happy Employees with Sean Crichton-Browne
This episode of
Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken
answers the following questions and more:
What’s more important, happy customers or happy employees?
How does starting with the end goal of happy customers encourage better customer service?
What role does leadership play in creating a strong culture of customer-centricity?
How can a company’s internal culture directly impact the quality of the customer experience?
How does employee engagement influence customer loyalty and retention?
Top Takeaways
Whenever you’re working to improve customer experience, it helps to begin by picturing how you want your customers to feel at the end. Imagine what you want the customer’s experience to be. Work backward from your goal, which is happy and loyal customers, and figure out what is needed at every level of the organization to achieve it.
Happy employees create happy customers, but flipping this idea on its head can create great results for your organization as well. Making customers happy can actually make employees feel better about where they work. It leads to a better work environment that motivates and engages employees.
When customers are satisfied with the product or service, employees don’t have to respond to as many complaints or stressful situations, which makes their jobs more enjoyable and fulfilling. Happy customers often give positive feedback, creating a sense of pride for everyone on the team and encouraging even better service.
Listen to your customers. Ask them what they want and what’s important to them. When you focus on understanding and meeting those needs, you create a connection between leadership, employees, and customers.
Empowering employees, especially those who deal directly with customers, improves the customer experience. When staff can act quickly to solve issues or offer solutions, without always needing a manager’s okay, problems get fixed faster, and customers feel seen, heard, and valued.
The stories told inside a company, whether big or small, have a lasting impact on culture. When employees hear about coworkers going the extra mile for customers or leaders making decisions that put customers first, they inspire similar behavior that can be operationalized for consistency.
Plus, Sean shares more “golden nuggets” from his latest book, The Human Culture Imperative. Tune in!
Quotes:
“Put the customer at the center of the business and focus on their satisfaction. Because if we don’t have a customer, we don’t actually have a business.”
“When customers are happy, employees are happy too. Their satisfaction drives engagement and growth, far more than anything else.”
“Strong organizations keep leadership, employees, and customers connected. One doesn’t work without the others.”
About:
Sean Crichton-Browne is the co-founder of Market Culture, a company dedicated to helping organizations understand and implement customer-centric cultures. He is the co-author of The Human Culture Imperative: The Leader’s Playbook for Innovation and Sustainable Growth.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
What’s more important, happy customers or happy employees?
How does starting with the end goal of happy customers encourage better customer service?
What role does leadership play in creating a strong culture of customer-centricity?
How can a company’s internal culture directly impact the quality of the customer experience?
How does employee engagement influence customer loyalty and retention?
Top Takeaways
Whenever you’re working to improve customer experience, it helps to begin by picturing how you want your customers to feel at the end. Imagine what you want the customer’s experience to be. Work backward from your goal, which is happy and loyal customers, and figure out what is needed at every level of the organization to achieve it.
Happy employees create happy customers, but flipping this idea on its head can create great results for your organization as well. Making customers happy can actually make employees feel better about where they work. It leads to a better work environment that motivates and engages employees.
When customers are satisfied with the product or service, employees don’t have to respond to as many complaints or stressful situations, which makes their jobs more enjoyable and fulfilling. Happy customers often give positive feedback, creating a sense of pride for everyone on the team and encouraging even better service.
Listen to your customers. Ask them what they want and what’s important to them. When you focus on understanding and meeting those needs, you create a connection between leadership, employees, and customers.
Empowering employees, especially those who deal directly with customers, improves the customer experience. When staff can act quickly to solve issues or offer solutions, without always needing a manager’s okay, problems get fixed faster, and customers feel seen, heard, and valued.
The stories told inside a company, whether big or small, have a lasting impact on culture. When employees hear about coworkers going the extra mile for customers or leaders making decisions that put customers first, they inspire similar behavior that can be operationalized for consistency.
Plus, Sean shares more “golden nuggets” from his latest book, The Human Culture Imperative. Tune in!
Quotes:
“Put the customer at the center of the business and focus on their satisfaction. Because if we don’t have a customer, we don’t actually have a business.”
“When customers are happy, employees are happy too. Their satisfaction drives engagement and growth, far more than anything else.”
“Strong organizations keep leadership, employees, and customers connected. One doesn’t work without the others.”
About:
Sean Crichton-Browne is the co-founder of Market Culture, a company dedicated to helping organizations understand and implement customer-centric cultures. He is the co-author of The Human Culture Imperative: The Leader’s Playbook for Innovation and Sustainable Growth.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of October 27, 2025
Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
A Game Plan to Improve Contact Center Agent Empowerment by Charlie Mitchell
(CX Today) Human contact center agents aren’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2027, half of all businesses will abandon plans to shrink their customer service teams.
My Comment: Opening this week’s Top Five roundup is an article about empowering your customer support team. I love that part of the article, but there’s something toward the beginning that I love even more. Many have said that AI will replace human-to-human customer support. I’ve vehemently disagreed with this “prediction.” This article is in alignment, and includes a Gartner prediction that by 2025 – just two years from now – half of all businesses will abandon plans to shrink their customer service teams.
How to Build Customer Loyalty: It’s All in the Experience by Anna Baluch
(CO— by U.S. Chamber of Commerce) If you could create your own fantasy board of directors, who would be on it? CO— connects you with thought leaders from across the business spectrum and asks them to help solve your biggest business challenges. In this edition, we ask the co-founder of a marketing agency to reveal her tips on how to create customer loyalty.
My Comment: This article makes the point that customer loyalty isn’t built through discounts and perks/points earned in a customer loyalty program, though that can help drive repeat business. It’s built through the experience. Here is a co-founder of a marketing agency who shares her tips for creating the experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back!”
CX Leaders, Stop Selling Sentiment — Start Selling Outcomes by Samson Adepoju
(CMSWire) The C-suite wants more than advocacy. They want revenue impact, operational efficiency and measurable growth from CX investments.
My Comment: How do you get the C-Suite to budget an investment into customer service and CX? Show them the money! In this excellent article, the author points out an exciting trend in the C-Suite: a shift from chasing new customers to maximizing revenue from existing customers. This, along with the suggestion of using a CCO (Chief Customer Officer) to not only oversee CX but also identify ROI, is what makes the C-Suite happy.
What a Company With Near-Zero Turnover Taught Me About Building Culture That Lasts by Scott Deming
(Entrepreneur) The best leaders know customer service isn’t a department, it’s a culture. I saw one company prove it beyond question, and it reaffirmed everything I believe about real leadership.
My Comment: If you want to create a great customer experience, start by looking at how you treat your employees. Culture is where a good customer experience begins, and Scott Demming, a marketing and CX expert, shares three important culture lessons in this article. First, make every employee feel like their voice matters. Second, break silos and incorporate a seamless customer experience across the company. And three, recognize the importance of a diverse team that can contribute different perspectives.
Digital Journeys Are Failing Too Many Customers by Bryan Cheung
(The Wise Marketer) Self-service was meant to save time. It was supposed to make everyday transactions faster and simpler for customers while easing the load on organizations. Somewhere along the way, that promise broke down. Our new research, the Liferay 2025 Digital Self-Service Report, shows that many digital journeys have become so cumbersome that they drive people away instead of drawing them in.
My Comment: Self-service customer service is nothing new. What’s new is the ever-increasing capabilities of technology that drive self-service support. While more customers are comfortable with digital self-service, often fueled by AI, there are still trust issues that come from clunky and cumbersome experiences. This article takes a look at why a company’s effort to provide good digital support can fail. Before reading the article, my two comments (in addition to making the experience easy and intuitive) are simple. Don’t become so enamored with technology that you eliminate the ability for the customer to talk to a live person. And make it easy for the customer to get to a live person.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
A Game Plan to Improve Contact Center Agent Empowerment by Charlie Mitchell
(CX Today) Human contact center agents aren’t going anywhere any time soon. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2027, half of all businesses will abandon plans to shrink their customer service teams.
My Comment: Opening this week’s Top Five roundup is an article about empowering your customer support team. I love that part of the article, but there’s something toward the beginning that I love even more. Many have said that AI will replace human-to-human customer support. I’ve vehemently disagreed with this “prediction.” This article is in alignment, and includes a Gartner prediction that by 2025 – just two years from now – half of all businesses will abandon plans to shrink their customer service teams.
How to Build Customer Loyalty: It’s All in the Experience by Anna Baluch
(CO— by U.S. Chamber of Commerce) If you could create your own fantasy board of directors, who would be on it? CO— connects you with thought leaders from across the business spectrum and asks them to help solve your biggest business challenges. In this edition, we ask the co-founder of a marketing agency to reveal her tips on how to create customer loyalty.
My Comment: This article makes the point that customer loyalty isn’t built through discounts and perks/points earned in a customer loyalty program, though that can help drive repeat business. It’s built through the experience. Here is a co-founder of a marketing agency who shares her tips for creating the experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back!”
CX Leaders, Stop Selling Sentiment — Start Selling Outcomes by Samson Adepoju
(CMSWire) The C-suite wants more than advocacy. They want revenue impact, operational efficiency and measurable growth from CX investments.
My Comment: How do you get the C-Suite to budget an investment into customer service and CX? Show them the money! In this excellent article, the author points out an exciting trend in the C-Suite: a shift from chasing new customers to maximizing revenue from existing customers. This, along with the suggestion of using a CCO (Chief Customer Officer) to not only oversee CX but also identify ROI, is what makes the C-Suite happy.
What a Company With Near-Zero Turnover Taught Me About Building Culture That Lasts by Scott Deming
(Entrepreneur) The best leaders know customer service isn’t a department, it’s a culture. I saw one company prove it beyond question, and it reaffirmed everything I believe about real leadership.
My Comment: If you want to create a great customer experience, start by looking at how you treat your employees. Culture is where a good customer experience begins, and Scott Demming, a marketing and CX expert, shares three important culture lessons in this article. First, make every employee feel like their voice matters. Second, break silos and incorporate a seamless customer experience across the company. And three, recognize the importance of a diverse team that can contribute different perspectives.
Digital Journeys Are Failing Too Many Customers by Bryan Cheung
(The Wise Marketer) Self-service was meant to save time. It was supposed to make everyday transactions faster and simpler for customers while easing the load on organizations. Somewhere along the way, that promise broke down. Our new research, the Liferay 2025 Digital Self-Service Report, shows that many digital journeys have become so cumbersome that they drive people away instead of drawing them in.
My Comment: Self-service customer service is nothing new. What’s new is the ever-increasing capabilities of technology that drive self-service support. While more customers are comfortable with digital self-service, often fueled by AI, there are still trust issues that come from clunky and cumbersome experiences. This article takes a look at why a company’s effort to provide good digital support can fail. Before reading the article, my two comments (in addition to making the experience easy and intuitive) are simple. Don’t become so enamored with technology that you eliminate the ability for the customer to talk to a live person. And make it easy for the customer to get to a live person.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
October 21, 2025
Customers Don’t Care About Your Profit – They Care About Your Service
Recently, I heard from one of our subscribers, a sales and finance consultant at a luxury automobile dealership. He shared a story about how a customer was almost mistreated. In the world of auto sales, some salespeople are 100% commission-based, and when they sell a vehicle at a discounted price, there is little to no profit, resulting in a very small commission. This is important, as sometimes these low-commission sales cause employees to treat customers differently than they would for a high-commission sale.
Customers expect to be treated the same regardless of how much or little they pay for their vehicle. Furthermore, they don’t realize, nor do they care, how much of a sales commission is paid to the employee.
That brings us to the customer who bought a two-year-old luxury sports car. The first time it rained, she realized the windshield wipers needed to be replaced. The customer called her salesperson, who explained that he was happy to replace the blades. He went to his sales manager to ask how to handle the replacement and was told to charge her the cost of the blades or to tell her to buy them at Walmart for less than the dealership’s cost and bring them in to have them replaced.
The salesperson was shocked and reminded his sales manager that they were selling a premium brand. Eventually, the manager agreed, but the experience reminded him that profit, or the lack thereof, dictated the level of service the dealership would offer.
Three Customer-First Lessons
With that in mind, let’s use the story as a learning experience for all businesses. Here are three lessons from the story:
The Customer Doesn’t Care about Your Profit: Every customer deserves respect and a consistent experience, whether it’s $20 transaction or a $200,000 one. Profit per interaction shouldn’t determine the level of care.
Know the Lifetime Value of the Customer: The wiper blades may have been a $20 problem, but how the customer was treated for the problem could determine the future sale of a high-end luxury automobile worth thousands of times more. Knowing the average value of a customer will help employees make more informed, customer-focused decisions. Small gestures today can protect long-term loyalty and repeat business.
Consistency Builds Trust: Luxury brands thrive on consistent treatment, but the principle applies to all types of businesses. Today’s customers demand a good customer experience. Train and empower employees to deliver a consistent standard of service, every time, for every customer.
In the end, customers remember the experience, not your profit margins. Get the small things right, and the money follows as you earn their trust, confidence, and loyalty.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
October 14, 2025
What’s More Important, Happy Customers or Happy Employees?
Do happy employees make happy customers, or is it the other way around? Do happy customers make employees happy? I’ve written in many articles and books that a focus on the employee experience will improve the customer experience. The logic makes sense. If you treat employees well, they will be more engaged with their customers and fellow employees. My mantra has been:
What happens on the inside of an organization is felt on the outside by customers.
I had the chance to interview Sean Crichton-Browne, co-author of The Human Culture Imperative , for an episode of Amazing Business Radio. He challenges the concept, and in his book, he discusses how happy customers actually create happier and more engaged employees.
Crichton-Browne’s insights stem from his years of sales experience. He said, “I was happy when my customers were happy. Because at the end of the day, when I received that phone call from a disgruntled customer, I became exceptionally unhappy.” In other words, the emotional climate of a customer’s happiness (or unhappiness) had a direct impact on employee satisfaction.
Crichton-Browne’s “outside-in” approach flips the traditional “happy employees equals happy customers” approach and asks us to start with the end in mind. He argues that when customers are happy, employees will take greater pride in their work, stay longer and be more engaged.
While this idea makes sense, I’m still of the “happy employees first” mentality. No matter how great your product is, if you don’t support it with great service, the customer eventually moves on to the competition. That great service is the result of great employees positively engaging with their customers. You don’t want to make employees who control the customer experience unhappy. Again, what’s happening on the inside of the organization is felt on the outside by customers.
We did find some middle ground. There is no doubt that happy customers elevate employee morale. It’s like a continuous loop. Employees feel good when customers are happy, and customers feel good when employees are happy. Crichton-Browne says, “One cannot exist successfully without the other.”
So, what’s the takeaway from our conversation? First, don’t get caught up in the chicken-or-the-egg debate. The truth is that employee happiness and customer happiness feed off each other. Customers feel good when employees are engaged, and employees feel good when customers are happy. One can’t exist without the other, and together they create the kind of momentum that makes both employees and customers say, “I’ll be back!”
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
October 13, 2025
Creating the Engagement Effect with Steve Spangler
This episode of
Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken
answers the following questions and more:
How can leaders create more engaging experiences for their customers and employees?
How can emotional and intellectual connections drive stronger customer loyalty?
Why is it important for businesses to treat engagement as an experiment rather than a fixed process?
How can leaders and managers inspire employees to deliver exceptional customer service?
How can companies operationalize the “best day ever” experience for both customers and team members?
Top Takeaways
Engagement is about creating experiences, not transactions. Create an experience that connects emotionally and intellectually with your customers by making them feel involved and valued.
Treat engagement as an experiment. Try new things, see what works, and don’t be afraid to fail or make changes. When leaders create a culture where it’s okay to try and sometimes fail, employees feel more comfortable contributing and taking risks.
The way you treat your employees and customers shapes their experiences and loyalty. Positive experiences lead to better engagement, while negative ones can create lasting disengagement.
It’s not enough to have a great product. What elevates your brand is how you present it. What creates a loyal following is getting people excited, curious, and the desire to be involved.
Allow your customers to help craft their experience. Sometimes, your customers will create powerful moments themselves, and your job is to set the stage and then step back. Invite feedback and participation. Pay attention to what they find most meaningful and operationalize it so that it becomes a part of the typical experience.
Approach leadership with a teacher’s mindset. The best leaders don’t just tell people what to do. They inspire, guide, and help others discover answers for themselves.
Plus, hear how Steve’s viral Mentos-and-Diet-Coke experiments, Chewy.com’s famous pet owner story, and more real-world examples bring the engagement effect to life. Tune in!
Quotes:
“The engagement effect is when you emotionally and intellectually connect to an experience, and it makes the customer move forward with an action.”
“Whether they like it or not, leaders are in the experience business. They’re either creating positive experiences for their employees, which then affects customers, or they’re creating disengagement that transfers through the organization.”
“Experiences are transformational. It changes the way you see, feel, think, and react.”
“Engagement is an experiment. There are no hard, fast rules. It is about creating an experience where people want to connect with you.”
About:
Steve Spangler is an Emmy award-winning TV host, STEM educator, and bestselling author. He is known for making science unforgettable through TV, social media, and live demonstrations. With over 4.3 billion video views and years on DIY Sci and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he has inspired millions worldwide. His latest book, The Engagement Effect: Cultivating Experiences that Ignite Connection, Build Trust, and Inspire Action, is out now.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
How can leaders create more engaging experiences for their customers and employees?
How can emotional and intellectual connections drive stronger customer loyalty?
Why is it important for businesses to treat engagement as an experiment rather than a fixed process?
How can leaders and managers inspire employees to deliver exceptional customer service?
How can companies operationalize the “best day ever” experience for both customers and team members?
Top Takeaways
Engagement is about creating experiences, not transactions. Create an experience that connects emotionally and intellectually with your customers by making them feel involved and valued.
Treat engagement as an experiment. Try new things, see what works, and don’t be afraid to fail or make changes. When leaders create a culture where it’s okay to try and sometimes fail, employees feel more comfortable contributing and taking risks.
The way you treat your employees and customers shapes their experiences and loyalty. Positive experiences lead to better engagement, while negative ones can create lasting disengagement.
It’s not enough to have a great product. What elevates your brand is how you present it. What creates a loyal following is getting people excited, curious, and the desire to be involved.
Allow your customers to help craft their experience. Sometimes, your customers will create powerful moments themselves, and your job is to set the stage and then step back. Invite feedback and participation. Pay attention to what they find most meaningful and operationalize it so that it becomes a part of the typical experience.
Approach leadership with a teacher’s mindset. The best leaders don’t just tell people what to do. They inspire, guide, and help others discover answers for themselves.
Plus, hear how Steve’s viral Mentos-and-Diet-Coke experiments, Chewy.com’s famous pet owner story, and more real-world examples bring the engagement effect to life. Tune in!
Quotes:
“The engagement effect is when you emotionally and intellectually connect to an experience, and it makes the customer move forward with an action.”
“Whether they like it or not, leaders are in the experience business. They’re either creating positive experiences for their employees, which then affects customers, or they’re creating disengagement that transfers through the organization.”
“Experiences are transformational. It changes the way you see, feel, think, and react.”
“Engagement is an experiment. There are no hard, fast rules. It is about creating an experience where people want to connect with you.”
About:
Steve Spangler is an Emmy award-winning TV host, STEM educator, and bestselling author. He is known for making science unforgettable through TV, social media, and live demonstrations. With over 4.3 billion video views and years on DIY Sci and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, he has inspired millions worldwide. His latest book, The Engagement Effect: Cultivating Experiences that Ignite Connection, Build Trust, and Inspire Action, is out now.
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio .
Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of October 13, 2025
Each week, I read many customer service and customer experience articles from various resources. Here are my top five picks from last week. I have added my comments about each article and would like to hear what you think too.
Qualtrics Finds Cynicism Around AI Threatens Customer Loyalty by Nicole Willing
(CX Today) Many businesses are enthusiastically deploying AI-powered chatbots and agents as the front line of their customer engagement, but a growing number of consumers are hitting the brakes.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five roundup with an article featuring findings from Qualtrics’ research on customer experience and AI. The message to companies and brands is to tread carefully. Customers aren’t trusting AI and chatbots, which can lead to lost revenue due to bad experiences. According to Qualtrics’ Isabelle Zdatny, “Increasingly, customers don’t tell companies about bad experiences – they just act, with roughly half reducing their spending. Companies can be left guessing where they went wrong.”
Why Aren’t Chatbots Delivering? by Xander Freeman
(Call Centre Helper) With a near-half adoption rate in our readers’ contact centres, why are chatbots still ranking so low for ROI when it comes to improving customer experience?
My Comment: Speaking of Chatbots and AI, Call Centre has just released its research on how companies are investing in AI for CX. They asked two experts (myself included) for their opinions. And they provide a link to the research. If you run a contact center, small or large, this is important/must-have information.
CX Day 2025: The State of Customer Experience and Why It’s at a Tipping Point by Nicole Willing
(CX Today) Each year, World CX Day is an opportunity to tip the hat to the brands, teams, and innovations that put customers first. But this year, the celebration comes as customer experience is at a crossroads. While new technologies, especially AI, are unlocking powerful opportunities, the reality on the ground is more complex. According to Forrester, CX quality is declining year after year, and the reasons are both technical and human.
My Comment: Last week was Customer Service Week and Customer Experience Day, two of my favorite “holidays.” This article focuses on CX Day, including commentary on the importance of CX. One section that stood out was about trust. More and more, I believe CX is not only a driver of happy experiences but also of trust. While the trust comments in this article focused on how companies use and protect their customers’ data, good service is a trust driver. Trust is key to creating customer loyalty.
93% of Executives Admit Their Customer Experience Is ‘Broken’ by PRNewswire
(MarTech) New WSJ Intelligence and Code and Theory research report shows that businesses are failing to harness AI’s potential to fundamentally reshape customer relationships.
My Comment: The title of this article intrigued me. Nine out of ten executives admit their CX is broken, yet everyone (for years) has expressed the importance of CX and how it contributes to the bottom line. And as usual, AI is dominating the conversation. Dan Gardner, co-founder of Code and Theory, shared a savvy comment: “The companies winning with AI aren’t following best practices; they’re inventing new categories of customer value…”
Famous Customer Service Quotes from Famous Business Leaders in History by Daniel Pereira
(The Business Model Analyst) Great service outlives trends because it’s rooted in human needs: feeling heard, respected, and helped. The best operators knew this decades ago—and their lessons still guide world-class CX today.
My Comment: Let’s wrap up this week’s Top Five with a little motivation and inspiration that doesn’t mention AI! Here are 75 quotes from famous business leaders to get you motivated and thinking.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
Qualtrics Finds Cynicism Around AI Threatens Customer Loyalty by Nicole Willing
(CX Today) Many businesses are enthusiastically deploying AI-powered chatbots and agents as the front line of their customer engagement, but a growing number of consumers are hitting the brakes.
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five roundup with an article featuring findings from Qualtrics’ research on customer experience and AI. The message to companies and brands is to tread carefully. Customers aren’t trusting AI and chatbots, which can lead to lost revenue due to bad experiences. According to Qualtrics’ Isabelle Zdatny, “Increasingly, customers don’t tell companies about bad experiences – they just act, with roughly half reducing their spending. Companies can be left guessing where they went wrong.”
Why Aren’t Chatbots Delivering? by Xander Freeman
(Call Centre Helper) With a near-half adoption rate in our readers’ contact centres, why are chatbots still ranking so low for ROI when it comes to improving customer experience?
My Comment: Speaking of Chatbots and AI, Call Centre has just released its research on how companies are investing in AI for CX. They asked two experts (myself included) for their opinions. And they provide a link to the research. If you run a contact center, small or large, this is important/must-have information.
CX Day 2025: The State of Customer Experience and Why It’s at a Tipping Point by Nicole Willing
(CX Today) Each year, World CX Day is an opportunity to tip the hat to the brands, teams, and innovations that put customers first. But this year, the celebration comes as customer experience is at a crossroads. While new technologies, especially AI, are unlocking powerful opportunities, the reality on the ground is more complex. According to Forrester, CX quality is declining year after year, and the reasons are both technical and human.
My Comment: Last week was Customer Service Week and Customer Experience Day, two of my favorite “holidays.” This article focuses on CX Day, including commentary on the importance of CX. One section that stood out was about trust. More and more, I believe CX is not only a driver of happy experiences but also of trust. While the trust comments in this article focused on how companies use and protect their customers’ data, good service is a trust driver. Trust is key to creating customer loyalty.
93% of Executives Admit Their Customer Experience Is ‘Broken’ by PRNewswire
(MarTech) New WSJ Intelligence and Code and Theory research report shows that businesses are failing to harness AI’s potential to fundamentally reshape customer relationships.
My Comment: The title of this article intrigued me. Nine out of ten executives admit their CX is broken, yet everyone (for years) has expressed the importance of CX and how it contributes to the bottom line. And as usual, AI is dominating the conversation. Dan Gardner, co-founder of Code and Theory, shared a savvy comment: “The companies winning with AI aren’t following best practices; they’re inventing new categories of customer value…”
Famous Customer Service Quotes from Famous Business Leaders in History by Daniel Pereira
(The Business Model Analyst) Great service outlives trends because it’s rooted in human needs: feeling heard, respected, and helped. The best operators knew this decades ago—and their lessons still guide world-class CX today.
My Comment: Let’s wrap up this week’s Top Five with a little motivation and inspiration that doesn’t mention AI! Here are 75 quotes from famous business leaders to get you motivated and thinking.
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.
October 8, 2025
Introducing the Customer Confidence Score™ (CCS)
Recently, I wrote about a customer trust survey. The feedback was amazing, which compelled me to take this a step further. After more writing and additional research, I recognized the need for more attention to a metric that measures a customer’s trust, which will directly correlate with customer satisfaction levels, loyalty, and any metric that measures what keeps customers or drives them away. Merriam-Webster defines trust as an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. One in which confidence is placed.
One can’t ignore that the word confidence is part of the definition! They are very closely linked. We might ask something similar to, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” The question would be, “Which comes first, confidence or trust?”
Or, put another way: Does more trust lead to higher confidence, or does a higher level of confidence lead to more trust?
Or does it really matter? If you have both, you win. My take is that trust leads to confidence. Customers show confidence in your company through repeat business and referrals. That’s how they express their trust.
And that is why I’m officially announcing to you, our subscribers, readers, and viewers, a name to describe the trust questions I recently covered. I call it the Customer Confidence Score™ (CCS), another question to add to the survey questions you use to measure customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS). Here’s an anchor question from my recent article on trust surveys:
On a scale of 1-10, how much do you trust that we will always do what’s right for you as our customer?
If your customer doesn’t give you a perfect 10 on this question, there are trust issues. Customers either fully trust you, or they don’t. And obviously, the lower the score, the less likely you’ll see them return. But a score alone is just a number. The real insight comes when you ask your customers why they gave you that score. The answer is your opportunity to resolve trust issues and improve the likelihood they will return.
The Customer Confidence Score™ is the result of surveying for trust, but it’s more than just another metric. It doesn’t replace CSAT or NPS. It completes them by measuring the foundation they are built on: trust. Without trust, a high CSAT or NPS score may be temporary at best. Measure CCS consistently, act on the insights, and you’ll build the kind of confidence and loyalty that get customers to say, “I’ll be back!”
Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com . Connect with Shep on LinkedIn .
