Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of November 17, 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.
Data Management: Consent is the Key to Personalization by The Wall Street Journal
(The Wall Street Journal) Personalization can help create a stronger relationship and smoother experience between a company and its stakeholders. It cannot be done without obtaining user consent
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five with an article on personalization. How exciting can an article about data management be? If you’re into creating a personalized experience that enhances customer experience and marketing, this article will do exactly that. Several partners at Deloitte & Touche weigh in on the power of collecting the right information about your customers that they willingly share.
AI Won’t Just Cut Costs, It Will Reinvent the Customer Experience by Richard Hatherall, Priscilla Dell’Orto, Eduardo Roma, and Maureen Burns
(Bain & Company) Beyond efficiency, AI helps create a more personalized experience that delivers a triple play of customer loyalty, employee engagement, and revenue growth.
My Comment: AI makes people and processes more efficient and productive. In the customer service and experience worlds, we’ve barely scratched the surface of AI’s capability, and still, companies and their customers are raving about the results. This article, written by some of Bain & Company’s partners, shares how AI can supports customer loyalty, employee engagement, and increased revenue.
Predictions 2026: AI Gets Real For Customer Service — But It’s Not Glamorous Work by Kate Leggett
(Forrester) Customer service leaders are counting on an impending year of business transformation boosted by the power of today’s AI. Yet 2026 will not be that year. Instead of dazzling transformation, the year ahead will be defined by gritty, foundational work — the kind that rarely makes headlines but is essential to realizing AI’s long-term promise.
My Comment: Forrester has released its 2026 predictions, and as with most prediction articles, AI is at the forefront. There are three predictions, and the overarching theme is their “sobering truth,” which is that while an AI-first customer service strategy is compelling, it is not realistic. Why? Most companies aren’t equipped to deliver what they want and hope their AI-infused customer experience to be.
The New Anatomy of Customer Experience – Part 1 by Disha Bhardwaj
(HackerNoon) We are at the precipice (or perhaps already in the deep end) of what may be the greatest technical revolution in modern history with Generative AI, and I wanted to outline my thoughts and propose a playbook in this two-part series on how this technology can transform the relationship between the modern commerce engine and the customer.
My Comment: I like this article because it starts off describing the first customer complaint letter that is displayed in the British Museum. (I wrote about the oldest complaint letter of all time and my take on it in a recent Shepard Letter article.) The author recognizes that the one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of a good customer experience. However, the way we go about it today is far different from how complaints were handled 4,000 years ago.
How Can Retailers Crack the Gen Z ‘Riddle’? by Nicholas Morine
(RetailWire) With a recent PwC report referring to Gen Z shoppers as having become a “riddle that many retailers can’t quite crack” in the lede, it may come as little surprise that this generation of consumers was referred to as highly paradoxical as compared to their elder counterparts in Gen Xers, millennials, and baby boomers.
My Comment: We wrap up this week’s Top Five with an article about Gen Z shopping/buying habits. I’m always fascinated by the differences in generations. And you should be, too. Depending on who your customers are, you must understand how they think, buy, and what their expectations are, especially in the world of customer experience. This article gives you a glimpse into the differences between Gen Z and other generations.
BONUS
33 Crucial Customer Service Statistics by Shopify
(Shopify) Customer service statistics suggest that every interaction between consumers and CS representatives or chatbots shapes brand perception, for better or worse.
My Comment: Here’s a bonus article filled with lots of customer service and CX statistics – 33 of them! And several of them come from The State of Customer Service and CX (my annual research). Enjoy!
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.
Data Management: Consent is the Key to Personalization by The Wall Street Journal
(The Wall Street Journal) Personalization can help create a stronger relationship and smoother experience between a company and its stakeholders. It cannot be done without obtaining user consent
My Comment: We kick off this week’s Top Five with an article on personalization. How exciting can an article about data management be? If you’re into creating a personalized experience that enhances customer experience and marketing, this article will do exactly that. Several partners at Deloitte & Touche weigh in on the power of collecting the right information about your customers that they willingly share.
AI Won’t Just Cut Costs, It Will Reinvent the Customer Experience by Richard Hatherall, Priscilla Dell’Orto, Eduardo Roma, and Maureen Burns
(Bain & Company) Beyond efficiency, AI helps create a more personalized experience that delivers a triple play of customer loyalty, employee engagement, and revenue growth.
My Comment: AI makes people and processes more efficient and productive. In the customer service and experience worlds, we’ve barely scratched the surface of AI’s capability, and still, companies and their customers are raving about the results. This article, written by some of Bain & Company’s partners, shares how AI can supports customer loyalty, employee engagement, and increased revenue.
Predictions 2026: AI Gets Real For Customer Service — But It’s Not Glamorous Work by Kate Leggett
(Forrester) Customer service leaders are counting on an impending year of business transformation boosted by the power of today’s AI. Yet 2026 will not be that year. Instead of dazzling transformation, the year ahead will be defined by gritty, foundational work — the kind that rarely makes headlines but is essential to realizing AI’s long-term promise.
My Comment: Forrester has released its 2026 predictions, and as with most prediction articles, AI is at the forefront. There are three predictions, and the overarching theme is their “sobering truth,” which is that while an AI-first customer service strategy is compelling, it is not realistic. Why? Most companies aren’t equipped to deliver what they want and hope their AI-infused customer experience to be.
The New Anatomy of Customer Experience – Part 1 by Disha Bhardwaj
(HackerNoon) We are at the precipice (or perhaps already in the deep end) of what may be the greatest technical revolution in modern history with Generative AI, and I wanted to outline my thoughts and propose a playbook in this two-part series on how this technology can transform the relationship between the modern commerce engine and the customer.
My Comment: I like this article because it starts off describing the first customer complaint letter that is displayed in the British Museum. (I wrote about the oldest complaint letter of all time and my take on it in a recent Shepard Letter article.) The author recognizes that the one thing that hasn’t changed is the importance of a good customer experience. However, the way we go about it today is far different from how complaints were handled 4,000 years ago.
How Can Retailers Crack the Gen Z ‘Riddle’? by Nicholas Morine
(RetailWire) With a recent PwC report referring to Gen Z shoppers as having become a “riddle that many retailers can’t quite crack” in the lede, it may come as little surprise that this generation of consumers was referred to as highly paradoxical as compared to their elder counterparts in Gen Xers, millennials, and baby boomers.
My Comment: We wrap up this week’s Top Five with an article about Gen Z shopping/buying habits. I’m always fascinated by the differences in generations. And you should be, too. Depending on who your customers are, you must understand how they think, buy, and what their expectations are, especially in the world of customer experience. This article gives you a glimpse into the differences between Gen Z and other generations.
BONUS
33 Crucial Customer Service Statistics by Shopify
(Shopify) Customer service statistics suggest that every interaction between consumers and CS representatives or chatbots shapes brand perception, for better or worse.
My Comment: Here’s a bonus article filled with lots of customer service and CX statistics – 33 of them! And several of them come from The State of Customer Service and CX (my annual research). Enjoy!
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.
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