#customer-experience

#customer-experience

My past experience has been with large consumer brands; we're always focused on leveraging technology to transform brands and create delightful, personalized customer experiences. At Elevance Health, I'm trying to do the same thing.

I believed technology could reshape the jewelry industry entirely-changing how customers find pieces they love, personalizing their own designs, and reimagining the customer experience. We launched as a digital-first venture to do just that. Now, two decades into our pioneering digital journey, I've realized something surprising: Our most sophisticated online tools have actually made in-person interactions more valuable. I believe the brands leading the next wave of innovation aren't choosing between digital and physical. They're using digital excellence to help create meaningful in-person connections and lifelong brand affinity.

Trust has fast become one of the central questions in every serious conversation about AI. Not capabilities. Not efficiency. Trust. If customers don't trust how companies deploy AI, they'll walk away. If employees don't trust it, they'll disengage. If enterprises don't trust their AI providers, they won't adopt. A recent global KPMG study found that while two-thirds of people now use AI regularly, fewer than half say they're willing to trust it.

Cisco CX maintains close collaboration with product development teams through systematic feedback mechanisms. When support teams identify patterns in product defects, or when adoption teams notice features that customers purchase but don't use, this intelligence flows back to engineering for correction or calibration. Pereira emphasizes that this feedback operates both pre-release and post-deployment. The CX organization participates in new product introductions to test and validate functionality before shipping. Then, the organization continues monitoring adoption patterns and support ticket trends after products reach customers.

While those questions matter, the secret sauce is understanding the context behind a person's interaction with your brand at a given moment. A frequent traveler might visit an airline's website one day to research a family vacation. The next time they see, they might be booking a flight for work. Their attitudinal profile hasn't changed, but what their context - and therefore what they want from you - has.

Space & Time is a growth marketing agency, enabling clients to secure optimal value from every part of the customer experience and their marketing investment.

For years, car dealerships had a terrible reputation. Pushy sales tactics, confusing pricing, and long hours spent negotiating made the entire experience feel more like a battle than a purchase. Like many buyers, I assumed that avoiding dealerships altogether was the smartest way to buy a car, especially as online platforms and direct-to-consumer models gained popularity. Over time, however, my perspective began to shift.

Time and time again, we hear that modern B2B buyers have quickly adapted to online buying habits that emerged during the pandemic. You don't have to search far to find an article that references the increased number of touchpoints in a B2B sale . B uyers are self-directing their experiences throughout the customer journey and are confident they can engage with sales teams when they are ready.

Taxwell helps everyday Americans get every tax advantage they deserve by finding credits and deductions they never even knew existed. Our tax preparation software offers easy guidance and ensures your maximum tax refund. We strive to build a team of like-minded experts in both tax and technology who align with our brand purpose, are advocates for our customers and have a fresh, non-traditional approach to the tax industry.

Customer service in the UK has a problem. According to recent survey data, almost half of UK customers have experienced poor customer service over the past year. That's not a minor data point, but rather a warning sign. Long wait times, unhelpful responses, and automated loops that dead-end are just the beginning, and they erode customer trust quickly. While many businesses have invested heavily in digital tools and AI to help address these problems, that comes with its own drawbacks.

The technology underpinning retail operations is under scrutiny in 2026 as fashion executives look to streamline systems with the aim to unlock efficiency, cut costs and meet consumer expectations for speed and personalisation in the shopping journey. At the retail event Lightspeed Edge on 12 January, Lightspeed - the unified point-of-sale (POS) and payments platform for SMEs such as Apricot Lane Boutique and Neal's Yard Remedies - convened industry leaders to explore the strategic imperative for integrated technology ecosystems over siloed systems.

Marketing generates attention, qualifies prospects, and creates excitement. But it doesn't matter how amazing your marketing campaign is-if someone tries your product and feels disrespected, encounters rudeness, or finds it doesn't live up to expectations, they won't come back, no matter how clever your next campaign is. Customer experience delivers on the promises marketing makes and creates continuity that lasts. Every touchpoint from pre-purchase to post-purchase provides evidence that people use to shape how they feel about you.

Notes from the desk: Welcome to this month's Quarterly Review and a new year! The Quarterly Review is one of the only media pieces that allow readers to track improvements through time. It's a chance for the industry to learn about what goes on behind an FI's four walls and how leadership manages their priorities.And a review mandates a check-in, as I like to say, so enjoy reading about how the exec in the hot seat today overcame challenges, and brought her vision to life.

My resolution next year is to climb a tough peak in the Chamonix Valley in France. The 'why' is because it's been on my list for 15 years, and it's overdue. The 'how' is a detailed set of logistical, physical, mental, and family preparations.

Customer experience technology has a habit of reappearing on leadership agendas every few years. Not because it suddenly feels exciting again, but because something quietly stops working. Customers complain more. Staff spend too much time chasing information. Decisions get made on partial data. What has changed recently is the pressure coming from multiple directions at once. Expectations are higher, patience is lower, and automation has moved from back office efficiency to front line interaction.

Providing great service has always mattered. Doing it brilliantly and consistently, is where things become hard, particularly for SMEs juggling growth, limited resources and rising customer expectations. At Moneypenny, we exist to solve that challenge. By combining unrivalled people and smart AI, we represent businesses seamlessly, delivering exceptional conversations that protect reputation and drive growth. That mission has never been more relevant.

Builders often talk about uncertainty as if it were a temporary fog that had to clear eventually. Rates will decline, the Fed will pivot, pent-up demand will return, migration will pick up again, and the longstanding pattern of structural underbuilding will resume. The idea that the industry's biggest risks come from the outsideand that the outside world and its cyclical forces will eventually save themhas been one of homebuilding's most persistent forms of magical thinking.