Customer Experience University - Winning Loyalty & Engagement One Customer at a Time

651 Episodes

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The Frontline Knows: Why Your Best CX Strategy Is Already on Your Payroll

2026-09-2509:14

The cheapest customer-experience strategy in your company is already on the payroll—and mostly ignored. Joseph Michelli unpacks Medallia/McKinsey research showing nearly 60% of frontline employees feel their CX ideas go unheard, even where leaders call experience a priority. Drawing on his own Mercedes-Benz buying-experience work, he explains why the people closest to customers see what dashboards and AI can’t—and three moves to surface that frontline wisdom before your competitors do.

When the Bot Breaks: Why Service Recovery Is Where AI-Era Loyalty Is Won

2026-09-1810:36

Failure is inevitable—and as AI mediates more of the service, it’s multiplying. Joseph Michelli explains the “service recovery paradox”: why a brilliantly fixed problem can make a customer more loyal than one who never had a problem. Drawing on John Goodman’s TARP research, Qualtrics data, and Zappos’ legendary ten-hour call, he shows why the rescue moment, not the failure, is where AI-era loyalty is won—and three moves to win it.

Design the Job, Not Just the Tool

2026-09-1109:28

AI use at work has nearly doubled — yet only 16% of employees say the tools they were handed help. In this episode, Joseph Michelli unpacks “the bolt-on trap”: dropping powerful AI onto jobs nobody redesigned, which removes no friction and quietly manufactures fear. Drawing on fresh Gallup data, he shares how to redesign the job — subtract the drudgery, raise the human value — so AI lifts your people instead of unsettling them.

Trust Is the Real Currency

2026-09-0409:55

To get the magic, customers have to let AI know almost everything — and trust in AI is falling, not rising. In this episode, Joseph Michelli makes the case that trust is the real currency of the AI era. Drawing on data from Edelman, Cisco, and Salesforce, he shows why transparency — not capability — is the differentiator and offers three disciplines for earning the “trust dividend” when your AI knows everything.

From Customers to Advocates

2026-08-2809:43

Why do we recommend some brands and never mention others? In this episode, Joseph Michelli traces the path from satisfied customer to vocal advocate — and finds belonging at its root. With Nielsen, Harvard Business Review, and Edelman data, plus the real story behind Airbnb’s “Belong Anywhere” strategy, he explains why you can’t discount your way to advocacy — and the three disciplines that build it.

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Customer Experience University - Winning Loyalty & Engagement One Customer at a Time