All Things Experience: Edition 7

All Things Experience is back after an extended weekend for Memorial Day and a few other public holidays around the world with the latest stories in experience.

This week we’re covering the “musts”: the must-haves for exceptional customer experience, the must-read CX books of 2023, and the must-avoid AI mistakes in the customer journey.

Now let’s get into it.

Worth the Read | The Secret Sauce: Must-Haves for Exceptional Customer Experience

According to Cary Cusumano , “If the fundamentals of customer experience aren’t adequately addressed first, none of the extras matter.”

Cusumano breaks his method for achieving exceptional customer experience into three parts:

1. Addressing fundamentals: In order to establish a solid foundation for customer experience management, you should priortize must-have product or service attributes.
2. Delighters evolve: Attributes that delight customers will evolve over time to must-haves.
3. Foucs on basics: Acing the basics of CX will do more for your customer loyalty than constantly delighting them will.

For a deeper look into Cusumano’s insights, head over to his article in CMSWire .

Hit the Books | Best Customer Experience Books to Read in 2023

I turn to Google for answers just as much as you, but sometimes analog is best to gain perspective. As the unofficial start of summer kicked over the weekend in the U.S., build out your reading list for the rest of this year.

Here’s a list of acclaimed CX books to read in 2023 to stay on top of your craft and deepen your understanding of how to delight your customers:

• Thanks for Coming in Today: Creating a Culture Where Employees Thrive & Customer Service is Alive ( Ryan Minton )
• Customers Know You Suck: Actionable CX Strategies to Better Understand, Attract, and Retain Customers ( Debbie Levitt ???? )
• Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service ( Disney Institute , Theodore Kinni )
• Winning on Purpose: The Unbeatable Strategy of Loving Customers ( Fred Reichheld )
• Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect ( Will Guidara )
• I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again & Again ( ?Shep Hyken )
• Chief Customer Officer 2.0: How to Build Your Customer-Driven Growth Engine ( Jeanne Bliss )
• Customer Obsessed: A Whole Company Approach to Delivering Exceptional Customer Experiences ( Eric Berridge )
• The Experience Maker: How to Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can’t Wait to Share ( Dan Gingiss )
• The Customer Rules: The 39 Essential Rules for Delivering Sensational Service ( Lee Cockerell )
• Built to Win: Designing a Customer-Centric Culture that Drives Value for Your Business ( Annette Franz, CCXP )

Every book in the list is available in a physical copy and as an ebook, and some you can also purchase as an audio book for on-the-go listening.

If you’re looking to build out your reading list further, we’ve also compiled a list of the best digital experience books to read. Between our list of CX and DX books, there are plenty of options to enrich your knowledge no matter your role.

Worth the Read | Seven Mistakes To Avoid When Leveraging AI In Your Customer Journey

While CX leaders have been using AI for years, OpenAI ’s ChatGPT has shone a spotlight on its use.

Adoption of AI tools in CX is sure to increase, but Matt Dickson writes about the seven pitfalls to avoid:

1. Not Considering How Automation Fits With Your Brand: Your brand has a voice, you should make sure that your chatbot’s “personality” reflects your brand’s voice.
2. Not Knowing The Locations Of The Exit Rows: It’s crucial for your AI to know when to turn an interaction over to a human.
3. Not Locating The Circuit Breakers: AI is great, but that doesn’t mean it should be used in every instance. Understanding when it should and shouldn’t be used is vital.
4. Not Considering Agent Enablement Before Automation: Instead of focusing on how to automate interactions, focus on how AI can create more effective agents.
5. Starting From The Top And Not The Bottom: Don’t start with “what can we automate?” Instead, focus on helping your agents become more efficient and the rest will reveal itself.
6. Not Thinking About All The Use Cases: AI can help with more than just the customer journey, they can audit every customer interaction—helping to improve performance and increase compliance.
7. Not Planning For Care And Feeding: You must be prepared to help your AI learn, improve its selection process, and adapt.

For a deeper dive into the pitfalls and how to avoid them, head over to Dickson’s article in Forbes .

Quick Hits | Notable News & Notes

Before you go, here are a few things we thought you might find interesting:

• Medallia is heading to London for #AdobeSummitEMEA . Will you be there? Let’s connect — join us for VIP events, sessions, and more!
• Did you know that organizations that have a greater focus on employee experience tend to outperform competitors by 122%? Here’s how to refine the employee experience to boost performance and retention.
• The latest episode of Couch Talks is streaming exclusively on EXP Now on EXP Now. In this episode, Alisha Thomas is joined by Kellen McCrary , Deborah Joy Gonsalves, and Asa Fludd to discuss being a Black professional and how to naviagte cororate spaces.
• By now, we all know that Gen Z operates much differently than previous generations. Here are ways to tailor the customer experience to them .
• Customers dealing with technical errors or experience issues? Know the difference between the two — and how to resolve them.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

- Madeline Buyers , Content Marketing & Social Media Senior Specialist