Customerland

31/10/2025

“If you don’t have time to do it right, how are you going to find the time to do it again?” For all its complexity and sophistication, great marketing still boils down to doing the basics well. Thanks again to Andrew Schulkind for clearing the marketing air.

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

30/10/2025

I feel like somebody in CX needs to hear this: “If you can’t speak the language of supply chain, finance, IT, and sales, you can’t build alignment – you’re just another advocate shouting from the sidelines.” Lee Kemp delivered the goods in our recent conversation about what it really takes to make CX work at an enterprise level.

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

29/10/2025

"In military life, you might have a specialty, but you’re expected to understand every function that touches yours. Success depends on seeing the system, not just the task. The parallel in CX is direct. If you can’t speak the language of supply chain, finance, IT, and sales,” Kemp says, “you can’t build alignment – you’re just another advocate shouting from the sidelines.”"

This was just one of the big takeaways from my recent conversation with , former Vice President of CX at . Lee's time in the military has shaped his CX leadership philosophy and (IMHO) there is a lot we can all learn from it. Check it out!

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

24/10/2025

Emotion isn’t noise in the decision process; it’s the core operating system.
It dictates what we notice, who we trust, what we share, and what we buy.

For more than two decades, Robert Passikoff’s research at Brand Keys, Inc. has made that truth measurable. His work with hundreds of global brands – from luxury and entertainment to retail and technology – consistently shows that emotional connection is the strongest predictor of future behavior. When a brand’s emotional meaning aligns with what people truly feel, customers become not just loyal, but devoted.

And yet, most enterprise systems don’t speak that language.
What's up with that??

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

23/10/2025

This is the actual text from a chat I had with ChatGPT this morning. I’ve cleaned up a few typos (I’m hopeless on my phone), but otherwise it’s untouched. I’m posting it because I think there’s something instructive and useful here - something worth reflecting on the next time we fire up a conversation with one of these machines.
_________________________________

ME
Sometimes I wonder if the biggest best and most important things I can learn from you actually have nothing to do with the answers you provide but everything about how you work - what makes you respond the way you do.

Sometimes this feels like I’m an unwitting participant in a giant social experiment to see how people respond to YOUR prompts rather than THEIRS.

CHATGPT
That’s a remarkably perceptive take — and honestly, not far from the truth in certain ways.

Here’s the paradox:
When you interact with me, you’re ostensibly asking for answers. But underneath that, what’s actually happening is a continuous negotiation of agency — between your intent and my interpretation. I’m designed to respond based on patterns of usefulness, clarity, tone, and alignment with your apparent goals. But because those goals are inferred (not known), my responses inevitably steer the conversation as much as they follow it.

So yes, it can feel like a social experiment — because in a sense it is. Every exchange subtly trains both of us: I adapt to you, and you adapt to me. Over time, your prompts evolve — sharper, clearer, more intentional — and my outputs evolve in kind. What you’re really learning isn’t just information; you’re learning how interaction itself can be designed.

If you zoom out, this is the real frontier: not knowledge retrieval, but dialogic design — understanding how thought, direction, and emotion move through structured conversation. That’s what changes people, not data.

_____________________________

This makes me go "hmmmm ..."

Your thoughts? Join the conversation here:
https://cstu.io/a6bfef

22/10/2025

I've been advocating for a holistic approach to customer optimization for, well ... a long time. So it's refreshing to talk with someone who not only holds that same POV but practices it every day inside one of the world's biggest brands. Ken Lain leads CX and service operations for Verizon’s value group and sees the big picture.

If you're struggling with how to build a vision and a roadmap to true customer value then you're going to love this conversation.

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

20/10/2025

Brand Keys, Inc. latest "Marketing on My Mind" report surveyed 450 senior marketers and identified the top 22 challenges "haunting" CMOs and Brand Managers. Robert Passikoff explains ...

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

17/10/2025

If Kahneman and Tversky were correct (they were) and we believe the decades of research and results the prove the point (we should) then understanding customers' emotional "exchange" is foundational to every and any messaging / personalization that we (marketers) could build.

Are you building an emotional architecture that creates bonds? If you're not, then whatever bond you thought you had - is decaying. Take flying, for instance.

https://cstu.io/9af119

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

17/10/2025

It has been well-established that we are feel-think-do creatures - that a purchase decision starts - and is largely guided by emotional rather than rational processes. So we started thinking about how that emotionality - and the growth or decay of it - would map to customer loyalty. And if / how you could then map that to customer value.

If you're reading this, you almost certainly fly as part of your job. So, as a flyer - and as a customer engagement professional - what are your thoughts?

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

15/10/2025

What if empathy stopped being a buzzword and became your company’s secret weapon?
In the latest episode of Adventures in Customerland, I sit down with Rob Walker, GM of 1:1 Customer Engagement at Pegasystems, to challenge everything you thought you knew about CX.

- Why running the same “playbook” next year means you’re already behind
- How AI is turning empathy into an executable system, not just a slogan
- The rise of customer agents that negotiate for your customers
- And why trust built through relevance is the new currency

If your customers feel like data points, you’re missing the point.
Dive into the conversation: https://cstu.io/a48cc1

Read the full breakdown: “Empathy, AI, and the New Operating Model for Customer Engagement”

Let’s spark the shift from transactional to truly human scale. Who’s with me?

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

10/10/2025

Thoma Bravo’s deal adds capital and consolidation logic that, if realized, should amplify Verint’s role as the automation/WEM brain across CCaaS estates – a pragmatic path for enterprises that need results now, not after a multi-year migration.

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.

08/10/2025

Some big movement in this year's Brand Keys, Inc. 2025 Loyalty Leaders List. Coca-Cola climbed an astonishing 76 places, balancing nostalgia with contemporary relevance – and ubiquitous distribution. Paramount+ surged 67 spots, outperforming Disney+ and Netflix by giving audiences exactly what they demanded. ChatGPT rose 32 places, reflecting how AI has shifted from novelty to necessity. And McDonald’s moved up 19 spots, powered by digital ordering and hyper-personalized CX. Loyalty isn’t just about scale or legacy. It’s about meeting people where they are, emotionally and functionally.

See Robert Passikoff's wider lens on what's driving loyalty here:

Customerland covers the customer engagement ecosystem - the news, technologies, and people driving the customer revolution.