AI-Powered Customer Experience in 2026: A Strategic Guide for APAC Leaders

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Quick Answer

AI is transforming customer experience in 2026 by enabling 24/7 personalised service at scale, removing repetitive friction, and powering real-time data-driven decisions. But the data reveals a critical paradox: customers want AI's speed and consistency while simultaneously expecting more human-like empathy. The organisations winning in CX are deploying AI where it creates genuine efficiency gains, while preserving human judgment where it matters most.

Every major CX platform released a 2026 trends report this year. The headlines are consistent: AI is the central force reshaping customer experience. But underneath the consensus, a more complicated and more instructive story is emerging — one that many APAC organisations are not yet equipped to navigate.

This guide synthesises the most important data and strategic implications for CX leaders in Singapore and across APAC who are moving beyond experimentation into systematic AI deployment.

The CX Paradox of 2026

83%

Of consumers say experiences should be better than they are today (Zendesk 2026)

74%

Now expect 24/7 customer service availability (Zendesk 2026)

$3.50

Average return for every $1 invested in AI customer service

4 in 5

Consumers more loyal to companies that keep human service alongside AI

Here is the number that should anchor every CX strategy conversation: 83% of consumers believe experiences should be better than they are today — despite organisations investing more in CX technology than at any point in history (Zendesk CX Trends 2026). We have more AI in customer experience than ever before, and customer satisfaction has not kept pace.

The reason is structural. AI deployment has largely been optimised for cost efficiency and operational scale — reducing handling time, deflecting tickets, automating routine queries. What it has not been optimised for is the emotional dimension: the sense of being genuinely understood, valued, and helped.

The data from Acxiom's 2026 CX Trends Report crystallises the tension: 67% of consumers want digital services to act more human when they are stressed, but only 27% are comfortable with AI using emotional signals to understand how they feel. Navigating this paradox — between scale and empathy, between efficiency and trust — is the defining CX leadership challenge of 2026.

What Customers Actually Want in 2026

The research is remarkably consistent across platforms. Customers want:

• Speed and availability: 74% now expect customer service to be available 24/7 (Zendesk, 2026). 88% expect faster response times than they did just one year ago.
• Context retention: 74% find it deeply frustrating to repeat their story to different agents (Zendesk, 2026). Memory-rich AI that retains context across interactions is now a baseline expectation.
• Personalisation with boundaries: 71% expect personalised interactions (McKinsey), but 63% say their demand for transparency about data usage has risen compared to last year (Zendesk, 2026).
• Human accessibility: More than 4 in 5 consumers say they are more likely to stay loyal to companies that prioritise human customer service as part of their model (Ricoh Survey via CX Dive, 2026).
• Transparency: 95% of customers want to know why AI makes the decisions it does. Yet only 37% of CX leaders currently offer any reasoning behind AI decisions (Zendesk, 2026).

The Business Case for AI in CX

The commercial return on well-executed CX investment is robust:

• ROI at scale: Companies see an average return of $3.50 for every $1 invested in AI customer service (Ringly.io, 2026). CX leaders achieve 17% compound average revenue growth, compared to just 3% for CX laggards (InMoment).
• Cost efficiency: A chatbot interaction costs approximately $0.50 compared to $6.00 for a human agent — a 12x cost difference. Gartner predicts agentic AI will reduce operational costs by 30% by 2029.
• Customer retention: A 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25–95% (Bain & Company). Companies with strong omnichannel strategies retain 89% of their customers vs. 33% for weak models (Aberdeen Group).

The Strategic Framework: Where to Deploy AI, Where to Preserve Humanity

The most useful frame I have developed from advising organisations across healthcare, financial services, and B2B consulting is the emotional stakes matrix — mapping CX touchpoints on two dimensions: task complexity and emotional stakes.

High Complexity + High Emotional Stakes: Always Human-Led

Complaints about financial loss. Medical diagnosis communication. End-of-contract negotiation. Bereavement-related service requests. These are the moments where AI-generated responses will feel hollow, and where the cost of getting it wrong is existential. Protect these touchpoints. Use AI to free up your people's time so they can own these moments well.

Low Complexity + Low Emotional Stakes: Strong AI Candidate

Appointment scheduling. Account balance queries. Standard FAQ responses. Password resets. These interactions carry minimal emotional weight and have clear correct answers. AI handles them faster, more consistently, and at lower cost than any human agent. This is straightforwardly the right answer.

The Middle Ground: Human-in-the-Loop Design

The largest and most strategically important category is the middle — interactions that are moderately complex or carry moderate emotional weight. Product comparisons involving personal circumstances. Service recovery after a poor experience. Upsell conversations with long-term customers. These require AI to do the analytical heavy lifting while preserving clear escalation paths to human agents.

Designing the AI-to-human handoff is not a technology problem. It is a human-centred design problem that requires deep understanding of your customer journey, your service recovery playbook, and your frontline team's capabilities.

The Transparency Imperative

In 2026, transparency is not a nice-to-have in AI-powered CX. It is a trust prerequisite. 95% of customers want to understand why AI makes the decisions it does — but only 37% of CX leaders currently provide this transparency (Zendesk CX Trends 2026). Building transparency into AI-powered CX is not simply an ethical obligation. It is a commercial strategy. Organisations that make their AI's decision-making logic accessible will build faster trust, generate fewer escalations, and create the psychological safety that allows customers to engage more fully with AI-powered services.

Getting Started: The 90-Day CX AI Assessment

1. Days 1–30 — Audit: Map every customer touchpoint against the emotional stakes matrix. Identify which interactions are currently handled by AI, which by humans, and which sit in the ambiguous middle. Measure customer satisfaction at each touchpoint, disaggregated by interaction type.
2. Days 31–60 — Design: Redesign the three to five touchpoints with the largest gap between current performance and customer expectation. For each, define the AI-human handoff protocol, the transparency mechanism, and the measurement framework.
3. Days 61–90 — Pilot and Measure: Deploy the redesigned interactions in a controlled pilot. Measure impact on NPS, CSAT, resolution rate, and handling time. Document learnings and build the business case for programme-level investment.

The organisations that will lead in customer experience over the next three years are not those deploying the most AI. They are those deploying it most thoughtfully — with clear principles about where human judgment is irreplaceable, robust transparency about how AI operates, and a genuine commitment to using technology to amplify human capability rather than eliminate it.

Sources

1. Zendesk CX Trends 2026 Report (November/December 2025). cxtrends.zendesk.com
2. Acxiom (January 2026). 2026 CX Trends Report: The Paradox of Progress.
3. Adobe / Oxford Economics (2026). Adobe AI and Digital Trends 2026: GenAI and Agentic AI Insights.
4. eMarketer (February 2026). FAQ on AI and Customer Experience: Use Cases, Trends, and What to Know for 2026.
5. CX Dive (January 2026). 6 Customer Experience Trends to Watch in 2026.
6. Zoom (2026). Customer Experience Trends 2026: Eight Analysts Share Their Predictions.
7. Ringly.io (2026). 50 Customer Experience Statistics for 2026.
8. M-Files (January 2026). Customer Experience Trends 2026: AI and Human Expertise.

Practice What You Preach: Why Your Employees Must Be Your First Customers

There's a particular kind of corporate hypocrisy that should make every business leader uncomfortable: selling transformation you haven't undergone yourself.

I'm talking about the consulting firm advising on digital transformation while running on spreadsheets and email chains. The learning platform company whose employees haven't completed their own courses. The customer experience consultancy with abysmal internal service standards.

If you wouldn't use what you're selling, why should anyone else?

The Credibility Crisis

Your employees are your walking, talking proof of concept—or proof of failure.

When companies neglect to upskill their own teams on the products and services they're selling, they're not just missing an internal development opportunity. They're broadcasting a fundamental lack of confidence in what they offer. If your solution isn't good enough for your own people, what does that signal to prospects?

Consider the absurdity of a school promoting cutting-edge technology programs or digital marketing courses, yet employing staff who can't navigate basic digital tools in their own functions. The admissions team still printing applications. The marketing department unfamiliar with the platforms they're supposedly teaching students to master. The finance team unable to interpret the data analytics they're championing in the curriculum.

How compelling is that proposition for prospective students or their parents conducting due diligence?

Not very.

Your Employees: The Ultimate Test Bed

There's a reason why pharmaceutical companies test on smaller populations before mass market release, why software companies have beta users, why automotive manufacturers have test drivers.

Your employees should be that test bed for everything you're piloting.

Not because they're expendable guinea pigs, but because they're your most valuable feedback loop. They understand your business context. They can articulate what works and what creates friction. They can tell you whether your solution genuinely solves the problem you claim it does—or whether it's just elegant theory that falls apart in practice.

When you skip this step, you're essentially asking clients to be your unpaid QA team. You're selling them a hypothesis, not a validated solution. And when things inevitably don't work as promised, you have no institutional knowledge to draw upon for troubleshooting because nobody in your organization has actually lived the implementation.

The Authenticity Advantage

Here's what happens when you actually walk the talk:

Your sales conversations change. Instead of reciting feature lists and theoretical benefits, your team shares genuine experiences. They can speak to specific challenges and how they overcame them. They can acknowledge limitations honestly because they've encountered them firsthand.

Your marketing becomes infinitely more credible. Case studies aren't just client logos and polished testimonials—they start with internal transformation stories. Your content isn't generic best practices; it's battle-tested insights from people who've actually done the work.

Your product development improves exponentially. When your employees are active users, you get continuous, contextual feedback. You catch usability issues before they reach clients. You identify enhancement opportunities based on real workflow needs, not assumptions.

The Implementation Imperative

This isn't about mandating adoption for adoption's sake. It's about genuine integration.

If you're selling a project management platform, your entire organization should be using it—not just the product team. If you're consulting on agile transformation, your own operations should embody agile principles. If you're providing customer experience training, your internal service levels should be exemplary.

And crucially, if you're implementing something new, your employees need proper upskilling. Not a cursory lunch-and-learn. Not an optional webinar. Genuine, structured development that ensures competency and confidence.

Because here's the truth: you can't sell what you don't understand, and you can't advocate convincingly for something you don't use.

The Bottom Line

Walking the talk isn't feel-good philosophy. It's fundamental business strategy.

Your employees' relationship with your offerings either reinforces or undermines every client interaction. Their competence with what you're selling either builds or erodes trust. Their enthusiasm—or lack thereof—is visible in every demo, every implementation call, every support interaction.

Before you pitch that next prospect, ask yourself: Would your employees choose what you're selling if they had alternatives? Do they actually use it in their daily work? Can they speak about it with genuine authority and enthusiasm?

If the answer is no, you don't have a sales problem. You have a credibility problem.

And that starts at home.

What's your experience with companies that practice what they preach—or don't? The gap between external promises and internal reality is often wider than we'd like to admit.

Usetiful and Mad About Marketing Consulting Partner to Accelerate AI Adoption and Customer Experience Transformation

In the era of AI-driven innovation, success isn't just about building smarter products. It's about helping people adopt and use them effectively.

That’s why we’re proud to announce a strategic partnership between Usetiful, a no-code Digital Adoption Platform, and Mad About Marketing Consulting, an award-winning boutique firm that helps businesses navigate complex marketing, customer experience, and go-to-market transformations.

Together, we are combining strategic advisory and operational enablement to help companies, from startups to corporates, unlock the full potential of digital and AI investments.

Why This Partnership Matters

AI is transforming how products are built, marketed, and supported. But the biggest challenge isn’t the technology. It’s adoption. Even the most innovative tools will fail to deliver return on investment without the right strategy, onboarding, and user enablement.

Mad About Marketing Consulting provides advisory services to address pain points across process, people, and platforms. We work hand-in-hand with your internal marketing teams or external agency partners to develop sustainable solutions that strengthen your value proposition and drive acquisition, engagement, experience, and retention strategies.

Our services include:

●      Marketing transformation and go-to-market planning
●      Customer experience strategy, martech optimization, and digital channel alignment
●      Change management and leadership enablement
●      Their signature AI Adoption Transformation framework, helping leaders assess readiness, define the right use cases, and prepare teams for longterm success

Usetiful complements this with a powerful no-code platform that helps teams:

●      Onboard customers through in-app tours, checklists, and smart tips
●      Reduce churn and boost product activation
●      Equip Sales and Marketing teams with personalized, scalable user journeys
●      Onboard new employees into digital tools and workflows more efficiently

A Human-First Approach to AI Transformation

This partnership is grounded in a shared belief: successful AI transformation must start with the people who use it. Technology should enhance human workflows, not overwhelm them.

Many organizations are eager to implement AI-powered tools, but few have a structured roadmap that ensures meaningful adoption across customer experiences, employee workflows, and internal operations. That’s where Usetiful and Mad About Marketing Consulting come together.

Here’s how we help businesses drive AI transformation together:

✅ Example 1: Customer Targeting, Acquisition, Engagement and Retention

Mad About Marketing Consulting leads the strategic phase, developing a refined value proposition, identifying high-value segments, and defining detailed customer targeting criteria across B2B and B2C channels.

Usetiful brings the strategy to life through execution, by delivering personalized onboarding flows tailored to each segment, using smart tips and product tours that adapt based on user tags, behavior, and goals. Retention is supported with in-app nudges, contextual check-ins, and feedback surveys.

Goals to achieve: Increased acquisition efficiency, higher onboarding completion, and improved customer lifetime value across key segments.

✅ Example 2: Strategic Planning and In-App Execution

Mad About Marketing Consulting helps a SaaS company define its go-to-market strategy for a new AI-powered analytics dashboard. Our advisory team runs a Value Proposition Workshop, maps key personas, and defines success metrics.

Usetiful then turns that strategy into in-product experiences. The platform delivers personalized onboarding checklists, in-app walkthroughs, and contextual tooltips that help each user segment understand and engage with the new tools.

Goals to achieve: Faster time to value and higher feature adoption for a complex AI rollout.

✅ Example 3: Internal AI Enablement for Sales and Marketing Teams

Mad About Marketing Consulting conducts a Martech Enablement Workshop with a growth-stage company trying to streamline its customer and marketing engagement platforms and identify gaps in current usage amongst its employees.

Usetiful supports internal enablement using in-app onboarding for Sales and Marketing teams. Tooltips and walkthroughs are embedded in the CRM and email platforms to train teams on new AI workflows.

Goals to achieve: Reduced resistance to change, faster team rampup, and more effective sales execution.

✅ Example 4: Global AI Rollout in a Corporate Environment

Mad About Marketing Consulting leads a change management initiative for a multinational launching AI-driven CX automation. We manage training, stakeholder alignment, and team buy-in.

Usetiful handles onboarding at scale across customer-facing tools, ensuring employees know how to use AI support systems effectively through contextual guidance.

Goals to achieve: Smoother global rollout and increased usage of new AI tools.

Through these joint efforts, organizations not only plan and launch AI initiatives they ensure those initiatives are adopted, understood, and optimized by the people who matter most.

Ready to Transform?

If your organization is investing in digital transformation, marketing modernization, or AI-powered customer experiences, now is the time to ensure your people are ready too.

Let’s turn strategy into action and adoption into impact.

👉 Learn more about Usetiful
👉 Explore the AI Adoption Transformation approach
📩 Interested in exploring Mad About Marketing Consulting’s services? Reach out at contact@madaboutmarketingconsulting.com

Mad About Marketing Consulting

Advisor for C-Suites to work with you and your teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes. We are the AI Adoption Partners for Neuron Labs and CX Sphere to support companies in ethical, responsible and sustainable AI adoption. Catch our weekly episodes of The Digital Maturity Blueprint Podcast by subscribing to our YouTube Channel.

Sorry is the Hardest Word?

Is it pride, ego or just plain cluelessness?

Having managed social and crisis communications for companies that I have worked for previously and now advising clients on their own communications approach, it seems that the word “sorry” is sometimes not found in the companies’ dictionary.

It is in fact often harder to get a company to apologize sincerely to their customers than to win the local lottery.

If statements like “we apologise if this might have caused you any inconvenience” or “we are sorry if you have been inconvenienced” sound familiar, you might have been a victim of gaslighting if you are a customer reading this.

If you are the company responsible for this statement, you have just absolutely gaslighted your customers and possibly caused even more frustration.

The main reason these statements have an issue is the way they are being phrased. By using the words “if”, “might” and “perhaps” suggest that companies are providing an outlet for themselves to excuse their own behavior and misdemeanor.

Take for example a recent case I heard from a friend about an airline misplacing her luggage. She had to buy clothes and other necessities not provided by the hotel the moment she landed as she had everything in her luggage. The airline eventually managed to deliver the luggage to her hotel the next day with the following apology note “we apologise if we might have caused you any inconvenience having misplaced your luggage”.

They might as well say “Though we have misplaced your luggage, whether we think it’s our fault or not depends on whether you have been inconvenienced. We think you might be or you might not, who knows (or cares?)”.

They should have placed themselves in the shoes of their customer and think empathetically before they craft the note and decided on the appropriate actions.

If it’s them, would they not feel frustrated, stressed and absolutely inconvenienced being in another country without their own belongings? Would they be absolutely delighted to have an airline that they entrust to transport them and their belongings from one place to another without fuss - lose their belongings? It’s not rocket science that customers expect the bare minimum of what they paid for when they decide to fly with said airline.

The customer is not even expecting the airline to go the extra mile to send a goodwill token of apology and appreciation for her support when in fact, a self-respecting world class airline should do that.

In contrast, I recall an incident when a driver drove off with my bag accidentally when I was in Japan and was uncontactable because his mobile phone was out of power. He turned up later in the evening and apologized profusely without any “ifs” or ”mays” and the next morning, got me a small token of apology though I was not expecting it at all.

This goes to show that everyone can make that impact and difference in customer centricity; it’s a matter of your core values and if you genuinely care enough to do so or not.

From a communications perspective, it is also better to be more transparent and forthcoming in owning the issue, acknowledging mistakes, and apologizing for them sincerely. No organization is too big or important for an apology when it’s warranted; just as no organization is too big to fall.

So, the next time when a mistake is made, how ready are you to own it sincerely?

About the Author

Mad About Marketing Consulting

Ally and Advisor for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.

How Are you Enabling Your Sales Team - Learnings from Luxury Brands

I confess that I’m not a fan of fast fashion and have a penchant for the finer side of things. Not because I like wearing brands on my sleeve for all to see but more I appreciate the total experience, after sales support provided, exclusivity and quality. I am not a rampant shopper that enjoys window shopping; in fact I’m quite the opposite. I shop decisively and wear the clothes for as long as they fit. I prefer to keep my wardrobe clean and not jam packed with tons and tons of clothes that I will only wear once.

Over time, I have established client relationships with a few client advisors, often by chance as well where we hit it off while chatting. I do know of course that each brand has their own internal tiered loyalty program and playbook where they will invite clients via their advisors to certain seasonal events. It reminds me somewhat of the relationship managers in the banking sector except these advisors give advice on fashion and fitting.

I had the opportunity to attend a few of these events over the last few months, some tagging along on the invite of friends. I just wanted to share a comparison of how each brand conducted their client engagement and how each has made me feel in return.

1) Louis Vuitton

This is a rebound brand for me as I was a fan of their bags in the earlier years of my life but I didn’t really establish much of a connection with them till in recent years when I met my current client advisor by chance while looking to top up my perfume. Since then, she’s been on my whatsapp quite often, keeping me abreast of the latest releases and inviting me to the launches or seasonal previews or sometimes, just client activation events like valentine’s day, lunar new year and recently some bespoke garden animation event.

The events range from being rather salesy in nature where they would lined up rows of their latest clothing at the event space and nudging clients to try on the spot, to being just experience focused where you get to just enjoy the activities lined up. She’s also empowered to do reservations of items on the spot, send gifts for special occasions, arrange for quick turnaround alterations, delivery and more just to ensure total client satisfaction. On this front, I find LV to be quite unbeatable though it is very advisor driven and influenced.

2) Chanel

I used to have a weakness for their shoes and bags, especially the uncommon designs, which are often also more affordable than their classic black pieces. When my favourite client advisor left, there was a gap left by the one who took over from her till recently, when she became more proactive.

It might just have been that the brand on the whole is recently more proactive in engaging their regular clients and introducing more engagement activities to make sure we feel valued? One was a virtual reality/augumented reality performance featuring chanel designed clothing that are actually not available for sale. It was held in partnership with an actual artist and there was zero sales element tagged to it. The other is a movie event also held elsewhere and we could reserve tickets if we RSVP through a link they sent to our phones.

In this case, though it is nice to be invited to such activities without any hard sales pushing, it would be nice to be kept abreast more of their latest designs as the advisor remains hit and miss in terms of her engagement style. The brand though seems to be moving away from relying too much on their advisors as they started sending invites directly to the clients.

3) Hermes

I’m a recent convert for their shoes and bags, which are generally more reasonably priced for the quality and fitting without being overly in your face. The advisor is also pretty proactive and chatty though the brand as a whole is not as aggressive as LV or Dior in terms of creating client engagement activities.

Their activities are also more informal and less grand on the whole, like mini in-store activations and sending their publications to us; quite traditional in approach. In this case, the advisor plays a key role as it’s make or break, based on how well she continues to connect with us as a client.

4) Christian Dior

This is more of an ad hoc brand for me and chance meeting with an ambitious and aspiring client advisor who is forthcoming and the most personable of all the advisors I have to say.

The client engagement is similar to LV’s in that they have larger scale client activation events and preview shows though they do the activations and activities in a slightly more interesting fashion than LV without coming off as being too salesy.

The advisor is also empowered to give gifts to clients, curate their own invite list and arrange for reservations. Overall experience wise, it is close to LV in terms of heavy reliance on the advisors.

Overall lessons based on what I think:

• the importance of a playbook and approach for businesses relying heavily on client advisors or relationship managers to guide them in providing a total experience consistently over time

• providing the right level of empowerment and enablement so they get to make certain decisions on the fly that could make or break certain relationships

• ensuring that you are also engaging your clients on the same scale via other channels, so you’re not overly relying on your advisors; this is where digital channels and engagement are critical

• maintain a good mix of both activities that are purely experiential in nature and more product/services focused so clients have a choice, depending on what they are looking for at different times

About the Author

Mad About Marketing Consulting

Ally and Advisor for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.

What I learnt about Customer Centricity in Japan

While I pride myself to be largely empathetic and customer centric in thinking and approach, I learnt something new and meaningful as well in my recent travel to Osaka and Kyoto. The experience epitomizes the true spirit of customer centricity and provided lessons for me as well in my thinking and approach.

During our trip, all our various interactions have left a deep and lasting impression on the service and customer oriented mindset of the Japanese living and working there. From the big actions taken to the smaller details observed, even when things didn’t go as planned, they more than made up for it.

Experience one - we left a bag of personal belongings in the driver’s car and he unfortunately lost touch with us and our guide as his mobile phone malfunctioned. We were initially anxious and even disappointed that he wasn’t at the pick up location for our next pit stop. Our cynical minds started wondering about all sorts of scenarios, including lost items and what-nots. Turned out, he was equally anxious and was shuffling to and from various places he thought we would be, before he finally dropped the bag off at our accommodation during dinner time. The next morning, he arrived bright and early with a little token of apology though he didn’t have to and showed us not one but 4 mobile phones he has brought along as back-up! In return, we got him a little gift token in exchange on our last day as we know tipping is considered as an insult to the Japanese.
Lesson learnt here - always place yourself in the shoes of the customer when trying to solve the problem at hand. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Experience two - the chefs, regardless of whether its the head chef or sous chef at all the small dining establishments would make an effort to see each set of diners out after their dinner, including ensuring they are able to get to their mode of transport. They would stand outside of their restaurant, seeing the guests off, which reminds us of a house owner seeing their guests off after a visit. The interactions with the service staff, be it hotels, cafes and shops were always unhurried and attentive even during peak periods. No one tried to peddle their stuff or hard-sell to us or the people around us. They went out of their way to show us the exact location of where certain things were if we looked uncertain. It shows us not just the hospitable side of the place as a whole but the pride as well they take in ensuring the experience with them is complete and satisfactory. The end result of this is that we were happy to buy or order more on our own accord without needing any push from them.
Lesson learnt here - take genuine pride and ensure you have a solid value proposition in what you do and offer as a complete service to your target customer. This goes a long way in demonstrating the value you bring to them without needing to hard-sell.

Experience three - We were enroute to a restaurant located at an obscure building and part of the city. The location was such that we would need to walk by foot after alighting though we were blissfully unaware of the fact. The wise and knowing taxi driver parked at the side of the road, stopped the meter and directed us all the way to the entrance of the building and showed us to the lift up to the restaurant with a big smile and zero hint of impatience. In another instance, we needed to head back after dinner but chose the wrong pick up location unknowingly. The second driver we encountered made the effort to find his way to us though we were at fault for choosing the wrong pick up location at an obscure spot. Throughout the process, he was polite and extremely patient with us and when he reached our pick-up spot, he remained cheery and even apologetic though we were in the wrong! The end result of these two incidents were that we were equally apologetic for causing much hassle and provided tips through the app to try and make up for the lost time and additional mileage they needed to cover in order to help us.
Lesson learnt here - although the customer is not always right, the point is not to harp on mistakes or who is right or wrong. Instead, enable your employees to use such situations to identify opportunities to create a win-win outcome.

I know that providing consistent good customer experience and service is tough and the truth is, not everyone is cut out for it. It helps to have the right mindset to start with and I always believe as well that it starts from how organizations treat their own employees and enable them with the right mindset as happy employees will often result in happy customers. It’s a type of pay it forward attitude.

Although good customer experience don’t always pay off in terms of direct or immediate revenue or growth, it does pave the way to longer term rewards and loyalty. The current consumer psyche is also such that catering for such experiences should almost be a given and not conditional based on how much commercial value you think you can derive out of each customer. This is especially if you are not the only player in the market offering the same set of products and services. What differentiates you could also be the experience you offer as a whole. It could be part of your total value proposition.

About the Author

Mad About Marketing Consulting 

Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.