Stay Ahead of Customer Expectations

Are you keeping pace with what your customers really expect? Customer behaviors—where they abandon journeys, which tools they use, and how they move between channels—reveal critical, unspoken expectations. Your competition isn’t just your industry; it’s every standout experience your customers have elsewhere.

AI holds powerful potential—but not as just a cost-saver. When applied strategically, it becomes an experience amplifier, enabling personalization, speed, and emotionally intelligent interactions at scale.

Modern customers build their own journeys across brands, platforms, and touchpoints. To stay relevant, CX leaders must respond with modular strategies, real-time responsiveness, and a bold, values-driven identity. The next generation of customers is already telling us: loyalty is earned through alignment, not just convenience.

Curious about where to start? Visit CXIMembership.com for on-demand resources, live events and a community of professionals tackling these same challenges. The future of CX demands we become true experience investigators – approaching our work with both strategic discipline and genuine curiosity about what tomorrow's customers will expect.

Resources Mentioned:
Experience Investigators -- https://experienceinvestigators.com
Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com

Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)

Episode Transcript

MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm

(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.

Jeannie Walters (00:31):
The world is moving at lightning speed, and
if you're a customer experienceprofessional, it can feel even
faster than that.
I'm Jeannie Walters.
I'm here to answer yourquestions and let me say we've
got a good one today.
So, speaking of speed, let'sjump in.

Listener Question (00:48):
Hey, Jeannie this is Matt.
Looking into the future, I feellike customer expectations are
evolving faster than we can keepup with.
So what should we be payingattention to now to stay ahead
of those changes?

Jeannie Walters (01:00):
Oh, we've all felt this right.
The world is moving so quickly.
We have different expectationstoday than we did yesterday, a
week ago or a year ago.
Some of those innovations thatwe thought were so amazing at
the time, those are table stakesnow.
So what are we to do?
How can we not only keep upwith expectations, but stay

(01:23):
ahead of them so that we're onestep ahead?
We're one step ahead of ourcustomers, our competitors, and
we're providing the types ofenvironments that help our
employees and workplaces thrive?
It's not just about knowingexpectations.
It's about listening andlearning and watching for those
all-important signals.
Let's jump into what those are.

(01:46):
First thing I want to say is weneed to watch behavior, not
just feedback.
Now, anybody who's been on thisjourney with me for a while
knows that I don't believe inone magic metric.
There is no one indicatorthat's going to tell you how
humans will behave in the future.
That's because humans are alittle irrational.
We don't make a lot of sense.

(02:07):
We make decisions based onemotions.
Then we rationalize them later.
So while we might say thingslike, yeah, my New Year's
resolution is going to the gymevery day, we believe that in
the moment, but our behaviordoesn't reflect that.
So what I want you to thinkabout is what are those moments
of behavior that we should lookat, that we should see what's

(02:29):
going on exactly and what ourcustomers are telling us through
their actions.
Places to look.
Where are customers abandoningthe journey?
Where are they leaving you?
That can give you a bigindicator about maybe something
not being offered that they wantor something not going as
smoothly as they want.
Now, remember your competitorsare not just in your industry.

(02:53):
Your competition is simplyeverywhere that customers
interact.
As human beings, ourexpectations go up when we see
that as a customer wow, I canget free overnight shipping from
them.
Why aren't you giving that tome retailer?
Why aren't you doing that forme B2B vendor?
So we have to remember thatwhen we are seeing behavior,

(03:17):
they might be telling us thisisn't enough.
So don't just rely on whatthey're telling you, but make
sure you're looking at howthey're behaving.
Another place to look isself-service.
How are those tools gettingtraction or not?
Are we giving customers whatthey need in those moments when
they want to feel empowered andtake things on?
And really, what are thechannels that they're

(03:39):
gravitating towards?
A lot of customers are tellingus they prefer text over calls,
but they still want that option.
So what is their behaviortelling us?
Look for all those signalswithin the context of what you
are offering and what you aretrying to achieve with your
customers.
Think of behavior as ways thatcustomers are telling you things

(04:02):
without verbalizing them.
We also want to really thinkabout how can we make AI an
experience multiplier.
A lot of the talk aroundartificial intelligence right
now is around cost savings.
It's around things likereducing the cost of labor in
efforts to achieve efficiency.
But if it's not about an effortto achieve a better experience

(04:27):
for the customer, then we willbe disappointing them.
There is no doubt that AI ishere.
There is no doubt thatcustomers pretty much expect
things to be fast andpersonalized and emotionally
resonant.
AI can actually help us do thatif it's strategically
implemented.
We, as the customer experienceprofessionals, have to

(04:49):
continuously advocate for AI tobe an experience multiplier and
not just about efficiency orcost.
So think about when to usethose AI powered tools.
Now we've talked about some ofthe examples out there how
Amazon uses it to make asuggested next purchase that

(05:09):
makes sense, that is relevant tothe customer.
You might think about how youcan keep customers more
proactively informed.
If they're expecting a deliveryand it's going to be delayed.
AI can be great at generatingand sending those communications
.
We also want to look for waysto make things human feeling and

(05:30):
to make sure that humans have away out of those AI journeys if
they want them.
So, specifically aroundchatbots if we can make the
chatbot show a little emotion,feel conversational, customers
will tell us that it's workingfor them.
They appreciate the speed, theyappreciate that the bot can
find data very quickly.

(05:51):
They appreciate all that, butit's when they're in those loops
that they can't get out of,where it's not answering their
question, it's not understandingthem and they don't have an
escape hatch.
We need to make sure that weprovide that for customers along
the AI journey.
But ask the question are weusing AI to reduce friction, to
create more seamless andpersonalized experiences, or are

(06:14):
we only talking about it in thecontext of cutting expenses?
Because if it's the latter, weare probably not using it to
create a better experience forour customers.
All right, let's talk about theidea of agility.
You've probably heard that manyorganizations talk about the
need to be agile.
We need to be agile andadaptive and responsive in real

(06:37):
time, and all of that isabsolutely true.
But in today's world, we alsohave to apply the idea of
agility to our customer andtheir journey.
They are not staying in oneplace.
They are not necessarilyexpecting the same journey over
and over again.
So what can we do to match thatagility?

(06:58):
Well, one is to make sure thatwe are keeping our journeys up
to date by looking at thingslike behavior and feedback and
leveraging AI to really dig intothose insights in a faster way.
Using real-time data, usingreal-time feedback to coach
people in the moment.
So if our customers are runninginto something and having a bad

(07:21):
experience, we can actuallystep in while it's happening,
instead of waiting for thatfeedback to arrive.
There are all sorts of waysthat there are tools that are
helping us with this.
But really applying the idea ofbeing both agile internally and
then looking for ways that wecan match our customers' agility
that's a mindset shift as well.

(07:42):
So make sure that you'recommunicating about agility in
what you're doing today withinyour organization.
I would also encourage us tothink about what we offer our
customers in a more modular way.
Make sure that they havechoices.
They can put together thepackage that works for them,
because they will, with orwithout our products.

(08:04):
That's what they're telling us.
There are so many options now.
Think about what's happenedwith how we consume media, how
we watch TV.
When we hear about people whoonly have streaming services,
now that they put together, wedon't bat an eye.
But that would have been veryforeign a few years ago.
That's because customers arecreating their own packages for

(08:27):
what works for them.
They are personalizing theexperience with a piece from one
brand and another piece fromanother.
So make sure that, if you aretrying to offer all of those
services, allow them that choice.
Allow them to put their ownpackages together.
That's how we can match theagility with our customers and
then really constantly thinkabout what does value really

(08:50):
mean to our customer?
It's not just about price.
It's not just about beingsensitive to cost.
Value is about feeling like notonly did I get what I paid for,
but I feel good about it.
I feel like this is somethingthat is going to make my life
better.
This is true in B2B andnonprofit and everything else

(09:11):
too.
So don't talk yourself out ofthat.
Don't think that if you're inone of those groups, this
doesn't apply to you.
And then we also want to makesure that, as we look to the
future, we have to think aboutthe next generations, and they
are already sending some prettystrong signals that they are
redefining what loyalty lookslike.
They are redefining the wordtrust between brands and

(09:34):
customers, and this shows up ina very big way when it comes to
values.
The generations that are comingup into being the lead
consumers Generation Z and thenGeneration Alpha.
They are telling us that theyonly want to work with
organizations that align withtheir values.
So what does that mean?

(09:55):
That means we have to be moreopen about that.
We have to stand up for who weare and let people gravitate to
us.
Now, does this mean that wecannot be all things to all
people?
Yes, that is absolutely what itmeans, but we've never been
able to do that.
We've never been able to be allthings to all people.
Now we just have to say this iswhat we stand for, this is who

(10:19):
we are, and this is how we'regoing to show up for you, no
matter what.
This is why you've heard me talkabout the idea of a customer
experience mission statement somany times, because if you can
align your brand values, withwhat your customers are
expecting and make sure that, nomatter where they are in the
journey, they're getting thatconsistent experience with who

(10:42):
you are, not just what you sell.
That is so important to thecustomer experience of today and
tomorrow.
So look for those signals thatthe younger generations are
sending about how they want tointeract and then start acting
on it now.
Start experimenting, starttrying things, because they will

(11:03):
be here before we know it.
Everything is moving faster,and the last thing I'll say here
is if you don't already seecustomer experience as a
strategic imperative of yourorganization, then, frankly,
you're probably falling behind.
Now you've heard me talk abouthow customer experience within
your organization is really amindset, a strategy and a

(11:27):
business discipline.
If you are ignoring that lastpiece, if you are not
centralizing your data, if youare not having that
cross-functional leadership, ifyou are not really looking at
the customer journey end-to-endin a holistic way, then you will
be disappointing your customers.
You will be disappointing themto the point where it will show

(11:48):
up in their behavior when theygo to your competition, when
they leave the journey, whenthey give you a bad review.
That's because we aren't owningthe journey in the way that we
need to, and the only way we cando that is if we approach
customer experience as astrategic imperative in our
organization.
So you, as a customerexperience professional, as a

(12:12):
customer experience change agent, I would love to hear about how
you are moving forward andmaking sure that you are
encouraging that mindset ofchange, of curiosity, of
innovation.
This is when I want you to be acustomer experience
investigator.
This is when we want to getreally curious about our

(12:33):
customers, about what they'reexpecting and about how to move
forward with them.
If we can come to this workwith curiosity and humility, we
will see things that others willmiss and that can be a
strategic advantage as well.
So keep up the great work, makesure that you're looking ahead
and if you have a question,don't forget you can ask me

(12:56):
anytime at AskJeannie.
VIP.
Now, if you're thinking I don'tknow where to start, I don't
know what to do, may I point youto CXIMembershipcom.
That's where we have all of ouron-demand resources.
We have live events, we havecommunity.

(13:18):
We have all sorts of things atthe ready for you.
So check that out atcximembershipcom and I hope to
see you there.
Thanks for joining me.
We'll see you next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on

(13:42):
LinkedIn.