CX General

Generative AI is already changing customer success — but the ethical groundwork is lagging the deployments. Data privacy, bias, transparency and human oversight aren't optional add-ons; without them, AI quietly erodes the customer trust it was supposed to build. Here's how to deploy generative AI in customer success responsibly.

Half the books on the recommended-CX-reading lists are recycled consulting deck. The other half quietly change how you think about customer experience. Here's the regularly-updated list of the most popular CX books, ranked by Amazon ratings, split into generalist and tools-and-methodology — so you can pick the one that's right for what you need now.

The internet is full of CX takes, most of which aren't worth reading. The trick is finding the people who add value and challenge your thinking, then honing your ideas against them. Here are ten Customer Experience influencers worth following — not because they all agree with me, but because they make me think.

Most CX initiatives follow the same flawed playbook: design once, roll out, then relax. That works for a brochure. It does not work for a customer experience. Ten years in industrial process control taught me what continuous improvement actually looks like — here's what to do instead, and why Transactional NPS belongs at the centre of it.

Grounding the entire Qantas fleet looks like a textbook CX disaster — every commentator said so at the time. The alternative scenario, played out over the months that followed, was worse. Here's the case that a sharp short-term shock can be a strategic customer experience decision, not just a brand catastrophe.

Forrester's three secrets of great CX organisations turn out to be good leadership, collaborative teams and enough resources. Those aren't CX secrets — they're the secrets to running any support function well. Here's the case that Customer Experience Management is mostly a new theatre for old skills, not a new craft.