Amazing Business Radio

Elevating Customer Support Teams with Smart AI Integration 

Shep interviews Sam Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of 8x8. He talks about the evolving role of AI in business communications and why customer experience professionals should be recognized as revenue generators rather than cost centers.  

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

What impact does self-service technology have on customer satisfaction? 

How can AI self-service and human support work together effectively?  

What drives customers to switch companies due to poor self-service? 

What makes customers more forgiving of mistakes by human agents than AI systems? 

Why should businesses view customer service as a revenue center rather than a cost center? 

Top Takeaways:   

Relying exclusively on self-service or automation is not enough. Customers should always have a way to speak to a real person when technology can’t meet their needs. AI-powered solutions work well for routine requests, but there must be a seamless failover to a human agent when things get complicated or the customer is dissatisfied. 

California has enacted a law requiring companies to offer a quick, clear option for customers to connect with a human representative if their self-service solutions, often powered by AI, don’t deliver satisfactory results. 

AI and automation in customer service are growing, reducing the volume of easy, repetitive cases handled by humans. More complex and sensitive issues are go to human agents and as a result, today’s customer support agents are required to handle more complex issues and provide a higher level of expertise and empathy, making them specialists rather than agents. 

The customer support department is a revenue center. Delivering consistently excellent experiences leads to higher retention rates, repeat business, and positive reviews.  

Customers of different ages have distinct preferences for how they interact with support. Older customers lean towards phone support, while younger generations prefer chat or digital channels. But both demographics still want the assurance of being able to call a support agent if their problem isn’t resolved online. 

Leading companies like Amazon have set the standard for customer support by combining AI for routine tasks with proactive escalation to human agents when needed. They have created a seamless customer experience by enabling quick, easy connection with knowledgeable support agents and avoiding the need to repeat themselves to get their issue resolved.  

Regular customers sustain and grow a company. Regular customers drive steady revenue and are typically the brand's biggest advocates. 

The future of customer service lies in integrating effective technology with empowered employees. Companies that invest in effective digital solutions and well-trained customer specialists are best positioned to create positive experiences, adapt to customer preferences, and succeed in a competitive marketplace. 

Effective customer support isn’t rocket science. The technology exists today to empower both businesses and consumers with choice and flexibility, and it is more affordable than it was five or ten years ago. The real differentiator is the willingness to implement these solutions and put the customer’s needs first.  

Quote:  

"One of the great mistakes tech companies make is we talk too much about features and don't talk enough about our customers."  

 

About:   

Sam Wilson is the Chief Executive Officer of 8x8, with over 25 years of experience in finance, investment, and sales. He has held several key leadership roles at 8x8, including Chief Financial Officer and Chief Customer Officer. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   
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How the Customer Journey Evolves with AI Integration 

 

Shep interviews Megan Glasow, Vice President of Salesforce at Perficient. She talks about how companies can use AI to enhance the customer experience by blending technology with human touch, updating outdated processes, and measuring value. 

 

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

What role does AI play in transforming modern customer service processes? 

How can companies effectively balance automation and human interaction? 

What are the risks of automating outdated or inefficient business processes? 

Why is a proactive approach important in delivering excellent customer experiences? 

How can organizations measure the value of new customer experience technologies? 

Top Takeaways:   

Don't automate what Glasow calls “crap processes.” Before layering in AI and other digital tools, organizations must simplify and improve their existing processes. If a workflow is confusing or inefficient to handle manually, automating it will only spread the frustration to employees and customers more quickly. 

Transformation is not just about buying new technology. It means sitting down with your customers to understand where they are and where they want to be. It is partnering with your customers to create the vision, the process, and the outcomes together. 

Frontline employees are frequently blamed for poor service. But the real issue is often the outdated infrastructure and processes behind them. 

In adopting an AI-first strategy, look across the organization and identify where intelligence, automation, and augmentation can improve efficiency, and customer interactions. Successful companies are not replacing people with AI. They are combining smart, AI-powered systems with capable, empathetic employees.  

Customers will choose the simplest path every time, whether that’s self-service or talking with a real person. If you make it easy for your customers, they will keep coming back. 

Use AI as a tool to become more proactive, not just more efficient. Use it to anticipate what customers might need next, so you’re ready with solutions before they even ask. This allows human agents to focus on moments that require empathy, creativity, and understanding.  

Align your team, from the leadership to the frontlines, around a clear vision for the customer experience you want to deliver. Decide on the experiences you want to create, then mobilize your people and AI to make that a reality. 

Plus, Shep and Megan discuss why organizations need to be "customer zero" for new platforms they want to implement for their customers. Tune in! 

Quotes:  

"When designing your customer journey, consider what should be handled by AI, what should be handled by humans, and how they should work together to enable your employees to provide a more empathetic customer experience."  

 

About:   

Megan Glasow is the Vice President of Salesforce at Perficient. With deep experience in the Salesforce ecosystem, she helps organizations drive AI-first transformation initiatives. 

 

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  
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Creating Engaged Employees and Loyal Customers  

Shep interviews Stephen Baer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Engagency. He talks about his new book,  Stickology, and how building strong emotional connections and engaging both employees and customers leads to lasting loyalty. 

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

How does internal employee engagement influence external customer experience? 

Why is it important for organizations to go beyond surface-level personalization in delivering customer experiences? 

How can companies strike the right balance between friendly service and convenience to create lasting loyalty? 

How can organizations move from transactional interactions to building relationships with their customers? 

Why is it essential to invest in employee experience to drive customer satisfaction? 

Top Takeaways:   

Internal engagement is the foundation of strong customer loyalty. What happens inside your organization is always felt by your customers on the outside. If your employees are engaged, respected, and motivated, customers feel that in every interaction with your brand.  

When organizations invest in their people, the result is better service and stronger customer relationships because empowered employees have the confidence to go above and beyond for customers.  

Engagement isn’t just good for workplace culture. It’s good for business. Companies that focus on both employee and customer engagement see more revenue, higher employee and customer retention, and outpace their competitors.  

It’s easy to form a connection, but lasting loyalty requires deeper engagement. Connections made quickly can fall apart just as fast if the next interactions are inconsistent. Genuine engagement takes time and is operationalized so it ingrained in the culture and felt in every interaction. 

Personalization by itself, even when powered by advanced technology, is not enough to build lasting loyalty. Relying on algorithms alone will expose a brand to being outgrown by its customers or out-innovated by its competitors. Customers stick with brands that make them feel emotionally connected and valued. Human elements, not just algorithms, are what creates long-term fans.  

Convenience is no longer a unique advantage. It is an expectation. Today’s customers want easy, seamless interactions everywhere they shop. To stand out, businesses need to pair convenience with authentic, memorable service.  

Customers are going to talk about their experience with a company. When employees are engaged, they create advocates, customers who often spend more, and are more likely to recommend the business to others.  

Plus, Stephen shares more insights from his book, Stickology: How to Build Unbreakable Connections with Employees and Customers for Life. Tune in! 

Quote:  

"It's not just about connecting. It's about building a relationship. It's about making that person feel seen, heard, valued, and empowered, whether they are a customer or an employee. It takes time, but the bond holds together stronger." 

About:   

Stephen Baer is the author of Stickology: How to Build Unbreakable Connections with Employees and Customers for Life, and the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Engagency.  He has 30 years of experience in behavioral science and engagement from leadership roles at companies such as The Game Agency, Atari, and GE. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  
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Blending AI Efficiency with Human Insight 

Shep interviews Vinod Muthukrishnan, Vice President & General Manager of Webex Customer Experience at Cisco. He talks about how AI is moving from a technology tool to a collaborative coworker that helps businesses personalize service, automate routine tasks, and close the customer experience gap. 

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

How can AI create a human-centered customer experience? 

How is artificial intelligence transforming customer service interactions? 

What are the most effective ways to use analytics to improve customer support and reduce unnecessary contact center calls? 

How can automation help resolve frequent customer complaints, such as long wait times or repetitive interactions? 

Why should companies rethink traditional metrics, such as average handle time, when evaluating customer service performance? 

Top Takeaways:   

AI has evolved from being just a tool to becoming an actual coworker. It can handle routine tasks and take on responsibilities like note-taking during meetings, freeing up a lot of employees' time. This shift is radically transforming how we engage, connect, collaborate, and communicate with customers. 

Brand interactions should aim to feel like engaging with a favorite human. The best experiences remember customers' history, never making them repeat themselves, and understanding their unique preferences. They also minimize wait times and meet customers on their channel of choice. 

Customers are understanding when they know you genuinely care about their issues and are actively working to resolve them. But if they have to call three times for the same issue, it becomes another problem.  

If you use AI to solve problems the right way, you bring customers to your side of the equation. Instead of asking the generic ‘How can I help you?’ when they’ve already called multiple times, AI can help you acknowledge their frustration by providing customer history and knowledge base in real time, and guide you on the next best step to fixing the issue. 

Using AI and analytics to predict, prevent, and preempt issues by proactively giving customers the information they need before they even ask creates a seamless experience where people rarely need to call for help.  

Call containment and call deflection with AI do not mean companies stop talking to customers. It means letting AI handle routine tasks like password resets or payment verifications, so that when customers reach a human agent, the conversation can focus on more important tasks, like resolving complex issues or exploring new products. 

Plus, Shep and Vinod discuss why brands that go “all-in” on AI for customer support often end up reversing their decisions. Tune in! 

Quote:  

"We have to start looking at AI not as a tool or a product, but as a teammate." 

 

About:   

Vinod Muthukrishnan is the VP & GM of Webex Customer Experience at Cisco. He is an expert in AI and innovative technology to transform how brands engage with customers, ensuring experiences are more human and personalized. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.  
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How CX Leaders Can Navigate the Turbulence of an AI-Transformed World 

Shep interviews Scott McKain, award-winning speaker and best-selling author. He talks about his latest book, Beyond Distinction: How Leaders Transcend the Turbulence of an AI-Transformed World, and  how leaders and organizations can create meaningful, distinctive customer experiences in an AI-transformed world. 

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions and more:   

Why is consistency important in providing an excellent customer experience? 

What role does emotional connection play in building customer loyalty? 

How should companies leverage technology to improve customer service without losing the human touch? 

What are some effective ways to deliver a proactive customer experience? 

Why is standing out from competitors not enough to build lasting customer relationships? 

Top Takeaways:   

Standing out from competitors is important. However, simply being different is not always good. Distinction is when what we do is unique, compelling, and memorable in a way that is impactful and meaningful to the customers we seek to serve. 

Consistency wows customers. Amazing customer experiences are built on doing small things right, every time. When every interaction is handled with care and attention, customers learn to trust the brand.  

Technology, like AI, can make your business faster and more efficient, but loyalty comes from how you make customers feel. Even with simple gestures like remembering someone's name or checking whether the customer got everything they need, it's the human touch that keeps people coming back.  

Use AI to save money and handle repetitive tasks efficiently, giving your team more time to focus on resolving customer issues and building stronger relationships. 

Every organization should be very precise about what they aren't, just as clear as they are about what they are.  

Real competitive advantage does not come from reacting to trends or to what your competitors are doing. If you are constantly in reaction mode, you are already behind. Staying ahead means anticipating your customers' needs before they realize what they want.  

Artificial Intelligence amplifies the values and habits a business already has, good or bad. If a business is committed to consistently providing excellent service, AI will help them do so even better. If a business is running on broken systems or is only focused on cutting costs, AI could make those problems worse.  

Plus, Scott shares more insights from his latest book, Beyond Distinction: How Leaders Transcend the Turbulence of an AI-Transformed World. Tune in!

Quote:  

"Tasks go to technology, but emotion and customers go to human beings." 

About:   

Scott McKain is a Hall of Fame speaker, business advisor, and the founder/CEO of the Distinction Institute. He is the best-selling author of ALL Business is STILL Show Business, Iconic, Create Distinction, and his latest,  Beyond Distinction. 

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and host of Amazing Business Radio.   
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