The Hershey Company is transforming faster than ever—proving how CX and AI can modernize a 130-year-old brand at scale.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Tiffany Menyhart — Chief Customer Officer at The Hershey Company — shares how her team is reshaping customer experience across physical retail, e-commerce, and the rapidly expanding on-demand ecosystem.

Hershey's results speak for themselves:
▪️ On-demand sales up 30%+ this year (and 60% growth over recent years)
▪️ 40%+ seasonal lifts with retail partners through strategic digital optimization

If you're leading CX, digital, retail, or innovation strategy, this episode is a must-listen.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation and subscribe for more insights on AI, and the future of customer experience.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

AI is reshaping how companies build and scale customer relationships. In this episode of The Modern Customer podcast, learn how to use AI to strengthen customer trust, speed up execution, and prepare for voice-driven and multimodal CX. Nicholas Thorne, co-author of Me, My Customer, and AI, breaks down practical strategies for modern leaders. Nicholas is also the co-founder of Audos, and a partner at prehype, known for helping entrepreneurs build and scale new ventures.

What you'll learn:
• How to prioritize the customer segment that drives your next stage of growth
• How AI can safeguard executive focus and free you to engage directly with customers
• How to turn trust and responsiveness into long-term strategic advantage
• Why voice and multimodal CX are accelerating faster than expected — and how to prepare

Tune in to explore how AI can accelerate growth while deepening customer trust.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, John Solomon, CMO of Therabody, shares how the company rebuilt its brand around the customer.

By shifting from product-first to customer-first, Therabody expanded relevance, built trust, and strengthened loyalty. AI then pushed personalization even further—turning product use into connected experiences that grow with each customer.

Highlights from our conversation:

 ✔️ Leveraging customer feedback to guide Therabody's rebrand and audience-first strategy

 ✔️ Applying AI to deliver personalized wellness experiences at scale

 ✔️ Designing products and experiences around customer needs

 ✔️ Building cultural relevance through talent partnerships that strengthen brand connection

👉 Tune in to hear how Therabody turned customer insights into strategy—and the leadership lessons you can apply.

Learn more about Therabody: www.therabody.com

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Retailers leverage footfall and conversion data to inform critical decisions like store location, inventory levels, and personalized marketing initiatives. But what if these metrics only tell half the story of why shoppers leave without purchasing? 

This is where customer experience (CX) emerges as the critical differentiator in retail. Martin Newman, with four decades of experience guiding consumer-facing giants like Harrods, Burberry and Ted Baker, delivers a stark reality: prioritizing cost reduction over the emotional and human aspects of the customer journey is unsustainable. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

In this week's episode of the Modern Customer Podcast, Isabella Villani, a renowned customer experience expert and author, illustrates how proactive analytics revolutionizes customer experience (CX).

Isabella begins by explaining how this innovative approach enables businesses to anticipate and effectively meet customer needs, thereby transforming the CX landscape. Using proactive analytics, companies gain insights into the customer's journey, allowing them to foresee specific inquiries or needs.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

For fintechs to keep customers loyal, a deep understanding of their needs and challenges is essential. Trish Wethman, Chief Customer Officer at Best Egg, stands out in this respect. She has redefined customer experience (CX) in the fintech world by centering it around financial confidence.

Wethman's approach goes beyond just offering financial products. She aims to empower customers, particularly those with limited savings, to confidently navigate their financial journeys. This shift from traditional CX strategies to a focus on long-term financial well-being is a game-changer in the industry.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

How can the concept of "Unreasonable Hospitality" reshape the landscape of customer experience within the contact center?

In this podcast, Will Guidara, former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park and author of "Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect," shares impactful business insights. His insights into hospitality, leadership, and customer service provide valuable lessons for businesses seeking to enhance their customer experience and build a customer-focused culture.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

How can businesses genuinely embrace customer-centricity? Do companies like Apple genuinely prioritize their customers, or do they place their products above all else? These pressing questions guide our conversation with Colin Shaw.

With a career spanning decades, Colin Shaw, the founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy, brings firsthand experience to the evolving world of customer experience. With seven best-selling books under his belt and recognition as a LinkedIn Top Voice and influencer in customer experience and marketing, he's a trailblazer in his field.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Building trust is a crucial aspect of any successful business, especially when it comes to the client experience. But how exactly can organizations foster trust, and what role does emotional safety play in this process?

One individual who has made significant strides in understanding the dynamics of trust is Charles Green. He has dedicated his career to understanding the dynamics of trust and how it influences various aspects of our lives. His insights, particularly through his work "The Trusted Advisor," have profoundly influenced the professional services landscape.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

What's the future of contact centers in shaping customer experience and brand loyalty? Companies are increasingly recognizing the critical role that contact centers play in shaping customer perceptions and driving brand loyalty.

In this podcast episode, Stephanie Shaffer De Jesus, a seasoned customer experience practitioner, shares invaluable insights into the future of contact centers and the role that Experience Level Agreements play versus the Service Level Agreements that contact centers are generally managed by. By backing into contact center metrics - starting with the customer and the desired customer experience - the contact center can transform. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Storytelling is the ultimate tool for persuasion and connection. Rob Biesenbach is a seasoned professional speaking coach and author who understands the transformative power of storytelling.

In this week's podcast, Rob shares that presentations should never be about merely delivering data – they should be about sparking change, getting buy-in, and igniting action.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Customer service is a big part of the customer experience, and the call center is a critical focal point for direct interaction with customers. With all the changes in technology recently, I wanted to ask an industry expert his thoughts on the future of the call center in the customer experience space.

In this episode of the Modern Customer Podcast, I had a conversation with an expert who has probably worked with more call centers over the past three decades than anyone else in the world. Brad Cleveland got his start in call centers decades ago and has watched this space grow and develop as a consultant, speaker, course instructor, and author of ten books, including his latest, Leading the Customer Experience.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

On this episode of the Modern Customer Podcast, I spoke with Kelly McDonald about meeting customer expectations. Kelly is a speaker and author of several books, including her latest title, It's Time to Talk about Race at Work, a guide for leaders to improve diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Her ideas can be applied everywhere, from call centers to service and customer experience.

According to Kelly, so many businesses are still providing a one-size-fits-all customer experience, but this isn't what customers want anymore. These days, they seek personalization more than ever when shopping, using services, and receiving customer care. And with growing diversity in all markets, it's important to understand that different people may wish to be treated in different ways.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Keith Farley, SVP of Individual Voluntary Benefits and Head of Customer Care Centers at Aflac, shares how the company blends AI and empathy to transform customer experience in insurance.

Insurance is one of the oldest industries, yet it faces modern pressures of speed, digital expectations, and customer trust. Rather than choosing between technology and humanity, Aflac integrates both—using automation for efficiency and empathy to deepen trust, directly linking CX to growth.

3 Key Takeaways on CX from Aflac

• Empathy at scale: A dedicated support line for first-time cancer diagnoses ensures compassionate guidance during the toughest calls.

• AI with guardrails: Automation speeds routine claims, while humans handle complex or denial cases to protect trust.

• CX as ROI: Simpler processes drive acquisition, while empathy and trust strengthen persistency and long-term value.

Tune in to the full episode to hear how Keith Farley makes customer experience a measurable growth strategy at Aflac.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Most of us have grown up with the stereotyped idea that a leader should be emotionless and impersonal. But this isn't the case, as we so often see that introducing personal feelings and emotional intelligence into the mix can make for better leaders with stronger connections to their employees.

In this episode of my podcast, I'm proud to say that I sat down with Jacob Morgan, my husband of nine years and father to our two children. Jacob is a certified futurist and speaker and has just published his fifth book, Leading with Vulnerability: Unlock Your Greatest Superpower to Transform Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization. Jacob spoke with me about vulnerability in the workplace and how it's an essential tool and complement for leadership.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

As customer experience professionals, our goal is to listen to what customers want and make changes to improve our service and their experience. But as David Cote suggests, so many companies miss the mark because they think they have to choose between short- and long-term goals for their business rather than aiming for both. Under David Cote's leadership, Honeywell's market cap soared from $20 billion to $120 billion, a testament to his effective management strategies.

I sat down recently to speak with David about his experience as CEO of Honeywell and his recent book Winning Now, Winning Later. I wanted to know how his leadership experiences could be applied to the customer experience space.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Despite trying to do our best every day in customer experience or any other facet of business, we often run up against a wall. We focus all of our energy on performance, and by doing so, our results can actually decrease.

But why would that happen?

Eduardo Briceno, TEDx presenter and author of The Performance Paradox, believes it's because so many of us are stuck in a fixed mindset. Despite aiming for growth, we don't properly cultivate a growth mindset in order to help us achieve it. We're continually putting our best effort into less effective practices, so our results don't improve.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

The most competitive brands today understand the contact center is an opportunity, and ensuring a customer-centric culture in that contact center is key. The problem for most brands and customer experience leaders is high churn and the reality that burnout is real.

I talked to Brian Dunphy, an experienced contact center and customer experience expert who's guided customer experience strategy for notable companies such as Disney, Bank of America, WarbyParker, and Postmates.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Over the past few decades, the landscape of the Fortune 500 has changed immensely. Reflecting on this transformation, Alan Murray, the founder of Fortune, offers an intriguing perspective. "If you go back 50 years and you look at the balance sheet of Fortune 500 companies in the 1970s, over 80 percent of the value came from physical entities - from oil in the ground to inventories on the shelves," he says.

But he points out that this is no longer the case. In today's digital age, more than 85 percent of the value of the Fortune 500 is tied up in intangibles such as intellectual property, software, and brand value. At its core, brand value epitomizes the emotional bond a brand shares with its customers. The emphasis has shifted from the tangible to the intangible; from concrete assets to human emotion and ingenuity. As Murray explains, "Ingenuity is the human capacity to craft innovative solutions to enhance life."

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Modern customer experience is data-driven. Management needs data-backed insights to understand what they can improve in their processes or products to yield better customer service. This is why research companies such as Forrester exist.

Forrester is an advisory company offering research, consulting, and other services to help companies make better customer experience decisions.

On the Modern Customer, I talked to Pete Jacques, a principal customer experience analyst at Forrester, about Forrester's recent report and we discussed that it's critical for customer experience leaders to deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Running a contact center is one of the most challenging processes for a company when offering a unique and positive customer experience. Contact centers are the bridge that connects your customers to your brand and allows them to feel engaged and heard.

So, what makes running one so difficult?

I talked to Naomi Wheeless, the Global Head of Customer Success at Square, about the management and leadership strategy required to modernize and run a customer-centric contact center. 

Square is a publicly traded company providing financial, payment, and marketing services for businesses. Their call center lies at the heart of their customer success strategy. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Tanger Outlets has a 42-year history of being an industry leader in branded in-person retail outlets, providing a unique on-brand customer experience for people shopping for unique products from specific brands.

Stephen Yalof, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, says that for the company and its outlets to remain relevant, it had to pivot towards customer experience in retail outlets instead of simply offering brands a space to sell unique on-brand items.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

In customer experience integrating innovation and personalization is key. Inspirato is a luxury vacation membership company that offers its members access to a curated collection of luxury vacation properties and experiences around the world. The company operates on a subscription-based model, where members pay an annual fee for access to these high-end vacation options. I had the pleasure of talking with Inspirato President David Kallery, about how they are redefining the luxury travel and hospitality paradigm.

Inspirato focuses on creating a compelling customer experience, and through that satisfied customer they get new customers. A staggering 50% of their members originate from existing member referrals. But why does this referral system work so well? It boils down to their customer focus which builds trust, empathy, and genuine connection.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

With its many changes and outside forces, the airline industry is challenging for customer experience. But Oscar Munoz, former CEO of United Airlines, believes it also provides an amazing opportunity to focus on individual customers and remember that even in stressful times and busy travel days, customers are humans and central to everything the business does. 

When Oscar first stepped into his role as CEO of United Airlines, he prioritized developing the shared purpose, or the mission, vision, and values. Over a year, he interviewed thousands of employees about what made United different and why they worked there. From their insights, United Airlines created the shared purpose of connecting people and uniting the world. And because employees were involved in creating that shared purpose, they have buy-in and are more engaged.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Dilip Bhatia, Chief Experience Officer at Lenovo, shares how Total Experience drives business outcomes.

Lenovo, a $69B company operating in 180 markets, aligns every function around the customer—reducing churn, improving NPS, and embedding accountability. Guided by its vision of "Smarter Technology for All," the company combines culture, design, and technology to turn experience into growth.

Here's how Total Experience shows up at Lenovo:

👉 Culture & accountability — 95% of employees have a CX KPI tied to their bonus

👉 Inclusive design & testing — accessibility features shaped with input from a school for the blind and ThinkPads tested through 20+ military-grade tests

👉 AI-powered personalization — GenAI accelerates content creation, localized AI safeguards privacy, and sellers are equipped with data for a 360° customer view

🎧 Discover how Lenovo makes CX measurable, accountable, and effortless—building trust and growth. Tune in now!

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Marketing is often thought of as everything that happens before a sale; customer service is everything that happens after. But according to Allan Dib, best-selling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan, customer service is marketing. The two sides are related and can work together to create a smoother experience overall.

Like in customer service, Dib says the first step of marketing is knowing your audience. Who are you talking to? What are they interested in? In his mind, marketing is the strategy used to get your ideal clients to know you, like you, and trust you enough to become customers.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

What is a customer-centric culture? According to Dr. Chris L. Brown, CEO and Co-Founder of MarketCulture, it's the environment, behaviors, and how work gets done. At customer-centric companies, the culture revolves around providing an excellent customer experience. That strong culture starts with leaders who set the tone for embracing customers and having a customer-centric mindset.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

From Chief Experience and Chief Customer Officers to Customer Experience leaders, more companies are creating customer leadership roles. These positions can greatly impact customer-centricity, but they bring a common question: where do you start?

Jim Weber, Chief Experience Officer of Comerica Inc, stepped into his current role in late 2019 with a goal to build and expand a customer experience team. Weber says one of the most crucial parts of his job was ensuring he tasked the right person with running customer experience on a daily basis. At Comerica, that's Maria Adams, the director of CX, who Weber says can see everything and process it strategically.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

A company as large as Choice Hotels, with more than 7,000 locations worldwide, is bound to have a huge amount of data. But how do you ensure data is used to improve and bolster the customer experience?

Noha Abdalla, Chief Marketing Officer at Choice Hotels International, Inc, says data is the cornerstone of the brand's customer experience. Choice Hotels is recognized for knowing its customers incredibly well and providing a consistent guest experience, which comes from having reliable data.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Where does a customer-obsessed culture start? With the CEO.

Jeff Mezger, Chairman, President, and CEO at KB Home, is known for his customer-centricity. That mindset has spread throughout the company to create a culture of customer obsession. Every employee knows their role and the impact of their work, which leads to incredibly high customer satisfaction rates.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Like many industries, the automotive space has been upended in recent years. With supply chain issues, changing technology, and evolving customer preferences and priorities, the car-buying process is much different than it used to be.

Jennifer Vianello, CMO of Cars.com, says there have been so many predictions about car-buying over the last 25 years that it is challenging to make new predictions. And even with advancements in technology, most customers continue to purchase in person and do tremendous amounts of research beforehand. Buying a car is the second largest purchase most people will ever make and one most people don't take lightly. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Delivering quality content to customers builds trust and strengthens relationships. With the power of search engine optimization, content can be a powerful marketing tool to establish your company as a thought leader and develop credibility. According to Leslie Yazel, Editor and Head of Content for Buy Side from WSJ, people who come through search are looking for a particular product or answer and can turn into valuable customers.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.

Most companies understand the importance of their frontline workers interacting with customers daily. But how many will build a customer experience strategy around them?

At JetBlue Travel Products, the contact center is in the middle of everything the company does--literally and figuratively. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Imagine having an expert makeup artist available whenever you have a question. That's the reality for customers of some of the world's leading beauty brands, thanks to an innovative digital strategy that combines technology and the human touch. 

Salima Popatia is the Chief Digital Officer at Orveon Global, the company behind some of the world's most recognizable beauty brands: Laura Mercier, Bare Minerals, and Buxom.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Customers frequently read reviews from other customers, but how often do companies get involved? Customer reviews abound online but are often overlooked by brands. 

Liz Carter, CMO of experience management company Reputation, says customer reviews have incredible power.

This episode is sponsored by Reputation.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

AT&T serves more than 100M customers with the support of 140,000 employees. Keeping customer centricity alive at that scale takes real focus.

On this week's Modern Customer Podcast, Jenifer Robertson, EVP & GM of AT&T Mass Markets and Mobility, joins the show. Jenifer was AT&T's first Chief Customer Officer, launching its customer-centric transformation, and she's been a champion for the customer voice ever since.

Here's how AT&T is putting the customer at the center at massive scale:

✅ Personalization at scale — AT&T drills down from markets to households so every customer feels seen and heard.

✅ AI in action — improving customer satisfaction, first-call resolution, and containment, while virtual experts begin to support retail.

✅ Omnichannel without friction — creating a single view of the customer across digital, app, retail, and call centers.

✅ Trust as the foundation — with The AT&T Guarantee, the first in the industry to cover both fiber and wireless.

Her perspective is clear: great customer experience doesn't cost more—it costs less.

👉 Get the full story on how AT&T puts customers at the center. Tune in now!

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Most customer experience data strategies include two types of insights: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data tells the stories behind the customers, and quantitative data shares trackable metrics of customers' actions and a brand's performance.

But according to Jim Kalbach, author of The Jobs To Be Done Playbook, modern CX teams have an over-reliance on quantitative data, which can distract from building strong customer relationships.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Between stress from the pandemic and the economy, rude customers, and changing technology, many customer-facing employees are burnt out. Mental health is crucial to everyone's well-being, especially frontline workers and contact center agents who face challenges and difficult conversations every day.

Amy Smith, Chief Impact Officer at TOMS, says we need to talk about our mental health like we would talk about a broken arm, cold, or sprained ankle.

This episode is sponsored by Thinkific.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

How does a company founded in 1911 stay relevant and a leader in the tech space today? Continual evolution and a willingness to disrupt.

IBM has long been a leader in the technology industry because of its willingness to experiment and challenge the status quo. Chief Communications and Chief Marketing Officer Jonathan Adashek attributes that to staying on top of advancements and being willing to adapt and find creative solutions.

This episode is sponsored by IBM.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

The biggest challenge for customer experience teams often isn't learning new technology, staying on top of trends, or connecting with customers--it's getting buy-in from executives and proving the ROI of their efforts.

Bryan Sanders, Head of CX, Market Research, Digital at AAA, recommends that customer experience practitioners take a unique approach: do CX on the leaders they're trying to engage with. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Internal insights and customer feedback are essential to building an effective customer-focused leadership strategy. But it requires continually listening to customers, measuring what matters, and ensuring data is passed to the right teams to make changes and improvements.  

Diana Brown, SVP of Sales Operations and Customer Experience at XPO, involves leaders with the data through feedback loops. Leaders know the importance of data and see it first-hand by talking to employees about what is and isn't working and the tools they need to deliver a great customer experience. 

This episode is sponsored by Thinkific.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

The abundance of data available to companies today presents incredible opportunities to personalize their experiences and serve customers like never before. Today's customer experience teams have the power to know so much more about customers, their preferences, and their history than ever. 

But with technology advancements, privacy challenges, and cookie changes, it's also never been harder to be in marketing and advertising than it is today, according to Bill Bruno, CEO of customer data company Celebrus.

This episode is sponsored by Celebrus.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

It takes a lot to stand out in the competitive DTC food delivery market.

But ButcherBox built a competitive advantage by staying true to one of its core values: being customer obsessed. Chief Product & Experience Officer Lesley Mottla says the value isn't just words on the wall—it's something leaders and employees are constantly talking about and living.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Morgan Stanley CMO Alice Milligan is tasked with balancing legacy and innovation for a company founded nearly 90 years ago that has become one of the biggest names in finance.

It's a common dilemma for companies: how do you balance holding on to the brand legacy while embracing the future?

This episode is sponsored by Thinkific.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

The foundation of delivering a fantastic experience to customers is listening to them. How can you provide relevant and personalized experiences without understanding your customers and hearing their feedback?

Nationwide Insurance is known for its customer-centricity, largely because of its company-wide focus on listening to customers and using their feedback to continually improve the experience. EVP and Chief Customer Officer Amy Shore says Nationwide's dedication to offering extraordinary care to its customers starts by listening to their feedback and ideas. 

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

What does it take to build a disruptive, customer-centric company?

It starts with customer-centric leaders.

Digital investment company Betterment was on my list of the 100 most customer-centric companies in 2022 because of its innovative platform that combines the convenience of digital tools with the personalization of human agents. Aside from a strong digital experience, what sets Betterment apart is its customer-centric leadership.

This episode is sponsored by Thinkific.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Missed calls lead to customer frustration and lost revenue. Voice AI changes this. With voice AI, these missed opportunities can be transformed  into meaningful conversations that build loyalty and drive growth.

On the latest The Modern Customer Podcast, I had a conversation with @Carson Hostetter, EVP & GM of AI + CX at @RingCentral, about how companies are using voice AI to:

✅ Replace outdated IVR menus with human-like dialogue

✅ Protect revenue by ensuring no call is missed

✅ Turn conversations into proactive customer service and business growth

Carson knows the stakes. As RingCentral's former CRO, he helped grow ARR from $1.4B to $2.4B and scaled its enterprise business from $5M to $500M. Now, he's applying that same growth mindset to AI.

👉 Listen to the full episode and discover how companies are already turning calls into ROI with voice AI.

This episode of The Modern Customer Podcast is sponsored by RingCentral.

📌 Learn more about RingCentral's AI Receptionist → https://www.ringcentral.com/air?BMID=CMRCXINMBM2025

See how they're doing it in these customer success stories → https://www.ringcentral.com/whyringcentral/casestudies.html?BMID=CMRCXINMBM2025

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today's Customer.

Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

What's one of the biggest challenges of securing a sale? It's not rejection--it's indecisive customers.

Customer indecision is everywhere, from B2B buyers making big purchases to customers shopping for clothes online. And it's become even more evident as global and economic conditions become more uncertain. According to best-selling sales author Matthew Dixon, 40-60% of a salesperson's qualified pipeline will ultimately be lost to no decision. That's a significant loss of revenue and customer relationships.

*Sponsored by Thinkific

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

How do you reinvigorate a 135-year-old brand to connect with new and changing customers?

That's the question faced by Bibie Wu, CMO of Del Monte Foods.

Customers have changed drastically in the last few years, especially in the food industry. Even with changing trends, Del Monte stays grounded in the goodness of fruits and vegetables. In fact, with more people eating at home, managing their household budgets, and trying to put great food on the table, Del Monte has never been more relevant.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. 

Looking at the consumer industry, it's clear that things are changing. But what does that mean for businesses, and how can they navigate these uncharted waters?

Kasey Lobaugh, Chief Innovation Officer for Deloitte's Consumer Industry, discusses 100 topics the six forces critical to navigating the next decade of change in retail.

Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future.