A Future-Focused CX Playbook: Why Intentionality Wins in the AI Age

Discover how Medallia’s new CX playbook unlocks the superpower of intentionality to achieve modern, impactful omnichannel CX improvements.

Customer experience teams are managing more than ever: More channels, more technologies, and more competition, for starters. And as customer expectations continue to rise, it can be understandably challenging for CX leaders to know where to focus next. 

But I have good news. You have the superpower you need to deliver consistent, meaningful CX improvements: Intentionality. 

I know, it seems too simple. Of course you’re intentional. You are intentional about delivering great experiences. But most leaders don’t move from that IDEA to action. That’s what we need to talk about. 

The best customer experiences are built one step at a time. You can’t address everything everywhere all at once (especially given how intricate omnichannel journeys can be), but you can focus on the highest-impact areas while you work toward achieving your bigger goals and delivering on your overarching Customer Experience Mission. 

Medallia’s Modern CX, Made Achievable playbook offers a trove of insights to help you lay the foundation you need to deliver sustained competitive advantage and growth. It centers around the reality that omnichannel CX is necessary and empowers you to make it real — and perhaps even better, how to make it stick. 

The playbook echoes the need for intentionality to deliver on the full potential of your CX program. Let’s take a look at three areas — your organizational mindset, people, and metrics — to help build your future-ready organization. 

Shifting the Mindset: Predictive, Omnichannel CX 

Any department can become a cost center without a clear strategy and unified vision. CX teams, especially, need a clear understanding of the barriers in their customer journey — and which need immediate attention. 

As Medallia’s playbook shares, teams should define their winning “why” and show the cost of failing to build an effective omnichannel CX. This step can be transformative for teams and spark those aha moments that lead to curiosity (and big breakthroughs!). It also sets your team on an intentional path forward. 

And break down those territorial data silos! I encourage teams to democratize CX data so everyone can access and understand customer feedback. This is how teams can use data to drive decisions and have a clear purpose behind every action, instead of relying on gut feelings. 

With consistency, the right mindset evolves your strategy from reactive to proactive, so customers receive: 

• Personalized recommendations based on real-time behavior, instead of generic or irrelevant offers 
• Pre-emptive alerts about issues (with a plan to make it right), instead of unexpected product or service outages 
• The right information and offers on the best channels based on their preferences, instead of poorly targeted messages that slip under the radar 

And yes, AI is essential for delivering these experiences at scale, but human intentionality and empathy are what make every moment matter. 

The Human Element: Empowering the Entire Team with AI 

Once you gain buy-in on your omnichannel CX strategy, it’s time to enable your team with the resources and training they need — especially when it comes to AI. 

Continuous learning and skill transformation are essential as agentic AI embeds itself in more workflows. AI and automation empower human agents to focus on complex, high-value, and emotional interactions — which is where many of us want to spend our time. With new technologies and workflows, however, team members will need new types of support to thrive: 

• Hands-on training explaining how to best use your organization’s AI tool(s), including how to work with AI so it gives useful outputs and ideas 
• Information-sharing as team members make breakthroughs with AI, so excitement and knowledge spread across the organization 
• Data analysis training so teams can confidently turn customer data into insights for improving the journey 

Every employee across product, marketing, sales, finance, and operations should understand how their role can impact customers. By embedding customer empathy and focus into every department, organizations will achieve CX improvements that keep pace with their rapidly evolving customer needs.

And staying intentional about where you do (and don’t) apply AI will help you test new use cases, measure results confidently, and ensure your automations aren’t inadvertently hurting the customer experience. 

Measuring What Matters: Future CX Metrics

Speaking of measuring results… let’s talk about the ROI of CX! 

It’s no secret that customers who receive personalized and consistent experiences are more likely to become loyal, which boosts their lifetime value and reduces churn. Employees are also more motivated when they feel connected to their organization’s mission, and when they feel personally empowered to shape the customer journey. 

Metrics are essential for demonstrating the value of your efforts and proving to leadership that CX is an undeniable business advantage. 

As tools make it easier to measure the impact of efforts across the customer journey, teams can confidently share metrics like these: 

• Customer Effort Score (CES), which is about minimizing friction for customers and making their experience intuitive. 
• Value Realization Score, which measures how quickly and easily customers achieve their goals with your product or service. 
• Proactive Resolution Rate, which is the percentage of issues solved before a customer reports them. 

The key, as the playbook reinforces, is to avoid simply sharing CX scores and moving on. Connect those metrics to real customer stories and business outcomes like cost savings, risk mitigation, and revenue growth to make customer experience a business priority across teams. (Cross-functional coalitions are what CX dreams are made of!) 

The Next Era of Customer Experience 

Artificial intelligence is changing the game for CX, empowering us to cover more ground than ever before. But the organizations that truly succeed in this age will lead with intentionality and know when to use AI, and where humans are always essential. 

Start by acknowledging that omnichannel journeys are the reality of modern customer experience, and document the risks of failing to deliver a fulfilling omnichannel experience. As your team integrates AI into more workflows, consider what training and enablement resources your employees may need to thrive. And ground your metrics in real customer stories and business outcomes to communicate your value confidently.

If you’re feeling stuck in this time of transition, download Medallia’s playbook for the step-by-step support you need TODAY to plan for tomorrow. 

To further your deep dive into CX strategy, my book, Experience Is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations, will be a go-to guide with frameworks, strategies, and real-life stories to help you transform your program sustainably well into the future. 

The next era is here. But you’re ready to take it on with these resources and your commitment to customers!