Breaking the CX Mold: Why Great Experiences Can Come from Anywhere

There is a quote from a popular Disney movie that goes, “Not everyone can become a great artist, but great art can come from anywhere.” A perfect motivational line for any brand that’s looking to leave a mark with their CX offerings.

But have you noticed how certain experiences have become unnecessarily complex lately?

Take social media, for example. Instagram once thrived on simplicity — posting filtered snapshots of daily life and artful lattes. Today, it's a labyrinth of algorithms, engagement metrics, trending content formats, and meticulously curated feeds. It reflects the reality of the current customer experience (CX) landscape, which is becoming complicated, codified, and calculated with each passing day.

As businesses expand globally and digital transformation accelerates, CX has grown increasingly rigid.

Companies now manage multiple touchpoints across various platforms, juggle online and offline communication systems, field countless questions about complex product suites, and battle rising churn rates. Amid this complexity, the fundamental principle of great CX — being present where your customers need you the most — often gets overlooked.

Yet in our algorithm-driven world, where data reigns supreme, truly exceptional customer experiences still spring from authentic one-on-one interactions that make customers feel valued and seen. These genuine connections form the foundation of what defines a customer-centric company.

Consider this: A sophisticated ticketing system that helps you return the wrong item might be technologically impressive, but it's the conversation with a genuinely concerned support agent — who reassures you while solving your problem — that leaves a lasting impression in your mind.

So exceptional CX, like great art, can emerge from anywhere — if we honor the fundamentals and embrace simplicity over unnecessary complexity.

CX expert, author, and keynote speaker Adrian Swinscoe was the latest guest on our CX-WISE podcast. On this episode, he draws a compelling parallel between CX and punk music, among other things. In an era where rock music had become overly complex and layered, punk broke the rules and revitalized the genre, proving once again that simplicity holds tremendous power.  

Swinscoe goes on to talk at length about the opportunities within the CX landscape, the evolution of customer support, and strategies for building better CX teams.

So, let's get the music started, shall we?

The art of customer experience: Why we need more Picassos and fewer paint-by-numbers

Are you an artist or are you simply filling in the colors?

Intriguing question, isn't it?

The CX rulebook today embodies this profound question. There are certain practices that have been deemed as the "best fit" or "correct approach" to excel in CX, leading companies across industries to replicate these formulas — essentially filling in predetermined colors - while expecting identical results.

So, you must ask yourself: "Am I an artist, or just painting by the numbers?"

As Swinscoe eloquently puts it: "Our job as human beings is to translate what we promise into suitable offerings and then deliver that to the customer. That translation process — that's the art part."

As companies navigate an increasingly diverse and dynamic global customer base, this artistry becomes more complex than ever. According to a McKinsey report, 71% of customers expect personalized experiences, with 76% expressing frustration when they don't receive them. With a growing demand for personalized experiences

To meet customers where they are and remain competitive, organizations have jumped on the technology bandwagon, adopting various platforms for scaled success. During the pandemic, for instance, countless companies implemented AI-powered chatbots to enhance communication. Now this technology has become essential for businesses to stay competitive.

If you’re seeking the right technology stack for your brand, start with these five steps to find the right fit.

With generative AI, agentic AI, predictive analytics, and many more technologies flooding the market, it's easy to lose perspective and adopt the latest tech without putting much thought behind the decision. Swinscoe cautions, "These are simply tools, not solutions in themselves."

While GenAI can produce a 5,000-word report almost instantaneously, it might struggle with basic data entry tasks that traditional AI handles effortlessly. Companies must therefore carefully consider which specific business challenges each technology can address before zeroing in on one. Implementing technology without a clear use case only results in unnecessary data collection, increasing customer skepticism.

Today's customers have grown increasingly stringent about their customer experiences. One bad experience is all it takes to put them off. But a "poor experience" isn't necessarily a catastrophic one. It could stem from implementing overly complex technology that the company itself doesn't fully understand, or from collecting excessive customer data without any transparency or accountability.

Customer experience truly goes south when organizations fail to pay attention to what their customers genuinely want, thereby eroding their trust. A website might feature cutting-edge GenAI chatbots, but if there's a persistent issue with returns that these chatbots can't resolve, the organization has fundamentally missed the mark.

This resembles serving a customer multiple courses of a Michelin-starred meal while ignoring their preference for simple, home-cooked food — impressive but misaligned with actual needs.

While technological evolution is both constant and necessary, you must remember to do the following:

• Never lose sight of what customers truly want from your brand
• Ask yourself if new technology will help you meet customers where they are
• Maintain the foundation of trust between your brand and your customer as your top priority

Organizations benefit from adopting a ground-up approach when implementing new technologies, focusing on trial periods, practical application, and comprehensive staff education.

One question, five ways: Why organizations are betting big on self-service

Imagine managing an e-commerce website and encountering variations of the same question:

"Are there any new arrivals in shoes on your website?"

"Do you have any recently added shoes on your site?"

"Can you show me the latest shoes available on your website?"

"Are there any fresh shoe listings on your online store?"

"Do you offer any new shoe styles on your site?"

As businesses expand their digital footprints, developing robust response strategies for such seemingly different but similar queries becomes crucial. They must prepare for questions asked in multiple ways and languages across channels, building informed support systems capable of addressing all customer inquiries.

Increasingly, businesses are turning to self-service as their go-to strategy.

As Swinscoe notes, approximately 50-70% of simple inquiries will be handled through self-service tools, freeing human agents to manage more complex issues. This means the questions reaching frontline staff will inherently become more sophisticated.

If a chatbot can help you find the perfect shoe size and style, wouldn't you prefer consulting a human agent about material properties, potential allergic reactions, or suitable activities for those shoes? "The knowledge required to answer these questions will not sit in the front lines but would rather sit in the middle office or back office or in other systems with other teams," he adds.

Consider wanting to verify if an electric toothbrush purchased online has American Dental Association approval — a frontline agent might not know the details, but a Colgate legal representative would.

Swinscoe asks organizational CIOs with a fundamental question: "How connected are you to the front lines of your organization?"

Creating a holistic system that delivers exceptional customer experiences requires alignment across all organizational levels, ensuring everyone has the bandwidth and data to address queries effectively. Breaking down data silos facilitates information flow between departments and helps solve underlying problems.

"We need to be getting involved in describing the vision of what it is we want to try and deliver,” says Swinscoe before adding, “and then to think about what the phases are we need to get to be able to achieve that."

The challenge of vision in customer experience

If you've spent time in the B2B space, you're likely familiar with phrases like "stellar experience," "unmatched scalability," and "AI-powered solutions." While intended to describe a brand's vision, these terms have been nothing but buzzwords — not only are they overused but they also end up diluting the message they aim to convey.

Swinscoe identifies this as the Achilles' heel of many brands today. Companies join trending conversations, offer up fashionable buzzwords, and package them as meaningful differentiation to their customers. They claim to have a vision for what they want to deliver, but upon closer inspection, that vision dissolves into vague terminology. According to him, this lack of a solid, actionable vision represents the biggest red flag for organizations. When you look beyond these buzzwords, you find yourself asking more substantive questions:

"What exactly are they offering my customers?"

"How does this tangibly add value to my brand?"

"What does this mean for customers at different points in their journey with the brand?"

To combat these challenges, Swinscoe outlines five fundamental levers that drive organizational growth. Every CX initiative should be able to address one of these five levers:

1. Does it help you convert interest into actual customer?

2. Does it make purchasing easier for your customers?

3. Does it enable quicker sales cycles?

4. Does it foster loyalty and encourage repeat purchases?

5. Does it reduce your cost to serve?

If organizations can connect their offerings — whether products or services — to one or more of these levers, they'll deliver true relevance, commercial returns, and meaningful ROI. This approach transforms vague promises into concrete value propositions that both the business and customers can understand.

The challenge isn't creating more buzzwords but articulating a vision that translates to measurable outcomes and authentic customer value.

Inclusivity in CX

Have you ever felt out of place when making a purchase in-store or online? Imagine experiencing the frustration of sales agents who simply don't understand you or your roots. This has been the reality for many people of color in the U.S. when shopping for makeup or beauty products.

In 2019, Sephora commissioned its Racial Bias in Retail study to understand the shopping experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) customers across the industry. The findings were revealing: three in five BIPOC customers didn't feel welcome in many beauty retail environments, causing them to leave without making a purchase. More concerning, however, was the fact that over 60% said they would never return to a store where they felt unwelcome.

Addressing this problem required a comprehensive organizational response.

Sephora developed extensive training programs on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), implicit bias, and cultural sensitivity to equip employees with inclusive skills. It significantly increased the hiring of BIPOC store managers and staff to ensure the shopping environment accurately represented customer diversity.

Additionally, the company pledged to source 15% of its products from Black-owned businesses, rebalanced its portfolio to increase the availability of products for all skin tones, and expanded its Accelerate program to help BIPOC-owned startups grow.

What Sephora ultimately accomplished was bridging the gap between brand and customer by introducing staff that customers felt more comfortable interacting with, thereby, creating a loyal customer base and making the experience of buying beauty products enjoyable for every single customer.

Swinscoe notes: "We should make sure that our experience teams don't look like us and make sure that they look like our customers."

Diversity and inclusion have become core tenets of excellence for global organizations wanting to elevate their customer experience. This transformation begins with listening to and understanding customer frustrations through social care and social listening. It means being present on the store floor, hearing directly what customers love and what they dislike.

While Sephora commissioned a formal study, your organization can deploy various other means to truly understand your customers. After all, how can a CEO actually understand the frustrations felt by every customer segment? If you're a billionaire owning a grocery chain, would you personally feel the burden of rising egg prices?

He shares a Japanese concept used at Toyota called "Going to the Gemba" which translates to going to the actual place where the action happens. At Toyota, managers and executives would visit the factory floor not to lecture workers but to listen and understand their problems before attempting to solve them.

It's time more organizations "go to the Gemba" and truly listen to their diverse customers to deliver an experience that works for everyone.

Conclusion

Thanks to Adrian Swinscoe's insights, we now know that CX is an art form that requires vision and execution, simplicity amid complexity, and inclusivity at its core.

Organizations that truly excel in the CX space are the ones that balance innovation with fundamentals, ensuring that every technological advancement serves a clear purpose in addressing actual customer needs. They're the ones who break down silos, connect frontline agents with deeper expertise, and embrace diversity that reflects their customer base.

The future of CX will undoubtedly continue to evolve with self-service options, AI integration, and personalization at scale. But the ones that truly stand out in this space will be those who remember that behind every interaction is a human seeking to be understood, valued, and served with authenticity.

As you navigate your own CX journey, ask yourself: Are you an artist creating meaningful experiences, or are you simply filling in predetermined colors? The answer to that question will determine not just the experience you provide, but the lasting impression you leave on your customers' hearts and minds.

For more insights, check out the entire conversation with Adrian Swinscoe here: