Customer Experience University: Winning Loyalty & Engagement.
A weekly brief on customer experience, employee engagement, and service excellence.
Joseph has been publishing it since 2008 — 600+ episodes and counting.
Eight recent episodes.
Short, sharp, relevant.
- 01Jul 2410 min
The Handoff Problem
The bot was fine. The agent was great. The customer was still left furious — because of the handoff between them. In this episode, Joseph Michelli makes the case that AI-to-human escalation, not the bot itself, is the real failure point in…
- 02Jul 1710 min
The Referral Engine
Referral programs mostly fail because companies try to manufacture word of mouth rather than capture it. In this episode, Joseph Michelli reframes referrals as a design problem, not a promotion problem — anchored by Nielsen’s finding that…
- 03Jul 1011 min
Personalization Isn’t Loyalty
Everyone now owns the same AI personalization tools — so personalization can no longer be your loyalty strategy. In this episode, Joseph Michelli separates loyalty from retention and makes the data case for emotional connection, citing HBR…
- 04Jul 37 min
Leading Through AI Anxiety
Only 20% of employees worldwide are engaged — and AI is about to test that fragile number. In this episode, Joseph Michelli draws on Gallup’s latest global data and a Ritz-Carlton lesson in trust to explain why AI leaks engagement before…
- 05Jun 2610 min
The Empathy Gap
Everyone’s buying the same AI. So what’s left to compete on? In this episode, Joseph Michelli makes the financial case for the “empathy gap” — the 28-point chasm between how customers rate human service versus AI — and shares three moves…
- 06Jun 182 min
The Crisis of Automated Errors
Speed is an engine, but judgment is the brake. In this episode, we discuss the rise of "confident but incorrect" AI outputs—often called AI Slop—and the crisis it creates for customer trust.
- 07Jun 112 min
Meaning is Your Only Protection
Efficiency is now a commodity. In an age where algorithms can provide answers in seconds, the human quest for meaning has become the primary differentiator.
- 08Jun 42 min
Maintaining a Human-Centered Soul
High-growth environments often test an organization's "Safety Constitution." In this episode, we explore how to maintain a human-centered soul in technical partnerships and why success must be measured by the value returned to humans, not…
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Every episode starts with a question leaders are asking — and ends with something you can act on. Brief, timely, and straight to the point. No guests, no filler. Just Joseph and one idea worth your time.
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