That makes real estate an especially interesting lens for the broader customer experience (CX) conversation.

For companies serving consumers through complex, high-consideration journeys, support can’t exist on the sidelines. Every search, question, handoff, and moment of friction is part of the customer experience and can either build confidence or erode it.

That’s the conversation Phoebe Schultz, Vice President of Customer Experience Operations at Zillow Group, will bring to the main stage at CRS Scottsdale, September 30–October 2, 2026, at The Phoenician.

Turning Support into Strategy

In her keynote, Turning Support into Strategy: Zillow’s Approach to Smarter Self-Service, Schultz will share how Zillow approached a challenge that will sound familiar to many CX leaders: a support ecosystem that had become fragmented over time.

Zillow Group had numerous separate help sites, four technology platforms, and 12 support silos, an infrastructure shaped in part by years of acquisitions. The systems supported customers, but the experience reflected the company’s internal structure rather than how customers moved through their journeys.

That distinction matters.

For CX leaders, fragmentation isn’t simply a technology problem. It can show up as customers repeating themselves, searching across multiple places for answers, being routed to the wrong resource, reaching a human when a simple digital answer would have solved the problem, or being pushed into self-service when what they really need is human help.

Zillow’s experience offers a compelling look at what happens when an organization starts treating support differently.

Rather than viewing consolidation as an exercise in reducing complexity, Zillow used it as an opportunity to rethink the role of support altogether: not simply as a cost center, but as a product, a source of customer insight, and a way to connect customers with the right help at the right moment.

What CX Leaders Can Learn

The lessons extend well beyond real estate. As customer expectations continue to rise, organizations across industries are asking similar questions: How much should we automate? Where does self-service genuinely improve the experience? How do we make it easier for customers to find what they need? And how do we preserve the human moments that matter?

Schultz will explore how Zillow is approaching those questions through four key ideas:

1. The org chart trap: Why support experiences can become organized around internal structures rather than customer journeys, and the strategic cost of that disconnect.
2. Help as a product: What changes when support infrastructure is designed with the same discipline and intentionality as any other customer-facing product.
3. Friction as a signal: How customer questions and support interactions can reveal problems in products, processes, and communications.
4. Human where it matters: How intelligent triage and digital self-service can help organizations scale while still making room for the human interactions that build trust and loyalty.

For CX executives, the bigger takeaway is simple: support is telling you something.

The questions customers ask, where they get stuck, and when they seek human assistance can reveal where the broader experience is working and where it isn’t. The opportunity is to listen to those signals and turn support from a reactive function into a strategic advantage.

Join your CX leadership peers at CRS Scottsdale to see Zillow’s keynote. Learn more and register for CRS Scottsdale today.

The post From Help Desk to CX Strategy: What Zillow is Rethinking About Self-Service appeared first on Execs In The Know.

For AMC Global Media, that experience is especially important because its audiences aren’t simply customers; they’re passionate fans with emotional connections to the stories, characters, and worlds they love.

In this Brand Spotlight, Nicholas Solomon, Vice President of Customer Service at AMC Global Media, shares how his team is combining AI, Voice of the Customer insights, and empathetic service to remove friction, strengthen loyalty, and keep customer support from getting in the way of the entertainment experience.

Removing friction at every moment that matters

In a crowded streaming market, simplicity and reliability are no longer differentiators; they’re expectations. Solomon says AMC Global Media focuses on making the experience work seamlessly across devices, platforms, and brands, without requiring customers to navigate complicated logins, entitlements, or support processes.

But seamless service isn’t just about efficiency. It’s also about empathy.

“When something goes wrong, a great customer experience is meeting customers where they are, resolving issues quickly, and making them feel heard,” Solomon explains.

That philosophy is particularly important when serving passionate fandoms. A billing question or technical issue may seem routine from an operational perspective, but for a viewer deeply invested in a show, even a small disruption can feel personal.

Using AI to remove friction, not the human touch

As AI continues to reshape customer service, AMC Global Media is taking an intentional approach. The goal isn’t to replace human agents, but to use technology where it can make the experience easier.

Automation and self-service can efficiently handle routine, high-volume needs, while agents remain available for situations that require judgment, empathy, or deeper problem-solving. Agent-assist technology also gives employees greater context, allowing them to focus on the interactions where human connection matters most.

That balance is already producing results. As AMC Global Media reduced friction across high-volume customer journeys, CSAT increased from 69% to 82%, while NPS doubled.

Turning customer service into a source of insight

For Solomon, the contact center has a role that extends far beyond issue resolution. It serves as both a safety net for customers and a feedback loop for the organization.

Customer interactions reveal where customers are struggling, where expectations aren’t being met, and which problems keep coming up. AMC Global Media uses those insights across product, engineering, marketing, and other teams to inform improvements and reduce repeat pain points.

The result is a more proactive approach to CX, one where customer service doesn’t simply respond to problems but helps prevent them.

Building loyalty by making customers feel heard

Ultimately, AMC Global Media’s approach comes down to a simple idea: great CX should protect the customer’s relationship with the content and the brand.

Technology can make service faster. Data can make it smarter. But empathy is what makes the experience meaningful.

As Solomon puts it, “Solving the immediate issue is expected. Building trust is the differentiator.”

For CX leaders, that’s a powerful reminder: operational excellence and memorable experiences don’t have to compete. When organizations invest in their people, use technology thoughtfully, and genuinely listen to customers, they can create experiences that do more than resolve issues; they build trust that keeps customers coming back.

Want to hear more from Nicholas on how AMC Global Media is turning customer service into a driver of trust and loyalty? Read the full Brand Spotlight in the latest issue of CX Insight magazine. 

The post How AMC Global Media is Building Loyalty Through Seamless Service appeared first on Execs In The Know.

The fastest way to separate AI hype from opportunity is to learn from organizations already putting it into practice. 

The session focused on measurable outcomes: how FOX, Everlane, Amazon Ring, and FuturHealth are deploying conversational AI agents, voice AI, proactive engagement strategies, and AI-powered workforce planning tools across use cases in streaming media, retail, telehealth, and consumer technology.  

Common threads ran throughout the discussions: the importance of grounding AI initiatives in real customer data, the need for continuous iteration after launch, the shift in how success is measured (moving beyond simple containment metrics to sentiment and implied satisfaction), and the reality that human oversight becomes more important, not less, as AI systems mature.  

Our partner presenters from Sierra, Kustomer, Vapi, and Assembled offered concrete frameworks, results, and lessons learned for CX and operations leaders looking to move from experimentation to measurable impact. 

Here’s a recap of the virtual event. 

Sierra + FOX: Building and launching an AI agent in 60 days 

FOX partnered with Sierra to build its AI customer service agent, timed to coincide with the launch of its Fox One subscription product. The AI wasn’t just answering FAQs; it was resetting passwords, updating billing information, and processing cancellations on customers’ behalf. That flexibility proved critical when contact volume spiked 430% in a single week during a major global sporting event.  

FOX’s philosophy: treat AI and human agents as one unified team, holding both to the same QA bar. The payoff has been a retention rate above 80%, driven by continuous iteration rather than a “set it and forget it” mindset. As FOX’s presenter put it, “It is never perfect, and the key to success is to ensure that we are constantly looking to improve.” 

Kustomer + Everlane: Getting ahead of the customer entirely 

Kustomer introduced a four-level maturity model for proactive AI (responsive, predictive, preventative, and orchestrated), arguing that each step up requires progressively richer customer context. To bring it to life, Kustomer walked through its work with Everlane, the sustainable apparel brand, which noticed that customers who returned their first purchase were far less likely to buy again. Everlane used that single signal (a customer’s first purchase) to trigger a simple automated outreach checking in on fit and sizing, reducing avoidable returns without a heavy data lift. The bigger lesson for CX leaders: you don’t need a perfect system to start. “Export the data, download it, drop it in an AI tool with a good prompt. That’s a perfectly valid way to explore a signal,” Kustomer’s presenter noted. 

Vapi + Amazon Ring: Solving the trust problem in voice AI 

Vapi’s team was candid about the uphill battle voice AI faces: “The last 20 years of CX have really broken trust for customers… it truly is until they experience it, they don’t believe it.” Their headline case study was Amazon Ring, which had evaluated roughly 40 voice AI vendors without success before finding Vapi’s platform flexible enough to meet its strict requirements around telephony integration and model choice. Ring went live in about two weeks and posted striking results: a 50% drop in average call time, a 70% cost reduction, and CSAT scores that matched or beat those of human agents. 

Assembled + FuturHealth: AI for what happens behind the scenes 

FuturHealth, a telehealth company that grew patient volume nearly 1,000% in its first year with a single operations leader and no dedicated data science team, partnered with Assembled for workforce planning. By connecting Assembled’s data platform to a general AI assistant, FutureHealth’s team could ask questions in plain language instead of writing code. Tasks that used to take days now happen in a single session, and FutureHealth proposed a simple adoption framework any operations leader could use: Ask, Act, Automate. Start by asking questions, then move to approval-based actions, and finally automate the repetitive work. 

In Summary 

Across all four use cases, a few themes kept surfacing. First, none of these companies started with a “cool AI idea,” they started with data on what customers actually needed. Second, launch is just the beginning; every case study described ongoing iteration, rather than a finished product. And maybe most importantly, the metrics are changing. Presenters repeatedly cautioned against leaning on old-school containment or deflection numbers alone, pointing instead to sentiment analysis and “implied CSAT” as better indicators of whether AI is actually helping, since, as FOX’s presenter noted, “folks who leave CSAT leave it when they’re negative. It’s just like an app review.” 

The overarching message: AI in CX is operational and measurable, and when grounded in real customer data and paired with human oversight, it delivers results companies can actually point to. For CX and operations leaders still in the experimentation phase, the advice from every presenter was the same: start small, start now, and let the data lead the way. 

Ready to see these AI use cases in action? 

The full session, including live demos, deeper dives into each case study, and audience Q&A, is available to watch on demand. Whether you’re just starting to explore AI in your CX operations or looking to benchmark against what these leaders have already built, this recording is worth the 90 minutes. 

Watch the full session on demand → 

The post How Four Companies Turned AI Into Measurable CX Results appeared first on Execs In The Know.

That distinction is important for every business partner. Organizations are still investing in AI, but they’re becoming far more selective about where those dollars go and what evidence they expect before approving another initiative. 

Our latest research, The ROI Imperative: Building the Business Case for Exceptional CX, found that 65% of CX leaders expect AI and automation to receive the largest share of new CX investment over the next 12 to 24 months, while 75% believe those investments have the greatest potential to deliver ROI. At the same time, 86% say demonstrating ROI is now extremely or very important when proposing any new CX initiative. 

Those numbers tell an interesting story. AI budgets aren’t disappearing. They’re becoming harder to earn. Buyers are investing in AI that solves measurable business problems. The organizations moving forward with AI aren’t buying platforms because they’re innovative. They’re investing in use cases tied directly to operational outcomes. 

The strongest business cases connect AI to metrics executives already care about: 

• Lower cost per contact 
• Faster resolution times 
• Reduced handle time 
• Higher retention 
• Revenue protection 
• Better operational consistency 

One example highlighted in the research came from Michael Kors, where agent-facing AI was implemented to improve decisions around lost eCommerce orders. Rather than automatically issuing refunds, AI helps agents identify replacement inventory, recognize repeat claims, and resolve issues faster. The result wasn’t simply a better customer experience. It reduced unnecessary refund costs while protecting customer lifetime value. 

That’s the pattern appearing across many organizations. The most compelling AI investments solve an expensive operational problem first, while improving customer experience as a result. 

Process Improvement Still Beats Shiny Technology 

One of the more surprising findings in the research should give every technology provider pause. When asked which investments have historically produced the strongest ROI, process improvement ranked ahead of AI and automation. Process improvement was selected by 58% of respondents, compared with 54% for AI and automation. 

That doesn’t mean AI is losing momentum. It means buyers increasingly understand that technology rarely fixes broken processes by itself. Many organizations are looking for partners who can identify friction, redesign workflows, and then determine where AI belongs, not the other way around. 

If your conversation begins with product capabilities instead of business problems, you might already be behind. 

Where Skepticism is Growing 

The research also highlights where CX leaders remain cautious. Many organizations believe AI can deliver value. Fewer believe every implementation will. 

Several themes surfaced repeatedly: 

• Difficulty measuring business impact 
• Internal adoption challenges 
• Revenue expectations that don’t materialize 
• Weak post-implementation measurement 
• Generic ROI assumptions that don’t reflect their business 

In fact, internal adoption and revenue growth were the areas where CX investments most frequently fell short of expectations. The skepticism isn’t about AI itself. It’s about whether vendors can demonstrate that this implementation will deliver measurable outcomes within their organization. 

What CX Leaders Are Asking Business Partners to Do Differently 

One of the clearest messages from the research wasn’t directed at AI. It was directed at vendors. 

CX leaders repeatedly asked for: 

• Organization-specific ROI models instead of generic calculators 
• Benchmarks based on similar operating environments 
• Pilot programs using their own data 
• Practical implementation roadmaps 
• Continued measurement after deployment 

One respondent summarized it well: “Use our own data to make the ROI calculations ‘real’ and not hypothetical.” Another noted that the best vendors arrive with the business case already built, not simply a product demonstration. 

That should reshape how business partners think about the sales process. Today’s buyers increasingly expect strategic advisors who can help secure internal funding, not just solution providers. 

The Opportunity for Business Partners 

The AI market isn’t slowing down. It’s the buying process that is becoming more disciplined. The organizations winning investment are those that can clearly answer four questions before implementation begins: 

• What business problems are we solving? 

• How will success be measured? 

• What operational metrics will improve? 

• What financial outcome should we expect? 

The business partners who can help answer those questions will stand out in an increasingly crowded AI market. Because in today’s CX environment, buyers aren’t looking for the most impressive AI demonstration. They’re looking for the investment they can defend in the boardroom. 

If these findings reflect the conversations you’re having with customers, there’s value in staying connected with the practitioners shaping those conversations. Execs In The Know’s research, events, and leadership community, business partners gain direct access to the CX leaders defining tomorrow’s investment priorities.  

To learn more, connect with Scott Moberly, Vice President of Partner Advocacy, at Scott@execsintheknow.com or download our 2026 Media Kits to discover upcoming partnership opportunities. 

The post AI Investments CX Leaders Are Actually Making (and Where Skepticism is Growing) appeared first on Execs In The Know.

Growth comes from the people already inside the community, the customers and advocates who talk to each other, share what’s working, and build trust the way peers always have.  

The future of B2B marketing isn’t more promotion. It’s participation in community. 

For partners already invested in this approach, the case is about protecting and growing what’s already working. For those just starting to explore it, the case is about awareness and trust that traditional marketing rarely creates.  

People Trust People 

Community is often used loosely. An audience is not a community. An attendee list is not a community. A community is built when people return, contribute, share knowledge, and recognize each other over time. It is the accumulation of conversations, experiences, and relationships that happen long after one event ends. That is what makes a true CX community valuable. The relationship doesn’t reset every time someone walks into a room. It builds from every interaction that came before. 

A CX leader who hears about a partner from a peer at another organization already trusts that partner more than one who cold-emailed them. That’s not a marketing trick. It’s how people have always made decisions about who to work with, especially for anything that involves real budget and risk.  

Community works because it creates the conditions where those conversations can happen naturally. A partner becomes familiar not because they repeated a message the most, but because CX leaders saw their perspective, heard their ideas, and experienced the value they brought to the conversation. 

That distinction is obvious, and it shapes whether they lean in or tune out. 

Why Community Works 

A relationship built inside a community keeps paying off long after the initial investment, because the trust it created doesn’t disappear. A CX leader who met a partner through a genuine community interaction and kept encountering that partner in low-pressure ways afterward carries that relationship with them into their next role, their next project, and their next recommendation to a CX peer. For partners, that compounding effect is the real value of being part of the community. It rarely shows up cleanly in a single quarter’s pipeline report, but it shapes decisions for years. 

Credibility is Borrowed, Not Bought 

When a partner joins a trusted community, they benefit from something that takes years to build: context and credibility. They aren’t introducing themselves in isolation. They are showing up in a space where conversations are already happening, and relationships already exist. 

It’s the difference between a partner saying, “We’re great at this” and a room full of CX leaders already trusting the space enough to take that partner seriously before they’ve said a word. Prospective partners often underestimate how much this matters. Being part of a community like Execs In The Know that CX leaders already trust does more to establish legitimacy in a crowded market than almost any other single investment. 

Belonging Does What Promotion Can’t 

There’s a real difference between a partner who sponsors a community and a partner who actually belongs to one. A logo can create awareness. A speaking opportunity can create visibility. But neither one creates the feeling that someone is invested in the same conversations and challenges as the people in the room. CX leaders can sense when a partner is participating because they genuinely value the conversation, rather than showing up only because a contract requires a certain number of touchpoints.  

The partners who treat the community as a place to participate, ask questions, share honest perspectives and thought leadership, and show up consistently tend to be remembered very differently from those who treat it as another channel to broadcast through. That sense of belonging is what turns a sponsorship into a relationship. 

Awareness That Doesn’t Feel Like Advertising 

For partners still building awareness with this audience, community-led marketing offers something traditional demand generation struggles to deliver: visibility that doesn’t feel like being sold to. A CX leader who encounters a partner through a genuine community conversation, a useful piece of research, or a peer’s mention forms an impression that feels earned. That impression tends to stick. It’s also more durable because it isn’t tied to a budget that eventually runs out. It’s tied to relationships that keep developing on their own. 

The Long Game Pays Off Differently 

None of this suggests traditional marketing has no place. But for CX leaders making decisions that involve real organizational risk, community and peer influence carry weight that advertising rarely matches.  

The partners who understand this tend to treat community involvement as a long-term relationship investment rather than a one-time effort, and they measure it accordingly. They’re patient with the timeline because they understand what’s actually happening: trust building in the background, long before any deal is on the table. 

That’s really the value proposition underneath community-led marketing. It isn’t a faster way to generate leads. It’s a more honest way to build the kind of trust that actually leads to lasting partnerships, the kind that current partners already know pays off over time. Either way, the investment is the same: show up authentically, stay consistent, and let the relationships do what relationships have always done. 

Ready to build real relationships with a community of CX leaders who matter most to your business? Connect with Scott Moberly, Vice President of Partner Advocacy, at Scott@execsintheknow.com to explore how your organization can get more involved in the Execs In The Know community. Or download our 2026 Media Kits to discover upcoming partnership opportunities. 

The post Why Partners Invest in Community-Led Marketing appeared first on Execs In The Know.

But there is a particular kind of conference experience that senior CX leaders tend to describe when you ask them what they are actually looking for. It’s not about the biggest audience or the longest speaker list. It’s about something harder to engineer: a conversation that changes how you think, a CX peer who has wrestled with the exact problem sitting on your desk right now, and relationships that are still paying dividends years later.

When is the last time you left a conference having learned something that actually changed how you work? When is the last time you met someone in a session who became a genuine thought partner, not just a LinkedIn connection? When is the last time a conference sent you home thinking differently about your job function?

That is what CRS is built around.

At CRS Scottsdale (September 30–October 2, 2026), the format is intentionally intimate, designed to foster real conversations, share knowledge, and build relationships that outlast the event itself.

Here’s what sets it apart from other CX conferences.

Leaders Learning from Leaders

At most conferences, you learn from a stage. At CRS, you learn from the person sitting across from you at dinner. The insights come from the CX executive who just cracked a problem you have been wrestling with for months, or the C-suite keynote speaker who is willing to share not just what is working, but what isn’t. There is a candor in the room that is rare because it is composed of people who have actually done the work.

“This is the only event where true CX leaders can learn from other leaders.”

— Ebrahim Hyder, Vice President of Customer Service, Michael Kors

That peer-to-peer dynamic changes everything about how knowledge moves through an event. You aren’t passively absorbing presentations. You are actively exchanging hard-won experience with the people who understand your challenges most deeply.

Intimate by Design

CRS is intentionally small. And that is the whole point. You are not navigating a convention center floor hoping to catch five minutes with someone meaningful. The smaller scale is a deliberate structural choice that shapes every aspect of the event, from the session format to the way the agenda is built, with dedicated connection time woven throughout.

Collaboration at scale is a contradiction in terms. Real collaboration, the kind that surfaces new ideas and shifts your thinking, requires enough space for a genuine conversation. CRS is built around that insight.

“One of the things I really love about these conferences is how intimate it is. The smaller environment allows for a lot more collaboration.” 

— Dima Cichi, Global Customer Success & Service Transformation Leader, Microsoft 

An Openness You Won’t Find Anywhere Else

Something happens when you put the right people in a room together. The attendees who come to CRS are not there to pitch or to perform. They are there because they genuinely care about the customer experience and want to get better at it, alongside others who share this. That shared purpose creates a culture of openness that is hard to manufacture and impossible to fake.

“What keeps me coming back year after year are the friendships you make and the people you trust.” 

— Lisa Oswald, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Member Services, Travelzoo

When the people in the room trust each other, conversations go deeper. Problems get examined honestly. Advice is given and received in good faith. That is the environment CRS creates and protects.

Relationships That Last Beyond the Event

A conference that leaves you with a stack of business cards is forgettable. A conference that leaves you with a network of genuine partners is something else entirely. Attendees describe the connections they have made at CRS as those that have made them better leaders, strategists, and people. Relationships that did not end when the event did.

“I have developed relationships from coming here over many, many years that transcend work. They’re my partners. And I think that’s very unique in the conference space.There’s no other community like that in the industry.”

— Dave Pitsch, Vice President of Guest Services, Arc’teryx

That word, community, is what separates CRS from everything else. An event happens once a year. A community is always there.

Come Experience CRS for Yourself

We are at a complex moment in customer experience, trying to figure out how to harness AI while doubling down on the human connection that still defines great brands. The tension between those two imperatives is real, and the organizations navigating it best are the ones learning together in rooms like the ones CRS creates.

There is no better place to work through that challenge than alongside the leaders doing it in real time. If you have not been to CRS before, this is the year to find out what everyone keeps coming back for.

Learn More  

Register Today 

The post What Makes CRS Different from Other CX Conferences appeared first on Execs In The Know.

That is the difference between having access to an audience and participating in a community like Execs In The Know, where we’ve spent 15 years building exactly that kind of community. A community exchanges ideas, builds relationships, and creates trust over time. In a community like this, visibility still matters, but it works differently than traditional marketing or sponsorship exposure. It is not about being seen once or being present in a single moment. It is about being consistently present in the spaces where CX leaders are already engaging, learning, and exchanging ideas. 

The partners who stand out are the ones who show up in ways that feel relevant, helpful, and connected to the ongoing conversations happening within the community. Real relationships with CX leaders form the way most relationships do: gradually, through consistent, valuable interactions that happen in the months between the times you’re together virtually or in person at an event. 

That’s worth taking seriously because much of the ROI from this kind of visibility never shows up on a dashboard. By some estimates, roughly 80% of B2B buying decisions are shaped by peer recommendations inside private communities before a buyer ever visits a company’s site. That influence happens quietly, in conversations and shared opinions no campaign report can capture, which is exactly why it’s so easy to underestimate. A CX leader has usually already formed a real opinion long before anyone reaches out to sell to them, shaped less by a pitch than by what they’ve seen, read, and heard from the peers they trust. That’s exactly why this community exists, and it’s exactly why showing up in more than one place, more than once, matters so much more than it might seem to in the moment. 

The event is where a relationship starts. What you do in the quiet stretch afterward determines whether it goes anywhere. Every business partner wants to be known, trusted, and remembered. 

Here’s what that tends to look like for the partners who do it well.

1. They Keep Showing Up

CX leaders are managing full calendars and a long list of people asking for their time. A great conversation from a few months back fades quickly unless something brings it back to the surface. The partners who stay genuinely memorable aren’t necessarily the ones who made the biggest splash in the room. They’re the ones who found low-pressure ways to stay present afterward, so the relationship never had to start completely over the next time they crossed paths.

2. They Lead with Something Valuable 

Between events, the strongest partners share things a CX leader can actually use: a perspective on a problem they’re already wrestling with, a lesson learned from working with someone in a similar seat. Sometimes that’s as simple as a short, well-timed thought leadership piece landing in their inbox. That kind of outreach reaches someone at their desk, on their own schedule, when they have the bandwidth to engage. Leaders can tell very quickly whether something was written to help them or to sell to them, and that distinction quietly shapes whether they keep paying attention to you.

3. They Bring Evidence

There’s a real difference between a partner who talks about a trend and one who has studied it. That evidence can take a few different shapes: a piece of CX research with real data behind it, a contributed article that walks through a point of view, or a concrete AI use case that shows rather than tells. Whatever form it takes, it doesn’t feel like a pitch when it reaches a CX leader. It feels like something worth citing in their own meeting or passing along to their team. That kind of evidence keeps a relationship alive between events far better than a check-in call, because it keeps proving its worth long after it first landed in their inbox.

4. They Show Up Across Moments That Matter

People trust the names they recognize, and recognition is built through consistent presence. A brand that CX leaders encounter across multiple touchpoints including in-person or virtual events, through research or CX Insight magazine, or through thought leadership content, becomes more familiar, more credible, and more top of mind. 

The strongest partnerships go beyond a single appearance. They create multiple opportunities to contribute value, share expertise, and stay connected with the leaders shaping the future of customer experience. By showing up across different channels and conversations, partners build the kind of sustained visibility that turns awareness into meaningful relationships.

5. They Stay Easy to Find When Timing Finally Lines Up

Timing rarely lines up perfectly the first time. A CX leader might meet a partner in the middle of a budget cycle or a reorg and still think of them fondly months later, once circumstances change. What matters at that point is whether the relationship is still easy to pick back up, whether via a quick search of the KIA Vendor Directory or a CX Insight magazine ad. 

The partners who stay visible and reachable in the gap between events are usually the ones who get the call when priorities finally shift, simply because they never let the connection go cold. 

The Common Thread 

None of this replaces the value of being in the room together. Events are still where relationships begin, whether that’s a flagship gathering like CRS or a smaller regional touchpoint like a leadership dinner, where a face gets attached to a name, ideas are exchanged, and meaningful conversations start. 

But strong relationships aren’t built in one interaction. They grow and are reinforced over time through repeated opportunities to connect, contribute, and stay engaged. The partners who get the most out of those moments understand that an event is not the finish line; it’s one part of a broader relationship. They continue showing up through additional events, thought leadership, research, community engagement, and other touchpoints throughout the year. 

That consistent presence means that when the next conversation happens, they won’t have to start from the beginning. They’re building on familiarity, trust, and shared experiences. They’re not reintroducing themselves; they’re continuing a relationship that has already been strengthened over time. 

That’s the difference between a partner CX leaders vaguely remember and one they actively think of first. It has less to do with any single event and everything to do with the cumulative impact of showing up consistently throughout the year. Because by the time a CX leader is ready for a deeper conversation, their perception has already been shaped by the brands, ideas, and partners they’ve encountered along the way. 

Community doesn’t replace great marketing; it makes great marketing more believable. Because when trust is already present, conversations become easier, relationships grow faster, and partnerships last longer.  

Ready to stay connected with a community of CX leaders beyond a single event? Connect with Scott Moberly, Vice President of Partner Advocacy, at Scott@execsintheknow.com to explore year-round opportunities to engage the Execs In The Know community through CX research, thought leadership promotions, digital content, and live or virtual events. Or explore our 2026 Media Kits to discover the partnership opportunities that best align with your goals. 

The post Beyond the Event: Building Meaningful Partnerships in a Powerful Community of CX Leaders appeared first on Execs In The Know.

This is a meaningful moment for our community. By opening KIA to consultants and introducing two powerful new features, we’re creating more pathways for the kind of candid, high-value dialogue that makes this community worth showing up for. 

Introducing the KIA Consultant Directory 

At the heart of this update is the new KIA Consultant Directory, a dedicated space within the KIA community where you can explore consultant profiles, review areas of expertise, and quickly identify the right fit for the challenges you’re navigating. 

The KIA Consultant Directory features experienced CX professionals who have built their careers as corporate practitioners before launching their own consulting practices or joining small (1-3 people), specialized consulting firms. 

Whether you’re tackling a CX transformation, evaluating technology investments, or benchmarking your approach against industry best practices, the Directory gives you fast, reliable access to trusted expertise. No cold searches and no guesswork. Just a curated roster of professionals whose backgrounds and specializations you can evaluate at a glance. 

The Directory lives directly within the KIA community, which means it’s seamlessly integrated into the experience you already know.  

A New Forum Built for Open Dialogue 

In addition to the Directory, we’ll launch a dedicated Consultant Discussion Forum where members can talk directly with consultants about relevant topics and challenges. To preserve the peer-to-peer nature of KIA, the main KIA discussion forum will still remain exclusive to corporate practitioners, and consultants will not have visibility into those conversations. 

This forum is designed to be a meeting ground. CX leaders and consultants can exchange perspectives, dig into shared challenges, and bring different vantage points to the topics that matter most in our industry. Consultants bring depth from working across organizations and verticals; community members bring the grounded, day-to-day reality of leading CX from the inside. That combination creates richer conversations for everyone involved. 

Think of it as a way to pressure-test ideas, get outside perspectives, and tap into knowledge that might otherwise take weeks to track down. 

Why This Matters 

KIA has always been built on the belief that great CX thinking happens in a community. This expansion reflects that same philosophy.  

More diverse perspectives mean more robust conversations. More direct access to expertise means faster paths to insight. And more opportunities for collaboration mean that the value you get from KIA membership continues to grow. 

This is about making a great community even better. 

Get Started 

Ready to explore? Head over to the KIA Consultant Directory to browse profiles and discover the expertise now available to you as a community member. 

Then jump into the Consultant Discussion Forum and join the conversation already underway. There’s a lot to talk about, and now, more voices to help us get there. 

Not a KIA member yet? Learn more about the KIA community and request to join to access the Consultant Directory, connect with fellow CX leaders, and participate in the conversations shaping the future of customer experience.

The post Expanding the Circle: KIA Welcomes Consultants to the Community appeared first on Execs In The Know.

Casio understands this better than most. From the calculator that transformed everyday computing to the iconic G-SHOCK watch known for durability and innovation, Casio has built its reputation by creating products people rely on. Today, that same commitment extends beyond the product itself and into every repair request, warranty interaction, and support conversation.

For Casio, customer service is not simply about resolving issues. It is about reinforcing the promise customers believed in when they chose the brand in the first place.

In a recent KIA Spotlight, Execs In The Know sat down with Mike Begala, General Manager of Service North America at Casio, to explore how the company approaches post-purchase support, balances technology with human connection, and creates experiences that strengthen customer loyalty.

The Post-Sale Experience is Where Trust is Reinforced

Casio’s service organization oversees technical support, repairs, parts, warranty programs, and customer care across North America. While operational performance matters, Begala believes success goes beyond traditional service metrics.

The real measure of a great customer interaction is whether someone leaves feeling confident in their decision to choose Casio.

“Some of the best feedback we receive is when a customer tells us they felt taken care of,” Begala shared. “If someone comes to us with a problem and leaves feeling better about the brand than when they started, we’ve done our job.”

That mindset reflects a broader shift happening across customer experience organizations. Customers are no longer evaluating brands only by the products they purchase. They are evaluating how companies respond when something goes wrong.

Combining Digital Efficiency with Human Support

Like many CX leaders today, Casio faces the challenge of delivering fast, convenient support while maintaining the personal connection customers expect.

Begala believes technology plays an important role in simplifying routine interactions and giving employees better access to information. However, technology should enhance the customer experience—not replace the empathy and expertise that make service memorable.

“The strongest teams are always looking for ways to improve customer experience and make things easier for the people around them,” he explained.

For Casio, the goal is creating a seamless experience where customers can quickly find answers when they need them while still having access to knowledgeable support when a more complex situation requires human assistance.

Leadership Starts with Empathy

A key theme throughout Begala’s conversation is the importance of people. While systems, processes, and technology are essential, he believes exceptional service starts with employees who genuinely want to help others.

“You can teach systems and processes, but it’s much harder to teach someone to care about the customer experience,” Begala said.

That focus on empathy is especially important as customer expectations continue to rise. The best service teams are not just solving problems—they are building relationships and creating moments that reinforce trust.

Learning from the CX Community

As a member of the KIA Community, Begala also highlights the value of connecting with other customer experience leaders facing similar challenges.

From evolving technology to changing customer expectations, peer conversations provide valuable opportunities to share ideas, learn from successes, and accelerate innovation.

Casio’s approach reflects a powerful CX lesson: trust is built over time, but it is strengthened in the moments when customers need a brand the most.

Read the full KIA Spotlight to learn how Casio is redefining post-sale customer experiences through empathy, innovation, and a commitment to customer trust.

The post How Casio Builds Brand Trust After the Sale appeared first on Execs In The Know.

PHOENIX, ARIZONA, US, July 14, 2026 — As organizations race to integrate AI into the customer journey, customer experience (CX) leaders are grappling with a new challenge: maintaining trust while accelerating innovation. New research from Execs In The Know’s 2026 CX Leaders Trends & Insights: Corporate Edition finds that two-thirds (67%) of contact centers now use some form of AI — yet leaders are shifting their focus from cost savings to outcomes, increasingly measuring success by resolution, customer trust, and abandonment rather than deflection alone.

To address that challenge, Execs In The Know today announced the speaker lineup for Customer Response Summit (CRS) Scottsdale under the theme, Customer Assurance: Leading the Next CX Advantage, a premier gathering of CX leaders from the world’s top corporate brands, taking place September 30–October 2, 2026, at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The event will feature keynote presentations and executive-led discussions focused on responsible AI adoption, leadership resilience, customer trust, and the strategies brands are using to create assurance at every stage of the customer journey.

Featured Keynote Speakers

CRS Scottsdale will feature four main stage keynotes from executives who are redefining what CX leadership looks like.

• Julio Lopez, Vice President of Sales Enablement, Global Reservations at The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, will deliver a keynote highlighting leadership lessons and customer experience strategies from one of the world’s premier luxury hospitality brands.
• Todd Sale, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience at Corpay will explore why emotional regulation, self-awareness, and inner resilience have become critical leadership skills for guiding teams through uncertainty, change, and the rapid impact of AI on the workplace.
• Phoebe Schultz, Vice President, Customer Experience Operations at Zillow, will share how the company transformed a fragmented support ecosystem into a unified, AI-enabled self-service experience that reduces customer friction, strengthens trust, and delivers more personalized support at scale.
• Julie Weingardt, Chief Operations Officer at Turo, will address the growing gap between customer satisfaction metrics and customer reality, highlighting why trust has become the defining factor in long-term loyalty.

Featured Panel Speakers

In addition to the four keynote speakers, the conference will feature main stage panel discussions from CX leaders at some of the world’s most recognized brands, including: Travelzoo, Microsoft, Cox, Intuit, Priceline, YETI, and more.

These speakers will join a broader roster of CX executives sharing candid insights of building Customer Assurance on AI through the agent’s eyes, channel strategy, the contact center workforce, measuring what matters in CX, leadership wellness, and operationalizing customer feedback.

“Customer Assurance has become one of the most important strategic priorities facing CX leaders today,” said Susan McDaniel, COO and Co-Founder of Execs In The Know. “AI may change how we serve customers, but it can never replace the trust that earns their loyalty. CRS Scottsdale is designed to help leaders build the trust, confidence, and operational excellence required to thrive in this environment.”

About Customer Response Summit (CRS)

For more than 15 years, CRS has brought together senior customer experience leaders from many of the world’s most recognized brands to share ideas, tackle challenges, and explore what’s next in CX. Designed exclusively for corporate practitioners, CRS delivers real-world insights through practitioner-led keynotes, interactive discussions, peer-to-peer learning, and curated networking opportunities.

Attendees gain access to candid conversations with fellow leaders, discover innovative solutions shaping the future of customer experience, and build meaningful relationships that extend well beyond the event. Past attendees have represented organizations including Google, Grubhub, Microsoft, MLB, T-Mobile, American Airlines, Staples, Ulta Beauty, Uber, Michael Kors, YETI, Walmart, Target, Visa, Peloton, The Home Depot, and many others.

Learn more about the agenda details, speaker information, venue, and registration, visit: https://execsintheknow.com/events/customer-response-summit-scottsdale-2026/

About Execs In The Know  

Execs In The Know brings together customer experience (CX) leaders from across industries in an effort to advance the conversation and set a new agenda for delivering amazing experiences for consumers. As a global community of the brightest minds in CX, Execs In The Know provides opportunities to learn, share, network, and engage to innovate. Operating under the motto, “Leaders Learning from Leaders,” Execs In The Know facilitates many opportunities for community engagement, such as its bi-annual national Customer Response Summit and private, online community, Know It All “KIA.” There are also exclusive, laser-focused engagements like industry briefings and executive roundtables. Execs In The Know also guides and informs the industry with a rich tapestry of CX-related content that includes CX Insight magazine, industry research, webinars, blogs, and much more. For more information, visit Execs In The Know’s website.

The post Trust in the Age of AI: Customer Response Summit Scottsdale to Explore the Future of Customer Assurance appeared first on Execs In The Know.