The Ticket: Discover the Future of Customer Service, Support, and Experience, with Intercom

Shep Hyken on getting ahead of the competition with exceptional CX

·38 min·3 clips

Shep Hyken reveals how customer expectations have fundamentally changed over three decades, driven by companies training them on great service.

The episode features Shep Hyken, an award-winning keynote speaker and customer service expert, interviewed by Declan Ivory, VP of Customer Support at Intercom. Hyken begins by discussing monumental shifts in customer service over the past three decades, noting that customers are smarter and expect more due to companies educating them on great service. He references his annual Achieving Customer Amazement Study, which finds that 88% of customers believe customer service is more important now, attributing this to products becoming commodities and experience as the key differentiator. Hyken shares data showing that customer expectations for convenience, knowledgeable employees, and easy access to support have increased significantly over four years. He addresses AI's role, with 62% of customers expecting it to become the primary mode of service, and uses the airline industry's shift to digital booking as a case study for technology adoption. Hyken warns that 63% of customers express frustration with AI self-service, advising companies to test extensively and mystery shop their own systems. A key insight is his concept of the 'dangerous customer,' where 24% of customers who rate an experience as satisfactory (average) will never return, based on his research. He suggests businesses should measure customer cadence and behavior, not just sentiment, to predict loyalty, using a hair salon example. Hyken also discusses personalization at scale, distinguishing between micro-personalization and persona-based approaches, with Nike's loyalty program as an innovative example. He concludes by urging businesses to look outside their industry for emerging trends and to use AI creatively but purposefully, noting its increased affordability for small businesses.

As heard by us

Hyken makes better CX concrete: test the systems yourself before asking customers to trust them.

Shep Hyken's return to The Ticket frames customer experience as a practical operating test: can digital support feel as clear and attentive as the help people actually need?

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want to test whether your AI support feels helpful from the customer's side of the screen.

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