Latest Posts
Passikoff: Achieving Brand Loyalty in the Age of AI
There was a time when brand loyalty was easy. It was defined only by repeat purchase. Bought this.…
Passikoff: Caveat Venditor
Yes, I know you’re used to the other caveat maxim, but that’s not what came to mind when…
August 10, 2026
We Know What Customers Cost. We Don’t Know What They’re Worth.
It’s time to start measuring customers the way we measure every other investment. Loyalty programs, incentives, retention offers,…
The Emotional P&L of Flying
Why Airlines Keep Losing Trust – and What That Reveals About Us When we looked at thousands of…
Sales, Marketing & Loyalty Should Buy CX a Pony
I’ve spent a lot of years inside the customer technology industry watching two extraordinarily powerful capabilities develop in…
Passikoff: America at 250 -The Brands That Earned the Flag
Patriotism isn’t just something Americans observe on July 4th, It’s something they live on July 5th, and every day…
Marketing With Intent: Starting With the Outcome in Mind – Part 3
Third in a Series: Change What They Feel In the first two articles in this series, we covered…
Passikoff: Patriotism as Brand Strategy
As America approaches its 250th anniversary, marketers may want to rethink what makes a brand feel patriotic. Brand…
We All Live in Customerland Now
“Nobody gives a sh*t about brands anymore.” A few weeks ago I found myself wondering whether it might…
Brand Keys’ New Segmentation Reveals What “Patriotic” Actually Means to Consumers
25th annual Most Patriotic Brands survey identifies nine distinct paths to patriotic perception – and the rankings don’t…
Signal, Noise, and the Customer Continuity Problem
Q&A with Michael Hutchison, Customer Operations Principal, eClerx There’s a growing disconnect in customer experience right now that…
What If Your Fastest Growth Lever Is Inclusion
Editor’s note: Global Accessibility Awareness Day is May 21 so this piece is timely. But this conversation opened my eyes…
Passikoff: On Patriotic Brands
This July, as the United States will mark its 250th anniversary, Brand Keys marks the 25th anniversary of…
The Backlash Against Bad Automation Has Begun
There’s a subtle but important shift hiding inside Verint’s newly released State of Customer Experience 2026 report, and I suspect…
What If Better Support Is Your Real Moat?
There’s a phrase that keeps coming up in customer service conversations that I think we need to retire,…
Passikoff: Branding, Without the Illusions
A scoutmaster asked his troop what three things they’d want if they were alone and lost in the…
Subscriptions Need to Manage Volatility, Not Just Churn
For most of the last decade, subscription strategy was framed as a retention optimization problem. Reduce churn. Increase…
Passikoff: Listening for Silent Loyalty
The English version of “silence is golden” first appeared in an 1831 poem by Thomas Carlyle. Forty years…
Verint–Calabrio and the Consolidation of CX Infrastructure
On the surface, Verint’s decision to move forward under a single corporate name following its transaction with Calabrio…
Passikoff: What Makes a Successful Product Launch (Hint: It’s Not What You Think)
When it comes to last year’s least successful new product launch, my vote goes to Stoli Group’s (yes, that Stoli!) $150 million bourbon and…
Passikoff: Measuring REAL Loyalty
Brand Keys measures brands – and how loyal their customers are to them, because loyalty matters. We’ve done…
Infrastructure Is the Strategy
Why Retail’s Next Advantage Won’t Look Like Software Retail has spent years talking about experience – personalization engines,…
The Best of Customerland (So Far)
This year, Customerland crossed a meaningful milestone: 53 published episodes! It’s been a year of massive shifts – AI…
December 29, 2025
Retail at the Speed of Intent
Retail has crossed a quiet but consequential threshold. Real-time decisioning is no longer a differentiator reserved for elite…
In Trust We Calculate – Rebuilding Confidence in the Age of AI
Welcome to the final installment in our series on AI and human behavior. If Parts 1 through 4…
Passikoff: ‘Tis the (really long) Season
Brands like Coca-Cola and Macy’s helped entrench Santa Claus in popular culture, and Christmas became a retail juggernaut,…
Rewriting the Math of CX
My conversation with Ken Lain, Senior Vice President and Head of CX, Customer Service and Operations at Verizon…
Passikoff: Marketing’s Haunted House
There’s an old joke that goes, “I had a nightmare I was at work. Then I woke up.…
October 20, 2025
POV: How Webex Is Rewriting the CX Playbook for the AI Era
From Service Function to Growth Engine In the final quarter of 2025, the customer experience landscape looks fundamentally…
When Research Finally Meets Reality
What SightX and ZS Are Really Solving Insights professionals are skeptics by design. When your work is picked…
Passikoff: The Loyalty Code
In 2025, loyalty isn’t earned once and stored away. C’mon, this isn’t 1983! A little reality check, huh?…
Why Product Experience Is Becoming Retail’s Most Valuable Currency
The retail industry stands at a critical inflection point. Once defined by supply chains and store shelves, today’s…
Passikoff: The Venn of Loyalty
I want to talk about marketer-types who revere/use/misuse/ignore/are-just-plain-stupid-about loyalty. I thought I’d use a visual tool to catalogue…
The Paradox of CX: Why Cost-Cutting Technology Initiatives Often Backfire
CX as a Battleground, Not a Back Office Function For more than a decade, leaders have repeated a…
Do Consumer Expectations Even Matter?
Every brand executive will tell you that they are “committed to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.” It’s the…
Changing the Conversation Around the Passenger Experience
How conversational AI is improving traveller communications in aviation As is the case in many industries, airlines and…
Is It Time for CustomerOps?
Think about how much customer expectations have changed in the past few years. It’s not just that people…
Passikoff: Put the Research Down Before You Hurt Somebody
Doing do-it-yourself is hot. DIY projects have surged nearly 22% over the past five years. It makes sense…
Why Emotional Intelligence Still Wins in the Age of AI
A Conversation with Mike Lytle, CEO of TP USA In a world racing toward full-on AI everything, the most…
Designing AI for Emotion – Why AI Needs to Feel Human, Not Just Sound Smart
Welcome to Part 4 of our series on AI and human behavior. We’ve talked about behavioral shifts, personalization…
Personalization Psychology – When AI Knows You Too Well
Welcome to the second installment in our series on how AI is reshaping human behavior. If Part 1…
When Brands Carry the Flag – What the 2025 Brand Keys Survey Really Tells Us About American Patriotism
In a year where everything seems political – and almost nothing feels unifying – consumers are still rallying…
CX Success Starts at the Source
Customer expectations are rising in every sector, and brick-and-mortar retail is no exception. In today’s market, shoppers have…
June 9, 2025
The Store Is Still the Core—But Retail Tech Is Cracking Under Pressure
Retailers have made their bet. Despite e-commerce growth and economic turbulence, they are doubling down on physical stores…
The Emotional P&L of Food Delivery
It turns out that food delivery’s bottom line is less about speed and more about trust. Food delivery…
Peak Immersion: The Science Behind Engaged Store Associates
Editor’s Note: I had been anticipating this conversation with Aptos‘ Nikki Baird for some time – mostly based…
Human Experience Excellence: A Transformation Story
The Power of Integrated Experience Management Organizations create magnificent individual experiences while simultaneously sabotaging their overall impact. The…
This Earth Day, Fast Fashion Faces a Reckoning
Forever 21 was once the crown jewel of fast fashion—celebrated for its trend-chasing, affordability, and the thrill of…
AI and the New Retail Standard: What Shoppers Now Expect and How Retailers Must Respond
Based on a Q&A with Ed Durbin, VP & GM of Global Industry Strategy for Retail and Consumer…
March 26, 2025
Loyalty Programs That Actually Work: A SAP CX Perspective
What Today’s Loyalty Programs Get Right—and Where They’re Still Falling Short Loyalty isn’t what it used to be—and…
