Today’s episode of the Punk CX podcast features Chris Koehler, the Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio. We discuss Twilio’s recently published State of Customer Engagement Report, how many brands are using AI to personalise experiences and the impact they are seeing as a result, customer concerns about the use of their data, the rise of first-party data strategies, how increasingly customers want control over their personalisation settings, whether we are witnessing a convergence of marketing, sales, and customer service teams, data sharing and collaboration, and finally, why executives need to step out of their “ivory towers.”

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Closing the CX chasm – Interview with Jamie Anderson of UserTesting – and is number 557 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Here are the highlights of my chat with Chris:

• There’s a persistent disconnect between brands and consumers regarding customer understanding, despite brands’ belief that AI is improving customer-facing operations and personalization.
• While 96% of companies globally say AI is improving customer-facing operations, 45% of consumers still feel brands don’t understand them.
• AI-powered personalization is driving improved revenue, with 56% of brands globally reporting they are using AI to tailor experiences, and that is leading to increased customer spend for 75% of them.
• Trust in brands is rising but remains fragile; 90% of consumers trust at least some brands, but only 15% absolutely trust them.
• Consumers desire control over their personalization settings (84%), and about half (54%) want to know if they are interacting with AI or a human.
• AI is being used across various industries to tailor experiences, such as AI-powered assistance in financial services, product recommendations in retail, virtual concierges in travel, and symptom triaging in healthcare.
• We are seeing a shift taking place from reactive customer engagement to proactive anticipation of customer needs, with the aim of creating “magical moments.”
• It’s crucial to focus on solving problems and envisioning desired experiences, then working backward to select the right tools and data, rather than starting with a tool and looking for applications.
• AI is acting as a “forcing function” to break down data silos within organizations, prompting sales, marketing, and service teams to share data for a unified customer view.
• A major concern is that AI could lead to even more fragmented customer experiences if data isn’t shared across departments, replicating existing organizational silos.
• Executives need to “get out of their ivory towers” and engage directly with customers and employees to understand their experiences and gather unfiltered feedback.
• Direct conversations with customers provide qualitative data and compelling stories that quantitative surveys often miss, fostering a deeper understanding and pride within the company.
• Champion brands, like Chelsea Football Club and Octopus Energy (Kraken), are leveraging technology, including AI, to engage vast global audiences and create great customer experiences.
• The future of personalization may involve biometric data, raising new ethical considerations around data privacy and the balance between utility and “creepiness.”
• Chris’s best advice: You need to have a keen understanding of your customer. Not just the static traits, but the really behavioral data. You need to break down the silos. Embrace AI. Be willing to take risks, be willing to fail because we’re all going to do it, but be willing to actually take the risk.
• Chris’s Punk CX brand: Workday (and their Rockstar campaign), Liquid Death, innocent drinks, and Brewdog.

About Chris

Chris Koehler is Chief Marketing Officer at Twilio. He is responsible for the company’s global marketing strategy. Previously, Chris was the CMO of Box, Inc. Prior to Box, Chris spent more than 25+ years leading Marketing, Customer Success, Solution Consulting, Demand Generation and Enablement teams at Adobe Systems, E*TRADE Financial, SunTrust Bank, and Claritas.

He holds a B.S. in Marketing from George Mason University, an MBA from Georgia State University, and was a graduate of the Harvard Business Analytics Executive Education Program.

Check out Twilio, and their recently published State of Customer Engagement Report. Say Hi to them on X (Twitter) @Twilio, and feel free to connect with Chris on LinkedIn here.

Credit: Photo by Octavian-Dan Craciun on Unsplash