Today’s episode of the Punk CX podcast is with Deborah Honig, Chief Customer Officer at Samsung UK & Ireland. Deborah joins me today to talk about shifting Samsung’s UK & Ireland business from innovation-led storytelling to service-led experiences, the servitization process, how they are building AI into their products, how they are building trust with customers to fuel adoption, how customers are reacting to that and what’s next for Samsung and their move towards service-led experiences. Given that Deborah is deeply immersed in this space, we finish off with the trends and things she expects to see/emerge in the coming 12 months, her best advice for brands wanting to build standout customer experiences, her Punk CX brand, and her very own good news story.

This interview follows on from my recent interview – Automate problems, not just symptoms – Interview with Nick Clark of BCG – and is number 570 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 Deborah:

• Strategic Servitization: Samsung is executing a fundamental shift from product-led innovation to a service-led experience model, actively complementing their R&D power by focusing on delivering holistic customer outcomes (servitization).
• The “Customer-Back” Mandate: Development is driven by working backwards from the customer’s “lived reality,” prioritising tangible “benefit-led outcomes” (e.g., lower energy bills) over simply marketing “techs and specs.”
• CX Goal: Eliminate Decision Overload: A core objective is to utilise connected technology and AI to simplify the “huge burden” of small, everyday tasks that lead to stress and mental fatigue, effectively giving customers back time and headspace.
• AI as an Enabler, Not an End: AI is strictly treated as a technology layer—or “tech we use to deliver the outcomes”—to enhance core product functionality and the customer-centric mission, explicitly rejecting the approach of “AI for AI’s sake.”
• Democratisation of Intelligence: To ensure “AI for all,” new intelligent features are infused across the entire product portfolio, not reserved for premium tiers, broadening access across diverse price points and addressing various accessibility challenges.
• Building Trust Through Choice: Adoption is secured by prioritising transparency and user choice, including allowing customers to opt-in to AI features and providing options for on-device processing to address growing data privacy and trust concerns.
• Longevity as a Value Metric: In an environment of high cost of living, product value is extended beyond the initial purchase price through enhanced quality, longevity, and continuous improvement via software upgrades, not solely through new hardware cycles.
• Ecosystem Partnerships: Strategic, value-extending partnerships (e.g., with British Gas for a “weekend saver” energy tariff) are essential to move beyond the limitations of a single product and address major, multi-industry customer pain points.
• Open Architecture Imperative: The SmartThings platform provides an open ecosystem that facilitates easy connectivity between Samsung and third-party products, recognising the reality that customers’ homes use multiple brands and that the experience must be simple for non-tech-savvy users.
• The Disciplined “Why” Test: The single most important CX discipline is maintaining a relentless organizational scrutiny over every new feature with the question: “Why does it matter? Does it move the needle for the customer?” to avoid getting carried away by the latest technology hype.
• Deborah’s best advice: If what you are doing is not improving something and delivering value to the customer, then don’t do it.
• Deborah’s Punk CX brand(s): Bodyform, Lego.

About Deborah

Deborah serves as the Chief Customer Officer, Samsung UK & Ireland, focusing on delivering and innovating customer-first experiences across Samsung’s offerings and channels. In her role, she brings the brand and product technology together in a way that helps customers maximise their tech and their relationship with Samsung. She champions inclusivity at Samsung and believes its workforce should mirror its diverse customer base.

Deborah joined Samsung UK in 2024, with extensive global experience at an executive level and a track record of success in building high-performing teams, delivering innovation and growth across numerous consumer-facing sectors at some of the world’s most beloved brands, including Nike, Amazon, M&S, and Starbucks.

Throughout her 25+ year career, she has been involved in developing brands and customer propositions, creating corporate strategies and partnerships, building retail businesses and omnichannel organisations, and leveraging data and technology to transform how businesses meet the needs of their customers.

Check out Samsung UK & Ireland, say Hi to them on X (Twitter) and Instagram @samsunguk and @samsunguk respectively, and feel free to connect with Deborah on LinkedIn here.

Credit: Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash