The Modern Customer Podcast

Missed calls lead to customer frustration and lost revenue. Voice AI changes this. With voice AI, these missed opportunities can be transformed  into meaningful conversations that build loyalty and drive growth. On the latest The Modern Customer Podcast, I had a conversation with @Carson Hostetter, EVP & GM of AI + CX at @RingCentral, about how companies are using voice AI to: ✅ Replace outdated IVR menus with human-like dialogue ✅ Protect revenue by ensuring no call is missed ✅ Turn conversations into proactive customer service and business growth   Carson knows the stakes. As RingCentral’s former CRO, he helped grow ARR from $1.4B to $2.4B and scaled its enterprise business from $5M to $500M. Now, he’s applying that same growth mindset to AI. 👉 Listen to the full episode and discover how companies are already turning calls into ROI with voice AI. This episode of The Modern Customer Podcast is sponsored by RingCentral. 📌 Learn more about RingCentral's AI Receptionist → https://www.ringcentral.com/air?BMID=CMRCXINMBM2025 See how they’re doing it in these customer success stories → https://www.ringcentral.com/whyringcentral/casestudies.html?BMID=CMRCXINMBM2025 Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

AI adoption is accelerating — and customer expectations are rising just as fast. Enterprises that lead in customer experience will be the ones that scale agentic AI across voice, video, digital, and chatbot channels — without losing accuracy, compliance, or trust. In this sponsored episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I speak with Rishi Rana, CEO of Cyara, about how Cyara’s AI-powered customer experience assurance platform helps enterprises continuously test, monitor, and validate every interaction before it reaches the customer. We cover: ✅ How to scale AI without sacrificing trust ✅ Building guardrails for compliance and transparency from day one ✅ Preventing silent failures that cost millions 🎧 Listen now to learn how leading enterprises deploy agentic AI at scale with confidence. Learn more: https://cyara.com/   Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, I sit down with Jeff Gelfuso, Chief Design Officer at Qualtrics, to discuss his People → Purpose → Products framework—a human‑first approach to customer experience that fosters loyalty, trust, and measurable results. Jeff shares how Qualtrics is transforming feedback with AI‑powered conversations that increase response rates by 10% and deliver twice the depth of insight, and why building trust is the foundation for lasting adoption of new technology. 🎧 Tune in for an inspiring conversation on designing experiences your customers will value for years to come. Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

What does it take to build a brand that earns loyalty across generations? Crayola is more than crayons—it’s a creative ecosystem built on emotional insight, personalization, and purposeful storytelling. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Victoria Lozano, Crayola’s Chief Marketing Officer, shares how her team designs meaningful experiences across every touchpoint. 📌 Highlights from the episode: A campaign powered by emotional insight—91% of parents use color to influence their child’s mood Crayola’s award-winning Create and Play app and its role in personalization How the brand connects across generations through in-store, digital, and experiential strategies Why adult creativity and purpose-driven storytelling are key to the future of CX 🎧 Tune in to hear how Crayola transforms emotion into experience—and experience into loyalty.   Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Verizon’s customer experience transformation started with a clear priority: listen to employees, study the data, and rebuild from the inside out. On this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I’m joined by Brian Higgins, Chief Customer Experience Officer for Verizon Consumer. With more than two decades at Verizon, Brian has led everything from network operations to product and marketing. Today he’s leading Project 624, the company’s largest customer experience transformation yet. In this episode, we cover: ✔️ Why Verizon focused AI on employee pain points first ✔️ How they analyzed the root causes of churn and sales drop-off ✔️ The strategy behind opening 400+ new retail stores ✔️ Why they created a Customer Champion team to resolve long-tail service issues ✔️ How data, EX, and AI fuel continuous CX transformation This episode is packed with takeaways for CX leaders navigating AI, change management, and complexity at scale. Brian’s approach is smart, grounded, and refreshingly tactical. 🎧 Tune in now and share it with your team!   Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

How do you modernize customer experience in a legacy industry without losing the trust it was built on? That’s the challenge Allison Landers, Chief Experience Officer of Banking and Lending at UBS, is solving every day. In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Allison shares how UBS is scaling digital banking while preserving the high-touch service clients expect—and why CX is not just about delight. It’s about protecting relationships and earning loyalty at every step. Inside the episode: Why UBS expanded into credit cards and mortgages How journey mapping helps fix what matters most What it takes to lead CX across legacy systems and siloed teams Why modern CX leaders must be relentless operators—not just visionaries This is a must-listen for CX leaders navigating complexity, scale, and rising expectations. Listen now! Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Canva has over 230 million users. Their AI features? Used more than 16 billion times in the past year. So how does a company at that scale keep customer experience simple, human, and aligned? I sat down with Rob Gilio, Chief Customer Officer at Canva, to unpack how they’re scaling CX, sales, and support—without losing their design-driven soul. We talked about: The “bow tie” framework Canva uses to align teams across the full journey Why background remover became their most-used AI feature—and how business users deploy it at scale How Canva blends product-led growth with real human support across global teams Why CXOs must own post-purchase if they want to unlock enterprise value If you're rethinking how to scale CX with AI, data, and design in a high-growth business—this one’s for you. 🎧 Listen to the episode now!   Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

What happens to companies that still treat CX as a competitive edge instead of the core of their business? Customer experience isn’t a department anymore. It’s a discipline that drives everything: marketing, product, tech, and service. In this solo episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I zoom out to give CX leaders a clear view of where we’re headed and the five trends you need to act on now: Generative AI is going from hype to help Personalization is really growing up Trust is the new currency  Employee experience equals customer experience  Speed to value is everything AI is changing the game, but not because it’s shiny and new. It’s solving real problems, accelerating decisions, and delivering better experiences across the board. 🎧 Listen now to get ahead of what’s next! Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

What does it take to deliver human-centered customer experience across nearly 200 resorts and 22,000+ employees? On this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I’m joined by Derek De Salvia, Chief Customer Officer and EVP at Hilton Grand Vacations. Derek leads the company’s global CX strategy and brings a practical, people-first lens to metrics, personalization, and leadership at scale. We talk about moving beyond NPS, using real-time feedback to drive smarter decisions, applying AI to elevate both guest and employee experience, and staying meaningfully connected to the frontline. Ready to see what future-ready CX leadership really looks like? Hit play to hear how Hilton Grand Vacations is using data, AI, and frontline insight to stay ahead. This episode is sponsored by SCAYLE, the flexible and scalable eCommerce platform built to grow enterprise brands pain-free.  Visit www.scayle.com to learn more Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. 

Ever wonder what half a billion minutes of AI-powered customer service actually sounds like?  On the latest Modern Customer Podcast, I chat with Benjamin Gleitzman, CTO & Co-founder of Replicant. We dive deep into how their enterprise-grade AI is transforming customer service, moving beyond frustrating IVRs to deliver full-call resolution for even the most complex issues. This AI doesn't just sound natural; it thinks on its feet, adapts in real time, and helps customers solve complex problems. It’s set up to handle an emergency roadside service scenario, just like the Replicant AI agents that have automated millions of calls for North America’s largest roadside assistance providers. Learn why this is a "now or never" moment for voice automation, and how AI can drive massive cost savings while boosting customer satisfaction. We tackle everything from empathy to human + AI handoffs! This episode is sponsored by Replicant. Ready to experience it yourself? You can talk to Replicant's AI agent right now: 👉 www.replicant.com/showcase Don't miss this insightful conversation! Tune in now! Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of three books on customer experience. Her new book is called The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules for Building A Business Around Today’s Customer. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here.