CX Insights
QA: Helpful, but not scalable, and not happening
A new study finds that most customer support conversations are never quality reviewed - 37.4% of agents report that fewer than 10% of their interactions get any quality assurance. However, agents overwhelmingly report the feedback is useful when they do get it. One-one-one coaching sessions are the most helpful… and least scalable. Most new agents learn by shadowing experienced agents, but the training falters when new agents have unpredictable live problems to address.
In my six months in a call center, I never had a formal QA process - managers would give ad hoc feedback when they helped us with escalated tickets. Our metrics were AHT, CSAT, and one we had basically no control over - the number of incoming calls we took relative to the team average.
Tools like AI for Reps can help provide context to give reps the confidence they need to handle less common situations. And as we automate more in CX, we can use that free time from routine conversations to reinvest in agent coaching and QA. They’ll need it as the intensity of their work increases, handling a larger share of more sensitive and escalated conversations.
Starbucks’ CX reinvestment - paying off?
In Starbucks’s annual shareholder meeting, it reported it has invested $500 million in “hours and tools” to improve accuracy and connection and is upgrading the experience in its physical locations with over 1,000 expected to be done by the end of FY26. The company is also planning behind-the-scenes changes to bring a more consistent experience to its Licensed Coffeehouse locations, such as those in grocery stores and airports, with order-ahead options.
My town’s Starbucks got one of these coffeehouse upgrades and was closed for a bit during renovations, but I have not checked it out lately - maybe it’s time I go see if the experience is any better than before.
Stop drowning in CX data
Here's a familiar scenario for many CX leaders. It's Monday morning, and your CSAT score dropped over the weekend. Handle time is up. You open your dashboard, and the numbers are all right there, neatly arranged and clearly labeled. But you still have no idea what happened - or what to do about it.
This is the quiet crisis at the center of modern customer experience operations. CX teams have more data than ever before, and yet the gap between having data and acting on it has never been wider. The problem isn't measurement. It's meaning. And if you've ever stared at a spiking metric while your support queue kept climbing, you already know exactly what that gap costs…
Tune In
Join us for the Spring Kustomer Quarterly to see how Kustomer is becoming a truly intelligent CX platform. This spring, we’re introducing powerful new AI capabilities that reason dynamically, act with precision, connect to your systems, and continuously improve performance.
At the center is AI for Customers 2.0, powered by a new AI Reasoning Engine. By combining structured, rules-based logic with intelligent intent assessment, it delivers automation that is adaptable, reliable, and built for real-world complexity. You get the flexibility of AI with the control your operations demand. We’re also expanding Kustomer AI beyond our platform, so you can bring advanced AI capabilities into any help desk environment.
It’s all happening Thursday April 2 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET.
AI Headlines
As AI Agents Enter Customer Journeys, Enterprises Must Rethink Fraud and Identity. AI tools are becoming capable of bypassing or manipulating tech like device fingerprinting, voice authentication, and document verification - things that used to be core to digital security. Coupled with the rise of good actors using AI to conduct legitimate transactions on their behalf, CX leaders and organizations need to stay ahead of the curve here.
Axios’s fourth AI+DC Summit has covered many topics, including the new wave of the AI economy. Tune in for interviews with Representative Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) and Washington, D.C. chief technology officer Stephen Miller on what’s shaping the new AI economy.
The CTO of Gap shared at Shoptalk how the company is leaning in to AI for the online shopping experience. Their goal is to use AI to help customers feel confident about product fit and to streamline discovery and purchasing.
CX-ready AI: Advice from real-world rollouts. The chief customer experience officer at UKG has three principles: customers must be at the center of however AI is used, focus on nurturing personal and proactive relationships, and AI should leave customers feeling confident in the response it offers.
Notch lands $30 million Series A to automate customer experience with AI agents. The company was founded in 2021 and aims to serve the highly-regulated insurance and finance industries.
