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232: Is the AI CX Broken? · Customer Service Revolution | Customer Experience & Employee Experience for Business Leaders

• 0:53
  Hello, listeners.
• 0:54
  Welcome back to the Customer Service Revolution podcast.
• 0:57
  I'm your co-host, Denise Thompson, and today we're talking about a new Wall Street Journal intelligence report that every business leader should be paying attention to.
• 1:06
  According to their research with Code and Theory, 93 % of C-suite executives say their customer experience is broken, even though 94 % of them say CX
• 1:18
  directly contributes to their business success.
• 1:20
  But what's really interesting is the focus of the report, it's all about AI.
• 1:25
  So the study titled the experience gap, AI's imminent impact on CX, found that while executives are chasing AI driven efficiency, most are failing to harness its potential to
• 1:37
  truly reshape customer relationships.
• 1:40
  Only 28 % of leaders say they're using AI to create innovative or adaptive experiences.
• 1:46
  The rest, well, still struggling to bridge the gap between what technology can do and what customers feel.
• 1:52
  So joining me today, the founder of the DiJulius Group, author of the Customer Service Revolution, and one of the leading voices on world-class experience, our own Chief
• 2:02
  Revolution Officer, John DiJulius.
• 2:04
  Good to see you, John.
• 2:06
  Hello, good to be seen.
• 2:08
  Hey John, when you first saw that 93 % of leaders say their customer experience is broken, what went through your mind?
• 2:15
  That was high, higher than I would expect.
• 2:18
  Yeah.
• 2:19
  Did they define broken?
• 2:20
  Well, as it relates to AI, as it turns out.
• 2:23
  I think AI is in its infancy.
• 2:26
  I still think it's in diapers.
• 2:27
  you know, I mean, unless you're one of the Fortune 500 companies that can be a pioneer, think, you know, being a pioneer in this AI race is dangerous.
• 2:39
  Because I think it's, you know, like the first
• 2:42
  know, we've been chat bots have been around for 10 years and they were so bad for so long.
• 2:47
  They're just starting to be.
• 2:49
  So if you would have rushed 10 years ago, and a lot of people did to install chat bots, that just pissed off your customers because of how bad it was.
• 2:58
  So I think you just got to, we got to pump the brakes a little bit.
• 3:01
  There's a lot of layers.
• 3:03
  I think there's a lot of great things that AI is doing.
• 3:07
  think using the chat GPT and, you know,
• 3:11
  having that for a lot of things depending on your business.
• 3:14
  I don't know, I'm probably getting ahead of myself here, but the issue with AI is there's a lot of layers to it.
• 3:20
  You have to have your CRM system, whether you use HubSpot or Salesforce or all the other things.
• 3:26
  And so they have an AI component, but then there's other AI things that you layer on.
• 3:30
  And right now they're not communicating well.
• 3:34
  And so you have a lot of glitches and problems and it's not doing what it was supposed to do or be promised.
• 3:41
  And I don't think any customer gets excited that you're automating an interaction for them.
• 3:48
  So AI is not a, to a customer is not a competitive advantage.
• 3:52
  But I'm all AI.
• 3:53
  I love AI.
• 3:54
  don't want it to sound like it.
• 3:55
  I just think that we just have to know, crawl, walk and run with it.
• 4:00
  If we don't want to be the, know, eaten alive and be the beta test for so many companies, wait and let the kinks be worked out and utilize it where you can for some self-service
• 4:13
  things.
• 4:14
  So one of the things the article talked about was leaders using it more for efficiency.
• 4:19
  Why do you think they're chasing AI for efficiency but missing the opportunity to use it for emotional connection?
• 4:28
  Well, I think we get ahead of our skis and we get so excited that, you know, it can reduce payroll.
• 4:34
  And listen, that excites me too, that, you know, as we grow, I won't have to add the same number of people per million dollars that we've had in the past.
• 4:45
  That's great.
• 4:46
  As long as it doesn't come at the cost of the customer experience and
• 4:52
  that people can still get a human being.
• 4:54
  There is, I forget now, because we've talked about it and I've written about it, there's one company, maybe Klarna, that got rid of all 700 of their customer service reps 18
• 5:06
  months ago because of AI.
• 5:08
  And they didn't need them.
• 5:10
  then a year later after that, they had to rehire a significant portion because it was a disaster.
• 5:17
  So I think people just get so excited because they see the potential savings of labor and efficiencies that they're not thinking it all the way through.
• 5:29
  So do you think part of the problem then is that companies are using AI to replace people instead of empowering them?
• 5:36
  Yeah, yeah, I think it will definitely 100 % replace employees, but you just can't go at a crazy scale.
• 5:45
  I think you have to crawl, walk, and run with it.
• 5:48
  so then it should allow for the employees, because AI really initially is to do tasks that
• 5:55
  aren't fun for the employees to do.
• 5:57
  A customer doesn't need an employee to do it.
• 6:01
  I always use the example of when my MacBook Pro has something wrong with it, that I can book an appointment on Apple's website within seconds, not minutes, seconds.
• 6:17
  I don't want to call an 800 number and...
• 6:19
  you know, the thought of being, you know, just being, you know, is not attractive to me.
• 6:24
  But then I want to speak to the genius when I go in and tell them, you know, and bore them with why I can't have this problem happening.
• 6:34
  But that transfer of pain, emptying my bucket onto an expert, there's something about that.
• 6:39
  That's, and then they act like, yes, you know, your computer is more important to you than anyone else.
• 6:45
  you know, makes me feel better and makes me feel like, you know, they understand the plight I'm going through.
• 6:51
  So I think, you know, racing to eliminate all that is where the mistake is made.
• 6:57
  So back to that.
• 6:58
  Now, the human interaction is going to be less often than it was and more critical that when I do have to speak to a human, I want them to empathize.
• 7:10
  I want them to wait.
• 7:11
  I want them to be patient.
• 7:12
  I want them to
• 7:14
  have some compassion and give me their expertise.
• 7:18
  Should leaders reframe the question of what can AI do to something more meaningful for their customers?
• 7:26
  Personalizing?
• 7:28
  If it can, and there are opportunities that it can personalize.
• 7:32
  should someday, and I think today it can recognize your number, if you're an existing client.
• 7:40
  So it can pop up and I know who I'm talking to and it can immediately populate your history.
• 7:47
  So I don't have to ask you those questions and I can...
• 7:51
  personalize it to you and it can show me what you've bought in the past or your most recent order or whatever it is that you're calling about and I can personalize that for
• 8:02
  it.
• 8:03
  So yeah, that's the whole benefit of AI, the other benefits of AI.
• 8:07
  And again, it depending on which processes and CRM and LMS you're using, where it gets complicated is when you have to get an additional
• 8:18
  application that gets layered over something like your HubSpot or Salesforce or any of the others, do they communicate well?
• 8:26
  But what they can do is they're listening to our conversation and it could tell me to slow down.
• 8:31
  It could tell me to show more empathy because of something you said, or it can...
• 8:37
  I don't know if I like this, but I've been told by AI companies,
• 8:42
  because they're trying to get in with us and our clients that our AI can collect Ford for you.
• 8:49
  Ford family, occupation, recreation and dreams.
• 8:52
  And I struggle with that.
• 8:53
  I like it, but then I feel like if I'm not paying attention to your Ford, I'm not gonna remember it.
• 9:00
  I'm just gonna blow by it.
• 9:01
  I'm not gonna hear your dog barking, the baby crying that you're going out of the country next week.
• 9:07
  You're celebrating.
• 9:08
  you know, or you're going to a funeral in your family or someone in your family is having surgery.
• 9:14
  Those are all things that I think we need to be paying attention to.
• 9:18
  So some of those things, yeah, it's nice.
• 9:20
  And as a backup, as long as I don't, you know, get lazy and think AI is going to catch at all and may, you know, populate in your serum system things I heard, you know, it heard.
• 9:31
  but those are some great advantages of AI that are very
• 9:34
  powerful.
• 9:35
  Yeah, but you miss out on building the relationship.
• 9:38
  And it's collecting it.
• 9:43
  So this I found really interesting.
• 9:44
  The report says that 76 % of executives feel behind on AI transformation.
• 9:49
  That doesn't surprise me.
• 9:51
  And 88 % say AI-driven personalization hasn't lived up to its promise.
• 9:56
  Here's what surprised me.
• 9:58
  The most telling part of it is that the barriers aren't technological.
• 10:02
  They're cultural and organizational.
• 10:04
  So why do you think culture continues to be the biggest obstacle in CX transformation?
• 10:09
  to say that again?
• 10:11
  So yeah, aren't technological.
• 10:16
  They're cultural and organizational.
• 10:18
  So the study lists leadership misalignment, creative talent shortages, organizational silos among the top challenges, and more than half of the respondents cite cultural
• 10:28
  dysfunction.
• 10:29
  Listen, AI is going to fix a lot of things and speed up a lot of things in positive ways, remove a lot of the minutia from both the client customer's work and the customer facing
• 10:44
  employee.
• 10:45
  But it doesn't change a culture.
• 10:47
  It doesn't replace it.
• 10:48
  there's an uncertainty going on with the
• 10:51
  employees.
• 10:52
  I just heard on a podcast this morning that Amazon's, I don't know if this is two years or five years, but their warehouses will have no employees in them, that they're all robots.
• 11:05
  And they're being more transparent about that.
• 11:10
  Now they're also talking about the jobs that will be created to do that.
• 11:15
  every
• 11:16
  revolution, uh technical revolution has replaced the frontline employee.
• 11:23
  Where we're bad at as a country and individual companies is retraining those employees for the next role.
• 11:32
  So, have to...
• 11:34
  So, the uncertainty that employees have is...
• 11:36
  am I going to have a job in six months or a year from now?
• 11:40
  And that's where a lot of culture problems come in.
• 11:44
  I'm not sure if that's answering the question you asked.
• 11:47
  Well, no, is.
• 11:48
  Culture is still an issue.
• 11:51
  although they're looking to improve things in AI and the reason that they're not doing, not implementing more things or innovating with AI has nothing to do with technology.
• 12:04
  It has to do with culture.
• 12:06
  So whether it's leaders.
• 12:09
  helps a culture other than if it provides better communication vehicles between leadership and employee.
• 12:16
  But that's even dangerous if it's being, you know, again, it's a digital communication tool and you don't get the human element of, you know, your boss talking to you and
• 12:28
  finding out that your aunt passed away.
• 12:30
  besides just educating you on what's next.
• 12:33
  So people want to invest in this.
• 12:35
  They know it's important to them, but they're not sure.
• 12:38
  how it's going to help if the culture is bad, right?
• 12:42
  So you deal with a lot uh of clients in a lot of different industries.
• 12:47
  If you had to pinpoint the root cause of broken customer experience, do you think it has anything to do with technology, lack of technology, or is it leadership or something
• 12:58
  deeper?
• 12:59
  ah It's all the above.
• 13:00
  mean, like, you know, even before AI working with clients that they don't have the proper technology CRM systems that track that, you know, if one department or location updates,
• 13:14
  you know, that should be, you know, updated when, you know, when I deal with another department in your organization, they have a lot of siloed, you know, CRM systems that
• 13:23
  don't communicate with one another.
• 13:25
  We're dealing with that with a resort that doesn't talk to each other, even though they're all under the same brand.
• 13:34
  So yeah, technology can be a hindrance.
• 13:37
  But I think what's really broken about customer experience is before you even
• 13:42
  bring in the AI is just the people skills, the lack of people skills, the relationship disadvantage, the new younger 30 and under have that isn't, it's no fault of their own,
• 13:53
  but it's not, they've only been raised on a digital device and they don't have the inherent people skills that they need.
• 13:59
  So that's not being taught at home.
• 14:01
  It's not being taught at school.
• 14:03
  So companies have to teach it in their training orientation, onboarding and ongoing.
• 14:09
  I think that's the
• 14:09
  biggest place, customer experience, CX is broken.
• 14:14
  And then rushing to think AI is the, know, solve for all of this is a mistake.
• 14:22
  AI has great opportunities to make you more efficient if you, you know, pick it in the right place and crawl, walk, and run with it.
• 14:31
  The report talks about a disconnect between what AI can do and what companies are actually delivering.
• 14:38
  They call it the experience gap.
• 14:40
  It also says only 44 % of leaders have an advanced understanding of AI's emotional potential.
• 14:51
  So AI's ability to read customer emotions, show empathy.
• 14:57
  How important do you think it is for emotional intelligence to be part of the customer experience?
• 15:04
  Yeah, so there's critically important and there's two roles it plays is one when I'm dealing with an automated system chat bot agent that's not a human being that it, I guess
• 15:16
  it has, you know, it's not rough and short and that, and then it's also the one we talked about earlier where it then can coach a live agent in a human interaction.
• 15:28
  on key phrases that someone's saying or terms or words they're using that maybe the human being isn't picking up on to slow down, to show more empathy, that I'm having, they're
• 15:40
  sensing a lack of patience in the agent's voice.
• 15:44
  And something else that came up recently, which I don't know why, it never dawned on me before, maybe it has, and it just was,
• 15:51
  reminded, but you know how one of our never's and always that we teach is never show frustration publicly and be a duck.
• 15:58
  A duck is the beautiful duck gliding across the water and no one sees or knows as it's paddling like hell underneath.
• 16:04
  And whenever I get into the examples of different business models, I usually show it as physical frustration that, you know, you're stressed out over the last call, you're
• 16:15
  you're impatient, everyone knows that John's having a bad day because the way he's walking through the office or the salon or whatever business model it is, and you can't make your
• 16:26
  next customer pay for the interaction you had at home, on the way to work, or the customer from hell.
• 16:33
  But something that came up is the frustrations displayed in tone of voice.
• 16:37
  That I'm a little irritated with.
• 16:40
  you know, that you're asking the same question again.
• 16:43
  And I kind of answered that, or to me, I think I answered it.
• 16:47
  so, you know, showing frustration, the tone of voice is so important.
• 16:52
  And we get that all the time that this person's getting a little curt or frustrated or that, and that's hopefully what AI can help.
• 17:01
  But it all depends on the employee.
• 17:03
  AI can't be the only reason, you know, like, you know, we have to train the employee on.
• 17:07
  the why.
• 17:08
  Otherwise, the employee is going to ignore the coaching from AI.
• 17:13
  But I also know AI can give that employee a grade for that call.
• 17:18
  And that will be powerful.
• 17:20
  Have you seen that in action?
• 17:21
  not personally.
• 17:23
  I've been told it does it again, everyone and their brothers contacting us to, tell us all the bells and whistles that AI can do for our clients.
• 17:32
  So I've been told that can do that.
• 17:34
  Now I know like one of our clients, New Day USA for the last 10, 15 years, they have a quality, quality insurance.
• 17:42
  staff that listens to calls and grades it.
• 17:46
  Now they aren't going to have to do that because AI can do that for them.
• 17:51
  So that's where it eliminates people.
• 17:53
  And that has nothing to with human interaction, right?
• 17:56
  That's automating something, tasks.
• 17:59
  That's not productive and cost effective to have employees listening to every call and giving someone a grade if AI can do it.
• 18:10
  as effective in seconds.
• 18:12
  Hmm.
• 18:12
  So.
• 18:13
  I'm just thinking about this.
• 18:14
  You've often said that people don't stay loyal because you're efficient.
• 18:17
  They stay because you make them feel something, right?
• 18:21
  Does it go both ways?
• 18:22
  What about the employees?
• 18:24
  If you're being graded by AI versus, or you're being coached by AI versus being coached by a human being.
• 18:32
  Does that erode anything?
• 18:33
  Well, it depends on what else you're giving them.
• 18:35
  But I do think accountability is important and whether, you know, an employee, a manager is, you know, micromanaging you or, or, know, the positive of that of saying, you know,
• 18:46
  Denise, you need to slow down.
• 18:47
  your retention rates aren't where they need to be.
• 18:51
  And one of the reasons why that we have found in our research is because of this, you know, lack empathy.
• 18:57
  You, you, you, you, you're not curious.
• 18:59
  don't.
• 19:00
  have good listening skills, blah, blah.
• 19:02
  I don't think it matters where that comes from.
• 19:04
  And you almost might trust AI more than you trust a person, right?
• 19:10
  Me telling you that, you're just like, well, you're picking on me.
• 19:12
  You never say that to Joyce and Cindy.
• 19:16
  You like them better.
• 19:17
  Where AI is, it might be appeared as more black and white, assuming it's accurate, assuming that it's accurate and it's grading you on.
• 19:26
  Now, it all goes back to what else are you getting from that job, that leader?
• 19:31
  hey, Denise, want you to, I think you have a big future here and I want to help you grow and become the senior whatever.
• 19:43
  But here's one of the things that you need to improve on.
• 19:47
  And this is the reporting we're getting.
• 19:48
  so I think it's how it's delivered.
• 19:51
  What do you say to leaders who fear that AI will make their company feel less human?
• 19:55
  that you can't rush to just implement.
• 19:58
  You gotta make sure it doesn't.
• 20:00
  I can't stress enough that AI can't eliminate the human experience.
• 20:04
  It has to supplement it.
• 20:06
  And when it does, I think it's great, because I think customers will enjoy not being stuck in voicemail maze and not have to wait what seems to be days for...
• 20:16
  someone to return their voicemail and get them an answer.
• 20:19
  And people want answers now.
• 20:21
  I've always said that Google and Amazon and all these great online e-commerce have ruined it for all of us.
• 20:30
  You so you might be a lawyer, you might be a salon, you might whatever your business and you're like, well, I don't compete with Google.
• 20:37
  You do because Google gives us instant answers.
• 20:41
  If you like, if you tell me about a book.
• 20:43
  that I should read, I could literally have it within 30 seconds on my phone or my iPad.
• 20:50
  mean, so that is, you but if you don't call me back for a wedding I'm planning.
• 20:56
  In 18 months?
• 20:57
  Now that seems, you you can call me back tomorrow on that.
• 21:01
  No, the anxiety, to-do list, it's the first one that calls me back.
• 21:05
  They'll probably get my business, right?
• 21:07
  Because that's being in the certainty business.
• 21:10
  I want to know how much that's going to cost.
• 21:11
  I want to get that booked.
• 21:13
  I want to get the flowers ordered.
• 21:15
  I just want that.
• 21:17
  And so, you know, that's where AI can be fantastic.
• 21:22
  in helping get answers to both sides, customers and the representative of the employee answers.
• 21:29
  The other thing that AI does is, can do is we're having a conversation.
• 21:34
  Let's use the De Julius group as an example.
• 21:37
  And I might be an employee that hasn't worked here for five, 10, 15 years.
• 21:41
  So I don't have the institutional knowledge of who our past clients are.
• 21:45
  and a client, a potential client calls up and says, have you ever worked with a bank?
• 21:50
  Have you ever worked in airport with airports, know, whatever the, you know, know, uncommon industries that have you ever worked in law enforcement?
• 21:59
  Well, there's a, an uncomfortable pregnant pause while someone tries to look up, it works for us.
• 22:05
  excuse me.
• 22:05
  AI can, can immediately spit out.
• 22:09
  Here's the banks we've worked with.
• 22:11
  Here's case studies we have.
• 22:13
  So there's not the pregnant pause.
• 22:15
  There's not where I feel a lack of credibility because I don't know the answer immediately.
• 22:21
  Now I can, and that can give you the answer quicker and send you whatever you're looking for.
• 22:27
  So those are all great benefits.
• 22:28
  So you can't allow it to replace the human interaction.
• 22:33
  there should always be an option in whatever channel I'm on, on the phone, on your website, your app, that I can speak to a human being when necessary.
• 22:44
  Yeah, I love that, being able to speak to a human when necessary.
• 22:48
  Hey, listeners, if this conversation is resonating with you, if you're realizing that your organization might have some cultural issues or experiencing your own experience gap,
• 22:58
  we've created something that can help.
• 23:00
  It's called the Experience Revolution Membership.
• 23:03
  This is a leadership platform designed to help companies fix the broken parts of their customer and employee experience.
• 23:10
  and put systems behind what makes them exceptional.
• 23:13
  Members get four live virtual workshops each year led by John and our VP of consulting, Dave Murray, plus access to replay every past episode and workbooks to go along with them.
• 23:25
  So it helps you implement what you learn.
• 23:28
  If you want to build a company where world-class becomes the standard, visit thedjuliusgroup.com forward slash membership to learn more and join.
• 23:37
  All right, let's get back to John.
• 23:38
  Let's talk about what leaders need to do next.
• 23:41
  Qualcomm's CMO in the report said something I loved.
• 23:45
  When you're integrating AI into your workflows, you have to take a human-centric approach.
• 23:51
  So you've been talking about human-centered leadership for decades.
• 23:55
  How does that translate into the AI era?
• 23:58
  Well, yeah, it's what think it's so hard to when you make decisions, you're thinking from the customer's vantage point and not the business's vantage point.
• 24:08
  It's easier for us if we make the customer jump through hoops.
• 24:13
  that's, so that's where AI can eliminate the hoops.
• 24:17
  And like you said, when someone or I said earlier, when someone calls, it immediately pulls up.
• 24:22
  based on their phone number, who they are and their existing client.
• 24:25
  And I just have to ask you a couple of quick questions to confirm that you are who you are versus going through the whole ball of wax.
• 24:33
  And then when I transfer you, if I'm not the one that can help you, it should transfer and you already got past the security features that you don't have to repeat all those again,
• 24:46
  which drives...
• 24:47
  people crazy.
• 24:48
  So I think you just have to constantly be thinking about what, know, this AI improvement has to improve the customer's experience as well, not just make it more efficient and more
• 25:01
  profitable for the business.
• 25:03
  You know, so you have to be looking at from the customer's vantage point, what did this just do?
• 25:08
  This new thing we've implemented to the customer's experience.
• 25:12
  Will it make it easier or harder?
• 25:13
  Will it get them stuck?
• 25:14
  Will they have to, know, ease of doing business, more steps, less steps.
• 25:19
  If it's less steps, everyone's going to love that.
• 25:21
  You know, Amazon's been doing it for decades.
• 25:23
  You know, I log on to Amazon.
• 25:25
  I don't have to put my password in, or if I do, it takes a second.
• 25:29
  It knows who I am.
• 25:30
  It knows where my shipping preferences, credit card preferences, all that.
• 25:34
  So all I have to do is find the product and, you know, click order and it's done.
• 25:39
  That's amazing.
• 25:40
  It is amazing.
• 25:41
  But I think AI is gonna allow more and more businesses to do that instead of just the top five businesses in the world to do that.
• 25:49
  Another quote in the report that stood out, this was by Dan Gardner from Code and Theory.
• 25:56
  the companies winning with AI aren't following best practices.
• 26:00
  They're inventing new categories of customer value.
• 26:03
  And they're doing this by connecting data, services, and experiences in ways that seemed impossible two years ago.
• 26:10
  So find the spaces where your customers are underserved, frustrated, or forced to cobble together solutions from multiple providers.
• 26:20
  Then use AI to own that.
• 26:22
  entire experience.
• 26:24
  The question isn't what can AI do?
• 26:26
  It's what only your brand can do with AI that no one else can.
• 26:31
  Yeah, without knowing specific examples, I'm sure there's plenty.
• 26:35
  I don't know what that looks like because I believe in the next two years, and I might be wrong and it might be sooner, but two years to definitely five years, AI is not going to
• 26:47
  be a competitive advantage.
• 26:49
  It's just going to be how to keep up because I think it's going to be so mainstream, so cost effective, then not today, that
• 26:57
  it's going to be like anything else.
• 27:00
  It's going to be like the internet.
• 27:01
  Like when the internet came out, that was revolutionary.
• 27:04
  You could have a website and your website, you now that's not a point of difference.
• 27:08
  That's a table stake.
• 27:10
  And if you don't have a website or your website isn't, you know, you know, a lot of the bells and whistles, you know, your products, locations, frequently asked questions, know,
• 27:21
  demos, all that.
• 27:22
  you're at a disadvantage.
• 27:24
  I'd love to know specifics, but I even think that's gonna be temporary.
• 27:30
  I've always said technological innovation is temporary.
• 27:34
  In the past, when it wasn't technological, you might have an advantage for an extended period of time, but you go to...
• 27:44
  Uber app and the Lyft app, they're the exact same.
• 27:48
  I mean, the exact same.
• 27:50
  Uber isn't better than Lyft app.
• 27:52
  And if you made them black and white, you wouldn't be able to the difference.
• 27:56
  any technological advancement is going to be copied immediately by the rivaling companies, vendors that I think is going to be the same for everyone.
• 28:08
  Technologically, you can't be different.
• 28:11
  You can only keep up.
• 28:12
  So what are you doing with your clients to help them with AI?
• 28:17
  Looking at where it can do tasks.
• 28:18
  So when you look at the customer journey and what are things that are operationally specific at this stage, what can be automated, taken off your employees thing that will
• 28:29
  make it better.
• 28:30
  It has to be a win-win, not only for us, the company, but for the customer that's easier for the customer to get.
• 28:39
  and it's removing repetitive tasks on both the employee and the customer.
• 28:44
  So there's so many things, checking into a hotel, right?
• 28:49
  The same thing happens at every hotel you go to.
• 28:51
  I gotta give my ID, my credit card, fill out this paperwork, get my room key, sign my data departure, and if I have a car and if I'm parking it with you and...
• 29:05
  and the room rate, right?
• 29:07
  You got to initial all those things.
• 29:09
  That can be done on the Uber drive from the airport on the app.
• 29:15
  And I could just maybe bypass the front desk because now my app opens my door.
• 29:22
  My app can give me a room that's 68 degrees and have ESPN on.
• 29:30
  Those are things I want when I walk into a room, a little bit of a chilled room with my channel on.
• 29:37
  Those are great.
• 29:39
  And those are things I don't need a human being for.
• 29:42
  I don't need a human being to give me my room key.
• 29:45
  that's just, it's the last step of your journey.
• 29:48
  And it's the one that frustrates me the most.
• 29:51
  Even though the plane and the luggage and the airport parking and security,
• 29:56
  I expect all that, but I finally get to my destination, even though it's five, 10 minutes, it's where I'm most annoyed that the person's taken too long in front of me or that just,
• 30:09
  I just want to go to my room and take a shower or go get a workout or go to sleep, whatever, you know, the, the, it is the next thing I need to do.
• 30:17
  And so that's where the, the AI is phenomenal.
• 30:21
  But now what?
• 30:22
  Yeah.
• 30:23
  having it set up so that you can walk in your room, have it the temperature you want, have the show on that you want.
• 30:30
  How do you ensure that AI becomes a tool for connection and not just convenience?
• 30:36
  Well, so it's that, and then now they should have the information at their disposal that welcomes me back or understands I've never been to that hotel in that property.
• 30:47
  And it's a different conversation.
• 30:50
  It's a different display.
• 30:51
  Welcome back, Mr.
• 30:54
  DiJulius.
• 30:55
  It's great to have you back.
• 30:57
  you know where our spa is, you know where our fitness center is, you know where our restaurants is, but should you need, you know, ask here or call down to the front desk
• 31:06
  and, you know, they'll be happy to help you versus a different personalization of, you know, we know you've never been to this property before.
• 31:15
  We'd be happy to, you know, give you a tour, you know, of where the gym is, where's, you know, the different types of restaurants we have, casual, fine dining.
• 31:25
  where our pool is, and the local hotspots are.
• 31:30
  But if you're bypassing the desk with your app.
• 31:33
  have to.
• 31:34
  Now, if I want to speak to someone, I can.
• 31:37
  But, yeah, go ahead, I'm sorry.
• 31:38
  No, I was just going to say if you're bypassing the desk because you have this app, so it's super convenient and I love that.
• 31:45
  But I think everything I just explained, the notification of welcome back, is all in the app or on my TV in the room.
• 31:52
  Okay.
• 31:52
  But you're still not connecting with a human then.
• 31:54
  No, not until I need to, but hopefully when that human, you know, I come up to a human, can welcome me back because it has me as a return guest.
• 32:04
  Or I understand this is your first time at our property.
• 32:06
  Have you ever been in Nashville before?
• 32:08
  Yeah, I've been in Nashville a hundred times, never to this property or no, I haven't.
• 32:13
  And that just triggers, you know, a different dialogue.
• 32:17
  If I've never been to this property, but I've been to your city.
• 32:21
  All right.
• 32:21
  talk to me more about the property.
• 32:23
  If I've never been to the city on top of never being to this property, ask me if I'm here for business or pleasure.
• 32:31
  Is there any things I'm looking for while I'm in this city that you can steer?
• 32:36
  So that's the personalization that AI can immediately tell them.
• 32:40
  Yeah, I see where housekeeping becomes really important, the people in that role in these kind of environments.
• 32:49
  if they know that, you know, from my past history at any of their Marriott's or Ritz Carlton's or Hilton's that I always eat peanut M &Ms out of their refrigerator or mini
• 33:06
  bar, or I don't know, Amstel, I'm not a beer drinker, so, but whatever, then.
• 33:13
  why not give me more PNM and M &Ms and Amstel in my mini bar than all the other things that I never have chosen before.
• 33:23
  Now you're only going to make more money and I'm going to be happy because that mini bar is personalized to me.
• 33:30
  Those are all things that AI can now educate the housekeeping on when she's refilling that or personalize it to the next guest.
• 33:39
  How do you see in the future AI affecting the customer service revolution?
• 33:46
  I mean, in all these ways.
• 33:47
  I think AI is huge, and it's going to be here forever.
• 33:52
  But it's also no different than when the internet came about and when social media came about.
• 33:57
  At first, they were game changers, and now they're table stakes.
• 34:03
  If you're not...
• 34:04
  you're not utilizing social media to promote your brand and educate that here's what we do and all those things that social media now does for brands, you're behind, you're not
• 34:18
  ahead.
• 34:19
  don't think when it gets to uh a mass adoption, it's not a differentiator anymore, it's keeping up.
• 34:29
  But the future is, and the current is, is making sure that your human experience is just amazing.
• 34:38
  Because we're going to, as humans, we already have significantly less human interactions than we had 20 years ago.
• 34:45
  And that's only going to go down.
• 34:47
  So when you do get a human being, it has to be an amazing experience.
• 34:52
  This is great, great.
• 34:53
  Thank you for the conversation, John.
• 34:55
  Yeah, and leaders, if you want to make sure AI enhances humanity instead of replacing it, listen to this one a couple of times and check out the article.
• 35:05
  I will have that attached in our show notes.
• 35:08
  If you enjoyed this episode, share it with another leader, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
• 35:13
  And if you're ready to transform your organization's customer and employee experience, visit
• 35:19
  thedejuliusgroup.com to learn more about our services.
• 35:23
  Until next time, keep changing the world by creating your own customer service revolution.
• 35:28
  Thanks, John.
• 35:29
  Thank you.
• 35:30
  Thank you, revolutionaries.