AI is taking over—well, at least some parts of customer service. But how do you know when to automate and when to stick with the good old-fashioned human touch? In this episode, we dive into one of the most crucial decisions organizations are making today: When should you use AI, and when do customers actually need a human?

Spoiler alert: If you let AI handle everything, you might save money—but you could also drive your customers straight to your competitors.

Best Quote from the Episode:

"You don’t want AI handling a $300 million defense contract. ‘Hello! I see you're interested in missile systems. Would you like fries with that?’"

Key Takeaways:

• AI Should Enhance, Not Replace – AI can automate routine interactions, but when emotions are high (like fraud issues or complaints), a human is still king.

• The Wrong Cost-Cutting Strategy Can Cost You More – AI might save money upfront, but if it frustrates customers, it can drive them away.

• Know Your Audience – Some customers love chatbots; others despise them. Testing is critical.

• Context Matters – A simple question like checking an account balance? AI can handle it. A frustrated customer dealing with a major issue? Bring in the humans.

• AI + Humans = The Winning Formula – Studies show AI-generated emails can be more empathetic than human ones (yes, really!), but the best approach is using AI to support human interactions, not replace them.

If you’re thinking about rolling out AI across your customer experience, stop and listen to this episode first. We break down the risks, the rewards, and how to make sure you don’t end up with a frustrated customer base ready to rage-tweet about you.

Resources Mentioned

Wall Street Journal Article: Turns Out AI Is More Empathetic Than Allstate’s Insurance Reps

https://www.wsj.com/articles/turns-out-ai-is-more-empathetic-than-allstates-insurance-reps-cf5f7c98?utm_source=chatgpt.com

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 284,000 followers and 86,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 1.5% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience, Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World’s Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called “The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things” Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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How happy are you when you buy auto insurance? If your answer is anything other than thrilled, you’re not alone. In fact, years ago, a UK insurance company tried to convince us otherwise with their tagline “Quote Me Happy.” Spoiler alert: Nobody was happy.

This raises a fascinating question: What role does advertising play in the customer experience, and why is there such a massive disconnect between the ads we see and what we actually get?

In this episode, Colin Shaw and Professor Ryan Hamilton dive deep into the Great Expectation Gap—and they’ve brought in a special guest: Ben Shaw, Chief Strategy Officer at MullenLowe (and, fun fact, Colin’s son). It turns out that years of heated Sunday lunch debates on advertising vs. CX have led to this moment! 🍽️

Together, they explore why marketing often sets unrealistic expectations, how brands can align advertising with reality, and why great advertising can only work if the customer experience delivers on the promise.

💡 Tune in to discover:
✅ Why customers feel frustrated when reality doesn’t match advertising promises
✅ The power of the word "BUT" in advertising and how it reveals hidden customer tensions
✅ The real reason marketing and CX teams aren’t on the same page—and how to fix it
✅ How Apple mastered the art of aligning advertising and customer experience
✅ Why spending more on advertising won’t solve a broken CX (no matter how creative the campaign is)

The Brand makes the promise in the Market, the Customer Experience should deliver against that promise. — Colin Shaw

Resources Mentioned

Ben Shaw LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benshawuk/

'Brand Ben' on Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@benshaw37?_t=ZN-8ujJORxL3SQ&_r=1

Mullen Lowe: https://www.mullenlowe.co.uk/

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 284,000 followers and 86,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 1.5% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience, Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World’s Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called “The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things” Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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#CustomerExperience #Marketing #Advertising #Branding #CX

Everyone’s talking about AI like it’s some kind of CX fairy godmother—“Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo! Your NPS just went up 50 points!”

Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work like that.

In this episode, Colin and Ryan are joined by Frederic Durand, CEO of Diabolocom, and Collin D. Ehret, Senior Enterprise Sales Director (yes, another Collin… brace yourself), for a no-fluff, practical, and slightly irreverent discussion about what it really takes to implement AI in your customer experience.

Diabolocom

Website: https://www.diabolocom.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/diabolocom/

Frederic Durand

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fpdurand/

Collin D. Ehret

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/collinehret/

This is a must-listen if you're wondering:

• Why most AI deployments stall before takeoff

• How to avoid drowning in customer data

• Why your silos are killing your CX

• And how AI can actually make your human interactions better

You’ll hear real-world examples, hard-earned insights, and maybe even a laugh or two (two Colins on one podcast—what could go wrong?).

“AI isn’t a magic wand. If your process is a mess, AI will just make it a faster, more expensive mess.”
— Frederic Durand, Diabolocom

• Start small, think big: The best AI implementations begin with narrow, clearly defined use cases—not a 3-year transformation plan with 47 KPIs.

• Data is your foundation: If your data isn’t clean, your AI won’t be either. Garbage in = garbage out, just faster and more confidently wrong.

• Break the silos: AI can’t fix your customer experience if Marketing, IT, and Customer Service are all playing in separate sandboxes.

• Empathy still wins: When AI takes care of the boring stuff, your humans can focus on being... well, human. And that’s what customers remember.

• Vendors should act like partners: Don’t buy tools. Build relationships with people who’ve seen the battlefield—and won.

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 284,000 followers and 86,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 1.5% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience, Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World’s Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called “The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things” Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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Eight years, 750,000 downloads, and 400 episodes later, The Intuitive Customer is celebrating this major milestone! In this episode, Colin Shaw and Professor Ryan Hamilton reflect on what has changed in customer experience over the years and share their biggest learnings.

• Podcasting is booming, with 546 million listeners worldwide.

• 47% of the U.S. population (12+) listens to a podcast at least once a month.

• Podcast ad spending is projected to hit $4.02 billion in 2024.

• But here’s the kicker:

• • 50% of podcasts die after three episodes.

  • Only 20% make it past 10 episodes.

  • Most don’t last three years.

💡 We are in the top 2% of all podcasts globally—thanks to you, our listeners!

Key Takeaways

“Customer experience isn’t just about the experience—it’s about the memory of the experience. People don’t remember every detail; they remember the peak and the end. If you’re not designing for memory, you’re missing a massive opportunity.”

Resources Mentioned

MasterClass Series: https://beyondphilosophy.com/why-customers-make-instant-decisions-and-how-to-effect-it/

Memory Mini-Series: https://beyondphilosophy.com/our-behavior-is-motivated-by-what-we-recall-so-how-are-memories-formed-memory-mini-series-1-3/

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 284,000 followers and 86,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 1.5% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience, Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World’s Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called “The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things” Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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Trust: it’s the glue that holds relationships together—both personal and professional. Yet, so many businesses get it wrong. In this special milestone episode (yes, 400 episodes!), Colin Shaw and Professor Ryan Hamilton break down why trust is the foundation of every great customer experience and, more importantly, how you can earn it, keep it, and leverage it to drive growth.

From sneaky fees that erode confidence to honesty that wins lifelong loyalty, we’re covering ten essential actions that will guarantee your customers trust you—and keep coming back. Plus, we share some eye-opening research on why people sometimes lie more when they actually like you (yes, really).

If you’re serious about customer experience, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss.

🎧 Listen now to discover:
✅ Why trust isn’t automatic—it has to be earned (and how to do it).
✅ The #1 mistake companies make that destroys trust instantly.
✅ How honesty—especially when things go wrong—can turn a crisis into a customer loyalty win.
✅ The psychology behind why people sometimes lie to be nice (and how this hurts customer relationships).
✅ Why overcommunication is your secret weapon for building long-term trust.

🔹 Best Quote from the Episode:
"Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets. You can do everything right for years, but one moment of dishonesty or poor communication can undo it all."

🚀 Key Takeaways:

• Customers can smell dishonesty a mile away—transparency and consistency are non-negotiable.

• Trust isn’t just about marketing or sales; it’s company-wide, from legal to customer support.

• Want to build customer loyalty? Own up to mistakes—your customers will trust you more, not less.

• The easiest way to build trust? Do what you say you’re going to do.

• People trust companies that communicate often, even when there’s no new update. Silence breeds doubt.

📢 Don’t just read about it—hear it for yourself! Tune in now and learn how to make trust your biggest competitive advantage.

About the Hosts:

Colin Shaw is a LinkedIn 'Top Voice' with a massive 284,000 followers and 86,000 subscribers to his 'Why Customers Buy' newsletter. Shaw is named one of the world's 'Top 150 Business Influencers' by LinkedIn. His company, Beyond Philosophy LLC, has been selected four times by the Financial Times as a top management consultancy. Shaw is co-host of the top 1.5% podcast 'The Intuitive Customer'—with over 600,000 downloads—and author of eight best-sellers on customer experience, Shaw is a sought-after keynote speaker. Follow Colin on LinkedIn.

Ryan Hamilton is a Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School and co-author of 'The Intuitive Customer' book. An award-winning teacher and researcher in consumer psychology, he has been named one of Poets & Quants' "World’s Best 40 B-School Profs Under 40." His research focuses on how brands, prices, and choice architecture influence shopper decision-making, and his findings have been published in top academic journals and covered by major media outlets like The New York Times and CNN. His work highlights how psychology can help firms better understand and serve their customers. Ryan has a new book launch in June 2025 called “The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things” Harvard Business Press Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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