Personalizing Customer Journeys

In an AI-first customer journey, shoppers start in ChatGPT—and, with the new Instant Checkout and the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), they don’t have to leave. This is Agentic Customer Experience (ACX): chat → consider → buy. What moves first: • Near term: “considered” specialty purchases shift to AI chat commerce—think bikes, strollers, mixers—where an agent can shortlist, explain trade-offs, and convert. • Longer term: commodity buys flip from search-led (Google/Amazon) to agent-led replenishment. Your assistant will keep you stocked and price-optimized. What doesn’t change (for specialty purchases): • Social discovery still sparks demand. • Brand still matters and earns trust and premium. What does change: • The front door to commerce becomes chat. • Storefronts become APIs. • The funnel compresses: intent, evaluation, and checkout collapse into one conversation. Implications for incumbents: Platforms around commerce, content management, personalization, analytics, and ads (Adobe, Salesforce, and more) will be re-architected for ACX. The surface area for differentiation shifts from page design to data, agents, and outcomes. Opportunities for founders: • Agent-native merchandising & attribution. • ACP connectors/adapters for major platforms; merchant tooling for offers, returns, identity, and fraud. • Product knowledge graphs & RAG for complex catalogs. • Compliance, safety, and brand controls for autonomous purchases. • Journey analytics for agentic flows (from prompt to purchase). ACX won’t kill commerce—but it will reroute the path to purchase for many brands.

Sampling is NO longer optional. With over 3,000 new launches annually only in fragrances, and Gen Z and Millennials, craving for experiences before commitment. Trying a products before buying is becoming a challenge for brands. +56% U.S. shoppers prefer to test a fragrance in-store before making a purchase. Gen Z and younger Millennials are driving the “Try Before You Buy” trend, often influenced by TikTok, YouTube reviews, and influencers. Sampling INCREASES brand recall by 30% and customer RETENTION by over 50%. >>FULLY Digital World<< As beauty shifts ONLINE, testers are the bridge between digital convenience and sensory experience. In e-commerce, where customers can’t test before buying, SAMPLE Kits and DISCOVERY Sets build the hype and boost conversions by 20–30%. Some Indie Brands have built entire models around SAMPLING, turning doubt into loyalty. For digital-native consumers, testers are how pixels become emotions. Also Digital PROFILERS, AI-powered tools are helping customers discover fragrances online without smelling them. >>Actionable TAKEAWAYS<< +Offer MINI formats → Sample sizes and discovery kits lower buyer resistance and encourage repeat purchases. +Create MULTI-sensory sampling experiences → Use in-store labs or AR tools to deepen customer engagement. +Leverage TESTERS in digital channels → Include samples in online orders or offer trial sets at checkout to reduce hesitation. +Use AI and personalization→ Recommend products based on user behavior and preferences for more accurate matches. +Align with SUSTAINABILITY values → Provide biodegradable packaging, refillable testers, and eco-conscious options. +Track KPIs → Measure conversion rates, return frequency, dwell time, and loyalty to optimize sampling impact. >>Regulatory LIMITS<< Sampling is effective, but free distribution is restricted in some countries due to safety, environmental, or cultural regulations, especially in the EU, Middle East, and parts of Asia, so: +Offer low-cost discovery sets online with redeemable value. +Bundle samples with orders. +Use sealed sample cards or scent-infused paper. +Implement virtual scent profiles using AI. The Outlook. As the global beauty market becomes more saturated, with over 3,000 new launches annually only in fragrances, brands that invest in innovative, strategic sampling programs will be the ones that truly cut through the noise. Find my curated search of examples and get ready for your next hit! Featured Brands: Boy Smells Dedcool Derek Lam D.S. & DURGA Dust & Glow KHUS+KHUS Maison Margiela RboW RetaW SMOKE X Neon Heart Scentery Tailor Made Essences UERMI Wild Rising Skincare White Zinfandel #beautyprofessionals #fragrancesprofessionals #luxuryprofessionals #beautybusiness #luxurybusiness #fragrancesbusiness

Here's how Raymond O. uses the journey as a principle to develop his customer-centric approach at Microsoft He’s turning the “journey” from a buzzword into the foundation for how teams work, align, and deliver value. 1️⃣ Lean Left Involve Customer Success and Experience before the sale. • Bring CS into the process early to anticipate customer needs. • Create proactive enablement instead of reactive support. • Break the “post-sales only” mindset. 2️⃣ Joint Operating Model Build a shared, journey-based framework that connects all functions. • Define clear milestones and stages in the customer journey. • Assign cross-functional ownership across Sales, CS, CX, and Product. • Involve customers directly through co-creation. • Keep collaboration focused—balanced representation in every interaction. 3️⃣ Journey as Glue Use the customer journey as the unifying thread across the business. • Replace siloed processes with one shared narrative. • Align teams on a single end-to-end view of the customer. • Drive consistent experiences from the first click to long-term adoption. 4️⃣ AI Augmentation Use AI to amplify, not replace, human expertise. • Automate repetitive and tactical tasks. • Surface actionable insights from connected data. • Empower teams to focus on strategic, high-value conversations. 5️⃣ Kumbaya Culture Cultural alignment is the foundation of the model. • Ensure leadership shares unified goals and OKRs. • Remove egos and departmental boundaries. • Keep focus on value creation and measurable outcomes. 6️⃣ Unified Workspace Create a single, real-time view of the journey for everyone. • Combine live customer data, AI signals, and journey metrics. • Give each stakeholder one source of truth. • Enable cross-team and cross-region collaboration. 7️⃣ Coach Mindset Empower people to act as journey coaches, not coordinators. • Blend strategy, relationship-building, and change leadership. • Foster continuous learning and humility. • Guide both customers and teams toward shared success. Customer journeys aren’t static maps they’re living systems. Data models if you will. When companies align people, data, and culture around them, the entire business becomes customer-shaped. Hear more from Raymond in the latest episode of The Experience Edge. I think he has some fantastic strategies for blending CX, CS and Ops.

Your CMO playbook still assumes customers visit your website. In reality, they’re increasingly buying inside conversations you don’t control and often can’t see. Platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI search, and Amazon’s Rufus are collapsing discovery, evaluation, and purchase into a single interaction. McKinsey projects agentic AI could influence $3–5 trillion in retail by 2030. Your customers aren’t browsing anymore. They’re delegating. And the brands that win will be the ones AI agents can find, understand, and transact with, without a single page load. Agentic commerce, where AI acts on behalf of the consumer, is already underway. Here’s the CMO playbook: 1. Treat AI agents as your new customer If your product data isn’t structured, you don’t exist. → Audit your catalog (schema, pricing, availability) → Ensure consistency across every channel agents pull from 2. Shift to personalization-as-conversation Segments are static. AI enables real-time interaction. → Unify behavioral + transactional data → Prioritize context (intent, timing, history) over demographics 3. Own your conversational channel If you don’t build it, platforms will. → Move beyond basic chatbots → Design guided selling experiences, not just Q&A 4. Architect for zero-click commerce The funnel is collapsing into one interaction. → Make data accessible via APIs → Enable inventory, pricing, and checkout in real time 5. Make product data agent-ready Agents optimize on specs, not storytelling. → Structure warranties, reviews, support → Elevate differentiators into machine-readable fields 6. Measure AI-driven journeys New channel = new attribution. → Track AI-influenced conversions → Monitor how platforms describe and rank your products 7. Prepare for a multi-platform ecosystem OpenAI, Google, Amazon = different rules. → Stay platform-agnostic → Adapt content and data to each ecosystem’s logic 8. Keep humans in the loop AI for efficiency. Humans for discovery. → Design hybrid journeys → Protect brand experience where emotion drives decisions The Reframe for CMOs Your competitors aren’t just optimizing for customers anymore. They’re optimizing for the AI that advises your customers. And a growing majority of consumers are already using AI at some point in their shopping journey. The brands that treat agentic commerce as “next year’s pilot” will find themselves in the same position as those who treated mobile as a “nice-to-have” a decade ago. We know how that ended. Need help with your marketing and AI strategy? Book a 45-minute strategy call: https://lnkd.in/gEY5pN7z Save this for future reference.

MIT researchers spiked beer with vinegar and gave it to 400 people. Some they told and some they didn’t. The results show why your pre-purchase messaging and expectation setting is equally (if not more) important than your product. Leonard Lee, Shane Frederick and Dan Ariely served pub patrons two beers at MIT. One was regular beer. The other was “MIT Brew” (same beer + a few drops of balsamic vinegar). They split people into 3 groups: 1️⃣ Group 1: Tasted blind (never told about vinegar). 2️⃣ Group 2: Told about vinegar before tasting. 3️⃣ Group 3: Told about vinegar after tasting. Here’s what happened: Group 1 (blind): Actually preferred MIT Brew over regular beer. Group 2 (told before): Disliked MIT Brew significantly. Group 3 (told after): Still preferred MIT Brew same as blind group. Only the people who knew about the vinegar beforehand had their experience ruined. They found that the timing of information had a major impact. This proves something important about customer experiences. Expectations don’t just change how people rate products. They change how products actually taste and feel (essentially hacking the brain). When you expect something to be bad, your brain makes it worse. When you have no negative expectation, you judge based on the actual experience. This explains why Coke tastes better with the label when people know it’s Coke inside the can. Most marketers miss this opportunity. The study shows expectations create real changes in how customers experience your product. This is why premium pricing often works and why people get excited when they finally get the call to buy a Rolex or a Birkin bag. Higher price sets expectation of higher quality, which makes the product perform better in customers’ minds. Remember, you’re not simply selling a product... You’re selling an experience. Here’s some ways you can apply this to your marketing: ✅ Build positive expectations before customers try your product. ✅ Use testimonials and social proof early in your funnel. ✅ Avoid leading with price objections/discounts or complexity. ✅ Position your brand to enhance product perception. Your marketing messaging shapes customer experience just as much as your actual product does.

The best advertisements don't tell you a story. They make you feel like you're already inside it. That's exactly why this Mercedes print campaign caught my attention. Most newspaper ads fight for attention. Mercedes did something different. It turned the newspaper into part of the product experience. As readers picked up The Times of India, their hands naturally landed where the steering wheel was printed. For a brief moment... They weren't looking at a Mercedes. They were holding one. That's brilliant marketing. Because our brains process experiences differently from information. You may forget a headline. You may skip a paragraph. But you'll remember how something made you feel. This campaign wasn't selling horsepower. It wasn't talking about engine specifications. It wasn't listing features. It was selling ownership. For a few seconds, the reader wasn't imagining driving a Mercedes. They were experiencing what it felt like to sit behind the wheel. And that's a lesson every marketer should learn. Most brands focus on communicating value. The best brands focus on creating experiences. Whether you're building a D2C brand, a SaaS product, or a luxury business, ask yourself: Are you asking customers to imagine your product? Or are you designing an experience that makes them feel they've already used it? Because people rarely buy the best product. They buy the product that creates the strongest emotional experience before the purchase is even made.

I have spent years analyzing hundreds of eCommerce launches, and one pattern always emerges: Most purchase decisions are irrational, but predictable. Customers don't compare specs like a spreadsheet. They’re influenced by cognitive biases, i.e., mental shortcuts that steer attention, value perception, and urgency. Here are 9 biases I see shaping buying behavior every day: 1) Category Heuristics: → Customers focus on a few key specs to compare quickly. → Highlight top attributes to guide decisions instantly. 2) Power of Now: → Immediate offers drive faster action. → Delays reduce perceived value and urgency. 3) Social Proof: → Reviews and ratings boost trust. → Recommendations from others validate purchase decisions. 4) Scarcity Bias: → Limited availability creates urgency. → “Only a few left” nudges faster buying. 5) Authority Bias: → Expert endorsements reduce hesitation. → Recognizable brands or figures build instant credibility. 6) Power of Free: → Small freebies increase perceived value. → Free add-ons motivate purchase without extra cost. 7) Anchoring Bias: → First price sets the mental reference point. → Subsequent options feel more valuable or affordable. 8) Loss Aversion: → Fear of missing out drives immediate action. → People avoid losses faster than they seek gains. 9) Decoy Effect: → Middle option nudges buyers toward higher-margin choice. → Position options to shift perception without force. Here’s the truth: Cognitive biases allow you to design buying experiences that feel intuitive, effortless, and even inevitable. When applied to pricing, offers, bundles, and landing pages, these biases: → Increase conversion rates → Strengthen perceived value → Accelerate buying decisions → Reduce hesitation and cart abandonment Next time your conversion lags or launches underperform, Ask: Are you designing the experience, or leaving it to chance? Save & share this to help others in your network. Follow Asim Khaliq for more applied growth strategies.

Stop treating customer marketing like an afterthought. Top teams know the secret: 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 - and leveraging AI to do it more effectively. Most companies only show up at the end. That’s too late. Growth starts much earlier. The best teams treat the customer lifecycle as a business driver, not a byproduct. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲. Here’s how the leaders do it: → 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 AI-powered onboarding delivers the right content, to the right person, at the right time. No more generic welcome emails — every user gets what they need to succeed from day one. → 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 AI-driven sentiment analysis spots churn risk before it hits your numbers. You see warning signs early and act before customers even think of leaving. → 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Predictive insights surface accounts ready to grow. AI matches them with proof and offers that fit — upsell becomes a natural next step, not a hard sell. → 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗰𝘆 AI finds your champions early, activates them often, and tracks their influence across your pipeline. Happy users become your best salespeople. When you connect these phases, the journey stops being a set of handoffs. It becomes a flywheel for growth. The next wave of winners won’t just generate demand. They’ll generate better customers — and keep them. AI is the edge. The future belongs to those who own support the full lifecycle. #CustomerMarketing #CustomerExperience #CustomerAdvocacy #B2BMarketing #CustomerSuccess #AI

Nine out of ten executives believe customer loyalty is growing. Only four out of ten customers agree. That's not a perception gap. That's a revenue crisis hiding in plain sight. Here's what's actually happening: 52% of customers stopped buying from a brand after one bad experience this year. Not after multiple failures. Not after price increases. After ONE experience where the brand failed them. And the killer? Most of those experiences involve customers having to repeat themselves. Seventy-four percent say it's frustrating to tell their story over and over to different agents. Think about what that means for your support costs. Every time a customer repeats their issue to a new agent, you're paying for that interaction twice. Once in handle time. Once in the loyalty you just burned. The companies solving this aren't throwing more headcount at the problem. They're deploying memory-rich AI agents that actually remember customer context across every interaction. We're seeing this firsthand at Maven AGI. When Tripadvisor deployed our AI agents, they didn't just get 90% autonomous resolution rates. They got something more valuable: customers who never have to repeat themselves again. The system remembers. Every interaction. Every preference. Every past issue. The next conversation picks up where the last one ended. 83% of CX leaders say memory-rich AI agents are the key to truly personalized customer journeys. The other 17% are still wondering why their loyalty scores don't match their executive dashboards. Your customers aren't disloyal. Your systems have amnesia.

🔥 Verint's AI-Driven CX Automation and Customer Benefits At the Verint #Engage25 Analyst briefing yesterday (Sept. 8th 2025) a key theme was Verint's targeted application of AI to address specific, high-impact customer experience challenges and achieve measurable business outcomes. Verint's approach to AI-powered CX automation focuses on creating value for customers. The company's strategy involves identifying and automating over 50 distinct workflows, each contributing to measurable improvements in key CX metrics. The benefits highlighted by Verint are supported by a deep understanding of customer pain points and operational inefficiencies. Key areas where Verint's AI automation delivers impact include: ⏹️ Faster Service: By automating routine tasks and intelligently routing inquiries, Verint solutions significantly reduce customer wait times. This is a critical factor in both customer satisfaction and operational costs. ⏹️ Increased Revenue: The platform provides agents with relevant data and insights at the point of interaction, helping to increase revenue per agent. ⏹️ Enhanced Customer Experience: By unifying all CX data on a single platform, Verint enables a holistic view of the customer journey, leading to more personalized and proactive interactions. ⏹️ Operational Resilience: The adaptive nature of Verint's AI models allows businesses to effectively manage sudden surges in customer contact volume, maintaining service quality and preventing operational bottlenecks. ⏹️ Empowered CX Teams: The company’s low-code/no-code IVA studio empowers CX teams to quickly design and deploy automated workflows. This agility reduces reliance on IT resources. The open platform architecture also facilitates the integration of various AI models, enabling businesses to select the best technology for specific tasks. Verint's accelerating adoption of AI, evidenced by over 51% of their Q2 annual recurring revenue stemming from AI-powered workforce solutions, underscores the market’s increasing demand for intelligent automation. The company’s focus on accumulating value through the automation of individual workflows, even those with seemingly small incremental gains, is a sound strategy for achieving significant overall operational efficiency and enhanced customer experience. What are your thoughts on the impact of AI on customer experience? Share your insights and experiences in the comments below! Verint’s strategic focus on targeted AI application within CX automation positions the company as a key player in the evolving customer experience technology landscape. The emphasis on delivering measurable business outcomes and empowering CX teams with flexible, AI-driven tools is a compelling narrative. Look for a detailed note about our takeaways for Info-Tech Research Group members from me and Thomas Randall #CXAutomation #AI #Verint #CustomerExperience #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #ContactCenterAI #ValueCreation