In many ways, agents have never faced more pressure. They’re expected to manage an ever-expanding mix of digital and voice channels, resolve complex issues faster, and maintain empathy throughout every interaction – all while navigating shifting expectations and compliance demands.  

In this environment, AI is often framed as the solution: a way to ‘do more with less.’ Yet the most progressive contact centers are discovering that AI’s real potential isn’t in replacing people; it’s in augmenting them.  

A new generation of intelligent assistive tools, often referred to as ‘AI co-pilots,’ is helping agents make faster, smarter decisions, reducing cognitive load, and strengthening the very human qualities that customers still value most.  

“Our approach is pretty simple,” says Will Penn, Senior Sales Engineer at Puzzel.  

“We’ve got tools available to make sure the agent can do the best job possible; not to replace them, but to enhance the human part of the experience.”

The Rise of the Super Agent  

Unfortunately, the ‘Super Agent’ being discussed is not some sort of Captain America/James Bond hybrid – as cool as that would be.   

No, this is routed less in the fantastical and more in the mold of delivering real, everyday results.   

Rather than some questionable serum or a boatload of fancy gadgets, the tool that transforms contact center agents into ‘Super Agents’ is the AI-powered copilot.   

By sitting alongside agents, AI co-pilots can analyze conversations and surface contextual guidance in real-time.   

Instead of switching between multiple systems or digging through outdated documentation, agents receive live prompts from a connected knowledge base that continuously suggests next best steps.  

“Puzzel’s CoPilot is connected to a well-formatted and organized knowledge base,” Penn explains.  

“It can constantly suggest those next best steps throughout the call, guiding the agent without them needing to put the customer on hold or go searching across multiple databases.”  

The impact is immediate: shorter handling times, fewer errors, and smoother compliance processes.  

In highly regulated industries such as insurance or finance, that combination of speed and accuracy is crucial.  

For Penn, CoPilot delivers the best of both worlds:  

“It’s better for the agent because everything they need is right in front of them. And it’s better for the customer because they get their answers faster. Everyone benefits from it.”

Efficiency with Integrity  

Penn’s comments aren’t just the biased championing of his own company’s solution; they’re backed up by facts.   

Indeed, early adopters of AI co-pilot tools are reporting measurable improvements.  

According to Puzzel, organizations have seen up to eight times faster wrap-ups, four-fold ROI on agent time, and a 23% reduction in average handling time (AHT).  

Those numbers matter, but they tell only part of the story. Behind each gain is a reduction in the hidden strain agents face: fewer repetitive tasks, less information overload, and a greater sense of control.  

In particular, Penn believes that the removal of “annoying admin” is “huge.  

“Consistency improves, accuracy improves, and the agents are freed up to do those more complex tasks that need their full attention.”  

By aligning efficiency with integrity, AI co-pilots are helping contact centers achieve something many thought impossible: operational speed and human quality, simultaneously.  

Case Study: Insurance Company  

While co-pilots might be one of the most renowned AI solutions in the contact center, they are far from the only game in town.   

Puzzel recently launched its Live Summary feature, which leverages AI to create editable, CRM-ready call notes in seconds, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and compliance.  

A clear example of how this tool encapsulates the potential of the human-AI partnership in the customer service and experience space can be seen from one of their customers, a Nordic legal insurance provider that manages complex, documentation-heavy cases.  

Before deploying Puzzel Live Summary, its agents spent significant time writing and reviewing notes after each call, a process that often delayed lawyer preparation and case progression.  

With Live Summary automatically capturing and structuring conversation details in seconds, those delays have been drastically reduced.  

While the efficiency gains are impressive, Penn stresses that Puzzel’s priority “isn’t just speed; it’s quality.   

“With Live Summary, we’re not only creating notes faster, but the quality and consistency of those notes have improved. “

“For this customer, it means better handovers to their lawyers and a smoother experience for their customers.”  

By automating these administrative tasks, agents can focus on higher-value interactions, such as listening, clarifying, and showing empathy, rather than typing.  

Empathy Through Enablement  

Despite all the talk about automation, most customers still prefer human interaction for complex or emotionally charged issues.  

Puzzel’s research shows that 75% of customers want to speak to a real person when problems get serious. That preference underscores a simple truth: empathy remains crucial to top-level customer experience.

AI co-pilots support, rather than dilute, that empathy. By taking away the distractions of note-taking, knowledge retrieval, and compliance checking, agents have more bandwidth to actively listen and respond with understanding.  

“The co-pilot is there to enhance the human experience,” says Penn  

“It gives that guidance throughout the interaction, so the agent can focus on what really matters: the customer in front of them.”  

Enterprise Takeaway: What Leaders Should Do Now  

For enterprise CX leaders, it is clear from Penn’s insights that AI’s most strategic value lies in empowering people, not sidelining them.  

To realize that value, the Puzzel man recommends:  

• Auditing the agent experience: Identify where repetitive or manual tasks are limiting empathy and productivity.  

• Introducing AI assistants that complement, not complicate: Seamless integration and transparent guidance are key.  

• Defining success beyond speed: Quality, accuracy, compliance, and customer sentiment are the real metrics that matter.  

As Penn notes, the evolution of AI in the contact center is as much about mindset as it is about technology.  

“There does need to be a mental shift,” he says.  

“Moving away from thinking AI is there to automate service, and towards thinking of it as a collaborative tool that enhances the human experience.”  

While it’s true that AI can bring confusion to the contact center space, the pros far outweigh the cons.   

When implemented correctly, the reward isn’t just faster resolutions; it’s happier agents, more trusting customers, and a more resilient CX operation.  

You can learn more about how your customer service department can deliver efficiency and empathy by checking out this article. 

You can also discover Puzzel’s full suite of solutions and services by visiting the website today.   

For enterprises, that’s both a challenge and an opportunity. Handled properly, feedback reveals exactly where things are and aren’t working. It tells support teams which moments frustrate. It tells product teams what’s missing, and it tells the C-suite what customers value enough to fight for.

That’s the real job of customer feedback management, turning scattered input into structured insight, then routing it to the teams that can actually do something with it.

The best CFM systems don’t just capture data. They:

• Map feedback across the full journey, not just surveys
• Spot trends early, before they show up in churn
• Connect insight directly to actions: faster support, better products, clearer messaging

In short, modern customer feedback management platforms give enterprises a new kind of muscle: the ability to listen deeply, move early, and improve continuously

What is Customer Feedback Management?

Customer feedback management is the discipline of collecting, interpreting, and acting on customer sentiment – not just from surveys, but from every channel where customers leave a mark.

That might mean tracking a drop in CSAT after a product update, combing through live chat logs, or decoding a two-star review on Trustpilot. In most enterprise settings, it means building a feedback loop that crosses teams: product, marketing, service, and operations all relying on the same source of truth.

The best customer feedback management software doesn’t just store responses. It translates them into structured insight, surfacing trends, routing complaints, and pushing alerts to the right place, fast. It’s the glue between listening and resolution.

To work at scale, feedback systems typically include:

• Multichannel ingestion: Web forms, support tickets, NPS, app reviews, even social DMs. Every signal matters, even if it’s unstructured.
• Theme detection and prioritization: Tools flag repeat issues or keyword clusters before they become reputational risks.
• Workflow integration: A refund complaint can notify finance. A delivery bug can trigger a ticket in product ops.
• Dashboards and reporting: With the help of AI systems, leaders get a filtered view of real insights by product line, geography, or channel.

Leading companies aren’t collecting feedback in a vacuum. They’re wiring it directly into CRM systems, contact center tools frontline workflows, so the right people can act without delay. The tighter the integration, the faster teams can respond, fix what’s broken, and strengthen customer relationships that last.

Where Feedback Fits: Feedback Management, VoC, and EFM

Feedback is only useful if it leads somewhere. That’s where terminology starts to matter. Voice of the Customer (VoC), customer feedback management, and enterprise feedback management (EFM) are often used interchangeably. They shouldn’t be.

Customer feedback management is the engine room. It handles collection, sorting, tagging, and routing. Think of it as the operational layer that turns raw input from surveys, ratings, and comments into tasks and decisions. This is where data moves from inboxes and dashboards into action plans.

Voice of the Customer (VoC) goes broader. It doesn’t just listen to what customers say, it listens to how they feel, how they behave, and where they’re frustrated or delighted without necessarily saying it outright. A good VoC program blends direct feedback with behavioral signals and sentiment analysis. It’s about seeing the full picture.

Enterprise feedback management (EFM) stretches even further. It includes employee and partner insight, compliance triggers, internal process reviews, and often sits closer to risk management than CX. In highly regulated or distributed organizations, EFM is essential infrastructure.

At enterprise scale, feedback management isn’t just a support tool. It’s part of the system of record: connected to customer data platforms, CRMs, business intelligence tools, and employee engagement systems (WEM tools).

Each of these frameworks adds something. The most mature organizations use all three as parts of one loop: listen, understand, and act.

What is Customer Feedback Management? Feedback Types

Customer feedback isn’t always a form or a star rating. It’s often informal, unstructured, or buried in systems where no one’s looking. Recognizing the different types is the first step toward building something that works across departments and channels.

• Direct Feedback: The most visible kind. Surveys after support calls. CSAT and NPS prompts. Product reviews submitted through apps or portals. It’s usually structured, timestamped, and easy to analyze. But it’s also the most filtered. The people who answer tend to be at the emotional extremes, either thrilled or annoyed. Everyone else stays quiet.
• Indirect Feedback: This is what customers say when they’re not talking to you directly. Tweets. Public forum threads. Online reviews. Complaints posted to third-party sites. In many organizations, this insight slips through the cracks. But today’s customer feedback management platforms use NLP and sentiment tools to bring these comments into view before they become brand problems.
• Inferred Feedback: This is the feedback customers don’t say out loud, but show in what they do. Dropping out halfway through checkout. Asking the same question in three different places. Bouncing between help pages without finding what they need.

On their own, these signals can be easy to miss. But together, they reveal patterns of frustration that direct surveys might never surface.

Why Customer Feedback Management Matters

There’s no shortage of dashboards in a modern enterprise. But few of them speak with the voice of the customer. That’s what feedback management changes. It shifts insight from lagging reports to live reality, focusing on the real-time pulse of what customers need, want, and expect.

For enterprise leaders focused on customer experience, this isn’t a soft metric. It’s operational. According to Bain & Company, companies that excel at customer experience grow revenues 4%–8% above their market. But growth doesn’t come from tracking satisfaction scores alone. It comes from turning those scores into action.

Here’s where feedback becomes a business driver:

• Alignment Across Teams: Sales hears one thing. Support hears another. Product has a third backlog entirely. When feedback lives in separate systems, teams solve different problems. When it’s centralized, patterns emerge, and teams move in the same direction.
• Early Signal Detection: A broken link on a signup form. A billing process that’s confusing in one region. A surge in cancellation requests. Customer feedback management platforms surface these issues before they hit churn reports. The earlier the fix, the lower the cost.
• Smarter Roadmapping: Feedback isn’t just a support signal, it’s a product roadmap tool. Tracking customer insights, linking them to outcomes, and activating responses leads to strategic action. Teams can prioritize features that drive loyalty.
• Competitive Advantage: Every brand says it listens. Few can prove it. Companies that consistently close the loop visibly earn trust. In a market where switching costs are low, trust is often the only real moat.

The case for customer feedback management software isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about agility, spotting the next risk or opportunity while competitors are still guessing.

How to Build a Customer Feedback Management System That Works

Enterprises don’t lack feedback. They’re swimming in it. The challenge isn’t collection, but coordination. Scattered responses, siloed ownership, and no clear plan for what happens next. That’s where customer feedback management becomes a system, not just a task.

1. Start with What You Already Have

Before adding new tools or channels, map what’s in play. Most enterprise teams already gather feedback across:

• Post-interaction surveys
• Help desk conversations
• Social and review platforms
• Product feedback forms
• Sales and account notes

But it’s often fragmented, or locked in spreadsheets, CRM fields, and third-party platforms. Start by listing every touchpoint where customers leave a trace. Then identify who owns that data, how it’s reviewed, and whether it drives action.

2. Build a Shared System, Not Just a Repository

A true customer feedback management system isn’t just a bucket. It’s a hub. One place where cross-functional teams can view, analyze, and act on insights. That requires more than storage. It needs structure. Look for tools that:

• Integrate with your CRM system and CDP
• Tag feedback by source, product line, sentiment, urgency
• Offer role-specific dashboards for ops, product, CX, compliance
• Allow for routing, escalation, and response tracking

Consider other integrations that might be helpful too, such as connections to your ERP and business intelligence platforms, or workforce management tools.

3. Design a Feedback-to-Action Pathway

Without clear ownership, feedback dies in the backlog. Teams need to agree on what gets prioritized, who responds, and how it loops back into service design, training, or product fixes.

The strongest systems:

• Flag urgent or high-impact issues automatically
• Route insights to the right teams (with deadlines)
• Track outcomes, not just volume
• Communicate resolution back to the customer

When that loop works, feedback becomes part of how the business runs.

How to Use Feedback to Improve Business Results

Most companies collect feedback. Fewer actually do something meaningful with it. In mature organizations, feedback isn’t just a sentiment report, it’s a driver of change. Done right, it informs strategy, sharpens execution, and reduces churn.

• Prioritize patterns over outliers: It’s easy to get caught up in the latest complaint or viral review. But high-performing teams step back. They look for volume, frequency, and trends, not just anecdotes. That could mean mapping repeat issues to product features, or tracking common service pain points over time.
• Feed insight to the right systems: Don’t keep customer feedback on a CX dashboard. Use it to inform product roadmaps, workforce planning, pricing models, training strategies, and anything else that impacts the customer experience.
• Expand your metrics: Go beyond NPS and CSAT. Think about customer effort scores, overall retention rates and churn. Determine the KPIs you want to keep track of in advance, and make sure everyone is watching them, including the C-Suite.

Choosing Customer Feedback Management Software

Customer feedback is everywhere. What separates good companies from great ones is what they do with it. That’s where the right customer feedback management software comes in, to make insights actionable, accountable, and accessible across the enterprise.

Start With the Business, Not the Tool

Software selection should begin with the problems it’s meant to solve. Are customers dropping off after onboarding? Or are service complaints slipping through the cracks? Are product teams getting insight too late to act?

Clear goals tend to point to the right tool:

• Real-time alerts for contact center agents?
• Text analytics for unstructured NPS comments?
• Trend reporting to inform product roadmaps?

Once those use cases are clear, it becomes easier to separate the platforms built for scale from those that just tick boxes.

Integration Over Isolation

In a modern tech stack, no system should sit alone, especially not feedback.

Customer insights gain power when connected to:

• CRM platforms, where individual records tell a full customer story
• Contact center solutions, where timing and channel matter
• CDPs, which consolidate behavioral and transactional data
• BI tools, for deeper cross-functional reporting
• Broader ERP, WEM, and business management tools

Make sure your platforms feed the systems powering decisions.

Think Long-Term: Governance, Scalability, and Fit

Even the most powerful platform will struggle without strong foundations. For enterprise buyers, that means focusing on operational readiness:

• Can the system support multiple teams and regions with clear permissions?
• Are escalation workflows and approvals built in?
• Does the vendor offer strong uptime guarantees and compliance controls?
• Is the reporting flexible enough to satisfy both executive leadership and front-line teams?

Ease of use matters too. If agents, analysts, and leaders can’t find value in it quickly, feedback won’t flow where it’s needed most.

Discover the best customer feedback management solutions:

Customer Feedback Management Best Practices

Technology may capture customer sentiment, but it’s what companies do next that separates good intentions from real improvement. At the enterprise level, feedback shapes products, and defines brand reputation, retention, and revenue.

Here’s what the most effective teams get right.

• Track consistently: Feedback isn’t a file to review later. It’s a feed that’s active and ongoing. Companies need to review regularly, discuss in depth, and build around it.
• Make feedback cross functional: Operations needs visibility into service complaints, marketing needs to know where messaging misses, and HR should see how poor feedback is affecting teams. Get everyone involved.
• Close the loop: Replying to feedback, or acting on it, is crucial. Customers want to know their input mattered, and teams want confirmation their fix was felt. Ensure that your action is clear, powerful, and visible.
• Read between the lines: Surveys are useful, but raw behavior can say more. Combine behavioral insights, structured survey data, and conversational analytics for a comprehensive view of what customers really feel, not just what they say.
• Make it easy to act: Help teams fix issues quickly. Check if workflows are in place for feedback routing, and whether CX agents can escalate recurring problems. Give people the tools they need to act.

Customer Feedback Management Trends

Customer expectations haven’t just shifted, they’ve splintered. Channels have multiplied. Responses move faster. The tools used to manage it all are catching up. Here’s what’s defining feedback management right now:

The Rise of AI-Powered Analysis

Enterprise teams spent years circling AI as a concept. Now it’s operational. The strongest feedback systems today don’t just categorize responses, they break them down by tone, urgency, and underlying cause.

Platforms like Medallia, NICE, and Sprinklr are using natural language processing and conversational analytics to surface issues before they mutate. Instead of waiting for quarterly survey analysis, teams can spot sentiment drops and recurring themes as they happen.

Feedback Is Becoming Embedded

Feedback used to live in standalone forms: a survey here, a rating box there. That’s changing. Leading platforms now capture signals from everyday interactions: chat logs, call transcripts, even app usage.

Feedback is moving closer to the moment. A delivery delay triggers a quick prompt. A cancelled subscription opens the door to ask why. Systems are listening all the time, and they’re getting smarter about what to listen for.

Structured Feedback Loses Traction

It’s not just about ticking boxes. The most valuable insights often show up in open comments, social threads, or long-form email replies. That unstructured data used to be hard to sort. Now, it’s where the action is.

Enterprises are investing in platforms that can handle nuance: that can understand sarcasm, spot emotion, and cluster feedback without a human reading every line. Forrester calls this shift “human insight at scale”, and it’s showing up as a core capability in nearly every customer feedback management platform leader.

Everything Connects Or It Doesn’t Work

Feedback is most valuable when it flows. Into support platforms, product roadmaps, agent scripts, and CX dashboards. But that only happens when systems talk to each other.

Leading tools now integrate out-of-the-box with CRMs, contact center systems, VoC platforms, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. That allows customer concerns to influence decision-making across the business, not just in service.

Privacy Remains Crucial

The line between “listening” and “surveilling” is thin, and enterprise buyers know it. In a post-GDPR, opt-out-default world, customer feedback strategies need to include transparency.

That means clear consent prompts. Data handling disclosures. Anonymization features. Especially in regulated sectors, ethics now sit beside analytics in the buyer’s checklist.

What is Customer Feedback Management? The Voice of CX

Customer feedback management It affects product decisions, shapes brand reputation, and drives loyalty at scale.

Done well, it connects dots across departments, from support and sales to marketing and operations. It puts real-time customer truth in front of the people who can do something about it.

But it only works when the systems are connected, the insights are trusted, and the loop is truly closed. That’s why enterprise teams are investing in modern customer feedback management platforms to operationalize input.

For companies focused on loyalty, innovation, and experience, the question isn’t whether to invest in customer feedback tools. The only real question is: which one will help you act faster, and smarter? CX Today is here to help:

• Join the Community: Be part of a dynamic CX-focused network. Swap ideas with thought leaders and elevate your feedback strategy.
• Test the Tech: Discover the top-rated platforms, meet vendors, and explore trends at live and virtual events.
• Plan Your Next Investment: Use our CX Marketplace to explore top vendors in feedback, VoC, CDP, and contact center tech.

Or visit the ultimate CX guide for enterprise experience leaders, for insights into how to build a better CX strategy, one step at a time.

A loyal customer isn’t just someone who comes back. They spend more. Stay longer. Recommend faster. They open emails, tolerate hiccups, and ignore your competitors’ ads. They’re also far cheaper to retain than any lead your sales team is chasing right now.

Loyalty isn’t a lucky break. It’s the outcome of moments that go right consistently, and often quietly. A first experience that flows without friction. A support interaction that resolves more than just the issue. A product that keeps its promise. Each of these moments builds equity in the relationship.

When those touchpoints connect  across teams, systems, and time something stronger than repeat business takes shape. Customers begin to trust. They stick around, not because it’s the easiest option, but because the experience earns it.

What is Customer Loyalty?

Customer loyalty reflects a decision: the conscious choice to stay with a brand when alternatives are just a click away. It’s not just about satisfaction, plenty of satisfied customers churn. Loyalty runs deeper. It’s emotional, earned through consistency, value, and trust built over time.

In practical terms, loyalty shows when customers return after a poor experience, because they believe it’s the exception, not the norm. It shines when existing buyers refer peers, opt into updates, or upgrade without needing a discount.

But for enterprises, this isn’t a soft metric. It’s measurable, in retention rates, customer lifetime value, and referral growth. In fact, increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by 25% to 95% depending on the industry. Loyalty doesn’t just pay off; it compounds.

Now, it matters more than ever. With CX as a key battleground, loyalty becomes a lead indicator of business resilience, and a hedge against rising acquisition costs.

The ROI of Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty used to be a feel-good metric. Now it’s a board-level priority.

Retaining a customer isn’t just cheaper than winning a new one, it’s smarter. The cost of acquisition has spiked over 60% in the last five years, especially across digital channels. Meanwhile, repeat customers spend more, refer faster, and support brands longer, even when things go wrong.

The return is measurable:

• CAC Down, Margins Up: Brands with strong loyalty programs don’t need to outspend rivals on ads. Their customers come back organically. Acquisition costs are up to 7x higher than retention costs, and rising. Loyalty brings those numbers down.
• Predictable Revenue: Returning customers are more consistent. They know the product, trust the brand, and often skip the comparison stage altogether. That makes forecasting easier, pipelines more stable, and marketing spend more efficient.
• Loyalty = Resilience: In downturns, loyal customers stick. They’re more forgiving of glitches and slower to churn. A loyalty strategy isn’t just about growth, it’s about survival when market headwinds hit.
• Better Intelligence: Good loyalty tools are also listening tools. They track not just transactions, but behavior: redemptions, preferences, referrals, and feedback. That kind of data can feed customer journey strategies and help pinpoint why loyalty is rising or falling.
• Cross-Functional Buy-In: Loyalty isn’t a marketing-only game anymore. When programs sync with CRMs and support channels, they empower every team that touches the customer and help break down the silos that usually hurt CX.

What is Customer Loyalty Management?

Loyalty isn’t a byproduct of good service; it’s the result of managing relationships with intent. For enterprises, customer loyalty management is the discipline of designing and maintaining systems that keep the right customers coming back, staying longer, and contributing more value over time.

Loyalty doesn’t come from running rewards programs on cruise control. It starts with clarity; knowing who your most valuable customers are, what keeps them engaged, and how to stand out even when competitors promise more for less.

The best loyalty strategies don’t operate in a silo. They’re part of the broader customer experience engine, connected to feedback, support, product usage, and behavioural cues. Managed well, these strategies turn loyalty into a dynamic input, not just a passive output. It’s not a metric at the end of a funnel, it’s something built and reinforced at every stage of the journey.

Loyalty Management Tools and Platforms

The strongest tools today aren’t just managing point balances or sending birthday emails. They’re helping organizations understand loyalty as a behavior, not a program.

At a basic level, these platforms centralize loyalty data: engagement patterns, redemption activity, repeat purchase signals, and more. But the more advanced systems go further. They apply machine learning to spot early signs of churn, flag disengaged segments, and recommend next-best actions in real time.

What sets the leading loyalty management platforms apart is their ability to fit inside a broader CX tech stack. That means:

• Integrating with CRM to unify customer context
• Connecting to feedback loops for real-time insight
• Embedding in messaging infrastructure like CPaaS to deliver hyper-personalized moments that actually land

Many also support predictive analytics, using behavioral data to calculate loyalty risk scores, tailor rewards dynamically, or prompt human intervention when relationships are at risk.

How to Measure Customer Loyalty

Loyalty isn’t a single number. It’s a pattern, and like most patterns in enterprise CX, it takes a mix of metrics to see the full picture.

Behavioral signals still lead the pack. Metrics like repeat purchase rate, frequency of interaction, average order value, and churn give a direct read on what customers are doing, and where that behavior changes over time.

Behavioural signals often say more than surveys. A customer who slows their spending, skips repeat purchases, or stops logging in is sending a message. Something has shifted, in the experience, the product fit, or the perceived value.

Behaviour tells you what happened. But it won’t tell you why. That’s where customer sentiment comes into play.

Tools like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Score (CES) dig beneath the surface, giving teams a clearer sense of how customers actually feel about their experience. When behavioural dips show up, they offer the context needed to act fast, and fix the root cause before it costs more.

For many organizations, this layer is captured across touchpoints with VoC tools, then analyzed over time to correlate sentiment with spend or attrition.

What’s changing now is the rise of emotional loyalty metrics. These tools look beyond direct feedback, using conversational analysis, sentiment trends, and inferred emotional cues to understand attachment, not just satisfaction. It’s especially useful for brands competing on experience, not price.

Taken together, these data points create a more reliable model. Not just who’s loyal today, but who’s likely to stay, spend, and advocate tomorrow.

How to Choose Loyalty Management Software

The wrong loyalty platform won’t break a business, but it will stall progress. What looks slick in a demo can crumble under pressure if it can’t sync with existing systems, surface usable insights, or grow with you.

Enterprise teams evaluating loyalty management software need more than a feature checklist. They need to know how the tool will hold up six months in, with multiple departments relying on it.

Here’s what separates the useful from the disruptive:

True Integration

No platform works in isolation. If loyalty data sits in a separate bucket from customer service, CRM, or analytics tools, there’s a problem.

That means:

• Real-time syncing with CRM systems
• Alignment with VoC platforms
• Integrations with Business intelligence solutions

Most loyalty management platforms also seamlessly connect with CCaaS platforms, conversational analytics tools, and ERP software.

Dashboards That Get Used

Too many platforms surface metrics. Fewer tell you what they mean.

The strongest systems flag what matters: declining engagement from a once-loyal segment, a regional drop in redemption rates, churn triggers hiding in feedback. Ideally, these insights feed into broader customer intelligence tools.

Ask the vendor: When loyalty starts to dip, how will your platform show it, and who will know?

Scalability

Will it handle loyalty across multiple brands? Markets? Languages? Can it adapt to tiered models, emotional loyalty, partner programs?

Look for:

• Configurable logic, not hard-coded structures
• Clean admin interfaces for rule management
• Role-based controls that keep compliance teams comfortable

If it takes a developer to adjust a points rule, it’s not enterprise-ready.

Discover who’s driving results in the loyalty management software market here:

Best Practices for Improving Customer Loyalty

Loyalty doesn’t just emerge from a points program or a fun campaign. For enterprises, it’s a byproduct of consistent, intentional experience design, built into service flows, product strategy, data models, and frontline decision-making.

Build Feedback Loops That Actually Close

The fastest way to erode loyalty? Ignoring input – or worse, asking for it and doing nothing.

Instead of measuring feedback volume, measure action: How many product updates were driven by complaints? How often are support teams looped in to resolve themes emerging from surveys? Connect your loyalty program to customer feedback management tools that can drive real changes, not just reporting.

Use Tiering: But Don’t Let It Turn Transactional

Tiered loyalty still has its place, but only when it’s designed with purpose. Value shouldn’t just reflect spend. It should acknowledge engagement in all its forms. Early adopters, advocates, testers, even those who provide consistent feedback – they’re all part of the loyalty equation.

In B2B especially, tiers work best when they reflect mutual success. Think retention milestones, shared KPIs, or collaborative innovation, not just contract size.

Let AI Do More Than Segment

Yes, AI can slice customer cohorts faster. But real value comes when it flags what’s slipping before it shows up in churn.

Modern loyalty management tools increasingly come with predictive features: surfacing customers at risk of disengagement, nudging reps to check in, or adjusting loyalty offers based on sentiment and behavior patterns. Don’t just use AI to automate, use it to alert.

Tie Service Quality to Loyalty Outcomes

When loyalty starts to dip, it’s often not marketing’s fault, it’s a missed service expectation, or a support gap that never got escalated.

Bring loyalty and service metrics closer together. Track whether NPS dips after a long resolution time. Monitor whether loyalty program members get faster assistance, and whether that’s noticed.

Reward the Behavior You Want More Of

Discounts create habits, and not always good ones. If you reward spend alone, you build deal-seekers, not advocates.

Instead, reward the moments that drive growth:

• Referrals
• Feedback submitted
• Community contributions
• Self-service engagement
• Event participation

Loyalty isn’t a transaction, it’s a signal. Recognize the signals that drive real business value.

Localize Where It Matters

For multinational brands, loyalty can’t be global by default. Preferences shift by market, so should campaigns.

Consider:

• Local holiday-based promotions
• Regional tier naming conventions
• Local influencers or ambassadors

Global strategy. Local flavor. That balance keeps loyalty human.

Customer Loyalty Management + Service: The Critical Link

Loyalty doesn’t just live in a dashboard or a rewards app. It’s won or lost in moments that often feel small: a delivery delay, a billing dispute, a misunderstood policy. The way a brand responds in these moments is often more influential than any discount or points tier.

And that makes customer service a cornerstone of customer loyalty management.

When Service Is Seamless, Loyalty Feels Earned

Customers don’t demand flawlessness. But they do expect clarity, speed, and respect when things go wrong. Loyalty isn’t tested during moments of delight, it’s tested when something breaks. Support teams who can see a customer’s history, loyalty status, and previous interactions don’t just fix problems faster. They solve them with more context, more care, and often, more impact.

This is where integration matters:

• CRM systems should surface loyalty data
• CPaaS platforms can enable proactive outreach
• Ticketing systems can reflect VIP status or churn risk

Proactive Service = Preventative Loyalty Loss

The best loyalty moves aren’t reactive. They’re invisible, because the problem was handled before the customer noticed.

For example:

• Flagging shipping delays and sending apologies before the complaint
• Alerting high-value customers when products they love are low in stock
• Following up after negative sentiment is detected in chatbot interactions

This requires orchestration. But the payoff is reduced escalation volume, increased trust, and loyalty built on more than transactions.

Empower Agents Like They’re Brand Ambassadors

Loyalty lives or dies with the agent experience. If the frontline team feels unsupported, overworked, or stuck with legacy tools, they can’t deliver the kind of service that loyalty depends on.

Modern workforce engagement platforms are helping here, giving agents better training, clearer knowledge bases, and visibility into customer journeys. This isn’t just an ops upgrade, it’s a loyalty investment.

Customer Loyalty Management Trends to Watch

Enterprise loyalty strategies evolve with the customer, and the customer continues to change.

Over the past two years, loyalty has shifted from tactical marketing add-on to boardroom-level priority. Why? Because retention has become the fastest route to stable revenue.

Here’s what’s changing right now.

• Loyalty Is Getting Smarter: Rather than shouting about rewards, top brands are building invisible loyalty, systems that work behind the scenes, adjusting experiences based on behavior, purchase history, and product use. The loyalty isn’t in the point balance. It’s in the recognition. AI and predictive analytics are playing a bigger role here, helping teams act on churn signals before the customer ever says a word.
• Emotional Loyalty Takes the Lead: Price cuts don’t build loyalty. They build expectations. Enterprise buyers are shifting from transactional incentives to emotional loyalty strategies, things like exclusive experiences, consistent service, and values-based alignment. In B2B markets, that might look like strategic co-development, VIP access to product roadmaps, or account-based reward systems.
• Loyalty Hardwired Into CX: The strongest loyalty programs don’t operate in isolation. They’re woven into the wider customer experience stack, touching CRM, CPaaS, contact center platforms, and data systems. This allows brands to reward customers in real time, based on meaningful actions, not just spend.
• Consent-First Design: The days of collecting data “because we can” are over. Modern loyalty programs are being rebuilt around trust and transparency. That means clear value exchanges, upfront permissions, and control for the customer. Loyalty is no longer about how much data you can gather, it’s about how responsibly you use what you have.

Customer Loyalty Management Beyond the Transaction

Customer loyalty isn’t a finish line. It’s an ongoing, intentional outcome earned across every interaction, reinforced with every decision, and protected by every system put in place.

For enterprise teams, managing that loyalty means more than launching a rewards program. Managing loyalty well means making it easier for customers to stay than to leave. That’s not about discounts or perks, it’s about designing experiences that feel effortless, relevant, and personal.

Whether the goal is improving retention, boosting lifetime value, or gaining a clearer view of customer behaviour, the right strategy starts with the right tools, and the right insights.

CX Today offers a range of resources to help enterprise teams build loyalty systems that actually move the needle:

• Explore the Marketplace: Compare top loyalty management vendors with features tailored for growth, data integration, and security at scale.
• Join the Community: Learn how CX and marketing leaders across industries are evolving loyalty strategies in the CX Community.
• Track What’s Changing: Follow new developments in AI-powered loyalty, cross-channel experience design, and customer journey intelligence with research reports.

See how loyalty fits into the broader CX ecosystem. Visit our Ultimate CX Guide for a practical deep dive into the people, platforms, and processes driving customer-led growth.

Spoiler: just telling them to “calm down” doesn’t work. That phrase (while innocuous) often triggers the “reactance effect” – an instinctual resistance people feel when their sense of control is threatened or their concerns seem to be dismissed.

Over time, calls escalate more often. Escalations mean longer resolutions and lower satisfaction scores. Anxiety spills over into the workforce because agents feel cornered, and emotion hijacks logic.

So, what’s the right way to speak to a customer who’s far from happy?

What to Say to Angry Customers: 7 Defusing Phrases

So, “calm down” won’t work – but what will? Basically, anything that makes them feel heard, respected, and understood. Here are some practical phrases to embed into the de-escalation techniques customer service teams might already use:

1.      “That sounds really frustrating.”

Opening with recognition helps. Callers feel acknowledged. That simple nod shifts the tone. Callers don’t feel like their emotions are being belittled or ignored. The agent is actively validating them. Customers can start to think more logically, because they’ve made their point emotionally.

Alternative (but similar phrases include):

• I’d feel the same in your position
• I can see your point there
• I understand why you’re upset about this

2.      “We want to fix this just as much as you do.”

Sometimes, knowing what to say to angry customers means reinforcing a sense of collaboration – like this phrase does. It shifts blame and drama toward alignment. It also shows that the customer service agent isn’t trying to pass the buck to someone else, or imply it’s not their responsibility to deal with the issue.

Other ways to say this include:

• Thanks for letting us know about that, we definitely need to fix it
• We’re sorry about that, let’s try and get this issue solved

3.      “Here’s what we know, what we’ve done, and what we can do…”

Agitated customers want clarity, about what happened, why it happened, and what’s being done to resolve it. The best customer service professionals explain in three steps:

• What we know: We see your systems went down at 3 p.m. due to a technical fault with our server, and you’ve been experiencing issues since.
• What we’ve done: We’ve already got a technician working on the problem, and the server is now functional, but we’re still troubleshooting issues.
• What we will do: We’ll make a note on your file and run some additional checks. Our team will inform you immediately when the issue is resolved.

4.      “I understand, other customers have had a similar problem, here’s what they found worked…”

This “Feel, Felt, Found” approach builds empathy and a sense of community. It shows customers that they’re not alone in facing an issue, and helps them to see that the company they’re contacting has already helped others resolve the problem.

An example:

• Feel: I see how you feel. I hate it when I can’t log into my account.
• Felt: Some of our other customers have reported login issues, too.
• Found: They found that restarting the app helped solve the problem. Have you tried that?

5.      “Here’s what I can do…”

Confidence is key in knowing what to say to angry customers. Saying “the best I can do is get a technician to call you back,” sounds hesitant and invites escalation. Customer service agents should say exactly what they can do, and how it’s going to help.

For example “What I can do for you right now is pass this issue over to our technical team, they’ll be in touch within the next hour with an update. In the meantime, I’ll add a credit to your account for the inconvenience.”

6.      “Are you able to…”

Often, a customer will need to do something on their side for a problem to be fixed, like sharing their serial number, account details, or refreshing an application. Rather than using direct statements like “I need you to give me your…” it’s helpful to switch to polite questions like:

• Are you able to grab your serial number for me?
• Could you just switch your computer off and on again for a moment?
• Would you be able to give me a moment to check on that?

7.      “Could I try…”

When customers feel powerless, giving them options restores a sense of control. These kinds of phrases are particularly helpful when “troubleshooting” an issue that doesn’t have a clear solution:

• Could I try speaking to my colleague, they may have another idea?
• I have another option we could try; would you be open to that?
• I could do [action] but it might take a moment, would you mind waiting a moment, or would you like a call back?

Even if the options are limited, demonstrating effort helps customers calm down and feel supported.

Best Practices for De-escalating Angry Customers

Knowing what to say to angry customers is just the first step. Customer support agents also need to know what to do to help de-escalate the issue. Often that means using active listening techniques, empathy, and emotional control.

Stay Calm and Practice Active Listening

Remaining composed sets the tone. It’s easy for agents to get upset when they’re being yelled at, but responding defensively usually makes the issue worse. Train employees to take a couple of deep breaths if they’re feeling attacked, and tell them to focus on active listening. They should let callers speak uninterrupted, using occasional cues like “I see” and “that makes sense.”

Track Tone, Then Pivot to Solutions

Agents should be experts at tuning into tone, intent, and sentiment, even if they occasionally need help from analytical tools. Responding to tone doesn’t mean showing anger back to an angry customer, it means demonstrating empathy, then guiding the conversation towards resolution.

Simple framing tweaks can help:

• Use positive, reassuring language: “Absolutely” instead of “No problem.”
• Avoid negative statements like “That’s against policy.” Instead, say: “What I can do is…”

Use Templates, but Personalize Them

Templates speed up responses, but they only work when they’re used thoughtfully. Customers still want personalized service, even when they’re making a complaint or reporting an issue.

Agents should tailor templates with names, issue specifics, and a human touch. Give them access to useful insights from CRM tools to help tailor each interaction.

Think Critically

Agents should understand that an angry customer isn’t necessarily angry at “them” – they’re frustrated by the situation. Their focus shouldn’t be on protecting themselves, but figuring out what the customer actually needs.

Do they want a refund, or do they just want someone to validate their experience? A good way to find out a customer’s motivation is to restate what they said and what they might mean by it: “I understand you’ve been unable to use your subscription, would a refund help with this?”

Leverage Analytics and Voice of the Customer (VoC) Data

Not sure which frustrated issues crop up most? VoC analytics pull in feedback from surveys, chat, calls, social, and help center tickets.

AI-powered sentiment analysis flags negative experiences automatically. That means agents and supervisors can proactively address hot spots before they escalate. Using data is a good way to improve self-help resources and identify recurring problems, so they’re less likely to happen again in future. A more proactive approach means less time teaching agents what to say to angry customers.

Turning Angry Customers Into Long-Term Advocates

Customers won’t magically calm down. What works is a conversation built on validation and structure, packaged in calm, purposeful phrases and backed by smart tools.

Train teams on what to say to angry customers, but also show them how to manage their own emotions, stay calm, listen actively, and personalize the experience. At the same time, take advantage of the tools that can help businesses stay one step ahead of recurring problems.

Every company will deal with angry customers at some point. The key is knowing how to de-escalate the situation and turn an irate caller into a long-term advocate.

The AI startup will allow UJET to continue its AI roadmap for enhanced customer service solutions. 

This partnership will also address customer data analysis issues for UJET’s enterprise customers. 

This acquisition is set to further UJET’s AI roadmap vision by bolstering the company’s AI capabilities and addressing customer experience concerns. 

By highlighting these issues of visibility between customer and leader, organizations will be able to improve their customer issues before they reach escalation. 

In fact, UJET has reported that organizations that are unaware of these individual customer problems are losing approximately $5MN-$30MN in customer churn revenue. 

This can be linked to ignored or forgotten negative customer experience complaints, with organizations reportedly gathering only five percent of reported customer issues. 

According to UJET CEO, Vasili Triant, customer churn remains a blind spot for many enterprises, arguing that customer interaction analysis is not done effectively. 

He said: “Most companies can’t analyze interaction data at scale, leaving many common customer issues in the dark.” 

However, this acquisition provides enterprises the capabilities to view all customer conversations through unifying collected data. 

He added: 

“UJET’s acquisition of Spiral will provide businesses with a unified view of all customer conversations for more proactive, personalized service.”

This will also help enterprises locate blind spots in other areas of the business, such as product, other services, and the company itself. 

In conversation with CX Today, UJET VP Product Marketer, Matthew Clare, highlighted how other areas of companies can utilize this tool to understand their customers’ needs:

“This could be used by product teams to understand product and service issues – by marketing teams who want to understand what customers are saying about campaigns that are running.” 

Spiral’s AI Product 

Spiral is an AI startup specializing in conversational analytics to improve customer experience data. 

By leveraging AI, Spiral can be used to analyze customer interactions at scale to uncover pain points in customer experience, whilst also offering proactive recommendations to enterprises. 

The product can also be used to analyze various customer conversations across voice and chat channels, the internet, online reviews and surveys, and social media. 

Clare stated: “Anywhere customer conversations happen is a data source for this product.” 

Furthermore, this tool can be used to ask questions about customer churning and how enterprises can respond to these results through predictions to improve future customer experiences. 

“They are trying to solve the problems of customer conversations and customer feedback being spread across different teams and organizations,” he said. 

“How do you not only unify data but bring it together in a way that anyone in the organization can run deep research with a simple conversational AI agent?” 

This acquisition allows UJET to strengthen its status as a prominent CCaaS platform provider and offer customers an improved version of what is already available. 

Clare explained that the purchase will extend “UJET’s reach and gives us the ability to sell Conversational Analytics over the top of any Contact Center and CX software that may be in place, without having us need to position our end to end CCaaS platform.”

For Spiral, this acquisition will allow them to continue providing conversational intelligence alongside UJET’s AI service capabilities, rebranding as Spiral by UJET. 

Elena Zhizhimontova, Founder and CEO of Spiral, discussed how the acquisition will allow them to prioritize a customer-focused plan and continue to improve customer outcomes for a wider enterprise range. 

She said: “We built Spiral to take millions of customer conversations and turn them into clear, actionable insight,”  

“By combining Spiral’s AI with UJET’s cutting-edge CCaaS platform for modern-day customer service, Spiral by UJET will continue as the focused product our customers rely on, now with a more CX-driven roadmap and deeper integrations. 

“Together we can shine a brighter light on customer issues for more organizations worldwide, giving brands the clarity they need to spot issues sooner, address problems faster, and create better products, services, and experiences over the long term.”

Customer Feedback

This partnership will allow current and future customers of UJET to experience Spiral’s product integrally by improving its overall AI and product organization. 

Turo, a long-term customer of both UJET and Spiral, has reaped the benefits of both these companies’ approaches to solving customer issues, as well as having collaborated on a program with Spiral to improve its data collection method. 

Julie Weingardt, Chief Operations Officer at Turo, emphasized how both companies have enabled them to receive customer experience resolutions with reduced friction. 

She said: “Spiral’s AI transformed our approach and helped us build a Voice of the Customer program that is smart and strategic, by capturing structured feedback during the support journey.  

“Spiral AI’s platform allows us to analyze customer conversations and commentary, pinpointing areas where we can improve proactively. 

“We’ve used these insights to refine our self-service options, hone our knowledge base, and help better guide quality agent responses.”

Despite the acquisition, Spiral has confirmed that it will continue to work with its existing customers and products however with UJET integrations.

Spiral was acquired by UJET for an undisclosed amount.

They’re running on static journeys, and disconnected data. Context that should guide the next move gets trapped in silos. Customers end up repeating information to different agents, something more than 70% say businesses need to fix.

Delays are expensive. They make support lines longer, drive costs up, and quietly chip away at loyalty. It’s why real-time customer journey orchestration (RTJO) is moving to the heart of customer experience work. The idea isn’t complicated: watch what’s happening right now, match it with what you already know about the person, and act before the moment slips.

What Real-Time Customer Journey Orchestration Means

“Real-time” gets thrown around often, but in customer service it has a very specific meaning. It isn’t about answering a phone a little faster. It’s about noticing a customer signal the instant it happens, matching it to a live, unified profile, and deciding what to do before the customer has to ask.

Think of a failed card payment. A traditional system might flag it overnight, adding the customer to a recovery email list. Real-time journey orchestration (RTJO) does something very different: it sees the decline, checks recent interactions, weighs account value and risk, and can trigger an SMS with a retry link or route the next contact to an agent who already knows the issue. The action happens while the customer is still engaged.

That ability rests on three pillars:

• Unified identity and context: A customer data platform or connected CRM keeps every click, call and payment tied to one profile, even if the person has shifted from anonymous browsing to an authenticated account.
• Intelligent decisioning: Rules and AI models balance relevance with compliance and cost – choosing whether to push self-service, escalate to a skilled agent, or pause other messaging.
• Omnichannel activation. Whether it’s an email, app push, proactive chat, or direct hand-off to the contact centre, the response must travel through the right channel instantly – with full context for the human who picks it up.

For service teams, the change is dramatic. They’re no longer scrambling after a problem has exploded. They can spot it as it happens, adjust, and solve it while the chance to keep a customer happy, and avoid another expensive follow-up, is still alive.

Benefits of Real-Time Customer Journey Orchestration

When service teams can read what’s happening in real time and act on it, the rewards show up fast. Real-time customer journey orchestration cuts service costs, protects revenue, and keeps customers from abandoning a brand when frustration peaks.

The clearest way to see the impact is by looking at the “moments” where speed and context matter most. Each represents a chance to either save a relationship or lose it.

Rescue moments: failed payments, abandonments, and stuck self-service

Few situations create friction faster than a transaction failure or a dead-end in self-service. Traditional systems may capture the error but act too late, often following up hours later with an email that the customer ignores. Real-time journey orchestration (RTJO) turns those critical failures into a save opportunity.

When a payment declines, the platform can instantly attempt an alternate payment rail, trigger a push or SMS with a retry link, or, if the customer calls, route them to an agent who already sees the failure and possible fixes. In self-service channels, if a chatbot loop or authentication issue stalls progress, orchestration tools can escalate to a human before the customer abandons the journey.

For instance, HSBC implemented a real-time system, and cut abandonment rates by 48%, reduced average handle time by five minutes per interaction, and lowered transfers by 32%. Supervisors also gained about two extra hours each day thanks to live insights and routing improvements.

Disruption moments: travel changes, outages, and service incidents

Unplanned events like a flight delay, a broadband outage, or a medical service surge can overwhelm service channels if handled slowly. Batch notifications or static IVR menus simply can’t keep up when thousands of customers need help at once.

Real-time journey orchestration lets organizations push clear, timely updates and adapt routing rules as conditions change. Instead of customers flooding phone lines blind, they can get personalized alerts, self-service options, or direct access to specialized support. Some companies even use insights to stop issues before they happen.

IC24, a leading U.K. healthcare provider, once reviewed barely 2 percent of patient interactions by hand. Today, it analyzes every single one through a real-time analytics platform. That shift has meant faster, safer decisions during sudden demand spikes (including the intense waves of COVID) and slimmer IVR paths that get patients to the right care without delay.

Value moments: catching opportunity while it’s live

Some moments aren’t about fixing what’s broken – they’re about recognizing a chance to add value before it slips away. A customer lingering on a premium product page, an account edging toward a usage cap, a family planning a major purchase. These signals fade fast if a brand waits until the next scheduled campaign.

With real-time journey orchestration (RTJO), service and sales teams can react while interest is still warm. Decision engines weigh browsing behavior, account history, and risk markers, then trigger an action that feels helpful rather than pushy.

For example, at Ambuja Neotia, an Indian real-estate group, instant lead scoring and agent-assist tools mean the most engaged prospects go straight to the right rep. Hot-lead conversions jumped from 40% to 80%, doubling the impact of each marketing dollar.

Effort moments: smooth handoffs when automation stalls

Self-service has its limits. Voice systems mishear names, bots loop endlessly, and authentication can fail at the worst possible moment. What drives customers away isn’t automation itself – it’s having to start over once they finally reach a human.

Real-time journey orchestration keeps that from happening. The system watches for friction, then hands the case to a live agent with everything intact: menu selections, transcripts, account context. The customer moves forward instead of back to square one. Employees get guidance, too.

For instance, brokerage Angel One tied all service channels into one platform and gave agents guided workflows in real time. The payoff: first-call resolution climbed by 18–20% and average handle time dropped 30%, even as remote work reshaped its contact centers.

Experience moments: listening live and improving fast

Great service isn’t just about reacting to obvious events. It’s also about spotting friction before it turns into a complaint. Every digital tap, survey response, or call recording is a clue if it can be processed fast enough to drive change.

Real-time journey orchestration (RTJO) gives service leaders that ability. Feedback and behavioral signals flow in as they happen; analytics engines flag patterns; orchestration tools adjust messaging, routing, or self-service flows the same day instead of weeks later.

Example: Spanish bank ABANCA uses live feedback across contact centers and digital channels to spot pain points and act quickly. The approach has fueled higher acquisition conversion and sped up process improvements.

By treating every click and comment as a potential signal and closing the loop immediately, brands move from reactive fixes to continuous improvement. Agents benefit just as much. Broken workflows get fixed quickly instead of forcing customers to call again and again.

Implementing Real-Time Customer Journey Orchestration

Acting in the moment doesn’t happen by chance. It takes planning – linking identity, live events, decisioning, and every service channel into one fast, connected loop. For customer service teams, getting this right means fewer escalations, lower handle times, and a journey that actually feels connected.

The most important thing? The right architecture. Teams need building blocks for:

• Identity and consent. A customer data platform (CDP) or connected CRM becomes the single source of truth. It keeps track of who the customer is — even as they move from anonymous browsing to an authenticated session — while respecting consent rules.
• Event fabric. Systems need a live feed of signals: failed payments, app errors, delivery updates, usage spikes. Standardizing those feeds keeps triggers reliable.
• Rules and AI models decide what should happen next. They balance urgency, relevance, and compliance – for example, suppressing a marketing email while routing a payment failure to an agent.
• Once a decision is made, the action must happen instantly: an SMS, app push, proactive chat, or a fully contextual hand-off to the contact center. Modern CCaaS platforms increasingly build this natively for instance, check out Genesys Cloud’s journey management capabilities and NICE’s orchestration innovations
• The leaders in orchestration keep a close eye on first-contact resolution, transfer rates, abandonment, containment in self-service, and how much effort customers actually spend. They add voice-of-customer sentiment to see whether journeys feel easier.

Building this doesn’t require a massive, years-long overhaul. Many teams start small: tie together identity and event data, launch a few high-impact triggers, and grow once the results prove the value

The Future for Real-Time Customer Journey Orchestration

Real-time orchestration today is mostly about reacting well when something happens. The next wave will go further: predicting and preventing friction before the customer ever feels it.

One driver is agentic AI – systems that don’t just suggest next steps but quietly reshape journeys in the background. These tools will summarize interaction history, recommend compliant responses, and update rules when patterns shift. Instead of waiting for analysts to re-map journeys, the platform itself will fine-tune flows as new behaviors emerge.

Another change is predictive service. By combining journey analytics with machine learning, platforms can spot early signs of trouble – like unusual app activity or network data that hints at a looming outage – and trigger preemptive outreach. Customers might get a helpful notification or an alternative payment option before they even know there’s a risk.

Governance will matter more, too. As orchestration engines start to make proactive decisions in regulated industries such as banking, healthcare, and utilities, companies will need transparent audit trails and clear consent management. Decisioning can’t be a black box when compliance and trust are at stake.

For customer service leaders, this shift means fewer angry calls and lower costs, but it also means new skills: journey scientists who tune models, CX strategists who weigh risk and reward, and operations teams ready to roll out changes fast. The brands that build this muscle now will be ready when orchestration moves from reacting in seconds to preventing problems altogether.

Building an Engine for the Moments That Matter

People make up their minds about a brand in fast, fragile moments – when a payment fails, a call drops, or a service hiccup ruins the day. Real-time customer journey orchestration flips those points of friction into chances to help, keep revenue on the table, and avoid another round of costly support.

The approach is straightforward: stay tuned to live events, understand who they affect, and step in right then, while the moment still matters.

Ready to upgrade journey orchestration? Explore our guide to the power of generative AI in CJO, or discover how to scale safely, with this article on secure, scalable orchestration.

Rhys Fisher sits down with Miguel Marcos, VP of Operations at Enghouse Interactive, to unpack one of the most pressing debates in customer experience: Is cloud the only path to modernization?

Together, they dive into why flexibility, not rigid vendor mandates, is the real key to innovation in the contact center world.

Cloud-first strategies may dominate the headlines, but are they really the best fit for every business?

In this candid conversation, Miguel Marcos reveals why organizations need freedom of choice when it comes to CX transformation – and how Enghouse Interactive empowers IT and CX leaders to modernize on their own terms.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this discussion:

How the evolution of cloud technology has reshaped CX, and why compliance and control still matter.

The risks of vendor lock-in and the hidden challenges of cloud-only adoption.

What “a contact center without compromise” means in practice – spanning on-premise, hybrid, and cloud deployments.

The role of AI in Enghouse Interactive’s modernization roadmap, and how it delivers value across every deployment model.

Whether you’re exploring SaaS, hybrid, or on-premises solutions, this interview shows why modernization doesn’t have to mean compromise.

Next Steps:

• Watch the full interview for actionable insights on CX modernization.
• Subscribe to CX Today for more expert discussions with leading voices in the industry.
• Learn more about Enghouse Interactive’s flexible CX solutions by visiting their website.

Take Microsoft’s Q1 2026 earnings call, for example, beneath the numbers, the tech giant revealed how its AI strategy is trying to redefine customer experience.

From conversational retail journeys to intelligent collaboration, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella’s comments painted a picture of AI as the new connective layer between work, service, and engagement.

Below are the four key takeaways from Microsoft’s customer experience AI strategy.

Microsoft AI Customer Experience: 4 Key Insights

1. Copilot Becomes the Interface for Work

Perhaps the most striking comment from Nadella came early in the call, when he stated:

“Copilot is becoming the UI for the agentic AI experience. We have integrated chat and agentic workflows into everyday tools like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams.”

That line says a lot about Microsoft’s direction. It is clear that the vendor no longer views Copilot as just a helper; instead, it’s becoming the way people use Microsoft 365.

Nadella revealed that “tens of millions of users” are already engaging with Copilot chat, with usage “growing 50% quarter over quarter.”

For CX and contact center teams, that matters.

If AI chat is becoming the default interface for everyday work, customer-facing workflows are bound to follow.

It will be interesting to see whether this approach ripples into service platforms, knowledge bases, and ticketing systems over the next year.

2. Guardrails Arrive for Enterprise AI

As AI systems gain popularity and take on more autonomy, governance is becoming crucial.

To help its customers keep up with rising compliance demands, earlier this month, Microsoft launched its new Agent Framework, designed to simplify the orchestration of multi-agent systems

During the call, Nadella addressed the significance of this solution:

“Our new Microsoft Agent Framework helps developers orchestrate multi-agent systems with compliance, observability, and deep integration out of the box.”

And this isn’t just theoretical; the Microsoft man claimed that professional services firm KPMG has already used it “to modernize the audit process, connecting agents to internal data with enterprise-grade governance and observability.”

For customer service operations – where trust, data handling, and accountability are paramount – such frameworks are essential.

It’s one thing to deploy a chatbot; it’s another to ensure every AI decision is explainable, auditable, and secure.

3. Teams Gets Its Own AI Sidekick

Collaboration was also a key aspect of Nadella’s address, with the Microsoft man introducing a new “Teams Mode” for Copilot.

He explained how the solution allows users to “invite colleagues into a Copilot conversation.

“Our collaborative agents, like facilitator and project manager, prep meeting agendas, take notes, capture decisions, and kick off group tasks.”

In practice, that means Teams meetings could soon run themselves – or at least the admin side of them.

While this may sound like more of a UC announcement, for CX leaders, it implies the possibility of AI-facilitated teamwork that could make service handovers, escalations, and follow-ups smoother.

4. Security and Efficiency: The Other Side of AI

Much of the discussion focused on capability, but Nadella also underscored AI’s growing impact on efficiency.

In security, for example, he discussed the importance of Microsoft’s phishing triage agent in Defender. The AI‑powered virtual agent automatically triages user‑reported phishing emails, deciding whether a submission is a legitimate phishing attempt or a false alarm

During the call, Nadella claimed that “studies show that analysts can be up to 6.5x more efficient in detecting malicious emails” when using the tool.

At a time when more and more organizations appear to be succumbing to hacks and scams, giving users an extra layer of protection and peace of mind could be a real differentiator.

Indeed, you only have to look back at the recent Google-Salesforce customer data breach, which resulted in the FBI stepping in to warn customers about phishing attacks, to see how big an issue this has become in the customer service and experience space.

Away from security, Amy Hood, Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer, highlighted continuing strength in the company’s customer and business applications portfolio:

“Dynamics 365 revenue increased 16% in constant currency with continued growth across all workloads.”

It’s a reminder that while Copilot grabs the headlines, Microsoft’s broader CX stack is still growing steadily behind it.

Financial Snapshot

Microsoft’s results underscored the momentum behind its AI ambitions:

• Revenue: $77.7 billion, up 17% year over year
• Operating Income: up 22%
• Earnings Per Share: $4.13, a 21% increase
• Microsoft Cloud Revenue: $49.1 billion, up 25%

The Takeaway

For CX leaders, Microsoft’s latest earnings call provided a glimpse at how the vendor is utilizing AI to reshape both the employee experience and the customer interface.

Microsoft’s message was clear: conversational agents, orchestration frameworks, and intelligent automation are no longer experiments; they’re fast becoming the operational layer for how modern service and engagement will be delivered.

To dig into the challenges and opportunities of customer journey mapping, Charlie is joined by:

Katie Stabler, Founder of CULTIVATE Customer Experience by Design
Paul Hughes, Head of CX Sales for the UK, Ireland & South Africa at Mitel

Early in the discussion, Stabler emphasizes why journey mapping often falls short, and how bias, poor data application, and siloed thinking can derail CX efforts.

From there, the panel explores:

• Where Should Businesses Start with Journey Mapping? Stabler shares how to unify the business behind customer journey maps, not just the frontline, and why that’s a critical first move.
• How Culture and Technology Fit Together: Hughes highlights how siloed technology stacks can fragment customer journeys, and why stitching applications together drives visibility and efficiency.
• Can AI Build Customer Trust? Both guests stress the importance of applying AI mindfully, starting with customer and employee needs, so it strengthens trust rather than undermines it.
• Why CX Must Be a Movement, Not a Project: Stabler explains how piecemeal, tactical CX initiatives fail to deliver ROI, and why embedding customer experience into culture is the only way forward.

Now watch the new guide on best practices for workforce management in the AI-era.

For more on how to stich together the applications behind journey maps, visit: mitel.com

Enterprises have embraced tools like visual engagement, cobrowsing, and AI-powered guidance to reduce user friction.  

Meanwhile, public sector agencies – often bound by complex procurement processes, stringent compliance standards, and legacy infrastructure – have struggled to keep up.  

That gap isn’t about ambition; it’s about access.  

As Zac Scalzi, Director of Sales at Cobrowse, puts it:  

“Public sector organizations know exactly what their constituents expect: fast, secure, and intuitive support on web and mobile channels.  

“What’s held them back isn’t a lack of vision; it’s the complexity of procurement and the compliance hurdles they face at every turn.” 

However, this dynamic is starting to shift, with vendors like Cobrowse helping to equip the public sector for the modern customer service space.   

Indeed, the company recently announced a new strategic partnership with Carahsoft, a leading IT solutions distributor and government-trusted provider.  

The collaboration is designed to make next-generation cobrowsing and digital support capabilities more accessible to U.S. federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as education and healthcare institutions.  

The partnership also aims to bring modern cobrowsing technology directly into the procurement frameworks that agencies already trust – bridging a gap that has existed for years.  

Procurement Roadblocks and the Innovation Gap  

In the main, public sector agencies have managed, or at least attempted to, keep pace with rising customer expectations.  

This means that citizens, patients, and students are accustomed to the slick, seamless support experiences they receive from their banks, telecom providers, and retail platforms. So, when they interact with government services, they expect the same.  

Yet, while the demand is clear, delivering those experiences has historically been difficult.  

“Even when an agency finds a solution that meets their technical needs, it can take months, or even longer, just to clear the procurement and security review process,” Scalzi explains.  

“That delay doesn’t just impact IT teams; it impacts end users who are left waiting for better experiences.” 

Several factors contribute to this challenge:  

• Many vendors lack the certifications and contract vehicles needed to be procured by public sector agencies.  

• Security and IT teams – responsible for protecting sensitive citizen, student, or patient data – are rightly cautious.  

• Tools that aren’t pre-vetted or listed on government catalogs often require lengthy due diligence before deployment.  

These hurdles have left many agencies reliant on outdated support channels, forcing users to navigate complex portals and applications with little real-time assistance.  

“When digital journeys become too complicated, users don’t just get frustrated, they abandon them,” Scalzi notes.  

“For critical services like healthcare enrollment or student applications, that’s not acceptable.  

Carahsoft + Cobrowse = Security, Compliance, and Speed  

The new partnership between Cobrowse and Carahsoft directly addresses those procurement barriers.  

Carahsoft is a well-established partner to U.S. government and public sector organizations, offering pre-approved contract vehicles like GSA, SEWP, and NASPO.  

By aligning with Carahsoft, Cobrowse’s technology can now be acquired through these trusted frameworks, dramatically reducing procurement friction.  

Scalzi explains how Carahsoft “gives agencies the confidence that they’re working within compliance-ready frameworks.  

“We’re meeting them where they are, inside the procurement and security structures they already use,” he said.   

Of course, availability is only half of the equation.  

Public sector organizations also require technology that meets strict security and compliance standards.  

Cobrowse was designed with these priorities at its core. Key features include:  

• DOM-based cobrowsing, rather than traditional screen sharing, so only the web or mobile interface is shared – not the user’s entire screen.  

• Data masking and redaction, ensuring that sensitive fields such as personal health information or student IDs remain invisible to agents.  

• Self-hosted deployment options, giving agencies control over where data is processed.  

• Audit logging and retention controls, enabling traceable, compliant interactions.  

• Accessibility compliance (WCAG / ADA), ensuring every user can access support.  

This combination of features allows agencies to modernize their support channels without compromising on their strict security or compliance requirements.  

Real Outcomes for Agencies and Customers  

For public sector leaders, the benefits of this partnership are both operational and human.  

Faster procurement cycles mean agencies can deploy modern support tools more quickly. Lowered security risks provide assurance to compliance teams. And the result is improved digital experiences for the people who rely on these services every day.  

“With this partnership, agencies don’t have to choose between modernization and compliance,” Scalzi emphasizes.  

“They can give their support teams the tools they need to guide users through complex processes in real time.” 

For example, a state health department could use cobrowsing to assist patients navigating insurance portals, or a school district could support teachers and students with digital learning platforms.  

Instead of long email chains or confusing phone calls, agents can guide users visually through each step.  

Enabling Modernization Mandates  

Many public sector agencies already have digital modernization mandates in place, which focus on improving accessibility, reducing friction, and increasing citizen satisfaction. But mandates require practical solutions to become a reality.  

Scalzi says that he views Cobrowse “as an enabler.  

“Public sector organizations have the strategy, Carahsoft has the procurement infrastructure, Cobrowse provides the technology; together, we’re accelerating modernization.”  

This alignment reflects a broader industry trend.  

As government agencies continue to digitize services, cobrowsing and visual assistance tools are increasingly viewed not as optional enhancements, but as essential components of an accessible digital service stack.  

Looking Ahead 

The Cobrowse–Carahsoft partnership is more than a procurement shortcut. It’s a catalyst for change in how government, healthcare, and education organizations deliver digital experiences.  

In the coming months, the two companies plan to roll out training programs, support resources, and pilot projects to help agencies realize quick wins in support time reduction, error resolution, and user satisfaction.  

“Modernizing digital support isn’t just about technology,” Scalzi concludes.  

“It’s about delivering experiences that are secure, compliant, and human, so that every citizen, patient, or student can get the help they need, when they need it.” 

For public sector agencies, the modernization frontier just moved closer. For the people they serve, the experience is about to get a lot smoother.  

You can find out more about how Cobrowse’s technology is being deployed within the contact center space by checking out this article. 

You can also discover the company’s full suite of services and solutions by visiting the website today.