AI Is transforming customer experience – but not always for the better

Have you ever had the experience where customer service tries to get you to use a chatbot (“the online service has all the information our representatives have”), but you know it’s not going to answer your question and you just want to get to a human? That got me wondering: are chatbots actually improving the customer experience, or are they just one more hoop we have to jump through?

It turns out that, while many companies are racing to adopt AI for customer service, research shows that customer satisfaction hinges on how AI is used – not whether it’s used at all.

AI can be brilliant – when it’s used thoughtfully. Across industries, AI is quietly powering some truly impressive improvements in customer experience. For example:

  • Sephora uses an AI chatbot to recommend makeup based on your skin tone, weather, and preferences. Customers say it feels like having a personal stylist on call.
  • Capital One’s AI assistant, Eno, flags suspicious charges or unexpected fees before you even notice. That kind of proactive help builds trust.
  • Tripadvisor now offers an AI-powered itinerary planner that can build a multi-day travel agenda based on your interests, budget, and travel dates—all in seconds.

These tools work well because they respect the customer’s time and reduce friction. They enhance the experience without replacing the human touch entirely.

However, AI doesn’t always lead to great customer service. Customers expect to escalate to a human when needed – a but many chatbots don’t make that easy. Forrester found that fewer than 20% of chatbot interactions are fully resolved without human support. In other words, customers are often left feeling stuck. And when that happens, satisfaction drops. Fast.

The problem isn’t AI itself – it’s poor implementation:

  • Bots that can’t understand nuance
  • Rigid, rule-based scripts
  • No clear way to “talk to a person”
  • Privacy and data concerns

What works best is the “human-in-the-loop” model: AI handles the repetitive, high-volume tasks, and humans step in for the complex, emotional, or nuanced ones. That is, AI works with humans, not instead of them.

MetLife, for example, uses AI to listen in on service calls and provide live coaching to agents – suggesting responses or flagging when a customer sounds frustrated. The agent stays in charge, but gets a digital co-pilot. That’s a smart use of AI. It boosts speed and empathy.

If you’re considering how to use AI to improve your company’s customer experience, here are three places to start:

  • Look for friction: Where are customers getting stuck, delayed, or dropped? AI can help – but only if you’ve clearly mapped those trouble spots first.
  • Respect escalation: Don’t make customers “prove” they deserve to talk to a human. Make the human option easy, fast, and friendly.
  • Keep it transparent: Let people know when they’re talking to a bot. Let them know what the bot can and can’t do. Set expectations up front.

And finally: make sure your AI is improving the emotional experience – not just the technical one.

The bottom line: AI can absolutely improve customer experience. But it doesn’t always. The difference lies in whether the tool is designed to make customers feel more understood – or just more processed.

Like most things in business (and life), tech works best when it’s paired with a human mindset. That means empathy, curiosity, and a deep understanding of what your customers actually need.

Want to know more about how AI can improve the customer experience at your company? Ask about our presentation “AI-Driven Customer Experience: Unlocking Loyalty, Retention, and Growth.” Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

Sources: “Consumer Insights: Trust In AI In The US, 2024,” Forrester, October 6, 2024; Bureau West research

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Emotional marketing for uncertain times

In an era of economic jitters, AI anxieties, and political whiplash, emotional resonance is the secret weapon that’s setting brands apart. When the ground feels shaky beneath our feet, we gravitate towards what resonates with our innate human desires for comfort, security, and understanding.

Enter emotional marketing. This isn’t just a buzzy term – it’s a powerful, science-backed tool that helps brands cut through the noise and reach their customers on a deeply human level.

  • Google nailed this with its recent Pixel Super Bowl ad, “Dream Job.” It didn’t talk specs. It didn’t showcase flashy features. Instead, it followed a father navigating the vulnerable experience of re-entering the job market. With AI gently supporting him and his daughter cheering him on, the ad struck a universal chord: hope, self-worth, and the courage to begin again.

    That’s what great emotional marketing does. It makes people see themselves in the story. It whispers, “This brand gets me.” Contrast that with a generic pitch about camera megapixels.
  • Or consider the “Clean Feels Good” campaign from Clorox. In a post-pandemic world, cleanliness isn’t just hygienic – it’s emotional. It represents control, calm, even joy. Clorox turned a bottle of bleach into a symbol of serenity.

Emotional advertising doesn’t just feel good – it performs. According to Marketing Week, emotionally driven campaigns tend to outperform rational ones over time – often by a long shot. Especially when budgets are tight, emotion gives marketers more bang for their buck. A heartfelt story can do the heavy lifting of a million media impressions. That’s good news for lean teams and challenger brands. Because emotional storytelling isn’t just for Fortune 500s. It’s a mindset, not a media buy.

In a world of uncertainty, brands that make people feel seen are the ones that stick. So ask yourself: Is your brand creating comfort? Spark? Relief? Are you telling stories that people want to step into? Are you offering more than just a transaction – maybe even a tiny transformation? Let’s uncover how to connect with your customers. Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

Sources: “3 Emotional Marketing Campaigns Winning Hearts in 2025,” Studio ID, March 19, 2025; “Emotional brand-building can help a little more budget go a long way,” MarketingWeek, January 29, 2025

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Understanding customers more deeply

In my last Research Tidbit, we discussed the importance of uncovering customers’ unconscious motivators and the use of techniques from NLP and hypnotherapy, such as guided visualization, to do so.

Another valuable technique for market researchers is the ego state approach, widely used in hypnotherapy. This model suggests that our personalities are made up of different “parts” or ego states, each of which comes to the forefront in different contexts.

For instance, an accountant might draw on a highly analytical part of herself when reviewing a spreadsheet, but access a more playful part while riding a rollercoaster with her kids. Most of the time, these parts work together smoothly – but not always. If you’ve ever thought, “A part of me wants to eat that donut, but another part knows I’ll regret it later,” you’ve experienced a moment when your internal parts were in conflict.

The ego state approach can be very helpful in understanding customer decision-making and how to appeal to all the parts involved in the decision. In research sessions, we can apply this approach by:

  • Asking about the parts involved in the decision.
    “Is there a part of you that really wants to make the purchase? A part that’s hesitant? Are there other parts that have concerns?”
  • Exploring the motivations of each part.
    “If the part of you that wants to go for it could speak, what would it say?”
  • Discussing what would help align the parts.
    “What would the resistant part need to feel more comfortable? What information or reassurance would help it get on board?”

This technique encourages participants to move beyond purely rational explanations and share emotional, intuitive, and even contradictory motivations – which are often more telling and actionable than logical responses alone.

For clients, the benefits go beyond deeper empathy. The ego state approach can help marketing teams:

• Create richer personas that reflect different internal drives and tensions.
• Identify internal conflicts that may be blocking conversions.
• Design messaging that speaks to multiple “parts” of the consumer—addressing doubts while inspiring desire.

By mapping out these inner dynamics, brands can craft communications that don’t just inform, but resonate – acknowledging and validating the complex inner worlds that shape real-world choices.

Let’s find ways to understand your customers more deeply. Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

Reference: “Ego State Therapy,” Gordon Emmerson, 2007

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman

Uncovering unconscious motivators (part 1)

We’ve long known that the unconscious mind plays a major role in customer decision-making. Influential researchers like Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, and Gerald Zaltman have written about how emotions and unconscious memories shape our choices. (Note: Gerald Zaltman is not related to me… as far as I know!) People’s decisions are largely based on emotions and unconscious memories; yet, when asked how we come to our decisions, we use our conscious minds to come up with a rational answer – which may or may not be accurate!

One of the advantages of qualitative research is its ability to uncover these hidden motivators. Projective techniques, for example, help us get beyond surface-level responses to reveal deeper emotions and drivers. Lately, I’ve been exploring neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and hypnotherapy – two fields that specialize in accessing the unconscious mind – to see what qualitative researchers can learn. There are several powerful techniques we can adapt and apply in our work.

One particularly useful technique is guided visualization, commonly used in NLP to retrieve unconscious memories and imagine desired outcomes. In qualitative research, we can leverage this method to help participants recreate past experiences and envision ideal future scenarios – both of which yield richer insights than traditional questioning.

Take a retail client, for example. Instead of simply asking customers about their last visit to the store, we can immerse them in the memory:

  • In a one-on-one interview, have the participant close their eyes and relax. Guide them through their last visit: “Picture yourself walking into the store. What do you see? What do you hear? How do you feel?”
  • Move through the entire experience: browsing, interacting with staff, making a purchase. Probe for emotions: excitement, hesitation, satisfaction, regret.
  • What feelings lingered after the visit? Would they return? What made the experience memorable – or forgettable?

This technique activates the senses and emotions tied to the experience, unlocking deeper insights that may not emerge in a standard interview. It helps clients understand not just what customers do, but why they do it – and how they feel about it.

But we don’t have to stop at recreating past experiences. Once the participant is fully engaged, we can ask them to visualize an improved version of the experience.

  • “What would make shopping here more enjoyable?”
  • “If this store wanted to feel extra premium, what should change?”
  • “What would make you want to return more often?”

Instead of asking customers to rationally brainstorm improvements, this method lets them feel their way into the answer. It often reveals insights we wouldn’t get through direct questioning.

Guided visualization is just one technique that can enhance qualitative research. In my next Research Tidbit, I’ll explore the ego state approach, a method from hypnotherapy that can help uncover internal conflicts in decision-making. Customers frequently have a part of them that wants to make the purchase and part that doesn’t: we can learn how to appeal to both sides.

Let’s discuss how to uncover your customers’ unconscious motivators. Email me at info at bureauwest.com.

References: “Hidden Minds,” Harvard Business Review, June 2002; “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” Daniel Kahneman, 2011; “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions,” Dan Ariely, 2008

Posted on by Jay Zaltzman