How To Love a Customer

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Jordan Cousins, Director of Customer Experience Operations at Who Gives A Crap, shares how a single cancellation email — from the family of a long-time customer moving into aged care — turned into a company-wide moment of generosity. The customer happiness team spotted the signal, asked a couple of careful questions, and before long the internal Slack thread had exploded with ideas. Welcome gifts went out. The co-founder wrote a handwritten letter. No tracking, no referral code, no social post attached. Jordan explains how Who Gives A Crap's "random acts of crappiness" work precisely because they aren't measured. He walks through why the company deliberately splits customer happiness (the frontline) from customer experience (the insight work) while keeping them in one department, and why that separation makes both jobs better. Drawing on nearly seven years at the profit-for-purpose paper brand — and earlier stints launching Deliveroo in Australia — he makes the case that kind gestures only land when the fundamentals underneath already work. He's equally direct on what's overhyped: the "deliver and delight" trend minus the deliver, and the framing of AI as a solution rather than a tool. He shares the story of a chatbot the team built four years ago that quietly failed — not because it was bad, but because customers never saw it. Every touchpoint flowed through email, so customers hit reply. The new approach embeds AI into the email queue, handling the fast, low-emotion requests while keeping humans on anything that needs real judgement. Tune in to learn why Who Gives A Crap protects the human moments, automates the transactional ones, and does kind things for customers with nothing attached to the end of them — and why, in Jordan's words, "if it's a choice between a robot or a human, the human wins."

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Lisa Knowles, Strategic Program Manager at Miro, shares how she used an AI workflow she’d built inside Miro to prepare for a meeting with a Japanese customer she’d never spoken to. By pulling together CSM notes, scoping documents, annual reports, and competitor data, she walked into the room with tailored recommendations and a full presentation — in Japanese — ready in under an hour. The customer couldn’t believe it was their first conversation. Lisa explains how that moment crystallised something Miro had been building toward: a culture where customer centricity isn’t a slogan but an operating system. She breaks down how the company empowers every team to experiment with AI, why their “canvas is the prompt” philosophy keeps humans in the loop, and how their breakout AI Flows feature is driving new teams onto the platform by making multi-step AI workflows visual and transparent. She also gets into the practical mechanics of scaling customer insights: how CSMs save four to six hours per engagement with AI-powered research, why the “everyone should be an analyst” model only works with the right guardrails, and how Miro’s product teams take different approaches to customer data depending on whether they’re building widgets or full solutions. Along the way, she shares her take on why “alignment” is an overused buzzword, why Costco is the gold standard for customer loyalty, and what a handwritten note from a Delta flight crew taught her about the power of small gestures. Tune in to learn how Miro is turning its own platform into an engine for customer understanding — and why the companies that win aren’t the ones that talk about customer centricity, but the ones that build the systems to actually deliver it.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Lennard Winters, Product Manager leading IKEA's global customer audience platform, reveals two quietly powerful stories about what happens when you truly listen to customers. The first: a customer discovery session where shoppers admitted they'd stopped saving wishlists — because they trusted retargeted ads to remember their browsing for them. The second: how a digital product team found that simplifying IKEA's paper receipt (removing lines no customer actually used) saved millions in costs and improved the experience — all through subtraction, not addition. Lennard unpacks the philosophy behind IKEA's digital product approach: the "customers don't want a drill, they want a hole" principle that drives discovery; how 90% of IKEA's digital products are built globally with local exceptions only for legislation; and why empowered product teams — organised by customer journey ownership — are trusted to autonomously find and fix the problems that matter most. He explains how, at IKEA's scale, even small improvements compound into enormous value. He also shares how marketing and product are more intertwined than most organisations admit — and why "advertising as a product feature" might be the most honest description of modern personalised retargeting. Add in hot takes on hyper-personalisation as a buzzword to retire, Tesla's dashboard as the gold standard of cutting clutter, and a delightfully simple delivery SMS that won his heart — versus a telco whose disconnected systems represented everything CX should not be. Tune in to learn how thinking like a product manager can transform your CX practice — and why, sometimes, the most valuable thing you can do for your customer is figure out what to remove.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Domonique Brown—Head of Customer Experience at Liquid IV—shares how one frustrated customer completely changed her approach to building CX at scale. Early in her time at the company (when she was just employee #11), Domonique responded to a Facebook message with playful brand energy borrowed from her beauty industry background. Within minutes, that customer called—upset, frustrated, and feeling dismissed. They had a medical condition Domonique wasn't familiar with, and what she thought was engaging came across as generic and uncaring. That moment taught her the most important lesson of her career: when customers are putting your product in their bodies, trust beats brand voice every single time. Domonique unpacks how that interaction shaped seven years of customer experience strategy at Liquid IV, a company that went from $20 million in revenue to a billion-dollar brand now part of Unilever. She explains why CPG customer experience is fundamentally different—customers aren't just buying a product, they're making choices about their health and wellness. From college athletes to people managing POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), every customer has different needs, concerns, and expectations. Liquid IV's CX team had to learn how to instill confidence and trust, not just deliver great service. She also reveals how Liquid IV uses AI strategically—deploying chatbots for simple, repeatable tasks like product questions and order tracking, while empowering human agents to handle complex, trust-building moments. The result? Customer satisfaction scores actually improved after implementing AI because agents could focus on what they do best: building relationships, solving problems, and going above and beyond. Domonique also shares how her team built "surprise and delight" into their formal annual strategy, supporting loyal customers (especially the POTS community) during financial hardship and reaching out to top fans with exclusive gifts and flavors. Drawing from her experience scaling CX through hyper-growth, Domonique breaks down why training is a lost art—and how teaching agents to think strategically (not just close tickets) creates a culture of ownership and empathy. She explains why negative feedback is a gift (customers complaining means they care), why there's no single "hero metric" for CX success, and why democratizing voice of customer data across quality assurance, product, marketing, and operations is what separates good companies from great ones. Tune in to learn why listening to customers—especially the difficult conversations—drives competitive advantage, why AI should free up humans (not replace them), and how one upset phone call can reshape an entire CX philosophy for years to come.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Rufus Weston—insights leader with decades of experience at BBC, Nike, Just Eat, HarperCollins, and now running his own consultancy—shares how one powerful mantra from a CMO changed everything: "Love your customer like you love your wife." What started as a simple phrase became the foundation for how Rufus thinks about building customer-centric cultures, proving the value of insights, and turning CX into a business driver instead of a cost center. Rufus walks through the evolution of customer insights—from telephone surveys to AI—and explains why, despite all the technological change, the fundamental challenges remain the same: getting a seat at the table, communicating impact, and making insights actually matter to leadership. He breaks down the three ingredients every insights team needs to succeed (strong team, customer-focused culture, and listening leadership), and why most companies still get it wrong by treating customer experience as an expense rather than an investment. Drawing from his time at Just Eat under Adrian Blair (now CEO of Trustpilot), Rufus reveals how leadership sets the tone for customer obsession, why ROI calculations for CX are often misleading, and how treating your customer experience as your business model—not a budget line—is the real path to sustainable success. He also shares unexpected CX heroes like Abel & Cole and the Dutch government, proving that great customer experience doesn't require flashy gimmicks—just reliability, empathy, and genuine care. Tune in to learn why loving your customer isn't just good ethics—it's good business. And why sometimes, the simplest advice is the most powerful.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Eli Weiss — longtime DTC operator and now a leader at Yotpo — shares how a single customer email at OLIPOP exposed a major production error: root beer accidentally canned as Vintage Cola. What could have been written off as a confusing complaint instead became a defining moment in how fast, empowered CX teams can protect a brand from disaster. Acting quickly prevented the wrong product from hitting shelves nationwide — and reinforced just how much customer insight matters long before dashboards detect a problem. Eli unpacks how that moment shaped his philosophy on customer experience: meet expectations before you try to exceed them, move quickly when customers raise alarms, and build cultures where CX voices carry all the way to the founder. He contrasts meaningful listening with performative “surprise and delight,” explains why most brands try to build peaks before filling the valleys, and shares how expectation-setting — not gimmicks — is the real engine of LTV in DTC. Drawing from his time at Olipop, Jones Road Beauty, and now Yotpo, Eli breaks down why some brands scale sustainably while others burn through cash, how DTC has evolved across three generations, and why CX is often the invisible differentiator behind profitable growth. He also offers candid takes on AI, why most metrics miss what customers actually feel, and how brands can avoid delighting the wrong people with the wrong gestures. Tune in to learn why listening deeply, acting fast, and empowering CX teams isn’t just “good service” — it’s a competitive advantage. And why, in Eli’s words, sometimes the customer isn’t wrong… you just haven’t caught up yet.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, James Villacci, Head of Global UX Research at HelloFresh, shares how one scrappy usability test—run on top of a New York City dumpster—uncovered a critical friction point in the signup flow and proved just how directly customer problems can impact revenue. James explains how that moment helped shift HelloFresh from seeing research as “nice to have” to building a company-wide culture where insights drive decisions. He describes his “research restaurant” model, where teams across the business become chefs of their own small studies, and insight “meal kits” empower product, engineering, and commercial teams to de-risk ideas quickly and at scale. He also reveals how the unique complexity of meal-kit UX—balancing choice, simplicity, personalization, and global eating habits—informs everything from menu filters to the launch of new meal occasions. And with tools like Chattermill and new AI workflows, his team now uncovers patterns and trends in minutes that once took weeks, helping HelloFresh evolve as fast as customer expectations. Tune in to learn how James built a research practice that’s playful, memorable, and relentlessly customer-obsessed—and why sometimes, one fast insight can shift an entire organization’s mindset.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Olga Arsenii, Head of Customer Insights at Qonto, shares how one frustrated customer exposed a weakness in their onboarding experience—and sparked a company-wide movement to fix it. While analyzing feedback with her team, Olga discovered that many new users felt alone and overwhelmed during account setup. Support agents were reading scripts instead of solving real problems, and language barriers only made things worse. Within weeks, cross-functional teams—from frontline support to C-suite leaders—came together to redesign the process, proving that at Qonto, everyone owns customer experience. Olga explains how a culture of curiosity and action, not rigid frameworks, helped her young insights team turn data into change. She reveals how they use tools like Chattermill to uncover pain points at scale, why “customer delight” isn’t fireworks but simply things working right, and how balancing speed, reliability, and empathy defines great CX in modern FinTech. Tune in to learn how Qonto built a company where customer insights drive every decision—and why sometimes, one piece of honest feedback can transform an entire organization.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, Anastasia Zdoroviak—former CX leader at DoorDash and Rappi, now Chief Customer Experience Officer at Snoonu—shares a personal story that perfectly captures what great CX really means. One night in Mexico City, her daughter couldn’t sleep because of mosquitoes. The stores were closed, delivery slots were full, and no quick fix seemed possible—until her own team unknowingly solved the same problem for thousands of users by analyzing failed search sessions and launching 10-minute deliveries from dark stores. Anastasia explains how this “mosquito moment” became proof that data-driven empathy can transform customer pain into product innovation. She discusses how to build CX functions that reduce the need for support, why NPS isn’t enough, and how different cultures—from the U.S. to Latin America to the Middle East—define trust, communication, and “on-time” in completely different ways. Tune in for insights on setting the right success metrics, balancing tech and human touch, and why the best CX goal is to make support almost unnecessary.

In this episode of How to Love a Customer, David McDaid from END. Clothing shares the customer story that transformed his company's approach to quality - one where everything possible went wrong. Warehouse delays, customs issues, weather problems, a missing package, and finally the wrong item delivered after a week and a half. Instead of writing it off as bad luck, David's team created an internal "quality score" system that evaluates every order against six common failure points. Their score jumped from the mid-40s to the high-90s, customer complaints dropped dramatically, and the original customer returned to thank them personally. David also discusses why customer service teams shouldn't be cost centers and how challenger banks like Monzo are reshaping customer experience expectations across industries. Subscribe for more insights from leaders who turn customer disasters into competitive advantages.

In this episode, Julia Zuber from Lime Home reveals how a seemingly minor guest complaint about sleep quality led to one of their most impactful customer experience improvements. What started as scattered feedback about uncomfortable nights turned into a company-wide pillow revolution that transformed guest satisfaction scores. Julia shares the detective work that uncovered the real culprit behind poor sleep experiences across 5,000 properties in Europe. It wasn't the beds, the rooms, or the booking process - it was something so basic that it almost slipped through the cracks entirely. By diving deep into guest feedback patterns and enriching data with room-level insights, her team discovered how one small change could dramatically improve the entire stay experience. Beyond pillows, Julia opens up about building a customer insights culture from scratch in a fast-growing hospitality company, why she believes "delight" is an overrated customer experience goal, and how support teams hold the key to understanding what guests really want. She also tackles the tricky balance between AI automation and human connection in hospitality, sharing lessons from Lime Home's own chatbot experiments. Subscribe for more customer experience insights from leaders who prove that the most powerful improvements often come from paying attention to the details everyone else overlooks.

In this episode, James McGhee from Foot Asylum shares the customer story that completely changed how he thinks about experience design, and it involves a whole butchered pig, a narrowboat, and a freezer that couldn't handle the cold. When James took an escalation call from a customer whose entire year's worth of pig meat had spoiled due to a faulty freezer, he discovered something crucial: the experience you design isn't always the experience customers receive. This self-sufficient customer living on a narrowboat had bought a chest freezer specifically to store his pig, but nobody had educated him about temperature operating limits. What happened next? A ruined investment and a powerful lesson about the gap between what businesses think they're delivering and what customers actually get. James reveals how this moment sparked a transformation at Foot Asylum, where customer feedback became their primary tool for solving operational mysteries that traditional metrics couldn't detect. When delivery partners insisted everything was running smoothly while customer satisfaction plummeted, James used voice-of-customer data to uncover hidden problems like cherry-picked review requests and delayed processing that was invisible to standard logistics reports. The outcome? Improved carrier relationships, better customer experiences, and a culture where every team member is empowered to solve problems with principles, not prescriptions. This episode is packed with insights on building customer-obsessed teams, using feedback to challenge vendor relationships, and why the smallest customer stories often reveal the biggest business truths. Subscribe for more customer experience insights from leaders who turn unexpected moments into lasting competitive advantages.

In this episode, Abdul Khaled from E.O.N. Next reveals how they cracked the code on customer engagement in one of the world's most boring industries - energy. With customers only engaging once per month when they receive their bill, E.O.N. Next had to make that single touchpoint count, transforming complaints about high bills into opportunities for deeper customer relationships. Abdul shares the fascinating detective work that uncovered the real reason behind billing complaints: disconnected smart meters that customers didn't even know were broken. By digging beyond the obvious and creating simple solutions like automated alerts and step-by-step meter reading guides, they achieved a 75% increase in customer engagement and proved that even utility companies can create experiences that customers actually care about. This episode is packed with insights on root cause analysis, rapid iteration with real customers, and building customer-centric teams that can move at startup speed within a massive corporation. Subscribe for more customer experience insights from industry leaders who have turned constraints into competitive advantages.