Episode topics
00:00 - Introduction
01:01 - Mark Abraham's question about the customer journey
02:19 - Brian Breslin's question about customer loyalty
03:40 - Diane Magers' question about leadership communication
05:10 - Adrian Swinscoe's question about proving ROI
06:16 - Jelena Bajic's question about taking action
07:03 - Conclusion
Transcript
[00:00:00] Robert Zirk: On Questions for now, I ask influential thought leaders big questions in digital customer experience.
[00:00:07] But today, the questions haven't been written by me — and they're not for our guests to answer.
[00:00:13] It's your turn. Over the past year, our guests have each contributed one question that listeners like you need to be thinking about.
[00:00:22] What you're about to hear are five of those questions — previously unreleased audio that'll help you to take a considered approach to delivering better customer outcomes in 2026.
[00:00:34] So today on Questions for now, we ask: What five questions should CX leaders ask to improve customer outcomes in 2026?
[00:00:50] Welcome to Questions for now, a podcast from TELUS Digital where we ask today's big questions in digital customer experience. I'm Robert Zirk.
[00:01:01] Our first question comes from Mark Abraham, co-author of Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI, from the episode The era of AI-driven personalization is here. What now?
[00:01:13] Mark Abraham: I would have a passionate appeal for your listeners, which is put yourself in the shoes of your customer and ask yourself: "Is this the best experience we can deliver?" Maybe go through a shopping experience or look at and sign up for your emails or your loyalty program or a digital experience that your brand has. And just really experience it for yourself and ask yourself, "Is this the best that we could possibly do?" I think that's the mindset that leaders and personalization leaders, in particular, need to take to compete in the right way in the age of AI. And if they do, the rewards are tremendous.
[00:01:58] Robert Zirk: In the full episode, Mark referenced five key promises to the customer that have to be fulfilled for personalization to be effective.
[00:02:06] The question he wants you to ask is central to the last promise, which is "delight me."
[00:02:12] Mark Abraham: No experience or brand may be perfect, but it's about how to improve with each and every interaction.
[00:02:19] Robert Zirk: When you actually walk through your own customer journey, you might discover friction points you never knew existed. Maybe it's a confusing checkout process that's costing you conversions. Or a support experience that takes three transfers to resolve what seems like a simple issue.
[00:02:35] These gaps frustrate customers — and in turn, they put revenue at risk, because even customers who seem satisfied can leave. And when they do, it costs you far more than just their next purchase.
[00:02:49] The next question comes from Brian Breslin, vice president of fintech and SaaS at TELUS Digital, from the episode Why do satisfied customers leave?
[00:02:59] Brian Breslin: Ask yourself: if your biggest competitors offered your customers a 15% or 20% discount, is your customer experience good enough to make your customers stay? And just to top that off, ask yourself: are you just measuring satisfaction or are you measuring love or loyalty? Are your customers advocates? Are they true advocates?
[00:03:19] Robert Zirk: Brian's question gets to the heart of the difference between satisfaction and loyalty. Satisfaction is passive. Customers aren't unhappy, but they're not emotionally invested either. Loyalty is active. It's when customers become advocates who likely wouldn't leave — even for a better price.
[00:03:40] Building loyalty requires investment. Yet most CX leaders today face tightening budgets and demands to deliver more with less.
[00:03:50] So how do you win buy-in with leadership? How do you secure budget when everyone's being asked to cut costs?
[00:03:58] Often, a failure to win investment isn't because the ideas aren't sound, but because CX leaders walk into the boardroom speaking a different language than the executives they're pitching to.
[00:04:09] Question number three addresses this challenge directly. It's from Diane Magers, co-author of The Customer Experience Field Guide, from the episode Is experience management the new customer experience?
[00:04:22] Diane Magers: When you're talking to leadership, are they paying attention? Oftentimes we hear a lot of people say, "I just need to get my leaders engaged and they need to support it." And yeah, they need to own it. But when you're coming in and talking about, "Hey, I need money to go do these journey maps and I need to get the Voice of Customer and all those pieces," they're not hearing what they care about. They're not hearing "in order to build revenue, in order to reduce costs, to increase profitability, to curb defection." We're not talking their language.
[00:04:52] And so I would question, when you make a presentation to leadership, are you talking in their language? Are you helping them understand that experience drives business outcomes?
[00:05:03] Robert Zirk: Diane's question about speaking leadership's language is crucial for gaining the budget you need to execute your CX initiatives.
[00:05:10] And equally crucial is proving your investment will deliver a positive return so that you can continue to build on your success with your budget in subsequent years.
[00:05:20] That leads us to our fourth question from Adrian Swinscoe, author of Punk CX and Punk XL, from the episode How can you alleviate cost pressures in customer experience?
[00:05:31] Adrian Swinscoe: When you are pitching new projects or you're pitching for budget or for investment, ask yourself this: where is the clear and demonstrable ROI of what you're proposing? Because if you can't answer that, you might be in for a hard time.
[00:05:47] Robert Zirk: Adrian's focus on ROI is about staying accountable and honest. You need to prove the value of your CX investments.
[00:05:55] For example, reducing customer effort can directly lower operational costs while improving customer retention and satisfaction scores. Or consider proactive communication during service disruptions. It might require more effort upfront, but it can reduce ticket volume spikes and even contribute to lowering customer churn rates.
[00:06:16] But sometimes the pressure to prove ROI can lead to analysis paralysis, stifling progress. Innovation often requires taking a small step forward that can deliver an immediate improvement. And if it works, you now have something more to build from.
[00:06:33] To wrap up, our last question of five also comes from the same episode. It's from Jelena Bajic, vice president of global operations excellence at TELUS.
[00:06:44] Jelena Bajic: What is one practical thing that you can do today that you can test and learn that will advance your customer experience for tomorrow? And just try it out. Go with your gut and try it out.
[00:06:57] What's the worst that happens? It doesn't work, and you just revert back to what you did yesterday.
[00:07:03] Robert Zirk: We've just heard five important questions CX leaders should be asking themselves about how they can improve customer outcomes. Let's recap:
[00:07:13] Mark asked: when's the last time you experienced your own customer journey?
[00:07:18] Brian asked: would your customers stay despite a better offer?
[00:07:22] Diane asked: Are you speaking leadership's language?
[00:07:26] Adrian asked: where's the demonstrable ROI?
[00:07:30] And Jelena asked: what can you test today?
[00:07:33] So here's my challenge to you: choose one of these five questions, then take action based on your answer.
[00:07:44] Thank you to all of the guests who took the time to ask the big questions we heard today.
[00:07:49] If you want to go deeper on any of these topics, all of the experts you heard today have been guests on recent episodes of Questions for now.
[00:07:57] We'll include links to their episodes in the show notes for this episode at questionsfornow.com, and you can also find their full conversations by searching Questions for now — Compelling perspectives on digital CX anywhere you listen to podcasts.
[00:08:12] And if you'd like to hear even more compelling insights from influential leaders in digital customer experience, be sure to hit the follow button on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to Questions for now so that you can be among the first to hear the newest episodes as soon as they're released.
[00:08:30] Thank you so much for listening to Questions for now, a TELUS Digital podcast. I'm Robert Zirk, and until next time, that's all... for now.
