9 ways to improve your customer experience

“You are caller number 10; please stay on the line.” A few years ago, a phone message like this from a company was a standard part of the customer experience.

But today, customers expect more. They expect callback options. They expect to open a chat window on your website, send a text message or a DM, and get a near-instant reply. They expect that you already know who they are when they call, that you’re aware of their most recent order, and that you understand what they need next. They don’t want to repeat their information, and they definitely don’t want to wait.

In our annual Media & Entertainment Industry Data and AI Trends report, evolving customer expectations ranked as one of the top business challenges, with 81% of consumers expecting faster service and 73% expecting better personalisation. In this article, we’ll walk through nine ways to improve your customer experience using fresh insights from the report.

Customer experience (CX) is how people perceive every interaction they have with your business, across sales, service, marketing, and beyond.

“Customer experience and service have converged,” said Peter Schwartz, Salesforce Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning. “It’s more than call centres and successful responses to problems. It is service opportunities in sales, support, and marketing. Delivering great customer experiences now means providing amazing, almost magical service at every opportunity.”

Think about the last time you called your cable provider, filed an insurance claim, or booked a holiday. Was the process smooth and helpful, or frustrating and slow? The way those moments feel shapes how people perceive your brand.

Customer experience (CX) is the full picture; it’s how customers perceive every interaction they have with your business, from first visit to long-term loyalty. That includes browsing your website, speaking to sales, using the product, and more.

Customer service is one part of that journey. It’s the direct support you provide when something goes wrong or when a customer has a question.

Both matter, but great service alone isn’t enough anymore. Customers now expect a seamless, personalised experience at every stage.

The experience of your customers directly shapes how they see your brand, and it has a tangible impact on whether they make a purchase or become repeat customers.

Here are five benefits you can expect from providing a quality customer experience.

1. Stronger loyalty: When customers feel valued and understood, they stick around. One bad experience can push someone away, but a good one makes them more likely to come back.
2. Lower churn: Keeping a customer is much easier than finding a new one. Great experiences reduce cancellations and complaints. This is especially important for subscription or service-based businesses.
3. More referrals: People who love your service are more likely to buy again and recommend you to their friends and family. In fact, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with six or more people .
4. A clear point of difference: In a crowded market, experience is often the reason people choose one brand over another. A great experience could be the difference between your brand and your competitors.
5. Ability to charge more: Most customers are willing to pay extra for better service. That means a strong CX plan can support higher prices and margins.

Before we dive into the details, here’s a brief overview of the nine tips for improving the customer experience.

1. Invest in AI to personalise interactions at scale
2. Break down data silos to create a connected view of each customer
3. Automate manual processes to speed up service and reduce friction
4. Offer faster, AI-powered support across all channels
5. Use customer data responsibly to build trust and transparency
6. Scale personalisation consistently across every touchpoint
7. Improve backend operations to lift the overall experience
8. Get ready for a cookieless future and changing privacy expectations
9. Build ethical AI principles into every part of your CX strategy

Personalisation is no longer optional; customers expect it. In fact, we found that 73% of respondents say they expect better personalisation when technology improves, and 74% expect it when they share more data.

The level of personalisation customers expect today can’t be done by individual employees. Instead, it requires staff to be supplied with AI tools that can help them execute personalisation at scale.

Using built-in AI, your team will be able to tailor interactions in real time, across every channel and keep up with expectations as your customer base grows.

Disconnected systems create broken experiences and slow down your staff. We found that 46% of companies still have siloed or only partially integrated customer data. On top of this, a surprising 36% of businesses actually have a strategy but have not yet implemented it.

Data trapped in different parts of your business makes it hard to see the full picture, which leads to missed opportunities, inconsistent service, and frustrated customers.

Breaking down silos lets every team work from the same information, helping you respond faster, personalise better, and build more trust. In short, the more connected your data, the smoother the customer journey.

Manual tasks take up time and make things slower for your team and your customers. That’s why we are seeing more marketing and sales teams using AI to automate their processes. Already, 37% of marketing teams are using it to remove friction and free up time.

When teams cut out repetitive work, they can respond faster and spend more time on high-value tasks. Your customers will also feel the difference when they experience faster response times and consistent support.

We’ve all experienced a bad customer service experience. Slow service is something that makes customers view your brand negatively. We found that 81% of customers expect faster service, and they especially don’t want to wait in line or repeat information to different representatives.

How AI Agents Are Transforming Financial Services, One Call at a Time

AI-powered chatbots, real-time assistants, and automated responses can simultaneously handle common queries on the spot. They’re also available 24/7, helping your support keep up as your business scales. When your support is quick and helpful, it leads to happy, repeat customers.

Customers know their data is valuable, and they want to see clear benefits when they hand it over. However, 80% of customers think experiences should be better given all the data collected, and 51% don’t believe they benefit from their data being collected. This can be a huge trust-breaker.

If your customers feel unsure or uneasy, it weakens the whole experience. In a world where everyone's data is collected, and often sold or shared with ‘trusted third parties’, being the company that is fully transparent with your data usage can be a strong point of difference.

Personalisation works, and customers expect it everywhere. Sales and marketing leaders are already using AI to scale personalisation, with 40% of sales teams and 34% of marketing teams prioritising it as a top use case.

When we talk about personalisation, this isn’t simply adding names to your marketing emails; it’s understanding what people need, predicting what comes next, and showing up in the right way at the right time. In our State of the AI Connected Customer report, we found that 92% of marketers believe that their prospects or customers expect a personalised experience.

Behind the scenes, internal systems play a huge role in how smooth and reliable each interaction feels.

Perhaps that’s why 60% of media and entertainment companies are investing heavily in data to improve both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Better internal processes mean fewer delays, less confusion, and a more consistent experience for customers, even if they never see it.

The cookieless future is already here, and 37% of media companies say it’s one of their biggest challenges.

As privacy expectations continue to change, businesses need new ways to personalise experiences without relying on third-party data. That means rethinking how you collect, store, and use customer information.

As we mentioned earlier, being upfront about what data you use and why helps build long-term trust. The brands that adapt early will have a clear advantage as privacy-conscious experiences become the norm.

AI is powerful, but without the right guardrails, it can do more harm than good. Leaders in our latest report said they need stronger data strategies, better team training, and clear ethical guidelines to get the most out of AI.

Customers need to trust that your AI is safe, fair, and backed by real people. That means building strong governance, being transparent about how it works, and making sure your customers aren’t left in the dark.

If you want to improve customer experience, you need to know how your experience currently stands. That means tracking metrics and gathering feedback in a few different ways. Here are four ways to get started.

Surveys are a direct way to hear how your customers feel. Keep them short and focused, and look for patterns. The people who often respond to surveys are usually either really happy or frustrated, so you’ll get honest feedback from opposite ends of the spectrum.

While a steady trickle of churn might be normal (like parents outgrowing baby products), sudden spikes can indicate something in the CX is going wrong. Use an exit survey to help uncover whether it’s price, competition, or a bad experience that's driving your customers away.

Let customers tell you what’s missing. If the same request keeps coming up, it’s a clear sign that something needs to change. Acting on that feedback shows you’re listening and care, which is what builds trust and loyalty.

Support tickets are full of insights. Look for recurring pain points or confusing steps that people are reaching out for support with. Going in and fixing these points of friction can enhance the entire customer experience.

As with friendships, customer relationships bloom when individuals feel understood. Relationships weaken when customers feel that businesses don’t appreciate their personal preferences, whether that’s remembering they enjoy romantic comedies, or that they would rather be contacted by email.

Lack of trust can also derail a customer’s experience before it even starts. While customer data is an essential part of delivering personalised experiences, customers need to know that if they hand their data over, it will be safe, used legitimately, and beneficial to them.

How can companies better know and connect to their customers and build more trust? Listen to this discussion between Seth Godin, marketing guru and Founding Editor of The Carbon Almanac, and Brian Solis, Vice President of Global Innovation at Salesforce.

Telstra, Australia’s premier telecommunications company, saw that customer expectations were rising and its brand awareness was falling. In response, it launched a full-scale digital transformation using Salesforce.

The company simplified its product range and replaced slow, manual processes (including still using paper forms) with faster digital ones. In-store tasks like upgrading a plan or changing a service (which used to take up to two hours) now take minutes.

They now have 20,000 frontline agents, giving them a complete view of each customer’s history, preferences, and needs. They also use Einstein Next Best Action to recommend the right product to customers, instantly.

Behind the scenes, Telstra also connected its sales, service, and marketing teams using Journey Builder and CRM Analytics. This means fewer handoffs, more personalised messages, and faster support. Through giving their team and customers better tools, Telstra improved the customer experience at every level.

Strong customer relationships aren’t built overnight. However, when you earn trust and keep listening, the long-term payoff can be real for both your brand and your bottom line.

When you listen to customer feedback and act on it, you build trust, and that trust drives repeat business and referrals.

Macquarie Bank puts this into practice by gathering insights from contact centres, social media, and complaints teams, then using that feedback to strengthen client relationships. Over time, this has led to stronger retention and customer advocacy.

The modern customer expects businesses to act with integrity and choose brands that align with their values.

Brands like Lendlease take this practice to the next level. They use the Eudemonic Index to measure how people feel, then use that information to build environments that customers want to return to.

When customers feel heard and supported, they’re more likely to stay, spend more, and engage across multiple channels. This naturally reduces churn and drives ongoing growth.

Shelves of books are devoted to answering this question. However, the advice can be distilled to two pieces of wisdom:

1. Give your business a customer-first mindset. Put the customer at the heart of your business, from marketing to point-of-sale procedures and after-sales follow-ups. Make customer obsession principles part of executive conversations and business planning during pipeline reviews, inside shareholder meetings, and throughout business development. Ask what their needs are, what’s driving their decision-making, what their goals are, and what they’re feeling.
2. Get started with automation and AI. Get clear on the specific business problems you want automation and AI to solve. Once you’ve defined a specific use case, consider how existing workflows would be impacted and who would need to be reskilled.

Customers are open to companies using AI to improve the experience they receive, including chatbots, text and voice analytics, and more. In fact, AI adoption is surging from service teams and beyond.

Connected customers are knowledgeable and technology-aware, and they have limited patience for brands that can’t keep up. Delivering outstanding experiences isn’t a luxury; it’s an expectation. Those who do it well will be rewarded with customer loyalty and repeat business.