As brands invest further in seamless journeys, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered personalisation and omnichannel engagement, customer experience (CX) has become both more important and more difficult to execute consistently. The fragmentation of the media and advertising landscape means brands now interact with consumers across more platforms than ever before, leading to the creation of several new brand touchpoints across both digital and physical spaces. At the same time, the integration of AI and automation have led to an influx of data that is collected from consumer interactions. While this creates opportunities for deeper engagement with consumers, it is a double-edged sword.
Despite growing investment, CX can still suffer from data not translating into decisions and designs that consumers actually interact with, creating a gap and disconnect between what the brand believes it delivers and what consumers actually encounter. A recent global State of CX report by Medallia highlights this divide, finding that while 66 per cent of CX practitioners believe that experiences are improving, only 17 per cent of consumers agree.
- June Yek, Senior CX Manager, Cheil Middle East,
- Kushal Desai, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Publsh Media Group, and
- Nadim Mohanna, Head of Marketing, Communications for European Brands, Stellantis Middle East.
Everyone knows what good CX looks like
The industry is no stranger to what good CX looks like. Previously, good consumer experience was limited to convenience alone. With the growth and maturation of the market and consumers becoming more sensitive and educated, the focus has now grown to encompass consistency, personalisation and emotional relevance.
Cheil Middle East’s Yek shares that what makes a memorable CX today is something that is “seamless, personalised and consistent across every touchpoint – whether digital, physical or human-interaction.”
From a brand perspective, Stellantis Middle East’s Mohanna agrees with the sentiment, noting that it “requires a smooth, frictionless process at every touchpoint”. Publsh’s Desai says that “a memorable customer experience is all about transparent and seamless storytelling”.
Owing to rising consumer expectations, the quality of experience with the brand while interacting with it plays a big role when it comes to brand choice. The report mentions that 58 per cent of consumers chose a company in their most recent interaction because it provided a better experience than its competitors.
This comparison of experience is not limited to like-versus like.
“Customers no longer compare brands only within the same industry,” says Yek. “Instead, they compare every experience against the best experience they’ve had anywhere.”
The change in consumer expectations has also led to a change in how brands should measure customer experience. They’ve moved from purely transactional key performance indicators (KPIs) to emotional indicators.
“Customers today not only value personalisation and transparency but also seamlessness and speed,” says Mohanna. “In the automotive industry, we can measure customer satisfaction through customers’ experiences with call centres, aftersales and our service team. Each of these interactions plays a major role in building long-term customer loyalty, as people often value convenience and consistency as much as they value the product itself.”
While brands commonly measure CX through net promoter score (NPS), consumer satisfaction score (CSAT), and consumer effort score (CES), those metrics alone are not enough, according to Yek. “Organisations should also monitor emotional indicators such as trust, confidence, happiness index and overall customer sentiment to
understand whether they are truly building long-term relationships.”
Desai further echoes this sentiment, with a stronger focus on trust and impact.
“When it comes to measuring success, we always look past basic surveys. It’s really about looking at the bigger picture: are customers getting value from the services? At the end of the day, it comes down to measuring the trust we’ve built and the lasting impact of the stories we tell,” he says.
So why does it still fail?
While the industry mostly agrees on what strong CX should look like, the execution of it still remains a complicated challenge.
One of the biggest gaps in CX execution, according to Yek, is the failure to act. She notes that brands often collect feedback and data through surveys but fail to actually do something with it, creating a gap between insight and action.
This leads to the creation of the inside-out design, where brands then build experiences based on internal priorities or assumptions rather than actual consumer needs. “Speed and efficiency are not wrong goals,” says Yek. “But they become problems when they replace empathy.”
The disconnect becomes more visible when customers move between channels. “CX often falls short when it comes to the transition between digital and physical touchpoints,” says Mohanna. “Communication can become fragmented across different channels. A brand may well achieve a smooth, convenience process for customers, but one of the biggest challenges is maintaining consistency across the entire journey.”
A major part of the broken handoffs between platforms is caused by operational silos, explains Yek, adding, “A great digital experience falls apart the moment a customer calls because teams don’t talk to each other.” Greater numbers of teams amplify the separation further and create fragmented outcomes.
Desai says, “CX most often falls short when there is a disconnect between the promises made during the pitch and the day-to-day execution. When PR, media and marketing teams operate in silos, the client receives a fragmented, inconsistent brand narrative.”
Mohanna notes that this is a greater challenge for dealer networks where CX can vary significantly across different teams in various locations.
CX failures also stem from wider organisational and internal issues. According to the marketers, CX can begin to fail internally before the consumer even encounters the brand. One of their main concerns is rooted in brands’ pursuit of metrics in place of fixing problems.
“Teams celebrate a good NPS score while the underlying issue stays unresolved,” says Yek, who calls for metrics to be actioned and not just reported.
She also calls for more structured processes to turn insight into action, clearer ownership to close feedback loops and a company culture that is genuinely committed to the principle that happy employees create happy customers.
While Yek wants clearer operational structures, Desai believes that organisations also need the flexibility to adapt quickly when circumstances shift.
“You must always leave room for change,” he says. “Teams can design elaborate, well-planned campaigns, but shifting news cycles and media changes require instant redirection. When strict processes prevent quick adaptation, the friction can damage the client experience and break trust.”
The automation dilemma
Brands continue to invest in AI and automation for efficiency purposes within the sector. However, this has given rise to another area of conflict, one created between operational speed and emotional connection.
Marketers share that while automation is an integral part of the process to create value, it is not the cause of the tension itself. The problem lies with the manner in which automation is used within the process. Technology works best when it is used to remove friction and eliminate menial repetitive tasks in the background, allowing teams to focus more on consumer interactions and tasks where human judgement is irreplaceable.
“Media monitoring and monthly reports can be easily automated to eliminate bottlenecks and be more efficient. However, things like the interpretation of that data, crisis management, media relations and customer experience remain strictly human,” says Desai. “Our focus has always been on automating the straightforward tasks so our teams can focus on delivering a meaningful experience.”
Mohanna reiterates that the main purpose of the technology is to simplify the customer journey, not replace the human element entirely.
“The right balance comes from using available data and digital tools to empower teams on the frontline and help them deliver more relevant, responsive and personalised customer interactions,” he says. “Technology can help remove any friction from the process and enhance its speed, allowing teams to focus on customer interaction and creating stronger, more personalised relationships.”
Understanding where automation adds value and where human interaction matters most is the key to balancing technology and human input, according to Yek. Achieving this begins with drafting a clear framework that defines where automation adds value and where human judgment is irreplaceable.
She says, “Automation should handle volume and repetition; people should handle complexity, ambiguity, and emotion. When those roles get reversed, the experience breaks. Then measure what actually matters.
Yek adds, “Not every metric is worth tracking, only the ones that drive the outcome you are after. Pair that with strong internal alignment so that efficiency targets do not quietly override experience quality. Speed and empathy are not opposites, but without intentional structure, speed usually wins by default.”
She also warns of the detrimental effect that over-investing in technology while underinvesting in
people can have on CX, saying, “AI and automation matter, but if the employee experience is broken, the customer experience follows.”
What needs to change?
While 80 per cent of CX experts report positive outcomes from the use of AI, only 7 per cent of consumers are willing to forgive its mistakes, calling for more human to human connection within the realms of CX. For brands, this means the next step of building customer experience may depend less on investment into technology and more on moving towards rebuilding emotional connections with consumers. In order to achieve this, marketers call for a change in the way CX is measured. They call for a move away from transactional KPIs to focus more on long-term values such as engagement and loyalty and understanding relationships.
“The industry should shift its focus from transactional metrics to transformational impact. This means moving away from rewarding teams solely on output volume and instead incentivising qualitative engagement and brand loyalty,” says Desai.
On the brand side, Mohanna says, “Brands need to move beyond measuring only transactional KPIs and focus more on long-term customer loyalty and emotional engagement. Genuine relationships between a brand and its customers rely on understanding customer needs and delivering experiences that feel both personal and reliable.”
Brands also need to shift from measuring activity to measuring relationships by answering the
right questions.
“Are customers more loyal, more trusting, more likely to advocate?” asks Yek. “That requires leadership commitment and cross-functional accountability, not just a CX team working in isolation. Culture has to support it, or strategy will not deliver it.”
The next key change that marketers call for is to stop treating CX as a separate department and align teams better.
“A stronger alignment between the communications and customer-facing teams is needed to deliver a consistent and customer-centric approach. This shift towards valuing relationship-building, in turn, will help enhance customer experience and foster customer loyalty,” says Mohanna.
Desai adds, “Across the industry, brands must view CX as what it is: not a separate department, but a foundation driving every communication strategy and piece of content.”
Finally, the biggest requirement for brands to build better connections is through more investment in face-to-face and experiential engagement.
“Digital is efficient, but it is thin on connection,” Yek says, “The brands building real loyalty are the ones that still show up in person – through events, community-building, and direct human moments. That layer is what turns a well-designed experience into an actual relationship.”
