Episode 4: Trust Is The New Currency of Digital Customer Experience with Steven Van Belleghem

Episode 6: What if AI makes your customer experience worse, not better with Steven Van Belleghem and Michel Stevens

In this episode of CX Matters, host Bram De Vos sits down with Steven Van Belleghem and Michel Stevens to explore one of the most uncomfortable questions in customer experience today: as AI moves to the centre of the customer relationship, what happens to trust? Does it get easier to build, or does it become more fragile as the decisions get more automated? From the massive adoption of consumer AI tools to the slow crawl of corporate customer service, the conversation digs into why, three and a half years into the generative AI era, almost no incumbent has a chatbot that matches the quality of the assistant already sitting in their customers' pockets. Steven challenges the idea that AI will magically solve customer experience, makes the case for deep loyalty as the next real differentiator, and argues that the winning companies of the next decade will compete on emotional connection, not operational excellence. Michel warns that AI is a megaphone, not a fix: it amplifies whatever sits underneath, so weak data and broken processes only get louder. Through stories about an airline chatbot that promised a refund the company did not want to honour, a parent snapping pictures of recipes and asking an AI assistant to convert them for a kitchen gadget, a politician caught quietly using AI to reply to constituents, and tourists complaining to a city tourism office because the place did not look like the AI generated Christmas pictures, the discussion reveals how AI is quietly reshaping the contract between brands and the people who buy from them. A candid and forward looking conversation about trust, differentiation, emotional loyalty, and what customer experience starts to look like in a world where programmed friendliness is beginning to outperform the human kind. Key findings from the episode * AI adoption in customer service has disappointed. Three and a half years into the generative AI era, no major incumbent has reached that level of conversational quality in their own service. The technology is ready. The organisations are not. * The blockers are not the model. Legacy systems, fear of legal exposure, slow internal processes, and regulation are what hold large organisations back. Early chatbot liability rulings have not helped. * Real change takes longer than the hype. Driverless cars, augmented reality glasses, and the smartphone app ecosystem all took roughly a decade to truly mature. Customer service will follow the same curve. * AI risks widening the distance between brand and customer. When your agent talks to my agent, the direct relationship quietly disappears, and with it the chance to build any real connection. * Operational excellence is becoming a commodity. Companies that only invest in transactional perfection will end up looking like everyone else, and they will be undercut by cheaper alternatives. * Emotional connection is the next differentiator. Deep loyalty, belonging, and community are the things AI cannot copy at the speed of a model release. They are also what people choose to be part of. * The bar for human interaction is rising. Programmed friendliness is now consistent, patient, and pleasant. Human staff in stores and on calls have to be noticeably better than that, not the same. * Authenticity has become harder to prove. When something is genuinely impressive, customers now assume it was made by AI. Effort no longer earns automatic credit. * Customer centricity must be seen to be done. Companies need to show customers what their feedback actually changed, not just process it quietly in the back office. * AI amplifies what is already there. Bad data, weak processes, and unclear positioning do not get fixed by automation. They get louder and more expensive. * The old marketing questions still matter. What makes you different? Why should anyone be loyal to you? AI will not answer those for you, and that is the point. Learn how Hello Customer turns feedback into business improvements: https://www.hellocustomer.com [https://www.hellocustomer.com/]

Episode 5: How to build a customer-centric culture that actually lasts with Michel Stevens

In this episode of CX Matters, host Bram De Vos sits down with Michel Stevens to explore one of the hardest questions in business today: how do you actually embed customer centricity into an organization, instead of just talking about it? From leadership mandate to micro CX leaders on the front line, the conversation digs into what separates organizations that genuinely live customer experience from those that treat it as a quarterly report. Michel challenges the idea that CX is a "grassroots" movement, makes the case for capabilities over maturity models, and explains why following your gut still matters in a world obsessed with data. Through stories about claims processes that should take two days instead of ten, B2B leaders who read customer feedback every morning before opening their inbox, and the difference between leaders who say they care and the ones who prove it when things get hard, the discussion reveals what real customer centricity looks like inside the walls of an organization. A candid and practical conversation about leadership, culture, training, and what it takes to make customer experience part of the daily rhythm of a business. Key findings from the episode * Customer centricity needs both top and bottom. Senior leadership has to endorse and live it, but it also has to live in the walls of the organization through everyday decisions. * CX is a moving target, not a destination. You don't "become" customer centric. You practice it, the same way you practice agile. * Think capabilities, not maturity. Maturity implies an endpoint. Capabilities can be built, stretched, and applied continuously. * Leadership mandate is non-negotiable. Without it, CX projects burn energy and go nowhere. Michel walks away from projects without it. * Watch what leaders do, not what they say. The "go to gemba" test reveals whether a leader actually walks the floor and engages with real customer interactions. * Follow your gut sometimes. Data is powerful, but over-reliance on dashboards can suppress the human judgment that makes great CX possible. * Train continuously, not once. CX training is a series of interventions and nudges, not a single workshop. People need course corrections to stay sharp. * Build micro CX leaders. Empower individuals to make the right call in real situations rather than scripting every interaction. * Use feedback in two loops. The inner loop solves the individual customer's problem. The tactical loop tackles the top three recurring issues, week after week. * Introspection is the new differentiator. As efficiency and innovation become easier to copy, the organizations that know who they are and what matters to them are the ones that will stand out. * Customer centricity is the most fun strategy. Cheapest is a race to the bottom. Most innovative gets caught up in an instant. Closest to the customer is where meaning and competitive edge meet. Learn how Hello Customer turns feedback into business improvements: https://www.hellocustomer.com [https://www.hellocustomer.com/]

Episode 4: Trust Is The New Currency of Digital Customer Experience with Steven Van Belleghem

In this episode of CX Matters, host Bram De Vos sits down with Steven Van Belleghem to explore a growing tension in modern business: as companies become more efficient and automated, do they risk losing customer trust? From AI-driven service to community-driven brands, the conversation dives into how organizations can balance efficiency with human connection. Steven challenges leaders to rethink their obsession with short-term ROI, argues for intuition alongside data, and explains why the future of competitive advantage will be belonging and trust rather than perfect transactions. Through stories about telcos, viral brand moments, pet-food companies sending condolence gifts, and the famous “doorman vs elevator attendant” metaphor, the discussion reveals how companies can remain human in an increasingly automated world. A candid and practical conversation about leadership, customer trust, and what will truly differentiate companies in the age of AI. Key findings from the episode * Trust requires short-term sacrifice. Truly customer-centric companies are willing to lose money in the short term to build long-term trust. * Micro ROI obsession kills great ideas. Not every action needs a measurable return. Small “ROI-negative” gestures can create huge brand value. * Efficiency alone won’t differentiate companies anymore. AI will make high-quality service cheap and widely available. * Customer relationships will become the real competitive advantage. Brands must create emotional connection and community, not just frictionless transactions. * Consumers now have AI superpowers too. Intelligent agents will make switching providers effortless, increasing price competition. * Community-led brands are rising. Creators and community leaders can rapidly build businesses based on trust and belonging. * Companies must shift from selling products to enabling success. The winning mindset is “how do we help our community succeed?” rather than “how do we sell more?” * Intuition still matters in leadership. Over-reliance on data can suppress creativity and bold decisions. * Most organizations kill good ideas internally. Fear, legal concerns, and risk avoidance often suffocate innovative customer initiatives. * The “doorman vs elevator attendant” lesson. Automation replaces tasks, not meaningful human value. Roles that provide trust, empathy, and real assistance will remain essential. Learn how Hello Customer turns feedback into business improvements: https://www.hellocustomer.com [https://www.hellocustomer.com/]

Webinar. Beyond the Hype: GenAI in Customer Experience in 2026

In this Hello Customer webinar, CEO Bram De Vos is joined by CTO Jonas Beullens for a blunt, practical conversation about AI in customer experience, and why the loudest takes are usually the least useful. They open with a deliberately provocative claim: AI is threatening your job. Then they quickly pop the balloon. Predictions around “AGI is near” and “whole professions will disappear” have been confidently wrong before, and the bigger point is simple: in the next three to four years, CX is far more likely to be reshaped than erased. The work shifts, but the human layer still matters because customers still prefer humans for many moments that count. From there, Bram reframes the hype cycle: what looks like a sudden revolution is often a long evolution. LLMs feel new because they became visible to everyone at once, but the underlying trajectory has been building for years. And the people shouting “this changes everything” often have something to sell, or at least attention to win. Then they tackle the opposite complaint: AI doesn’t know our craft. The answer is “it can, but only if you feed it properly.” Jonas breaks down how language models work, and why outcomes depend heavily on inputs. A simple story makes it stick: a friend failed a golf rules exam using ChatGPT, then passed after uploading the rulebook. Same tool, different context, completely different results. They bring it back to CX execution with concrete examples from Hello Customer: evolving from basic categorization and sentiment to hyper personalized taxonomies, adding implicit feedback from chats, emails, and call transcripts, and using Ask Isaac to turn questions into consistent, data backed reports. A key warning shows up here too: plain ChatGPT can give confident but inconsistent answers to the same question on the same dataset, which is exactly why prompt enrichment, retrieval, and traceability matter. On trust, they land on two pragmatic guardrails: verify sources (like Perplexity does, and like Hello Customer does by linking back to knowledge base articles or verbatims), and treat privacy as real risk, not an afterthought. They call out data leakage and model training concerns, and explain why keeping models and processing inside the EU and preventing data reuse changes the equation. They close on the 2026 direction: the real leap is from insights to action. Automate the low risk work, keep a human in the loop for high risk moments, and aim for fewer dashboards and more guided next steps. The final advice for CX people is refreshingly unglamorous: get your hands dirty, try one small use case each week, share what works, and do not give up. Learn how Hello Customer turns feedback into business improvements: https://www.hellocustomer.com [https://www.hellocustomer.com/] You can watch the full webinar and see the discussion unfold on video here: https://www.hellocustomer.com/en/resources/webinars [https://www.hellocustomer.com/en/resources/webinars]

Webinar. Voice of Customer Intelligence: Using customer feedback to gain competitive advantage

In this Hello Customer webinar, CEO Bram De Vos is joined by Michel Stevens, course director at CXM Academy, for a no nonsense look at how to turn feedback into action, and why most companies still miss the point. Key Topics Covered: * The importance of reading raw customer feedback daily * The blind spot of focusing only on complaints * Two-dimensional customer relationships (emotional connection vs. product satisfaction) * The three layers of service recovery (functional, emotional, social) * Proactive feedback collection strategies * Communicating customer centricity internally and externally * Calculating ROI through promoter/detractor analysis Core Takeaway: "Never assume, always ask" — understanding customer reality through direct conversation is vital. Learn how Hello Customer turns feedback into business improvements: https://www.hellocustomer.com [https://www.hellocustomer.com/] You can watch the full webinar and see the discussion unfold on video here: https://www.hellocustomer.com/en/resources/webinars [https://www.hellocustomer.com/en/resources/webinars]