CX Insights
Five Below CEO: ‘Maniacal focus’ on CX drove strong Q1 2025
Even discount stores know they need to focus on customer experience. The Five Below CEO shared on the latest earnings call how the chain’s investments in CX paid off with sales rising 7.1% YoY.
The changes include:
- more labor hours for associates
- easier procedures for associates
- curated inventory at whole-dollar price points to improve stocking and the shopping experience
The timing is serendipitous: As economic concerns drive higher-income consumers to more affordable retailers, they may become loyal if the impression is good. My experience with Five Below is limited to running in for candy before going to my local movie theatre next door, but next time, I’ll browse and check out the improvements for myself.
IBM on future of AI in customer service
Maybe it’s because I always see IBM ads with cute drawings promoting AI and AI agents on the train, but when I saw this article with IBM’s predictions about the future of customer service, I needed to check it out.
It lists six “AI-based customer service trends that will help provide better customer service across the entire customer journey”:
- Agentic AI: autonomous, problem-solving agents
- AI-powered self-service
- Conversational AI that adapts
- Generative AI as an agent copilot
- Hyper-personalization in real time
- More proactive and predictive support
The great news: most of this is already here. Kustomer has AI Agents, AI-powered self service, Generative AI as a copilot, and bidirectional handoff for true human-in-the-loop capabilities.
CX leaders just need to get the right tech or take time to set it up. (Schedule time to talk to our team about how Kustomer can help your brand!)
Klarna CEO: human customer service a “VIP thing”
The Klarna AI vs. human customer support saga continues! This time, TechCrunch reports at a fireside chat at London SXSW, Sebastian Siemiatkowski said, “We think offering human customer service is always going to be a VIP thing.”
In some ways, this makes sense, but I can also see a world in which this backfires. Each brand will have to define what makes someone a VIP. This model could be a double edged sword. You could build loyalty for your existing VIPs who are accustomed to the higher level of service. But, you could struggle to attract new customers who know they are relegated to a lower tier of support until they meet some criteria they may not know.
As we explore AI-powered customer support as an industry, I still think a human-in-the-loop model will prevail. People want to talk to people when they have problems they can’t solve on their own, and customers shouldn’t have to be “very important” to get help.
AI News
New CCAAS on the block taking on “generic automation”
AI is capable of expediting customer support, but much of AI-powered customer support experiences feel generic and scripted, and likely just hands the conversation off to a human agent. Three companies have teamed up to launch GRAIA, an Agentic CCAAS platform designed to take on that challenge and provide tailored customer support.
However, the key to higher-quality AI-powered support is not another bolt-on tool. The best results will come when you use an AI that is ingrained with your tech stack so it can leverage your first-party customer data for personalized service.
Solidroad raises $6.5M
Solidroad aims to train customer service representatives and AI Agents and just raised $6.5m including participation from Y Combinator, competing with the likes of ObserveAI, CrestaAI, and LevelsAI. The co-founder and CEO says that scaling past 10,000 conversations a month is the breaking point for quality and cost-efficiency, and better training of both AI and human agents is the key.
Tune In
Looking for growth strategies for your apparel brand? Carina Shahin from the Kustomer team will be joining a webinar with ShipBob to speak on the power of customer experience as a growth driver, plus speakers from Northbeam, Okendo, and Aftership.
It’s Wednesday, June 18th at 11 AM Pacific / 2 Eastern. RSVP here!
