At Vanguard, every investment is centered on client needs—but delivering that consistently at scale takes more than intent.

In this week's episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Matt Brancato shares how alignment across teams, disciplined listening, and AI-supported frontline decisions come together to create a more unified client experience.

Trust isn't built through strategy—it's built through consistent execution.

If you're working to deliver customer experience at scale while maintaining trust, this one is worth your time.

🎧 Listen to the full episode and follow The Modern Customer Podcast for more CX insights.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

At Bimbo Bakeries USA, customer experience comes down to one goal: making products available where and when shoppers want them.

That means keeping shelves stocked across thousands of stores—every day.

This week on The Modern Customer, Jeffrey Hendrix, Chief Customer Officer at Bimbo Bakeries USA, shares how the company uses its 12,000 delivery routes to keep products available at scale.

Instead of relying solely on warehouses, Bimbo delivers directly to stores—restocking shelves, managing inventory, and responding to demand in real time.

That's how they maintain availability across their retail network.

🎧 Tune in to the full conversation.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

Contact centers have long been built on fragmented systems — CRM for customer data, separate platforms for calls and messaging, and AI layered on top.

But that model is starting to change.

In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, in partnership with Salesforce, Blake Morgan speaks with Gautam Vasudev, SVP of Agentforce Contact Center at Salesforce, about the rise of the agentic contact center — and how companies are beginning to unify AI agents, customer channels, and CRM data on one platform. #ad

One key idea: when AI agents and human agents share the same context, customers no longer have to repeat their problem multiple times they're transferred.

The conversation explores:

• Why contact centers have remained fragmented

• How AI and human agents can work together

• What shared customer context means for CX leaders

This episode is sponsored by Salesforce. Learn more about Agentforce Contact Center.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

Service economics have long depended on headcount. Scale meant higher cost, and capacity constrained performance.

AI changes that.

This week on The Modern Customer, Matt Price, Founder & CEO of Crescendo, explains how AI expands capacity and connects service directly to business outcomes.

Instead of charging per seat or hour, Crescendo ties pricing to measurable results. When teams treat service conversations as engagement opportunities, more than half involve buying intent — and repeat visits increase.

In this episode, you'll learn how organizations:

• Turn service interactions into buying moments

• Increase repeat engagement and loyalty

• Move beyond seat-based economics

• Scale service without proportional headcount growth

If you're thinking about how AI fits into your customer service strategy, this episode is for you.

👉 Watch the full episode and learn more at www.crescendo.ai

This episode is sponsored by Crescendo.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

New data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals nearly a decade of stagnation, a narrowing gap between top and bottom performers, and rising loyalty. Together, these shifts point to one conclusion: customer experience is converging.

In this week's episode of The Modern Customer, Forrest Morgeson, Director of Research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index, explains what this means for leaders heading into 2026.

As AI accelerates and economic uncertainty persists, differentiation becomes harder to sustain and more critical to get right.

If you're shaping your 2026 strategy, this conversation offers a clear, data-backed perspective on where competitive advantage is tightening — and where leaders should focus.

🎧 Listen to the full episode.

Access the full ACSI report to evaluate what these trends mean for your competitive position: https://theacsi.org/news-and-resources/blog/2026/02/17/the-shrinking-distance-between-the-best-and-the-rest/

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

Customer conversations generate value. Yet most organizations never connect that value to action.

Context gets lost across channels, and next steps never connect to downstream systems.

This week on The Modern Customer, Ali Tore, RingCentral's SVP & GM of Conversational AI, shares how agentic voice AI closes that gap. He outlines why organizations must move beyond isolated automation and build systems that coordinate conversations, context, and follow-through across every touchpoint.

If you want AI to drive real customer outcomes — not just efficiency — this episode is for you.

👉 Listen to the full episode on The Modern Customer and explore the RingCentral Agentic AI Trends 2026 report to go deeper.

This episode is sponsored by RingCentral.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

As restaurants scale, preserving hospitality becomes harder to sustain. This week on The Modern Customer, Andrew Rebhun, Chief Experience Officer at CAVA, shares how the Mediterranean fast-casual brand keeps hospitality at the center while scaling to 400+ locations.

The conversation breaks down how experience leadership actually works at scale—from loyalty and social listening to team training and selective use of AI—without losing human connection.

Where do you see the biggest gap today: loyalty design, social listening, or team alignment?

🎧 Listen to the full episode to explore how hospitality translates into loyalty across digital, rewards, and social touchpoints.

Curious to try it yourself? Visit cava.com to learn more.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com

Great customer experience doesn't lose customers to competitors—it loses them to apathy. And it creates superfans when ownership of the experience is clear.

In this episode of The Modern Customer, customer experience speaker and author Brittany Hodak explains what actually turns customers into superfans—and why tools, automation, and AI alone aren't enough. Drawing on her work with organizations like American Express, Benihana, and Keller Williams, she shows why ownership, accountability, and human judgment drive lasting loyalty.

🎧 Tune in to the full conversation to learn how great CX turns customers into superfans.

Blake Morgan was called "The Queen of CX" by Meta. She is a customer experience futurist and author of three books on customer experience. Follow Blake Morgan on LinkedIn

For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Learn more at www.blakemichellemorgan.com