How To Deliver Effective Hyper-Personalized Experiences
Release Date: 08/17/2021
How Canva Serves 230M+ Users with Customer Experience, AI, and Data
The Modern Customer Podcast
Canva has over 230 million users. Their AI features? Used more than 16 billion times in the past year. So how does a company at that scale keep customer experience simple, human, and aligned? I sat down with Rob Gilio, Chief Customer Officer at Canva, to unpack how they’re scaling CX, sales, and support—without losing their design-driven soul. We talked about: The “bow tie” framework Canva uses to align teams across the full journey Why background remover became their most-used AI feature—and how business users deploy it at scale How Canva blends product-led growth with real human...
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5 Customer Experience Trends Every Leader Needs to Act On Now
The Modern Customer Podcast
What happens to companies that still treat CX as a competitive edge instead of the core of their business? Customer experience isn’t a department anymore. It’s a discipline that drives everything: marketing, product, tech, and service. In this solo episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I zoom out to give CX leaders a clear view of where we’re headed and the five trends you need to act on now: Generative AI is going from hype to help Personalization is really growing up Trust is the new currency Employee experience equals customer experience Speed to value is everything AI...
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How Hilton Grand Vacations Scales Customer Experience Across Nearly 200 Resorts
The Modern Customer Podcast
What does it take to deliver human-centered customer experience across nearly 200 resorts and 22,000+ employees? On this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I’m joined by , Chief Customer Officer and EVP at . Derek leads the company’s global CX strategy and brings a practical, people-first lens to metrics, personalization, and leadership at scale. We talk about moving beyond NPS, using real-time feedback to drive smarter decisions, applying AI to elevate both guest and employee experience, and staying meaningfully connected to the frontline. Ready to see what future-ready CX leadership...
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Experience AI-Powered Customer Service Trained on Half a Billion Calls
The Modern Customer Podcast
Ever wonder what half a billion minutes of AI-powered customer service actually sounds like? On the latest Modern Customer Podcast, I chat with Benjamin Gleitzman, CTO & Co-founder of . We dive deep into how their enterprise-grade AI is transforming customer service, moving beyond frustrating IVRs to deliver full-call resolution for even the most complex issues. This AI doesn't just sound natural; it thinks on its feet, adapts in real time, and helps customers solve complex problems. It’s set up to handle an emergency roadside service scenario, just like the Replicant AI agents...
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Hospitality Leadership and the Culture That Powers Great Customer Experience
The Modern Customer Podcast
What does hospitality get right about delivering memorable customer experiences? On this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Taylor Scott, bestselling author, keynote speaker, and organizational development consultant, joins the show to share what two decades in hospitality taught him about culture, leadership, and service that truly lasts. With experience at Disney, Gaylord Hotels, Wynn Las Vegas, and The Cosmopolitan, Taylor now helps Fortune 500 companies build values-driven cultures that deliver real results. This conversation draws from his forthcoming book, Give Hospitality, focused...
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Prudential’s 150-Year Culture of Customer Experience Leadership
The Modern Customer Podcast
How does a 150-year-old company continue to lead in customer experience? At Prudential Financial, it starts with culture. With 11 consecutive years of CX recognition, Prudential has built a foundation of accountability, innovation, and trust—while actively scaling AI and automation across the enterprise. On this week’s episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, Abhii Parakh, Head of Customer Experience, shares how Prudential:✔️ Empowers 100+ internal CX champions ✔️ Operationalizes voice-of-the-customer company-wide ✔️ Pilots agentic AI to streamline service at scale ✔️...
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Powering 7.5 Million Customer Relationships: How NRG is Redefining Energy Experience
The Modern Customer Podcast
How do you lead customer experience in an industry most people overlook? This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, Suzie Dieth, Chief Experience Officer at NRG, shares how her team is reshaping the way 7.5 million customers experience energy. She explains how NRG blends smart home tech, AI, and cross-functional teamwork to create personalized, proactive experiences that build trust, even in a space customers rarely think about. Key topics in this episode: ✅ Making customer experience visible in a behind-the-scenes industry ✅ A hub-and-spoke model for company-wide CX ownership...
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How AI Powers Science, the Workplace, and Real-World Impact
The Modern Customer Podcast
What happens when AI becomes part of everyone’s job, from the research lab to daily workflows? In this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I speak with Brice Challamel, VP of AI Products & Innovation at Moderna, about how AI is transforming the way science, work, and care come together. We explore: ✅ How AI accelerates mRNA drug development ✅ How it boosts workplace creativity and smarter decision-making ✅ How it empowers caregivers to act with confidence ✅ What leaders must do to guide responsible adoption at scale Moderna’s approach shows what it really looks like to put...
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The AI Powering 5 Billion Customer Resolutions—and the Future It’s Creating for Service
The Modern Customer Podcast
What does it take to power 5 billion customer resolutions a year—with speed, empathy, and zero shortcuts? At Zendesk, AI plays a central role. It learns from massive data, follows clear rules, and helps teams make service feel more human. On this episode of The Modern Customer Podcast, I speak with Shashi Upadhyay, President of Products, Engineering, and AI at Zendesk, about how they’re building AI that scales globally and enhances every human interaction it touches. 🎧 Listen in for: ◦ Why AI needs guardrails, not guesswork ◦ The “smart intern” approach to...
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Reimagining Healthcare Experience Through Feedback and AI
The Modern Customer Podcast
The future of healthcare isn’t just digital—it’s deeply human. And AI is helping make that possible. This week on The Modern Customer Podcast, , Chief People Officer at , shares how her team is transforming both patient and employee experience. By combining the power of AI with real-time employee feedback, they’re building a more connected, responsive, and human-centered healthcare system. In this conversation, Heather shares: ✔️ How AI is helping doctors stay present and build trust with patients ✔️ Why transparent feedback is reshaping leadership culture ✔️ What it takes...
info_outlineIt’s no secret that modern customers crave personalization. Efforts to tailor experiences to customers’ needs are foundational to a strong CX strategy.
But the next step of personalization is here: hyper-personalization.
According to Raj Badarinath, CMO of Algonomy, hyper-personalization has three main characteristics:
- It focuses on individuals, not segments. Even if two customers have some similar qualities, they each have a unique experience that meets their exact needs.
- It creates experiences in real-time. Hyper-personalization delivers offers right when customers need them most.
- It uses AI and machine learning to improve over time. Hyper-personalization efforts get better as the technology and company learn more about each customer.
Instead of simply providing a certain experience for a customer depending on their demographic or preference segment, hyper-personalization considers the context to choose the right offer and experience in real-time. Hyper-personalization uses technology to look at countless variables and know what a customer is looking for and what they need at that exact moment.
Badarinath gives the example of a customer shopping in a store, likely while also using the store’s mobile app to look up products and get information. The store knows the customer’s preferences and that they are close by and can use hyper-personalization to send an offer that considers the context and meets their exact needs at that moment, perhaps by recommending a product that is relevant to what they are already buying or a discount on a brand they have bought in the past.
At the heart of hyper-personalization is strong digital solutions, especially around AI and machine learning. Badarinath says companies have to consider the digital maturity of their systems when making decisions. Some AI solutions only have the maturity of a three-year-old, while others have the maturity of a 30-year-old. That maturity impacts the decisions the technology makes and how it learns and grows. The same hyper-personalization strategy won’t work on all levels of maturity.
Although AI and technology are important, hyper-personalization is most effective with a human touch. The best companies provide their human employees with tools to access customer data and preferences in real-time to deliver those hyper-personalized offers human-to-human.
In today’s connected world, companies are no longer just competing against other brands within their industry—they are competing against every company. Hyper-personalization sets the standard and drives a strong customer experience and long-term loyalty to fuel business growth.
*Sponsored by Algonomy
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Blake Morgan is a customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author of the bestselling book The Customer Of The Future. For regular updates on customer experience, sign up for her weekly newsletter here. Join the waitlist now for the new Customer Experience Community here.