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Its employees are well known for asking “Would you like fries with that?” but McDonald’s plans to offer customers a much wider array of options as its experience strategy evolves. Speaking in a session at the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” in New York earlier this month, the fast food giant’s global director of product, Bryce Boothby, noted McDonald’s long history of making big changes to better serve customers. An early example came in 1975, when an Arizona-based McDonald’s owner-operator knocked a hole in the wall to create a drive-thru for military customers. Read on for details on how McD's is experimenting with AI, conveyor belts, spin-off concepts and more. 

When you walk up to order a latte, cappuccino or just a regular Tall Blonde Roast, it’s only natural to think of yourself as a Starbucks customer. There’s a whole other set of people, however, that Deb Hall Lefevre has to consider as part of the coffee giant’s customer experience (CX) strategy. Speaking in a session at the NRF’s “Big Show” in New York last week, Starbucks’ vice-president and chief technology officer (CTO) said she has spent the past three years taking a good hard look at its partner experience. 

Pop-ups! Takeovers! New concept stores! Huge retrofits and upgrades! While e-commerce became a huge priority when consumers were locked down during the pandemic, several leading retailers speaking at NRF, including Anthropologie, Coach, GUESS?, Inc. and SEPHORA, said they were putting greater emphasis on physical experiences. Find out how these brands are combining their efforts to enhance in-person CX with digital tools like their websites and social channels to enrich the customer journey. #NRF2025

When people came to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, many of them were looking for the same thing. It might come in the form of a new laptop. It could manifest itself through an improved microprocessor. What they were usually looking for, though, is some kind of innovation in the gaming experience. Once they have their new hardware, however, what ultimately matters is the player experience – how fun and friction-free it is to enjoy the latest console, desktop or mobile games. Brands can help game publishers monetize their work through advertising, but they also pose a potential disruption to the player experience, which can lead to bad outcomes all around. Executives from Activation. Blizzard and Zynga recognize this issue, but they maintained there are effective ways to get in front of gamers to raise brand awareness, invite them to their own customer experiences (CX) and make direct purchases. These are some of their player-centric rules of advertising within games, which was the focus of a CES session dubbed ‘gamevertising.'

"Fact-checking is arguably even more important as generative AI offers the ability to create bogus posts and comments at scale (not to mention deepfakes). It should concern any CX professional who has ever worried about fake reviews or untrue statements about their company, its products or its people. "Asking the community to fact-check Facebook or Instagram is like trying to conscript an army of amateur fact-checkers to do the work of professionals, with no way of monitoring the results of their efforts."

Yes, Barnes & Noble is a big chain. And we’re all supposed to hate the big chains. The thing is, big chains can often be a litmus test for whether the attributes that make for an outstanding customer experience (CX) by smaller, independent brands can effectively scale to support a larger market. This makes Barnes & Noble a case study that deserves close attention, and maybe not just by other booksellers.

Last week, Netflix described its new Moments feature as a way to save, relive and share your favorite scenes from the streaming giant's TV shows and movies. Here's what Netflix is really trying to do with Moments: to transform its customer experience (CX) from passive content consumption to curation-creation.

It’s worth looking back at Bed Bath & Beyond’s customer experience (CX) approach following recent news that the company has announced a return to physical retail more than a year since declaring bankruptcy. #retail

Did you miss CX Day? Not to worry, because the CXPA has offered a gift that will keep on giving -- a free, 35-page asset that walks through CX career essentials including core competencies, job search reflection questions and interview tips. #CXDay

In his Dreamforce 2024 keynote two weeks ago, Salesforce CEO Benioff described a vision in which Agentforce would allow AI and humans to work alongside each other. He likened it to Waymo, Google’s autonomous driving service, which is available throughout San Francisco. When he asked the crowd how many had tried hailing a ride from a vehicle without a human driver, he seemed surprised by the relatively few hands that went up. “You should,” he said, suggesting the debut of Agentforce is a “Waymo moment.” The truth is . . .