A funny thing happened on the way to the “Golden Era of Customer Experience”: CX got worse. Despite rising investment in customer engagement platforms, omnichannel orchestration and AI personalization—and broad agreement that experience is a strategic driver—customer satisfaction and trust are declining.

If you ask a dozen companies what defines a world-class experience, you may get a dozen answers. Companies define CX by the outcomes they want to drive. But the best experiences share principles that let companies deliver outcomes in ways that feel relevant, scalable and consistent with the brand promise.

With CX, what matters most is how the customer felt. Did they feel seen or surveilled? Helped or harried? The best engagements feel purposeful, relevant, coherent and human.

1: CX leaders remove customer barriers, relentlessly

Customers no longer move neatly through predetermined stages. They’re seeking solutions to challenges in moments they define. CX leaders anticipate those moments and remove whatever is stalling progress.

Wayfair learned its customers struggled to describe personal style. Using a single room photo, Decorify generates multiple design options that let customers visualize possibilities they couldn’t articulate.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, United Airlines created its Travel-Ready Center to let flyers upload documents, understand testing and vaccination requirements and confirm they were cleared to fly. The platform offered anxious travelers clarity and a sense of control.

You don’t eliminate barriers by adding interactions. You identify the barriers that block behavior—ambiguity for shoppers, anxiety for travelers—before customers perceive them. When you solve the right problem with minimal friction, you build trust.

But even with strong data and intent, companies misdiagnose barriers. One pharma client assumed doctors weren’t ordering enough diagnostic tests. In reality, doctors ordered plenty; results were returned as PDFs they didn’t have the technology to search. You can’t solve what you can’t see, and you can’t improve CX by removing irrelevant obstacles.

2: CX leaders manage journeys, one customer at a time

Today’s journeys are fluid, fragmented and shaped by real-world context. Companies can detect customer barriers in real time and create dynamic, personalized journeys that flex as needs shift.

Customer information and preferences change constantly. Retailers that send Memorial Day emails based on last year’s purchases act on needs that may no longer exist.

Companies aren’t steering today’s journeys; customers are. Channels can’t be rigid or managed in fixed sequences. If we’re committed to removing barriers, channel strategy must understand every barrier customers face.

Three companies show what this looks like.

• Nordstrom treats store, app, social channels and stylist services as one ecosystem. Digital tools surface preferences and inventory, allowing frontline teams to focus on connection.
• Microsoft’s Lumen platform enables dynamic, composable experiences customers assemble in real time.
• Eli Lilly’s LillyDirect connects branded websites, support programs and field resources into a unified experience. Reps and service teams see the same real-time insights patients and healthcare providers see online, enabling seamless support.

CX leaders pair AI with first-party data to detect behavior and act on it at the point of interaction.

3: CX leaders know the heart of customer experience is human

Not every moment is a pain point or an opportunity to drive behavior. The moments customers remember—the ones that build trust—are the ones that feel unmistakably human, even when “human” doesn’t mean delivered by a person.

It’s about sensing who a customer is in each moment and responding with empathy, relevance and care. Customers should feel seen, not watched. Even finely tuned interactions fall flat if they feel intrusive.

Sometimes the key is knowing when not to sell. A Father’s Day promotion sent to someone grieving a loss erodes trust; thoughtful restraint builds it.

Stitch Fix earned a customer’s loyalty when a stylist noticed a profile update and quietly sent a book for her premature baby. She wasn’t solving a “problem.” She was acknowledging the person on the other end.

How to build a world-class customer experience

• Elevate CX and align it with strategy. When CX is everyone’s job, it often becomes no one’s.

• Build your intelligence layer. Companies rarely lack data—they lack connection.
• Stay in love with the problem. Build vigilance and infrastructure to detect and address the right problems at the right moments.

The best CX organizations build identity and trust by knowing when to help, when to be quiet and how to make a human feel seen.