Insights
CX, AI, and the psychology
of high-pressure operations
Written from practice, not theory. I spent 20+ years in customer operations, starting on the phones and ending in the boardroom. These articles are what I learned in between.
How I automate support ticket triage with Make.com and Claude
A practitioner's architecture for automating triage before the volume surge hits, and why it only works with the right foundations in place first.
How to hire for CX leadership, without screening for the wrong thing
Most CX leadership hiring screens for polish. What to screen for instead, from 20 years hiring and being hired for CX leadership roles.
When someone on your team pushes back, read it before you react to it
Pushback is usually signal, not noise. How to read resistance before responding to it, and the mechanism underneath most of it.
How many CX vendors are too many? A governance framework, not a number
Vendor sprawl is rarely about the count. The four-part governance framework, and the sunk cost bias that keeps underperforming vendors on contract.
Your CSAT might be lying to you. Here's the formula that tells the truth
A high CSAT with a low FCR is not good news, it's a warning. The bridge from support metrics to ARR and NRR impact, plus an interactive calculator.
Fractional CX Director: when you need one, what it costs, and when you don't
Written by someone who sells the model, including the three cases where you should not buy it. The cost structure of full-time versus fractional, the signals, and the alternatives.
What is a Customer Happiness Center? The model, explained by the person who built it
The operational model that turns a contact center into a strategic business unit. The Advocate role, the 80/20 energy split, the metrics that change, and the signals that tell you your scale-up needs one.
AI deflection fails when it is implemented under pressure
Most AI customer service projects fail for organizational reasons, not technical ones. The failure sequence, the psychology behind it, and the four foundations to fix before the vendor demo.
Locus of control: why contact center agents disengage, and what it costs you
Disengagement is a design problem, not a motivation problem. What a traditional contact center teaches its agents, what that costs, and four design moves that rebuild ownership.
L'AI implementata sotto pressione: perché molti progetti falliranno, e cosa fa la differenza
Roberto's article for Customer Management Insights, the Italian reference publication for customer management. Read it on cmimagazine.it.
Italian versions of these articles are on the way.