AI Can Accelerate Your Strategy—But It Cannot Choose Your Direction

Before You Implement AI, Align the Experience

Companies are moving quickly to implement artificial intelligence, automation and new digital tools. But speed without alignment can create a more efficient version of the wrong customer experience.

Before an organization decides what AI should do, its leaders and employees must agree on the experience they are trying to create. A Customer Experience Action Statement, or CXAS, provides that direction. It translates an organization’s broad mission, purpose and values into a clear standard employees can intentionally deliver during every customer interaction.

In a newly recorded opening to this encore episode, Denise Thompson explains why the topic is especially important now: Before companies implement AI, their employees, departments and leaders must be aligned around the experience the technology is supposed to help deliver.

Then, in the original conversation, Denise and customer service authority John DiJulius explain how to create a Customer Experience Action Statement, the three pillars that support it and the systems required to keep it alive long after the launch.

What Is a Customer Experience Action Statement?

A Customer Experience Action Statement defines what every employee should intentionally achieve whenever they interact with a customer, client, patient, guest or colleague. Unlike a mission statement, it must be actionable, observable and relevant during even the smallest interaction.

John explains why a CXAS is not another slogan for the breakroom wall. It is the behavioral North Star that helps employees make consistent decisions, creates organizational alignment and turns a desired customer experience into something leaders can teach, coach and reinforce.

The Three Pillars of a Strong CXAS

Every effective Customer Experience Action Statement is supported by three memorable pillars:

1. Expertise

Employees must be brilliant at the basics. They should have the knowledge, consistency and operational excellence required to help the customer confidently.

2. Human Interaction

Customers want to feel seen, heard and cared about—not processed as the next transaction. This pillar defines how employees should intentionally make people feel.

3. Above and Beyond

When an opportunity presents itself, employees should be empowered to own the experience, solve a problem or create a memorable moment.

John shares examples from The DiJulius Group, KeyBank, Starbucks, Superior Glove, Domino’s and John Roberts Spa to demonstrate how organizations turn these pillars into clear, repeatable behaviors.

Why a CXAS Must Come Before AI

AI can accelerate decisions, communications and service delivery, but it cannot decide what your brand should stand for. Without a shared Customer Experience Action Statement, departments may automate different priorities and customers may receive a faster—but increasingly inconsistent—experience.

A CXAS gives leaders a standard against which every AI use case can be evaluated: Does this technology help us deliver the experience we have promised, or does it merely make an internal process more efficient?

Creating a Statement Is Only the Beginning

The episode also explores why successful customer experience strategies require more than a launch. Organizations must certify employees, measure execution, recognize examples, refresh the language through microlearning and keep the CXAS visible long after the initial excitement disappears.

As John explains, world-class customer experience is not a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The statement becomes transformational only when it remains top of mind and influences daily behavior.

Work Directly With John DiJulius and Dave Murray on September 14

On September 14 from noon to 2:00 p.m. Eastern, John DiJulius and Dave Murray will lead a live, interactive Experience Revolution Membership session focused on creating and implementing a Customer Experience Action Statement that is actionable, observable and capable of driving consistent results.

Participants will have the opportunity to work directly with John and Dave to develop or strengthen their organization’s CXAS.

Register or join the Experience Revolution Membership:
https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/

Key Takeaways

• AI will accelerate whatever direction an organization is already heading, including the wrong one.
• A Customer Experience Action Statement should guide how every employee approaches every interaction.
• A CXAS must be actionable, observable, memorable and relevant to daily work.
• Mission statements and purpose statements are important, but they do not tell frontline employees exactly how to behave.
• A strong CXAS is supported by three pillars: expertise, human interaction and above-and-beyond service.
• Operational excellence and human connection must happen consistently; above-and-beyond moments happen when the opportunity presents itself.
• Three pillars are easier for employees to remember, apply and reinforce.
• A CXAS should guide employees internally rather than operate as an external advertising slogan.
• Launching the CXAS is the easy part; certification, accountability, measurement and reinforcement make it sustainable.
• Every proposed AI application should be evaluated against the experience the organization has committed to delivering.

Quotes From the Episode

• “The Customer Experience Action Statement is what each and every employee should intentionally be doing every time they interact with someone else.” —John DiJulius
• “This changes the culture. This is transformational.” —John DiJulius
• “The only thing my employees better know verbatim is the Customer Experience Action Statement.” —John DiJulius
• “I want someone that makes me feel like a human being—not next, not a transaction. I feel seen and heard.” —John DiJulius
• “The first two have to happen every time: Be brilliant at the basics, and make me feel like a human being.” —John DiJulius
• “There’s magic in three.” —John DiJulius
• “Achieving world-class status is not a ribbon-cutting ceremony.” —John DiJulius
• “The Customer Experience Action Statement and pillars are a game changer. They ignite your revolution.” —John DiJulius

Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction to The Customer Service Revolution
• 03:30 Denise and John Reconnect
• 03:58 Creating Sandals’ Customer Experience Action Statement
• 04:16 What Is a Customer Experience Action Statement?
• 05:51 Why Mission Statements and Core Values Are Not Enough
• 09:05 The Structure of a CXAS
• 12:28 Why Every CXAS Needs Three Pillars
• 13:15 Examples From TDG, Superior Glove and KeyBank
• 18:18 How to Start Creating Your CXAS
• 20:40 The Six Steps Required to Sustain It
• 22:45 Keeping the CXAS Visible and Top of Mind
• 26:07 Drawing a Line in the Sand for Customer Experience
• 26:31 Kindness, Human Connection and Final Thoughts

Links:

Experience Revolution Membership:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/