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AI will not fix your CX. But it will expose whether your foundations are strong enough to scale.
In this episode of CX After Hours, Anya and Guillaume are joined by Leeor Cohen, founder and CEO of CreateCX and Scale Your Team, for a practical conversation about what ecommerce brands need to get right before they try to automate customer experience.
Leeor has worked across frontline CX, e-commerce operations, consulting and BPOs, with experience spanning Bonobos and Coterie among several others. That gives him a clear view of where brands often go wrong: chasing new tools before cleaning up the foundations.
The episode covers why CX teams should be cautious about rushing into helpdesk migrations, AI platforms or new outsourcing partners when the real problem may be poor CX hygiene. That means unclear processes, outdated documentation, messy playbooks and systems that do not give human or AI agents the right inputs.
Leeor also explains why AI should be treated more like a junior team member than a magic solution. It needs training, maintenance, oversight and clear rules for when to act, when to escalate and when to hand over to a human.
The conversation also explores how AI and human agents can work together, how brands should plan CX capacity around marketing and operational peaks, and why proactive, plain-text communication during shipping delays can make a major difference to customer trust.
Topics covered include:
Why AI scales problems when CX foundations are weak
What “helpdesk hygiene” and “CX hygiene” really mean
When switching tools is not the answer
How to create better inputs for human and AI agents
Why playbooks still matter
How to take a crawl-walk-run approach to CX automation
Which support moments should stay human
How AI can free agents up for more proactive, revenue-driving work
The changing role of BPOs in an AI-powered CX world
The 10% Fix: communicating clearly during shipping delays
Chapters:
03:03 The Vent: Shiny Tool Trap
04:39 Helpdesk Hygiene Over Switching
07:44 Inputs Playbooks and SOPs
10:39 Crawl Walk Run with AI
12:50 AI as Junior Agent Maintenance
15:34 Balancing AI and Human Teams
19:01 Proactive CX and Retention
22:40 The 10%: Fix Shipping Updates
24:37 Proactive Shipping Updates
25:30 Turning Stockouts Into Loyalty
26:49 BPOs Facing The AI Era
28:04 Human First BPO Model
31:06 Choosing The Right BPO
38:58 Playbooks Before AI
42:42 Vendor Selection Tips
45:52 Wrap Up And Where To Connect
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3678QkMxtMg?si=n-WJAMm6K_-5P-tW
Subscribe to the podcast via email on our website, and get new episodes delivered directly to your inbox: https://yuma.ai/cx-after-hours
Follow the hosts:
Guillaume Luccisano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumeluccisano/
Anya Kelly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anya-kelly/
Follow this episode’s guest, Leeor Cohen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leeorc/
CX After Hours is the podcast for CX leaders and operators in retail and ecommerce who are in the trenches scaling customer experience to drive real growth. Powered by Yuma AI, the show goes beyond polished talking points to explore the trade-offs, pressure, and decisions that shape whether customers come back, spend more, and stay loyal.
Learn more about Yuma AI: https://yuma.ai/
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AI is everywhere in customer experience right now - automating support, replacing repetitive work, cutting costs and speeding up replies.
But according to Cati Brunell-Brutman, formerly CX Lead at Glossier, the real opportunity is bigger than automation.
It’s data.
Every support ticket, product review, social DM, NPS comment, complaint, and customer conversation is telling you something about your product, your brand, your operations, and your growth.
Most companies just aren’t using it properly.
In this episode of CX After Hours, hosts Guillaume Luccisano and Anya Kelly sit down with Cati to talk about how high-performing CX teams turn customer conversations into business impact.
Cati shares what she learned from building and leading CX teams at brands like Birchbox, Daily Harvest, The Wing, Headway, and Glossier, including how to get CX out of the “cost centre” box, how to use AI to analyse years of customer feedback, and how to turn raw customer data into stories leadership will actually listen to.
They also get into why unrealistic shipping expectations are hurting both brands and teams, how surprise and delight can build real customer trust, why retail teams are an underrated source of customer insight, and why Cati loves NPS but has very little patience for CSAT.
Chapters:
03:14 Meet Cati Brunell-Brutman04:14 From theatre production to CX04:53 Building CX at early-stage brands06:43 Why CX is still treated like the kids’ table07:00 CX as customer insight, not a cost centre08:43 Speaking the language of each stakeholder10:15 Why CX is a goldmine of data10:38 The Vent14:41 When CX should use surprise and delight15:28 Turning a delayed order into a memorable moment17:48 Shouting out great CX internally18:36 Connecting exceptional CX to data20:47 Getting feedback from retail teams23:05 Reading NPS comments like a novel27:30 How AI helps CX teams analyse feedback28:39 Using AI to analyse five years of product reviews31:01 Why CX is really storytelling34:53 The 10% Fix36:22 Leaning on the Sisterhood of the Traveling CX39:37 Cati’s take on NPS vs CSAT41:11 Efficiency metrics and social engagement42:53 Why CX should own social replies44:22 Collaborating with marketing on social responses45:44 One takeaway for CX leaders46:01 Create your community47:14 How to follow CatiWatch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XQNd37H9dyg?si=TvF7E5hzG-nVgaYJ
Subscribe to the podcast via email on our website, and get new episodes delivered directly to your inbox: https://yuma.ai/cx-after-hours
Follow the hosts
Guillaume Luccisano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumeluccisano/
Anya Kelly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anya-kelly/
Follow this episode’s guest, Cati Brunell-Brutman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cati-brunell-brutman-5355b04a/
Instagram: @catibrunell
CX After Hours is the podcast for CX leaders and operators in retail and ecommerce who are in the trenches scaling customer experience to drive real growth. Powered by Yuma AI, the show goes beyond polished talking points to explore the trade-offs, pressure, and decisions that shape whether customers come back, spend more, and stay loyal.
Learn more about Yuma AI: https://yuma.ai/
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Most brands want customer experience to become a clean, efficient, fully solved function.
Hire the team. Set the policies. Add the help desk. Bring in AI. Reduce the backlog. Keep customers happy.
But as Michael Bair explains in this episode of CX After Hours, CX is never really “fixed.” The business keeps changing. New products create new questions. Policies create new friction. Channels multiply. Teams grow. Tools break. Expectations rise. And just when you think the system is under control, something else shifts.
Michael Bair is the Founder of Bair Consulting and former SVP of Customer Experience at FIGS. He has spent 20 years working across customer experience, sales, retention, e-commerce, SaaS, and consulting, and has hired more than 1,000 people throughout his career.
In this conversation, Michael joins Guillaume Luccisano and Anya Kelly to talk about what it really takes to hire and scale CX teams in the real world.
They discuss why great CX starts with people who genuinely like customers, Michael’s “PhD” hiring framework - passionate, hungry, and driven - and why interview skills are often a poor predictor of performance.
They also get into scaling teams without lowering the bar, treating AI as part of the staffing model, deciding what belongs with AI, BPOs, or internal agents, and why “Where’s my order?” tickets may be telling you something deeper about your shipping experience.
Michael also explains why e-commerce CX teams should pay close attention to repeat purchase rate, and why the best CX leaders are often the people inside the company who stay closest to customers.
Because CX is not a function you finish. It’s a function you keep building.
Chapters:
02:12 Great CX Traits03:41 PhD Hiring Framework05:21 Finding CX Talent08:26 Interviewing For Motivation11:22 Sales To CX Shift15:11 The Vent - Where’s My Order?17:47 Fixing Shipping Expectations24:53 Scaling CX Three Ps26:14 BPO And AI Staffing28:50 AI Limits and Leverage30:23 Routing VIP Customers32:32 Phones Versus Digital34:57 Email Backlog Debate36:45 The 10% Fix Framework37:18 Knowledge Base First38:57 Dashboards and KPIs40:06 Repeat Purchase North Star42:14 Memorable CX at Scale43:33 Chewy Surprise System📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lHtwZc5iwjU
Subscribe via email and get new episodes delivered to your inbox: https://yuma.ai/cx-after-hours
Follow the hosts:
Guillaume Luccisano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumeluccisano/
Anya Kelly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anya-kelly/
Follow this episode’s guest:
Michael Bair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljbair/
CX After Hours is the podcast for CX leaders and operators in retail and ecommerce who are in the trenches scaling customer experience to drive real growth.
Powered by Yuma AI, the show goes beyond polished talking points to explore the trade-offs, pressure, and decisions that shape whether customers come back, spend more, and stay loyal.
Learn more about Yuma AI: https://yuma.ai/
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Most e-commerce brands think they have a retention problem.
But according to Eli Weiss, they often have something deeper: a customer experience problem.
In the first episode of CX After Hours, Eli joins hosts Guillaume Luccisano and Anya Kelly to unpack where retention really breaks — long before a customer churns, leaves a bad review, or opens a support ticket.
They discuss why your best customers often leave quietly, why “deflection” is the wrong goal if customers still aren’t getting resolution, and why the boring parts of e-commerce CX — returns, refunds, exchanges, replacements, and policies — are often the moments that decide whether customers come back.
Eli Weiss is VP of Advocacy at Yotpo and previously led CX and retention at brands including OLIPOP and Jones Road Beauty. He also writes the excellent All Things CX and Retention newsletter.
Subscribe to Eli’s newsletter: https://www.eliweisss.com/
Chapters:
03:21 — From CX cost center to retention driver
08:00 — The Vent: what CX gets wrong about automation
09:00 — Why the remaining 10% of tickets matter most
13:31 — Faster slop: when AI makes bad CX worse
14:21 — The ripped socks story: policy vs. customer loyalty
16:01 — When AI should hand off to a human
17:12 — Deflection vs. resolution
18:43 — Why retention is mostly product
19:36 — What Reddit and social reveal about CX
24:11 — When CX becomes a safety net for broken systems
29:23 — Why refunds and returns are business tools
36:07 — The future of CX: bots plus exceptional humans
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bJmKomr28zI
Subscribe via email and get new episodes delivered to your inbox: https://yuma.ai/cx-after-hours
Follow the hosts:
Guillaume Lucissano: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumeluccisano/
Anya Kelly: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anya-kelly/
Follow this episode’s guest:
Eli Weiss: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliweisss/
CX After Hours is the podcast for CX leaders and operators in retail and ecommerce who are in the trenches scaling customer experience to drive real growth.
Powered by Yuma AI, the show goes beyond polished talking points to explore the trade-offs, pressure, and decisions that shape whether customers come back, spend more, and stay loyal.
Learn more about Yuma AI: https://yuma.ai/
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CX After Hours is the podcast for customer experience leaders and operators in retail and e-commerce navigating the space between customer expectations and business goals.
Because in CX, you sit in the middle.
You want to do right by the customer - while also driving retention, revenue, and growth. Every day is a balance between empathy and efficiency, speed and quality, automation and human connection.
The problem? Most CX content feels polished and theoretical — far removed from the reality of the job.
So we created CX After Hours: honest, unscripted conversations about what it actually takes to make customer experience work at scale.
Hosted by Guillaume Luccisano and Anya Kelly, this show dives into the real stories, trade-offs, and decisions behind modern CX.
Expect conversations around:
AI in CXRetention and loyaltyScaling support teamsE-commerce and retail operationsTough calls, mistakes, and lessons learnedNo corporate jargon. No perfect playbooks. Just real conversations about real CX.
If you work in customer experience, e-commerce, or retail, this podcast is for you.
Subscribe to CX After Hours on your favorite podcast app.
Get all the episodes in video format, with additional written content, on our site: https://yuma.ai/cx-after-hours
