Contact Center Pipeline February 2026 | Page 21

WHY BRANDS CAN’ T CONNECT

The driver behind this lost connection with customers is simply the lack of options. Many companies rely on emails, discount offers, and flash sales to re-engage after that vital first purchase.

But few tools exist to engage in helpful conversations as part of a personalized product ownership experience. As a result, brands often still rely on dated and asynchronous tools like surveys, focus groups, support tickets, and online reviews to understand the unique customer perspective.

Consequently, when businesses fail to form connections that enable them to:

• Gain information and data about the customers,

• Understand how customers are using the products( or not),

• And learn of any issues and questions customers might have,

they risk customer churn. They also fail to gather data for product innovation, new offerings, and for cross- / reselling.

The results for many retail brands are not great. From what we ' ve learned, many new customers are lost within the first 90 days of purchase. Retailers are stuck in constant, costly searches for new buyers while losing valuable ones.

So, what should brands do?

• Brands need to shift their focus from reactive problem-solving to proactive product experience( PX). With the product and the customer at the center, they can gather, apply, and instantly act on that information.

• This usage data can be shared across all their systems to build stronger relationships with customers on their customer experience( CX) journeys.

PX: PUTTING BRANDS AND CUSTOMERS TOGETHER

Today, many customers struggle during unboxing – that first moment where expectation meets reality- as well as making the all-important shift from new and novel to a daily habit.

The key for providers of physical products – from smoothie boxes to e-bikes – is to maintain a connection with customers. Right through the critical phases of unboxing, usage, care, and maintenance, and upselling / reselling.

PX is all about making and maintaining hyper-personalized connections to customers during their ownership experience. It requires that brands maintain and interact with customers in a way that understands both their usage state and the specific products they purchased.

Delivering hyper-personalization at scale utilizes AI to marry customer-specific information( skill level, preferences, usage patterns, even things like skin type or personal goals) with:

• Product information,

• Known usage issues,

• And even environmental information,

to provide an experience that is helpful, timely, and aligned with the brand.

For example, if you sell specialty health juices and a new customer makes a purchase, chances are that you know little about them. You probably are not aware of the customer’ s tastes and preferences or their goals in drinking the juice. Similarly, the customer may not know how to use the product in an optimal way and( most importantly), if they will ourchase from you more than once.

PERSONALIZATION

In this case, a good PX journey, delivered as a digital assistant, starts with an expectation setting. Like alerting the customer to the delivery date, refrigeration needs, and any tools they’ ll need in the kitchen to make the juice taste optimal.

Once the order arrives, a good PX engagement strategy will engage the customer to help them get started and to learn more about how they plan to use the product and why.

With this information, you can make personalized recommendations about when to drink the juice and offer suggestions around broader wellness goals.

Bottom line: PX is about meeting the customers where they are at. This helps brands get ahead of common problems by ensuring that the customers are prepared to make the most out of their products. Also, it alerts them to new offerings and to helpful advice. All things that help brands stay closer to their customers.

PX AND CX: WHAT’ S THE DIFFERENCE?

In short, the biggest difference between CX and PX is that CX predates the purchase and PX is post-purchase.

For brands with digital products and services( think Netflix, Kayak), there isn’ t much of a delineation. These brands remain in constant contact with their customers throughout their usage.

This ability to stay connected to customers throughout the full customer journey is a major advantage. It is one of the reasons why digitally-native offerings have considerably higher retention rates.

For product brands, CX gained importance as purchasing patterns shifted from in-store to online. Over time, ensuring customer satisfaction became integral to formalizing retention strategies and quantifying the customer ' s overall experience.

PX bridges the gap between initial purchase and when a customer reaches out for support due to a problem, or worse, simply never comes back.

FEBRUARY 2026 21