Top 5 Customer Service & CX Articles for Week of June 1, 2026

Every week, I read dozens of articles on customer service and customer experience from a wide range of sources. Below are my top five picks from last week, along with my takeaways. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.

This Global Survey Reveals a Brutal Truth About AI in Customer Service. Here’s What Every Leader Needs to Hear. by Natalie Ruiz

(Entrepreneur) New data reveals how customers really feel about AI in service, and why human connection still plays a critical role in trust, loyalty and growth.

My Comment: This week’s Top Five roundup kicks off with an article revealing the “brutal truth about AI.” I wouldn’t normally include an article about AI, but it echoes some of my beliefs about AI, much of which can be found in my annual CX research report. The key takeaways say customers strongly prefer humans over AI, and to a point, I’ve been preaching for the past several years that human-to-human customer support can give you a competitive advantage.

Our Favorite Management Tips on Giving Feedback by HBR Editors

(Harvard Business Impact) Our Management Tip of the Day continues to be one of HBR’s most popular newsletters. In this article, we’ve compiled eight of our favorite tips on giving feedback.

My Comment: A good customer experience begins with a good employee experience, and part of that experience is properly coaching and sharing feedback with employees. Harvard Business Review (HBR) shares eight of the editors’ favorite tips on how to give feedback that “gives employees a sense of purpose and how to choose the right coaching style for each of your employees.”

Customer Experience Management: The Complete Guide for 2026 by Jodi Reuven

(Zoom) Customer experience management (CXM) is the discipline of designing, measuring, and improving every interaction a customer has with your brand. In 2026, the leaders are unifying channels, data, and AI on a single connected platform — and using agentic AI to resolve issues, not just deflect them.

My Comment: If you’ve ever wondered about the concept of Customer Experience Management (CXM), then this article is an excellent resource. It starts with a basic definition of CXM, and then covers why it’s important, how to measure success, and more. This article is on the Zoom blog, and the author promotes the Zoom CX platform, which is an excellent CXM solution to consider.

What CX Leaders Need to Know about Customer Journey Mapping by Michael Brady

(CX Dive) Customer journey mapping is one of the most widely used tools in the CX professional’s toolkit, but experts say most organizations fail to translate their maps into measurable business outcomes.

My Comment: Customer journey mapping is an essential exercise that every company should go through. This article looks at a major problem with the concept: while many companies go through the exercise, they don’t take advantage of the insights gained. In other words, just doing a map doesn’t create positive change. You must take action on what you learn.

When Technology Improves Speed but Removes Humanity by Andre Prins

(LinkedIn Pulse) Technology has made customer experience faster, more consistent, and in many ways more reliable than it has ever been. Automated confirmations, real-time updates, AI-powered routing, proactive outreach at scale. The capability is genuinely impressive, and organizations are right to use it.

My Comment: We opened with an article on AI. Let’s close with another technology-focused article. While customers may appreciate that technology creates a faster customer experience, it must coexist with the human-to-human experience. The article includes commentary from a number of well-known CX experts.

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.