Editorial
The Gist
- Gratitude is a CX superpower. Despite a noisy, stressful 2025, customer experience teams discovered meaningful progress, deeper insights and stronger organizational support.
- Technology finally delivered lift—not burden. AI, automation and orchestration tools began reducing friction and freeing teams to focus on higher-value work.
- CX leaders earned real influence. Customers shared more, executives listened more, and cross-functional partners stepped up—reminding us that humanity still drives the best experiences.
Science and social media don’t always see eye-to-eye, but one thing they can align around is that gratitude is good for your mental and physical well-being.
Too often, the negative noise drowns out the gratitude Zen, but at this time of year especially, it’s productive to take a beat and reflect on the many reasons to be thankful. Sometimes, even the things perceived as challenges and obstacles can remind us about our own capacity for creativity and resilience.
Think about the holiday classic "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." When elaborate plans are miscommunicated and thwarted, Snoopy teaches the gang a lesson by creating a magical meal of toast, jellybeans, pretzels and popcorn, reminding everyone that the true gift of Thanksgiving is about being together. In short, friendship is way better than turkey and mashed potatoes.
Table of Contents
- Can You Be the Snoopy of CX?
- 1. Customers Are Feeling the Feels
- 2. Technology Finally Feels Like a Warm Blanket, Not a Wet One
- 3. A Seat at the Adults Table
- 4. Colleagues Putting the Fun in Cross-Functional
- 5. Humanity is a Whole Vibe in 2025
- In Short, CX Is Serving
Can You Be the Snoopy of CX?
Applying this to real life, as we close out 2025, many customer experience professionals are only now coming up for air. This year came with lots of noise: economic uncertainty, new technologies with promises bigger than their practical reality, customers whose expectations somehow rose again and leaders asking their teams to do more with less.
And yet, amid the challenges, there’s a tremendous amount for CX leaders to be grateful for. If we take a moment to look closely, 2025 has really delivered meaningful progress in the discipline we love (usually).
Let’s grab a glass of warm apple cider, some stuffing balls and pumpkin pie and review the top five reasons why this year wasn’t such a turkey after all.
1. Customers Are Feeling the Feels
Yes, customers are demanding. Yes, feedback can sometimes sting. But this year especially, customers have been incredibly open about what they need, what frightens them and what delights them. Their willingness to share — and our ability to listen better than ever — gives CX teams the raw material for real insight and transformation.
The shift toward deeper emotional transparency, especially in sectors like healthcare, financial services and travel, has likely been fueled by what’s happening in the world at large, but these things also helped organizations see customers not as data points, but as people navigating complex decisions. That’s a gift.
Related Article: Customer Sentiment Analysis: Reading Emotions, Redefining Relationships
2. Technology Finally Feels Like a Warm Blanket, Not a Wet One
The promise of AI has been bandied about for years, but 2025 has been the year it started to genuinely deliver. Journey orchestration tools have become more accessible. Voice of Customer systems are interpreting with greater precision. Operational AI is quietly managing the repetitive tasks that once consumed valuable time and resources.
Instead of tech being something else to manage, it has started feeling like a multiplier. It’s amplifying insights, accelerating responsiveness and giving humans more time to do the strategic, value-add work that truly moves the experience needle.
3. A Seat at the Adults Table
CX is no longer the team invited in at the last minute to “consider the customer.” Increasingly, customer-centric thinking is shaping strategy, product roadmaps, service design and even financial planning.
Boards are asking tougher questions about customer lifetime value. CEOs are requesting real customer stories and not just dashboards. Product and operations teams are engaging with insights — and the teams developing them — earlier, not just as a courtesy but as a necessity to fuel growth.
It has taken years of proving impact, but the influence earned in 2025 is something that has started to help CX pros move up from the kid’s table.
4. Colleagues Putting the Fun in Cross-Functional
One of the most encouraging shifts this year has been the rise of shared ownership of CX. Leaders in marketing, IT, compliance, HR and finance are increasingly stepping in as advocates for customer value.
The best CX teams in 2025 stopped operating in silos. They collaborated across the enterprise and infused deeper customer understanding. Those efforts created culture impacts where employees feel increasingly connected to the customer, even when they’re far from the front line.
Collaboration as a main course with a big side of empathy. Now THAT’S what I call gravy.
Related Article: 10 Ways to Turn Organizational Silos Into Collaboration Engines
5. Humanity is a Whole Vibe in 2025
Despite the hype around automation, the last year reminded us of something foundational: customers still crave human clarity, human connection and human reassurance.
Organizations that invested in training employees to show empathy, communicate with transparency and solve creatively saw measurable lifts in customer loyalty. We can be grateful that many organizations continue to discover what customers have always known: people make the biggest difference in most experiences. Patience, optimism, diplomacy and ambiguity are decidedly human traits best served up by, well, humans.
In Short, CX Is Serving
Interestingly, the ability of CX teams and leaders to learn, grow and evolve stems from something that is grounded in the very nature of the role — curiosity. The desire to hear from our customers and then use that knowledge to constantly improve uniquely prepares us to deal with the challenges we face. This resilience is one of the discipline’s greatest strengths and something every CX professional should acknowledge with pride.
It's also important to remember that gratitude can exist amidst challenges. It reminds us to constantly reflect on what’s working which helps us to build momentum, which is something we have a lot of right now:
- We have more alignment. Leaders are pitching in to drive customer value outside the traditional functions.
- We have more tools. Technology is finally supercharging our efforts in ways we couldn’t have imagined even a few years ago.
- We have more ability to influence than ever before. Customers are telling us what matters. Leaders are listening. And organizations are increasingly recognizing that experience is strategy. You’re welcome.
Webinar
Dec
2
From Manual to Magical: How AI Transforms CX Teams
Learn how to replace manual support processes with automation that actually delivers.
Register
Webinar
Dec
9
Rebrand. Migrate. Optimize. How to Do It All (Without Slowing Down)
Cresta leveled up site speed, design flexibility and marketer sanity (in record time). Find out how.
Register
Webinar
Dec
10
Beyond Composability: How Modern Marketers Build Connected Experiences
Ready to launch campaigns faster, personalize smarter and prove your marketing ROI? Discover the power of a modern DXP.
Register
Webinar
Dec
10
Unlock Connected Service: How to Forecast, Staff & Support Every Channel
Stop juggling tools. 73% of CX leaders say silos damage CX. Build a seamless service operation instead.
Register
Webinar
Dec
11
Empowering Non-Profits: Smarter Crisis Communication and Community Engagement
The cost of miscommunication is measured in more than words. Learn to deliver outreach that's fast, clear and trusted.
Register
Webinar
Dec
16
Roundtable: Turning Real-Time CX Signals into Business Results
Four big brands. One live, unscripted discussion on how modern CX teams move from dashboards to real impact.
Register
During these last days of 2025, CX Leaders still have time to use their unique perspective, their ingenuity and their resilience to serve up a “feast” of insights to power growth and innovation in the coming year. So just like Snoopy, throw on your pilgrim hat, pass the jellybeans and buckle in. Your organization, and your customers, will thank you.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
