Customer engagement in the financial sector is evolving at speed. Jon Burghart, Chief Revenue Officer at AnywhereNow, examines how legacy systems, fragmented data, and overstretched teams are redefining how banks serve their customers. The winners will be those who unify people, technology, and data into one strategy.
Glance’s new report shows trust matters most in 2026. The customer experience specialist’s latest data reveals that, despite rapid AI adoption, consumers continue to prize clarity and resolution over speed — with trust emerging as the defining measure of successful service interactions.
Over a third of disabled consumers say their experience would improve if staff had a greater understanding of disability. New Business Disability Forum research highlights persistent barriers in product access, customer service, and design — and calls on companies to turn inclusion into a strategic advantage.
AI meets fragrance discovery in Jo Malone’s latest innovation. The Estée Lauder Companies and Jo Malone London have unveiled an AI-powered Scent Adviser experience designed to recreate the brand’s signature in-store consultation online, helping consumers find their ideal fragrance through natural language interaction.
Friendly fraud cases are set to rise 25% this weekend. ACI Worldwide warns that retailers could face record levels of transaction disputes between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, with the average fraudulent claim now worth $291 — a 21% year-on-year increase.
Klarna claims its AI now matches workload of 853 staff. The payments company says its generative-AI customer-service assistant has handled millions of queries with human-level satisfaction, underscoring automation’s accelerating impact on service jobs as financial-technology leaders weigh the gains — and risks — of digital labour.
Budget talk is already weighing on Britain’s Christmas shoppers. New BRC and GfK data shows consumer sentiment sliding again in November, just as inflation eases and retail sales stumble. With Rachel Reeves facing a sizeable fiscal gap, retailers are braced for a Budget that could define demand well into 2026.
Northumbrian Water partners with Medallia to strengthen customer insight. Northumbrian Water has selected Medallia’s Experience Cloud to transform customer engagement across its regional networks, integrating analytics and feedback tools to improve satisfaction, responsiveness, and service quality for four million customers.
US holiday sales growth is projected to slow sharply this season. Deloitte forecasts a 2.9 % to 3.4 % increase for 2025, marking the weakest rate since the pandemic. In-store sales are losing momentum, while e-commerce continues to grow steadily despite inflationary pressure.
Using customer data well fuels tech growth and lasting loyalty. Sa’ed Anabtawi, Product Director at WOLF, explores how data-informed decision-making — from early-stage feedback loops to in-app behavioural insights — helps tech businesses accelerate growth, improve retention, and build customer-first product strategies that scale effectively.