By Andy Miller, Managing Partner at True North Advisory

Last week the partners of True North Advisory met in Nashville, TN for three days with the purpose of reviewing our progress of our clients, as well as to update how the industry changes are and will be affecting our clients decision making going forward. 

Since two of our Partners are from Canada, we used the hockey analogy of “skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been” by Wayne Gretzky. Meaning there are so many fast moving changes taking place in the CX space, that we need to be prepared to address how these changes will impact our client base and provide the highest level of insight to incorporate into their strategic plans.

We spent a majority of our time examining the top trends in CX, to assure our clients are best positioned. Several of the trends we did deep dives on were:

1. Omnichannel Experiences - Clearly, omnichannel is moving from just being used by retail, to other verticals where it is now commonplace for both consumers and marketers. This is especially true for financial corporations.The ability for companies to roll out a true omni- channel architecture that addresses the conversation, issue handling and experience at the same time is becoming a clear first mover advantage and differentiator.  

2. AI Implementations - A company's competitive advantage now depends on its capacity to scale up the collection, analysis, and use of individual customer data, as well as how it applies AI to comprehend, shape and improve the customer journey.  We are seeing AI at the core of every strategic discussion with our clients, not only how to best use AI in their solution, but how AI is affecting their competitive positioning. 

3. The Rise of Voice Technology - Voice tech will grow to $30B in 2026. Digital voice powered by AI adds a new degree of sophistication to today's available applications. A brand must invest in a solution specifically designed to manage human voice conversations to offer the most incredible experience to every voice toughpoint and call for the customer. Customers that have leveraged voice AI, have seen their brand as a market differentiator and offer the ability to scale in ways not possible in the past. 

Aside from the above, there are many other “hot”' factors and changes taking place in CX in real time such as:

• Evolution in Self Service

• Rising Focus on Privacy, Security and Identity 

• Device Agnostic Experiences 

• Enhancing Direct Customer Interaction with Conversational AI

• Humanized Digital Experiences

Our unwavering objective at True North is to be the #1 go-to advisory firm in the CX space, and to be able to have a set of clients that we bring material value to by being astute of the changes in the CX space and how to incorporate those changes into their go forward strategy.

In addition to client reviews, we spent time on how to be the best stewards in the CX space by increasing True North representation at industry events, CX panels, and focusing on the VC/PE community to increase our overall exposure and expertise.

And of course since the five True North partners are located in different geographies around the US, it offered us a time for a little downtime and fun in the Country Music Capital of the US, Nashville, TN! 

Regards,

True North Partners