This week we celebrate National Customer Service Week—and today we celebrate CX Day. We are so grateful for our employees on the front lines in Customer Service—they take a relatively challenging job and deliver business-changing results. Every day. We could not run our business without them.

However, there’s more to the story. It’s the reason those employees work so hard each day. You may have heard us say this before, but it’s still true—in fact, it only grows more true with time. What we’re really celebrating is our customers trusting us every day with their business. We never take that for granted. We’re thankful for the confidence that you have instilled in us and work each day to earn your business.

Today’s customers are savvier and, frankly, more particular than ever before. We frequently hear social media comments about how a brand has performed a particular element of customer service. Some of them are good, but many of them . . . not so much.

Verint commissioned a study earlier this year that gathered opinions on customer service from people all over the world. “Defining the Human Age: A Reflection on Customer Service in 2030″ included more than 36,000 consumers across 18 countries who voiced their wants, demands and concerns around customer service, work, technology and data.

We gathered six significant takeaways:

• The human element will still be vital to the customer experience to form an emotional bond, or surprise and delight the customer
• Humans and bots must co-exist in the workplace to create a seamless, end-to-end and unified experience. Technology exists to augment, but not replace human work—reducing the mundane tasks and freeing time to explore more rewarding work
• Digital and automated service will play a vital role for customers, adding convenience and simplicity
• Businesses must be transparent, and responsible in the way they collect and use customer data
• Customers will keep organisations constantly under the microscope—they must be ethical in every element of their business
• Businesses will need to engage the workforce when implementing technology, highlighting the importance of human interaction and emotional intelligence

What do all of those takeaways have in common, you might ask? The customer drives the train. It means the customer experience is critical no matter where in the world you live, no matter what your company produces, and no matter who is buying from you.

At Verint, we have many ways of developing Customers for Life (C4L). Our CX Catalyst team, comprised of customer advocates across the company—from customer service to the legal team, is one of our most dynamic and committed groups! The team works together to understand customer insights, develop priority focus areas, and then collaborate on the best solutions. The cross-functional sharing that occurs during our meetings is amazing, and our improving customer satisfaction across key areas is showing that they are making an impact with their work.

Since it is CX Day, I’d like to extend a special recognition and thank you to our CX Catalysts who, in addition to their regular duties, sponsor and manage customer improvement projects across the organisation!

Happy CX Day to all of the CX professionals and advocates—keep up the great work!