Operational gaps between ambition and reality

How can companies be drowning in customer data and still struggle to make better decisions?

In this episode, I speak with Jochem van der Veer, CEO and co-founder of TheyDo, about a problem that many business leaders quietly recognize but rarely solve. Organizations are investing heavily in customer experience and AI, yet the results often fall short. There is more data than ever before, more dashboards, more reporting, and still a disconnect between insight and action.

Jochem offers a refreshing perspective shaped by his work with global brands like Ford, Atlassian, Cisco, and Home Depot. He explains that the issue is not a lack of data, but a lack of alignment.

Teams operate in silos, each working with their own version of the truth, which leads to fragmented decisions that make sense internally but fail from the customer's point of view. It is not intentional, but the outcome is the same. A disconnected experience that slows progress and creates hidden costs across the business.

We spend time unpacking what this looks like in practice. Many customer experience teams are still focused on collecting and reporting data rather than influencing decisions. Insights travel up the organization, often reaching senior leadership, but rarely translate into meaningful action. That gap, as Jochem describes it, turns customer experience into a cost center rather than a driver of growth.

What makes this conversation particularly relevant right now is the role of AI. While AI has made it easier to process vast amounts of unstructured data, it has also exposed how unprepared many organizations are to act on it.

Jochem shares how experience intelligence is emerging as a new way of thinking, one that connects customer feedback, operational data, and business outcomes into a single, actionable view. It shifts the focus from understanding what happened to deciding what to do next.

We also explore the partnership between TheyDo and PwC, and how combining structured frameworks with journey management technology can help organizations move from strategy to execution. From reducing wasted investment to identifying the real root causes behind customer issues, there is a clear opportunity to rethink how decisions are made.

This episode challenges some widely held assumptions, including the idea that customer experience is a standalone function. Instead, it is becoming a capability that needs to be embedded across the entire organization.

So as AI continues to accelerate the pace of business, are companies ready to move beyond reporting and finally turn customer insight into meaningful action?