Customers don’t just judge what went wrong. They start asking what else you might be hiding. Trust feels fragile in customer experience right now, and “be more human” isn’t specific enough to be useful. Jeannie Walters sits down with workplace performance expert and author Henna Pryor to pinpoint what breaks believability and how leaders can close the “signal gap” between what we intend to communicate and what customers actually experience. They explore three real-world stories shaping CX right now: why AI-generated food imagery sparked backlash for a delivery platform, how a pet insurer trains its AI agent for warmth and smooths the handoff to human support, and why the chatbot rush echoes the self-checkout boom and bust. We close with trust at its highest stakes, a data breach, where repair has to be as visible as the misstep, with clear timelines and plain language instead of corporate fog. If you lead customer experience, contact centers, digital transformation, or AI adoption, this conversation will help you make smarter choices that protect loyalty. As a thank-you for listening, Henna is offering Experience Is Everything listeners a free copy of Chapter 1 of her book, The Signal Gap, at http://thesignalgap.com/cxpulse. Subscribe, share this with your team, and leave a quick review so more CX leaders can find the show. About Henna Pryor Henna Pryor, CSP is a dynamic Workplace Performance Expert who speaks and writes about performance mindset, interpersonal dynamics, high-impact communication, and embracing bumps in a world that keeps optimizing for smoothness. She’s a regular Expert Columnist for Inc. Magazine, 18x award-winning author of Good Awkward and the forthcoming The Signal Gap (out this fall!), and an in-demand global keynote speaker. Her playful personality and insightful talks blend 2 decades of working with corporate leaders and teams with a fresh, science-based approach to taking more strategic risks and boosting social and mental fitness for success at work. She’s been invited to speak twice for TEDx in NYC and Wilmington, DE, and brings her expertise to a variety of global organizations, including Google, Workday, Johnson & Johnson, and JPMorganChase. She’s frequently sought after for her insights by top media outlets like INSIDER, NBC, The Washington Post, Fast Company, Business.com, HuffPost, and more. Henna founded Pryority Group – a fast-growing performance growth firm – to expand on her belief that the key to most people’s success is learning to strengthen mental and social muscles in order to boost risk-taking, maximize influence, and be braver in the work that we do. She’s also a SUCCESS Magazine Woman of Influence, LinkedIn Learning Instructor, Glassdoor WorkLife Pro, and two-time SXSW Workplace track speaker, and her bestselling book was endorsed by NFL Quarterback Russell Wilson and former HBR Editor Karen Dillon, and was named a Kirkus Reviews’ Best Book of the Year. Follow Henna on... LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hennapryor/ LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/instructors/henna-pryor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hennapryor/ Order your copy of The Signal Gap at www.thesignalgap.com Articles Mentioned: - Just Eat halts AI food imagery trial after bizarre menu pictures spark backlash (Grocery Gazette, Oct. 21) -- https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2026/10/21/just-eat-halts-ai-food-imagery-trial-after-bizarre-menu-pictures-spark-backlash/ - Why pet insurer Pumpkin leaves customer warm calls to its AI agent (CX Dive, Sept. 30) -- https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/how-pet-insurer-uses-voice-ai-expedite-customer-access-people/831675/ - TruStage CEO Acknowledges Broken Trust, Outlines Next 60 Days Of Cyberattack Recovery (CU Today, Oct. 8) -- https://www.cutoday.info/THE-feature/TruStage-CEO-Acknowledges-Broken-Trust-Outlines-Next-60-Days-Of-Cyberattack-Recovery Resources Mentioned: Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- http://experienceiseverythingbook.com Learn more about CXI Membership™ and apply -- http://CXIMembership.com Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP on LinkedIn!)