Making Customer Experience More Human with Dan Gingiss

In an age becoming defined by automation and AI, the moments people remember most are the ones that feel unmistakably human.

That’s what makes customer experience so challenging—and so full of opportunity. As digital tools make it easier than ever to scale communication, they also make it easier to lose the personal touches that create real connection. The result is an experience that often does the job, but rarely stands out; meeting expectations without creating a reason to come back, spend more, or talk about it with others.

And those moments matter more than ever. 86% of buyers say they’re willing to pay more for a better experience, and those who rate an experience a ten out of ten spend significantly more and remain loyal far longer.

Photo: Dan Gingiss

For Dan Gingiss, author of Becoming The Experience Maker, and former CX leader at companies like Discover, Humana, and McDonald’s, those moments of exceptional customer experience are where lasting loyalty is built. Over the course of his career, he has helped some of the world’s most recognized brands rethink how they connect with customers, not through complexity or cost, but through intentional, human-centered design.

In a conversation with Patrick McCullough, President of Hallmark Business Connections, Dan shared a clear perspective: impactful customer experiences don’t have to be elaborate to be effective.

“Customers want to be treated like the people they are, not like an account or loyalty number. Most of the companies I deal with as a consumer feel transactional – so a great way to stand out is to engage with customers in ways that feel more intentional, more human.”

Watch the full conversation with Dan below, or read on for the highlights.

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If It’s Not Shareable, It’s Forgettable

When Dan Gingiss talks about great customer experience, he often points to his WISE framework: Witty, Immersive, Shareable, and Extraordinary.

Each element plays a role in shaping how customers perceive and remember a brand—but one, in particular, tends to get overlooked. Interestingly, Dan points out that “Shareable” is the principle companies seem to struggle with most.

As Dan explains, the brands that create buzz aren’t relying on chance moments or hoping customers will talk about them. They’re thinking deliberately about how their experience shows up in the real world—what might make someone pause, take notice, and instinctively reach for their phone.

For many organizations, especially in more regulated industries like healthcare or financial services, that idea can feel uncomfortable. For years, customer discourse was something to manage or even avoid.

“If you're afraid of people pulling out their phones,” Dan explains, "then something isn't right.”

Dan advises that shareability is not to be shied away from. When something feels unexpected, thoughtful, or just a little different, people want to capture it and subsequently share it with a friend or post it online.

Designing for shareability shouldn’t solely chase trends or try to force virality. It’s about creating experiences that feel natural to interact with and are worth remembering. And when done well, those moments build connection, spark conversation, and extend the reach of the experience far beyond the original interaction.

Here at Hallmark Business Connections, we see this often. When organizations, big or small, take the time to send a thoughtful Hallmark greeting card, it often creates the kind of experience people don’t expect, making it extremely memorable. Customers regularly share these moments, whether it’s posting a photo of the card or calling out the brand behind it, not because they were asked to, but because the gesture stood out in a positive, going-the-extra-mile way.

Keep it Simple, Practical, & Inexpensive

If intentionality is the foundation of a great customer experience, simplicity is what makes it scalable.

Throughout the conversation, Dan returned to a consistent filter he uses when evaluating ideas: they should be simple, practical, and inexpensive. Not because bigger ideas don’t have value, but because the most effective experiences are often the ones that frontline teams can deliver easily and consistently.

One of his favorite examples is the Starbucks “pup cup”—a small cup of whipped cream offered to customers’ dogs. It’s not part of the core product. It doesn’t require new technology or operational complexity. And yet, it creates a moment that customers remember, talk about, and look forward to.

What makes it work isn’t just the gesture itself, but how accessible it is. Any employee can offer it. It costs very little. And it taps into something emotional—people’s connection to their pets—that instantly strengthens the relationship with the brand.

Dan points to a similar idea in action closer to home. In his keynotes, he often highlights Hallmark’s Shoebox line, known for its playful tagline, “Hallmark approved, sort of.” It’s a small, creative detail that costs almost nothing to implement, yet immediately sets the tone for the experience. As he notes, it’s driven by the creativity of Hallmark’s editorial and humor writers, people who are able to infuse personality into even the smallest touchpoints.

That one line introduces the wit and relatability that follows, creating a moment of connection through language alone. And that’s exactly the point; sometimes the most effective way to elevate an experience isn’t through technology or scale, but through thoughtful, human creativity—something as simple as choosing the right words.

There are simple, practical, and inexpensive ideas for any industry. Imagine a home service provider who brings a small treat for a customer’s dog. A retailer that finds a way to engage a child who doesn’t want to shop.

This is where small moments can start to scale. Imagine your utility provider sending a thoughtful “get well soon” card after a difficult service call, or an advisor following up with a handwritten note after an important conversation. It’s unexpected, personal, and immediately stands out.

That’s exactly what solutions like Care from Hallmark Business Connections are designed to enable—making it easy for frontline teams to send timely, personalized cards after meaningful interactions. The result is a tangible touchpoint that feels less like outreach and more like genuine care, without adding complexity to day-to-day operations.

It’s low cost, operationally simple, and most importantly, rooted in genuine connection rather than promotion.

None of these requires a major investment. But they do require paying attention.

As Dan emphasizes, customer experience doesn’t have to be driven by complex systems or emerging technology. In many cases, the most impactful moments happen face-to-face, in real time, through small gestures that show care and awareness.

And when those moments are easy to deliver, they don’t stay isolated. They become part of how the organization operates—consistently, naturally, and at scale.

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Photo: Dan Gingiss

If Customers Don’t Understand It, It Doesn’t Work

In more regulated industries like healthcare and financial services, communication must be accurate, compliant, and often highly standardized.

But as Dan shared from his time at Humana, that structure can quickly lead to experiences that check every required box without actually serving the customer.

He recalled a common scenario in Medicare Advantage: new members receiving an 80-page document outlining their policy details. The intention behind it was sound—to ensure people understand what they’ve signed up for. But in reality, most recipients never engaged with it in a meaningful way.

“The goal is great,” Dan explained. “But the execution is really poor.”

That disconnect highlights a broader challenge.

In regulated environments, it’s easy to measure whether something was delivered.

It’s much harder—and far more important—to ask whether it was actually understood.

For Dan, that’s where customer experience teams have an opportunity to rethink the approach. The goal should be compliance AND clarity: helping people navigate complex information in a way that feels accessible, relevant, and human.

As he puts it, “It means making sure customers understand what they're signing up for before they put their signature on the line.”

During his time at Discover, Dan was faced with another dense, required document that his team couldn’t directly alter. So, they found a way to improve how it was experienced. By digitizing the document and adding simple hyperlinked explanations for complex terms, they made it easier for customers to engage with content that had previously been ignored.

The result was a major shift in behavior. People actually started reading it, and brand sentiment rose to an all-time high.

It’s a reminder that even in the most constrained environments, experiences can still be creative. Regulations may define what needs to be said—but how it’s delivered, supported, and reinforced is where opportunities for outside-the-box connections exist.

Personalization Is About Attention & Connection

As technology continues to evolve, personalization has become a baseline expectation. But as Dan points out, what people are really looking for isn’t just personalization—it’s connection.

With automated messages, AI-generated content, and templated outreach everywhere, it’s becoming harder to tell what’s real. And that’s exactly why the smallest signals of authenticity matter more than ever.

As Dan puts it:

“I think there's a desire for genuine connection at a level we really haven't seen before. And that's why things like greeting cards, which may feel like a throwback, are not. They're very, very current because it's a way to help break through the typical clutter.”

Personalization isn’t just inserting a name or referencing a recent transaction. It’s showing that you recognize the person behind the interaction and paying attention in a way that goes beyond what’s expected.

On Dan’s website, he includes personal details that have nothing to do with his professional credentials—like the fact that he once delivered pizza to Michael Jordan, or that he has a rescue dog named Larry. Those details are there to invite conversation.

And they work. They give people something to connect to, turning a transactional interaction into the beginning of a relationship.

Whether it’s a frontline employee remembering a small detail, a follow-up that reflects a recent interaction, or a message that feels thoughtfully written rather than automatically generated, these moments signal something deeper.

At scale, creating that feeling consistently can be a challenge—but it’s also where the format of the message matters. A handwritten-style note, a recognizable signature, or even the look and feel of a card can add a level of authenticity that’s difficult to replicate through a text or email.

That’s where solutions like Personal Fonts come into play. By digitizing the nuances of a person’s actual handwriting, Personal Fonts allow businesses to incorporate authenticity into their outreach at scale. The result is a message that feels personal and unique, without sacrificing efficiency.

In an environment where so much communication feels interchangeable, view your customer outreach as an opportunity to connect rather than just inform.

Recognition Only Works When It’s About Them, Not You

Recognition has long been part of customer experience, but not all recognition is created equal.

As Dan points out, it’s easy for organizations to highlight their own achievements—a company anniversary, a major milestone, or a new product launch. But for customers, those moments rarely carry the same weight. What tends to resonate more are the moments that feel personal, thoughtful, and genuinely intended for them.

Something as common as a birthday message can quickly lose its impact when it feels transactional. When every message comes with a discount or a prompt to make a purchase, it becomes clear that the goal isn’t really to celebrate the individual—it’s to drive action.

The opportunity is to approach those moments differently.

Sometimes, it’s not about doing more, but doing something unexpected. A message that arrives at a surprising time. A milestone that isn’t widely recognized. A small detail that makes someone pause and smile. These are the moments that stand out because they feel less like a tactic and more like a genuine gesture.

In his experience, Dan acknowledges that most organizations are already tracking more than they realize, like customer purchases, interactions, anniversaries, and behaviors. The opportunity is in reflecting those moments back to the customer in a way that highlights their accomplishments.

He shares a simple example: after completing a design in Canva, he was met with a burst of confetti and a message recognizing his 500th project. It was unexpected, a little playful, and instantly memorable.

“I always suggest to companies, no matter what business you're in, there's things that you either can count or are already counting,” Dan says. “And your customers don't even know you're paying attention to it. When you feed that back to them as their accomplishment—not about you, but about them—it can be a really nice surprise and delight moment.”

When recognition is done well, it doesn’t feel like marketing; it leaves a lasting impression that shows you’ve actually been paying attention.

FOUR KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Top Tips from the Hallmark Team

Looking to put these ideas into practice? Here are a few simple ways to bring more intentional, human-centered moments into your customer experience:

Design one moment worth sharing. Look for a place in your experience where a small, thoughtful detail could surprise someone. It doesn’t need to be complex—just something that feels personal, a little unexpected, and worth remembering.

Make it something someone would screenshot, text, or post without being asked.

It could be as simple as a thank-you message after a first purchase signed by the CEO, a quick video from the person who packed or built something, showing where it came from or how it was made, or a thoughtful recovery after something went wrong that feels generous and not transactional.

Simplify what customers actually need to understand. Look for ways to make complex information clearer, more approachable, and more useful—especially when reaching customers with important information designed to be read and retained.

Follow-ups make an experience extraordinary. Don’t let the interaction end when the transaction does. A simple thank-you or acknowledgment, especially through a personalized card, can turn a routine touchpoint into something more meaningful and memorable. It’s a small step beyond what’s expected, but that’s exactly what makes it feel extraordinary.

Recognize the moments your customers care about. Instead of focusing only on company milestones, reflect moments back to your customers. Anniversaries, birthdays (or half-birthdays!), or achievements are just a few examples. Thoughtful personalized outreach—whether through timely cards or tailored messages—shows you care.

Come up with creative and witty touchpoints. When most communication happens digitally, a tangible message can stand out in an impactful way. Physical cards offer an opportunity to connect in a way that feels more intentional, and far less likely to be overlooked, with individuals spending approximately 108% more time reading content in direct mail than digital marketing materials.

Consider how to infuse personality – a single human detail can change how everything feels.

Improve Your Perspective, Improve Your Experience

When asked for his biggest takeaway to leave our audience with, Dan said this: to truly improve the customer experience, you have to experience it for yourself.

“I would suggest that anyone at any level of the organization, up to and including the CEO, become a customer of your own company,” he shares. “The more you don’t just say you understand your customers, but actually become one, the more you start to see things from a completely different perspective.”

Too often, experiences are designed from behind a desk—optimized for process, efficiency, or internal goals—rather than from the point of view of the person actually moving through them. But when you step into that experience yourself, the details become much clearer.

What does the first interaction feel like?

Is it easy to navigate?

Does it feel welcoming or transactional?

Are there small moments of friction that go unnoticed internally but stand out immediately to a customer?

It’s in those details that experience is shaped.

It’s also where opportunities begin to surface; not just to fix what isn’t working, but to create moments that feel more thoughtful, more intentional, and more human.

Our conversation with Dan reminds us that the experiences people remember most aren’t necessarily the most grand or extravagant. They’re the ones that reflect care, attention, and an understanding of the person on the other side.

In a world where most experiences feel automated, the ones people remember are the ones that feel human.

And those are the moments worth designing.

About Dan Gingiss:

Dan Gingiss is a customer experience expert, keynote speaker, and author known as “The Experience Maker™.” With more than 20 years leading customer experience, marketing, and digital teams at brands like McDonald’s, Discover, and Humana, he helps organizations turn everyday interactions into remarkable experiences. He is the author of The Experience Maker and shares practical, real-world strategies for building loyalty through simple, intentional moments.

Part of our Conversations on Connection series, these discussions highlight how small, human moments create stronger relationships over time. Stay tuned for more perspectives and real-world ideas you can put into practice.

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