Customer Experience University - Winning Loyalty & Engagement One Customer at a Time
Customer Experience University - Winning Loyalty & Engagement One Customer at a Time
Dr. Joseph A. Michelli
The Smoke Detector and the Spy
9 minutes Posted Aug 7, 2026 at 8:00 am.
0:00
9:25
Download MP3
Show notes
A discount that only appears when you threaten to cancel isn’t loyalty — it’s a confession. Joseph Michelli unpacks the “smoke detector test” for predictive churn AI: the same model can serve customers or surveil them, and they can tell the difference instantly. With Bain’s retention economics and a Ritz-Carlton story, he offers three guardrails to use predictive signals to serve people, not stalk them.