CX without the BS

AI Costs More Than Your Employees | Uber Blew Its ENTIRE AI Budget in 4 Months

July 1st, 2026  |  18 mins 35 secs

ai agents, ai bubble, ai chatbot, ai costs, ai customer service, ai hype, ai in business, ai infrastructure, ai replacing jobs, ai roi, ai vs humans, air canada chatbot, brian nichols, ccaas, chatbot fail, contact center, conversational ai, customer experience, customer experience strategy, customer service ai, cx without the bs, data center backlash, enterprise ai, future of work, human vs ai, nvidia ai cost, technology advisors, uber ai budget, uber claude code, ucaas

The pitch was "fire your expensive people, the software's cheaper." Turns out the software isn't cheap... and it can't replace the human. So companies bought BOTH.

Avaya, Mitel, Genesys: How 3 Vendor Collapses DESTROYED SMB Contact Centers

February 24th, 2026  |  12 mins 29 secs

avaya bankruptcy, brian nichols, ccaas evaluation, ccaas vendor risk, contact center advisor, contact center migration, cx without the bs, genesys engage freeze, mid-market ccaas, mitel end of life, private equity software, smb contact center, ucaas consolidation, vendor due diligence, vendor stability

Your advisor recommended that platform, collected the commission, and disappeared — and when the vendor went sideways, you were the last one standing with the bill and no exit plan.

CX Industry LYING About AI Capabilities?

February 4th, 2026  |  56 mins 19 secs

ai in customer service, brian nichols, business ethics, business podcast, cloud sherpa, contact center ai, customer experience strategy, cx without the bs, derek roush, early termination fees, level365, month to month contracts, sales commission, spiff chasing, tech consulting., technology advisor alliance, telecom contracts, telecom fraud, telecom sales, ucaas, vocal point consulting, voip

If your tech advisor is pushing a 5-year contract, check their commission structure. The industry is addicted to 12x upfront "spiffs" while you get stuck with the bill. It’s time for "Death to ETFs." Stop signing handcuffs.

Why Customers HATE Calling You | Forget AI Chatbots, Fix Your DAMN Phone System First

January 29th, 2026  |  13 mins 48 secs

brian nichols, business communications, business efficiency, business growth, call center, contact center, customer experience, customer service, cx strategy, cx without the bs, entrepreneurship, level365, marketing operations, phone systems, revenue operations, saas sales, sales strategy, small business tools, smb tech, tech audit, tech stack, tech support, ucaas, unified communications

Brian Nichols reveals why Unified Communications is the hidden revenue killer in 2026 and why the "Wall Street Trap" is destroying your Customer Experience.

Most SMBs think they have a "tools" problem, stacking AI chatbots and complex routing while their actual front door—the phone system—remains completely broken. In this episode, we expose the "Invisible Failure" of missed calls and dead-end voicemails that are costing you deals every single day. You need to hear this blueprint for fixing your digital front door, auditing your communications in 30 seconds, and escaping the enterprise pricing games that treat you like a number, not a partner.

Why KPIs Are Killing Your Business

October 24th, 2025  |  51 mins 51 secs

agent performance, ai in contact centers, brian nichols, business strategy, call center management, contact center, customer experience, customer lifetime value, customer loyalty, customer retention, customer service, cx leadership, cx metrics, cx strategy, cx without the bs, key revenue indicators, kpi mistakes, kpis, revenue growth, sonic cx

Are KPIs actually killing your business? Justin Jones joins CX Without the BS to explain why chasing numbers destroys customer experience — and how to turn every service call into a revenue event.

Why Small Businesses Need CX Systems Too

September 8th, 2025  |  50 mins 46 secs

accidental contact center, avoid bad reviews, brian nichols, business growth, call center mistakes, communication chaos, customer experience, customer loyalty, customer service strategy, cx risks, cx tips, cx without the bs, employee burnout, fix customer experience, how to improve customer service, lost customers, missed calls, scaling customer service, small business cx, small business phone system

Most businesses are already running a contact center without realizing it—and this episode shows how to move from accidental chaos to intentional customer experience.

How to Make Customers LOVE Your Call Center

June 14th, 2024  |  48 mins 36 secs

ai in customer service, ai replacement, automation, brian nichols, bs in cx, business leadership, business strategy, ccaas, charlie newark-french, cloud-based technology, contact center, contact center management, contact center of tomorrow, contact center tech, customer engagement, customer experience, customer experience management, customer experience technology, customer journey, customer loyalty, customer retention, customer satisfaction, customer service agents, customer service management, customer service technology, cx industry, cx innovation, cx solutions, cx tech, cx without the bs, digital transformation, entrepreneurship, future of cx, hyper science, industry insights, industry trends, innovation, innovation in cx, machine learning, marketing fluff, mortgage processing, radiologists, ringcentral, sales and marketing, sharpen cx, smb market, stability, startup scaling, technology disruption, thought leadership, tom milligan, ucaas, usable ai, venture capitalist

Charlie Newark-French, CEO of Sharpen, discusses how practical AI and innovative solutions are transforming the contact center industry to create customer experiences that people love (or at least don't hate as much).

The Biggest MYTHS About Customer Service | CX Industry Secrets

June 7th, 2024  |  39 mins 47 secs

ai, andy bird, avant, brian nichols, change management, channel partners, cloud services, contact center, crm, csat, customer acquisition, customer engagement, customer experience, customer interactions, customer journey, customer satisfaction, customer service, cx, cx industry, cx without the bs, education, emotional quotient, generative ai, hyperscalers, implementation, industry insights, industry trends, ivr, long-term relationships, nps, pandemic, parallel paths, qualtrics, remote work, revenue generation, roadmap, roi, roi-driven strategies, sharpen cx, survey monkey, surveys, technology, tom milligan, trusted advisors, vendor selection, wem, wfm

In this episode of "CX Without the BS," Andy Bird, VP of CX at Avant, reveals how the pandemic and rapid technological advancements have transformed customer experience, emphasizing the importance of starting small with AI, building long-term relationships, and focusing on ROI-driven strategies.