Hi team,
Noah started school for the first time this week. As much as I miss him, it's been wildly therapeutic to take a call without someone asking for a snack, then another snack, then a popsicle.
A lot of travel coming up. London, maybe Miami and Austin, and Beanstalk in NYC next week. If you'll be around, let's meet.
With BFCM coming fast, Q4 is about to test every CX team's limits. I'm kicking off a short series of practical playbooks to help you keep more of the customers you worked hard to bring in.
This week is all about CX. I’m sharing six things I’ve seen work. And to make this even better, I asked a few of the sharpest operators I know for one tip they swear by heading into Q4.
Each one is simple, tactical, and built for the reality of too many orders, too little time, and customers who are one bad experience away from never coming back.
This week brought to you by Hire Horatio.
This week’s sponsor isn’t your average BPO. In fact, Horatio has been busy proving they’re nothing like the sea of cookie-cutter outsourcers out there.
If you haven’t seen their work yet, check out the Mr. Horatio ad series — eight playful spots built around one truth: when things get real, you need more than support, you need a true partner. (watch here)
And then from playful to spicy, Horatio went full bold with a mock campaign inspired by American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” The result? Horatio Has Great Teams — a cheeky, fearless statement that outsourcing can look good, feel fun, and still deliver world-class results. (see it here)
But the latest campaign was BFCM related. A quick reminder that if you’ve been putting off planning: the time to prepare is right now.
To drive the point home, Horatio just dropped one of their most creative campaigns yet: the BFCM Support Kit. Instead of another boring checklist, they productized the real CX pain points brands face during Black Friday/Cyber Monday — and turned them into mock supplements, creams, and perfumes. Each “product” represents a solution to a seasonal headache (ticket overload, supply chain chaos, tech gaps), styled like something you’d actually see in a high-end beauty or wellness campaign.
It’s funny, polished, and instantly relatable if you’ve ever been through holiday chaos as a CX leader. Check it out here → BFCM campaign
Behind the spice, the humor, and the creativity, here’s the truth: Horatio is a boutique, hands-on partner providing high-quality, dedicated CX services to some of the fastest-growing brands in the US. From e-commerce and fintech to healthtech and SaaS, their teams become an extension of your brand - fluent in your voice, proactive in solving problems, and obsessed with making customers feel like VIPs.
Oh, and because they know once you get a taste you’ll stick around — Horatio is offering Eli’s readers a launch credit:
Teams of 5–9 → $2,500 off
Teams of 10+ → $5,000 off
Holiday season is coming fast. Don’t wait until the tickets pile up. Get your kit, get your team, and keep your CX cool under pressure.
👉 Claim your credit and get holiday-ready with Horatio
6 Stupid Simple + Practical Tricks to Keep More Q4 Customers
Fix your order confirmation email.
Answer the questions people actually have: When will it ship? How do they track it? What if it's a gift? Skip the cute jokes here. Your confirmation emails get opened more than anything else you send. Use that real estate to prevent support tickets, not showcase your pErSoNaLiTy.Write the obvious replies now.
You know the questions that are coming. Where's my order? Can I return this? It didn't arrive in time. Just write the macros now. You'll thank yourself in a few weeks when 35 other things come up.Make your return policy easy to find.
If customers can't find it in 30 seconds, they're writing a ticket or bouncing. Put it in your footer, your FAQ, and link to it from product pages. Every hidden return policy creates unnecessary friction.Update your auto-replies.
If you don't have 24/7 support, write auto-responses that are actually helpful. Link to tracking, answer basic stuff, and let people feel like someone's home. It takes 10 minutes and will save you lots of customers.Track the red flags.
Set up alerts in your helpdesk for phrases like "cancel," "never again," "gift ruined," or "this is ridiculous." Most platforms let you create keyword triggers that ping your team. These are fixable moments if you catch them while the customer still cares enough to complain.Remind them why they bought from you.
Drop one follow-up email or text that reconnects them to your story. Whether it's your mission, your sourcing, or your product quality, it helps them remember why they hit checkout in the first place.
A Few More from People I’d Trust to Run CX for My Own Brand
I asked a few friends who’ve lived through Q4 chaos to share one thing they’re focusing on this year. Here’s what they had to say:
Jess Cervellon
Founder, Open Late Collective, Former VP of CX at Feastables
At OLC, we’re not just cranking out Q4 promos. We’re reverse-engineering the brand experience so every touchpoint feels intentional. We’re pressure-testing support, layering narrative into retention flows, and re-mapping the entire customer journey so that every interaction — from the first click to the final follow-up — builds brand equity instead of getting lost in the holiday noise.
Mia Chapa
VP of CX + Strategic Initiatives, Glamnetic
At Glamnetic, we follow up with every customer who has a negative experience across any touchpoint to resolve concerns and rebuild trust. We also celebrate our most passionate fans in our 36K+ Facebook community and monthly newsletter. This mix of high-touch support and customer celebration drives loyalty and retention.
Stevon Duey
Director of CX, Huckberry
Do the obvious thing — and make sure your team can do it too. When something goes wrong or there’s a chance to surprise and delight a customer, don’t get caught up in LTV math. Give your team the tools and permission to step in and make it right. That might mean expediting an order, replacing something no questions asked, or helping someone find the perfect gift for their father-in-law. These are the moments people remember and talk about long after the holidays are over.
Victoria Rose Weiss
Senior Director of CX, Little Spoon
Invest in your customers — even if they make a mistake! I built a ‘Creative Thinking’ Toolkit for my team, where I encourage them to think outside the box to offer creative solutions that actually work for the customer (instead of always following one-size-fits-all SOPs). Not only does this approach create loyal customers who feel seen and listened to — it also creates highly engaged agents who feel trusted and excited to be part of the team!
Michael Bair
Founder, Bair Consulting, formerly SVP CX at Figs
Upgrade your post-purchase communication. This will single-handedly do more for your CX team and employees than almost anything else. Take the top 2-3 FAQs about your product(s), write a simple, even text-based, email to send 2 days post delivery, and schedule them to go out to every Q4 buyer. This will help them love the product more and know you are there for more than just the purchase.
Joe Gilgoff
CX Advisor, formerly VP of CX at AG1, Sundays, Daily Harvest, and SeatGeek
Consider with real intention which customer conversations you'll aspire to automate and file away with minimum effort, versus those which carry the opportunity to earn customer loyalty for years to come. The reward for automating basic issue types is the privilege to assign your best humans to the highest-stakes convos. For the bold: consider the moments in your customer journey when you'll actively intervene and create two-way interactions — the crossroads moments that separate quiet churners from your loudest fans.
Brian Swinney
Director of CX, Sakara Life
To me, fast response and resolution times are imperative to delivering an elevated, high-touch customer experience. So when there are seasonal spikes, major campaigns, or product launches on the horizon, make sure your team is fully equipped. Take extra time to ensure SOPs are clear and easily accessible and confirm your team feels confident with upcoming initiatives. Additionally, assess your team's bandwidth early to predict their ability to handle increased volume/determine if you need to expand support. When your team is set up to deliver both speed and exceptional service, clients feel truly supported and cared for at every step. That’s what builds loyalty and keeps them coming back.
Kendra Jackson
CX Executive, ex-Goldman Sachs, Qualtrics, Dr. Squatch
People are what can make or break your CX. I find that focus (or lack of due to too much context switching) can make your people less effective. Find ways to group similar experiences and tickets together so they can more quickly address the challenges at hand and have more time to tackle the human moments where you can wow a customer by not treating them like another number. When your team has the freedom and focus to send a replacement product, offer a credit, or surprise someone with a thoughtful gesture, especially for high-value accounts, they stop being script-readers and become relationship-builders who actually retain your most profitable customers.
Jack Elrad
Director of CX, David
Use AI to elevate, not overhaul, your CX. Many brands approach AI as a way to replace CS teams, but the value creation comes from strategically applying it where it can outperform humans, usually when it is delivering equal quality at faster speed. For us at David, we’ve found this to be about 20-30% of CS interactions (like WISMO and basic product/shipping questions) that we are confident AI can resolve perfectly every time, freeing our team to focus on delivering higher quality resolutions to more complex inquiries.
Actionable takeaway: identify where AI can increase quality of service, and set strict handoff rules to protect those boundaries tightly.
That’s it for this week!
Any topics you'd like to see me cover in the future?
Just shoot me a DM or an email!
P.S. If you want to figure out how to get your brand to rank high in LLMs and show up in ChatGPT, Gemini, and more… check this out.
