Zachary Zabella

My journey started in 2010 when I joined Tribune Media Services, the television listings branch of the Chicago Tribune, as a sports editor. Tribune later acquired Gracenote, internationally known for music cataloging and entertainment data, rebranding into a media and television data powerhouse. A few years later, Nielsen, then a client of Gracenote, acquired the business, pairing its advertising and television research with Gracenote’s depth and breadth of metadata.

Over 16 years, I moved from sports editor to technical customer support, then into managing teams of 10 to 20 people responsible for data schedules, channel lineups, movie showtimes and the first-ever images on television guides including a major project for a major satellite company. As streaming took a stronger hold in the competition with linear I moved into a partnerships manager role, bringing content providers’ data into the ecosystem globally.

Later I shifted to Audience Measurement, leading the national training organization for advertisers, agencies, telcos and electronics manufacturers. Today, as Director of Customer Experience and Operations, I oversee operational foundations, vendor management and program support.

Principles Grounded in Practice

My leadership philosophy has been refined around four primary aspects. Transparency is first. Sharing goals, vision, direction and the realities of the marketplace openly helps quell concerns and gives people something to rely on. Second is the ability to say no and permit my team to do the same. With AI augmenting more functions, people often carry diverse and multi-faceted roles. Giving them room to say they are overburdened and reshuffle priorities is essential for a healthy work environment.

Third is work-life balance. Everyone in my orbit knows their health, families and personal lives come first, because if that is not the case, they will not be able to show up for the business. And finally, trust. I set expectations at one month, two months, three months, six months and a year, then let people do the job. It is a sink-or-swim mentality, but with full support available, and those who genuinely care about their work will swim.

The Challenges We are Navigating

What I see in the market is a two-pronged problem: saturation of options and the level of service being offered. Customers are trying to get the best bang for their buck in a flooded ecosystem, navigating between newer and traditional options, each with different UIs and UX experiences, different data sources and real considerations around privacy and security.

In an AI-driven landscape, businesses are deciding between self-service, mid-tier and white-glove models, and that choice shapes how customers feel at every touch point. What matters is whether they are having a good experience based on their agreed-upon solutions and services.

The 3E Model

The framework behind our CX organization is the 3E model: Education, Enablement and Efficiency. Education means ensuring the people serving our customers are as informed about the digital advertising landscape as the customers themselves. Enablement means equipping teams with the right tools. Efficiency, which as a certified Project Management Professional I keep at the center of every operational decision, means continuously looking at where effort is going and what can be streamlined.

“When you strip away the tools, processes and even the acceleration of AI, customer experience still comes down to people working together to solve problems and support one another.”

The most direct expression of this has been our Voice of the Customer program, built over several years around one goal: shifting from reactive to proactive. We conduct nuanced one-on-one sessions with top customers to understand what, where, how and why. We listen genuinely, turn feedback into actionable insights, make changes and show those changes back to our customers.

Our partnership with U of Digital has been a real standout. Their Digital Advertising Essentials course brought depth to our teams’ understanding of DSPs, SSPs, first-party and thirdparty data and privacy considerations, and their AI Accelerator course built a working knowledge of how AI is reshaping advertising. On the enablement side, Glean thoroughly connects SaaS and enterprise tools, enabling AI-powered chat search and custom agents, so client-facing teams spend less time on administrative work and more time on relationships that matter.

The biggest mistake organizations are making is misusing AI as a quick fix. You can see it in companies that rushed to implement AI agents or AI avatars without thoughtful planning and meticulous execution. The right approach is to apply it critically, question every step and avoid being hasty in replacing people.

Advice to Fellow CX Leaders

The biggest shift in customer experience is in personalization. Over the next three to five years, experience will become increasingly tailored and nuanced, specifically for individual businesses, their teams and the personas of their end users. That change is already taking shape, and organizations moving toward it now will be best positioned. My advice is to follow the 3E framework, attend workshops and summits, read widely and consult trusted research firms. Learn as you go.

With all that in mind, give yourself some grace. Ask yourself whether you are having a rough day and whether you might be projecting that onto a customer, or whether they are having one too. When you strip away the tools, processes and even the acceleration of AI, customer experience still comes down to people working together to solve problems and support one another. Keep that mindset at the center of everything you build.