Steven van Belleghem
Most organisations believe they are customer-centric. Most of their customers disagree. The gap is not a strategy problem; the strategies exist, the intentions are genuine, and the presentations have been given. It is an execution and culture problem: the distance between what leadership decides and what a customer actually experiences. That distance is widening as AI raises the baseline of what customers expect, making the organisations that fail to close it increasingly visible.
Steven van Belleghem is a Belgian author and Vlerick Business School marketing professor who identifies why organisations with genuine customer-centric ambitions consistently fail to execute on them, and gives leadership teams a practical framework for closing that gap.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Steven van Belleghem
- His Diamond in the Rough framework addresses a specific, documented paradox: Bain research shows 80% of CEOs consider their company customer-centric; only 8% of customers agree. Van Belleghem gives executive teams a precise diagnosis for this failure and a structured path out of it, not a motivation to try harder.
- His six books spanning the shift from social commerce (The Conversation Manager) through AI’s impact on customer relationships (Customers the Day After Tomorrow) to the execution problem (A Diamond in the Rough) mean audiences arrive with context. The keynote becomes a working session rather than a first exposure.
- His investor position in Hello Customer, an AI-driven customer experience platform, means his claims about AI and CX come from operational skin in the game, not conference-circuit commentary.
- He makes AI relevant to commercial and marketing leaders without requiring a technology background, situating AI investment specifically in terms of what it does to customer expectations and competitive differentiation.
- His thinking has been tested in front of organisations where customer experience is not an internal initiative but a revenue-critical priority: Disney, Mastercard, Heineken, Rabobank, Airbus and Salesforce are among his documented client base.
Biography highlights
- Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Vlerick Business School; guest lecturer at London Business School
- Author of six international bestselling books on customer experience, including When Digital Becomes Human, Customers the Day After Tomorrow, The Offer You Can’t Refuse, and A Diamond in the Rough: over 150,000 copies sold in seven languages
- A Diamond in the Rough featured by Forbes as the #1 pick in its Top 10 must-read business books for 2024
- Co-founder of Nexxworks, a global innovation and inspiration agency, and Snackbytes, a creative content agency
- Investor in Hello Customer (AI-driven CX platform) and iO Digital
- Board director of Plan International Belgium
- Clients include Disney, Mastercard, Heineken, Booking.com, Rabobank, Airbus, Salesforce and Google; regular keynote speaker at Oslo Business Forum
Biography
Research by Bain puts a number on one of the most persistent problems in commercial strategy: 80% of CEOs describe their company as customer-centric; only 8% of customers agree. Steven van Belleghem has spent twenty years studying that gap: why it exists, why it persists despite genuine investment, and what it actually takes to close it.
His six books trace the problem across different phases of digital change. The Conversation Manager addressed the shift toward social and conversational commerce. When Digital Becomes Human made the case that automation, done right, creates more space for meaningful human contact, not less. Customers the Day After Tomorrow mapped how AI would reshape customer expectations before most organisations had an AI strategy to speak of. A Diamond in the Rough, recommended by Forbes as the #1 business book of 2024, takes the execution problem head-on: over 100 concrete actions for organisations that have the ambition but are stuck at the intention stage.
Van Belleghem is Adjunct Professor of Marketing at Vlerick Business School and a guest lecturer at London Business School. He co-founded Nexxworks, an inspiration agency that runs global innovation tours for executive teams, and is an active investor in Hello Customer, an AI-driven customer experience platform. These are not decorative credentials, they place his arguments in direct contact with the operational realities he describes.
His work is directly relevant to organisations facing a specific commercial pressure: AI is accelerating the baseline of what customers expect, and the companies that win on experience do so through culture and execution discipline, not technology spend alone. That argument has been made in front of audiences at Oslo Business Forum and tested with client organisations including Disney, Mastercard, Heineken, Rabobank, Airbus and Salesforce.
Key speaking topics
- Customer experience strategy and execution
- Customer-centric culture and organisational behaviour
- AI and the future of customer relationships
- Digital transformation and competitive baseline
- The gap between CX ambition and CX delivery
- Long-term customer value and loyalty strategy
- Human experience in an automated world
Ideal for
- Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Customer Officers leading experience transformation
- Commercial leadership teams where customer retention and loyalty are revenue-critical
- Executive and board-level audiences shaping digital and AI investment strategy
- Organisations that have invested in CX programmes and are not seeing the returns they expected
Audience outcomes
- A specific framework for diagnosing the gap between customer-centric intention and customer-felt reality
- Clearer understanding of how AI is raising the competitive baseline for customer expectations – and what that means for strategy now
- Concrete, actionable steps for embedding customer culture at an organisational level, beyond the leadership team
- A reframe of digital investment: technology as a means to better human relationships, not a substitute for them
- A shared language for leadership teams to discuss CX execution failure without attributing it to effort or intent
Talks
This keynote examines why product quality, service excellence and digital convenience are now baseline expectations rather than competitive advantages, and what organisations must do to build customer relationships that go beyond efficiency.
Key takeaways:
- Why product quality and convenience are minimum requirements, not differentiators
- The limits of transactional customer relationships built purely on convenience
- What it takes to create a customer offer that generates lasting loyalty and advocacy
This talk addresses the paradox between organisations’ customer experience ambitions and the reality of execution – and why most companies remain stuck between intention and delivery.
Key takeaways:
- Why strong customer intentions consistently fail to move beyond the strategy document
- The specific cultural and behavioural factors that block CX execution
- A practical framework for instilling customer-centric culture at every level of the organisation
This keynote addresses how self-service, automation and data are transforming customer relationships, and why technology without human judgment produces diminishing returns.
Key takeaways:
- How automation, big data and digital channels are reshaping what customers expect from human interaction
- Why digital transformation is necessary but not sufficient for competitive customer experience
- How to position human empathy and judgment as the differentiator in an automated environment
This session examines how artificial intelligence is restructuring customer relationships and why the organisations that benefit most are those that place customer value – not technology capability – at the centre of their AI decisions.
Key takeaways:
- How AI transforms service speed, personalisation and convenience – and what it does to the competitive baseline
- The risk of leading with technology rather than customer benefit in AI strategy
- How to build an AI approach that generates tangible commercial value through improved customer outcomes
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Please enquire | Please enquire | Please enquire |
| Asia Pacific | Please enquire | Please enquire | Please enquire |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | Please enquire | Please enquire | Please enquire |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | Please enquire | Please enquire | Please enquire |