Satisfaction is no longer enough! Customer Satisfaction—or “CSAT”—is a commonly accepted measure of success for CX (Customer Experience) leaders around the world. However, CSAT is losing its relevancy. A recent Qualtrics study found that excited and emotionally connected customers spend an average of 52% more than a merely satisfied customer. In today’s market landscape, companies must go beyond customer satisfaction, which has long been the target. To thrive, businesses must exceed—not just meet—customer expectations. That is: putting the human at the center of all business decisions, and finding ways to excite and emotionally connect with customers, in turn, forging lasting bonds that are worthy of loyalty and growth.

X4: The Key Themes

Bond helps our clients build long-lasting relationships at scale. Our team of CX practitioners stay on top of the latest advancements in CX—from insights to strategy, to measurement, execution, and sustainment. During the Qualtrics Experience Management X4 Summit, we engaged in thought leadership conversations with some of the world's greatest CX leaders from leading global brands, all focused on revolutionizing CX. Confirming what several of our own CX practitioners have been heedful of, here are some prominent themes throughout the event:

• New ways of utilizing NPS in the short-term.
• A noticeable shift away from NPS as a sole measure of business impact.
• Innovative methods of integrating multi-modal measurement across customer channels.
• AI and its emerging role in optimizing the CX journey.

These themes not only underscore the current state of customer experience management, but emphasize the importance of staying ahead of the curve. Perhaps most notably, though, is that excited and emotionally connected customers are worth more and, by embracing these emerging trends, businesses can forge deeper connections with their customers, driving emotional loyalty and revenue growth in the long run.

Four Essential Experience Management Trends CX Practitioners Must Leverage to Exceed Customer Expectations

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1. NPS & the Dawn of New CX KPIs

The dissatisfaction with Net Promoter Score (NPS) and its effectiveness—or lack thereof—emerged as a common sentiment among attendees. It’s evident that many businesses are recognizing the limitations of NPS as a standalone metric to gauge their success. Instead, there is a growing trend towards adopting alternative single measures, such as Customer Effort Score (CES), to measure business success. Additionally, an increasing number of companies are leaning towards an index approach: combining various key metrics for a more comprehensive evaluation with deeper insights. Sandra Stuart, Scotiabank Board Member and former President & CEO of HSBC, echoed this sentiment; Sandra expressed her skepticism of NPS and the desire to move away from it as the one source of truth. However, she also highlighted the challenge in doing so, given its entanglement with existing compensation structures. Nevertheless, the emerging shift away from NPS signals a significant evolution in how businesses perceive and measure CX. It underscores the need for businesses to continue adopting and exploring alternative metrics—including CES and Customer Health Score—to allow for a more comprehensive approach when evaluating CX. As CX leaders, it’s critical to recognize the limitations of traditional metrics and continuously explore new measures—measures that can be more relevant to your business, your customer’s experiences, and efficiently yield more actionable insights.

2. Predictive NPS: Filling in the Blanks (of Customer Feedback)

While dissatisfaction with NPS was a prominent theme, there were also insightful conversations surrounding how many brands are improving their use of NPS to be more accurate and actionable in the near-term, while also planning to integrate more innovative measures for long-term CX success.

In the realm of customer feedback metrics, ensuring representation across the entire customer base has long been a challenge. However, a remedy gaining traction is the concept of Predictive NPS: extrapolating the responses of feedback providers to the broader customer database. This involves leveraging analytics to identify key characteristics and behaviors amongst feedback providers and projecting their scores across similar groups. By imposing an NPS score across these groups, businesses can gain insights into the overall sentiment of their customer base, even among those who have not provided explicit feedback. This approach requires sophisticated predictive analytics, and continuous iteration to reflect the latest feedback and changing behaviors. However, it offers the potential to provide valuable insights and drive revenue growth for clients who adopt it. By leveraging innovative approaches such as Predictive NPS, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of customer needs across the entire customer base, and tailor their strategies accordingly. Embracing new customer feedback metrics and methodologies to ensure accurate representation across the entire customer base will prove beneficial for many.

3. Solicited & Uncensored Feedback: An Insightful Combination

Customer feedback channels were another theme that emerged from the conference. In a world that prioritizes feedback, the traditional confines of solicited channels such as email and receipt-based surveys are giving way to a broader, more inclusive approach. Unstructured feedback from channels—such as calls, chats, and social media—has become a fundamental driver of customer engagement strategies. These sources of feedback provide uncensored insight into the true thoughts and feelings of customers across their experience journey. This shift is a notable one, and platforms that integrate diverse feedback sources, such as Qualtrics Discover, enable a comprehensive understanding of customer desires. Regardless of the platform, CX leaders who expand their view and ability to learn more about their customers through existing, unsolicited data sources will uncover a wealth of insight. 

4. Quality > Quantity: Unlocking AI-Informed Feedback

Another significant insight was the intersection of AI and feedback programs. As AI continues to dominate CX discussions, it becomes increasingly apparent that the efficacy of Artificial Intelligence hinges on the quality and comprehensiveness of the feedback that it receives. "We’re delegating more and more tasks to AI systems, and the tasks will become more complex," said Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI. To harness the true power of AI, it’s essential to structure feedback programs comprehensively within a journey-based framework. This requires establishing listening posts at every relevant touchpoint of the customer journey and capturing both solicited and unsolicited feedback from various channels, such as social media and chats. CX leaders must go further than data-collection by creating a holistic understanding of customer behaviour and preferences, layering on behavioural data (such as loyalty and transaction history), in order to provide AI systems with the necessary inputs to generate meaningful and actionable insights.

Humanity & Tech: A Balancing Act

The Qualtrics X4 conference emphasized the need for businesses to adapt to current customer feedback trends—not only to keep a pulse on the wants, needs, and expectations of their customers, but to holistically exceed them as well. Businesses are being urged to prioritize their humanity while leveraging advancements in technology. This balancing act will require buy-in from not only CX leaders, but employees alike, so that—jointly—they may fulfill the true promise of CX: putting the human at the center of all business decisions.

Bond is committed to staying three steps ahead by exploring innovative measures such as Predictive NPS and unstructured feedback channels. By integrating diverse feedback sources, AI, and human-centered design, we aim to drive revenue growth and level-up customer satisfaction into unforgettable customer experiences through strategic decision-making and comprehensive CX insights.

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