CX vs. UX: I’m often asked what’s the difference. CX (short for customer experience) and UX (short for user experience) are sometimes used interchangeably. But they have different agendas and focal areas. The best way to think about CX vs. UX is that customer experience spans the ENTIRE customer journey. UX is a piece of […]
Empathy is trendy. Qualtrics XM Institute[i] has declared 2023 the Year of Empathy, and Forbes Magazine calls empathy the “most important leadership skill”.[ii] Because of this, customer service staff are receiving customer empathy training in droves. But research shows a dark side to customer empathy that can quickly undermine the interactions we’d like to create. […]
Last Updated: May 9, 2025 Getting customers to respond to your survey is harder than ever. You probably skip most of the surveys you’re sent—I know I do. After a trip, I’m flooded with requests from the airline, hotel, and rental car company. I rarely fill them out. If your customers are doing the […]
Last updated: October 21, 2025 Companies depend on enthusiastic customers to grow and thrive. And yet, customer satisfaction remains elusive. As of Q2 2025, the American Customer Satisfaction Index average is 76.9; while typically, the XM Institute reports an average Net Promoter Score of 15. Why are so many companies still earning a C grade […]
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Last Updated: February 10, 2026 Effective B2B customer satisfaction surveys are designed to produce decisions, not just data. To move beyond generic ratings, B2B firms must use role-based routing, suppression strategies, and expectation-gap mapping. This guide outlines the essential rules for transforming B2B surveys into strategic assets that protect revenue and improve customer retention. The […]
Companies everywhere use surveys to measure customer satisfaction. But are their surveys good? When thinking about how to improve survey results, the usual path a company goes down is this. First, a company buys a license to a platform like Qualtrics, Medallia, or SurveyMonkey. They Google to find examples of survey questions. And they brainstorm […]
When done correctly, customer satisfaction surveys uncover your wins, gaps, and missed opportunities. That’s why customer survey companies abound. But first things first, do you need a customer survey company? Or, with the various software platforms like SurveyMonkey, should you just pay for the software license and do it yourself? Survey Software or Customer Survey […]
Is human connection a pillar of your brand? Are your people central to your company’s core values? If so, your customer service should be staffed by employees who know how to add a human touch. Otherwise, your customer service will undermine your message and leave customers feeling you’re conflicted and out of sync. What it […]
In 1620, Francis Bacon broke with the conventions of his time by articulating a new approach to investigating nature. It’s what we now call the Scientific Method, a way of thinking which remains the gold standard for how we comprehend the world today. Instead of looking to fate or mysticism to explain nature, the Scientific […]
Bill Gates said, “The coronavirus pandemic pits all of humanity against the virus.” And that about summarizes our current state. While it’s unifying how we’re faced with the same challenge, there’s significant variation among individual experiences. This is highlighted in the relationship between companies and their employees. So now more than ever, companies need insightful […]
Last Updated: April 10, 2026 Your customers are telling you what’s wrong. The question is whether anyone’s listening. Most companies collect feedback. They send surveys, track NPS scores, skim a handful of open-ended comments. But then nothing happens. The customer who took five minutes to explain a problem never hears back. The issue doesn’t get […]
Now that you’ve asked the Net Promoter question, what should you do with the follow-up question? Are you considering simply reading the comments, or using a word cloud to pull out major themes? Geoff Colvin writes in ‘The Simple Metric That’s Taking Over Big Business’ (May 2020, Fortune magazine) the star of Net Promoter is […]