At conferences, I’m often asked about mystery shopping, and it got me thinking: there are a lot of misunderstandings about what mystery shopping can and can’t do. What Is It Good For? Mystery shopping has tremendous value for B2B as well as B2C, and is vital to a thoughtful and well-vetted customer service evaluation. Obviously, mystery […]
While there are a lot of common errors in customer satisfaction surveys, I recently experienced a particularly egregious one: fake customer survey data. Fake Customer Survey Data Example Our company recently began working with a website optimization service. As the introductory phone call drew to a close, our new account manager asked me to take […]
Last updated: May 4, 2026 Here is a question every CX leader should be able to answer: What did you do differently because of your last survey? If you did nothing, your measurement program is more decorative than real. What goes undiscussed in most CX conversations is that companies aren’t failing because they lack data. […]
When it comes to customer service, don’t let customers be your guinea pigs for internal changes. Here’s an example of what that looks like. What Happened? It was the typical noon-time rush at my local Starbucks—certainly not my favorite time to stop, but I was hungry and wanted a snack. I ordered a drink and […]
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Benchmarking the customer experience will not always get you the metrics to grow and improve. But what is benchmarking? Customer Experience Benchmarking Benchmarking has a history of helping businesses compete in global markets. But these days, many companies are missing out on the opportunity to innovate due to an over-reliance on benchmarked metrics. The practice […]
If you want to improve your customer feedback program you probably need to improve your customer survey. An Analyst Perspective on Customer Surveys Customer surveys make up a multi-billion dollar industry, and many of us get at least one per day. But just because surveys are everywhere doesn’t mean they’re always good. At Interaction Metrics, we […]
Many companies rely on outcome metrics to measure and improve. The problem is, outcome metrics fall short. When it comes to improving your customer experience, first you need to decide what your goals are. Every company has its own take on customer experience—what are your goals? Perhaps you’re looking to stage the customer experience to […]
Last Updated: June 5, 2025 Companies obsess over survey scores. But the real gold—the part where customers actually say what they think—is buried in the open-ended responses. These unstructured comments are where customers vent, explain, and suggest. It’s where emotion and insight live. And yes, of course, most companies look at them, usually plugging them […]
If you’re looking for a simple fix for your touchpoints, lose NPS. Last week I spoke at the Society for Service Executives Symposium in Chicago. As always, when the primary topic is customer satisfaction, there was a lot of talk about NPS (Net Promoter Score). As I have often said, it’s a tired customer survey […]
Last Updated: February 17, 2026 Open-ended survey analysis is the systematic process of transforming unstructured text feedback into quantifiable, actionable data. While closed-ended scores (like NPS) track “what” is happening, open-ended analysis explains “why” by identifying specific customer pain points, emotions, and unmet needs. According to Forrester, even a one-point improvement in a large organization’s […]
Chances are, you have a biased customer survey. The good news? You’re not alone and we have the fix. Most customer satisfaction surveys suffer from uneven customer representation, which leads to inaccurate data. As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” And let’s face it, garbage should never be the basis of your business decisions. […]
Sometimes it’s necessary to break your NPS routine. The NPS question is regularly used in customer feedback surveys. Nearly everyone has seen it: How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend? What Does It Tell You? This question assumes that customers think in terms of their likelihood to recommend companies—but all […]