Last Updated: May 8, 2025
Looking for a customer experience research firm? The best firms go beyond surface-level feedback to deliver data you can act on—helping you retain customers, boost loyalty, and stand out from competitors. Here’s how to find the right partner and what makes research firms like Interaction Metrics different.
Over 100 years ago, Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford advised, “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle.” That still applies today. Customer experience (CX) research is all about seeing from the customer’s perspective—and using that insight to drive smarter business decisions.
If you are looking at customer experience research firms, you are probably trying to ‘get the other person’s point of view’ about things like:
- How do our customers perceive our frontline staff – and how do those interactions compare with those of our peers?
- Do we have friction points that frustrate our customers?
- What can we learn about how to sustain (or even amplify) our customers’ loyalty?
- What specific details could help us grow our customer base profitably?
- Is the feedback we currently get from our customers truly objective and representative of our customer base?
The point of working with customer experience research firms is to get to the heart of how customers feel and think—and tied to that are myriad questions to pursue. So, an excellent place to start is to gather your team and rank order your priorities and customer questions.
What Are Customer Experience Research Firms?
Customer experience research firms are a subcategory of market research companies. While market research examines everything from political polling to product price points, CX research firms focus on customer, employee, and company relationships.
Our methods include workshops, customer service evaluations, and a wide range of surveys designed to meet customer expectations in competitive markets. We offer a user-friendly interface that enhances customer interaction and provides deeper insights.
Our traditional surveys and modern tools help businesses aiming to enhance customer experience through data-driven insights and customer journey mapping. We understand customers by collecting precise feedback and valuable feedback across multiple touchpoints, ensuring satisfaction and loyalty.
Our sentiment analysis and qualitative research services provide actionable insights, enabling smarter decisions and sound decisions. We maintain a proven track record in various industries, adhering to industry standards and ensuring data privacy.
Our research services align with business objectives, focusing on customer feedback and data collection to deliver customer insights that drive strategic adjustments and optimize customer journeys.
Benefits of Research
Research is a vital component of business decision-making, providing actionable insights that inform strategies and drive growth. By conducting research, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their target audience, identify opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition.
Market research, in particular, offers numerous benefits, including the ability to enhance customer satisfaction, drive customer loyalty, and uncover trends that can inform business decisions. Additionally, research can help businesses develop a customer-centric approach, prioritize customer needs, and create personalized experiences that meet their expectations.
With the help of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and cutting-edge technology, businesses can analyze feedback, interpret data, and make data-driven decisions that drive meaningful improvements.
A Phased Approach
Every customer experience research company will have its own process; ours comprises three phases.
Phase #1:
Before you spend a dime, we find out what you are looking to learn and what you’ve already tried in the past – this step is critical because it’s how we identify the right method or system of methods for your objectives.
Sometimes, clients come to us saying they only need two-question Net Promoter Surveys, which could be true. However, it’s not uncommon that when we dive in and learn about a company’s goals, it becomes clear that more questions, a different method, or a complete NPS strategy is better. Basically, it pays to spend time upfront to align methods with objectives.
Phase #2:
Next, we build a detailed research plan with questions, logic gating, probes, metrics, and more. In this phase, we create a portal so you can see your data as it comes in in real-time.
Depending on your needs, we might also develop a dashboard so that you have agency over your data and can filter it on demand.
Phase #3:
The purpose of this third phase is to present your data with insights you can use to grow your business, capture more customers, build a more engaged employee base, etc.
Open-ended Text Analysis, correlation analysis, and statistical segmentations are all part of this phase, where we unpack the data to uncover focal areas, what to improve, and for whom.
Customer Experience Research Firms Use a Variety of Methods
- Customer Satisfaction Surveys: This is where we measure your customers’ thoughts and feelings, and usually, this is set up as a tracking study so that you can monitor progress over time.
- Customer Service Evaluations: Based on call, chat, and email recordings, this method involves scoring interactions for insight into the dynamic between customers and employees. Sometimes, mystery shopping is part of customer service evaluations, especially when exploring how competitors handle conversations similar to yours is relevant.
- Text Analysis: Text comes in the form of answers to open-ended questions, reviews, feedback fields on your website, and really any place where customers are putting forward their opinions in their own words. Often, it is only through customers’ text that we can uncover areas of concern that were not covered in the survey.
- Customer Interviews: This one-on-one format is best when conducted journalistically in an open, conceptual If rating questions are used, they should be simple and kept to no more than two. Interviews are a chance to hear how your customers think – but again, only if they are conducted journalistically and not like a survey recited over the phone.
- Employee Engagement: This method uses focus groups, interviews, and engagement surveys to find out where your staff thinks there’s room for improvement and what they would like to see from the customer experience.
- Net Promoter Surveys and Strategies: Net Promoter Surveys are well known and, as alluded to earlier, part of any research firm’s repertoire, but a complete NPS Strategy includes Text Analysis and 3rd-party follow-up to learn in more granular detail about the experiences of your detractors, promoters, and sometimes your passives too.
How CX Research Firms Compare to Survey Software and CX Consultants
Not all customer experience research companies offer the same value. Some just provide survey tools. Others focus on branding exercises or executive workshops. To get real, actionable insights, you need to understand the key differences between the three main types of CX partners.
Here’s how customer experience research firms, survey software providers, and CX consultants stack up:
Custom Survey Design
- CX Research Firms: Fully tailored to your goals.
- Survey Software: Limited to generic templates.
- CX Consultants: Often included in broader strategic packages.
Quantitative + Qualitative Methods
- CX Research Firms: Use the full toolkit—surveys, interviews, service reviews, and more.
- Survey Software: Usually limited to surveys only.
- CX Consultants: Focus on qualitative insights like journey mapping or personas.
Data Analysis & Correlation Modeling
- CX Research Firms: Deep statistical analysis to find what’s driving customer behavior.
- Survey Software: Basic dashboards, DIY analytics.
- CX Consultants: May outsource or provide high-level summaries.
Technology Included
- CX Research Firms: Provide licensed survey platforms and dashboards as part of the engagement.
- Survey Software: You purchase and configure the tools yourself.
- CX Consultants: Rarely include technology in their services.
Focus on Evidence-Based Insights
- CX Research Firms: Use scientific methods to ensure objectivity and accuracy.
- Survey Software: Results depend on how well you design and interpret the surveys.
- CX Consultants: May rely more on anecdotal or high-level observations.
Implementation Support
- CX Research Firms: Provide prioritized insights you can act on immediately.
- Survey Software: No direct help implementing findings.
- CX Consultants: Often help roll out change programs based on insights.
Bottom Line:
If you want to actually understand your customers, identify what to fix first, and get data you can trust, a customer experience research firm is your best bet. They bring the science, methods, and analysis you need—not just dashboards or buzzwords.
Real-Time Insights and Alerts
Real-time insights and alerts are essential for businesses to respond promptly to customer needs and concerns.
By leveraging advanced analytics and AI-powered tools, businesses can analyze feedback, identify trends, and receive real-time alerts to potential issues. This enables them to take proactive measures, address customer concerns, and prevent potential problems from escalating.
Real-time insights also facilitate data-driven decisions, allowing businesses to adapt strategies quickly and stay competitive in fast-paced markets.
Furthermore, real-time alerts can help businesses enhance customer satisfaction, drive customer loyalty, and ultimately, boost business growth.
Customer Experience Agencies: Three Types
Google the phrase’ customer experience agencies’ and you are bound to come up with an extensive list that falls into three main types:
- Survey software providers like Qualtrics, Medallia, SurveyMonkey, etc. Technically, these are not research companies but rather the tools that facilitate research.
- Consulting companies that focus on journey mapping, personas, and how to build a customer experience culture, along with getting executive buy-in. Often, consulting companies partner with research firms or rely on qualitative evidence to guide their recommendations. Mark Slatin’s company, EmpoweredCX provides a masterclass devoted specifically to getting the C-Suite on board, which is critical to getting a solid program underway.
- Research firms (like us) where the focus is uncovering statistically valid facts and emergent themes, usually applying a full range of methods and analytical techniques.
Why Employee Experience Matters Too
Employee experience directly affects your customer experience. Employees who feel heard and empowered are more likely to provide great service.
Employee experience encompasses all aspects of an employee’s journey, from recruitment to retention, and is critical to creating a positive work environment. Research has shown that businesses that invest in employee experience tend to have higher customer satisfaction rates, increased employee retention, and improved overall performance.
By conducting research and gathering feedback, businesses can gain valuable insights into employee needs and preferences, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to enhance employee experience.
Vetting CX Firms: Questions to Ask
What software do you license?
Consulting and research firms often include all the software you need with their services, giving you cost savings immediately.
How do you approach the customer experience?
The best agencies take a comprehensive, contextual approach to CX because no company is an island, and your customers view you within the milieus of your advertised values, the performance of other companies, emergent technologies, and more. Understanding your customers’ opinions contextually—and not just intrinsically– is key.
How do you ensure an evidence-based, scientific approach to the research process?
The point of research is to gather facts, so you want to ensure that your customer experience research company has processes to ensure objectivity and reliable measurement. Drill-down questions here could include asking about:
- What are the most common biases you see in surveys?
- How much logic do you typically build into surveys?
- What’s your process to ensure that logic flow is correct?
- What kinds of analyses do you provide? What kinds do you suggest?
Where Do Net Promoter Surveys Fit In?
For good reason, the Net Promoter Score holds a prominent position in CX: its introduction in 2003 by Fred Reichheld helped shape the Customer Experience industry into what it’s become today. However, the Net Promoter Score is often misused and misapplied, leading to metrics that don’t improve experiences or create more loyal customers.
Reality Check: Almost any customer experience research firm will offer to send Net Promoter Surveys – but that’s the easy part!
The key to improving the customer experience and your Net Promoter Score is understanding the core principles of Net Promoter and when NPS is — and isn’t — the right fit for your objectives. Certainly, one reason to work with a customer experience research firm is to help you apply Net Promoter strategically and as part of a complete customer program.
Some of the components of a Net Promoter Strategy include:
- Analyzing your touchpoints to determine which ones make sense for the NPS question.
- Tweaking the Net Promoter question to make it relevant to your customers.
- Segmenting your Net Promoter Score by persona, touchpoint, and scenario.
- Running correlation analysis to help you understand what’s driving your Net Promoter Score.
- Analyzing customers’ text answers to your open-ended questions that follow the “How likely are you to recommend…?” question
- Following up with your advocates and detractors — and sometimes your passives, too.
Buying a Photoshop subscription doesn’t make you a graphic designer. Likewise, just because someone asks the Net Promoter question doesn’t mean they are an NPS expert.
Customer Journey Mapping: Seeing the Experience End-to-End
A research firm’s toolbox includes employee surveys, satisfaction surveys, and customer service evaluations, but CX research is so much more than that.
Depending on your company and industry, customers interact with accounting, warranties, repairs, tech support, sales, field service, products, delivery, and other departments. A customer experience company should consider how to assess the experience from each of those angles.
In addition, they should be a strategic partner in your journey to excellence. Customer insight research recognizes the complexities of customer interactions and will help steer your company with factual data and solid analysis.
Customers today have higher expectations than ever before. A seasoned customer experience research firm can be the catalyst that guides your business to success.
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If you’re looking for a customer experience research firm that delivers facts—not fluff—let’s talk. We’ll show you examples, share strategies, and help you figure out where to start. Get in touch!
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