The State of CX Reports

June 2025 | 1 Question + 3 CX Insights for an Uncertain Economy

With economic signals flashing in every direction, companies often tighten budgets and play it safe. In CX, that’s the risky move.

Each quarter, I share one question + three insights pulled from client work and real-world data—ideas that are helping companies grow even when the market is uncertain.

And this quarter, I want to underscore a thought I’m sharing with everyone: In a world filled with AI, critical thinking skills are your competitive edge.

Insight = LLMs + Logical, Human inquiry

When college students ask me what to study, I say: anything that strengthens how you think—be that literature, philosophy, or logic. Because asking good questions (think Socrates) will always get an exceptional grade.

Let’s dive in—

CX Question:

Are you giving your customers a dopamine or a cortisol hit?

We get more dopamine from seeing progress than from finishing a task. That’s why watching your Uber get closer on the map feels good. Waiting for an Xfinity technician with no updates feels like a black hole.

The same holds true in B2B: onboarding with real-time checklists and milestones builds confidence. Emails filled with platitudes like ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ and ‘we’re working on it” erode trust.

Takeaway: Design every aspect of the customer journey to trigger small dopamine hits. Because the best companies are training customers to expect just that.

3 CX Insights:

#1. Stop Averaging Outrage

You’d never average your way to insight in the lab. So why do it in CX?

One customer is furious. Nine are indifferent. The average? “Mild concern.”
But rage isn’t average—it’s a signal.

Metrics:

When you smooth over sharp feedback, you hide the moments that drive churn and damage trust. It’s how problems stay buried—and customers walk away.

Instead:

• Tag EACH customer’s open-ends for a range of emotional tones (anger, frustration, blah, elation, etc.)
• Weight problems by severity, not just frequency
• Treat high-pain moments as early warnings, not statistical noise

Friction is asymmetric—it causes more damage than delight will ever fix.

#2. Your CEO Doesn’t See Everything that Your Customers Do

Customers notice everything. They know when a form fails, when a rep is powerless, and when the promised experience doesn’t match what actually happens.

Customers feel delays, dropped calls, and silent handoffs—and they remember them.

But most executives? They’re far removed. They see dashboards and summary metrics—rarely the unvarnished truth.

That’s why world-class CX starts with building feedback systems that surface insights directly from customers and frontline staff.

Insight doesn’t trickle up. You have to elevate it. This is where critical thinking skills and Strategic Listening come in.

#3. The Chasm between Static and Strategic Listening is Vast

In uncertain economies, you may be tempted to press repeat, and that includes sending the same stale survey that you’ve been issuing for the past 5 years.

But top-performing companies take a different path: they’re crystal clear about what kind of listening they’re doing.

Strategic Listening Surveys:

Want to sharpen your customer listening? Let’s talk about your customer and employee surveys. Let’s discuss what you’re measuring, how you’re measuring it, and what you’re doing with the answers. Grab time on my calendar here.

Toward delivering exceptional customer experiences—

Warmly,
Martha

Martha Brooke, Chief Customer Experience Analyst
CCXP + Six Sigma Black Belt, 503.205.7003

April 2025 | 3 Surprising Ways to Rethink Customer Experience

Many CX programs are drowning in data and dashboards—but starved for insight.

That’s why, each quarter, I share a few breakthrough ideas pulled from real-world successes I see with clients every day. These aren’t theories—they’re proven paradigm shifts. If even one gets you thinking differently, I’ve done my job.

Let’s dig in—

#1. The Fatal Flaw Undermining NPS & CSAT Scores

The problem with NPS and CSAT? They treat every part of the experience like it matters equally. But that’s not how customer experience works.

For example, one critical delay can outweigh five friendly moments. Yet conventional scoring systems treat all moments with equal importance and average everything out.

That’s not objective.

It’s misleading.

To measure what matters, apply a weighting factor.

Run correlations to uncover what’s driving your scores—and ask customers to rank what’s most important to them.

Then use weighted gap analysis [expectations – perceptions * priorities] to focus your analysis where it will move the needle.

#2. You’re Not Competing in a Vacuum—Stop Measuring Like You Are

Customers don’t evaluate you in isolation.

They compare you against the last great experience they had.

That’s why relying only on internal metrics is risky. You need to measure expectations shaped by other companies—because it’s other companies that set the bar.

In our Exploratory Surveys, we ask customers to name a competitor—then we pipe that name into follow-up questions.

It’s a simple move with a big impact.

It shows where you’re falling short and where your rivals are pulling ahead.

Even better, it gives your team a clear, motivating target.

Vague feedback doesn’t drive action. But falling behind a competitor? Now we’re talking.

#3. The Survey Experience Matters—Much More Than You Think

A bad survey does more harm than no survey at all.

I still remember when Lowe’s asked for feedback—and then ignored my detailed response. It wasn’t just frustrating; it degraded the brand.

According to research by Shep Hyken, 83% of customers trust a company more when it delivers an excellent customer experience—and the survey itself is part of that experience. Furthermore, Hyken has documented cases of customers walking away simply because the survey was too long.

So, when your survey looks outdated, asks too many questions, repeats the same generic prompts, or feels like a box-checking exercise, you’re sending a clear (and negative) message: We don’t care. And we’re not really listening.

Bottom Line: Your survey is a brand touchpoint. It should be modern, intuitive, and make customers feel heard.

** Immediate Tip: Take a hard look at how your survey ends—usually that’s the last question and the parting message on the closing screen. Does your survey peter out? Or does it leave customers feeling valued? This matters because science shows that endings carry outsize weight.

Hit reply if you want to:

• Boost response so that you’re hearing from the silent majority who don’t take surveys.
• Discover what we’ve tested across all leading AI models—and where it takes humans to execute your survey analytics.
• Learn where NPS falters—and where it remains a solid, true benchmark.

Toward creating (and delivering) exceptional customer experiences!

Warmly,
Martha

Martha Brooke | Chief CX Analyst | CCXP + Six Sigma Black Belt
Interaction Metrics: Service Evaluations + A Wide Range of Surveys

P.S. Curious how your survey stacks up against our TrueData™ Model? Grab a time on my calendar →