Maxie Schmidt

Eighty-six percent of CX professionals we recently surveyed say that the ROI of CX isn’t well established in their firm. Yikes! To be fair, building a CX business case can be hard. And even when you’ve built one, you may discover that it’s not compelling enough and therefore you miss out on the funding you […]

CX surveys are the butt of jokes in dinner party conversations and comedy sketches. On social media, people gleefully tweet examples of surveys gone wrong. Just type the three words “CX,” “survey,” and “fail” into a Twitter search . . . But this is no laughing matter if you are in a CX role. Bad […]

Let’s face it, most CX measurement programs could use a revolution — AI or otherwise. Because CX measurement programs are: Crumbling. CX measurement relies too much on surveys. But transactional surveys capture only between 2% and 7.5% of interactions. And survey response rates are declining (not surprising, because firms flood customers with CX surveys that feel like […]

Of course you should use journey maps to define CX metrics — it’s the only way to define outside-in CX metrics that: Capture important pain or peak points. Measure the right CX drivers. Align operational metrics with customers’ expectations (e.g., how you measure delivery times). But why are only 39% of CX pros using journey maps […]

Tying CX performance to monetary incentives backfires. Every time. Often in spectacular, unforeseen ways. And while we have seen some firms take the leap into a world without monetary CX incentives, tying accountability for CX to money is still a common shortcut in CX transformations. Unfortunately, that weakens employee morale and creates bad CX. In […]

Tying CX performance to monetary incentives backfires. Every time. Often in spectacular, unforeseen ways. And while we have seen some firms take the leap into a world without monetary CX incentives, tying accountability for CX to money is still a common shortcut in CX transformations. Unfortunately, that weakens employee morale and creates bad CX. In […]

What is the right top-line CX metric? I lead the CX measurement research at Forrester and get this question a lot. Usually clients ask whether Net Promoter Score (NPS)* is best, or whether customer satisfaction or effort make more sense, or whether there is something new and exciting coming up. So I thought I’d share […]

Many clients have asked me about my thoughts on the recent blog post by Jared Spool who says Net Promoter Score (NPS*) is a harmful metric. I then usually mention that he is making good points but that there is another post by Aga Szóstek who says the believe in a silver bullet is the truly […]

If you want to make the case for CX, check out the new data we just published in the report “Drive Business Growth With Great Customer Experience, 2017” (paywall). In our analysis, we modeled the effect of changes in CX on loyalty and business growth for 17 industries. We included four new industries per popular demand: Health […]

What’s the future of CX? How will Artificial Intelligence (AI) help break through the customer experience ceiling? How must CX professionals like you evolve their skills? We found a surprising – and not so surprising – answer when the Boston CXPA team celebrated CX Day. Forrester hosted the celebration with CX and UX practitioners in […]

Seems like it’s good news when only 5% of CX pros say lack of support by the CEO is among their top 3 challenges. A successful CX transformation needs a CEO who leads by example and rallies the organization around CX. When committed CEOs leave, CX efforts die. But is this really good news? No. […]

Forrester is hosting CX Day 2017 with Boston’s Local CXPA Networking Chapter! Join fellow CX & UX professionals to hear perspectives from three stellar CX practitioners and me on our theme “The Future of CX In A Digital World”: Brian Burba, VP Customer Success, CA Technologies Bill Schimikowski, VP Customer Experience, Fidelity Investments Ed Boudrot, […]

Customer experience (CX) is finally gaining the attention it deserves, with 84% of companies seeing CX as a higher priority than they did two years ago. But there’s a disconnect when it comes to executing CX transformation, and the underlying issue is a lack of executive buy-in. In this on-demand webinar, the two of us […]

CX as a profession is putting a lot of effort into reducing effort (pun intended). With good reason: too many companies make it so hard for customers to do business with them, that customers are super frustrated and give up. But reducing effort is not the road to CX differentiation (see below). Which means companies […]

The new Forrester WaveTM: Customer Feedback Management Platforms, Q2, 2017 (paywall) is live! CFM platforms are part of a larger VoC vendor landscape and help CX professionals manage complexity by centralizing and automating essential VoC activities. This Wave scores 10 vendors that matter based on offering, revenue and interest by Forrester clients: Clarabridge, Confirmit, InMoment, MaritzCX, Medallia, NICE, […]

We identified 12 essential CX practices every organization must master to create and sustain experiences that drive customer loyalty. An exceptional customer experience (CX) doesn’t happen by accident! Take our simple new Customer Experience Practices Survey to learn how well your organization is performing in the essential 12 practices. You’ll see these key practices and how we […]

If you are like other CX pros, at some point in your CX career you’ll encounter the “money question.” Your CEO will ask you: “What’s an improvement in our customers’ experience worth in dollars and cents?” And it’s likely that you won’t have a (good enough) answer. I say that because I know that 50% […]

… in the making. Do you want to know… How future-proof is our VoC program? Are we doing enough to gain deep customer understanding? Are we maximizing our use of journey mapping and should we be doing journey analytics? Take our benchmarking survey to get the answers and benchmark your and your company's efforts! As a […]

Happy CX Day! As part of our CX Day celebrations, which include a very special episode of CX Cast, and a comprehensive CX reading list that doubles as a holiday gift buying guide for the CX pro in your life, we are launching a new report: Why CX? Why Now?  In collaboration with my colleague, Sam Stern, […]