No One Cares About Your CX Metrics—Let's Fix That

Customer experience pros often face a common challenge: robust metrics like NPS or CSAT fall flat outside the CX team. Why? Because other departments don't see how those numbers connect to their goals.

This episode explores how to bridge that gap by translating CX data into the language of IT, Operations, and Finance. It's not about dumbing down the data. It's about building context. When CX metrics highlight inefficiencies or opportunities for cross-functional wins, they become powerful tools for collaboration.

You'll hear how to align CX insights with departmental priorities so the data speaks to what each team cares about most. We also explore using behavioral and operational data, like service calls, churn rates, or purchase frequency, to demonstrate real business impact. Plus, we introduce the Customer Experience Success Blueprint, a framework designed to help CX initiatives integrate seamlessly with broader organizational goals.

Want your CX initiatives to gain real traction? Start by making the metrics matter to everyone.

Resources Mentioned:
CX Mission Statement Workbook -- https://bit.ly/cx-mission-workbook
CX Success Statement Workbook -- https://bit.ly/cx-success-workbook
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com

Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)

Episode Transcript

MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, jeanne Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm

(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.

Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Do you ever feel like you're the only one
who really gets it?
That's what this next questionis all about.

Listener Question (00:38):
We track a bunch of CX metrics but honestly
, I don't even think most of ourinternal teams know what they
mean.
So my question is how can wemake those metrics actually
matter to folks who don't workdirectly with the customers,
like those in IT or operationsor finance?

Jeannie Walters (00:56):
This is something we hear all the time.
I have so much empathy for theleader who reached out and asked
this question, but I also betthat many of you can relate.
I just had a coaching calltoday with a leader and we were
talking about this very thing.
How can we get the others toreally care?
Because without others, withoutthose other leaders from

(01:18):
finance, from IT, from digital,from all these different places
then it's really hard to executeon the things that we need to
do in order to improve thecustomer experience.
So take heart, we can do this.
This is one of the biggestchallenges we have and it's one
of the things I see as a missedopportunity for CX.

(01:42):
We don't talk about the metricsin the right way.
We don't help our organizationreally understand that this is a
win for everyone.
It's a really common challengebecause we talk about metrics
like NPS and CSAT and CES andchurn rate maybe, but we don't
give them context.

(02:02):
We don't talk about the why and, frankly, metrics only matter
if people can see how theyconnect to their goals.
So let's take a cue fromanother part of the business.
When we talk about salesmetrics, everybody in the

(02:24):
business clearly understandswhat it means when we say we've
closed a deal.
Well, we've closed a deal.
That means more revenue, itmeans bonuses, it means business
growth.
We connect those dots, maybeeven without knowing we're doing
so, but with customerexperience we have to provide
that connection, that contextevery time we talk about these
metrics and measurements, thatcontext every time we talk about

(02:47):
these metrics and measurements.
So here are a few ideas on howto make these metrics matter to
more leaders throughout yourorganization.
Number one start with empathyfor those internal teams.
Internal teams are jugglingtheir own goals, they have
systems, they have prioritiesand sometimes we just don't give
them a reason to care.
So let's make sure thatwhenever we are thinking about

(03:12):
communicating with those teams,we are connecting the dots
between their work, theirefforts, their goals and the
customer experience.
For example, we can saysomething about hey, you know
what, our net promoter scorewent up this month partially
because our digital experienceimproved.
That's all thanks to IT.
We have to help them understandthat the efforts that they're

(03:34):
putting in are showing up inthese metrics.
Now, if we show them thepositive, we can also indicate
the negative.
When things are happening.
We can say things like, youknow, we've heard that the
reason our recommendation rateis going down is because people
don't find the experience easy.
People don't find it convenient.

(03:55):
People are finding that ittakes too many steps to get to
what they need.
The more that you can show thatthis isn't just something we're
talking about.
This is tied to the action, thepriorities and the measurements
that we have as an organization.
And then the other part of thisis let's not just dictate

(04:17):
customer experience based oncustomer feedback scores.
Customer experience is aboutthe experience.
It's about the whole thing.
It's holistic.
When we are only talking aboutthe feedback metrics that we're
getting from customers, we aremissing opportunities to really
talk about how are they behaving?
What does that tell us?
What are the operationalmetrics that matter?

(04:39):
What will it mean to ourorganization if we can speed up
service just a little bit?
What will that mean to theentire organization?
We need to make them meansomething.
We need to tie things togetherwith that metric.
I would also say look for sharedvictories.
Look for shared victoriesbetween their goals and our

(05:01):
goals.
So, for example, if you aretalking to operations, they are
going to be really excited aboutanything that brings
organizational efficiency.
So if you could improve service, if you could reduce service
calls, if you could make surethat people are getting what
they need the first time, so youdon't have to send out those

(05:23):
repairs, you don't have to dothose refunds.
All of those things add up tooperational efficiency.
Now that same thought processcan be assigned to finance or
marketing or sales.
Think about what's in it forthem.
Now we have a tool we usedcalled the Customer Experience

(05:44):
Success Blueprint, and the firststep in this is defining what
are your organizational goalsand what are your leadership
goals.
We have to understand theseleaders.
What do they care about?
Because then we can determinewhere should we invest and
prioritize in the customerexperience so that we can
deliver on those goals.
Let's face it when we areasking for feedback metrics,

(06:08):
when we are talking about netpromoter score or customer
satisfaction rate, those arenice to know.
Those give us some information,but they don't give us all the
information.
We have to make sure that we areconnecting these dots so that
people really understand thatit's not just about what they're
telling us.
What they're telling us is areflection on what we're

(06:30):
delivering, on how they feelabout the experience, about what
they'll do next time.
Are they going to buy more withus?
Are they going to leave us?
Are they going to badmouth uson social media?
That's the connection.
It's not really about an outcomeof NPS.
NPS and CSAT and all of thosethings are metrics.

(06:52):
They are not outcomes.
We have to stop treating themlike they are outcomes.
The outcomes are for thebusiness, are for organizational
results.
What do our leaders care about?
So when you break down how youreally define success and that's
what the customer experiencesuccess blueprint is all about

(07:13):
when you define what successlooks like and how to measure it
, that's when you startconnecting the dots for
everybody.
You show people that this is awin.
This is a win for theorganization, this is a win for
our employees, this is a win forour customers, and if we're
speaking directly to a leader orteam, we want to make it a win
for them and their team as well.

(07:36):
So let's make sure, when we aretalking about customer
experience metrics, we areactually talking about business
outcomes.
We are building that businesscase for why they should care
about this.
That's on us.
We have to own it and we haveto just keep doing it.
Keep up the rhythm and thecadence of communication around

(07:56):
this, but make sure it'smeaningful.
I've heard from a lot ofleaders who say things like yeah
, I see the dashboard, butnothing changes, so what do I
care?
Because these changes take time.
So make sure you're looking forwhat is one win you can
celebrate every month, everyquarter.
What is something that youlearned from that?
Because of the information,because of the feedback that

(08:17):
customers gave us, we'rechanging something.
Share that.
This is a business cycle.
This is a building of arelationship with our customers
to get business results, andthat's the part we have to talk
about a lot more.
So some specific takeaways foryou.

(08:48):
Don't assume everyone knowswhat these things mean.
We have to give them context.
We have to translate it intoteam relevant language.
We want to use those CX metricsto apply to our
cross-functional KPIs.
We have to make sure we'retalking about efficiency, churn,
revenue, profit, all of thosethings.
And I want you to use thosetools like the customer
experience mission statement andthe customer experience success
blueprint to really definewhere you're going, because if

(09:09):
you're only reporting out andyou don't have a vision, you
don't have a plan, how do youknow if you're getting there?
And we wanna make this part ofthe regular rhythm of business
life.
We wanna report in thesenumbers in a way that people
want to hear them, because ithelps them do their jobs better.
Better experience means betteroutcomes.

(09:29):
Better outcomes means wins forour organization, our customers
and our employees.
Let's keep talking about it.
Great question, as always, I'mhere for you.
Ask your question at askJeannieVIP.
Thanks for being here.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience

(09:54):
.
Check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on
LinkedIn.