If you’ve done any work in Customer Experience space, you’ve probably seen this article from Forrester about the state of customer experience in the US.
What I haven’t heard anyone talking about, though, is that employee experience and customer experience are deeply intertwined; you won’t have happy customers if your employees are miserable. So what does this data tell us about what employees are experiencing in U.S. workplaces today? And what needs to change? I’d love to hear thoughts from Forrester and other thought leaders in this space.
This report touches on customer experience across industries, but this downward trend has hit health insurance particularly hard, with one third of the industry earning “poor” ratings. The changes that are required in healthcare are so much bigger than improving a call center experience. I am not sure it can be fixed as long as our healthcare system continues to as a for-profit business. It will be interesting to see how (if) insurance companies respond.
Shortly after the release of the Forrester report, I had the opportunity to read an article by Jon Picoult on Forbes which reflected on Why Customer Experience Quality is Simulateously Soaring & Plummeting. The plummeting is a reference to the Forrester article, and the soaring references the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released in May 2024.
Picoult’s observation is that the two indices are mirror images of one another:
Picoult argues that these discrepancies make the industry look bad, and offers some recommendations on how to make sense of them:
- Don’t use customer satisfaction as a proxy for customer engagement.
- Differences in survey design and the underlying algorithms could be a factor.
- Score changes may not reflect meaningful changes, because the variations are within a narrow range.
For some perspective, Picoult’s recommendation is to consider these trends in the context of businesses you personally patronize, and ask yourself questions such as these:
- Do they do what they committed to do?
- Do they respect your time?
- Is it easy to get the help you need through multiple channels?
- Do employees demonstrate a sense of ownership in addressing your concern(s)?
- Is communication clear?
- Do they anticipate your needs?
- Do they keep your best interests in mind?
- Do your interaction result in good feelings or in unhappiness?
- Do you feel better after you engage with them?
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