WEBINAR REPLAY
A customer experience growth framework only earns its place when it changes what people do on the front line. Watch the replay, then read how Phil Prosser and I unpacked it.
By Julian Barton, EGM | Feedback ASAP | feedbackasap.com
Most businesses have no shortage of feedback. What they lack is a customer experience growth framework that turns it into action, by the people who serve customers every day. That was the heart of our latest webinar, hosted by Fraser Morrison, where Phil Prosser, our Founder and CEO, walked through how customer experiences become measurable growth.
Phil has spent more than 25 years helping brands in 74 countries turn customer feedback into action, and I joined him for the closing questions. Below is the session in the order it unfolded, with a link to each moment in the replay so you can jump straight to the part that matters to you.
Why does a customer experience growth framework matter more as expectations rise?
Watch this part of the replay (5:01)
Phil opened with the problem. Research he shared showed 65% of businesses have seen a major increase in customer experience expectations over the last two years. Customer patience has not kept up: 94% will walk away from a brand after a single negative experience, and 53% abandon a digital experience the moment it gets difficult.
That is why a customer experience growth framework has to do more than report. It has to close the gap between what customers expect and what the front line delivers, before the customer has already gone. Real experience improvement starts with that gap.
What are the non-negotiables customers expect now?
Watch this part of the replay (7:01)
Fraser asked what would be non-negotiable as we look ahead. Phil named four, and each one belongs inside any customer experience growth framework worth the name.
Trust
Trust comes first. The moment it disappears in any shape or form, the relationship is in trouble.
Relevance
Relevance means meaningful value for this customer, not a generic offer sent to everyone.
Value
Value is more than price. It includes the ease of the experience and the benefits that come from it.
Personalisation
People take little notice of an experience that is not personal. Phil described it as a human touch built around needs. Sales-based is over. Needs-based is relevant.
Reactive or growth: which side of the 80/20 split are you on?
Watch the two pathways (8:50) | Watch the 80/20 split (11:39)
Phil described two pathways. Reactive businesses are score-based. They focus on measurement, stay siloed and run the treadmill, with NPS as the finish line. Growth businesses focus on an outcome, understand cause and effect, and become predictive, which is what a customer experience growth framework should make possible. His estimate is that 80% of businesses sit in the reactive camp and 20% in the growth camp.
That does not mean dropping NPS. It means asking what the score is for. If your customer experience growth framework stops at reporting the number, you are still reactive. We explore why in why CX programs fail.
What does the real voice of the customer change inside a customer experience growth framework?
Watch this part of the replay (13:37)
Phil played a short clip of a shopper describing how attentive and welcoming a team member had been. The point was emotional. Once people hear how a customer actually felt, they are willing to act. Give them data and more data, and they stall at the so what stage. A customer experience growth framework should carry that emotion to the front line, not just the numbers.
He shared one client example with 10,000 staff, where store managers began each morning by playing a recording of an outstanding customer experience, naming the person responsible. It shifted attention from what people had not done to what they could do.
How big is the gap between top and bottom performers?
Watch the 145% gap (17:01) | Watch the eight standards (18:33)
A 145% gap in transaction value
Phil showed a client network of 700 stores. The top 20% of stores achieved 145% higher average transaction value than the bottom 20%. Their NPS was only 15% higher, so a score alone would have hidden most of the commercial difference.
Eight standards, one clear financial signal
In the same network, stores that achieved all eight service standards sold at $150 per transaction. Missing two dropped that to $126, and missing four or more dropped it to $108. NPS fell from 99 to 54 for the stores missing the most standards.
This is where a customer experience growth framework earns its keep. It shows which behaviours drive the money, so effort goes where the return is.
Why is empathy the first lead indicator in a customer experience growth framework?
Watch this part of the replay (20:15)
Phil called empathy the critical starting point. Accountability, motivation, skills and value follow it. He shared the story of a Canadian company with 1,200 locations whose NPS dropped within the month. His team found a sharp fall in friendliness, a measure of empathy, beginning on the 4th. The cause was a change to shifts that had disappointed staff, and customers felt it straight away. The company switched the shifts back.
The wider market points the same way. Forrester’s 2026 Customer Experience Index found that emotion is often the strongest predictor of customer loyalty, advocacy and retention.
If staff are not feeling positive, you will see it quickly in the empathy results. That is an early warning, which is far more useful than a score telling you what has already happened.
How do you build accountability and ownership on the front line?
Watch the ownership discussion (22:38)
Fraser compared it to the way soldiers are given the big picture, then trusted to make decisions. Phil agreed that people need ownership they are naturally inclined to take, not a task they force themselves through. A customer experience growth framework that skips ownership stays a reporting exercise.
Share peer success stories
Phil advised defining best practice from both the customer and business point of view, then getting peers talking about what worked. A short video interview, where a leader recognises someone and they explain how they did it, can be shared across the organisation. It is a success factor, not an opinion, and a customer experience growth framework should make it a routine habit.
Start with the positive
Open the conversation with a customer recording of what they appreciated. Then, separately, explore something that is not working and ask what the customer might have felt. Positive first. Reactive businesses communicate negatives, while growth businesses accelerate the positive. When something is going wrong, understand the person’s why before jumping in to solve it.
Focus on one thing at a time
Ask someone to do too many things and they achieve little. Give them one number one opportunity, with the right support, and they become accountable and deliver. Over time, people move from the bottom 20% to the top 20%.
What are the four pillars behind lasting behaviour change?
Watch the four pillars (30:18) | Watch the program score reset (31:41)
Phil outlined four pillars that determine success, with embedding behaviour change at the core. People have to believe it, want it, and then do it.
Empathy
Learn about your customer segments and the whole customer journey.
Engagement
Get the program standards and scores working, including performance by tenure.
Empowerment
Give people the tools and resources, and help them understand the what, the why and how to improve.
Elevate
The top performers understand the gap between their best and weakest teams and work to close it, looking at profit, people, process and brand together. If the brand is not moving, Phil said, you are missing the plot.
Score design matters too. For a global brand with over a million people on the front line, a 75% starting score bred complacency, so the scoring model was reset to start at 45%. Everyone could see a 20-point improvement to chase. We cover the full approach in our guide to the customer experience improvement program, but the principle is simple: a customer experience growth framework works when the score invites experience improvement, not complacency.
How does advocacy turn a customer experience growth framework into compounding growth?
Watch the advocacy section (35:05) | Watch the referral patterns (36:44) | Watch the add-on results (38:22)
A customer who buys once has made you a sale. One who comes back has built trust. One who tells others has built your brand. Phil shared that 88% of people trust recommendations from friends and family over marketing, and that referred customers show a 37% higher retention rate and higher loyalty from day one, which lifts lifetime value.
In one retail example, 46% of customers who went straight to the store they wanted were driven by referrals. Among those who shopped around, only 26% were, and the rest chased a special promotion. In another client network, the top 20% of teams generated 45% new customers for the year against 15% for the bottom group, and 78% of that came from referrals or good reviews, compared with 32% for the bottom tier. The top group delivered 24% year-on-year sales growth.
One client lifted add-on sales by 31% and NPS by 18% in a single year. Word of mouth compounds, and our guide to referral rate shows how to measure it. That compounding effect is what separates a customer experience growth framework built for growth from one built for reporting.
Is NPS still relevant, and how do you prove commercial impact?
Watch the NPS question (40:05) | Watch the commercial impact answer (41:47) | Watch the improvement dial (43:45)
Fraser put an audience question to Phil: if NPS is a lagging indicator, is it still relevant? Phil said yes, as an addition rather than a replacement, and as a link to advocacy. He also gave a warning. One client rose from 64% to 89% NPS and then went into liquidation, because its product and service were no longer relevant. Scores have limits.
I took the next question, on isolating commercial impact. We start with where the business wants to grow, then build the customer experience growth framework around the behaviours that drive it, tie KPIs and return on effort back to those behaviours, and benchmark across the network and the competitive set. Then comes the question we ask constantly: are you data rich but action poor?
Phil’s measure of action is improvement. Run an improvement dial, and if someone is not improving on their number one opportunity, something serious is going on. You can read more of his thinking in his NPS interview. A customer experience growth framework should be judged by improvement, not by the score it produces.
Where should you start with your customer experience growth framework?
If you take one thing from the session, make it this: pick the one behaviour that moves your numbers most, and build your customer experience growth framework around improving it. Worth a conversation about where your biggest growth gap sits? Explore our solutions or get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
What is a customer experience growth framework?
A customer experience growth framework is a structured way to turn what customers say into action on the front line. It links the real voice of the customer to each person’s number one opportunity, tracks improvement over time, and connects that improvement to commercial results such as transaction value, add-on sales and referrals.
Is NPS still worth using in a customer experience growth framework?
Yes, as an addition rather than a replacement. NPS links to advocacy, but it can hide where commercial value sits. In one 700-store network, the top stores had 145% higher transaction value while their NPS was only 15% higher. Pair the score with measures of improvement and action.
How many businesses are in the growth phase?
Phil Prosser estimates about 80% of businesses are reactive, focused on scores and measurement, and only about 20% are in the growth phase, where they target outcomes and understand cause and effect. Moving across takes stages, but the shift starts with deciding what the score is for.
What should a team focus on first in a customer experience growth framework?
One thing. Give each person their number one improvement opportunity, then support them with coaching, the right training and recognition. People asked to fix too many things achieve little, while those with one clear focus become accountable and deliver results over time.
