May 2025 | VOL. 34

"Great businesses are not built by extraordinary people but by ordinary people who do extraordinary things."

-Michael E. Gerber, author,

The E-Myth Revisited:

Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It.

Challenging Common Myths

Welcome to the May Verde Edition newsletter. Our content this month focuses on helping organizations challenge those common myths that stand in the way of achieving their customer experience goals.

Organizations often struggle to move beyond these "common myths"—long-standing beliefs or practices that go unquestioned—because these norms are deeply embedded in the culture and identity of the business. These myths may have once contributed to past success, which gives them an almost untouchable status, even when they no longer serve the organization’s current needs. Employees and leaders alike may view these ideas as foundational, making it risky or uncomfortable to question their relevance. As a result, change initiatives that threaten these sacred beliefs can face strong resistance, not only due to logic or data, but because of emotional attachments and institutional inertia.

This holds true in customer experience measurement and management practices. One example is the long-standing belief that changing a customer's attitude will lead to improved business outcomes. This myth was dispelled over 30 years ago when Thomas Jones and Earl Sasser wrote their now infamous piece "Why Satisfied Customers Defect." They state that "Even though the results of customer-satisfaction surveys are an important indicator of the health of the business, relying solely on them can be fatal."

This is exactly why The Verde Group challenges organizations to think differently about customer experience practices. However, in many organizations, performance is rewarded more than provocation, and harmony is often valued over healthy conflict. Challenging the status quo can be seen as disruptive or even insubordinate, especially when myths are perpetuated by influential leaders or reinforced through legacy CX metrics. Without explicit support from leadership, employees may suppress innovative thinking or remain silent about inefficiencies rooted in outdated assumptions. This limits the organization's ability to evolve with changing market dynamics or customer expectations.

Our challenge to readers in this month's edition: broaden your perspective on CX measurement practices, do not accept the status quo, expect your CX program to deliver business impact and lastly, question old truths, as it will unlock agility, innovation, and more sustainable pathways to future success.

As always, we thank you for your support and welcome your input.

Cheers!

The Verde Group

Rethinking the Common Myths

of Customer Experience

Are There CX Beliefs Your Business Is Afraid to Challenge?

In customer experience, certain assumptions can become so ingrained that no one dares to question them. These long-standing beliefs often go unchallenged—not because they’re still valid, but because they’ve become part of the organizational fabric. Yet clinging to outdated ideas can silently erode performance, frustrate customers, and stall innovation.

In our latest blog post, we explore the hidden costs of treating old CX strategies as untouchable truths. It’s time to reevaluate what we think we know—and ask whether it’s helping or holding us back. Read it now.

READ THE BLOG

May 2025 FAST FIVE

Why It's Time to Rethink Your Approach to CX:

This month’s Fast Five offers five data-backed reasons to re-evaluate how you measure and manage customer experience. As we explored in this month’s blog, too many CX strategies are rooted in outdated assumptions. These insights reinforce why it's time to adopt a fresh, evidence-driven approach:

Awareness Doesn’t Equal Action: More than 80% of business leaders say improving CX is a top priority—but only 6% of brands have seen significant gains. This gap highlights a common issue: knowing CX matters, but lacking a clear, measurable roadmap to actually improve it. (Forrester)
Poor CX Still Drives Defection: Nearly half (49%) of customers who left a brand in the past year cited poor CX as the reason—despite previous loyalty. In a competitive market, experience missteps aren’t minor—they’re deal-breakers. (Emplifi)
CX Performance Tied to Budget Wins: Companies that clearly link CX improvements to growth, profitability, and margin are 29% more likely to secure increased CX budgets. When CX is positioned as a revenue driver—not a feel-good initiative—it earns the investment it deserves. (Gartner)
Integration Is the Future: Seventy-two percent of leaders believe merging teams and responsibilities around the customer experience will drive operational efficiency. Siloed efforts are no longer effective—cross-functional alignment is becoming a CX imperative. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
The ROI Is Real: Brands that commit to improving the customer experience see measurable business results: a 42% boost in retention and a 32% lift in cross-selling and upselling. Experience pays—literally. (Keap)

When Loyalty Programs Backfire:

The Boomerang Effect

Customer Loyalty Gone Wrong

Loyalty programs are designed to reward and retain customers. But what if they inadvertently push them away?

In his insightful article, The Verde Group Executive VP Dennis Armbruster delves into the "Boomerang Effect," where loyalty perks can amplify customer dissatisfaction when expectations aren't met. Loyalty members often hold brands to higher standards, and when service falls short, the backlash can be more severe than from non-members.

Read the article here, from CMS Wire:

READ THE ARTICLE

Free CX Resources

Did you know The Verde Group offers a growing library of free CX resources? Whether you're looking to challenge your team's thinking, back up a business case with data, or simply stay sharp on customer experience trends, our resource hub is built to support you. From bite-sized blog posts and insights-packed newsletters to in-depth white papers and proprietary research, there’s something for every CX leader or curious change-maker.

Our goal is to help organizations make smarter, more strategic decisions by sharing what we’ve learned through decades of work in the field. If you’re ready to explore proven strategies, fresh perspectives, and research-backed frameworks (like Revenue@Risk®), our resource center is a great place to start. Check it out—and see what ideas rise to the surface when you start challenging your CX common myths.

BROWSE OUR CX RESOURCES

Ask Us Anything

May 2025's Question:

Question: Dear Verde Group, what is the best way to elevate the importance and impact of customer experience insights within our company?

Answer: Thank you for your thoughtful question. Elevating the importance and impact of CX insights within your company requires a strategic shift—from viewing CX as a functional report card to recognizing it as a source of economic and strategic advantage. Here are three core recommendations we have for you to achieve this:

1. Translate Insights into Financial Impact

The most effective way to elevate CX is to tie it directly to business outcomes. Move beyond satisfaction scores or NPS and focus on identifying specific customer friction points that lead to lost revenue, decreased loyalty, or operational inefficiencies. Quantify these pain points using a methodology like Revenue@Risk to show the financial cost of inaction and the upside of improvement. When CX insights are framed in terms the business understands—dollars at risk or gained—they quickly command greater attention at the executive level.

2. Align with Strategic Priorities

Ensure your CX insights are connected to the company’s top strategic goals—whether that’s digital transformation, growth through new markets, or operational efficiency. Tailor your findings to show how improving specific aspects of the experience can help accelerate those priorities. When CX data is used to guide strategic planning and investment decisions—not just track past performance—it becomes a critical input for leadership discussions.

3. Build a Coalition and Drive Ownership

Finally, CX must move beyond the CX team. Build cross-functional buy-in by involving stakeholders from marketing, operations, IT, and finance early in the insight generation and solution design process. Provide each function with a clear line of sight into how CX performance affects their objectives. Make them co-owners of the improvement journey. This turns CX from a “nice to have” into a shared performance driver with measurable accountability.

We’d be happy to discuss ways to operationalize these ideas further based on your organization’s goals and current state. Thank you again for reaching out!

Send us your questions and stay tuned for the June 2025 newsletter to see your questions answered by one of our CX specialists.

QUESTIONS?

READY TO TALK? Book an intro session with Dennis Armbruster, Verde Group Executive VP, to discover how you can enhance the impact of your CX program. We want to help you find methods to anchor your customer insights firmly within your business framework, driving stronger ROI and increasing executive buy-in. We want to learn more about your current challenges.

CX INSIGHTS CHAT - SCHEDULE NOW