CX is chasing ROI – but still thinking reactively

In some ways, it felt like the same conversation we’ve been having in customer experience circles for the last decade. But in others, it felt like everything had changed.

I had the opportunity to take the stage and share an approach I’ve been refining for years, and ultimately captured in my book, Experience is Everything.

It centers on a simple but often overlooked idea: if you want real business results from customer experience, you can’t start with measurement. You have to start with intentional leadership and a shared definition of success.

After the session, I stayed for questions. And stayed. And stayed. :)

A line formed of leaders like CX professionals, operators, and executives, who all shared a version of the same frustration: they were stuck reacting. Constantly chasing issues. Being asked for ROI, but not set up to deliver it.

That wasn’t surprising. But it was telling.

Because over the next few days at X4, as I listened to keynote speakers, joined breakout sessions, and spoke with leaders across industries, that same theme kept showing up:

Customer experience is being held accountable like never before. Yet most organizations are still operating in reactive mode and missing the opportunity to drive business results.

The pressure to prove ROI

The pressure for ROI is real, as it has been for several years.. From the main stage to hallway conversations, it dominated. Jason Maynard, CEO of Qualtrics, emphasized the shift from understanding experiences to driving outcomes. Leaders like David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care, and Sandra Douglass Morgan, president of the Las Vegas Raiders, reinforced how critical experience has become to organizational success.

CX has earned its place at the table. Maybe. But with that comes pressure.

Leaders are being asked to connect CX directly to revenue growth, retention, and operational efficiency. And many are responding by doubling down on measurement – more dashboards, more alerts, more reporting.

But here’s the disconnect: most of these efforts still begin with what’s measured, not with an intentional goal or focused effort to deliver the business outcomes that are most important to the organization.

Teams are reacting to churn, responding to negative feedback, and trying to prove value retroactively. That’s not how ROI is built.

A three-step framework 

In Experience is Everything, I outline a framework built on mindset, strategy, and discipline. What X4 made clear is that many organizations are skipping straight to discipline – without aligning on mindset or strategy first. They want results without redesigning the system that produces them.

One of the most powerful examples at X4 came from an unexpected place: finance.

Ben Dunham, the CFO from TruGreen, spoke about customer experience grounded in business reality. Seeing a CFO on the main stage at a CX event like this is a true sign of how leaders need to think. Make your CFO not only happy about CX, but happy enough to present about the results. That’s a big proof point! 

The framing was refreshingly direct: retention tells you how good you are at what you do.

And the outcomes were undeniable. More than US$280 million in revenue growth tied to retention, supported by better data, stronger root cause analysis, and proactive outreach.

This is what happens when CX is embedded into how the business operates – not positioned as a separate initiative trying to justify itself.

It’s also what so many of those leaders in line after my session were striving for. They weren’t lacking effort. They were lacking alignment.

Despite all the advances showcased at X4, the innovations around AI, predictive insights, and real-time recommendations, the dominant operating model is still reactive.

You can hear it in the way teams describe their work: closing the loop faster, responding more quickly, catching issues sooner.

All important. But none of it changes the underlying reality: if you’re always responding, you’re always behind.

In industries like retail and restaurants, this challenge becomes even more visible. Operators are trying to determine what to measure, how to act, and how to connect customer feedback to actual performance.

Not all feedback is reliable. Not all metrics are meaningful. And without clear priorities, even the best data becomes overwhelming.

The organizations doing something different 

The organizations making progress are doing something fundamentally different. They’re not just listening – they’re deciding. They’re setting clear, tangible goals that operators can act on and tying those directly to business outcomes.

Another conversation that stuck with me was about retail – and the temptation to jump straight to differentiation.

At REI, the team is asking a critical question: what do customers actually need from us – and why are they going elsewhere?

Clay Walton-House, vice president of member and customer growth at REI, made a strong case for understanding that customers really want retailers to get the basics right. At REI, they’re building a hierarchy of needs. Start with the fundamentals like product availability, convenience, and fair pricing. Only THEN focus on differentiation.

It sounds simple. But it’s where many organizations fall short.

Too often, brands invest in storytelling and “moments that matter” while missing the basics. As one insight captured perfectly, many organizations are telling themselves stories about their differentiators while failing to consistently deliver on expectations.

And customers notice.

Artificial intelligence (AI) was everywhere at X4, and the progress is real. More than half of customers using AI agents report satisfaction with their experience.

But AI doesn’t solve for strategy. It amplifies whatever system is already in place.

If your organization is reactive, AI will help you react faster. If your organization is intentional, AI will help you scale that intention.

As the event wrapped, I kept thinking back to that line of leaders after my session on day one.

They weren’t asking for more tools. They weren’t asking for more data. They were asking how to get unstuck.

How to move from reacting to designing. From proving value to creating it. From chasing ROI to delivering it.

That’s the shift in front of us.

Customer experience has (sort of) grown up. It’s being held accountable in ways it never has before. But if we continue to operate from a reactive mindset, we’ll always be one step behind the outcomes we’re trying to achieve.

The path forward isn’t more urgency. It’s more intentional leadership.

Start with the outcomes you want to drive. Align your organization around them. Design experiences that deliver them consistently.

That’s how you move beyond reactive results.

And based on the conversations I had at X4, it’s exactly where leaders are ready to go next. 

Quick links

• Experience is everything: The 3 steps that prevent CX failure
• AI and customer trust: Reflections from CCW 2026 Sydney
• The persona problem: What agentic AI exposes about our favorite CX tool