Global Standards

for Customer Experience Teams

v2024.1
Introducing a powerful new toolkit to elevate
the quality of customer experiences and
CX standards across the world.
Bain & Company, in In addition, entry into the CX profession has
partnership with Kantar and traditionally been based on practical experience
rather than standardized knowledge. This lack
Qualtrics, has created a new of clear standards has led to misconceptions
set of jointly-endorsed CX about the role of CX and made it challenging for
practitioners to make a significant impact with
standards. The first ever cross- their brands and customers.
industry initiative to introduce
a common language for This situation has also led to CX solutions providers
working to their own standards, making true
excellence. partnerships difficult. Most providers’ products,
technology, and support are too bespoke to be
Despite its critical importance for sustained compatible with each other, meaning CX leaders
growth and competitiveness, the ambiguity have had to navigate a tricky vendor landscape by

“
surrounding customer experience (CX) has led themselves.
to misunderstandings and underinvestment.
Many CX functions struggle for recognition and
influence within organizations.
The need for common CX standards
To address these challenges most effectively, is critical; they establish a universal
the Standards are based on the CX Advance SM
benchmark for excellence, ensuring
Framework from Bain & Company, with that companies worldwide know
valuable contributions from Kantar and exactly how to deliver superior
Qualtrics.
customer experiences.
These standards aim to provide clarity
Stanford Swinton
and support a common set of guidelines
Principal Author of Global CX Standards

”
empowering companies to build effective
Executive Vice President at Bain & Company
CX functions.

They also exemplify our collective, best practice

methodology evolved from decades of The new Global Standards for CX provide
practical, proven, hands-on experience across companies with proven strategies for superior
global organizations. The standards have been customer experience​, an expert-backed
specifically developed to enrich the lives of CX framework​, actionable insights and
customers and provide the best in customer comprehensive support​.
experience support to our clients. Thereby
raising the overall quality of CX practices across
all industries and geographies.

Why These Standards Are Critical

Customer Experience Management is a

relatively young discipline. It wasn’t until the
early 2000s, influenced by books like Customer
Experience Management by Bernd Schmitt
(2001) and The Ultimate Question by Fred
Reichheld (2006), that companies began to
seriously consider the impact of customer
sentiment on business performance.

Draft v2024.1 2
Customer Centric Culture
1. Purpose and Leadership

1a Company purpose, values, priorities, and 1e A central CX function sets standards

vision metrics are focused on enriching and holds the business accountable for
customer lives delivering on the customer promise
1b Brand(s) positioning aligns to company 1f All executives have a tracked personal plan
purpose and values in place for enriching customer lives
1c The company scorecard measures progress 1g Internal communication and celebrations
towards the company’s purpose, values and are aligned with the company’s purpose
brand positioning
1h Every Executive Committee meeting starts
1d Leaders are trained on the company’s with a focus on the customer
purpose and regularly spend time with and
in the shoes of customers and employees

2. Employee Experience
2a Employee feedback is regularly captured, 2d Supervisors review employee feedback and
that includes questions related to employee develop action plans based on it
and customer experience
2e Employees have an easy way to raise and
2b Employee coaching sessions are regularly escalate issues with internal systems,
conducted to support employees in processes, policies, tools, etc
creating customer centric behaviors 2f A closed-loop process is in place to keep
2c Employees are rewarded and recognized employees informed about how their issues
based on their performance against the are resolved
company’s purpose and values 2g Hiring, onboarding, and performance
management are all aligned with the
company’s purpose and values

Draft v2024.1 3
Customer Experience Capability
3. Feedback Management

3a Customer feedback is tracked at four levels: 3e Robust qualitative analytics on surveys and
competitive benchmark, relationship, non-surveys are used to understand the
journeys, and interactions meaning behind customer comments
3b Customer experience data insights are 3f There are live, visible reporting and
shared with all teams, based on the dashboards to track customer feedback
needs of their role (while maintaining
3g Customers are proactively followed up with
anonymity), with relevant data to help
after they provide feedback
improve the customer experience
3h There is a simple mechanism in place
3c All teams across the company meet
for escalating customer issues to the
regularly to discuss customer feedback,
appropriate level
plan actions, and review relevant data
3i Generative AI is used to support listening,
3d There are high standards for the
learning, and acting on customer feedback
methodology, wording, sampling, and
across the organization
controls used in collecting and analyzing
customer feedback 3j Monitoring in place on usage of
dashboards, closed loop process and
escalation

4. Data Management
4a Customer data fields (operational, financial, 4d Customer data is linked to specific
customer, and contextual) are mapped to business goals and initiatives (e.g. retention,
form a clear customer taxonomy acquisition, upsell)
4b A data roadmap is in place to close any 4e Advanced data science techniques are used
gaps in our customer data to identify opportunities for improvement
and design targets
4c A single view of each customer is obtained
to understand their value, lifecycle, and 4f Experimentation platforms are utilized to
journey pilot new ideas and track their results

Draft v2024.1 4
Customer Experience Execution
5. Value Management

5a There is a clear understanding of the 5e Customer needs and attitudes inform

connection between brand/marketing the development of our customer value
efforts and customer conversion proposition (CVP)
5b Customer health and growth rates are 5f The value of customer referrals is tracked
tracked
5g The potential value of each customer is
5c Executives regularly review metrics that predicted and understood
show customer value
5h The key factors that drive customer value
5d Both customer economics and customer are identified and used to differentiate the
feedback are considered when making brand
decisions

6. Journey Management
6a Target experience and journeys are 6f There are clear plans for funding
designed with the User as the ultimate both strategic initiatives and ongoing
arbiter of quality improvements in the customer journey
6b A single, unified way of describing customer 6g Team members are trained on CX design
needs, journeys, and touchpoints is techniques and empowered to make
implemented improvements
6c The profitability of each customer journey is 6h There is a defined set of common CX design
tracked principles that all teams follow, aligned to
brand and customer value proposition
6d Teams are organized around customer
needs and journeys (virtually or through a 6i Each customer need/journey has its own
fully aligned operating model) “north star” design linked to the design
6e Each journey has a single point of principles and product roadmap
accountability (operational, financial, and 6j Journey owners have the appropriate tools
customer) and resources to act

7. Lifecycle Management
7a Every customer has a sentiment metric, is 7d Direct marketing and account
assigned to a needs-based segment, and management are personalized based on
has their individual lifetime value (CLV) and each customer’s unique experiences and
customer acquisition cost (CAC) tracked insights
7b Key milestones are defined for each 7e AI and machine learning are used to
customer throughout their lifecycle improve the way humans interact with
7c Personalized actions for each customer are customers
identified and taken, including addressing 7f Customer service is readily and
churn risk and activating promoters conveniently accessible for any customer

Draft v2024.1 5
Next Steps
This first ever cross-industry effort introduces a common
language for excellence in the CX industry and standards
to elevate the quality of CX practices across all industries.

We are launching these Standards as a preview to gain industry and

practitioner input between now and CX Day - October 1, 2024. The
consultation window is open between July 16 and August 31, 2024.

Please visit
cx-standards.com/consultation to share your feedback.

Additionally, if you would like to see how your business measures up to

these Global CX Standards – and take a step towards being accredited
against them – then simply contact your Bain, Kantar or Qualtrics
account team to discuss.

Thank you for your engagement in shaping the future of customer

experience.

Acknowledgements
Principal Author
Bain & Company - Stanford Swinton

Contributors
Kantar - Peter Aitken
Qualtrics - James Scutt

The material and analysis contained herein (the “Report”) was

prepared by Bain & Company, Inc over a limited time period in
order to provide a perspective on CX industry standards.

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the Report solely for personal, non-commercial purposes.

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