Harley Manning

VP, Research Director

Author Insights

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Personal Advice On How To Earn Extra Points In Your Next Forrester Wave™

Harley Manning July 28, 2022
As I wind down the last few days of my Forrester career before I retire, I am very conscious of the fact that I am leaving behind two customer experience (CX) analysts who are in various phases of creating a Forrester Wave™. I won’t be here to see them through the process, so I wrote […]
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These Five Universal Truths About CX Have Lasted 22 Years And Counting

Harley Manning July 25, 2022
Explore these time-tested principles, and let them guide your CX decision making.
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Qualtrics’ $1.125B Acquisition Of Clarabridge Upends The Customer Feedback Management Market

Judy Weader July 30, 2021
Yesterday evening, Qualtrics announced that it’s acquiring Clarabridge in an all-stock deal worth $1.125 billion. This is a great move for Qualtrics. In one swoop, it has secured the best-in-class analytics capabilities that will define the future of voice-of-the-customer programs as firms decrease their reliance on surveys and focus instead on understanding customers based on […]
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How Customer Experience Measurement Drove CX Improvements In 2020 Despite COVID

Harley Manning March 18, 2021
Despite COVID-19, customer experience measurement improvement at leading companies continued in 2020 and led to business growth. Learn more.
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In 2019, Southwest Had A CX Disaster; In 2020, Its Customers Forgave The Airline — Here’s Why

Harley Manning August 3, 2020
I predicted that Southwest would recover in the CX Index due to the CX equity it has built with its customers. As it turned out, Southwest not only recovered, it set a new high score for the industry and passed JetBlue to take the top spot among airlines.
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“All Right, You Made Your Point. Now What Do We Do About It?”

Harley Manning July 13, 2020
On Wednesday, July 15, we’re inviting executives from all companies — large and small, B2B, and B2C — to participate in our inaugural CX Reality Day and test out the real experiences that their brand delivers to customers.
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If You Want To Deliver A Great Customer Experience, Start By Attracting The Right Customers

Harley Manning April 13, 2020
Focus on attracting customers who will find the experience your firm offers extremely compelling. Otherwise, marketers will shovel prospects in through the front door while customer experience (CX) professionals watch dissatisfied, one-and-done customers flow out through the back door, never to return.
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Three Steps To Improving Customer Experience In The Middle Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

David Truog March 16, 2020
Read the three essentials of customer experience that every organization should prioritize during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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Answers To Common CX Questions

Harley Manning February 3, 2020
A round-up of answers to CX questions asked by audience members during the Predictions 2020 webinar.
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The Right Way To Prioritize Customer Experience Projects

Harley Manning December 16, 2019
Prioritizing CX projects can be relatively easy — if the CX team sets up its measurement program to populate a simple but effective prioritization model.
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The One-Sentence Business Case For Customer Experience

Harley Manning December 9, 2019
Almost all CX professionals make the same exact mistake when asking for money. Discover what it is and how to avoid it by using a one sentence business case.
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How To Prove That Fixing Customer Experience Problems Cuts Costs

Harley Manning December 1, 2019
Learn a simple method for achieving financial results with CX.
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Tie CX To $ In Your Measurement System

Harley Manning November 21, 2019
How to quantify and prove the ability of CX to drive revenue growth in five steps.
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There’s Just One CX Metric That Matters To Your C-Suite — But You’re Not Reporting It

Harley Manning November 11, 2019
There’s one CX metric you must report to your CEO. It’s not NPS, CSAT, or even our beloved CX Index score. It’s $$$.
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Predictions 2020: For CX, It’s All About Proving Business Results

Harley Manning October 31, 2019
The ability to deliver business results will be a career-defining issue in the year ahead.
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Hungry For More CX Events? Try FXD In Boston Oct. 24–25

Harley Manning October 20, 2019
I just got back from Forrester’s very successful CX SF 2019 Forum, and I’m already looking forward to a terrific event that’s happening right here in Boston this coming week. It’s the Mad*Pow Financial Experience Design Conference on October 24 and 25. You can find out more about it at www.fxdconf.com and even save $200 […]
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Two Big Answers Emerged From The US CX Index For 2019

Harley Manning June 11, 2019
The journeys of Whole Foods and Southwest Airlines exemplify lessons brands can learn from 2019’s CX Index results.
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The Race To Innovate CX In Brokerage And Wealth Management

Harley Manning December 26, 2018
Recently, Forrester published our CX predictions for 2019. Our first prediction was that stagnating CX quality will cause short, destructive price wars. We cited Fidelity’s two new zero-fee investment funds as an example of how this is already starting to play out. We also noted that Vanguard responded to Fidelity by highlighting its many funds […]
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2018 Marked 20 Years Of Customer Experience Research At Forrester!

Harley Manning November 26, 2018
I didn’t want to leave 2018 without noting a milestone for all of us here at Forrester who cover customer experience. It was 20 years ago, all the way back in September of 1998, when we inaugurated our customer experience research by publishing our first report about CX. That report, “Why Most Websites Fail,” introduced […]
Blog

Predictions 2019: Customer Experience Comes Under Fire

Harley Manning November 5, 2018
Let’s face it: 2018 was not a fabulous year for customer experience. On average, CX quality was flat, with Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) scores showing little movement for the third year in a row. And what little movement that did happen was toward the middle of our scale, where 62% of brands bunched up in […]
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