The CX Cast
Research-based guidance on how to manage customer experience (CX) at any organization — an imperative that Forrester has been researching for over 20 years. Each week, Forrester analysts discuss key findings from their latest research on CX; analyze relevant topics in the news; or chat with CX professionals about how they’ve overcome prevalent challenges managing CX in their organizations.

Latest Episodes
Podcast
97: Make (Or Break) Your CX Through Employee Onboarding
It takes engaged employees and a customer-centric culture to achieve your customer experience goals. Companies can leverage employee onboarding as a key opportunity to set the stage for sustained employee engagement and build the right culture. In this episode, we discuss ways that CX pros can help evolve the onboarding experience — and make a connection with their new […]
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96: Harness The Power Of Emergent Behavior To Design Great Employee Experiences
In this week’s episode of CX Cast, Sam Stern is on his own talking about how CX professionals can adapt their research and design skills to improve the employee experience. He highlights several examples of how companies have taken this approach to transform their employee experiences, and how companies have started to look for emergent […]
Podcast
95: Pivot To Person-First Personalization
Personalization is all the hype, and for good reason: Consumers expect brands to leverage the data they exchange to deliver better experiences. But many personalized experiences today miss the mark. In this episode, we explain how to approach personalization programs with person-centric objectives. Click the title below to read more: Pivot To Person-First Personalization
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94: The News From Facebook’s F8 Conference That CX Pros Should Care About
This week, we talk to analyst Andrew Hogan about Facebook’s recent F8 conference. Andrew shares the big announcements that CX pros should pay attention to, including the huge number of chat bots, the increasing moves into augmented and virtual reality, and Facebook’s push to get developers interested in customer research techniques and best practices. Click […]
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93: How Companies Improved Their CX Index Scores, 2016
Forrester interviewed customer experience (CX) professionals at brands that showed the biggest year-over-year improvement in Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) from 2015 to 2016. In this episode, we discuss key takeaways of how those brands achieved significant CX improvements. Click the title below to read more: How Companies Improved Their CX Index Scores, 2016
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92: How To Do Research For Customer Journey Mapping
Conducting research for a customer journey mapping effort involves more than learning what customers do, interact with, think, and feel. To yield meaningful benefits, CX pros must gather research that not only exposes the customer journey but also lays the groundwork for the broader CX improvement initiative. In this episode, we uncover the real objectives […]
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91: Digital Customer Experience Trends, 2017
In 2016’s edition of research about digital customer experience (CX) trends, Forrester identified the rise of conversational interfaces and concierge services. In this year’s report, we examine how those trends are playing out and highlight two new ones gaining momentum as we enter 2017: 1) artificial intelligence (AI), voice, and biometric capabilities further transforming user interfaces and 2) companies […]
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90: Welcoming Forrester’s Newest CX Analyst, Jennifer Wise
In this episode, we welcome Senior Analyst Jenny Wise to discuss her upcoming research on emerging interfaces, interaction design, and what CX pros need to think about when exploring new technologies. Prior to her current role on Forrester’s CX research team, Jenny was a senior analyst serving B2C Marketing Professionals. In that role, her research examined the consumer […]
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89: Welcoming Forrester’s New CX Analyst, Faith Adams
Prior to joining Forrester’s research team, Faith spent nine years working in customer and patient experience. In this episode, Faith shares lessons learned from the field and an overview of research of hers that we can look forward to in coming months.
Podcast
88: Executive Steering Committees: Critical For CX Transformation Success
CX professionals and their teams need the support of the entire organization to create and deliver great experiences in a sustainable way. The most important group of colleagues to work with is senior executives. The best way to work with them is through an executive steering committee that makes key decisions about the experience. In […]
Podcast
87: Good News And Bad News For Federal Digital Customer Experience
Thanks to the Obama administration’s final push to improve the federal digital customer experience (CX), customers are using and enjoying most digital channels more than ever. The bad news is that federal websites and mobile apps are in trouble, and customers remain skeptical about the future of digital government. In this episode, we detail key findings from […]
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85: Drive Revenue With Great Customer Experience, 2017
To show the connection between improving CX and growing revenue, Forrester built models that demonstrate how CX improvements drive revenue growth through increased loyalty. In this episode, we discuss the underpinnings of those models. To see the revenue potential from improving CX for 13 of the industries included in Forrester’s Customer Experience Index (CX Index™), […]
Podcast
84: How To Build The Right CX Strategy
Unless you have a well-defined customer experience (CX) strategy, your CX will be haphazard at best and fail to deliver sustainable benefits. In this episode, we explain how to develop a research-based CX vision aligned with the business and translate it into a CX strategy the organization can understand and implement. This is an extensive update of […]
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83: Challenging Trends For Customer-Centric Government In 2017
The nascent Trump administration has said virtually nothing about customer-centric government. However, the actions that President-elect Trump has promised in other policy areas will impact the customer centricity of US federal agencies — in some cases reversing efforts by the Obama administration. In this episode, Principal Analyst Rick Parrish joins us to discuss major trends […]
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82: Customer Success Management Is The Key To Outstanding B2B Customer Experiences
For many business-to-business (B2B) companies, selling new products and services to current customers is the pathway to growth. To get customers to spend more, though, B2B firms must prove they’ve given customers a valuable experience. Enter customer success management (CSM). Emerging from the tech industry, this new discipline seeks to ensure that the value B2B […]
Podcast
81: Build Real Customer Understanding
Customer experience (CX) professionals know that the first step on the path to delivering good experiences is doing research to understand their customers. Yet many fail to recognize that it’s easy to draw false conclusions — and that doing so is even more dangerous than being ignorant. In this episode, we discuss some of the most […]
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80: Quantifying Your Customers’ Emotions, Part 2
In part 2 of our discussion on quantifying emotion with Forrester CMO Victor Milligan and VP of Customer Experience Index Roxie Strohmenger, we dig into the nitty gritty of how to measure the specific emotions your customers have, including how to “titrate” your measurement program (explanation included). Please listen to episode 79 before this this episode.
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79: Quantifying Your Customers’ Emotions, Part 1
Human beings aren’t getting more emotional; it’s just that they now have the power, willingness, and ability to take action when provoked by a delightful or frustrating experience. Understanding these emotional responses can help brands design experiences that elicit the specific feelings that drive loyalty. In part 1 of a 2-part series, Forrester CMO Victor […]
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78: What CX Pros Can Learn From The Wells Fargo Scandal
In September 2016, news broke that Wells Fargo had opened more than 2 million checking and credit accounts without customers’ knowledge. Now we find the scandal runs deeper, with Wells Fargo unfairly firing employees as retribution and blacklisting them from future jobs in banking. In this episode, we dissect the various aspects of the scandal and […]
Podcast
77: The Rise Of The Empowered Customer
Empowered consumers fuel the age of the customer — you’ve likely heard this repeatedly. They now have more choices, richer resources, and higher demands than in the past. But this is more than just a catchy idea; it is a measurable trend. Here, we prove it. This episode reveals how evolutions in customer behaviors and attitudes are […]