Howard Lax
Howard Lax, Ph.D.
Supporting better informed decision making with technology, research and strategy. With a focus on CX/VoC/NPS, Employee Engagement and emotion analytics, Howard's domain is the application of marketing information and SaaS platforms to solve business problems and activating CX programs to drive business objectives.
The CX Metrics Agnostic: Does it Matter Which Metric You Use?
So unless you are “results agnostic” and don’t care about the success of your CX efforts, the next time someone tells you they are CX…
Stickers, Switchers and Shoppers: Lessons from the Auto Insurance Industry
Some people display a propensity to be “stickers,” that is to “stick” with companies they use, while others are prone to be “shoppers” and...
Patching the Leaky Bucket: Satisfice, Remediate and Improve
It may be a trite and overused metaphor, but everyone knows what I am talking about: lost customers. Churn, defection, leakage – call it...
Beyond Closing the Loop: VoC/E
“Closing the loop” – the process of responding to customers who provide weak feedback scores or critical comments to address or resolve the customer’s...
The Science of CX
Customer Experience is still regarded by many as a soft-and-fluffy activity. There is a tendency to reduce it to simplistic statements: make customers happy;...
Reflections on the Causes of Lousy Customer Experiences
These days, it’s hard to find a company that doesn’t say it competes on customer experience. At the same time, we know as both...
Linking the Employee & Customer Experience: A Practical Guide to the Holy Grail
Pundits and CEOs have long debated the relative merits of whether to focus primarily on the Customer Experience (CX) or the Employee Experience (EX)....
CX and COVID-19: What’s the Same, What’s Changed and What’s To Do?
The pandemic has dramatically redefined how we live, work, play and interact with each other. Our daily routines, relationships of all stripes, simple indulgences,...
The Human Experience Trumps CX and EX in Times of Crisis
Companies are scrambling like mad trying to figure out what to do with their two most important assets – customers and employees – in...
The HippocratiCX Oath
The Hippocratic medical oath of ethics and the most fundamental principle of CX are essentially the same: first do no harm. This defensive posture doesn’t...
The CX Yo-Yo
It may not be a classic scenario of “one step forward, two steps back,” but it seems that for every advance and forward trend...
The Best CX Metric Deja Vu
Having seen a number of articles/heard a resurgence of opinions recently arguing for/against different CX metrics yet again, it’s time to clear my throat...
Emotional Bonds: The Secret Elixir in CX
Over the years I have measured what customers say and feel about iPhones/iOS and Samsung mobile devices/Android OS. Without fail, the Samsung/Droid combo wins...
The CX Quid Pro Quo
Something for something. Customer relationships very much are premised on a quid pro quo between a company and its customers. That is, the customer/company relationship...
Forget-Me-Not Moments & Customer Yawns
The large majority of experiences we have with the large majority of companies across the large majority of touchpoints are, simply put, eminently forgettable...
Capturing the Loyalty & Business of Financial (or any) Intermediaries
Helping consumers and businesses manage and plan their financial affairs, Financial Advisors (FAs) are the key intermediaries or channel for the promotion and distribution...
The Purpose of Your Company is Nurturing Customer Relationships
Huh? What happened to maximizing shareholder value? “Nurturing” sounds pretty soft for the hard-tacks of the business world. The logic, however, is straight forward....
What’s the Best CX Metric?
Some marketers display a near-religious devotion to Net Promoter Score (NPS) as THE measure of customer experience and loyalty, while others display an equally...
CX is NOT a Panacea . . . but it’s D@#n Important
POOF! That’s the sound of leading customer experience companies going belly-up or being acquired by companies with less-stellar CX credentials. We heard a massive sucking...
Is Your Company Emotionally Intelligent?
Emotional connections are at the heart of enduring or loyal customer relationships, as well as employee engagement. The difference between fleeting transactional customer interactions...