Unf*cking Your CX #50 - Your Employee Experience Sucks

Your Employee Experience Sucks—And So Does Your CX

Retailers love to talk about customer experience like it’s the holy grail of business success. But here’s the truth:

Your CX will never be better than your EX.

You can pour millions into customer loyalty programs, AI-driven personalization, and omnichannel magic—but if the employees delivering that experience don’t give a damn, none of it matters.

The problem? Most brands don’t even understand what EX is. They throw around Employee Experience (EX), Employee Engagement, and Employee Satisfaction like they’re the same thing. They’re not. And treating them like they are is exactly why your CX is failing.

Let’s break it down, challenge the BS EX vanity metrics, and give you two real frameworks to fix this mess.

The Three Pillars That You Keep Getting Wrong

1. Employee Satisfaction: The Baseline, Not the Goal

Employee satisfaction is just that—satisfaction. It’s transactional.

• Do I like my paycheck?
• Do I feel safe at work?
• Are my hours fair?

A satisfied employee might not hate their job. But satisfaction doesn’t mean engagement.

Retailer Mistake: Thinking Satisfaction Equals Performance

A satisfied employee will show up, do their job, and go home. That’s it.

• They won’t proactively solve problems.
• They won’t go the extra mile for customers.
• They won’t create the kind of experience that drives revenue.

Example: An associate may be satisfied because their paycheck is steady, but they still put in minimal effort on the sales floor. No engagement. No ownership. No business impact.

If you think a satisfied employee is the same as a committed one, you’re running your brand into the ground.

2. Employee Engagement: The Fuel for Performance

Engagement is not about happiness. It’s about commitment.

Engaged employees are emotionally invested in their work. They show discretionary effort—meaning they do more than just clock in and out.

They:

• Actively help customers, instead of just answering questions.
• Problem-solve instead of pushing responsibility onto someone else.
• Stay longer because they actually care about the company’s success.

Retailer Mistake: Thinking Engagement Can Be Bought with Perks

Engagement isn’t something you pay for—it’s something you earn.

• Pay raises don’t create engagement—they create short-term satisfaction.
• Pizza parties don’t create engagement—they create temporary distractions.
• Casual Fridays don’t create engagement—they create a dress code change.

Example: A retailer installs a fancy breakroom with free coffee and snacks but doesn’t fix their garbage scheduling system that makes life miserable for employees. The result? Zero engagement change.

Engagement happens when employees feel valued, trusted, and connected to the brand. And that doesn’t come from perks. It comes from great EX.

3. Employee Experience (EX): The Ecosystem That Drives Everything

This is where most brands fail.

Employee Experience isn’t a survey score. It isn’t a benefits package. And it sure as hell isn’t an HR initiative.

EX is the full journey of an employee’s relationship with your company—from hiring to daily work to career growth.

A strong EX ensures employees feel:

• Set up for success (proper training, clear expectations)
• Supported by leadership (strong management, not micromanagement)
• Equipped to perform (technology, tools, and autonomy to do their jobs)
• Invested in the business (opportunities to grow, not just work a shift)

Example: If a retailer invests in clear career paths, strong leadership, and effective training, employees will feel empowered, engaged, and ready to deliver a great customer experience.

But if EX is broken? Expect burnout, disengagement, and high turnover.

Stop Measuring the Wrong EX Metrics

Most brands rely on vanity EX metrics that don’t drive business performance. If this is what you’re tracking, you’re measuring the wrong thing:

• Employee satisfaction scores – Tells you if people aren’t miserable, not if they’re engaged.
• Engagement survey participation rates – Because employees filling out a survey doesn’t mean they care.
• eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) – A warmed-over CX metric that HR loves but doesn’t tie to business outcomes.

Here’s what you should be measuring instead:

• Revenue per employee – If your people aren’t helping drive sales, your EX is failing.
• Turnover of high performers – If your best people are leaving, your EX is failing.
• Time-to-productivity – How fast are employees ramping up and delivering results?
• Manager effectiveness – Bad managers destroy EX. Are they being held accountable?
• Internal mobility rate – If employees aren’t growing, they’re leaving.

If EX isn’t moving the needle on business performance, then you don’t have an EX strategy—you have an HR checklist.

Two Frameworks to Unf*ck Your EX Strategy

1. The "Employee Value Chain" Framework

Retailers love talking about the customer value chain, but they forget about the employee value chain—which directly impacts revenue.

Here’s the formula:

Employee Investment → Engagement → Productivity → Customer Experience → Profitability

• Investment in EX (training, leadership, tools, and environment)
• Higher engagement (employees who actually care)
• Better productivity (more upsells, better service, stronger team performance)
• Stronger customer experience (better interactions, repeat purchases, higher customer lifetime value)
• Higher profitability

If you’re skipping investment in EX, don’t expect profitability on the other end.

How to Use This:

Fill in the blanks based on your brand’s current employee experience. If the answers sound weak, your EX is failing, and so is your CX.

Step 1: Investment in EX

Our company invests in employees by providing [training, leadership development, career growth, technology, tools, better scheduling, or other support], ensuring they have [what they need to succeed, minimal resources, or nothing at all] from day one.

Reality Check: If your investment is low, engagement will be low. No exceptions.

Step 2: Employee Engagement

As a result of our investment, employees feel [deeply connected, somewhat engaged, completely disengaged] in their roles and demonstrate [high, average, zero] discretionary effort because they [believe in the brand, are just here for a paycheck, or are actively looking for another job].

Reality Check: If employees aren’t engaged, they won’t show up for your customers.

Step 3: Productivity & Performance

Because of their level of engagement, our employees [actively help customers, provide standard service, do the bare minimum], leading to [high sales per employee, average performance, customer complaints and lost revenue].

Reality Check: If productivity is low, customer experience is suffering—and so is revenue.

Step 4: Customer Experience

The way our employees show up translates into [exceptional, forgettable, frustrating] customer interactions, resulting in [repeat customers and loyalty, average satisfaction, abandoned carts and bad reviews].

Reality Check: CX is a direct reflection of EX. If it’s bad, your EX is worse.

Step 5: Profitability & Growth

Because of our approach to EX, our business sees [higher retention, stronger revenue, a growing customer base] or [declining repeat purchases, high turnover costs, shrinking margins].

Reality Check: You can’t expect to maximize profitability when you minimize investment in EX.

Final Answer:

If this madlib exposed any weak links, it’s time to stop pretending EX is an HR initiative and start treating it like a business strategy.

Because if you don’t fix EX, you’ll never fix CX—or your bottom line.

Framework #2: The "EX Maturity Model"

Where does your brand fall on this scale?

Level 1: EX as an Expense

• Employees are a cost to manage.
• Training is minimal.
• High turnover.
• No career growth opportunities.
• Result? Miserable CX, disengaged employees, shrinking margins.

Level 2: EX as an HR Initiative

• Employees get surveyed but no real change happens.
• EX is owned by HR, not business leaders.
• Engagement is pushed through perks, not structure.
• Result? Employees stay for a paycheck, not the brand. CX is still weak.

Level 3: EX as a Business Strategy

• Leadership owns EX outcomes, not just HR.
• EX investment is tied to revenue and productivity metrics.
• Employees have clear career paths, strong training, and great leadership.
• Result? Engaged employees who drive customer experience and business growth.

If your EX strategy isn’t driving bottom-line results, it’s not a strategy—it’s a wasted budget.

Thought-provoking Question:

What would happen to your customer experience and profitability if you invested in your employees the same way you invest in your customers?

Bottom Line: Fix EX or Keep Losing

Satisfaction is the foundation. Engagement drives performance. EX determines whether either of those things are even possible.

If your EX is broken, so is your CX. Fix it. Or lose.