Who Broke CX?

The recent Guardian report on the UK’s customer service heroes of 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/13/uk-customer-service-heroes-of-2024?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other is a bittersweet read.

On the one hand, it's heartening to see small businesses winning hearts and accolades with their straightforward, no-frills approach. On the other, it’s a damning indictment of an industry that has become bloated, confused, and, frankly, ineffective. So let’s ask the awkward question: who broke customer experience (CX)?

The Paradox of Small Businesses

It’s ironic, isn’t it? The best customer service often comes not from the companies with sprawling CX departments and analytics dashboards but from small businesses operating on a shoestring budget. Your local bakery or corner shop doesn’t have a CX strategy workshop every quarter. They don’t employ persona designers or journey mappers. They’re not hyper-segmenting their audience or rolling out gamified loyalty programs. Yet, they’re the ones customers rave about.

Why? Because they’re focused on something so simple, it’s revolutionary in today’s corporate landscape: they care. They’re not bogged down by layers of bureaucracy or dazzled by shiny new tools. They listen to their customers, treat them as human beings, and act accordingly. No jargon, no overcomplication—just genuine interaction. So, what does that say about the CX profession?

CX: A Profession in Crisis

Despite the billions poured into customer experience, satisfaction levels are at record lows. The industry seems to be stuck in a cycle of overpromising and underdelivering. Let’s break it down:

Professionalism and Standards: Or lack thereof. CX lacks the rigour and structure of traditional professions like law, medicine, engineering, or even marketing and HR. There’s no universally agreed-upon standard, no clear career path, and no widely recognised qualifications. It’s a free-for-all.

Cost vs. Value: CX is still seen as a cost centre rather than a value driver. Companies invest in it begrudgingly, expecting immediate ROI without truly understanding its long-term benefits. This penny-pinching mindset leads to half-baked initiatives that fail to move the needle.

Misaligned Focus: The obsession with tools and metrics has led to a disconnect from the customer. We’ve got armies of professionals designing personas and mapping journeys, but they’ve lost sight of the real people those personas represent. It’s missing the forest for the trees.

Data Overload: Companies are drowning in data but starved for insight. Endless analysis and reporting lead to paralysis rather than action. Meanwhile, the customer is left waiting for a resolution to their simple query.

The Billion-Dollar Question: Why Are We Still Getting It So Wrong?

How is it possible that, despite all the technology, talent, and time poured into CX, satisfaction levels keep plummeting? Here’s the uncomfortable truth: complexity has killed common sense. The CX industry has over-intellectualised itself into irrelevance. We’ve built ivory towers of frameworks and strategies while neglecting the basics—listening, empathising, and acting.

When a small business gets it right, it’s because they’re doing what comes naturally: treating people well. When big businesses get it wrong, it’s because they’re trying to systematise something inherently human. You can’t spreadsheet your way to empathy.

A Call for a Simpler, More Human Approach

It’s time to strip CX back to its essentials:

• Care First, Calculate Later: Stop treating customers as metrics to be managed. Start treating them as people to be helped.
• Empower the Front Line: The best CX happens in real-time, not in a boardroom or inside a dashboard. Invest in your frontline staff, give them autonomy, and trust them to do what’s right.
• Focus on Fundamentals: Forget the bells and whistles. If you can’t get the basics right - timeliness, clarity, and courtesy, nothing else matters.
• Redefine Success: CX needs a new narrative, one that ties customer satisfaction directly to business outcomes. Make the case for long-term value, not just short-term savings.

Closing Thoughts

The CX industry needs a reset - a return to its roots. Let’s stop overcomplicating the simple act of serving customers. Let’s learn from the small businesses that consistently outperform the giants. And let’s finally admit that we’ve been doing it wrong. Because acknowledging the problem is the first step to fixing it.

In the end, the best customer experience doesn’t come from a billion-dollar budget or a 200-page strategy document. It comes from understanding one simple truth: the customer is a person, not a persona.