Ekaterine Ejibadze
CX / EX Research Lead, ACTR

Over the past decades, Customer Experience (CX) has become essential for business survival and growth across all industries and company sizes — whether in banking, insurance, pharmacies, fast-food chains, gas stations, supermarkets/hypermarkets or online stores.
It’s particularly important for businesses to understand how customers perceive them — what do they expect? What keeps them loyal, or what drives them away?

In large companies, studying customer experience has even become part of their internal systems, with many developing data collection and feedback platforms.
Small and medium-sized businesses, however, often lack such resources. Yet, experience shows that listening to and understanding customers is crucial in the early stages of development, as customer feedback directly influences both growth and reputation.

Different types of research help businesses gain a complete picture — how the company operates “from the inside” and how it’s perceived “from the outside.”
The most commonly used tools include:

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys
  • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) research helps companies see how a specific service or product is evaluated from the customer’s perspective.
    It serves as an “operational mirror”, revealing where processes run smoothly and where issues arise.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely customers are to recommend the company to others, indicating their loyalty level and emotional connection to the brand.
• Mystery Shopper
  Many companies believe “everything is fine,” yet customers still sense something missing. Mystery Shopper research helps uncover what’s lacking, by combining the assessment of service standards with customer emotions.
• Customer Journey Mapping and Shadowing
  These methods visualize every stage of the customer journey — from digital to physical — helping companies understand the entire customer journay.
• Store / Space Usability Audit
  This explores how easily customers navigate a space, find products, and interact within the environment. The focus is on navigation simplicity, merchandising, and spatial efficiency — all key factors in shaping customer experience.
• Employee Experience (EX) Research
  This examines how employees feel within their work environment — measuring motivation, engagement, and more. Many companies use EX as a foundation for their CX strategy because if employees are unmotivated, unsupported, or disconnected from the company’s mission, no standard or optimized process can create a genuinely outstanding customer experience.

Why Invest in Research?

CX and EX research act as mirrors for businesses of all sizes and industries striving for growth. When an organization takes purposeful action, results appear across multiple dimensions:

• Positive CX increases customer return rates by up to 92% — satisfied customers are more loyal and more likely to recommend the brand to others. (Source: Forrester)
• In companies with high employee engagement:
  • Service quality and sales performance are consistently above industry averages. (Source: Medallia)
  • NPS scores are 24% higher on average compared to competitors. (Source: Qualtrics)

To sum up, research is not an expense, but an investment in business growth. It gives companies a clear view of what works, what stands in the way of customer satisfaction, and how to drive real, positive change. The key is to make research purpose-driven, well-designed, and applied in practice — not just collected for reporting. When done this way, it becomes an accessible, results-oriented tool for any business, regardless of size or industry. The sooner a company looks into this “ mirror,” the sooner it gains a competitive advantage.