How exceptional customer experiences
boost revenue and reduce costs
Great customer experience (CX), once seen as a nice-to-have, is now recognized as a critical differentiator and key driver of business success. Through quantitative and qualitative research, analysts and experts have proven the positive impact of CX on everything from retention rates and churn to revenue growth and stock market value.
Meanwhile, CFOs have expanded beyond traditional financial oversight. They now serve as strategic leaders, balancing short-term metrics with long-term value and leading the business through economic uncertainty.
Customer experience, as a business-wide initiative, can dramatically influence the metrics that matter most to the CFO. As the CFO’s role broadens and we learn more about how CX influences business results, it’s essential for finance teams to understand, embrace, and champion customer experience.
In this guide, we’ll cover:
The statistics supporting the financial value of CX are numerous and compelling. For instance, McKinsey found that experience-led growth strategies—those that increase customer satisfaction by at least 20%—can drive significant results, like increasing cross-sell rates by 15-25%. They can also boost a company’s share of wallet by 5-10%, and improve customer satisfaction and engagement by 20-30%
The case for CX doesn’t stop there. In addition:
CX Leaders that provide best-in-class customer experience outperform the stock market. Brands that had the best consumer feedback posted an average shareholder return 260 points above the S&P 500 Index, while those that received the most negative consumer feedback posted an average return 175 points lower.
Taken together, the research demonstrates that a strong customer experience adds tremendous, measurable business value. Six of the top benefits are:
Successful CX programs improve retention by delivering consistently great experiences, resolving issues on the first interaction, personalizing engagement across touchpoints, and acting on customer feedback. Retention stems from loyalty. Loyalty comes from a customer experience that’s at or ideally above par, every single time.
CX initiatives, such as gathering feedback through surveys or analyzing support interactions, often reveal patterns contributing to the churn rate. Open text analysis tools synthesize huge amounts of data from sources like social media and review sites to identify trends. With this information, organizations can proactively address issues, identify at-risk customers, and respond actively to feedback. As a result, teams solve the problems that are driving customers to leave.
Better retention and less customer churn both directly translate to lower costs. In fact, according to Forbes:
A focus on CX reduces spend in ways beyond the cost of customer acquisition as well. CX initiatives often introduce operational efficiencies, like self-service customer portals. Happy customers require fewer support resources, refunds, and replacements. Open feedback loops help identify issues before they become costly. And lower churn means less time, money, and energy spent on reacquiring old customers.
It’s not only far less expensive to retain current customers than acquire new ones; happy customers spend far more than their new customer counterparts. In fact, the probability of selling to an existing customer is up to 14 times higher than the likelihood of selling to a new customer.
Satisfied customers purchase more often, engage with more cross- and up-sell opportunities, and act as brand advocates, further extending the reach of the business. Each of those attributes can play a big role in meeting business objectives – and they are a direct result of a great customer experience.
An EMARKETER study found that for U.S. adults, the top factor that influences purchasing decisions is knowing and trusting a brand, with 57% of respondents agreeing. “Recommendations from friends or family” ranked second at 12%. Not coincidentally, customer experience strongly influences both of those factors. An exceptional CX program builds brand equity by fostering emotional connections through repeated positive experiences, turning customers into advocates, and differentiating the brand with consistently strong, personalized interactions.
According to Harvard Business Review, businesses with well-defined brand strategies can expect revenue growth of 10-20%. A strong customer experience can – and should – be part of that strategy.
Taken together, these outcomes roll up to Finance’s favorite word: revenue. Great CX enables businesses to retain more customers, at lower cost, for a longer time, who spend more money, and tell their friends about the brand. That, in turn, leads to greater profitability. It’s no surprise that a Harvard Business Review analysis found that “Customers who had the best past experiences spend 140% more compared to those who had the poorest past experiences.”
A great customer experience demands up to a 16% price premium, plus increased loyalty.
of consumers would pay more for greater convenience
would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience
find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising
The numbers speak for themselves: A great customer experience program benefits the business in a wide variety of ways. Demonstrating those benefits, of course, requires KPIs and measurement – topics that are right up most finance professionals’ alleys.
We’ve identified five key metrics that can effectively tie CX initiatives to business outcomes like the benefits covered above.
What it is and why it matters:
Measures the percentage of customers who continue doing business with a company over time
Matters because retaining customers is more cost effective than acquiring new ones
Financial Impact:
Increased customer lifetime value (CLTV)
Lower marketing and acquisition costs due to reduced churn
Less revenue loss with proactive retention strategies
How to unlock its value:
Identify at-risk customers early by using predictive analytics and churn modeling to detect patterns that indicate customers are likely to leave.
Use personalized engagement strategies that leverage customer data to tailor communication, offers, and loyalty incentives based on individual behaviors and preferences.
What it is and why it matters:
Measures how easy it is for customers to resolve issues
Matters because lower effort translates to higher satisfaction and loyalty
Financial Impact:
Lower support costs due to fewer escalations
Increased repeat business and long-term revenue
How to unlock its value:
Optimize onboarding to ensure a seamless customer journey from the first interaction, reducing friction points that could lead to disengagement.
Support customers proactively with AI-driven chatbots and automated follow-ups to address potential issues before they escalate.
What it is and why it matters:
Measures customers’ likelihood to recommend a company
Matters because a high NPS score is strongly linked to customer loyalty and brand advocacy
Financial Impact:
Greater revenue growth driven by Promoters’ purchasing trends and strong loyalty
Reduced acquisition costs with higher referral business
How to unlock its value:
Predict revenue based on CX trends by converting NPS data into financial forecasts. By incorporating NPS trends into financial models, CFOs can better predict future revenue growth based on anticipated customer loyalty and repeat buyers.
Focus on converting passives to promoters, as their weak connection to a brand or service makes them more likely to churn when presented with better alternatives or minor inconveniences.
Leverage text analysis to reveal deeper insights. Uncovering the “why” behind customer feedback through open text analysis provides actionable feedback that drives strategic business decisions.
What it is and why it matters:
Predicts the total revenue a customer will generate over their relationship with a company
Matters as a key indicator of long-term business sustainability
Financial Impact:
Greater revenue from each customer with a higher CLV
Justification for increased investment in retention and CX improvements
Lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) due to more organic referrals
Improved conversion rates with better first-time experiences
How to unlock its value:
Validate investments in new products and technology through customer data. CX can drive the product roadmap with insights into what customers truly need and want.
Strengthen customer relationships by showing them how their feedback drives change, building loyalty, advocacy, and higher spending.
What it is and why it matters:
Measures the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company within a given period
Matters because high churn indicates poor CX and potential revenue loss
Financial Impact:
Protected revenue streams with lower churn
Stronger competitive position
How to unlock its value:
Ensure customers feel seen and heard with clear communications that close the loop on their feedback.
Identify key at-risk customer segments and tailor CX initiatives to meet their needs.
Like everything in business, customer experience continues to evolve. Forward-looking CFOs and their teams currently have a range of opportunities to future-proof their CX investments and maximize the value of CX programs.
What does that look like in practice? Our most innovative customers are embracing emerging technology and trends including:
In addition to initiatives like these, CFOs spearhead the creation of a collaborative, customer-centric culture. This may include acting as a champion of CX across every function, like marketing, product development, and operations, to integrate CX across all touchpoints. CFOs can also leverage CX integrations to ensure the right data gets to the right people, further demonstrating the reach of CX insights and uniting teams under the CX umbrella.
CFOs are in a great position to communicate how CX tangibly impacts the business as well. For instance, you can use data analytics, reporting frameworks, and dashboards to track progress and demonstrate the financial value of CX improvements. By consistently and clearly sharing how CX affects business outcomes across the organization, CFOs can influence a shift to a CX-aligned culture.
higher revenue growth
higher growth in profitability
Companies with high levels of alignment across customer-facing functions, such as marketing, CX, and digital, report 2.4x higher revenue growth and 2.0x higher growth in profitability than those with some or no alignment.
Forrester, The B2C Customer-Obsessed Growth Engine
To unlock the benefits of CX, you need the right people, the right strategies, and the right technology.
Many CX, marketing, product, and other teams across an organization rely on a mix of legacy technology solutions, including tools for surveys, dashboards, text analysis, digital engagement, market research, and analytics. This is incredibly expensive in both time and money. It slows down processes, reduces productivity, limits capabilities, and requires the juggling of a myriad of contracts, integrations, fixes and updates. Multiple solutions cost more in dollars, too, as various teams often pay for tools with overlapping and/or underused capabilities and need to staff disparate resources to operate and maintain the spider web of solutions.
If your company is considering a CX solution, we recommend asking questions like these:
CFOs help customer experience teams operate more efficiently by consolidating onto a modern customer experience and feedback platform like Alchemer. Alchemer empowers organizations with a unified platform that streamlines everything from surveys and research to AI-powered text analysis and advanced Voice of the Customer feedback programs.
With Alchemer, organizations can:
Alchemer equips organizations with the tools to turn feedback into business results while simplifying and reducing operational and financial burden for the business. That’s a win for CX – and CFOs.
Recognized in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Voice of the Customer
Recognized in the Forrester Customer Feedback Management Solutions Landscape for Q2 2024
Customers trust Alchemer, from customer experience to academic research
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Alchemer has decades of experience helping brands turn feedback into action.
Discover how great CX fuels revenue, cuts costs, and adds value – key insights for CFOs driving strategic transformation
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