Why Customer Experience Teams Must Speak the CFO’s Language, According to Jim Tincher, CCXP

In a recent LinkedIn post, Jim Tincher, CCXP, a recognized expert in customer experience, highlights a critical disconnect he observes in many customer-focused programs within manufacturing companies. He argues that the survival and impact of these teams hinge on their ability to demonstrate tangible business value, rather than solely focusing on survey metrics.

Tincher begins by stating a common refrain from successful leaders in manufacturing: “We are not the survey team.” This sentiment, he suggests, is a hallmark of programs that are secure and impactful. Conversely, those who cannot make this distinction are often the first to face cuts.

“Only about one in four programs that sit between the customer and the P&L can demonstrate they create business value. The rest—77%—lead with what customers say instead of what customers do.”

The Peril of Focusing Solely on Survey Scores

Jim Tincher, CCXP, points out that many customer experience initiatives, while well-intentioned, often become fixated on metrics like survey scores, response rates, and Net Promoter Score (NPS) trends. While these can serve as diagnostic tools, Tincher argues they fail to resonate with senior leadership who are primarily concerned with the company’s financial performance.

According to Tincher, C-suite executives are not waking up thinking about NPS. Instead, their focus is on the key drivers of business success: revenue, margin, and retention. He labels these as Key Performance Results (KPRs), contrasting them with the more common Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) derived from surveys.

The CEO’s Perspective

To illustrate this point, Tincher recounts an interview with 15 CEOs. He deliberately avoided mentioning customer experience for the first 15 minutes of each conversation. His observation was that “All but one failed to mention it until I asked.” This suggests that customer experience is often not a proactive priority for top executives unless prompted, underscoring the need for CX teams to integrate their work with the company’s core business objectives.

“If your executive says good things about your NPS program, it is probably because you brought it to them.”

Connecting CX to Commercial Outcomes

Tincher shares a cautionary tale of a team at a Fortune 500 manufacturer that became known derisively as “the survey people.” Despite possessing advanced listening tools and extensive dashboards, they were unable to connect their efforts to commercial outcomes. Following a leadership change, the entire function was dissolved, leaving the team unemployed.

Jim Tincher, CCXP, emphasizes that the programs designed to survive and thrive are those that align every project with the business’s own financial goals. He provides examples of successful leaders who have:

• Adopted each unit’s specific goals as their own.
• Made their team accountable for improving profit margins.

When customer experience initiatives can be quantified in terms that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) understands, the program gains structural resilience, making it “impossible to dismantle.”

“When the math speaks the CFO’s language, the program becomes structurally impossible to dismantle.”

The Ultimate Test for CX Programs

As a final test for any customer experience program’s business integration, Tincher proposes a simple yet powerful exercise: review your last board presentation and remove all mentions of survey scores. If the core narrative of the presentation collapses without these metrics, it is a strong indicator that the team, and its efforts, may be vulnerable.

“Here is the test: take your last board presentation and remove every mention of a survey score. If the story collapses, so will the team—eventually.”

In conclusion, Jim Tincher, CCXP, urges customer experience professionals to shift their focus from solely measuring customer sentiment to demonstrating how their work directly contributes to key business results like revenue, margin, and retention, thereby securing their strategic importance within the organization.