What’s Next in CX: Moving Beyond NPS, The Future of Customer Listening
By Clare Muscutt, Founder and CEO of Women in CX
For more than a decade, Net Promoter Score (NPS) has been the dominant metric in customer experience. Simple, standardised, and easy to benchmark, it promised leaders a silver bullet: one number that could measure loyalty, track performance, and compare brands.
But as we heard at the Women in CX ‘Moving Beyond’ EMEA UnConference in Berlin, that promise has worn thin. In an age of omnichannel journeys, social media, reviews, and AI-driven interactions, customers are telling us more—and in more ways—than a single blunt score could ever capture.
The uncomfortable truth? NPS risks reducing the complexity of human experiences to a number that executives can put in a board pack, but that often fails to reflect the reality of customer journeys. As Fiona Blades, CEO of MESH, an agency working at the intersection of Marketing and CX, put it so simply: “Whatever the score, it doesn’t tell my story.”
So we asked a panel of WiCX experts: how do we move beyond the metric and build the future of listening—one that is human, inclusive, and technologically aware?
We explored three imperatives: challenging the false comfort of simplicity, embracing blended and contextual methods, and creating human-centred guardrails in the age of AI.
The Siren Song of Simplicity
The rise of NPS was built on a promise: simplicity. As an Independent Customer Insights Expert, Liz Berks reflected: “I am and was part of the problem. I sold in NPS surveys for a decade.” Its appeal lay in offering executives a single score as clear as a financial KPI: if the number goes up, good; if it goes down, bad.
But our panel pulled back the curtain on why this simplicity can be dangerously misleading.
The revenue myth: Fiona Blades debunked the belief that a high NPS always correlates with revenue. External realities—from monopolies on flight routes to differences between leisure and business customers—make the link unreliable.
The conflicting reality: Fiona described completing an NPS survey after a poor experience where one employee had excelled. The score could not possibly capture that contrast: “It doesn’t tell my story. It doesn’t give the customer’s true perspective.”
The data inflation trap: Irena Medina, a Customer Success Leader and Tech Expert, bringing a tech perspective from CallMiner, highlighted the games organisations play: “If you don’t want to answer, you can say skip, but we’ll mark it as positive.” In her words, this creates data that is simply “not true.”
As Liz summed up: “We need to get beyond the what’s into the whys.”
✨ Takeaway: NPS provides a headline, but without depth or truth, it’s a dangerous illusion of customer understanding.
Beyond the Number: Blended, Contextual Listening
If surveys alone can’t tell the whole story, how do we listen better? The panel agreed: the future lies in blending methods and embracing context.
The problem today is underutilisation: despite oceans of data, 62% of organisations still don’t fully use their CX data, and 42% rely on manual processes—leaving little capacity for action.
AI is beginning to change that. Fiona explained its power to scale qualitative feedback: “AI allows us to look at qualitative data at scale. And that is a real game-changer.” Instead of reducing experiences to a score, AI can surface the narratives—the ups, downs, and emotional texture of a journey.
Irena described how AI can turn noise into signal: “The data by itself is just data. Generative AI helps us listen, understand, and give context.” She cited a powerful example: a company that used speech analytics to expand call monitoring from 2% to 100%, which proved critical when COVID disrupted operations.
🔍 Solicited vs. Unsolicited Feedback
Solicited feedback is what customers give when we ask them—through surveys, NPS forms, or post-interaction questionnaires. It can be useful, but it’s often limited: response rates are low, customers may feel pressured, and answers can be skewed by context.
Unsolicited feedback is what customers share naturally, without being asked—through contact centre calls, social media posts, online reviews, or even open comments in chat. This feedback is often richer, more emotional, and more reflective of real experiences.
In the past, organisations leaned heavily on solicited surveys because unsolicited feedback was too vast and unstructured to process. But today, AI-powered tools like speech and text analytics can mine unsolicited data at scale—helping leaders hear every customer voice, not just those who fill out a survey.
The shift from surveys alone to blended listening, powered by AI, is one of the most important evolutions in CX today.
Fiona reminded us that true listening must also break silos. Customer stories aren’t only told in surveys; they’re expressed across marketing, CX, social media, and even news coverage. Only by weaving these perspectives together can organisations understand the whole picture.
✨ Takeaway: Effective listening is not about collecting more data, but about combining methods to create context-rich, actionable insight.
Guardrails for a Human-Centred Future
But even as technology helps us listen better, there’s a risk: reducing customers to data points and losing the human element.
The panel called for stronger guardrails to ensure listening remains human-centred.
Liz argued that focusing solely on behavioural data isn’t enough: “You’ve got to understand who your customers are, why they engage with you, and what their goals are.” Without this, action is misguided.
Irena stressed the importance of keeping humans in the loop: “Customers need to know that if they need support, there’s a human. And humans must check the AI to ensure the truth of what it’s telling us.”
And Liz reminded us that numbers alone rarely change minds. But when leaders hear directly from customers—in their own voices, with their own emotions—the impact is undeniable: “It’s as simple as reminding people this is a human being.”
✨ Takeaway: Listening technology must always amplify empathy. Data without human interpretation and action risks dehumanising the very people we serve.
Women in CX: Leading the Listening Revolution
As Fiona noted: “We’re not changing a metric. We’re changing a culture. And that’s a big deal.”
This is where women in CX play a vital role. Female leaders are proven to bring empathy, ethics, and cross-functional collaboration—the very qualities needed to reshape how organisations listen.
By championing richer listening strategies, breaking down silos, and ensuring every piece of feedback drives action, women in CX can ensure that listening becomes not just smarter, but more human.
Final Thought
The Women in CX panel in Berlin made it clear: NPS alone is not enough.
The future of listening is about more than metrics. It’s about hearing the whole story—across every channel, in every context, in customers’ own words—and turning those stories into action.
If NPS gave us a starting point, the next era demands we move beyond it. That means blending surveys with unsolicited data, scaling qualitative insight with AI, and embedding empathy at the heart of analysis.
Because customers don’t want to be a number. They want to be understood. And when women in CX lead this shift—boldly, empathetically, and consciously—we can build a future where listening is not only smarter, but more inclusive, more human, and more transformative.
Ready to Move Beyond? Join Us at the Next WiCX UnConferences
The conversation doesn’t stop in Berlin. We’re taking the energy and momentum to the US and LATAM Women in CX UnConference in Miami later this year—where we’ll continue to explore how women can lead the future of CX with empathy, innovation, and conscious leadership.
And we’re already looking ahead to 2026, with registrations now open for the WiCX EMEA UnConference. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the only global CX event created by women, for women—where the agenda is built by you.