Customer Experience as a Growth Lever in Embedded Finance: The CXGX Framework

Why Customer Experience (CX) Matters in Embedded Finance

In today’s digital economy, customer experience (CX) is no longer a differentiator—it’s a prerequisite for growth. Nowhere is this more evident than in embedded finance, where banking, payments, lending, and insurance are woven directly into non-financial digital journeys. As financial services become invisible, the quality of the experience becomes the primary way banks and their partners can stand out, drive adoption, and build loyalty.

The competitive landscape has shifted. Customers now judge their banking experiences not just against other banks, but against digital leaders in every sector. This means that the bar for seamless, intuitive, and emotionally resonant experiences is higher than ever. For banks and their partners, excelling at CX is the key to unlocking new revenue streams, deepening relationships, and retaining customers in an increasingly crowded ecosystem.

The Challenge: Measuring and Improving CX in Embedded Journeys

Despite the strategic importance of CX, many financial institutions struggle to measure and improve it in a way that drives real business outcomes. Traditional metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) offer limited insight into which investments will actually move the needle. In embedded finance, where journeys span multiple brands and digital touchpoints, the challenge is even greater.

Banks and their partners need a more nuanced, actionable framework—one that links CX to growth and provides a roadmap for prioritizing investments across embedded journeys. This is where the Customer Experience Growth Index (CXGX) comes in.

Introducing the CXGX Framework

The Customer Experience Growth Index (CXGX), developed by Publicis Sapient, is a new approach to measuring, benchmarking, and improving CX in financial services. Unlike traditional metrics, CXGX is designed to:

Capture the full spectrum of customer interactions across digital and physical touchpoints
Link CX performance directly to customer growth and retention
Identify the most impactful areas for CX investment

How CXGX Works

CXGX is built on the “Three E’s” of customer experience:

Experience – Did the customer get what they wanted?
Expectation – Was the experience better or worse than expected?
Emotion – How did the experience make the customer feel? (Measured across 18 possible emotions, from angry to uplifted)

By surveying customers at key moments across 11 touchpoints—including mobile apps, websites, live chat, call centers, and more—CXGX generates a granular, channel-specific view of the customer journey. Each interaction is scored from -100 (strongly negative) to +100 (strongly positive), allowing banks and partners to pinpoint which touchpoints delight or disappoint.

Why CXGX Is Different

Actionable Insights: CXGX doesn’t just measure satisfaction; it reveals which experiences are memorable (good or bad) and which fall into the “Valley of Meh”—forgettable and unlikely to drive loyalty or growth.
Growth Linkage: There is a strong, data-backed correlation between high CXGX scores and both customer growth (e.g., net account gains) and future usage intent. Banks with higher CXGX scores consistently see greater customer acquisition and retention.
Investment Prioritization: By mapping CXGX scores against usage rates for each touchpoint, banks can identify where to focus investment—either by improving high-usage, low-scoring channels or by migrating customers to high-scoring channels.

CXGX in Action: Practical Tools for Embedded Finance

1. Benchmarking and Measurement

CXGX enables banks and their partners to benchmark their CX performance against peers and digital leaders, not just within banking but across all sectors. This holistic view is critical in embedded finance, where customer expectations are shaped by the best digital experiences, regardless of industry.

2. Prioritizing CX Investments

The CXGX value chain approach combines touchpoint scores with usage data to highlight the biggest levers for improvement. For example:

If a bank’s mobile app scores highly but its desktop website lags, migrating users from desktop to mobile can boost overall CXGX—and growth.
If live chat delivers a better experience than call centers (and at lower cost), encouraging adoption of live chat can improve both CX and operational efficiency.

3. Designing Embedded Journeys with CX at the Core

Embedded finance is about meeting customers where they are. The CXGX framework helps banks and partners design journeys that:

Seamlessly integrate financial services into non-financial contexts
Prioritize the digital touchpoints that matter most to customers
Deliver emotionally resonant experiences that drive loyalty and advocacy

Embedded Finance: CX as a Differentiator

As embedded finance matures, the winners will be those who move beyond technical integration to true customer-centricity. This means:

Co-creating propositions with partners that blend financial and non-financial value
Building modular, API-driven architectures that enable rapid iteration and scaling of CX improvements
Empowering cross-functional teams to own the end-to-end customer journey, breaking down product and channel silos

Banks that embrace the CXGX framework can:

Benchmark and improve their embedded journeys in real time
Prioritize investments that drive measurable growth
Differentiate themselves in a crowded market by delivering experiences that customers remember—and return to

The Bottom Line: CXGX as a Growth Engine

Customer experience is the new battleground in embedded finance. The CXGX framework provides banks and their partners with the tools to measure, benchmark, and improve CX across every embedded journey. By focusing on the moments that matter, and investing where it counts, organizations can turn superior CX into a powerful lever for growth, retention, and long-term value.

Ready to put CX at the heart of your embedded finance strategy? The future of growth is experience-led—and it starts with CXGX.