In today’s rapidly evolving commercial banking landscape, customer experience (CX) is no longer a soft differentiator—it is a core driver of growth, loyalty, and competitive advantage. As digital-first challengers and fintechs set new standards for seamless, personalized service, commercial banks are under increasing pressure to not only improve CX but to measure and manage it with the same rigor as financial performance. Enter the Customer Experience Growth Index (CXGX): a new, data-driven framework that empowers banks to link specific customer touchpoints and emotional responses directly to business outcomes, enabling smarter investment and transformation decisions.
For years, Net Promoter Score (NPS) has been the industry’s go-to metric for customer experience. While NPS offers a simple benchmark, it lacks the nuance to reveal which specific experiences drive customer loyalty, growth, or attrition. Many banks find themselves investing in digital channels or new products without clear evidence of which changes will actually move the needle on customer retention or revenue growth. As a result, CX investments can feel like a leap of faith rather than a strategic lever for growth.
Developed by Publicis Sapient, the CXGX is a next-generation measurement framework designed to close this gap. Unlike traditional metrics, CXGX captures the full spectrum of customer interactions—across digital and human channels—and links them to emotional responses and future business intent. The methodology is built on three pillars:
Each customer response is mapped to one of 11 key touchpoints, such as mobile app, live chat, call center, branch visit, or desktop website. This granular, channel-specific view allows banks to pinpoint which interactions are memorable—positively or negatively—and which fall into the “Valley of Meh,” where experiences are quickly forgotten and do little to build loyalty.
What sets CXGX apart is its ability to correlate customer experience scores with tangible business outcomes. Analysis of leading banks shows a strong relationship between a bank’s CXGX score and its net customer growth, as well as customers’ stated intent to use the bank more in the future. Banks with higher CXGX scores consistently see greater gains in customer numbers and higher future usage intentions, while those with lower scores risk stagnation or attrition.
For example, neobanks and digital challengers—who typically score highest on CXGX—are winning the largest share of new customers, while traditional banks with middling scores see flat or negative growth. This direct link between CX and commercial performance makes CXGX a powerful tool for prioritizing investments and tracking ROI.
CXGX doesn’t just measure experience; it guides action. By combining CX scores for each touchpoint with data on customer usage, banks can create a “CX value chain” that highlights where improvements will have the greatest impact. For instance:
This approach enables banks to move beyond blanket digital upgrades and instead focus on the specific journeys and moments that matter most to customers—and to growth.
With CXGX, banks can identify which digital touchpoints deliver the most memorable, positive experiences and which are holding back customer satisfaction. Rather than spreading investment thinly across all channels, banks can double down on high-impact areas—such as enhancing mobile app functionality, streamlining onboarding, or improving live chat responsiveness—where improvements are most likely to drive growth.
Commercial banking customers, especially SMEs and mid-market corporates, expect seamless experiences across digital and human channels. CXGX reveals where friction exists in omnichannel journeys—such as inconsistent handoffs between digital onboarding and relationship managers, or gaps in data sharing across systems. By addressing these pain points, banks can deliver the consistency and personalization that drive loyalty and cross-sell opportunities.
As customer expectations are shaped by digital leaders in other industries, the bar for commercial banking continues to rise. CXGX helps banks benchmark their performance not just against direct competitors, but against the best experiences customers encounter anywhere. By tracking emotional responses and expectation gaps at each touchpoint, banks can proactively address sources of frustration or disappointment before they erode trust or prompt customers to switch providers.
Perhaps most importantly, CXGX provides a clear line of sight from CX initiatives to business results. By monitoring changes in CXGX scores alongside customer growth, retention, and product adoption, banks can demonstrate the ROI of their CX investments and make the case for continued innovation.
The commercial banking sector is at a crossroads. As digital transformation accelerates, banks that treat customer experience as a strategic growth lever—measured and managed with the rigor of financial metrics—will be best positioned to win market share, deepen relationships, and unlock new revenue streams. The CXGX framework offers a practical, actionable roadmap for making this vision a reality.
In a world where customer experience is the new battleground for growth, CXGX is the toolkit commercial banks need to compete—and win.
Ready to transform your customer experience into a growth engine?
Contact Publicis Sapient to learn how the CXGX framework can help your bank unlock new value from every customer interaction.