In today’s rapidly evolving banking landscape, customer experience (CX) is no longer a peripheral concern—it is the primary battleground for differentiation and growth. As digital-first challengers and fintechs set new standards for seamless, personalized service, traditional banks face mounting pressure to not only meet but exceed rising customer expectations. Yet, many banks struggle to measure the true impact of their CX investments and to prioritize initiatives that drive both customer loyalty and business growth.
The Customer Experience Growth Index (CXGX), developed by Publicis Sapient, is a new, data-driven framework designed to address this challenge. CXGX enables banks to rigorously measure, benchmark, and prioritize their customer experience investments, moving beyond the limitations of traditional metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS). By focusing on the dimensions of experience, expectation, and emotion, CXGX provides actionable insights that link customer interactions directly to business outcomes.
For years, banks have relied on NPS and similar metrics to gauge customer satisfaction and loyalty. While NPS offers a simple, comparable measure, it falls short in several key areas:
Banking executives increasingly recognize these shortcomings. Many are shifting away from NPS toward metrics that are proven leading indicators of great experiences and business performance.
CXGX is built on a robust, customer-centric methodology that captures the full spectrum of customer interactions. It is structured around the “Three E’s”:
For each customer interaction—across 11 key touchpoints such as mobile app, live chat, call center, branch, and digital channels—CXGX collects and analyzes responses to these three questions. This approach provides a granular, channel-specific view of the customer journey, highlighting which touchpoints create memorable, positive experiences and which fall into the “Valley of Meh”—interactions that are quickly forgotten and do little to build loyalty.
CXGX is more than a measurement tool; it is a predictive engine for business growth. Analysis of UK retail banks using CXGX reveals a strong correlation between a bank’s CXGX score and its customers’ intention to use the bank more in the future. Banks with higher CXGX scores consistently see greater net customer growth, while those with lower scores experience customer attrition.
For example, neobanks with top CXGX scores have gained tens of thousands of new customers, while traditional banks with lower scores have seen net losses. This direct link between CXGX and business performance empowers banks to justify and direct their CX investments with confidence.
CXGX transforms CX data into a strategic tool for investment decision-making. Here’s how banks can leverage the framework:
By mapping CXGX scores to customer usage rates across all touchpoints, banks can pinpoint where improvements will have the greatest effect. For instance, if a bank’s mobile app scores highly but is underutilized compared to the desktop website, migrating more customers to the app can boost overall CXGX. Conversely, if a heavily used channel like the call center has a low CXGX score, targeted improvements there can yield significant gains.
CXGX reveals which channels deliver the most positive emotional responses and which are sources of frustration. For example, live chat often outperforms call centers in both customer satisfaction and cost efficiency. Banks can use these insights to encourage adoption of high-performing channels and to invest in training, technology, or process improvements where needed.
Because CXGX provides a standardized score across brands and touchpoints, banks can benchmark their performance against competitors and track improvements over time. This enables continuous optimization and helps close the perception gap—where banks believe they deliver superior experiences, but customers disagree.
With CXGX, banks can directly connect improvements in customer experience to key business metrics such as customer growth, retention, and future usage intention. This evidence-based approach supports stronger business cases for CX investment and aligns transformation efforts with measurable outcomes.
As banks accelerate their digital transformation journeys, the ability to measure and prioritize CX investments is critical. CXGX offers a rigorous, actionable framework that moves beyond legacy metrics, providing the intelligence needed to compete in a customer-driven era.
By adopting CXGX, banks can:
At Publicis Sapient, we partner with leading banks to implement CXGX and unlock the full potential of customer experience as a growth engine. Now is the time to move from intuition to intelligence—transforming CX from a cost center into a strategic driver of business success.
Ready to learn more about how CXGX can transform your bank’s customer experience strategy? Contact Publicis Sapient’s financial services experts to start your journey.