Synergistic CX: Season 3 - Episode 2 (part 2/3) - The Currency of Experience

In Part 2 of the Synergistic CX Podcast, focused on the banking industry, the CX Channel team and special guest Kerli Zeiger Soosaar shift the discussion from ratings and sentiment analysis to the end-to-end banking customer journey. In an industry where switching providers is easier than ever and digital access is constant, the journey itself becomes the foundation of trust, with every interaction - from onboarding to ongoing support - shaping customer confidence and long-term loyalty.

The episode walks through the full banking customer journey, spanning awareness, consideration, conversion, retention, and advocacy. While the journey appears structured and predictable, mapping real customer sentiment across these stages reveals clear variations in performance. Each step - from researching services and opening an account to managing everyday transactions and resolving issues - represents a critical opportunity for banks to reinforce trust or introduce friction that weakens the relationship.

When the Moment of Truth journey map is revealed, retention emerges as the weakest stage. Despite strong performance during advisory interactions and account opening, sentiment declines significantly during ongoing account servicing and support. Reliability of account support operations alone accounts for more than half of negative retention sentiment, highlighting how slow responses, unclear ownership, and inconsistent service recovery undermine customer confidence over time.

The conversation shifts to how banks can strengthen long-term relationships by improving operational accountability and communication clarity. Kerli emphasizes that retention is built over months and years of interaction, and that trust is defined not when everything works smoothly, but when problems arise. Fast resolution, clear ownership, and consistent follow-up play a decisive role in shaping customer perception and determining whether customers remain loyal or begin exploring alternatives.

To translate these insights into action, the episode introduces the Marketing Mix Funnel Matrix - a framework that connects journey stages with operational drivers to identify priority areas for improvement. The analysis highlights critical intersections between people, process, and retention, confirming that frontline interaction quality, advisory effectiveness, and issue resolution processes are the most influential experience drivers across the banking journey.

Building on this foundation, the team demonstrates how journey insights can be converted into a focused starter Voice of the Customer survey. The proposed measurement framework centers on five key drivers: staff greeting and attitude, advisory quality, account activation experience, ongoing account servicing, and issue resolution effectiveness. These targeted questions enable banks to capture deeper feedback where it matters most and turn insight into measurable CX improvement.

The episode concludes with Kerli sharing benchmarking insights from mystery shopping studies across Baltic banking markets. Her key recommendation is clear: organizations must continuously raise internal standards, define clear measurement objectives, and combine methodologies - including Voice of the Customer, mystery shopping, and journey analysis - to ensure customer expectations evolve alongside operational performance.

Watch Part 2 here and stay tuned for Part 3, where Kerli Zeiger Soosaar shares deeper insight into CX leadership, measurement strategy, and how banks can turn customer experience into a sustainable competitive advantage.