What happens when two forces collide, the rising pressure on retail margins, and the rising expectations of modern customers? You get a boardroom obsessed with one question:
“How do we turn experience into performance, not just sentiment?”
That was the heart of the conversation in our latest TruRating webinar, “Driving Retail Performance – Customer Strategies for Retail Executives,” featuring our founder & CEO Georgina Nelson and retail transformation veteran Don Williams, former Partner at KPMG.
The conversation was part market reality check, part strategic playbook, and fully focused on helping retail leaders step up, speak the board’s language, and drive outcomes that matter.
Watch the webinar replay below
Why CX can’t afford to be soft
Don set the stage by unpacking the macro dynamics behind today’s consumer behavior: rising costs, reduced discretionary income, and falling confidence.
“Yes, we’re spending slightly more year on year, but we’re buying less. Inflation and interest rates have taken their toll.”
— Don Williams, Former Retail Partner, KPMG
In this environment, everything becomes a share-of-wallet battle. There’s no rising tide. Winning brands win because they run faster than the competition, not because the market is growing. And to run faster, Don says, brands need to leverage every advantage they have, including one they’ve often underutilized: customer insight.
From feedback to force multiplier
CX leaders have always known the value of feedback, but boards are demanding something different now.
“The conversation has shifted. It’s not: ‘Is CX important?’ It’s: ‘How does CX help us grow, protect margin, or retain customers at scale?’”
— Don Williams, Former Retail Partner, KPMG
Georgina didn’t mince words about the gap most retailers are still struggling with:
“Most decisions are still being made on feedback from 1–2% of customers… That’s not representative, and it’s not sustainable.”
— Georgina Nelson, CEO & Founder, TruRating
The message was clear: actionable insight at scale, not lagging metrics or anecdotal alerts, is what today’s CX leaders need to influence real decisions.
Boardroom metrics > brand metrics
For too long, CX has been relegated to the “brand health” corner of the room, seen as soft, qualitative, and disconnected from commercial impact. That era is over.
“If a metric can’t help us make a better decision, it doesn’t earn its place on the board agenda.”
— Don Williams, Former Retail Partner, KPMG
Georgina shared how the best CX leaders are changing the narrative, using real-time, transaction-linked data to tie frontline experience directly to KPIs like:
- ATV
- Conversion
- Repeat visit rate and retention
- Initiative rollout validation
It’s not about tracking sentiment. It’s about shaping execution, daily, per store, per shift.
Why most feedback loops break (and how to fix them)
The truth? CX leaders are often delivering insight. It’s just not being used. Boards listen politely… and move on.
“What we see too often is a beautifully built VoC dashboard that goes nowhere. Feedback that doesn’t drive action is noise.”
— Georgina Nelson, CEO & Founder, TruRating
Don put it bluntly: without a clear “so what?”, feedback lacks teeth.
“Don’t just give me the insight. Give me the so what. Tell me what we’re doing differently because of it, and how that drives sales, retention, or margin.”
— Don Williams, Former Retail Partner, KPMG
That’s where TruRating stands out. It captures feedback from up to 80% of customers, tied to actual purchases, and pushes it down to the teams who can act on it. Immediately. No more mystery shopping. No more post-period reporting. Just clean, contextual signal that lets CX lead with impact.
Small moves, big Impact
If the path to growth is marginal gains, Don was clear about what makes the difference:
“You don’t need to overhaul everything. Just start with your lowest-performing stores. Fix one behavior. Close one feedback loop. That’s how you move from middle of the pack to market leader.”
— Don Williams, Former Retail Partner, KPMG
The data backs it up. TruRating has seen it across nearly 1 billion customer feedback interactions:
- Tightening execution in just the bottom 20% of stores can lift overall brand performance
- Coaching frontline teams on one key behavior (e.g., add-on suggestions) can drive ATV as much as 30%
- Detecting breakdowns before they hit sales metrics helps protect margin and loyalty in high-risk stores
These aren’t hypothetical benefits. They’re real. They’re measurable. And with the right tools, they’re in reach.
Turning signal into strategy
The final takeaway? The age of being the “voice of the customer” isn’t enough.
“You can never truly experience your brand as a customer. That’s why you need real-time, representative feedback, to show you what your customers see, not what you think they see.”
— Don Williams, Former Retail Partner, KPMG
At TruRating, we believe in democratizing insight. We make it easy for CX leaders to close the loop, prove ROI, and lead with commercial credibility.
- Real-time data at the point of experience
- Direct linkage to retail outcomes
- Store-level actionability by shift, region, or daypart
If you’re a CX leader ready to move from reporting to results and turn customer insight into your team’s strategic superpower, TruRating was built for you. Learn more about our retail analytics software or book a demo with our team today.
