In our most recent webinar, TruRating CEO Georgina Nelson sat down with Strategic Advisor Zack Hamilton to dig into one of the biggest challenges facing customer experience (CX) teams today: how to move from reporting to results.
Because let’s be honest… Dashboards alone don’t drive change. And sentiment scores aren’t getting CX a seat at the strategy table.
The conversation centered around the fundamental truth that CX leaders are delivering insight, but without systems to act on it, that insight often goes nowhere. In Zack’s words, “CX doesn’t have a data problem. It has a decision problem.”
This session flipped the usual CX narrative. Rather than focusing on survey design or VoC dashboards, Georgina and Zack unpacked what it really takes to translate experience data into frontline action, and ultimately, commercial impact.
Watch from insight to impact – what retail executives really want from CX
Key insights from the discussion
1. Why CX still gets sidelined
“In too many boardrooms, CX is still seen as soft. It’s the team with insights, but not influence. The team with data, but not budget. And in 2025, that’s not sustainable.”
— Georgina Nelson, CEO & Founder, TruRating
CX teams have worked hard to deliver insights, but legacy tools have limited their ability to drive outcomes. Traditional metrics like promoter scores, CSAT, and OSAT tell you how customers feel after the fact, but rarely offer the real-time, store-level visibility needed to coach teams, adapt quickly, or defend budget. The result? CX gets stuck reporting problems instead of solving them.
Zack shared the example of a CEO proud of an 84 promoter score, even though their customer file was shrinking and first-time buyers weren’t returning. “If your promoter score is 84 but your retention is dropping and your ATV is flat, the score doesn’t mean much.”
2. The real cost of flying blind
“Most store managers are flying blind. They’re trying to coach teams off lagging data, if they have any data at all.”
– Zack Hamilton, Strategic Advisor TruRating
Zack spoke from experience. As a former VP of Store Operations and CXO, he’s led teams through the disconnect between brand-level metrics and what actually happens on the shop floor.
In the absence of timely, localized data, teams default to gut feel. This leads to inconsistent execution, poor coaching, and missed opportunities to drive ATV and conversion. Even strong VoC programs struggle when the data arrives too late to be actionable.
3. It’s time to stop measuring sentiment and start measuring behavior
“As a customer, it’s easy for me to say I’d do something. But did I actually do it? Did I come back? Did I spend more?”
— Zack Hamilton, Strategic Advisor, TruRating
Georgina and Zack agreed that retailers need to shift from asking what customers say to looking at what they do. In the age of frictionless commerce, even small behavior shifts can impact revenue.
TruRating data from over 1 billion in-moment ratings shows that two of the biggest predictors of ATV are:
- Did the customer find what they were looking for?
- Did they receive help when needed?
These aren’t abstract metrics. They’re behaviors, and they can be coached, tracked, and tied directly to P&L performance.
4. Feedback without action is just noise
“The gap between insight and execution is where most CX programs stall. And that gap is getting wider.”
– Georgina Nelson, CEO & Founder, TruRating
Georgina spoke candidly about the problem of underutilized insights. “Too many VoC dashboards look beautiful, but don’t lead to change. If feedback doesn’t drive a decision or action, it’s just noise.”
Zack emphasized that most experience programs fail because they stop at delivery. “You gave me the data. Great. Now what?” To earn influence, CX needs to connect the dots from insight to intervention, and show how performance improved as a result.
5. Coaching is the missing link
“LMS videos don’t build skills. Coaching does. But only if it’s rooted in live, behavioral data.”
– Zack Hamilton, Strategic Advisor, TruRating
One of the most practical insights from the session was around coaching. Zack described a common failure point: teams invest in training, but have no visibility into whether behaviors were adopted. Without real-time feedback, store leaders can’t observe, coach, or correct in the moment.
The solution? Connect customer feedback directly to frontline actions. Give teams shift-specific insights they can use immediately. Show them how behavior change improves results.
6. CX doesn’t need more surveys. It needs better access.
“Retail doesn’t need more surveys. It needs systems that surface what’s happening now, in the aisle, at the till, during the shift.”
– Zack Hamilton, Strategic Advisor, TruRating
The conversation ended on a hopeful note. For Georgina and Zack, this isn’t about reinventing CX. It’s about finally giving CX teams the tools to lead.
The Retail Performance Layer, as Zack described it, is the connective tissue between customer insight and store action. It complements VoC programs by showing, in real time:
- Which behaviors are being executed
- Where friction is emerging
- And what it’s costing the business
It’s not another dashboard. It’s a shift in mindset and systems. Rather than measuring outcomes after the fact, the Retail Performance Layer helps teams understand execution as it happens, so they can intervene faster, coach smarter, and improve performance where it counts.
Zack explained, “You can’t coach a shift off last month’s CSAT. But if you know Store 205 didn’t greet customers during the Saturday PM shift, you can act. That’s the difference between insight and intervention.”
It also allows retailers to validate initiatives in live time, scale what works, and protect margins by catching early signs of experience breakdowns—before they show up in the P&L.
Want to learn more? Explore the Retail Performance Layer in more detail and see how it can help close the gap between insight and action.
Next steps
This conversation wasn’t just about CX. It was about performance. It was about giving teams on the ground the data they need to deliver on the promises made in the boardroom. And it was a clear call to action to stop reporting and start driving.
If your teams are ready to make that leap, TruRating was built for this. Our platform captures in-the-moment feedback from real customers at the point of payment, delivers behavioral insights by store, shift, and channel, and ties those insights directly to commercial outcomes.
There’s no more guesswork and no more post-period reporting. Just the visibility and signal your teams need to coach, intervene, and drive measurable impact, every single day.
Want to see how TruRating turns real-time customer feedback into retail performance? Learn more about our retail analytics software or book a demo today.
