Customer experience has never mattered more, and yet, most retail brands are still stuck treating it like a reporting function. Enter Zack Hamilton, TruRating’s new Strategic Advisor.
Zack brings 15 years in retail, rising from store manager to Chief Experience Officer, and for the past 7 years, he’s advised the C-suite at 200+ global brands. Zack has helped hundreds of retailers shift from lagging feedback loops to real-time performance systems.
To introduce Zack, we discussed some burning topics in retail right now, including why feedback isn’t the outcome, what most brands are missing between the transaction and the next visit, and how CX done right doesn’t just measure sentiment, it drives the business forward.
1. How did you get into CX in the first place? Was it by design or accident, and what made you stay?
I got into CX before I ever knew what customer experience was. I was 7 years old when my mom (raising four kids alone) took us to buy a lawn mower. She had saved up for it. I remember her saying to the salesman, “I need something safe. I don’t need all the bells and whistles. This is my budget. If you can check the boxes, I’ll buy it today.”
Instead, he walked her straight to the most expensive one on the floor and tried to convince her to spend more. She grabbed our hands, walked us out, and didn’t say a word until we hit a red light. Then she turned around and said,
“I don’t care what profession you choose—but never minimize the needs of your customers just to hit your own goals.”
That stuck with me. Years later, I found myself in a corporate boardroom, presenting customer feedback, and a CFO interrupted me: “Your job is to convince the customer they need this product.” I flashed back to that moment with my mom. And I said what needed to be said:
“No. My job is to deliver what the customer actually wants. If our strategy is anything different, we’ve got bigger problems.”
That moment shifted my entire trajectory. I didn’t choose CX as a profession, it became the system I believed business should be built around.
2. You’ve joined TruRating at a pivotal time for retail. What drew you to the mission, and what problem are you most excited to solve?
Retail doesn’t have a data problem. It has a decision problem. Too many teams are still making store-level and strategy-level decisions based on stale feedback, lagging metrics, or gut instinct. Meanwhile, the best operators are begging for real-time signals to help them coach, adjust, and win in the moment—not a quarter later.
What drew me to TruRating is simple: it’s solving the retail performance execution gap.
Not another survey. Not another dashboard. A true performance layer that puts real-time, in-store customer feedback into the hands of the people who can actually do something with it—right now.
And when you put that kind of power in the hands of the frontline? You don’t just improve CX. You improve traffic conversion. Repeat visits. Average transaction value. You create a feedback flywheel that drives revenue and upskills your team in the process. That’s the future I want to build.
3. You’ve led CX and GTM at scale for some of the biggest names in retail and SaaS. How will that experience shape your approach here at TruRating?
I’ve sat on every side of the table. Field operator running 150+ stores. eComm leader driving digital transformation. CX executive building experience programs from scratch. SaaS enablement lead coaching AEs on how to sell value, not features. Advisor to Fortune 50 brands looking to modernize. That full-stack experience taught me something critical:
Experience isn’t a team. It’s a system.
And if that system doesn’t connect the dots between customer behavior, frontline execution, and business outcomes—it fails. At TruRating, my role is to help operationalize that system inside our clients’ worlds. To make sure our value doesn’t live in a pitch deck—but in the hands of store managers, CX teams, operations leads, and execs who are hungry for a better way to win. We’re not here to deliver insights. We’re here to unlock action.
4. You talk a lot about performance systems and closing the gap between feedback and action. What does that actually look like in retail?
Let’s get real: most retail brands are flying blind between transactions and loyalty. They know what the customer purchased. They know if the customer came back. But they don’t know why—because the systems they have are reactive, slow, and surface-level.
A performance system changes that. It creates a real-time loop between frontline execution, customer response, and business performance. It tells you:
- What behaviors are actually happening in-store
- How customers are responding to those behaviors
- Which stores, teams, or reps are winning (or lagging)
- And how those behaviors impact revenue, retention, and brand trust
That’s not CX theater. That’s experience performance. And when you treat CX as a performance system (not just a sentiment metric) you unlock speed, clarity, and compounding improvement at scale.
5. A lot of people still think of CX as surveys and dashboards. What’s your take—and what needs to change?
Most CX programs are stuck in 2018. Too much signal, not enough action. Too many dashboards, not enough decisions. Too many teams babysitting surveys while the frontline is left guessing how to improve. CX has been reduced to a data management function—when it should be a business performance engine.
If we want to change that, we have to stop treating feedback as the outcome. Feedback is the fuel. The outcome is revenue. Behavior change. Strategic alignment. Margin expansion. Loyalty that doesn’t need a discount to stay.
The good news? We don’t have to wait for a massive digital overhaul. Most of the friction in CX today isn’t technical—it’s cultural and operational. That’s the shift I’m here to drive.
6. You’ve been called a CX rebel, builder, and challenger of the status quo. How do you plan to shake things up at TruRating?
By showing—not telling. Anyone can call themselves innovative. But real change happens when you rewire how organizations think, decide, and act. At TruRating, I’m not interested in selling dashboards. I’m here to build systems that reprogram how retail brands manage performance. That starts with:
- Enabling field leaders to coach in real time
- Giving HQ execs live signal tied to business outcomes
- Helping CX teams become internal influencers, not report managers
- And showing every frontline employee how their behavior impacts the bottom line
I’ll shake things up the same way I always have—by proving there’s a better way, and then making that way the new standard.
7. Outside of disrupting CX and building high-performing retailers—what do you do for fun? (And yes, we expect at least one guilty pleasure!)
When I’m not deep in frameworks or ripping apart broken CX models, I’m probably doing one of three things:
- Writing the Unf*cking Your CX newsletter and podcast, where I say all the things CX leaders are thinking—but no one else will say out loud.
- Coaching and attending my kids’ sporting events and being their driver to practices.
- Training like an athlete—I lift 4–5x a week and have a goal to compete in another Ironman.
As for guilty pleasures? I’m a sneakerhead (Jordan 3s are the GOAT), a fan of well-placed sarcasm, and I’ve got a soft spot for late-night brainstorming sessions that end with another big, impossible idea.
Powering what’s next in retail performance
Retail performance doesn’t improve by chance. It improves when teams are empowered with insights and the ability to act on them. That’s what Zack Hamilton is here to help us build a world where experience isn’t just measured, it’s operationalized. Where store teams can adjust in the moment, CX drives revenue, and feedback fuels frontline excellence.
We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Zack to the team, and we can’t wait to help more retailers turn everyday interactions into lasting value.
Want to level up your CX program or see how TruRating’s retail analytics software can drive real results? Get in touch with our team.
