What does a CX Strategy consist of?

A CX Strategy consists of a CX Vision, guiding principles, a touchpoint strategy, clear KPIs and a prioritised roadmap. Stakeholder involvement and embedding within the organisation are essential.

Which KPIs do you measure for Customer Experience?

The three most important: NPS for referral willingness, CSAT for individual touchpoints, CES for the ease of processes. Added to these are operational metrics such as churn rate and repeat purchase rate.

How do you build a CX Strategy without a large internal CX team?

We always start where you currently are and develop the strategy gradually and systematically, involving the most important stakeholders and testing it under real conditions.

CX Strategy | Developing Customer Experience Strategy

Q: How do you get management on board for CX investments?

With numbers and stories. The strongest lever is usually making the cost of inaction visible. What does each customer who leaves cost us?

Q: How do you connect a CX Strategy to concrete business goals?

By thinking backwards. Not: We want better CX. But: We want to reduce churn by 15%. What do customers need to experience for that to happen?

What is CX Strategy

From corporate strategy to lived customer experience.

A CX Strategy gives direction. But not disconnected from the business - it builds on what already exists: the corporate objectives, the brand strategy and the brand promise. The first step is always to understand where you currently stand.

The problem we often see in organisations: there are many good intentions, but a gap exists between what is wanted internally and what customers actually experience. Making that gap visible is the starting point of every CX strategy.

That is why we first speak with internal stakeholders and decision-makers across all levels - from the C-suite down to the third management tier. And then we speak with customers. Only when we know both perspectives do we develop a strategy grounded in reality rather than assumptions.

SHIFT11 CX Framework

Our approach: structured, step by step.

Our approach follows the SHIFT11 CX Framework - a three-level model that moves from strategy through the customer journey to the concrete touchpoint. On this page we work at Level 1.

Strategy Level

What the company feels like

Brand ExperienceStrategic CX Principles

Customer Journey Level

The overall experience

Macro Customer JourneyTouchpoint Collection

Touchpoint Level

What makes a specific touchpoint lovable

Touchpoint DesignDetailed Customer Journey

How we work

Our methods.

Developing CX Vision & Stance

What should the customer experience deliver for your organisation? What ambition sits behind it? The CX Vision is the north star - clear enough to provide orientation, open enough to be applied across every part of the business.

Defining Guiding Principles

Guiding principles are not slogans you hang on the wall. They are test questions: does this measure, this product, this communication serve our customers? At every decision that faces outward, they can and should act as a check. Practical, fit for everyday use, not slide deck wisdom.

Stakeholder Integration

A CX strategy developed only in a meeting room does not work. We bring the most important internal voices in from the start - to ensure a diversity of perspectives, surface blind spots and at the same time build acceptance.

KPIs & Measurement

Not metrics for the sake of metrics. We help you define which indicators genuinely say something about the customer experience - whether NPS, CSAT, CES or operational metrics - and how to derive decisions from them.

Customer Lifecycle & Journey Atlas

We look at the full customer lifecycle: from first awareness through to retention. From this we develop a Journey Atlas - a systematic overview of how customer journeys can be used methodically to bring the CX strategy to life at concrete touchpoints.

Testing & Embedding

A strategy is only good when it holds up under real conditions. We test the CX strategy internally before it is finalised - with colleagues, in teams, in pilot projects. And we support embedding through internal roadshows, training formats and CX ambassadors.

From Practice

CX Strategy in practice.

Industry

Public Mobility

Situation

Austrian public transport mobility provider. CX was to be repositioned within the organisation. Earlier initiatives had not delivered results and there were many conflicting internal views - the challenge was not to lose the thread despite a large number of stakeholders.

Approach

Structured conversations from C-level down to the third management tier, with a particular focus on CX-minded individuals within the organisation. The result was a CX strategy comprising an overarching vision, stance and guiding principles, along with concrete application-oriented guidance. In parallel, an embedding concept was developed including internal information pages, training formats and the establishment of an internal CX ambassador network.

Result

A CX strategy that does not just exist as a document but lives within the organisation. The internal network of CX evangelists ensures the strategy is applied, challenged and further developed in day-to-day work.

When it makes sense

You need a CX Strategy when...

CX activities are scattered uncoordinated across different departments
there is no shared understanding of what good customer experience means for your organisation
the brand promise is clear internally but it is unclear whether it reaches customers
growth targets are not being met despite a strong product
management wants to make CX measurable but doesn't know how
early CX initiatives have been launched but have not delivered the desired results

Deliverables

Your output: a strategy that works.

Tailored to your organisation and context - we develop exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less.

From CX Vision and Guiding Principles through KPI Framework to embedding formats and a CX Ambassador concept. The result is a working tool for your team, not a presentation deck that disappears into a drawer.

CX Strategy Document CX Vision & Principles KPI Framework Journey Atlas CX Roadmap Embedding Formats CX Ambassador Concept

FAQ

Frequently asked

What we get asked most about CX Strategy.

A CX Strategy answers three fundamental questions: What customer experience do we want to deliver? At which touchpoints does it get decided? And how do we measure whether we are achieving it? In concrete terms it consists of a CX Vision, guiding principles for the customer experience, a touchpoint strategy, clear KPIs and a prioritised roadmap. For this to work in practice, stakeholder involvement during the strategy work is essential - as is communication and embedding within the organisation afterwards.

With numbers and stories. Numbers: churn rate, repeat purchase rate, KPIs benchmarked against competitors. Stories: concrete customer feedback that shows where experiences are being lost. The strongest lever is usually making the cost of inaction visible. What does each customer who leaves cost us? We help you build that business case.

By thinking backwards. Not: "We want better CX." But: "We want to reduce churn by 15%. What do customers need to experience for that to happen?" Every CX measure gets a clear connection to revenue, retention or efficiency. That is how CX becomes a management variable rather than a marketing project.

The three most important: NPS (Net Promoter Score) for referral willingness, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) for individual touchpoints, CES (Customer Effort Score) for the ease of processes. Added to these are operational metrics such as churn rate, repeat purchase rate and first contact resolution. The critical factor is not which KPIs you measure but whether they actually lead to decisions. The most critical moment is the design of the measurement - there is a lot that can go wrong there, and that is where we are happy to advise.

We always start where you currently are: Where does your organisation stand? What goals are you pursuing? How do you want to be perceived as a brand? And how does your organisation actually feel from your customers' perspective? This does not require a large team, but it does need the key people who can and want to make decisions quickly. We develop the strategy gradually and systematically together, involving the most important stakeholders and customers to ensure a diversity of perspectives and build acceptance. A strategy is only effective if it holds up under real conditions - which is why we test it shortly before finalisation and after launch in initial pilot projects.

Related Services

Clear direction for the customer experience. One that actually lands.