If you follow our content closely – and I mean very closely – you may have noticed a subtle shift over the past six months. While we continue to publish on a wide variety of topics, we have recently doubled down on resources that are practical and functional, aimed at helping you translate abstract XM concepts into specific, concrete XM activities. Expert Answers. Deep Dives. Tools. And now (drumroll, please)… How-to Guides. Perhaps the most practical and functional of all, this new content type provides clear, step-by-step instructions on how to carry out a specific Experience Management activity, like how to build a CX or EX program roadmap.

These rich new resources join the 21 other pieces of content we published last quarter, bringing the total number of unique assets in our XM library up to nearly 750. To help you navigate through all this bountiful goodness, I am here with my quarterly roundup of the 15 most noteworthy XM Institute resources from Q2, which are split into three groups: our most popular new resources, my favorite new resources, and our all-time top-performing resources. I also added a new, bonus section at the end, showcasing some of our most interesting data tidbits from Q2. (P.S. Don’t want to miss any of the bountiful goodness? Sign up to receive daily or weekly emails notifying you whenever we publish new content.)

The Rising Stars: Most Popular Content of Q2

Here are our five most popular pieces of content from Q2 2022:

• Conversational Analytics Are Transforming Contact Centers (Blog). This blog post has everything. Paradigm shifts. Compelling data. A simple new model. Personal stories from Bruce Temkin. It’s hard to think of a piece of content that better embodies the value XM Institute aims to provide to XM professionals, explaining radical change in a straightforward way and sharing practical advice on how to adjust your CX efforts to capitalize on this transformation. Check out the post to learn what the near future holds and how to build an “adaptive” contact center. 
• XM Deep Dive: Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island Drives Culture Change with Journey Maps (Research Report). Advice and best practices are all well and good, but there’s nothing quite like digging deep into the mechanics of what another CX or EX team is doing to grow and mature their XM efforts. That’s why in one of our newest resource types, Deep Dives, we explore in considerable detail a particular XM project or practice that we believe is worthy of celebration and replication. Our latest one delves into how one US health insurer has translated its customer-centric ambitions into customer-centric practices by using three levers to embed journey maps into its everyday operating rhythms. Looking for more inspirational (and stealable!) ideas for your own XM efforts? Check out our Deep Dives on how Deloitte Digital uses a Dream Team to elevate its talent experience and how HSBC Canada is designing the future of work around four global workstyles.
• Global Study: ROI of Customer Experience, 2022 (Research Report). As the old saying goes, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes… and the towering popularity of XM Institute’s annual ROI of CX report.” True to form, this global study was one of our most popular pieces of content in Q2. This year, we actually expanded the scope of the study, surveying consumers from 24 countries about their recent experiences with organizations across 17 different industries. We then asked respondents how those experiences are shaping their future loyalty behaviors, such as their likelihood to recommend or purchase more from the organization. Use this data, which you can slice by industry, country, or loyalty behavior, to help you craft a persuasive argument for the business value of CX improvements. 
• U.S. Consumer Journeys Needing Improvement Across 22 Industries (Research Report). I could not be more excited for the revival of this report – last published in 2018 – which analyzes which of the common journeys customers take with 22 different industries are the most broken (baggage claim for airlines, understanding statements for investment firms) and which have the biggest effect on customers’ likelihood to recommend an organization (customer service for over half of the industries). What’s so great about this study is that we’ve (hopefully!) saved you a bit of legwork by highlighting which experiences you likely should disproportionately invest in improving. 
• Seven Mistakes to Avoid When Closing the Loop With Customers (Blog). Closing the loop with customers – responding one-on-one to individuals who have provided you with feedback – is an essential component of any well-functioning CX program. However, organizations sometimes overlook the fact that this follow-up is a customer experience touchpoint in and of itself. A poorly designed closed-loop process can end up causing more damage to a customer relationship than not responding to their feedback at all. In this post, Greg Chase, XM Catalyst extraordinaire, outlines seven common mistakes organizations make when closing the loop with customers and how to avoid them.

The Unsung Heroes: Isabelle’s Personal Favorite Content of Q2

While these resources may not have quite attained the prodigious popularity of the first five (though many were close!), they still provide exceptional value to organizations looking to build their XM capabilities. Here are some of my favorites from the quarter:

• How to Build a CX Program Roadmap // How to Build an EX Program Roadmap (How-to Guides). I may have touched on them above, but these new resources deserve the spotlight at every conceivable opportunity. Given their instant success, if they weren’t published mere hours before the end of Q2, they likely would have been our most-read resources of the quarter. What makes them so powerful, you ask? First, we spoke to XM experts across Qualtrics about how they advise clients to build roadmaps and then distilled their advice into six straightforward steps. We then further decomposed each step into a set of executable activities, many of which include supporting worksheets, templates, and resources to help you carry out each activity within your organization. Each step also includes practical tips, an overview, and a main objective. Take what helps you. Adjust what doesn’t. And in the end, leave with a roadmap that visualizes the path you’re going to take over the next few years to reach your ultimate CX or EX vision. 
• The ABCs of Employee Experience Action Planning and Six Roadblocks to Avoid (Blog). Perhaps my favorite blog post of Q2 – and the most compelling “ABC” content since the Jackson 5 released their hit in 1970 – comes from two of Qualtrics’ preeminent EX experts. Kevin Campbell (XM Scientist) and Cecelia Herbert (XM Catalyst), provide a simple ABC framework to help managers respond to the EX insights their organization collects. Not only do they explain how to build action plans that are action-oriented, business-relevant, and conversation-based, they offer advice for overcoming common roadblocks, share the dos and don’ts of action planning conversations, and break down the 1-2-3s for following up on action plans.
• XM Leaders Enjoy Stronger Business Performance, 2022 (Data Snippet). Making a convincing business case for Experience Management is a white whale for many an XM professional. This data snippet should give you at least one weapon in your arsenal to help you communicate the financial benefits associated with stronger XM capabilities. In our annual XM Executives Study with leaders across the globe, we found that executives who classify their organizations’ XM capabilities as “significantly” or “moderately” above average in their industry also tend to report substantially higher revenue, profitability, and employee retention compared to their peers.
• What is Net Promoter® Score (NPS)? (Video). If you’ve read any of these quarterly roundups before, you’ve likely heard me wax poetic about our short, fun animated videos. This video combines one of our most popular content mediums with one of our most popular (and polemical) content topics: Net Promoter Score. In only about two minutes, this video covers what this metric is, how you calculate it, and how to use it to meaningfully improve your CX program. We especially recommend sharing it with leaders or stakeholders who need a quick, engaging introduction to this common relationship metric.
• Worksheet: Translating Verbatims into Action (Tool). In keeping with today’s theme of practical content, one of my favorite resources from last quarter was this tool, which CX teams can use to surface and address experience gaps. As a CX professional, it can be difficult to shed your perception of a particular experience (which is inevitably colored by insider knowledge about why it was designed a certain way or how it should unfold) and consider it from purely a customer perspective. This exercise helps you put yourself in the shoes of a specific customer and use that vantage point to generate ideas for improving a certain experience.

The Heavyweights: All-Time Most Popular Content 

Since launching the website in the middle of 2020, a few of our resources – especially our more fundamental resources – have remained consistently popular quarter-to-quarter. These evergreen favorites are:

• Expert Answers. Let’s be honest, this whole “Experience Management” thing, including customer and employee experience, is still a relatively new discipline. While helping forge a new field is exciting, it also means that many of us are struggling with questions that don’t yet have a universally recognized answer. It is no surprise, therefore, that the newest heavyweight entering the arena is our Expert Answers resource, an FAQs page where XM Institute faculty and experts from around Qualtrics tackle some of the most common questions we hear from XM professionals. Trying to figure out how to articulate and measure the ROI of your CX program? We’ve got you covered. Wondering which questions to include in your engagement survey? We have answers to that too. All in all, we’ve answered almost 50 XM, CX, and EX questions, and we will be adding more going forward. You can even submit your own question for us here. 
• XM Operating Framework (Launchpad). “Launchpads” are a unique type of resource that is geared towards helping people learn the basics of a fundamental XM topic. Our most popular Launchpad, and overall resource on the website, is a primer on the XM Operating Framework. This framework describes the scaffolding, which is made up of Technology, Culture, and six XM Competencies, that organizations need to build in order to establish and mature their XM programs. Like all Launchpads, this one includes a short opening video (which is incredibly popular in its own right!), an overview of the topic, tips for taking action, and a list of key resources you can check out to build your knowledge in this area. 
• CX Maturity Assessment (Tool). Becoming customer-centric doesn’t happen overnight – it takes years of systematic focus on making changes across multiple teams, departments, and projects. Our CX Maturity Assessment will help you evaluate the current state of your program and develop plans for reaching your CX goals. No surprise, therefore, that it continues to be one of our most downloaded pieces of content ever. We also have employee experience (EX), XM, and Digital CX maturity assessments available. 
• What is Experience Management? (Video). Want to understand what Experience Management is but don’t want to have to read miles of text? Have we got the video for you! This short, fun video explains the fundamentals of XM and lays out a business case for why it’s important. Watch it yourself or share it with colleagues or leaders who still need a quick explanation as to what this XM thing is all about. And if this teaser just whets your appetite and you would like to learn more, you can always check out our Introduction to Experience Management Launchpad. 
• XM Professional (XMP) Certification Handbook (Tool). A recent entrant to the heavyweight category is the handbook we created to accompany our XM Professional (XMP) Certification – the premier credential recognizing an individual’s professional experience and expertise in the discipline of Experience Management. This tool includes everything you need to know to prepare to earn your certification, including the exam blueprint, the application process, and sample questions you can use to test your knowledge. Wondering whether you should become certified? Check out this blog post spotlighting some amazing XMPs from around the world who explain why they decided to earn this credential.

Interesting Data Tidbits from Q2

This quarter, we published a number of hefty research studies and data snippets, each full of notable XM data points. Here are the five I found most striking:

1. Moving a customer from an ‘extremely dissatisfied’ experience to an ‘extremely satisfied’ experience results in a 37% increase in their digital spend potential. (Measuring the Impact of Digital Experiences)
2. The industries with the highest average NPS are grocery (33), retail (33), and streaming media (32), while the industries with the lowest average NPS are consumer payments (0), car rentals (5), and airlines (11). (Economics of NPS, 2022)
3. Executives who classify their XM capabilities as ‘significantly above average’ are 2.4 times more likely to report both higher revenue growth and higher employee retention compared to their peers with mediocre or subpar XM. (XM Leaders Enjoy Stronger Business Performance, 2022)
4. When a banking experience is identified as broken by a consumer, it has an average impact of -34 points on that bank’s NPS, the highest of all industries. (U.S. Consumer Journeys Needing Improvement Across 22 Industries)
5. Compared to consumers who give an experience a low emotion rating, consumers who give it a high emotion rating are, on average, 4.8 times more likely to purchase more from that organization and 10.3 times more likely to recommend that organization. (How Success, Effort, and Emotion Affect Loyalty)

The bottom line: We are looking forward to bringing you even more great content in Q3 and beyond!

Isabelle Zdatny, XMP, CCXP, is an XM Catalyst with the Qualtrics XM Institute