Forget CX “Delight.” Do This Instead
Your customers don’t want “delight.” They want results. Here’s the 5-step playbook to shift from theatrics to trust.
When was the last time someone said, “I wish this brand gave me a better experience”?
I’d say, never. Because, that’s not how customers think. They don’t live in journey maps, NPS charts, or “delight” programs.
They live in outcomes.
Did the flight take off on time?
Did the bill make sense?
Did the product do what it promised?
Inside organizations, we often treat CX like the main course.
But for customers, it’s just the seasoning.
What they really want is the meal itself: reliable, simple, predictable results.
Why “Experience Theater” Destroys Trust
CX teams love designing delight.
But too often, companies polish the surface while leaving the foundation cracked.
A retailer hands out chocolates at checkout — while making returns a nightmare.
A telecom personalizes emails — while sending incomprehensible bills.
An airline upgrades its app — while canceling flights left and right.
That’s experience theater: prioritizing optics over outcomes.
Customers don’t just roll their eyes at the mismatch.
They lose trust. And once trust erodes, no perk can patch it back.
Outcomes First: A Better Way to Think About CX
The shift is simple but not easy: stop treating CX as the end goal. Start treating it as the operating system that delivers outcomes.
Ask: “What job did the customer actually hire us to do?” Then design the journey backward.
Utilities: not clever branding — but clear bills and service that works.
Healthcare: not free coffee — but on-time appointments and plain-language explanations.
Travel: not champagne in the lounge — but flights that leave when scheduled.
When you prioritize outcomes, you don’t just meet expectations — you set a foundation for trust.
The Playbook: How to Put Outcomes First
Here’s how to shift from theater to trust:
1. Redefine goals around outcomes. Anchor goals in clarity, reliability, and speed. Would you rather be known for solving problems the first time — or for sending apology credits afterward?
2. Audit journeys for friction. Walk the journey like a real customer. Where do you force repetition, handoffs, or extra steps that add no value? Fix those before adding polish.
3. Upgrade your metrics. NPS and CSAT matter, but they don’t prove outcomes. Track first-time resolution, on-time delivery, bill comprehension, and time to value. Those metrics show whether trust is being earned.
4. Test assumptions. Before funding a new “wow” initiative, ask: If we nailed the basics here, would customers still need this? If not, you just saved a costly distraction.
5. Balance your CX portfolio. Save delight for where it counts. Reliability earns loyalty; delight deepens it. But delight without reliability feels like a gimmick.
Why Getting the Basics Right Pays Off
This isn’t about smiles — it’s about hard business outcomes.
When you miss the basics: churn rises, complaints spike, employees burn out, and the brand takes the hit.
When you nail them: support costs drop, trust builds, repeat purchases grow, and loyalty strengthens.
I saw this firsthand at a company I worked with.
Leadership invested heavily in redesigning the bill layout — cleaner design, clearer breakdowns, even friendly explanations of “why your bill went up this month.”
It looked great on paper. (Literally and figuratively)
But behind the scenes, a broken API was feeding incorrect data into the bills. So while the design explained the increase, the actual charges were wrong.
The result? Call volume exploded, social media complaints spiked, and customer trust eroded faster than before.
The lesson?
Design can’t compensate for broken fundamentals. Customers don’t care if the bill looks better if the numbers on it are wrong. Competence earns loyalty; theater without competence destroys it.
Think about Amazon. Their loyalty isn’t built on delight programs. It’s built on competence at scale: fast, predictable deliveries, easy returns, quick resolutions.
The “experience” is just a byproduct of reliability.
A 30-Day Challenge: Basics First Workshop
Here’s a practical way to start: host a “Basics First” workshop with your team this month.
Pick one journey (billing, onboarding, or support).
Step through it like a customer.
At each step, ask:
Does this deliver the expected outcome?
Does this create friction with no value?
Circle every friction point.
Commit to fixing just one within 30 days.
Not three. Not ten. Just one.
That single fix could remove thousands of frustrations and restore more trust than any loyalty campaign.
The Takeaway: Results > Experience
Customers don’t buy “CX.” They buy results: working products, clear bills, quick resolutions, and reliability.
So before your next CX initiative, pause and ask:
Would customers care about this if we simply delivered flawlessly?
If the answer is no, you’re investing in theater instead of trust.
Competence builds trust. And trust — not delight — is the ultimate customer experience.
Now: what’s the one friction point in your journey you’re ready to fix today?
What Successful CX Leaders Do on Sundays
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👋 Please Reach Out
I created this newsletter to help customer-obsessed pros like you deliver exceptional experiences and tackle challenges head-on. But honestly? The best part is connecting with awesome, like-minded people—just like you! 😊
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— Mark
www.marklevy.co
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This is such a wonderfully human way to put this. Everybody in marketing, sales and engineering should read it.