Digital transformation is not just a buzzword but a core business strategy that Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) businesses are implementing right now, whether you’re ready for it or not.
As companies race to adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) and streamline their digital experiences, one aspect often gets overlooked: the power of earned growth.
Maureen Burns, a partner at Bain & Company for over 20 years and Co-Author of "Winning on Purpose" with Fred Reicheld, the godfather of Net Promoter Score (NPS), joined our speaker lineup at The Global CPG Customer Experience (CX) Summit.
Attendees had a front-row seat learning what the experts think is next for CX in our new digital landscape.
Let’s revisit Maureen’s key takeaways from the event.
- Cleanup of digital journeys, especially in B2B
- Focus on personalization through better individual-level customer data
- Enhancing human frontline interactions with new tools and technologies
- Leveraging an online presence for both amplifying positive experiences and managing negative ones
What Is Earned Growth?
Earned growth is a metric that measures the portion of a company's growth that comes from loyal customers who return to buy more and refer others.
It's the opposite of "bought" growth, which relies heavily on marketing spend and acquisitions.
Maureen explained, "Two companies that may look like they're growing both at 30%: one has a much healthier growth profile and a much bigger sustained economic performance advantage [through earned growth]."
The Power of Referrals
One often overlooked aspect of earned growth is the power of referrals. "Referrals are one of the most undervalued assets in business," Maureen emphasized.
By focusing on creating promoters who actively refer new customers, businesses can reduce their reliance on paid marketing and create a more sustainable growth model.
Implementing Earned Growth Strategies
While measuring repeat purchases and churn is relatively straightforward, tracking referrals can be challenging.
Maureen suggests:
Implementing tracking solutions for referrals
Bringing together finance, marketing, and customer experience teams to analyze and act on the data
Shifting investment from paid marketing to customer experience improvements based on return on investment (ROI) comparisons
The Digital Frontline: Human Empathy in the Age of AI
Many companies believed changes that would inevitably come from digital transformation would only apply to business-to-consumer (B2C).
However, we learned very quickly that’s not the case.
Maureen noted, “What we've seen is that the leaders have figured out that however a B2B customer interacts with the best consumer brands, they ultimately want to do that in their day-to-day life and at work as well…
“I think that a lot of the work that was done starting in consumer, say, ten years ago around digital transformation, looking at customer journeys, all of those things are now taking off in B2B and is incredibly relevant.”
So, now that businesses move towards digital interactions, the challenge becomes: how do we maintain the human touch?
Maureen introduces the concept of the "digital frontline," emphasizing the need to program digital interactions with the same level of empathy and engagement that the best human frontlines have always had.
"We need to be able to teach our digital frontline how to do that through the right algorithms," she stated.
This includes predictive NPS to anticipate customer satisfaction, real-time feedback to prevent negative experiences, and more.
The Evolution of Net Promoter Score in a Digital World
As we continue to advance technologically, Maureen dug deeper into whether or not NPS is (and will be) relevant.
She asked various companies and investors their opinions and concluded that Net Promoter Score is more important than ever.
“It may look a little different, but the concept of rapid-cycle feedback directly from customers and the right action loops to respond and act on that feedback is absolutely critical.”
The key? Adapting NPS to this new digital landscape.
Customer Experience In 2025: Proactive, Personalized, and Responsive
What if we told you “futuristic” ideas advancing customer experience programs are being implemented today?
With the integration of technologies like artificial intelligence, new and emerging strategies are already in use.
Maureen shared CX challenges companies are expected to face in 2025 and the key trends emerging as a result.
Proactive Issue Detection and Intervention
The future is not about waiting to hear from unhappy customers, it's about detecting potential issues in real-time and intervening before they escalate.
Leading companies are focused on mapping out critical customer journeys and monitoring for signs of trouble, so they can step in and course-correct before a detractor is created.
Personalized Experiences Powered by Customer Data
Custom experiences are a major priority, as organizations work to gather richer, more individualized customer data. By infusing this data into digital journeys and empowering frontline teams, companies can deliver experiences tailored to each customer's unique needs and preferences.
The Ongoing Importance of the Human Touch
While digital transformation is here to stay, the human element of customer service remains crucial.
Smart companies are equipping their frontline teams with the latest tools and data-driven insights to provide the best possible support.
Maureen shares that the human touch, when combined with powerful technology, can be a true differentiator.
Proactive Listening and Issue Resolution
Leading organizations aren't waiting for customers to come to them with problems — they're actively soliciting feedback, identifying pain points, and addressing issues before they escalate.
As one executive shared, this "proactive" approach can uncover hidden problems that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
The customer experience landscape is rapidly evolving, but the fundamentals remain the same: understand your customers, anticipate their needs and deliver seamless, personalized experiences across all touchpoints.
Now with generative AI, we are on the cusp of a massive transformation where we can embed the best of humans into digital. However, we still need to figure out where we can have our own models powering those decisions, too.
We're not at the point where we can concede every decision to AI so we have to build in the right algorithms to treat our customers in the right way with the right objective function.
AI could be trained to maximize value in every single moment, which could create a terrible customer experience — there's got to be some view of customer lifetime value that's powering the decisions so we don't make mistakes.
Full Recording: The Global CPG Experience Summit
Leverage AI to Enhance Meaningful Customer Interactions With CustomerGauge
As we move deeper into the AI era, earning growth becomes even more critical.
By focusing on creating loyal customers who return and refer others, businesses can build a sustainable growth model that outperforms traditional marketing-heavy approaches.
The key lies in balancing digital efficiency with human empathy, leveraging AI to enhance rather than replace meaningful customer interactions.
As Maureen shared, “The goal should be to do work so successfully that it turns clients into promoters.”
This mindset, applied at scale through digital transformation and AI, could be the key to thriving in the increasingly competitive business landscape of 2024 and beyond.
Want to learn how to leverage GaugieAI, CustomerGauge’s AI Feedback Assistant to scale your customer experience?
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