Customer experience strategy template with a worked example

Customer experience strategy template

A customer experience strategy describes the experience a business intends to deliver across the whole customer journey, where today's experience falls short, and the changes, owners and measures that will close the gap. It is owned by the chief customer officer and agreed with the executives who run operations, service, billing, marketing and technology.

Horizon: 2 years5 priorities · 13 outcomes

Use this template

What this customer experience strategy template includes

ContextThe situation, the challenges to solve, and what is deliberately left out.
Experience visionThe experience customers should have and the principles behind it.
Journey and pain pointsThe main stages of the customer journey and where it breaks down.
Moments that matterThe few interactions that most shape how customers feel.
GovernanceWho owns the experience and how decisions are made.
MeasurementHow the experience is tracked.
Priorities and measuresThree to five priorities, each with an owner, outcomes with a baseline and target, and the initiatives behind them.

Customer experience strategy example

A complete customer experience strategy for a fictional organization: regional internet service provider with fiber and cable networks in mid-size cities and rural towns.

Worked exampleCustomer experience strategy

Organization	Regional internet service provider with fiber and cable networks in mid-size cities and rural towns (900 staff)
Ambition	Be the provider customers in our region recommend, with a relationship NPS of +25 and monthly churn of 1.4% by the end of 2028.
Horizon	2 years

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

We serve 410,000 subscribers and bill $330M a year. Relationship NPS is +4 and monthly churn is 1.9%, about 7,800 disconnects a month, while a national cable operator and two fixed wireless entrants advertise in every market we serve. One install in four is not right the first time. 31% of new customers contact us about their first bill. First-contact resolution is 62%, and 18% of repair visits are followed by another within 30 days. Customers generate 1.6 million contacts a year, 210,000 of them during outages we already knew about. Churn in the two months after a promotional price ends is 11%.

Challenges

The first 60 days go wrong too often: missed install windows, weak in-home wifi and a first bill nobody explained.
Customers find out about outages by calling us, even though the network operations center sees most faults within minutes.
Each department measures its own step. Nobody owns the journey, so a billing change that saves money creates calls somewhere else.

We will focus on

Six moments that drive most detractor comments: install day, first bill, wifi problems, outages, the end of a promotion and moving home.
Fixing causes upstream in field service, billing and network operations before adding service channels.
One executive forum with a budget and the authority to stop changes that damage the experience.

We will not

A rebuilt mobile app or an AI assistant as the first line of care. Automating a broken process only lets customers reach the problem faster.
Offshoring the contact center to lower cost per contact. We will lower cost by removing the reasons customers call.
Extending new-customer promotional prices to the whole base. Pricing fairness is handled at the moment a promotion ends.

Experience vision

Vision statement	Internet that works in every room, a bill with no surprises, and a straight answer from the first person a customer reaches.
Experience principles	Tell customers before they have to ask. Fix it once. One price, explained in plain words. Reward staying as much as joining. Every problem has a named owner until it is closed.

Journey and pain points

Stage	What customers expect	Pain point	Severity
Choose and order	A clear price and an install date within a week	Promotional terms in small print; installs booked 9 days out on average	Medium
Install	Technician arrives in the window and wifi reaches every room	23% of installs need a second visit or miss the window	High
First bill	The amount quoted at sale	Prorated charges and equipment fees prompt contact from 31% of new customers	High
Everyday use	Stable speeds on every device	Wifi coverage is the top reason for technical contacts	Medium
Get help	The problem solved on the first call	62% first-contact resolution; 18% repeat repair visits	High
Outage	To be told what is wrong and when it will be fixed	8% of affected customers notified; 210,000 avoidable calls a year	High
Renew, move or leave	Fair treatment for staying	Bill rises without warning when a promotion ends; movers must reorder as new	High

Moments that matter

Moment	Current experience	Target experience
Install day	Four-hour window, no updates, wifi not tested beyond the router	Two-hour window with live technician tracking and a speed test in every room before sign-off
First bill	Arrives with unexplained prorated lines	Bill preview sent at activation that matches the first invoice line by line
Wifi not working	Agent reads a script, then books a technician	Agent sees the home network remotely and fixes or replaces equipment on the first contact
Outage	Customer calls and waits to hear a recorded message	Text within 15 minutes with cause, estimated repair time and an automatic credit over four hours
Promotion ends	Price increase appears on the bill	Notice 45 days ahead with a loyalty price and a plain comparison of options
Moving home	Cancel and reorder, with a new install fee	One call or online form transfers service, with no fee inside our footprint

Governance

Executive owner	The chief customer officer owns the strategy and reports progress to the chief executive monthly and to the board twice a year.
Cross-functional forum	A customer experience council meets every month: the heads of field service, network operations, customer care, billing, marketing and IT. Each of the six moments has a named journey owner who brings its metrics and its blockers.
Decision rights	The council controls a $6M improvement fund over two years. The chief customer officer can hold any price change, billing change or product launch that fails the experience checklist, with escalation to the chief executive.

Measurement

Headline metric	Relationship NPS, with monthly churn as the commercial measure it has to move.
Journey metrics	First-time-right installs, first-bill contact rate, first-contact resolution, repeat repair visits, outage notifications sent within 15 minutes, and churn in the 60 days after a promotion ends.
Survey rhythm	The relationship survey goes to a sample of 6,000 subscribers every six months. Short surveys follow each install, repair visit and care contact within 24 hours, and comments are coded by cause every week.

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: VP of Field Service

Get the first 60 days right

New customers who need a second install visit or dispute their first bill are the most likely to leave within a year. Both failures are within our control.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Installs completed right the first timeMilestones: 82% by Q2 2027 · 87% by Q4 2027 · 91% by Q2 2028	77%	93%	Q4 2028
New customers who contact us about their first billMilestones: 20% by Q4 2027 · 15% by Q2 2028	31%	12%	Q4 2028
New customers who disconnect within 90 daysMilestones: 5% by Q4 2027	6.5%	3.5%	Q4 2028

Initiatives

Move to two-hour install windows with live technician tracking
Require a room-by-room speed test before an install is closed
Send a bill preview at activation and remove prorated first-month charges
Call every new customer on day 10 to check wifi and explain the bill

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 2Owner: VP of Network Operations

Tell customers about outages before they call

The network operations center detects most faults within minutes, yet 92% of affected customers hear nothing. Silence turns a short outage into a detractor.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Affected customers notified within 15 minutes of a detected outageMilestones: 40% by Q2 2027 · 75% by Q4 2027	8%	90%	Q2 2028
Calls a year about outages already known to usMilestones: 150K calls by Q4 2027	210K calls	90K calls	Q4 2028

Initiatives

Link network fault detection to subscriber addresses and text notification
Publish a live outage map with estimated repair times
Apply credits automatically for outages longer than four hours

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 3Owner: VP of Customer Care

Fix problems on the first contact

Four in ten customers have to call back and nearly one repair visit in five is repeated. Each repeat costs a truck roll and a recommendation.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
First-contact resolutionMilestones: 71% by Q4 2027 · 76% by Q2 2028	62%	80%	Q4 2028
Repair visits followed by another within 30 daysMilestones: 13% by Q4 2027	18%	8%	Q4 2028
Contacts per subscriber per yearMilestones: 3.4 contacts by Q4 2027	3.9 contacts	2.8 contacts	Q4 2028

Initiatives

Give care agents remote diagnostics for in-home wifi and authority to ship replacement equipment
Replace handle-time targets with resolution targets in agent scorecards
Route repeat faults to a senior technician with the full visit history
Review the ten most common contact reasons each quarter and remove the cause

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 4Owner: VP of Marketing and Base Management

Make staying worth it

Churn in the 60 days after a promotion ends is 11%, and movers are treated as cancellations. Our pricing teaches loyal customers to shop around.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Monthly subscriber churnMilestones: 1.7% by Q4 2027 · 1.55% by Q2 2028	1.9%	1.4%	Q4 2028
Customers who leave within 60 days of a promotion endingMilestones: 8% by Q4 2027	11%	5%	Q4 2028
Movers inside our footprint who keep their serviceMilestones: 58% by Q4 2027	48%	70%	Q4 2028

Initiatives

Send a 45-day notice with a loyalty price before every promotion ends
Create a single move request with no install fee inside the footprint
Cap the annual increase for customers with three or more years of tenure

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 5Owner: Chief Customer Officer

Run the experience as one system

Departments hit their own targets while the customer's journey breaks between them. Shared measures and a forum with authority are what keep the other four priorities from drifting.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Relationship NPSMilestones: 8 points by Q2 2027 · 14 points by Q4 2027 · 20 points by Q2 2028	4 points	25 points	Q4 2028
Detractors contacted within five days of a survey responseMilestones: 50% by Q2 2027	0%	85%	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Name an owner for each of the six moments with a shared metric in their bonus plan
Introduce an experience checklist for every price, billing and product change
Start a detractor callback team within customer care
Publish journey metrics to all staff every month

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Blank customer experience strategy template

The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.

Your planCustomer experience strategy

Organization	[Describe your organization in a few words, with its size]
Ambition	[One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan]
Horizon	[How long the plan runs, for example 12 months]

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]

Challenges

[A problem the strategy has to solve]
[A problem the strategy has to solve]

We will focus on

[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]
[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]

We will not

[Something you are deliberately leaving out]
[Something you are deliberately leaving out]

Experience vision

Vision statement	[Your vision statement]
Experience principles	[Your experience principles]

Journey and pain points

Stage	What customers expect	Pain point	Severity
[Stage]	[What customers expect]	[Pain point]	[Severity]
[Stage]	[What customers expect]	[Pain point]	[Severity]
[Stage]	[What customers expect]	[Pain point]	[Severity]

Moments that matter

Moment	Current experience	Target experience
[Moment]	[Current experience]	[Target experience]
[Moment]	[Current experience]	[Target experience]
[Moment]	[Current experience]	[Target experience]

Governance

Executive owner	[Your executive owner]
Cross-functional forum	[Your cross-functional forum]
Decision rights	[Your decision rights]

Measurement

Headline metric	[Your headline metric]
Journey metrics	[Your journey metrics]
Survey rhythm	[Your survey rhythm]

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]