Human experience innovation (HXI) is becoming the key factor that sets successful businesses apart in today’s fast-moving market. By combining behavioral science, culture, and human-centered design insights, HXI fosters meaningful connections with customers, employees, partners, and communities.
The results speak for themselves: companies that excel in experience management grow their revenue four times faster than their competitors (Bain & Company), with top performers seeing 80% higher growth (Forrester). Additionally, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for great experiences (PwC), showing that HXI boosts loyalty and profits.
In this interview, Nicholas Webb shares how innovative organizations use HXI to turn everyday interactions into memorable experiences. Join us to learn practical strategies for transforming casual customers into loyal advocates and building a culture focused on strong human connections.
Early Beginnings in Technology and Innovation
Q: Nicholas, with your impressive 30-year career in customer experience and innovation, what first attracted you to this field, and how has your perspective changed over time?
I began my career 40 years ago as a technologist, inventing medical devices. I've been awarded over 40 patents for innovations like one of the world's smallest medical implants and early wearable technologies.
In my first decade, I became fascinated by enterprise innovation—applying innovation methods, typically used for product invention, to optimize business practices.
While writing my first book, The Innovation Playbook, I realized that customer experience is also an innovation discipline. It intrigued me that we can apply the same systems, tools, and processes used in product innovation to enhance customer experiences and improve lives significantly.
Instead of creating technological innovations, we focus on creating experiential value. Innovation, as I define it, is the process of developing novel value that serves both the enterprise and the customer.
When we invent, it must be something the company profits from and the customer benefits from, making it valuable. This concept also applies to customer experience—finding new ways to deliver better experiential value that serves the organization and its customers.
Establishing LeaderLogic® and the vision behind HAYDAY
Q: What inspired you to establish LeaderLogic® and focus on strategic excellence and growth?
I’ve been inspired by the incredible value we can provide to clients, whether small, medium, or large companies. Recently, we completed a project that delivered over $10 million in value to a client by applying the principles of enterprise innovation and enhancing human experience innovation. The impact we can have on our clients truly motivates me.
I’m also excited to share that we’ve consolidated our learning company, LearnLogic, and our consulting firm, LeaderLogic, into a new business unit called HAYDAY.
Our new website launches this week, and we’re thrilled about offering unique solutions to help clients improve various experiences—customer experience, member experience for associations, patient experience for healthcare, employee experience for HR, and even sales experience for sales teams. Over the years, our approach has evolved, and now we’re excited to bring everything together under one website: HAYDAY.
Shifting to human experience innovation
Q: You talk about the need for innovation to stay ahead. What does true innovation in customer experience look like to you?
One of the most exciting things to happen in customer experience is what we're doing in human experience innovation.
We have gone from CX to HXI. Human experience innovation takes a holistic, non-fractional approach to enhancing the experience for everyone—customers, employees, partners, and the broader community.
We create experiential ecosystem maps to identify all the people involved in an organization and find ways to deliver better experiential value to each group. This approach leads to what we call "Happiness as a Service" (HaaS), where happiness becomes a strategic objective integrated into the planning process to ensure human experience innovation becomes a reality.
A quick example: if employees are unhappy, they cannot deliver an optimized customer experience. It’s clear—people in pain tend to share their pain. Similarly, when customers face poor systems, tools, or experiences, they often pass that frustration onto employees.
Going beyond the Voice of Customer methods
Q: How can companies build a culture that continuously drives innovation in customer experience?
We need to be brave, and that bravery starts with creating safe places to innovate. We must foster a culture that encourages people to test new ideas in the pursuit of better customer service.
The core issue, in my view, is whether we see customer experience as an innovation activity—and I do. From 40 years of research, one thing is clear: bad insights lead to bad innovations.
We need to embrace new approaches if we want to improve the customer experiences we deliver. The key takeaway here is that we must be bold and brave. Especially in a time of chaotic change—something I explore in my latest book—we have to lean into change to capitalize on its benefits. Unfortunately, many organizations are doing the opposite and resisting change.
Using the HXI scores to identify areas of improvement
Q: How do you help companies identify the areas where innovation will most improve their customer experience?
We do a thing called the HXI score, which evaluates around 47 different areas across an organization, including their systems, tools, processes, and even cultural philosophies. This is essentially a maturity model.
We assess how far along the maturity curve the organization has progressed to understand its current state. Once that’s clear, we perform a traditional gap analysis to identify the systems, tools, processes, activities, and training required to advance their maturity level.
Organizations with high HXI scores and maturity levels tend to be more profitable. They attract and retain key employees, experience higher productivity and presenteeism, and gain better insights.
As a result, these companies are far more innovative. This maturity model is about pinpointing where they are now and providing a roadmap to help them reach their desired state. We support them through implementation and training.
Balancing quick wins with lasting change in CX innovation
Q: How can organizations balance quick wins in CX innovation with the goal of making lasting, meaningful changes?
The good news is that organizations can achieve quick wins that are scalable. Rather than applying a patchwork approach, the key is to initiate a cultural shift toward a human-centered experience.
The best way to do that is to use enterprise innovation, based on the idea that the knowledge to improve customer experience lies with the employees who engage with customers daily. We develop innovation challenges and use an enterprise social network to tap into this.
For example, we might create a "July Insights Challenge" where employees provide ideas on reducing patient wait times. This specific challenge can have a significant impact.
We found that employees' work-life quality improves when we gamify customer experience through enterprise gamification because they love that the employer asks them their opinion.
The real benefit is the valuable insights we gain from simply asking employees what they observe daily with customers. The ideas generated by employees reveal the incredible genius within the workforce. These insights can lead to scalable quick wins, especially when introducing a challenge-based approach.
Challenges can also target improving key touchpoints in the customer journey or addressing overlooked customer personas. When launched, hundreds of ideas may come in, many of which can be swiftly deployed, improving customer and employee satisfaction.
Nicholas’ Books and Personal Insights
What Customers Crave: How to Create Relevant and Memorable Experiences at Every Touchpoint
Q: In What Customers Crave, you discuss understanding customers want. What are some common misunderstandings businesses have about their customers’ true preferences?
The reason the book became a bestseller and remains popular is that it makes customer experience understandable and approachable for organizations. Too often, we focus on surveys and our prejudicial beliefs about customers, leading to irrelevant products and experiences.
I talk about the five touch points, including the "pre-touch moment," when a customer is searching for your product or service online but hasn’t yet engaged with you. Many organizations treat their websites like brochures, but the best ones use them as their digital properties or value dispensers, reducing friction and providing free resources to customers—while also selling something.
The first-touch moments, when we initially engage with customers, must exceed their baseline-level expectations. The core moment defines the experience of doing business with us. The last-touch moment is how we leave customers after the interaction. Finally, the in-touch moment involves staying authentically connected offering ongoing value, not just sales pitches.
What Customers Hate: Drive Fast and Scalable Growth by Eliminating the Things That Drive Away Business
Q: In What Customers Hate, you discuss balancing AI and automation with a personal touch. How can companies achieve this balance?
It's important to understand that there is artificial intelligence and human intelligence. Artificial intelligence, by its name, is fake human intelligence. On the other hand, human intelligence is real.
We should use AI sensibly, automating non-human tasks so that people can focus on human-centered work. For example, robotic process automation (RPA) can automate 30-40% of tasks people have historically handled. We should use robots, AI, and RPA for repetitive tasks, freeing humans to focus on work that requires a human touch.
The key is identifying which tasks are robotic and which require the beauty of the human being. The truth is that automation, like chatbots, can sometimes outperform human engagement. A University of California, San Diego study showed that patients enjoyed interacting with chatbots more than with humans in some cases.
The importance of five-touch journey mapping
Q: You also introduce ‘Five-Touch Journey Mapping’ in the book. Can you explain this concept and why it's crucial for businesses?
The journey begins with the "pre-touch moment"—before a customer officially engages with us.
The pre-touch moment
For example, if a pizza restaurant has a filthy parking lot or a worn-out sign, it's already creating a negative experience before the customer even steps inside. On the other hand, a clean parking lot and great signage send a positive emotive signal before the customer becomes a customer.
Websites work the same way. Take Lemonade Insurance, for example—their site is totally clutter-free, customer-centric, and makes it easy to get renters insurance, projecting honesty and ease of use right from the start. We need to ensure that the first touch, whether digital or physical, is a beautiful experience for the customer.
The first touch moment
The first actual interaction is the "first touch" moment. This is that critical first impression, whether it’s a welcoming smile at the counter or indifferent service. This moment shapes how customers will feel about your business pretty much forever. In a way, the first touch moment sets the trajectory for further customer experience.
The core experience
Next is the "core experience," which encompasses what it’s like to do business with you daily. Even if the initial experience, like buying a car, is great, a bad service experience later will sour the entire relationship. All departments and interactions must provide consistent quality throughout the customer's journey.
The last touch moment
The "last touch" moment occurs when the customer leaves. For instance, a medical practice might offer additional materials after a doctor's visit or call the next day to check on the patient. These final moments are critical and can leave a lasting impression, much like the first and last parts of a speech are often the most memorable.
The in-touch moment
Finally, the "in-touch" moment refers to how you stay connected with your customers after the initial interaction. This is about maintaining an authentic relationship, not spamming or upselling. For example, I once sent a client a relevant article from the Wall Street Journal, which led to them reassigning me to a $100,000 project. It's about maintaining a connection that offers ongoing value without pushing for more sales.
Navigating the future trends in CX innovation
Q: Looking ahead, what trends do you think will shape the next wave of innovation in customer experience? How should companies get ready for these changes?
I have a new book called Chaotic Change, which I consider a customer experience book. Many organizations and consulting firms focus on customer experience, but it requires more than just services—it needs a strategic, cultural, and employee support system.
In Chaotic Change, I address the big changes happening and what we need to do to make the customer experience real. There are three big trends that will impact customer experience in the most significant way.
Trend #1: hyper-consumerism
Consumers today have unlimited choices. With endless options at various price points, businesses should become more competitive. The key to sustained growth is improving experiential value. If you ask whether I'd prefer a great product with a poor customer experience or a bad product with a great customer experience, the truth is that the bad product would do better. We all create good products, but great customer experience gives them life.
I like to say in my talks: “Revenue flows where the great experience goes. If you want more revenue, you've got to improve experiential value.”
Trend #2: emerging technologies
AI, robotic process automation, and other tech will humanize customer experience by taking robotic tasks away from humans. This way, employees can focus on meaningful connections.
Trend #3: workforce challenges
Today’s workforce faces a global crisis in attracting, retaining, and inspiring key individuals. That’s why I'm so focused on human experience innovation (HXI), which I believe has already replaced CX. HXI delivers holistic experiential value across the entire ecosystem—customers, employees, partners, vendors, and beyond.
Recap on the insights from Nicholas Webb
Nicholas Webb shares insights from his 40-year technological journey, moving from medical device inventor to customer experience expert. With over 40 patents, he believes true innovation means providing real value to organizations and their customers.
His main point is that customer experience should be seen as an innovation effort. By using ideas from product development, businesses can improve interactions through Human Experience Innovation (HXI), which considers the needs of customers, employees, and partners.
For companies looking to enhance customer experience, switching to a new help desk platform is crucial. Help Desk Migration simplifies data transfers, enabling easy integration of AI and automation.
Webb introduces the HXI score as a tool to assess organizational performance and identify areas for improvement. He encourages a culture of innovation through safe experimentation and employee feedback.
As businesses prepare for the future, Webb highlights trends like hyper-consumerism and emerging technologies that will shape customer experiences. Embracing HXI helps companies create meaningful connections and foster customer loyalty.
