Most customer experience programmes begin with a clear vision of what the customer should experience.

What they rarely account for is everything that happens between that moment of design clarity and the shop floor on an ordinary Tuesday. Budget conversations trim the vision. Handoffs dilute the intent. Attrition carries seasoned voices out of the door.

The experience customers encounter is frequently not the one designed, and understanding why that gap opens (and where it opens) matters more than any individual design decision.

This episode covers:

• Why CX initiatives stall between design and delivery.
• The pilot purgatory pattern and the commercial pressures behind it
• How the handoff between design teams and frontline colleagues reshapes what gets delivered, and what changes when teams help shape their own part of the experience
• The role of attrition, improvisation, and workarounds in shifting designed standards over time
• The retail environments where experience design holds up consistently, and the structural conditions that make it possible

Thanks for Listening!

Did anything resonate with you from today's conversation? I'd love to know if you're seeing this gap in your own organisation, between what was designed and what customers actually encounter.

Get the full show notes at https://wheresyourcustomer.com/22

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