From Feedback to Fallout: What 2025 Teaches Us About Customer Experience

Why are customer loyalty scores plummeting—even when satisfaction metrics are strong? In this episode of Marginally Better, Joe Taylor, Jr. explores the disconnect between Customer Experience data and tangible business results. From the surprising collapse of TGI Fridays to the 20% of companies connecting feedback to revenue, this episode unpacks what it really takes to drive customer retention in 2025. Plus, Joe shares a pivotal childhood lesson in user experience from his very first (and very failed) drive-thru business.

Episode Links:

• The Wall Street Journal explores how and why TGI Fridays fell.

• Customer experience is trending downward, putting many brands in a vulnerable position. Forrester’s 2024 U.S. Customer Experience Index shows that overall CX quality has dropped to its lowest point on record.

• Top 5 customer experience trends to watch in 2025.

• Predictions of how CX will evolve and how we can lead the charge into the future.

• Five steps to running the Wizard of Oz Method in UX.

• How the first drive-thru at McDonald’s came to be.