Breaking Down Silos between Customer Experience and Market Research

What Customers Want
It’s not rocket science: Customers want a great experience (88% of them, according to the data), and they’re willing to reward businesses that provide it. Around 75% of consumers say they’ll do repeat business with and recommend companies that provide an excellent customer experience. And if that experience is bad? 73% said they’d take their business to a competitor the next time around.

Obviously, the quality of every customer touch is critical. Ok, but what exactly defines a great customer experience? Great question. CX is a fairly broad term that encompasses the overall perception and feelings a customer has about their interaction with a business across the entire customer journey — before, during and after purchase. Let’s look at some examples.

Say a customer visits your website to learn more about your offering, has to wait several minutes for the page to load, then can’t easily find what they’re looking for — that’s an example of bad CX. Or let’s say that same customer gets a personalized email from you sharing information about the exact product or service they need at just the right moment — that’s good CX. Long wait time on a customer service call: bad CX. Overcharges and hidden fees: bad CX. A seamless experience across desktop, mobile and in-person: good CX. Fast and painless problem resolution from a friendly and empathetic customer service rep: good CX. You get the picture.

Companies understand the importance of CX — there’s nothing earthshattering there. But they continue to struggle with how to identify and implement effective CX strategies, especially given the myriad ways customers now interact with businesses, across an ever-shifting landscape of platforms: websites, social media, apps, Google searches, Yelp reviews, phone, text, and in-person. Throw in the use of chatbots, automated self-help and other AI tools, and CX becomes even more complicated.

Given these complexities, understanding how, when, where and why customers want to interact with companies becomes increasingly more important. And that’s where the MR (market research) comes into the equation.

From Siloed to Synergistic
Therein lies the issue. As someone who’s spent a lot of time in both CX and MR worlds, I’ve noticed a growing — and concerning — trend: silo-building between the two disciplines. CX and MR are equally valuable in shaping business strategies that lead to growth. And yet, they’re getting boxed into separate departments with separate goals, teams, and data sources.

I was interested in hearing about this trend from someone who has a foot in both worlds, so I asked a colleague — the Head of CX Strategy and Insight at a leading communications company — for his take. Here’s what he has to say.

“I lived through the emergence of CX as a separate discipline and saw the shift from the MR team running the CX program to new teams emerging in the business units that wanted to own the data collection,” he explains. “I believe much of this was driven by the emergence and aggressive (and highly effective) marketing of CX software providers.  They were quick to circumvent research departments to sell their product directly to business teams and gain a foothold.”

Now, he’s seen the size of CX teams balloon. “As the CX teams grew in size, the quality of the insights declined, and there was no material improvement in action,” he says.

I agree with my colleague’s assessment, and see additional fallout from this siloed approach. When CX and MR no longer work together in an integrated fashion, that’s a problem. The CX folks are focused on improving the company’s customer interactions, and typically measure success through customer satisfaction scores, retention, and revenue. The MR folks meanwhile are gathering and analyzing data (qualitative and/or quantitative) to better understand customer behavior, market opportunities, industry trends, and brand perception, and to test and validate messaging and strategies.

There’s quite a bit of overlap there, and yet the silo mentality persists — leading to missed opportunities as well as missed advantages that can cost a company insight, agility, and ultimately, customer loyalty.

When you peel back the layers, it’s clear that CX and MR are fundamentally aiming to do the same thing — understand and serve the customer. CX zooms in on the customer journey, smoothing touchpoints and delivering better experiences in real time. Market research provides the “why” behind those journeys, capturing broad trends and deep insights that inform long-term business decisions. CX brings strategy to life, while MR ensures that strategy is rooted in true customer understanding.

So why the divide?

Here’s the thing: it’s not an either-or — it’s both. When CX and MR work together, they elevate each other, creating a continuous cycle of insight and improvement. To break down these silos and unlock the full potential of CX and MR, we need to bring them together more intentionally. Here are a few ways to make it happen.

1. Build Cross-Functional Collaboration
One way to start breaking down silos is to build collaboration into the DNA of both teams. When CX and MR meet regularly, share insights, and work toward common goals, everyone benefits. For example, CX can inform MR when they’re seeing a shift in customer behavior, allowing MR to dig deeper into the “why” behind those changes. MR can then bring back findings that CX can use to optimize real-time interactions and specific touchpoints.

Let’s say a Company X starts seeing a dramatic drop-off in customer support calls and isn’t sure why. Are they losing customers to their competitors, or are those customers just super-happy with their purchases and have no issues? CX notes this change and brings it to the MR team’s attention. MR team digs into it, unearthing data that reveals customers are shifting more to digital self-help tools and solving problems on their own. This combined insight helps shift Company X’s strategy toward building better chatbots and virtual assistants that lead to improved customer satisfaction and retention.

Collaboration can be as simple as regular cross-departmental meetings, shared project reviews, or even just a common Slack channel. The key is to make sure CX and MR are in constant conversation, learning from each other’s discoveries and staying aligned on what matters most: understanding the customer.

2. Centralize Data for a Holistic View
Having a centralized platform where both CX and MR data live side-by-side creates a single source of truth. When CX teams see a dip in customer satisfaction scores, for instance, they can turn to MR data to explore potential reasons or validate the trend with additional research. MR, on the other hand, can use real-time CX data to stay grounded in what customers are experiencing right now, making their insights more relevant and actionable.

Data centralization helps both teams connect the dots, bringing together long-term insights and real-time metrics to provide a fuller, more actionable picture of the customer journey. And when that data is readily accessible, both CX and MR can focus on insights, not data wrangling.

3. Set Shared KPIs and Goals
Setting shared goals can be one of the most effective ways to align CX and MR. Instead of CX focusing solely on metrics like NPS (Net Promoter Score) and MR zeroing in on survey results, both teams should work toward mutual objectives — like increasing customer loyalty or improving brand awareness. When CX and MR work toward shared KPIs, each department can bring its strengths to the table, ensuring that improvements to the customer experience are both impactful and measurable.

Having shared KPIs turns CX and MR into allies working toward the same end goal. It keeps everyone focused on what actually moves the needle for the customer, not just what checks the box for each team.

4. Use CX as a Testing Ground for MR Insights (and Vice Versa)
One of the biggest missed opportunities in siloed CX and MR functions is the chance to validate insights and test hypotheses. Real-time CX data can be a proving ground for ideas generated from market research. For instance, if MR finds that customers value personalized communication, CX can run small-scale tests to see how personalization impacts satisfaction scores or engagement. This approach turns CX into a real-world lab for MR insights, allowing the team to quickly validate ideas and bring them to life.

Similarly, when CX uncovers an emerging trend — say, a preference for self-service tools — MR can follow up with deeper research to understand the drivers behind that preference. For example, research may reveal that most Gen Z customers prefer the speed, convenience and anonymity of self-help tools since they grew up in the era of instant access to information and are often more comfortable with screens than face-to-face interactions. This two-way feedback loop ensures that insights are not only accurate but also directly applicable to the customer experience.

It’s a Customer-Centric Ecosystem, Not an Either-Or Choice

I asked my CX colleague how he thought we could bridge this gap between CX and MR. His solution: mix it up. “When a former member of my MR team went to lead one of the CX teams, we were able to truly partner and deliver the synergies you describe,” he recalls. “We were able to create some common goals and build a way of working and culture where we could share success and elevate each other’s work.”

Now, as part of his company’s CX team, my colleague has created a new measurement program with an emphasis on driving action. “In the early days, the MR team were very resistant to change and there were clearly some bruised egos that they no longer were responsible for leading CX,” he says. “They’re starting to realize that if they support the CX team rather than fight them, both sides benefit. Much of the insights we generate lead to new initiatives and research efforts that we want the MR team to lead.”

At the end of the day, CX and MR aren’t competitors working at opposite ends of the company conference table — they’re two parts of a whole, each with a unique role in creating a customer-centric ecosystem that drives sales, retention, recommendations and ultimately, revenue. Instead of building silos, we should be building bridges, creating a fluid exchange of insights and data that empowers both teams to serve customers more fully.

It’s time to move away from either-or thinking. CX and MR are stronger together, each one sharpening the other and creating a comprehensive understanding of the customer that can’t be achieved alone. When we work in tandem, we’re not just meeting customer needs — we’re anticipating them, delighting them, and ultimately creating experiences that drive loyalty for the long haul.