Annette Franz
Annette blogs at CX Journey , where she shares her passion for helping companies understand the importance of the employee experience and its role in delivering an exceptional customer experience, as well as how to transform their cultures to ensure the customer is at the center of every conversation. She was recently recognized as one of “The 100 Most Influential Tech Women on Twitter" by Business Insider and has been recognized by several organizations as a top influencer in Customer Experience.
Articles by Annette Franz
- Opinion
Why Clients and Employees Leave—and What It Really Takes to Win Them Back
Companies that do this well follow a simple idea: people come back when they believe something genuinely changed.
- Practice Growth
Memory-Driven CX: The New Way Brands Are Turning Customer History Into Loyalty
Brands that stand out to customers and excel are those that make interactions memorable, personalized, and emotionally engaging with permission.
- Practice Growth
Most Change Initiatives Fail Before Anyone Changes Behavior
The common assumption is that behavior is the practical entry point, one that is visible, measurable, and easy to mandate.
- Opinion
Recurring Business Problems Often Point to One Root Cause
The pattern recognition that allows you to recognize when seemingly unrelated problems share a common upstream cause.
- Opinion
CX Leaders Keep Proving Value Instead of Producing Outcomes That Matter
There’s nothing new here. Yup, nothing changes if nothing changes. It’s time for change. There’s been lots of talk about CX work and how it has to be tied to business outcomes for leaders to get on board.
- Opinion
What High-Performing Companies Do Differently: They Never Stop Learning
Companies that perform consistently well do one thing many others stop doing somewhere along the way: They keep learning.
- Opinion
Gemba Walks Are Exposing Something Leaders Don’t Want To See
Let’s dig deeper into how Gemba works and why it wouldn’t. And what you need to ensure it’s successful.
- Opinion
Your Culture Is Depleted Soil—Here’s How Leaders Make It Fertile Again
When trust erodes, energy drains, and cynicism takes hold, culture doesn’t need a tune-up; it needs rehabilitation.
- Business Growth
Culture Sets Guardrails, Employees Carry Risk, Customers Pay the Price
Most organizational failures don’t begin with bad actors or broken systems. They begin with missing or inconsistent guardrails.
- Opinion
Why “Actionable Insight” Is a Leadership Myth—and What Actually Drives Action
Insight is evidence. Nothing more. Nothing less. And treating it as an answer is how leaders outsource judgment and delay action.
- Opinion
People-Centric or Profit-Centric? In 2026, Culture Decides the Winner
The question isn’t, Are we people-centric? The question is, Would our employees and customers say we are?
- Business Growth
If You Want Loyal Customers, You Have To Be Loyal to Them
Loyalty in 2026 = meeting expectations + surprising where you can + earning trust in everyday interactions.
- Opinion
The 15 Phrases Leaders Must Stop Using If They Want a Strong Culture and Better Customer Experience
Here are the statements leaders need to retire – immediately – and the truths that should replace them.
- Opinion
Alignment Isn’t Consensus: Why “Disagree and Commit” Is a Leadership Advantage
Interpreted as agreement, as if true alignment only exists when everyone sees things the same way, feels the same way, and votes the same way.
- Business Growth
Profit Is an Outcome, Not a Strategy: Rethinking Growth Through Experience
The difference is this: profit is – and must be viewed as – the outcome of great experiences, not the goal that shapes them.
- Business Growth
Why Leaders Miss What Employees Know: Melting the Iceberg of Ignorance Before It Melts You
Not a coincidence. It’s the product of deep-rooted organizational behaviors and structural flaws that prevent truth from rising to the top.
- Business Growth
Deliver Value Faster or Lose Them: The New Rule of Customer Loyalty
If you’re not tracking it, you’re flying blind through the most critical window of the customer journey.
- Business Growth
Stop Calling It Culture Change Until Leaders Hold Each Other Accountable
Let’s strip accountability of its buzzword status and treat it as what it really is: the backbone of culture.
- Opinion
The Streetlight Effect: How Chasing the Visible Is Killing Your Culture and Customer Loyalty
They’re often in the shadows, in the dark, where the real problems, and the real opportunities, lie.
- Opinion
Your Culture Is Either Your Greatest Asset—or Your Silent Killer
These ten harsh truths strip away the comfort and get to the point. And are measurable! You’ll see.
- Business Growth
Canaries in the Coal Mine: What Employees Know Before Leaders Do
Here’s what the canary in the coal mine looks like for employees and the employee experience.
- Business Growth
Why Great Candidates Are Walking Away—and What Your Hiring Process Says About You
Applying for a job is a frustrating, dehumanizing exercise that leaves talented people walking away with a worse opinion of the brand
- Business Growth
The Man in the Chair Is Already Deciding — Before You Even Show Up
If you think that the customer lifecycle starts with a purchase, you’re already behind. You’ve lost him.
- Business Growth
You Can Automate Almost Anything—but Not Your Culture
Not something you can automate. You can’t automate your way to trust, psychological safety, or purpose. You can’t AI your way to belonging.
- Opinion
Your Cancellation Policy Is Your Brand’s Final Impression
Let’s call this what it is: deliberate friction, engineered not to serve customers but to squeeze more dollars out of them on the way out.
- Business Growth
Don’t Just Rebrand—Reconnect: How To Refresh Without Losing Loyal Customers
Here’s how my seven elements of a modern brand refresh come together today. A brand refresh is not about swapping out logos, updating colors, or chasing design trends.
- Business Growth
The Employee Experience Advantage: How Engaged Teams Create Loyal Customers and Bigger Profits
The hidden multiplier that turns investing in employees and their tools, training, and resources into measurable revenue, retention, and acquisition gains.
- Opinion
Is Your AI Helping Customers—or Just Making You Faster and Colder?
AI is everywhere, but is it actually improving your customer experience, or just making it faster and colder?
- Business Growth
From Foundation to Scale: The Playbook for a Customer-First Culture That Lasts
It’s an ongoing commitment that must be maintained through discipline, sustained through systems, and scaled through design.
- Business Growth
Are You Asking the Right Questions To Keep Your Best Employees?
Sits at the intersection of leadership, culture, purpose, and modern expectations, and most companies underestimate how much all of those have evolved.
- Business Growth
Inside the Global CX Crisis: New Pressures, New Priorities
Customer experience is no longer about satisfaction surveys and digital UX improvements. It’s about transformation – of mindsets.
- Business Growth
Your Brand Says One Thing. Your Experience Says Another.
Beyond a tagline or a campaign it’s a pledge, a strategic commitment to customers of what they can consistently and reliably expect from your brand.
- Business Growth
How to Embrace Technology Without Losing Your Humanity
Here’s the growing danger: in the race to modernize, many organizations are starting with technology and working backward. #advisors
- Opinion
Customer Personas in Action: Turning Insights Into Everyday Decisions
You have to talk to customers. After all, it’s called customer understanding, not business understanding or thinking. #CX
- Opinion
The See-Do-Teach Method: A Proven Path to Personal and Professional Growth
They happen when people observe, practice, and pass on new ways of thinking and acting. It’s that grassroots groundswell that I often refer to.
- Opinion
Are Your Employees Driving Growth or Draining It?
Understanding whether your employees are makers or takers is crucial to fostering a culture that drives innovation, productivity, and long-term success.
