Customer Experience Insights| Turn CX Pain Points Into Revenue
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Kehinde Fatosa - 10 min read
Customer experience (CX) is often described as a journey. But for many organizations, that journey isn’t smooth, it’s full of obstacles, friction points, and inefficiencies that test customer loyalty at every turn. On the latest episode of the Insights Frontier, we spoke with Sean Albertson, a seasoned CX leader who has led teams at T-Mobile and other top organizations. Sean shared his unique approach to transforming customer pain points, what he calls “rocks”, into opportunities for growth and long-term loyalty.
Here’s what we learned.
What Are “Rocks” in Customer Experience?
Sean’s concept of rocks comes from his decades of experience in CX, contact centers, and analytics. He explains:
“I think of the customer journey like a river. We like to think we’ve created a smooth flow, but customers experience class 5 rapids. They bounce from channel to channel. Those are the rocks.”
Rocks represent high effort situations, the obstacles customers encounter that can either make or break their loyalty. The key insight: effort is the most predictive action in determining loyalty. By identifying and removing these friction points, companies can drive meaningful improvements in the customer experience.
Turning Obstacles into Opportunities
Identifying friction points is only half the battle. Sean emphasizes that every challenge is an opportunity to excel and innovate:
A single rock doesn’t block the river, it defines the direction.
High-effort situations, when resolved efficiently, can make customers more loyal than if they hadn’t encountered an issue at all.
CX teams can transform pain points into growth opportunities, creating processes that improve customer interactions while fostering internal collaboration.
“Stop seeing rocks as negatives,” Sean says. “Focus on them as opportunities to recover and delight the customer.”
The FIND Framework: How to Address Rocks
Sean walks CX leaders through his FIND framework for turning pain points into actionable improvements:
Focus – Understand the specific experience and context of the pain point.
Identify – Pinpoint the exact challenge or obstacle in the customer journey.
Navigate – Explore root causes, including hidden factors behind the scenes.
Deliver – Design solutions that not only resolve the current issue but improve the overall customer experience moving forward.
This systematic approach ensures organizations don’t just react to problems, they strategically address them and convert challenges into loyalty-building moments.
Real World Example: Cross Functional Alignment
Sean shared an example where a company tried to digitize processes to speed up customer interactions. Without alignment between departments, the changes caused broken workflows and escalations.
By addressing the friction, teams collaborated across silos, creating aligned processes that improved not only the original task but other areas as well.
“If they hadn’t experienced that friction, they might never have realized the need for collaboration. What seemed like a failure became a lasting opportunity for improvement.”
Why CX Tools Aren’t Always Adopted, and How to Fix It
Despite the explosion of AI and analytics tools, many companies struggle to adopt them effectively. Sean points out the common mistake:
“Organizations chase shiny tools without first having a strategy. You need a strategy to identify challenges, then select tools to solve them, not the other way around.”
He advises CX leaders to:
Align technology adoption with strategic objectives.
Measure ROI based on behavior, not just surveys.
Focus on predictive metrics like Customer Effort Score rather than traditional satisfaction or Net Promoter Scores.
Watch the full video here
CX as a Growth Driver, Not a Cost Center
A recurring challenge in CX is short term thinking. Many executives view CX as a cost center, leading to reduced investments or team downsizing. Sean argues that this is a mistake:
“High-effort experiences make customers 13x more likely to leave. Improving those experiences drives loyalty, retention, and revenue – true ROI.”
For CX leaders, the message is clear: connect CX improvements to measurable outcomes, such as reduced effort, faster resolution, and increased loyalty.
Key Takeaways for CX Leaders
For those just starting to identify rocks and convert them into growth opportunities:
Understand your journey thoroughly – Know what customers are trying to achieve, not just the tasks they complete.
Use analytics, AI, and storytelling – Combine data with stories to align leadership and teams.
Focus on loyalty, not just metrics – Customer effort predicts retention; satisfaction alone doesn’t.
Break down silos – Encourage cross-functional collaboration to address pain points comprehensively.
Invest strategically – Adopt tools that solve clearly defined problems, not because they’re flashy.
Sean also recommends joining communities to share insights, frameworks, and strategies with fellow CX leaders.
Final Thoughts
In CX, obstacles are inevitable, but they don’t have to be setbacks. With the right mindset, frameworks, and cross-functional alignment, every rock can be a launchpad for innovation, loyalty, and growth.
