Bridging the experience gap for higher NPS and better UX
Customer loyalty isn't earned with just great products, it's earned with great customer experiences (CX). That's why CX is at the heart of every successful brand in the age of digitization. But despite huge investments in tech, apps, and even AI to improve CX, customers still feel that businesses don't truly understand their problems.
According to a study by PwC, only 38% of U.S. consumers say that businesses understand their needs, highlighting a significant disconnect—the experience gap.
That's where customer empathy comes in. Traditionally seen as just a soft skill that's nice to have, customer experience is now a major business metric that drives conversions and higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
Instead of treating experience as a byproduct of good design, leading businesses are incorporating it into how they measure success.
Here’s how you can do the same.
What is the experience gap (and why does it matter)?
The experience gap is the disconnect between what companies think their customers experience and what users actually feel in the moment.
It stems from a fundamental challenge: companies design experiences from a place of deep familiarity with their own products, systems, and goals. But the users are approaching those same experiences with their own set of expectations and contexts.
Because of this, companies may not be able to relate to the emotions, needs, and feelings of their users because they’re naturally experiencing the world around them differently.
This gap leads to a host of avoidable issues like features that don’t align with user needs, lackluster adoption of new tools or updates, declining NPS scores, and ultimately, wasted time and resources on initiatives that miss the mark.
GUIDE
Improving NPS through user insights: a quick-start guide
Why teams fall into the experience gap
1. Fast deadlines mean less time for user input
Good CX can't be rushed. It has to be carefully designed by taking the time to analyze user input and customer feedback. But when deadlines are shortened, user research is often the first to be cut. This makes it easy for teams to rely on assumptions instead of real feedback.
2. Overreliance on analytics
Trying to boost NPS and conversion rates usually means investing more in software, AI personalization, customer data solutions, and analytics tools. But trying to truly understand customers doesn't mean more tech. Data dashboards are great at showing what users do, but not why. Without understanding user intent or emotion, it’s hard to make meaningful changes that improve NPS.
3. Emotional behavior is hard to quantify
Businesses want KPIs. But emotional user experience doesn’t always fit neatly into dashboards. Heatmaps and funnel analysis may be easy to quantify, but they rarely tell the full story. They can show you that users are dropping off at a particular step—but not the confusion, frustration, or hesitation they felt getting there. To close the experience gap, you need tools and processes that capture both behavioral and emotional user data.
3 ways to close the experience gap with real user insight
Believe it or not, your own customers are probably the best idea-givers when it comes to designing good CX designs. You just have to know how to harness their input. Here are three scalable methods to bring real user voices into your process.
1. Live user interviews: see (and hear) what users really feel
There’s no substitute for live conversations. In a moderated interview, teams can observe non-verbal cues, follow emotional signals in real-time, and dig deeper when users hesitate or get confused.
Live interviews allow teams to ask follow-up questions on the spot, explore unexpected reactions, and uncover the deeper motivations behind user behavior.
Beyond that, sharing highlights from these sessions across teams helps build empathy and alignment throughout the organization, ensuring that everyone—whether in product, design, or leadership—understands the real people behind the metrics.
Live interviews are also especially useful for high-stakes launches, brand messaging, or product redesigns where user sentiment matters just as much as usability.
2. Unmoderated tests: scalable feedback, fast
If you need quick, repeatable insights, unmoderated tests are your best friend. These self-guided tests allow users to complete tasks independently, allowing them to experience CX flows for themselves, leave video feedback, and answer questions, all without a moderator present.
Unmoderated tests offer high scalability and fast turnaround, providing CX teams with reliable feedback without slowing down development. By allowing users to complete tasks on their own, these tests surface recurring patterns and usability issues across hundreds of sessions.
They also create a safe, pressure-free environment where users are more likely to share honest thoughts, giving teams richer insights into how users actually experience a product.
You’ll see where users get stuck, what confuses them, and where they drop off—insights that directly tie to NPS and retention.
3. Combine quantitative and qualitative data
Businesses gain real CX value when they bridge analytics with human feedback. Quantitative tools can reveal touchpoints that lead to customer conversions or drop-offs, but qualitative data reveals the "why" by adding context to those decisions.
By integrating tools like UserTesting with your analytics dashboard or CRM, businesses can get a 360-degree view of their customer behaviors. This combination enables teams to benchmark UX improvements over time, track emotional responses at different touchpoints, and directly link usability feedback to key metrics like NPS and CSAT.
Businesses can also scale their CX initiatives across departments with pre-written test plans that make it easy for teams to gather both quantitative and qualitative feedback.
The result is a more efficient and empathetic decision-making process—one that not only boosts key metrics like NPS but also builds the trust of the people behind the numbers.
What stronger empathy looks like in practice
The best teams don’t just collect insights—they operationalize them.
Product teams run unmoderated tests during sprint cycles to monitor emotional responses alongside task completion. If a checkout flow frustrates users—even if they complete it—the team knows it’s time to redesign.
UX researchers centralize insights in platforms like the UserTesting Insight Hub so findings are visible and actionable across departments. This reduces silos and keeps user needs front and center.
CX leaders connect the dots between NPS trends and specific friction points. For instance, a drop in score may align with a confusing onboarding screen or an unclear CTA. With human insight, they can pinpoint the issue and implement targeted fixes—fast.
NPS is more than a number
NPS doesn’t just measure customer satisfaction. It reflects how well your organization understands the people it serves. And closing the experience gap is at the center of that.
By embracing real user insight, from live interviews to unmoderated tests, you can move beyond assumptions and create customer experiences that resonate, turning one-time customers into lifelong advocates.
