Zack’s CX career started in retail. He held roles from store manager to VP of store operations, and even helped launch the first fully transactional rent-to-own website. Customer experience landed on his plate when his organization’s CEO tasked him with finding out what NPS meant to understand the score. At the time, he didn’t realize he was already doing CX—reviewing customer feedback to improve store performance and boost his bonus.

Later, he moved to tech, focusing on go-to-market strategy and sales enablement at Medallia, Forrester, and ParcelLab. Now he runs the Unf*cking Your CX newsletter which started as a way to call out some of the fluff on LinkedIn and to challenge CX leaders to get real. 

At our CX Summit, he shared some hot takes and much-needed truths. See what he had to share:

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Gabe: The space definitely needs a little shaking up. There’s a lot of empathy in CX, which is important, but sometimes that can lead to complacency. The world is changing fast, and if we don’t adapt, we’re at risk of being left behind. Your newsletter has that tone. It’s real, it’s direct, and it’s a wake-up call.

Let’s dig in. You’ve talked about CX being full of decks with NPS scores but lacking real impact. What’s driving that message?

Zack: Yeah, that’s a big one. I spend a lot of my time helping CX leaders speak the language of the executive team—which is the P&L, not customer sentiment. I remember one of my first exec readouts. I brought a polished deck full of NPS and CSAT charts, sentiment analysis, you name it. The CEO looked at me and said, “So what? What does this actually mean for the business?” That moment stuck with me. The original promise of CX was, “Improve NPS and you’ll grow revenue, loyalty, and retention.” CEOs bought into that. They funded teams and tech, but the results didn’t follow.

So now many execs are left asking, “What am I really getting from this?” Meanwhile, CX leaders are still selling emotion instead of solving real friction points. CEOs are fighting to hit quarterly numbers—and we’re offering 12- to 24-month transformation plans. There’s a huge disconnect.

Gabe: Such a good point. That executive lens—tying it back to revenue, churn, efficiency—is critical. Let’s talk burnout. Why do you think so many CX teams are exhausted, and how can we move from feedback to action?

Zack: Burnout happens when people don’t see their work making an impact. Most CX teams join because they want to drive meaningful change. But a lot of programs get stuck in this endless loop of “listening.” You send surveys, collect feedback, analyze sentiment—then report out the same issues quarter after quarter. Why? Because nothing gets actioned.

Traditional experience management follows a waterfall model. You bring a case to a governance council, and maybe it gets prioritized. But businesses today operate in agile sprints. Consumer behavior is accelerating. Companies have to keep up—and if your CX process can’t move at that speed, you’re falling behind.

Gabe: That’s so true. If you’re reporting the same insights every quarter without any changes being made, it’s demoralizing. And that leads to exhaustion.

Zack: Exactly. It’s not that executives don’t care—they just have ten other priorities with clearer financial impact. And CX teams often forget: we don’t own the fix, we influence it.

You have to frame the problem in terms of business outcomes. Show your cross-functional peers how solving a customer friction point helps them hit their KPIs. You need them to want to champion the change, not just tolerate it.

Gabe: Totally. That brings me to something else you talk about: moving from waterfall CX to agile, action-driven CX. What does that shift look like?

Zack: I saw this firsthand at Aaron’s. As we shifted to a transactional ecommerce site, our CIO and VP of ecommerce were running agile sprints. Every quarter, they’d present what they’d changed and the results—and then prioritize what to do next.

That’s where the investment was going—because they could show impact.

So I adjusted. Instead of building a separate CX governance model, I plugged into that agile process. I formed cross-functional action pods with shared accountability. Not “Let’s increase NPS,” but “Let’s reduce churn” or “Increase average order value.”

We need fewer steering committees and more action pods delivering wins every 30, 60, 90 days. CX should be a performance system embedded in how the business operates—not a siloed initiative.

Gabe: Love that. That pod structure is smart. Alright—can’t not ask about AI. What’s your take, and how are you advising companies to approach it?

Zack: I’m optimistic about AI, but it’s not a magic wand. If your processes are a mess, AI will just amplify the chaos. Start small. Pick one business problem—say, reducing churn—and identify where AI or automation can make a measurable impact. Test, learn, and scale from there. AI should free up your human teams to focus on high-value work, not replace critical thinking. And don’t let vendors write your roadmap. Let your business needs define where AI fits.

Gabe: That’s such a good reminder. Tools don’t solve problems by themselves—you need to know what problem you’re solving and where the tool fits. AI should be a partner, not a plug-and-play solution. Last question. We’ve got a lot of CX leaders listening—many feeling overwhelmed or stuck. What’s one piece of advice you’d leave them with?

Zack: Become a business partner. Don’t push CX onto the business—align with it. Learn what your cross-functional peers are responsible for. If your VP of ecommerce is focused on AOV and conversion, show how customer friction is affecting those metrics.

When they see solving CX issues as a path to hitting their goals, it becomes their idea—and things get done.

Gabe: That’s the shift, right there. Once you become a partner, the whole dynamic changes. Great advice, great talk track. Zack, thanks so much for being here. To everyone listening—if you haven’t subscribed to Zack’s newsletter, go check it out. Zack brings the real talk every time.

Closing thoughts

Zack’s message is clear: CX needs a wake-up call. For customer experience leaders, it is time to ditch vanity metrics and drive meaningful, measurable impact. Whether you’re battling burnout or trying to get buy-in, the path forward is about business alignment, not just customer sentiment. Key takeaways:

  • Speak the language of the business by tying CX initiatives directly to financial impact.
  • Ditch the fluff: Focus on fixing friction, not just reporting feedback.
  • Drive fast, cross-functional wins that matter with agile action pods.

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