The earned growth flywheel: How to build a 5-star customer experience that grows your revenue

Creating an extraordinary customer experience doesn’t have to be complicated. When it comes to measuring and improving the customer experience, simple is better. As we like to say at AskNicely, success comes through getting just one percent better every day. Committing to consistent small changes adds up to big impacts over time.

This philosophy forms the heart of the earned growth flywheel. We’ve seen our AskNicely customers find success through adopting this flywheel, gathering insights with operational excellence, and proactive reputation management. Let’s dive into what the flywheel is, why it works, and how you can implement it to transform and grow your business.

What is the earned growth flywheel?

The earned growth flywheel is a five-stage approach to customer experience management that creates a continuous cycle of improvement and growth. AskNicely customers move through each stage from collecting feedback to responding, assessing, transforming, and finally, growing. 

No matter your starting point, your current feedback methods align with at least one stage of the flywheel, and as your program matures, you’ll naturally progress through the others. 

Here’s a look at the various stages:

1. Collect: Gathering business feedback

Success starts with collecting the right feedback. You first have to determine what information you want to capture and how you plan to collect that feedback effectively. It's not about gathering the most feedback, it’s about gathering the right feedback that is actionable and meaningful.

Remember to start simple. Focus on asking questions that help you uncover how your customers truly feel and what matters most to them.

[insert guide to collecting feedback]

2. Respond: Closing the loop with customers

Once you collect feedback, the next step is responding to customers. This involves real-time case management that requires quick action to acknowledge and address customer concerns. Automated workflows can make this easier by streamlining automated responses, automatically assigning cases to your frontline, and empowering your team to take meaningful action, especially with detractors.

We recommend responding to anyone who leaves a positive review in addition to those who leave negative ones. Customers appreciate being seen, so make sure they feel heard and that you appreciate them taking the time to leave feedback.

3. Assess: Analyzing trends and patterns

After addressing concerns and thanking customers for taking the time to offer feedback, you can turn your attention to actually assessing it. At this stage, you’ll assess the feedback you got based on the variables that are most important to your business. This may be location, service type, customer segment, agent, or any other variable. The goal is to uncover trends and patterns that inform smarter business decisions around the biggest areas for improvement. Look for recurring themes and identify the areas where customer experience consistently shines and where it consistently falls short. AskNicely NiceAI features can help users sort through feedback and find the best ways to take action on it.

4. Transform: Embedding CX improvements business-wide

The transformation stage unlocks deep insights at every level of the organization and is usually something brands further along in their CX journey achieve. Here, feedback isn’t just analyzed, it’s actively used to inspire and recognize frontline teams, identify coaching needs, and make strategic changes that lift the entire customer experience.

Use customer feedback to celebrate employee wins, pinpoint areas for training, and address negative trends before they become bigger problems.

5. Grow: Driving business growth through CX 

The final step in the flywheel is tangible business growth. A strong, earned reputation fuels positive online reviews, customer referrals, and increased retention, all while efficiently acquiring new customers. The result is a healthier bottom line and self-sustaining growth through the feedback habits formed earlier in the flywheel. As growth feeds back into the business, it strengthens your ability to collect even better feedback, creating an ever-improving cycle.

Why the flywheel matters

At first glance, the earned growth flywheel might seem daunting, especially if your brand is just starting to collect feedback. But remember: success is about progress, not perfection. Even small improvements in collecting, responding, and assessing customer feedback can lead to meaningful CX gains.

The true magic happens when progress is made across all five areas with strong alignment from top executives to frontline staff. Many customer experience programs fail because they are disconnected from those who engage directly with customers daily. The earned growth flywheel ensures everyone is connected, invested, and moving in the same direction.

Schedule a demo to see how AskNicely can help you apply the flywheel to your unique business and grow.