"Don't give me one year's worth of budget - just give me 90 days".
A career spent inside some of the world’s largest and most complex organisations has informed MQ Qureshi’s perspective on customer experience and insight. Having started his career at General Motors and later holding senior roles at Ford he has worked in environments where millions of customers interact with products services and brands every day. That experience has given him a deep appreciation of the challenge of understanding customers at scale and the discipline required to turn insight into meaningful action.
In his conversation with Steve Borges on The B2B Experience, produced by Biglight a UK CX consultancy and design agency MQ focuses on a problem that many large organisations recognise immediately. Despite collecting huge volumes of customer data they still struggle to understand what customers are actually experiencing and what to do about it. Surveys metrics dashboards and reports proliferate but clarity often remains elusive.
MQ explains that the issue is not lack of data but lack of coherence. Customer signals are fragmented across functions regions and systems. Different teams focus on different metrics and interpret results through their own lenses. Without a shared framework insight becomes noise rather than guidance.
A central theme in the episode is the importance of making customer experience measurable in a way that supports decision-making. MQ stresses that measurement is only useful when it helps leaders answer practical questions. Where are customers struggling Which moments matter most and where should effort be focused.
He describes how large organisations often overcomplicate measurement frameworks. Too many metrics dilute attention and slow action. Effective approaches focus on a small number of meaningful measures that connect directly to customer journeys and business outcomes.
MQ also talks about the role of voice of the customer programmes. Capturing feedback consistently is essential but it is not enough to collect comments and scores. Organisations need processes to interpret feedback identify patterns and translate insight into priorities that teams can act on.
Connecting insight to customer journeys is another key theme. MQ explains that experience data only becomes actionable when it is mapped to real journeys and moments that matter. Journey mapping provides context. It shows where feedback originates and why customers feel the way they do.
By aligning insight to journeys organisations can see where experience breaks down and where improvements will have the greatest impact. This prevents teams from chasing isolated metrics and encourages a more holistic view of customer experience.
The conversation also explores the challenge of turning insight into action inside large organisations. MQ highlights that even when insight is clear execution often stalls. Teams may agree on the problem but struggle to align on ownership priorities and next steps.
Governance plays an important role here. MQ describes the need for clear accountability and decision-making structures that ensure insight leads to action. Without this discipline customer experience initiatives risk becoming discussion forums rather than drivers of change.
Incremental improvement is another recurring theme. MQ is realistic about the pace of change in global organisations. Transforming customer experience rarely happens through large programmes. Progress comes from addressing specific issues one step at a time and learning as you go.
He emphasises that this approach builds credibility. When teams see tangible improvements confidence grows and momentum follows. Over time this creates a culture where customer insight is trusted and acted upon.
MQ also reflects on leadership responsibility. Senior leaders set the tone for how customer insight is used. When leaders ask the right questions and use insight to guide decisions teams follow suit. When insight is treated as a reporting exercise it quickly loses influence.
Customer experience insight must be focused coherent and connected to real journeys. Measurement should support decisions not just reporting. Feedback systems require governance to drive action. And meaningful improvement happens incrementally through disciplined execution.
It’s a reminder of how important it is for large B2B organisations to move beyond collecting customer data to start using insight to drive better experiences and better outcomes at scale.
Topics connected to this episode
Understanding customers at scale in large organisations
Customer experience measurement and decision-making
Voice of the customer programmes and feedback systems
Separating signal from noise in customer data
Linking insight to customer journeys and moments that matter
Turning insight into action through governance and accountability
Aligning teams around shared experience priorities
Incremental improvement and building momentum over time
Leadership behaviours that make insight useful
Customer insight in B2B
Customer experience measurement
Voice of the customer programme
Customer feedback system
Customer journey mapping
Moments that matter
Insight-led experience improvement
Experience governance
Customer experience at enterprise scale
Turning insight into action
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Understanding resistance: benign, political and operational
How to build confidence and alignment with CFOs and senior leaders
Technology as an enabler, not the starting point
Why building for the future is non‑negotiable in B2B
MQ’s journey to digital transformation
Discovering B2B’s complexity after years in B2C and consulting
How personas at Grainger challenged his assumptions
“If you don’t build for the future, what are you doing?”
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