From Insight to Action: What It Really Means to Put the Customer at the Centre

Dylan Berrington
Jun 17
4 min read

Guest article | Dylan Berrington from TruRating helps retailers turn customer feedback into meaningful action. With deep experience across data, insights, and frontline execution, Dylan works with some of the world’s most innovative retail brands to drive performance through customer-led strategy.

In this piece, Dylan explores why many retailers are stuck in feedback paralysis—and how real-time, behaviour-linked insights can empower store teams to act faster, coach smarter, and create experiences that drive results.

“The Customer is our North Star.”

“We don’t need more data, we need to know what to do.”

“If it doesn’t help our store managers act today, it’s useless.”

These are the words we hear from retail leaders every week.And they’re right.

Retail isn’t suffering from a lack of customer data. It’s suffering from feedback paralysis - too much noise, too many dashboards, and not enough clarity on what actually drives results. The truth is that most “customer-led” strategies sound good in a keynote… but fall flat on the floor.

It’s time to change that.

At TruRating, we believe putting the customer at the centre means more than listening. It means enabling teams to act—with speed, with simplicity, and with purpose.

The Gap Between Customer Insight and Business Action

Every retailer says the customer is their North Star. But if that insight takes three weeks to reach the field, or gets buried in a static dashboard, it’s not a North Star. It’s dead weight.

“We’re making decisions off the loudest customers,” one buyer told us. “That’s not a strategy... it’s a reaction.”

Retail leaders need fast, actionable insight, tied to performance, not just sentiment.They want to understand not just what customers feel, but how those feelings drive behaviour -> conversion, upsell, loyalty, and lifetime value.

And they want their store teams (not just HQ analysts) to see it, use it, and improve with it. Every day.

Feedback That Drives Behaviour, Not Just Reports

By asking a single, rotating question at the point of purchase, retailers capture real customer sentiment tied directly to transactional data—in real time, at scale.

80%+ response rates
Delivered through payment terminals or order confirmations
Linked to ATV, UPT, basket abandonment, and loyalty
Immediately visible at the store, regional, and exec level

This isn’t about more surveys. It’s about better decisions, faster.

“We’ve seen a 5% year-over-year sales lift using TruRating metrics.” — Retail Prodigy Group, Nike Master Franchise ANZ

Behaviour Change That Moves the Business

Let’s make this real.

One global retailer uncovered a recurring issue in underperforming stores: customers weren’t being greeted or offered additional items. TruRating made the behaviour gap visible (store by store) and enabled field leaders to course correct.

The result? A $10 lift in average transaction value (ATV) when staff offered add-ons.

Another apparel brand flagged negative sentiment around outerwear value perception in several regions. They adjusted their floor layout, pricing comms, and product mix. Conversion improved by 3.4% across the impacted stores.

This is what happens when insight becomes motion.

More Than Measurement - A Coaching Tool for Consistency

For field leaders and regional managers, it’s a daily performance enablement tool.

“We’re focused on lifting our low performers and giving every store a clear standard,” said one VP of Retail Ops. “If we don’t tie feedback to a manager or behaviour, it’s just noise.”

Store and field teams use this to:

· Track performance shifts in real time

· Understand which behaviours actually drive results

· Coach teams based on facts, not hunches

And because it’s embedded in the daily workflow, there’s no added burden—just clarity on what to fix next.

The Retail Action Loop: A Simple Framework That Works

1. Ask at checkout → Simple, rotating questions with massive response rates

2. Align with behaviour → Directly tie feedback to ATV, UPT, loyalty, and conversion

3. Act at the frontline → Push insights to store leaders, not just HQ dashboards

This is how leading retailers make experience measurable, operational and profitable.

Customer-Led Strategy That Scales with You

Today’s most successful retailers don’t wait for lagging indicators.They put insight into motion. They embed it in performance reviews. They make it part of how their teams win.

“This connects directly to our elevation strategy,” said one leader at Crocs. “It gives us the confidence to put experience at the center of how we grow.”

That’s the shift from listening to leading.

Final Word: It’s Not About the Score - It’s About the Signal

“I don’t need something I’ll look at in two weeks,” a retail exec told us. “I need something I can act on today.”

Retail is a game of speed and clarity. And when experience insights are tied to behaviour, presented clearly, and delivered to the people who can act, you create a competitive advantage that compounds every single day.