Measuring Customer Effort In this episode, we take the next step in the conversation we started last week about boiling customer frustration and what it means in reading the organization’s relationship radar.

Today we focus on Customer Effort Scoring — a practical way to see where people are running into friction and operational hurdles long before they turn into a reputational issue.

CES helps teams see the incremental operational hurdles that show up in aggregate as overall poor customer satisfaction. When organizations use CES well, they can help reduce customer effort and create a smooth and positive customer experience. And that generates return business, referrals and revenue generation.

Listen in today and learn how CES is an excellent tool to add to your relationship radar system.

DOWNLOAD: FREE GUIDE - 8 STEPS TO MEASURE CUSTOMER EFFORT

BONUS RESOURCE:

If you’re new to IT’S A PR THING or if you’re looking for a proven path to make your PR team more effective, check out the free resource: 10 Strategies to Transform Your PR Function. It’s a collection of deeper-dive episodes organized to help you rethink how you implement PR in your job everyday. Click the link above and download the free resource.

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

CUSTOMERS ARE FED UP

The urgent reputation risk PR must face in 2026

In this first episode of 2026, we take a clear look at a growing issue shaping the year ahead for PR professionals: customer frustration has reached a breaking point, and new data from 2025 shows just how widespread the problem has become. Customers are dealing with broken processes, confusing systems, and automated tools that create more work instead of solving problems. Companies are trying to cover these issues with messaging, storytelling and AI, but the numbers show that approach is backfiring. People want ease and peace, and instead they’re getting noise, delays, and unnecessary friction.

We walk through the latest national research on customer frustration, including record levels of anger, wasted time, financial loss, and emotional strain. We also look at how customers are responding — from ghosting brands to walking away after one or two bad experiences. At the same time, many executives believe their customer experience is strong, creating a dangerous perception gap.

This episode lays out what PR pros need to understand as they guide their organizations through 2026. Join me as we break down the data, the trends, and the real reputational risks shaping the year ahead.

EPISODE STUDY SOURCES:

Forbes Technology Council (2024). Breaking the Cycle of “Doom Loops” in Automated Customer Service. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/09/23/human-centered-cx-breaking-the-cycle-of-doom-loops-in-automated-customer-service/

CSG International (2025). 2025 State of the Customer Experience Report. https://www.csgi.com/resources/2025-state-of-customer-experience/

National Customer Rage Survey (2025). CCMC & Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business. https://www.morningstar.com/news/pr-newswire/20251202dc36248/new-national-customer-rage-survey-reveals-civility-in-freefall-across-americas-marketplace

Emplifi (April 2025). The Social Pulse: State of Consumer‑Brand Engagement on Social Media in 2025. https://emplifi.io/press/emplifi-reveals-70-of-consumers-will-abandon-a-brand-after-just-two-negative-experiences/

PwC (2025). 2025 Customer Experience Survey: The Loyalty Illusion. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/business-transformation/library/2025-customer-experience-survey.html

BONUS RESOURCE:

If you’re new to IT’S A PR THING or if you’re looking for a proven path to make your PR team more effective, check out the free resource: 10 Strategies to Transform Your PR Function. It’s a collection of deeper-dive episodes organized to help you rethink how you implement PR in your job everyday. Click the link above and download the free resource.

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E

Today we tackle my favorite part of the PR work -- measuring success while a campaign is still in motion.

In today’s show, we’ll talk about a framework to help you read the signals stakeholders give off in real time, and how those behaviors reveal whether your strategy is progressing or stalling.

You'll learn clear, actionable ways to measure momentum as it happens, so you can refine your approach and achieve stronger results. And here’s the proof: campaigns that consistently apply this framework outperform those campaigns that fail to use it.

Too often, evaluation happens only at the end of a campaign, when the chance to adjust has already passed. Don't be those guys!

You’ll want to share this with your team, your division leaders and use it as a basis for strategy development and management in the future.

BONUS RESOURCE: If you’re new to IT’S A PR THING or if you’re looking for a proven path to make your PR team more effective, check out the free resource: 10 Strategies to Transform Your PR Function. It’s a collection of deeper-dive episodes organized to help you rethink how you implement PR in your job everyday. Click the link above and download the free resource.

GOT TOPIC IDEAS? WE WANT TO HEAR THEM!

Send topic ideas and mailbag questions for a future episode to podcast@prthing.com We would love to hear from you!

HOST BIO https://www.audible.com/author/Stephanie-McFarland/B00YNFH16E