“Employees are artists, not back up dancers”, declared Ken Hughes, self-proclaimed The King of Customer Experience (CX), at Qualtrics’ X4 in Salt Lake City.

They are not just a human resource to be used up, instead they must be customer zero.

As Danny Meyer, Founder & Executive Chairman, Union Square Hospitality Group, which includes Shake Shack, shared on the main stage, “customer experience is completely and directly related to the employee experience”.

“The employee is our first customer,” he added.

“You could come to one of our restaurants, and if our employees were not having a great experience, they could probably fake it one or two times you come there, and you might still have a good time.

“But if you keep coming back and coming back, I promise you that your experience is going to be directly correlated with the degree to which…our team members bring their best,” noted Meyer.

Your competitive advantage in your business is the people you work with,” he continued.

Bill McDermott, CEO & Chairman of ServiceNow, being interviewed at X4 by Zig Serfain, Qualtrics’ CEO.

This was echoed by Bill McDermott, Chairman & CEO of ServiceNow – speaking on day two of X4 in Salt Lake City, he stated: “The customer is the only boss.”

However, his message to leader is “if you don’t fire people up, you’re not going anywhere, because it’s the people that carry the message to the customer”.

It’s not enough to have a great brand, you also need a great team – “it’s all about the inspiration of the people that actually do the work”.

Picking up on this theme was Donna Morris, EVP and CPO at Walmart.

The retail giant employs 2.1 million people worldwide, and serves 255 million customers – speaking at X4, Morris shared: “You have to deliver that same experience to the people that actually serve your customers and or your members.”

This begs the question, how can organizations drive top notch employee experience (EX) in 2025 and beyond? What role does technology play?

‘Connection is everything’: What’s the future for EX?

Hughes had all 6,000 attendees at Qualtrics X4 shouting ‘connection is everything’ at the end of his sessions.

Traditional ways of working won’t “open any new doors for deeper customer or employee connection”, shared Hughes. Companies can’t keep doing the same things and expect to get different results.

Instead, they need to lean into technology if they want to win the “race for relevance”. It’s not possible to drive great experiences at scale, and take action on feedback, without the help of AI and other technologies.

KFC’s COO Rob Swain took to the main stage during the opening keynote of X4 to share the fast food giant’s journey with Qualtrics.

Rob Swain, COO of KFC, speaking on main stage at X4.

KFC has 30,000 locations in 15 countries, and nearly one million team members – and that is constantly growing as “we build a new KFC once every three hours somewhere around the world”.

For Swain, “the guest experience could never exceed that of the team member experience”, but pre-Qualtrics, “we didn’t actually have the technology to bring that to life”.

Qualtrics has really put the voice of the team member and the guest at the very heart of the organization,” he added.

“They’re pushing us to become much more consumer centric, and that’s really helping us as an organization deliver those incredible finger licking experiences.”

Of course, great employee “experiences aren’t just about technology”, as Brian Stucki, Qualtrics’ COO and President, shared on the main stage.

Successful companies are leveraging technology, but they are also ensuring that employees experience is embedded into their culture, and into their reward and recognition systems.

That’s the viewpoint of Brad Anderson, President, Products, UX, Engineering and Ecosystem at Qualtrics.

Ken Hughes, The King of Customer Experience, at Qualtrics X4 in Salt Lake City.

Hughes, The King of CX, puts it best when he shared that with employee experience the key is making “people feel it’s not about data, it’s not about tech”, it’s how employers make people feel.

Pulling on the analogy of the Wizard of Oz, Hughes shared that the whole movie is about deception; Dorothy didn’t need to find the Wizard, she had power to get home the whole time through her red sparkly shoes.

Your employees have the power to click their heels at any point [and] make that customer connection count.”

They need to be empowered to “c;ick those heels when they need to”, concluded Hughes.