Heart of the Customer

Name

Heart of the Customer

Legal name

Heart of the Customer, LLC

Website

https://heartofthecustomer.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. CX Consulting Services: Professional consulting services including customer journey mapping, CX program development, journey health score implementation, emotional north star design, closed loop feedback systems, and voice of the customer strategy. engagements are customized enterprise projects with assessment, implementation, and ongoing advisory components.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Heart of the Customer is a boutique end-to-end customer experience consulting firm that sells CX advisory engagements to B2B and other highly-complex organizations. Its core offering is a proprietary four-phase Customer Journey Mapping methodology (Discovery, Customer Immersion, Action, Launch), supported by Journey Health Score measurement, Emotional North Star design, CX Program Consulting, Closed Loop Feedback, and Voice of the Customer services. Engagements are delivered as customized consulting projects rather than packaged software or self-serve products.

Product overview

Heart of the Customer is a boutique end-to-end customer experience consulting firm offering a portfolio of advisory and research services. The core offering is Customer Journey Mapping, which uses a proprietary four-phase methodology (Discovery, Customer Immersion, Action, Launch) to drive organizational change. This is complemented by the Journey Health Score (a measurement framework connecting financial, operational, and customer data), the Emotional North Star (emotional outcome identification and measurement), CX Program Consulting (maturity assessment, roadmap, governance, and technology strategy), Closed Loop Feedback (feedback process design), and Voice of the Customer Services (listening strategies and Qualtrics implementation). The firm also produces CX research and thought leadership through white papers, the AMCX Benchmark Report, and two published books (Do B2B Better and How Hard Is It To Be Your Customer?). Speaking/keynote services and the X4 B2B Experience event extend their market presence. The portfolio functions as independent but complementary consulting engagements rather than a software platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Customer Journey Mapping
• Journey Health Score A measurement framework and dashboard service that connects financial, operational, behavioral, and survey data to quantify the value of customer health along the journey and demonstrate the business impact of customer experience improvements.
• Emotional North Star An emotional measurement and experience design service that helps organizations identify their primary target emotions, redesign experiences to create stronger emotional outcomes, and connect those emotional outcomes to business metrics.
• CX Program Consulting Advisory services covering CX Maturity Assessment, CX Program Roadmap development using the Qualtrics XM Operating Framework, CX Governance setup, and CX Technology strategy to help organizations build sustainable customer-centric operations.
• Closed Loop Feedback A process design and change management service that establishes sustainable closed-loop feedback systems, leverages CX technology for feedback collection and routing, and enables organizations to act on customer feedback with proper change management.
• Voice of the Customer Services Consulting services encompassing listening strategies (integrated business, unstructured, and conversational data), Qualtrics strategy and implementation, CX measurements and value chain analysis, and closed loop design to connect customer feedback with operational decision-making.
• Do B2B Better A book by Jim Tincher providing a game-changing customer experience strategy for B2B organizations, featuring the CX Loyalty Flywheel model and insights from hundreds of CX leader interviews on delivering differentiated growth.
• How Hard Is It To Be Your Customer? A book co-authored by Jim Tincher and Nicole Newton on journey mapping best practices, including a new edition with a chapter on journey mapping software, real-world case studies, and guidance on creating maps that drive action rather than gathering dust.
• Speaking & Keynote Services Keynote speaking and workshop facilitation by Jim Tincher on customer experience topics including Moments of Truth, B2B CX, CX culture, and the role of CX as a team sport, tailored for diverse industries and audiences.
• X4 B2B Experience A curated B2B track and networking experience at the Qualtrics X4 conference, including pre-event planning sessions, facilitated networking, and ongoing engagement through messaging platforms, serving leaders across manufacturing, healthcare, logistics, construction, insurance, and financial services. Scheduled March 17-19, 2026 in Seattle, WA.

Quantifiable outcome

• 25% decrease in customer time-to-value through journey mapping initiatives
• +8 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• QualtricscoreTechnology or IntegrationQualtrics is the leader and creator of the experience management category, changing how organizations manage and improve the four core experiences of business: customer, employee, product, and brand. Over 16,750 organizations use Qualtrics to listen, understand, and take action on experience data. Heart of the Customer leverages Qualtrics XM Institute's CX Maturity Model and XM Operating Framework in their consulting engagements.
• Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of customer experience professionals and organizational best practices. Provides educational and networking opportunities and administers the globally recognized Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) certification. Heart of the Customer team members hold CCXP certifications.
• AMCX ConsortiumcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvanced Manufacturing Customer Experience Consortium is a group of the world's top manufacturers working together on CX research. Heart of the Customer analyzed survey data from over 7,200 responses across 16 consortium members for the AMCX Benchmark Report covering nearly 10,000 B2B customers.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Strativity Group: Strativity Group is a boutique CX strategy and customer journey mapping consultancy that serves mid-market and enterprise B2B organizations, closely overlapping Heart of the Customer's service portfolio, target buyer, and journey-mapping-led delivery model.
• Beyond Philosophy: Beyond Philosophy is a specialized customer experience consultancy offering CX strategy, journey mapping, and culture transformation; it competes head-to-head with Heart of the Customer for B2B and complex enterprise CX engagements.
• C3 CustomerCentric Companies: C3 CustomerCentric Companies is a CX consulting firm focused on B2B customer experience, voice of the customer programs, and customer-centric culture change, mirroring Heart of the Customer's B2B journey mapping and VoC service lines.
• CX Group: CX Group is a customer experience consultancy delivering CX strategy, journey mapping, and experience design for enterprise clients; it overlaps directly with Heart of the Customer's boutique CX advisory positioning and target market.
• The Service Profit Chain Institute: The Service Profit Chain Institute is a CX training and consulting organization focused on linking customer experience to financial outcomes, comparable to Heart of the Customer's outcome-focused CX consulting and B2B training engagements.

Broad incumbents

• Walker (Kantar): Walker, now part of Kantar, is a long-established CX research and advisory firm serving large enterprises; it competes with Heart of the Customer on enterprise CX strategy and journey work but offers broader market research and benchmarking capabilities.
• Forsta: Forsta is an experience and research technology company that bundles CX, VoC, and employee experience software with advisory services, representing a broader incumbent alternative to Heart of the Customer's pure-services CX advisory offering.
• MaritzCX (Williams Lea): MaritzCX, now part of Williams Lea, is an enterprise CX research and advisory firm competing with Heart of the Customer for large enterprise CX programs; it is broader in scope and serves global accounts.

Emerging players

• InMoment: InMoment is an experience intelligence platform that combines VoC technology with advisory and professional services; it competes with Heart of the Customer for CX program work but does so primarily through a technology-plus-services model rather than pure consulting.

Others

• Qualtrics: Qualtrics is Heart of the Customer's most strategic technology partner and the XM platform on which its maturity assessments and implementations are based; while not a direct competitor, Qualtrics' partner economics and any in-house advisory expansion directly affect the firm's economics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks3 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/heartofcustomer
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/heart-of-the-customer
• Facebookfacebook.com/100063650104507

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Heart of the Customer