For Joshua Holmes, CX Design Lead at Officeworks, customer-centricity isn’t just a principle—it’s a practice. But while Net Promoter Score (NPS) gave them a baseline view of sentiment, it lacked the depth needed to truly understand customer experience.
“We have NPS surveys and quantitative data, but it’s difficult to capture that real, human voice directly from our customers,” Joshua said.
The team wanted to move beyond knowing what customers felt—to uncovering why. With a diverse customer base spanning parents, students, corporate clients, and educators, they needed insight that was ongoing, contextual, and nuanced enough to fuel real-time decisions.
While the team was already using the Askable platform for discovery research and usability testing, they needed something more scalable, consistent, and strategic. That’s when they adopted Insight Streams—Askable’s always-on qualitative research solution.
Designed to continuously surface human insights at scale, Insight Streams gave Officeworks a low-lift, high-impact way to stay in tune with customers—week after week.
Instead of relying on lagging metrics like NPS, the CX Design team now had a real-time, qualitative pulse on customer experience: what was working, what was causing friction, and where expectations were shifting.
“Askable’s automated and consistent process has provided us with a regular stream of research, dedicated to something large and difficult to unpack,” Joshua said.
These insights directly informed iterative improvements to site structure, navigation, and design—ensuring that every change was anchored in real user needs.
“This allowed us to gather specific feedback on what customers needed or expected at every stage, which in turn provided a research foundation that we could present across different teams as evidence for strategic decisions,” he said.
Replacing NPS with Insight Streams didn’t just improve how feedback was gathered—it transformed how it was used.
Stakeholders were brought closer to the customer experience through weekly highlight videos, a live insights dashboard, and narrative-driven reports. With a constant stream of fresh input, teams could respond to emerging behaviours faster and with greater confidence.
“Insight Streams gave us a continuous stream of high-quality, strategic insights that we could immediately apply across multiple projects,” Joshua said.
“It eliminated the need for repeated planning or recruitment, and helped us build a strong foundation of customer understanding that scaled across teams without duplicating effort.”
The insights also helped accelerate decision-making—especially in cross-functional settings where alignment can be challenging.
“You won’t always get unanimous agreement on your findings,” he added. “Stakeholders may not buy into raw data at first, but it’s crucial to keep iterating on your narrative and the story you’re trying to convey with that data.”
Officeworks continues to integrate Insight Streams into their digital design and CX workflows, using it as a consistent, scalable way to stay close to what customers need in real time.
This shift from NPS to continuous, qualitative insight reflects a broader transformation: moving from static, lagging metrics to dynamic, actionable understanding—and staying ahead of fast-evolving expectations.
“Askable fills the gap by creating a feedback loop that helps us stay tuned in to what matters most to our users and make smarter, more relevant decisions,” Joshua said.
Officeworks
Officeworks is a $3.4 billion Australian retailer (2024) with over 170 stores and a large eCommerce footprint offering 40,000+ products. Serving both consumers and businesses—from small enterprises to schools and government—it operates across tech, stationery, furniture, print, and education supplies. Like many global retailers, Officeworks focuses on scaling digital experiences and staying ahead of changing customer needs.
Retail
9,000+ employees
Insights Streams
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