When Great Companies Really Listen: Inside Discount Tire's Customer Experience Study
Most customer experience research follows a predictable pattern: send out a survey, run a few small focus groups, compile the data, write a report.
The problem? Surveys miss the nuance. Small focus groups miss the scale. And participants rarely feel heard.
Discount Tire wanted something different.
The Challenge
Discount Tire operates more than 1,200 stores across the U.S. under multiple brand names—Discount Tire, America's Tire, Dunn Tire, Suburban Tire, and Tire Rack. Their commitment to treating people with respect and fairness isn't just marketing copy—it's embedded in how they operate.
When they set out to understand what truly matters to their customers in 2025, they needed a research approach that reflected those values: one that could engage customers at scale while creating space for every voice to be heard.
The Approach
Working alongside Katie Fleming, Joleen Higdon, and Madison Albers from Discount Tire's insights team, we designed a six-session customer experience study that brought 243 customers into real-time conversations about their experiences.
Here's what that looked like:
Six 90-minute sessions — each bringing together 23–69 participants simultaneously
Facilitated exploration — covering great retail experiences, current strengths, disappointments, trust factors, and improvement opportunities
Anonymous but simultaneous participation — ensuring every voice could contribute without social pressure
Live observation — Discount Tire's insights team watched sessions unfold in real time through integrated observer chat
AI-powered analysis — Converge's categorization engine created instant summaries of participant input, enabling the team to spot patterns and prioritize themes as sessions progressed
What Emerged
The numbers tell part of the story: 9.0+ effectiveness ratings across all six sessions. Consistently strong engagement. Rich, detailed responses.
But the real story came through in how participants responded to being genuinely heard:
"I am very impressed with this forum… You've earned even more of my trust by showing respect for all voices you serve."
"The notion that Dunn Tire cares enough about the customer experience to do a focus group like this!"
"It's so great to see a company that really seeks to hear their customers and get feedback from them."
These weren't just research participants—they were customers who felt the difference between being surveyed and being listened to.
The Insight
Traditional CX research forces a trade-off: you can go deep with a handful of people, or you can go broad with surveys that miss the context and emotion behind the responses.
This study proved you don't have to choose.
By bringing dozens of customers together in facilitated sessions where everyone contributes simultaneously and anonymously, Discount Tire captured both scale and depth. They heard from 243 voices across six sessions—far more than traditional focus groups—while preserving the rich, contextual insights that surveys can't capture.
Post-session, the team received Word/Excel exports, an AI-generated Strategic Insights deck, full access to analysis tools, and our AI Project Console—which aggregates all session data into one conversational workspace for surfacing cross-session patterns.
That's not just research. That's respect in action.
Rethinking Customer Experience Research
Some brands talk about being customer-focused. The best ones actually listen.
When you create space for real conversation at scale—where participants feel safe to share honestly, where their input is immediately visible, and where they can see their experiences reflected in others' stories—something shifts.
Customers stop being data points. They become partners in shaping what comes next.
And they notice. They appreciate it. They trust you more because of it.
Ready to Hear What Your Customers Really Think?
If you're planning customer research, stakeholder engagement, or any initiative where you need genuine insights instead of surface-level feedback, we'd love to show you what's possible.
Request a demo at startconverge.com/contact to see how Converge can help you truly listen at scale.