With a rich background in CRM marketing technology and customer data platforms, MarTech expert Aisha Amaira has built a career at the intersection of innovation and customer insight. She joins us to unravel a critical, yet often overlooked, aspect of the modern customer experience: the intricate web of third-party vendors operating behind the scenes. We’ll explore how a vendor’s failure can directly impact brand loyalty, discuss the shift from seeing security as a compliance checkbox to a cornerstone of customer trust, and uncover practical strategies for weaving third-party risk management directly into the fabric of a customer-centric strategy.
Customers often don’t see the complex web of third-party vendors behind a brand. When a vendor’s failure impacts the customer journey, how should a company manage the immediate fallout, and what are the first steps to mapping these hidden dependencies to prevent future issues?
That’s such a crucial point because, in the customer’s mind, there is no third party. There is only the brand they chose to do business with. So when something goes wrong—a payment processor fails, or a data storage service goes down—the customer’s frustration is aimed squarely at the company, not some invisible partner. The immediate fallout must be managed with transparency and accountability. The first priority is clear communication, acknowledging the issue without deflecting blame. But the real work begins after the fire is out. The first step is to stop thinking in terms of operational risk and start mapping your vendor ecosystem directly to the customer journey. You have to ask, “Which partner handles identity verification at login? Which one processes payments at checkout?” This deep dive is no longer just an IT or security exercise; it’s a fundamental CX task to understand exactly where a failure can break the promise you’ve made to your customer.
You suggest integrating a customer perspective into technical planning. Could you walk us through how a team might conduct a tabletop exercise for a vendor data breach, and what specific metrics on a risk dashboard are most effective for measuring the tangible impact on customers?
Absolutely. A traditional tabletop exercise might focus on server downtime and data recovery, but a customer-centric one feels completely different. Imagine gathering your CX, security, and marketing teams in a room. The scenario isn’t just “Vendor X was breached.” It’s “Vendor X, our identity verification partner, was breached, and 50,000 customer accounts are now at risk.” The questions change immediately: What is our first communication to these customers? How do we arm our support team to handle the panicked calls? What is the impact on brand trust, and how will we measure it? This is where your risk dashboard becomes so powerful. Instead of just tracking technical metrics, you should be measuring the tangible impact on customers. This means adding metrics like customer engagement drops post-incident, spikes in negative social media sentiment, and, of course, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to see how the event affects long-term loyalty. This approach ensures you’re prioritizing risks based on real-world customer harm, not just technical severity.
Since many consumers prioritize data transparency for brand trust, how does a company shift its mindset from a reactive compliance function to proactively building security as a trust mechanism? Please share a few examples of how this looks in practice for the customer.
The shift is monumental, moving from a culture of “we have to do this” to “this is who we are.” It begins with accepting that we are stewards of our customers’ data, not just owners of it. The data shows this is what customers want; a recent report found that for 44% of consumers, transparency about data use is the number one factor in brand trust. In practice, this looks like proactive communication. Instead of burying privacy policies, a company might use clear, simple language on its sign-up page explaining how and why data is used. Another example is providing customers with a dashboard where they can easily see which third-party apps have access to their data and manage those permissions themselves. It’s about turning security from a back-end, defensive function into a visible, proactive feature that demonstrates respect for the customer and their privacy. It becomes part of the core brand promise.
Given that threat actors often target third-party vendors as an entry point, what are the most common security blind spots you see in these ecosystems? How can breaking down silos between CX, security, and procurement teams help address these vulnerabilities from the start?
The biggest blind spot I see is a lack of shared responsibility. A company might have Fort Knox-level security for its own systems, but it assumes its vendors do the same, which is a dangerous gamble. Threat actors know this. Research shows that roughly 30% of cyberattacks now involve a third party, because it’s often the path of least resistance. These blind spots—unpatched vulnerabilities on a vendor’s platform or overlooked dependencies between systems—create massive exposure. Breaking down silos is the only way to fix this. When the procurement team is selecting a new payment processor, the CX team should be in the room asking how that vendor handles outage communications, and the security team should be there to vet their security protocols. This cross-functional cooperation ensures that a vendor isn’t just chosen based on price or features, but on whether they uphold the same security and customer care standards that you do. It closes the gaps before they can be exploited.
Incorporating security KPIs into vendor contracts is a key step. What are the most critical KPIs to include, such as remediation timeframes or testing frequency, and how can a business ensure these standards are consistently met without damaging the partner relationship?
This is where you translate trust into tangible action. The most critical KPIs are those that directly protect the customer experience. For instance, mandating a specific timeframe for remediating critical security weaknesses—say, 48 hours for a severe vulnerability—is non-negotiable. Another key KPI is specifying the frequency of vulnerability testing and requiring the vendor to share those results. This establishes a baseline for security hygiene. The key to ensuring these standards are met without creating an adversarial relationship is to frame it as a partnership in protecting the end customer. It’s not about punishing the vendor; it’s about collaborative, ongoing monitoring. Regular check-ins and shared dashboards can make this a routine part of the operational rhythm, rather than a contentious annual audit. When both parties see themselves as co-custodians of the customer experience, this process strengthens the partnership.
What is your forecast for the intersection of third-party risk management and customer experience over the next five years?
Over the next five years, I predict that these two functions will become completely inseparable. We’ll no longer talk about “aligning” CX with security, because a brand’s security posture will be a core component of its customer experience. A customer’s perception of a brand is built on outcomes, and as our reliance on multi-vendor infrastructures deepens—with some studies showing 71% of organizations already depending on third-party APIs—a brand’s reputation will become only as strong as its weakest vendor link. Companies that thrive will be those that embrace radical accountability for their entire digital ecosystem. Vendor vetting will be as critical to the CXO as it is to the CISO, and proactive, transparent security will be marketed as a primary feature, not a footnote in a privacy policy. The future belongs to brands that understand trust is built not just in the beautiful front-end experience, but in the resilient and secure foundation beneath it.