‘What I wish I knew’: Advice for Future CX Leaders
Getting started in the CX means setting out on a career filled with ups and downs, obstacles and moments of insight. The good news is, we get you! To offer some advice, we asked our brilliant community of customer experience professionals a simple yet important question: What’s one thing you wish you’d known when starting out?
Recognise CX as Part of Business Success
Clare White, Founder and Managing Director at Connected CX, emphasises the integration of CX into broader business strategies: “CX is just a part of what makes a business successful. It’s very easy for CX professionals to think CX is the shining star, and it alone can drive business success. Yes, it is a critical element (in my opinion), however, first, you have to understand the business goals and everything that we do as a customer experience professional has to align with these goals,” she advises.
“Start thinking and talking about how CX drives specific business outcomes as early as possible in your journey,” says Amanda Riches, who is the Senior Director and Head of CX & EX Consulting in EMEA at Medallia.
She continues: “As a leader, always consider yourself on a par with the level (or two levels) above you in an organisation. You will bring huge expertise to the conversation and different perspectives so have confidence in your views and expertise.”
Align with Stakeholders
Lara Khouri, the Founder and Cultivator of Contentment at "There is No Spoon," highlights the need to realise that not everyone defaults to prioritising customers: “I wish I'd known that it's not natural for everyone to put customers at the heart of their products, services, and processes. It would have helped me understand that I would have to guide them to that point, to help them understand why it's important, and then work with them to make it happen.”
Oladoyin Babalola, Customer Centre Advisor at Virgin Atlantic, agrees: “At the start of my first CX role, I was alarmed at the constant resistance received from business teams when trying to recommend improvements or initiatives that would obviously resolve customer challenges and make their experiences better. It took a while to understand this, to be honest, but the moment it dawned on me, it was easier to collaborate with the diverse teams to achieve better results.”
“If your stakeholders aren't engaged and bought in, your efforts will always fall short.”
“Don’t start with the customer, start with the business,” says Clare Muscutt, the Founder & CEO of Women in CX. According to her, it’s crucial to engage with stakeholders and develop a narrative in line with business strategic objectives. One that resonates with senior decision-makers and makes the financial case clear.
“If your stakeholders aren't engaged and bought in, your efforts will always fall short. Most of us (or at least I did when I first started) build the programs we think the business needs based on our understanding of the customer... Then, try to build a business case and sell it to stakeholders. It took me ten years to learn that to succeed, you need to start with the business,” she continues.
Building on this, Mary Geoghegan, Business Architect at Pebble Business Transformation, highlights the importance of understanding stakeholder needs: “Telling the story and being the advocate for the customer aligned to stakeholder needs makes your role and your business relationships more rewarding.”
Build Alliances and Find Support
“My advice would be don’t let your passion lead you to burn out. Don’t try to convince the sceptics, build alliances and find the sponsors,” says WiCX member Marion Boberg. She recommends finding peers in your organisation who champion CX and understand you: “Work to build a cross-functional team with them.”
Thirza Schaap, the founder, trainer, and consultant at CX Unraveled, shared some valuable advice on working in multidisciplinary teams and breaking through company silos: “By involving everyone who plays a role in the specific customer journey you’re trying to improve, you not only [gain] a vast array of knowledge but you’re also creating a great starting position for change. All these people will most likely ‘feel’ a change in some way, and by enlisting their help and using their creative ideas, they are creating this change together. One piece of advice is to not (only) involve managers when doing this but to have actual customer-facing staff on board in these projects. They usually know exactly what’s going on!”
One piece of advice is to not (only) involve managers when doing this but to have actual customer-facing staff on board […] They usually know exactly what’s going on!
Do you celebrate marginal gains? Susannah Simmons, the Software Adoption Doctor at ProductivIT, thinks you should. “Not having to do everything at once is a huge change. This allows you to keep going and not give up. If you can find one sponsor and supporter and implement change in one area, that is progress to celebrate,” she states.
EX and CX Go Hand in Hand
The intersection of employee experience and CX is something we’ve explored at length here at Women in CX, most recently on our Inspiring Women in CX Podcast with TEDx speaker, contributing author, and trainer Sandra Thompson.
When asked what advice she has for people new to the industry, Anne Dawson, Senior Manager of Employee Development and Training at CallMiner, emphasised the link between EX and CX. “Over the years, I identified that, oftentimes, the lack of understanding of different features and use cases around a product functionality could be traced back to the lack of training and understanding on that functionality by our internal employees who were expected to support the product (the CX team),” she says.
She continues: “The other correlation was that whenever we would see a significant dip in our NPS score, we also usually experience some type of morale issue within our employee workforce. Now our EX team and CX team work hand in hand, and we ensure that we are annually measuring both our NPS and our eNPS scores to ensure that both parts of the organisation stay aligned on our goals and priorities.”
Stay Connected with Customers
Kat Robinson, Commercial Goal Lead at NatWest Group, emphasised the importance of genuine customer connections. “[Make] sure that, regardless of role, you personally, and your key stakeholders, stay genuinely close to customers – as in meet them, regularly and directly, and not just via a PowerPoint deck or research debrief. The same applies to customer-facing colleagues if you have them,” she recommends.
“Make sure that, regardless of role, you personally, and your key stakeholders, stay genuinely close to customers.”
Strategic Integration of Automation
Adriana Salazar Hidalgo, Team Management & Process Improvement at Akuyari, emphasised the strategic integration of automation to enhance both customer and employee experiences: “In my perspective, the role of automation processes should be to serve as an instrument for facilitating both customers’ and employees’ experiences. Companies that either use it as a mere excuse or set it as the ultimate goal without caring about the genuine needs of both customer and employee experiences (CX meets EX, indeed) are the ones failing in their strategic vision. Similar to the debate of whether the egg or the chicken came first, sparking a never-ending discussion on automation and the anxiety and fear of potential job replacement by machines.
“Much like the interconnected nature of the egg-chicken dilemma, the integration of automation should accentuate the priority of fostering well-being and collaboration between humans and technology rather than reducing it to a replacement for human tasks. Companies that adopt a holistic approach, strategically integrating automation to elevate overall efficiency while addressing authentic needs, are well-positioned for success in their strategic approach.”
Understand the Diverse Landscape of CX
“‘CX’ is just one term that describes what we do,” says Nina Hoeberichts, CX Lead at SHERPANY. She emphasises the importance of comprehending the nuanced roles and titles that are associated with CX careers: “Out in the world, CX can also be called service design, CX design(er), UX research, customer journey owner, customer insights manager, etc. Different companies refer to CX differently, and each CX person may have slightly different responsibilities depending on the company. I think it can be useful to be aware of this at the start of a CX career.”
The Power of Storytelling
Michelle Ansell is the Managing Partner and Executive Search Recruitment Consultant for Interim Management and NED at Douglas Jackson. When asked what she wishes she knew, she says: “The power of storytelling and aligning CX with the business goals.”
Stories have the remarkable ability to bring customers to life, making their experiences tangible and relatable.
“One thing I wish I'd known when starting out in the CX industry is the paramount importance of storytelling and the power of simplicity within it,” says Jenna Pellegrino, Senior Manager of Global Voice of the Customer and Customer Experience Strategy at Autodesk.
“Stories have the remarkable ability to bring customers to life, making their experiences tangible and relatable. It's crucial to pick moments of impact and craft narratives around them, intertwining qualitative insights with quantitative data. By merging both aspects, we not only understand the customer journey better but also effectively communicate the significance of our insights. Simplifying these stories to resonate with moments even in our lives not only enhances understanding but also fosters emotional connections. Importantly, this storytelling approach is a tool that anyone can adopt and apply, serving as an instrument of change by driving meaningful improvements in the customer experience.”
Learn to Convey Value and Impact
Vicky Hampson, Co-Founder and Consulting Partner at Defy Expectations, emphasised the importance of communicating the value and impact of CX initiatives: “Learn how to convey a value case for your idea, concept, product, project program, business – whatever it is. The fact is nobody will ever care about your thing as much as you do. If you want to change that, get buy-in, commitment, and a yes, please, then this is a must,” she advises.
“Sometimes 'good enough' is bloody great!”
Vicky reminds us to recognise and appreciate achievements even when perfection isn't attainable: “Sometimes 'good enough' is bloody great!”
It Can Be Lonely
Serena Riley, Head of Customer Experience at ConverSight, reflects on an important realisation: the inherent loneliness that accompanies climbing the organisational ladder. She says: “There are always a lot of opportunities for improvement, forward-thinking, and progress, but sometimes it feels like it's you against the world – even when you have good advocates on your side. The amount of patience, resilience, persistence, and positive thinking you must have is underestimated, especially if you're in large corporations.
“Building a strong network in and outside of the organisation, confident storytelling skills, and thought leadership in your personal brand is helpful. Additionally, but sometimes the most overlooked, is looking after your well-being – knowing when to pause, rest, set and enforce boundaries, and surrender to the battle so you can still be part of the war – will be your strongest tool in survival.”
Working in Customer Experience can feel lonely at times. We’re often single-handedly trying to change the way that organisations think about customers, influence the priorities of senior stakeholders and, unlike any other department or function, continually tasked to prove ROI.
For women, despite being great at what we do, it's easy for our confidence to get knocked and to end up feeling like an imposter.
You’re not alone.
We at Women in CX understand the challenges faced by women in the industry, and our community is here to support you!
Together, we can navigate this interesting, fascinating and challenging space and empower each other to thrive, making a meaningful impact on the industry.
