Blogs

On October 4, 2022, the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) officially published nine books as part of its CX Day celebrations. This article shares how these publications came about, the process by which they were developed, and an overview of the books.

The CXPA CX Book of Knowledge

The idea for The CXPA CX Book of Knowledge originated from an online post in the CXPA member community asking for advice on driving customer-centricity in an organization. Inspired by her appreciation for the Project Management Institute's A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, CXPA member Heather Gillbanks, CCXP responded, asking if there was interest from others to collaborate to develop such a resource for the CX community. More than 200 individuals expressed support for, and/or interest in contributing!

An official CXPA project was chartered to create a consensus-based universal reference that could help CX leaders do their jobs in a more consistent way. The CXPA CX Framework, which is based on psychometric job analysis studies of the CX leader role, was adopted as the organizing structure for the book. Heather served as Executive Editor for the project, ably assisted by fellow CXPA volunteer Megan Fehn who served as Chief Support Officer. More than 70 additional CX professionals from across the globe contributed as authors or peer reviewers working in teams aligned with the five CX competencies:

• Customer Insights and Understanding
• Customer Experience Strategy
• Metrics, Measurement, and ROI
• Design, Implementation, and Innovation
• Culture and Accountability

The book draws on seminal and contemporary customer experience works, as well as insights and theories from etymology, psychology, design, law, marketing, finance, innovation, change leadership, project management, and total quality management - and, of course, the practical experience of the authors and reviewers. The resulting publication is impressive — 327 pages of clear, practical guidance on terms, processes, and theory of customer experience, including nineteen pages of references! To learn more about the book, review The CXPA CX Book of Knowledge Table of Contents, Introduction, Foreword or this article in CXM Review.

The CXPA Effective Collaboration Series: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together

The Effective Collaboration Series was also inspired and led by a CXPA member. Michelle Spaul noted that while many CX professionals were asking about how to achieve better influence within their organization, they struggled to effectively engage colleagues due to the variety of perspectives used to define success by different functional departments. Michelle knew that to overcome these struggles, the CX professional must adopt a customer-centric mindset in which they seek to understand the goals and aspirations of these organization counterparts and create win-win situations by which these colleagues, the organization, and the organization's customers achieve better outcomes. Conversations with CXPA leadership led to the idea of writing a series of pieces that could help both CX professionals and these functional leaders develop this essential shared understanding.

The project originally was titled the "Facilitating CX Monograph Series," in homage to the famous London School of Economics Monographs on Social Anthropology. A monograph series is a collection of independent works related by a common editorial important topic area. Michelle served as Executive Editor for the series, supporting author and reviewer teams recruited from the CXPA community. More than 54 additional CX professionals from across the globe served as contributing authors or reviewers. Contributors drew upon established CX and business management literature, theories, and resources as well as their own depth of experience. Each monograph addressed the relationship between CX and a designated function (such as Customer Service), documenting how the functional area is typically organized, common job titles, roles, structures, definitions, and indicators of success for the function. Additionally, each monograph discussed the function's role in delivering CX, its relationship to the CX team, common pitfalls to avoid, and practices to consider. As the series developed, it became clear that effective collaboration was the name of the game, and the series was renamed The CXPA Effective Collaboration Series: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together. The following titles were published on October 4:

• Effective Collaboration Between CX and Marketing: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Effective Collaboration Between CX and Finance: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Effective Collaboration Between CX and Sales, Account Management, and Customer Success: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Effective Collaboration Between CX and Operations: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Effective Collaboration Between CX and Customer Service: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Effective Collaboration Between CX and IT: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Effective Collaboration Between CX and the C-Suite: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together
• Establishing Effective Governance and Sponsorship: A Guide to Strengthening CX Together

Visit www.cxbookstore.com to learn more about the series, or www.cxpa.org/volunteer if you would like to be involved in future monographs that address collaboration with additional functions.

For More Information

All nine publications may be read and viewed online as a benefit of CXPA membership. The publications can also be purchased as printed publications or .pdf downloads. Get all the details at www.cxbookstore.com.

A very special thank you to Heather, Michelle, and all of the contributing authors and reviewers. Together we advance CX.