The world is different than when Lou Carbone and Stephan Haeckel wrote about “Engineering Customer Experiences” in January 1994, or even when CXPA was founded in 2011. “Customer experience” is now widely used – albeit in a variety of contexts and meaning. But it is undeniable that this idea that arose just over 30 years ago is now found in organization charts, university courses, software platforms, and consulting frameworks. Nearly 74,000 people follow CXPA on LinkedIn and over 30,000 individuals have digital profiles with CXPA. There is no disputing that CX has arrived and taken root – thanks in large part due to visionaries like Lou, Stephen, Bruce Temkin, Jeanne Bliss, and other founding members of the CXPA.
The picture, however, is not a well-tended rose garden. There is still a lack of understanding that customer experience is a holistic discipline – instead, it is often confused with or reduced to customer service, customer success, user experience, digital experience, customer relationship management, cross-selling, upselling, loyalty or other concepts. Formal research and data about the customer experience discipline is limited. There are competing methodologies, often developed for commercial purposes, that further fragment the CX conversation — fragmentation that may inhibit the advancement of CX business practices by simply changing the conversation. While CX commitments are still springing up in organizations around the globe, other organizations are cutting back or eliminating their investment in CX.
CXPA is deeply focused on these issues. We are committed to the long-term work required “To ensure global recognition and understanding of Customer Experience as a known, respected professional role and career choice; and as a valued, trusted and preferred business discipline that drives sustainable organizational growth.” Over the past year, we have conducted extensive global research and convened global leaders to give guidance based in this community research. Here are updates on the directions identified, and the work underway:
· Strategy: Ensure that CXPA provides mechanisms that enable CX success by being a well-understood, high-performing customer-centric organization
o A CXPA member team is currently working to build a GenAI application prototype with a query-based interface based on CXPA publications. This may lead to a new tool for CXPA members to get CX technical assistance from the CXPA-verified knowledge base.
o CXPA membership pages have been updated to make the membership options, including special regionally adjusted offerings, more prominent.
o CCXP webpages, handbooks and application processes have been revised to be more efficient and customer centric. Remote exam proctoring is now available year-round without scheduling restrictions.
o We have begun a further review of CXPA’s technology stack, with the intent to redesign our website and better leverage personalization through data management improvements by Q2 2025.
o In line with global research findings and member feedback, we will intentionally invite CX groups that share a commitment to our long-term goals to affiliate with CXPA for mutual benefit. We hope this helps unify the global CX community while also improving local engagement.
o We will dedicate resources to better serve global member and regional market needs by continuing advisory councils in Africa, Asia, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, while also creating dedicated investments in plans of work for Canada, Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and CXPA Global.
o We will intentionally seek to expand our business partnerships with Recognized Training Providers, Sponsors, and other partners who can help extend the breadth and scope of services available to the CX community.
· Strategy: Promote the professional practice of customer experience as a business discipline with specialized knowledge and activities
o We will continue to lead and advocate CX as a preferred business discipline on CX Day and throughout the year.
o We will increase promotion of the CCXP certification as an enabler for every individual who chooses CX as a career.
o We have restructured the CXPA CX Impact Awards program to focus on collecting verified case studies of CX business impact. We will also promote and support the development of case studies for business school use by academic publisher, Sage.
o We will hold the 2025 CX Leaders Advance conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA April 28-30, 2025. The 2026 CX Leaders Advance will be held April 27-29, 2026, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
o We will continue to develop and conduct online programs, education, research, and publications to support the CX community including the CXPA Job Seekers Guide to support CX professional career retention and advancement.
· Strategy: Focus our advocacy on influencing the C-Suite that CX is a trusted and preferred business discipline that drives sustainable organizational growth
o We had several sessions at the 2024 CX Leaders Advance conference focused on making the case to the C-Suite including “A Real Conversation about CEO Priorities”, a plenary session featuring insights from Joel Trammell, an expert in CEO development.
o CXPA Board members are conducting one-on-one exploratory interviews with CEOs and C-Suite leaders to understand perspectives about CX better.
o We have enlisted a firm to conduct a targeted communications audit to provide directional guidance to CXPA. The selected firm team has worked with Project Management Institute (PMI) for the past twenty years to support its growth to be a well-known global and respected professional association.
o Additional projects on the roadmap include a sourcebook detailing vetted CX research, promoting CX as business school curriculum topic, and primary research in conjunction with valued CXPA sponsors and partners.
The above notes reflect activities we are prioritizing for 2024 and 2025. We will continue to listen, research, and adapt to meet community needs, leverage opportunities, and respond to external conditions.
The success of these efforts lies not in this outlined plan, but in the collaborative work to bring this plan to life. We are especially thankful to the CXPA Board of Directors and more than 250 volunteers who are already involved – and look forward to working with others who will step up too. Look for the 2025 volunteer application process to be shared in September. Of course, I also would love to hear from you with feedback or if you would like to get involved now – just drop me a line at greg@cxpaglobal.org.
Together in Advancing CX,
Greg Melia, CAE
CXPA CEO
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