CXPA Member Blog

CXPA Member Blog

This Blog features thought leadership from CXPA members and staff. All contributions are welcome!  Authors and commenters are reminded to adhere to CXPA's community expectations. Solicitation and direct selling are strictly prohibited, and CXPA has the sole discretion to remove any post for any reason.  For assistance with the CXPA blog, contact gabe@cxpa.org.

By posting to the CXPA blog, you contribute to advancing CX knowledge.  CXPA may share your post with the CX community through our online newsletter, social media, and other content channels.

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CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 6/1/20

By Joy Wedge posted 3 hours ago
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CX Mentorship Program The CXPA was founded to create a safe space for CX professionals to gather, network, ask questions, and learn from each other. There’s no better way to do just that than by participating in our Mentor Match program. All members are welcome to participate as a mentor and/or a mentee, and joining Mentor Match is easy. Simply fill out a brief profile to enroll in the directory of your fellow mentor/mentee participants, then mentees are encouraged to view the profiles of available mentors and approach them to begin a relationship. Previous mentees have called the program “a gift in my ...

Online CX Learning Opportunities in June

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted yesterday
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As the calendar turns to June, many businesses in some parts of the world are beginning to re-open (ICYMI, check out Nancy Ortenburg, CCXP, and her advice on CX considerations for re-opening a property—it’s tip #17 on our new page  CXBuildsResilience.com ). And yet, many are still understandably wary about attending in-person gatherings. If you’re among the 63% of CXPA members and supporters  who told us in a recent survey  that you’re looking for more online learning opportunities, we’re here to help. Whether you’re looking to lounge n’ learn from the comfort of your home office or practice social distancing on the patio of your favorite coffee shop while ...

The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense: Part 1

By Colin Shaw posted 2 days ago
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It seems logical to do what everyone else is doing successfully when you get into business. It makes no sense at all to do it differently, does it? It won’t be good for your career, your team, or your bottom line. So why is it that doing something different does create such success for specific brands? We discussed the surprising way that new ideas that seem crazy can do amazing things for your brand   in a recent podcast . Our guest was an advertising “legend”  Rory Sutherland  (@rorysutherland) Vice Chairman of Ogilvy in the UK. Sutherland has done several TED talks and writes for the spectator market leader  Impact  and also  Wired . His book,  ...

Developing an Enhanced CX in the New Normal

By Victoria Matthews,CCXP posted 6 days ago
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PART II: Interviews with Experts from the Live Event Industry: Developing an Enhanced CX in the New Normal Robert Fitzpatrick is the CEO of The Odyssey Trust, owners and managers of Northern Ireland’s premier live entertainment venue, the SSE Arena, Belfast and home to the Belfast Giants Ice Hockey team. In our first interview with Robert Fitzpatrick, CEO of The Odyssey Trust we talked about the actual situation facing the live events industry and how venues must prepare for the challenges ahead. In that interview we established that venues would face a host of mandatory requirements. We know that live event industry bodies are communicating with respective ...

Under the Hood: CXPA Update on COVID-19

By Annette Franz,CCXP, CX Expert posted 6 days ago
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We hope this message finds you healthy. We are writing to share an update on CXPA Board and staff leadership considerations during this pandemic and actions we are taking to support the CXPA community. Despite some direct impacts from the pandemic (conference postponement, closed CCXP testing facilities, and Network event limitations), your association is overall in a solid operating position. Our staff has made the transition to working on a fully remote basis, and progress continues toward the goals outlined by the Board. Thanks to strong business planning and the continued support of our Sponsors and members, we are in a financial position to support ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 5/25/2020

By Joy Wedge posted 7 days ago
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Connect, Learn, and Share on Our Upcoming Roundtable Calls Be a source of strength for your fellow CXPA members! We've scheduled a series of roundtable calls for you to connect and build your CX support system while the world learns to overcome the many new challenges we're collectively facing. Registration is limited to ensure all who join have ample opportunity to share, so reserve your spot today. Please see below, in the Upcoming Webinars section, for dates and times you can join.  We'll all get through this together!  CX Builds Resilience Campaign ...

Why This is a Great Time to Change Your Customer Habits

By Colin Shaw posted 9 days ago
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The world is somewhat depressing at the moment, but every cloud has a silver lining.   On a recent podcast , we discussed how the silver lining about the pandemic is that we are already used to behaving differently as customers. When people come out of the pandemic, it presents a unique opportunity to reinforce some behaviors that you would like to change. In today’s issue, we are going to talk about changing people's habits. In our book,  The Intuitive Customer , one of the seven imperatives we shared was understanding customer habits. Habits work like this: Cue: An environmental trigger or stimulus occurs. Routine: We react to the trigger or cue ...

Is Safety the New Norm for CX?

By Victoria Matthews,CCXP posted 9 days ago
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PART I Interviews with Experts from the Live Event Industry: Is Safety the New Norm for CX ? Robert Fitzpatrick is the CEO of The Odyssey Trust, owners and managers of Northern Ireland’s premier live entertainment venue, the SSE Arena, Belfast and home to the Belfast Giants Ice Hockey team. The Odyssey Trust firmly recognises the importance of customers and fans as key assets to business growth. The organisation is committed to defining “the best experience every time” for all visitors and over the past three years they have been investing in staff training, upgrades in infrastructure and digital technology. They were one of the first UK Arenas to operate ...

The 'Experience' of Customer Experience Design

By Amy Shioji,CCXP posted 13 days ago
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This article first appeared at  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/experience-customer-amy-shioji-ccxp/ As I’ve settled into a new customer experience (CX) role over the last year, I’ve thought a bit about my CX journey and the way organizations often react to introducing CX into the corporate culture. Having implemented a new customer experience discipline in various organizations over the last 15+ years, I’ve come to learn a bit about how organizations view the customer experience function and the perceived role CX teams play in articulating “THE” experience for customers. The Million Dollar CX Question When first introducing CX more formally ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 5/18/20

By Joy Wedge posted 14 days ago
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CX Builds Resilience Campaign We recently launched a new campaign to highlight customer experience as a strategy for resilience. While a complete customer experience transformation requires several years of ongoing commitment, we carved out building blocks that are intended to help you make better immediate decisions that balance short-term considerations with long-term resiliency and success. We are coordinating with internationally recognized Customer Experience experts who have helped organizations from around the world achieve successful customer experience transformations to create actionable guidance. Learn more and see ...

Customer Experience or Visitor Experience? Knowledge Sharing Across the Community

By Carlton Gajadhar posted 14 days ago
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Recently, I was eating my favorite dessert at Cinnabon (with extra icing) while refreshing myself on customer experience frameworks, when I read something that gave me pause. The item in question was about the difference between customer and visitor experience. "It is the same thing!" I thought, while I finished up my dessert. Diving into these two realms has me questioning my initial assumption, however. How are tourist attractions--including museums--planning for the overall experience for their visitors?   I have been privileged to work for some amazing brands throughout my career, and one item of contention was just what, exactly, we should call ...

Journalist, Internet Pioneer, and CX Champion: Finland's Sirte Pihlaja, CCXP and Her Path to CX Success

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted 15 days ago
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FROM JOURNALISM TO CX   Sirte Pihlaja, CCXP, began her immersion into customer experience over 25 years ago when she journeyed from working in the media, to pioneering digital media at the dawn of the internet, and into CX.  Originally, she went to the University of Helsinki to study journalism and political science with aspirations of becoming a successful foreign news correspondent, but eventually decided that wasn’t for her. “I wanted to do something different, and then my hobby turned into my profession, basically,” Sirte says.  Sirte worked in different roles in the media business, first as an EU press officer and internet producer ...

Practical Advice For Influencing People: 6 Key Principles

By Colin Shaw posted 15 days ago
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Influence and persuasion are critical skills for salespeople. However, they are also crucial for fostering customer-driven growth in your organization. In this issue of Why Customers Buy, we are going to discuss the six fundamental principles of how to influence people, and you might be surprised by what you discover.  We spoke to  Brian Ahearn, CMCT®,  who is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence People   in a recent podcast . His blog,  Influence People , has readers all over the world and offers years of insight into the art of persuasion. As a specialist in applying the science of influence and persuasion in sales, leadership, and coaching, ...

Nothing could have prepared us for the impact of this pandemic on the customer experience.

By Bob Azman,CCXP, CX Expert posted 16 days ago
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Not the dot.com bust in the 2000’s.  Not 9/11.  Not the 2008 financial crisis.  Nothing could have prepared us for the pandemic crisis we are in today and its impact on the customer, employee, and student experience.  While we can certainly learn from past crises, those practices we used are simply not comparable nor as all-encompassing as this pandemic.  Rather than being able to rely solely on the lessons of the past, we are literally defining the experiences as we go, every minute of every day.  We don’t have time for journey mapping workshops or “how to” strategy sessions.  As they say in the NFL draft, “We are on the clock and the clock is ticking”.  Every ...

Under the Hood: Thoughts from CXPA Leadership

By Mr. Greg Melia,CAE posted 20 days ago
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This series will feature messages from the CXPA leadership team on pressing topics relevant to the global CX community. This week, CXPA’s CEO Greg Melia, CAE shares his thoughts on the state of CX.   A little over one year ago, I joined the CXPA staff as CEO.  Fortunately, the first forty-six weeks prepared me for the marathon of the past six weeks.  I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned over the past year, and I believe we are at a critical point for CX. In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing additional insights I’ve gained—and questions I have for the global community. For now, I’d like to begin with this observation:   There is a near-endless ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 5/11/20

By Joy Wedge posted 21 days ago
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CX Builds Resilience Campaign We recently launched a new campaign to highlight customer experience as a strategy for resilience. While a complete customer experience transformation requires several years of ongoing commitment, we carved out building blocks that are intended to help you make better immediate decisions that balance short-term considerations with long-term resiliency and success. We are coordinating with internationally recognized Customer Experience experts who have helped organizations from around the world achieve successful customer experience transformations to create actionable guidance. Learn more and see ...

Valuable Lessons to Takeaway From This Common Poor Practice

By Colin Shaw posted 23 days ago
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Do you love your cable company?  If you do, you are in the minority. People almost universally align on their distaste for their cable company. However, we do love complaining about them, or at least I know I do. Cable companies are an excellent example of what NOT to do with your experience to promote customer-driven growth.  Cable companies are an excellent example of what NOT to do with your experience to promote customer-driven growth.  In a recent podcast , we laid out some of the cable providers' shortcomings, and how we can see the concepts from Behavioral Economics coming into play as a result.  Here are a few we shared: 1. They give ...

CXPA Roundup: Online Learning Opportunities for CX Pros

By Gabe Smith,CCXP posted 27 days ago
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It’s been six weeks since CXPA announced the postponement of Global Insight Exchange. In what seemed like an instant, I went from lining up an incredible array of Global CX leaders to speak and lead workshops at an amazing destination…to wondering how to keep my overgrown hair under control and my 4-year-old daughter out of my office during calls. The disruption has been unsettling for all and devastating for some, and it’s never been a more critical time to invest in your personal development. In-person learning opportunities have stopped for the foreseeable future, but your professional development shouldn’t. Whether you’re looking for an opportunity ...

CXPA Need to Know for the Week of 5/4/20

By Joy Wedge posted 28 days ago
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CX Builds Resilience Campaign We recently launched a new campaign to highlight customer experience as a strategy for resilience. While a complete customer experience transformation requires several years of ongoing commitment, we carved out building blocks that are intended to help you make better immediate decisions that balance short-term considerations with long-term resiliency and success. We are coordinating with internationally recognized Customer Experience experts who have helped organizations from around the world achieve successful customer experience transformations to create actionable guidance. Learn more and see ...

Customer-Centered Management is Straightforward Business Sense: Why & How

By Lynn Hunsaker,CCXP, CX Expert posted 29 days ago
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“Customer-centered management is straightforward business sense,” declared the first article 1   in this six-part   CEO’s Guide to Growth   series. Indeed, this declaration is reinforced by the new Principles of Corporate Governance, overhauled by Business Roundtable in August 2019. 2 Modern corporate governance replaces shareholder primacy with   balanced attention among five vital stakeholders: customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. “CEOs work to generate profits and return value to shareholders, but the best-run companies do more,” said Tricia Griffith, President and CEO of Progressive Corporation. “They put the customer ...