
Karl E. Sharicz, CCXP, EdM, CX-PRO
CEO | Founder, HorizonCX, LLC
Karl brings over thirty years of skills and experiences gained in high-tech research and manufacturing B2B environments along with proven business acumen. Throughout his career he has served a broad range of roles within marketing, sales, business development, instructional design, training, and training management—developing both internal and external customer relationship skills and building a decided customer-centric focus along the way. In 2014, Karl left the corporate world and founded HorizonCX which offers professional services around all aspects of CX on a contract basis to organizations both large and small, but particularly targeting those within the earlier stages of CX maturity. Based on his foundational skills in instructional design, Karl has developed training courses in CX fundamentals, designed specifically for those newly assigned to a CX role as well as those in the early stages of their CX career.
In his former corporate role within Tyco SimplexGrinnell, a leading fire and life-safety provider doing business throughout North America, Karl led the Customer Experience journey where he and his team focused on driving those elements of customer relationships and experiences that increased customer satisfaction, reduced customer churn, increased customer lifetime value and in-turn helped increase service revenues.
Karl is steeped in the Customer Experience Management discipline, including developing a customer-centric cultures; determining the voice of the customer and deriving insights and understanding; fostering organizational adoption and accountability; creating customer experience strategies, designing approaches that will achieve customer experience excellence; and setting up metrics and measurement systems that help drive organizational return on investment.
Through his knowledge of adult education and learning styles plus prior experiences as a director of training, he offers additional skills in developing structured learning environments. During his tenure at Tyco for example, Karl developed the Next Improvement in Customer Experience (NICE) Workshop concept that has been in operation throughout the organization since 2010, driving increasing levels of customer focus and customer retention. He has developed certification programs for professional services teams, and was a certified consultative sales trainer and coach.
Karl holds a Master's degree in Education from Boston University. He formerly served on the CXPA Board of Directors from 2011 – 2015. He founded one of the first local CXPA networks in Boson in 2012 and has served as committee-lead from 2012 – 2019. Karl also served in past leadership positions within the Association for Talent Development (ATD) formerly known as the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). Karl is an active blogger and is well published. In addition to his professional CX persona, Karl is a contributing writer to the Music Museum of New England (MMONE) and is also as a singer-songwriter and musician and has recorded two CDs of his own original music.