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August 19, 2025 16 mins

Why do customer experience professionals still struggle to get buy-in from leadership—even in small organizations where alignment should be easier? This question from a listener in the UK captures a universal frustration faced by CX champions worldwide.

The challenge isn't about company size or industry. Whether in healthcare, education, or corporate settings, the fundamental issue is the same: creating a cultural shift in how organizations perceive customer experience. Many leaders still view CX as reactive customer service rather than proactive strategy. Others, particularly in non-customer-facing roles, fail to see how their work impacts the end customer. The disconnect between CX metrics and departmental KPIs further complicates the picture.

Breaking through these barriers requires persistent communication, strategic translation, and genuine patience. Success comes from focusing on one department at a time, finding champions who already believe in CX, and making them heroes. When you connect customer experience directly to each leader's specific goals and priorities, you bridge the gap between abstract concepts and concrete business outcomes. Real customer stories—not just data—create the emotional connection that inspires action and commitment.

Cultural transformation is never a light-switch moment; it's a journey that unfolds over years, not weeks. For CX leaders feeling unheard or undervalued, remember to celebrate each small victory and document your progress. Your persistent efforts are creating meaningful change that benefits your organization, your customers, and your employees. The mountain moves one stone at a time—keep going, and eventually, your customer experience parade will grow until the entire organization is marching alongside you.

Resources Mentioned:
CX Success Statement Workbook -- https://bit.ly/cx-success-workbook
Experience Investigators Website -- https://experienceinvestigators.com

Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, Jeannie Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm

(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.
One, two, three, four.

Jeannie Walters (00:31):
In an ideal world, customer experience would
be a universal businessstrategy, but alas, we aren't
quite there yet.
What we do have are universalchallenges like the one our
listener addresses in thisquestion.

Listener Question (00:49):
Hi Jeannie.
This is Judy, over in the UK,and my question is I suppose one
of my biggest challenges isgetting buy-in from all
department heads for CX as anessential business strategy and
it's for those business headswho don't yet see it as a
priority, despite our bestefforts to train them,

(01:10):
communicate to them, you know,help them understand, et cetera.
So, yeah, it's just, it seemsto be a continuing challenge.
I reckon it takes a couple ofyears, but it's a small business
, it's not a big business, so itshouldn't be that hard in my
view.
Anyway, that's my question.
Thank you, bye.

Jeannie Walters (01:30):
This is a question I hear a lot.
How is it still such a struggle?
Why aren't they hearing me?
What can I do as a leader toget other leaders to actually
care about this?
We train, we communicate, wetalk about the data.
We socialize, we do all ofthose things and yet, time and

(01:51):
again, it doesn't resonate.
So what's going on here?
Why is customer experience,buy-in still a struggle?
And to the point of ourquestion asker here, Judy, she
mentioned it's a small business.
It should not be this hard.
So let's try to break this downinto what it can be, because it

(02:13):
can be very frustrating to bethat leader, to not feel heard,
to not feel like our message isresonating and not feel like
we're getting maybe the respectthat we deserve or the resources
that we need or simply the seatat the table that we've earned.
So you might think we're only afew dozen people.

(02:36):
Why is this such a challenge?
But here's the thing.
None of this is about size.
We see the same challenge atlarge organizations within
different industries.
It happens in healthcare andeducation, and nonprofits and
corporate America and everythingin between, and so what I want

(02:59):
you to think about is what'sreally going on is a shift, a
shift in culture, a shift inmindset, a shift in priorities
and even breaking down perceivedvalue.
So let's say that you've beendoing all the right things right
.
There's been the training andthe communication.

(03:19):
You've been showing the dataand, to the point we've talked
about a lot on this podcast,connecting those dots between
the data points that you presentfrom the customer experience
lens and how that connects tothe business outcomes and the
goals of your overallorganization and leadership.
So let's say we're doing all ofthat and some leaders still are

(03:41):
not seeing customer experienceas essential.
They are seeing it as an extra.
This might be what's happeninghere.
One is that a lot of people inbusiness specifically, still
equate customer experience asservice, not strategy.
They think about it as reactivecustomer support.
That's how they've defined itin their head, and so what we

(04:04):
have to do is continually sharethe definition of customer
experience as the holisticjourney that a customer has and
how that creates perceptionsabout the brand and the value
they're receiving as thecustomer.
All of that leads toconsequences, either good or bad

(04:26):
.
Consequences of a greatexperience.
They are going to stay with us.
They are going to tell theirfriends.
They will spend more, they willcost less.
We will not have as manyrepairs, refunds, retribution,
all of those things.
And the negative side of thisif we don't deliver a great

(04:46):
experience, it's all of thosethings.
Our service costs go up, ourretention rates go down,
negative word of mouth can takeover.
Poor user reviews and, guesswhat, employees don't love
working at places wherecustomers are complaining all
the time.
So we have to remind them thatthis is about proactive,

(05:07):
intentional design of ameaningful customer experience
to deliver the business outcomesthat we all want.
So if they are constantlyasking you about just customer
service metrics or what'shappening in the call center and
that's it, then we have toreally start educating and

(05:30):
re-educating and restating andre-communicating.
It takes people a long time toshift a definition and belief
like that.
Another thing that could behappening with their mindset is
that they believe theirdepartment simply isn't a part
of this.
They're behind the scenes,they're not customer facing, so
they don't need to really care.

(05:51):
This is where we have tocontinually beat the drum of how
every single person in theorganization has an impact on
the customer experience.
Sometimes that means how wetreat one another.
Sometimes that means how wedeliver and serve internal
customers.
If we are waiting betweendepartments to get information

(06:11):
that has an impact on the endcustomer, if there is a hiccup
in a process that actuallycreates additional time for
getting information to acustomer, or getting a product
to a customer, that has a directimpact on the customer.
We have to make sure everybodyunderstands when we talk about
customer experience, yes you,engineer, person in procurement,

(06:37):
vendor management, supply chainmanagement, janitorial you all
are related to the customerexperience.
You all have a direct impact.
This has to be something thatwe not only talk about but we
show.
When things go right because ofa process that happened in the
background or because somebodyshowed up in a way that helped

(07:01):
another team deliver, we have tocelebrate that.
We have to showcase that sothat people are connecting those
dots.
And then the other thing is theymight not be seeing customer
experience as tied to their keyperformance indicators.
So if I am in finance and I'mworried about saving expenses

(07:21):
and you're talking to me aboutpositive word of mouth, that
might not resonate with me.
So we have to share with themhow, you know what, what this
ultimately means is that we'regoing to reduce expenses by
having fewer returns, fewerrepairs, all of those things.
So we have to connect the dotsover and over and over and over

(07:43):
and over and over and over again.
I know it's frustrating, I knowit can feel like you're not
being heard, but, trust me, whenyou connect the dots, when you
help people realize thatcustomer experience is a
holistic practice and that it isa winning business strategy,
not just in general, not justfor customers, but for the

(08:04):
organization and for theemployees that's when you start
getting this sense of okay, wecan do this because we're
working together.
It is absolutely critical.
So, number one, Judy, I want youto know you are not alone.
Everybody feels this way.
When you're, especially whenyou're on the earlier part of
your customer experience journey.

(08:25):
It can take a long time.
It is really about a journey oftransformation that you are on.
That's why, when we talk aboutthings like maturity models,
we're talking about things thattake years, not weeks, because
we want to have things happenfaster than they can.
So just remember that this is acultural change.

(08:47):
It can take years.
Culture shifts don't happen ona project plan.
They don't happen because weare asking them to happen.
This is something bigger andsomething that will take time.
It's an evolution, not arevolution.
It's never been a light switchmoment.
This is a journey that you areon and it can be quite a trek,

(09:10):
let's be honest.
So what I want to leave you withhere are ideas about how to
keep pushing forward, as thatcustomer experience change agent
who wants to see these thingshappen.
How do you push forward withoutburning out?
So here's what I recommend.
One.
Sometimes, it's helpful tofocus on one team, one

(09:35):
department or one function at atime.
Find your champions.
Once you have found a fewchampions, and if they're
already open to this idea, ifthey have the right humility to
hear what you're asking them todo, if you know that they have
the heart to really focus oncustomer experience, make them
heroes.
Share what they're doing farand wide.

(09:58):
Celebrate when they make asmall move that makes a big
difference for customers or justhelps you do your job better.
That also helps customers.
So make sure that whenever yousee one of those small wins with
your champions and their teams,you are their biggest
cheerleader.
Number two.

(10:18):
Tie customer experience totheir goals.
This is exactly what we do whenwe map out the customer
experience success statement andsuccess blueprint.
This is all about defining thestrategy based on your
organizational goals, yourleadership goals and the efforts
that will impact those things.

(10:38):
So we look at our customerexperience efforts and we figure
out what kind of positiveimpact will that have on our
organizational goals and ourleadership goals?
So we have to get into theheadspace of our leaders a
little bit.
What does your chiefoperational officer think about
things versus your chief revenueofficer?

(11:00):
You have to think about whattheir goals are for both the
company and themselves.
That's what moves the needle.
And then we want to use realstories.
Data is important, but data isnot what moves people
emotionally.
Using real stories, bringingthe humanity into everything we

(11:25):
do, is super important becauseall those numbers we report on,
all those metrics, they arerepresenting people.
So we have to bring people backinto that conversation to
inspire, to motivate, to movepeople, because otherwise we're
basically saying, hey, help usmove these numbers, and if it
doesn't have the context of realpeople, then people just won't

(11:46):
take the time to really learnabout it, to get inspired and to
hear the influence that you'retrying to help them with.
Once you've gotten here, onceyou're telling those stories
maybe you're focusing on onegroup at a time you are creating
those quick wins, and thosequick wins are small but visible
changes.

(12:07):
Sometimes I talk about quickwins and people will come up to
me and say, yeah, they didn'tget excited that we moved up our
net promoter score by 0.1.
And I thought that was a greatquick win.
But that's reporting on metrics.
That's not actually a win.
What caused that increase?
That's what I would ask.
Did we change something?
Did we improve a small part ofthe journey?

(12:29):
Did we put the effort into theright place to get the return on
that investment?
That's what we want to talkabout when we talk about quick
wins.
That's what builds momentum,because people can see the
change and the progress.
And then for you, I want you tocelebrate every single step you
take, every step forward.

(12:51):
Progress is not guaranteed.
Progress requires a leader likeyou, who is focused on the
right things, who is doing theirbest in a world that is not as
supportive about this as itshould be.
So you, every day, I encourageyou, write down that one win.
At the end of your day, justthink about what was one small

(13:14):
win we got.
Write it down and at the end ofthe week, see if you can tell
anybody about some of those.
See if you can talk to yourboss or another leader or one of
your champions and say, hey, Ijust wanted to share that we
made some great progress thisweek.
Let me share what we did.
By getting that celebration andby sharing those celebrations,

(13:37):
you are not only showingprogress but you're reminding
yourself of what you've done.
There is always so much to do.
At the end of the week it canfeel like, oh my gosh, I didn't
get to everything I wanted to,we barely got anything done.
But when you really take thetime to look at what you've
accomplished, that's when youstart realizing you know what.
We've done quite a bit andwe're ready.

(14:00):
We are ready to go for nextweek and we are going to make
more progress then.
It is challenging out there.
I totally understand that and Ihave so much empathy and
compassion for customerexperience leaders because a lot
of times they are put inimpossible situations.
What I want you to do isrecognize all the important,

(14:23):
meaningful work you do on adaily basis, even if others
can't hear that yet, and the yetis the most important part.
Keep following these steps andeventually you'll get more and
more people into your customerexperience parade.
You'll be able to cheer on morepeople, and they're going to

(14:44):
cheer you on right back.
So don't give up hope.
Keep working at making thechanges that you know are most
important for your customers.
That will lead to that triplewin for your organization, your
customers and your employees.
That's what moves needles andeventually those move mountains.

(15:07):
So keep up the great work.
Fantastic question, and we areall right there with you, Judy.
Well, thank you all forlistening, thank you for sending
in your fantastic questions andthank you for everything you do
.
It is important and meaningfulwork, and I am here to be your
cheerleader.
So, rah rah you.

(15:29):
Thanks for everything.
We will see you next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to experience
, check out free resources atexperienceinvestigatorscom,
where you can sign up for ournewsletter, our Year of CX
program and more, and pleasefollow me, Jeannie Walters, on

(15:51):
LinkedIn.
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