February 25, 2025 • 13 mins
Ready to elevate your customer experience game as a leader? In this engaging episode, we explore the pivotal questions every aspiring CX professional should ask during executive interviews. Jeannie shares practical advice on evaluating success metrics beyond traditional feedback loops, and the importance of resource allocation to drive effective strategy.
Listeners will uncover strategies for assessing an organization's commitment to customer experience, from cultural fit to the resources available for successful execution. Whether you're a seasoned CX leader or looking to break into leadership, this episode is packed with actionable insights that will prepare you for success. Tune in to discover how to turn customer experience discussions into impactful actions and position yourself as a leader who can drive sustainable customer-centric initiatives.
Resources Mentioned:
Take the CXI® Compass assessment -- http://cxicompass.com/
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/)
Mark as Played
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.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Let's face it, interviewing for a job, finding
out about the culture, that canbe challenging in any industry.
But if you're a customerexperience professional, if you
are looking to make that change,we have some great ideas for
you based on this question.
Let's go ahead and listen in.
Listener Question (00:53):
Hi Jeannie, I'm Alex.
Today, my question is thefollowing: how do you think what
questions should a CX leaderapplying for an executive
position ask at an interview inexecutive, with the CEO or
founder, to get a clear sense ofhow the organization values its
customers and prioritizecustomer experience?
Jeannie Walters (01:13):
Such a good question and one that's close to
my heart, because I thinkanytime we are exploring, really
joining a new organization oraccepting a new role or working
for a new leader, we really haveto understand what is the
culture here?
How will we fit in?
Do they really take customerexperience seriously and give it
(01:36):
the attention it deserves?
So I love that you are askingthese questions.
Now, when we talk about customerexperience, let's remember that
that can be defined verydifferently from one
organization to the next.
So before you accept a role,before you step into that, make
sure you understand how theydefine it at their organization.
(01:59):
I would be super curious aboutwhere does this fit in for the
C-suite and the overallorganizational goals?
That's where I would want tofocus first.
So let's talk about fivequestions you can walk in and
ask about to show both yourknowledge of customer experience
(02:21):
, strategy and leadership, andalso to make sure that you can
understand is this a fit, isthis a place that will give you
the resources, the investment,the support that you need so
that you can really help themturn customer experience into a
strategic business driver fortheir organization.
Let's start with the strategicvision.
(02:43):
What is the overall strategyhere?
What are we trying to do as anorganization and how does
customer experience fit intothat overall business strategy?
How do we see it really fuelinggrowth or brand differentiation
?
Let's start there and ask themto really tell us where does
(03:07):
this fit?
And the answer might be that'swhat we want to figure out.
And if that is the answer, thenthat tells you you will have a
lot of responsibility overdefining the strategy.
So make sure you ask thosefollow-up questions.
What does that look like?
What does the team look like?
What kind of support would Iget?
Those are really important.
But make sure that customerexperience is really woven into
(03:31):
the overall long-term goals andambitions of the company that
you're talking to.
The next thing I want you totalk about are success metrics.
How will we know that we'veachieved success?
What are we measuring to getthere?
Now, if you hear things likewell, we've been tracking net
(03:52):
promoter score for a zillionyears and we will continue to do
that, you can say great, that'sone metric, that's customer
feedback.
But what else can we look at?
How will we know we'resuccessful?
Get into what are theoperational metrics that you may
want to explore.
What are some of thosebehavioral analytics that you
(04:14):
want to make sure you haveaccess to?
How will you define success andwhat will you use to measure it
?
If they are leaning completelyon this idea of customer
feedback metrics, that could bea little bit of a red flag
because that shows you that theymight hold you responsible for
(04:35):
those metrics, even though youaren't accountable for the
changes that need to be made inorder to improve those.
Have honest conversations here.
If you join a company or anorganization that really isn't
approaching this the right way,you might not be setting
yourself up for success.
So, be brave, ask these bigquestions about what are we
(04:57):
really talking about when we saya successful customer
experience effort?
How will I know that I'msuccessful in my role?
And then, of course, you wantto look at how are we doing here
as a culture?
What do our leaders care about?
How does this organizationtoday cultivate a
customer-centric culture?
(05:18):
That's a great question to ask.
And if they say, well, we talkabout it and we're doing this
and we're collecting feedback,great.
Can you give me an example oftimes when you've turned
insights into action?
What did that look like?
Who was involved?
Is it cross-functional?
Because you and I both knowthat customer experience is a
(05:40):
team sport.
It's something we all have towork on together.
And yet, at the same time, ifwe just use platitudes like,
well, cx is everybody's job,then that doesn't really work
either.
We have to treat this like aserious part of the business.
So that is one of the attitudesthat you can bring.
You can say you know, I reallybelieve customer experience is a
(06:02):
business driver.
It's a way to achieve growth.
It's a way to achievesustainable customer lifetime
values.
It's a way to get more renewalsand retention and all the
things that come with those.
So once you state that, don'tbe afraid to ask questions about
how much support do leadersgive these efforts?
(06:24):
What if we need more data?
What if we need more insights?
What if we need to crosscollaborate with different
leaders?
Help me understand what thatwould look like and how we could
do that in a way that isfitting into the culture of
today.
So ask about where they aretoday as a culture and where you
want to bring them.
(06:44):
And then, of course, we can'tdo any of this without a budget.
We can't do any of this withouta team.
We can't do any of this withoutcertain things like technology
and tools.
So ask those questions aboutresource allocation and autonomy
.
How will I be able to lead here?
(07:04):
Who do I need to get approvalfrom?
How many people will be able toprovide insights and action for
this program?
How can we make sure thatcustomer experience is seen as a
strategic asset?
So when resources, budget andauthority come up, ask about how
(07:27):
will that be allocated in thecustomer experience function and
how do you envisioncollaboration with the rest of
the leadership team.
Go ahead and ask thosequestions, because that can give
you insight as well into whatsort of culture am I walking
into.
That can be absolutely criticalto success at your next role.
(07:51):
If customer experience isprioritized, the organization
will invest in the right tools,the right headcount,
cross-functional support, all ofthose things.
Now we live in a world wheresome budgets are shrinking, so
let's be realistic about that.
Maybe they're going to tell you, you know what, we aren't
willing or able to invest rightnow in a huge team of people.
(08:14):
What we want to do is startwhere we are and we want you to
lead that.
That's a great place to be, aslong as everybody understands
what the limits are and what youmight be asking for in the
future.
As far as allocation.
Now, as long as you can makeyour business case that this is
a strategy that will helpeverybody win, customers,
(08:35):
employees and the overallorganization, then they're going
to be more likely to trust youonce you ask for that allocation
in the future.
Keep making the business caseas you ask these questions.
These aren't just fluffyquestions.
Customer experience is not justabout soft skills.
It's not a nice to have.
(08:56):
It is something that will drivethe business forward, and
here's how and here's how I canhelp.
That's what leaders want tohear.
And then finally ask about howare you listening to customers
today?
What does the feedback looplook like?
How do you apply that tocontinuous improvement of the
customer journey?
(09:20):
How do you get people to hearand see the feedback that they
need to know about theirproducts, their services, their
departments.
How do we incorporate differentways to collect voice of the
customer, like checking in withour frontline employees?
How do we make sure that we aregetting the right information?
Explore the feedback mechanismsthat are available.
(09:41):
Explore how they're attached toactions and explore that, you
know, if you have that robustfeedback loop, maybe that's a
part of the business they'vedone really well.
We've seen that a lot wherethey get the feedback kind of
figured out that loop but theydon't ever take it to that next
level.
You want to be the one who saysthis is great, feedback is
(10:03):
important.
I can't wait to turn this intomore actions to drive the
business forward.
So if they don't have any sortof feedback, that's a great
place for you to say well, Iwould love to start
understanding customers more.
I would love to tap into notonly what they tell us, but also
(10:27):
how are they behaving?
What do their actions tell us?
How can we track the rightoperational metrics so that we
get the full picture of whatcustomers really want and need
for the future?
If you go in there and askthese questions and explore
these topics, this will give youan idea of how to be the right
leader for their organization.
It also gives you the feedbackso that you can decide hey, this
(10:50):
isn't the right place.
They're talking about customerexperience, but that's it.
Set yourself up for successfrom the beginning.
Define what customer experienceis, explore how it fits into
the culture, poke around and askabout resource allocation and
leadership buy-in before youeven walk in the door.
(11:15):
That way you will look preparedand efficient and like the
leader you are.
So I wish you great luck as youstart looking and exploring at
leadership roles andunderstanding how you can make
the most out of not just thisrole, but really the role of
customer experience at theorganization.
That's an exciting place to be,and we need to embrace the
(11:36):
challenges, understand thelimitations and really get
excited about the vision.
Bring that kind of energy tothese discussions that you're
having and I cannot wait to seeyou lead.
Now, for those of you who arecurious about how you're doing
with customer experience, Irecommend you check out our CXI
(11:58):
Compass tool.
This is a free tool availableto you.
It takes about three minutesand you essentially answer a few
questions and we let you know.
Where do you want to investmore?
Where would it make sense foryou to put in the effort to get
the biggest impact from yourcustomer experience program?
This is based on our CXInavigational framework, which
has four sections (12:22):
intentional success, customer collaboration,
cultural commitment andexperiential innovation.
It's all about continuousimprovement so that we're not
only meeting our customer needs,but we are looking to the
future and making sure that weare staying ahead of what
they'll need tomorrow.
(12:42):
Thank you so much for joining meon the Experience Action
Podcast.
Thank you for all the greatquestions.
Don't forget you can leave me avoicemail at askjeannievip and
ask a question of your own.
So keep doing the hard work ofcustomer experience that leads
to the business results we knowit can achieve.
Keep leading out there and keepfighting the good fight on
(13:05):
behalf of your customers.
Thank you so much for beinghere and I'll see you next week.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience, check out freeresources at
experienceinvestigatorscom,where you can sign up for our
newsletter, our Year of CXprogram and more, and please
(13:27):
follow me, Jeannie Walters, onLinkedIn.
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.
Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Let's face it, interviewing for a job, finding
out about the culture, that canbe challenging in any industry.
But if you're a customerexperience professional, if you
are looking to make that change,we have some great ideas for
you based on this question.
Let's go ahead and listen in.
Listener Question (00:53):
Hi Jeannie, I'm Alex.
Today, my question is thefollowing: how do you think what
questions should a CX leaderapplying for an executive
position ask at an interview inexecutive, with the CEO or
founder, to get a clear sense ofhow the organization values its
customers and prioritizecustomer experience?
Jeannie Walters (01:13):
Such a good question and one that's close to
my heart, because I thinkanytime we are exploring, really
joining a new organization oraccepting a new role or working
for a new leader, we really haveto understand what is the
culture here?
How will we fit in?
Do they really take customerexperience seriously and give it
(01:36):
the attention it deserves?
So I love that you are askingthese questions.
Now, when we talk about customerexperience, let's remember that
that can be defined verydifferently from one
organization to the next.
So before you accept a role,before you step into that, make
sure you understand how theydefine it at their organization.
(01:59):
I would be super curious aboutwhere does this fit in for the
C-suite and the overallorganizational goals?
That's where I would want tofocus first.
So let's talk about fivequestions you can walk in and
ask about to show both yourknowledge of customer experience
(02:21):
, strategy and leadership, andalso to make sure that you can
understand is this a fit, isthis a place that will give you
the resources, the investment,the support that you need so
that you can really help themturn customer experience into a
strategic business driver fortheir organization.
Let's start with the strategicvision.
(02:43):
What is the overall strategyhere?
What are we trying to do as anorganization and how does
customer experience fit intothat overall business strategy?
How do we see it really fuelinggrowth or brand differentiation
?
Let's start there and ask themto really tell us where does
(03:07):
this fit?
And the answer might be that'swhat we want to figure out.
And if that is the answer, thenthat tells you you will have a
lot of responsibility overdefining the strategy.
So make sure you ask thosefollow-up questions.
What does that look like?
What does the team look like?
What kind of support would Iget?
Those are really important.
But make sure that customerexperience is really woven into
(03:31):
the overall long-term goals andambitions of the company that
you're talking to.
The next thing I want you totalk about are success metrics.
How will we know that we'veachieved success?
What are we measuring to getthere?
Now, if you hear things likewell, we've been tracking net
(03:52):
promoter score for a zillionyears and we will continue to do
that, you can say great, that'sone metric, that's customer
feedback.
But what else can we look at?
How will we know we'resuccessful?
Get into what are theoperational metrics that you may
want to explore.
What are some of thosebehavioral analytics that you
(04:14):
want to make sure you haveaccess to?
How will you define success andwhat will you use to measure it
?
If they are leaning completelyon this idea of customer
feedback metrics, that could bea little bit of a red flag
because that shows you that theymight hold you responsible for
(04:35):
those metrics, even though youaren't accountable for the
changes that need to be made inorder to improve those.
Have honest conversations here.
If you join a company or anorganization that really isn't
approaching this the right way,you might not be setting
yourself up for success.
So, be brave, ask these bigquestions about what are we
(04:57):
really talking about when we saya successful customer
experience effort?
How will I know that I'msuccessful in my role?
And then, of course, you wantto look at how are we doing here
as a culture?
What do our leaders care about?
How does this organizationtoday cultivate a
customer-centric culture?
(05:18):
That's a great question to ask.
And if they say, well, we talkabout it and we're doing this
and we're collecting feedback,great.
Can you give me an example oftimes when you've turned
insights into action?
What did that look like?
Who was involved?
Is it cross-functional?
Because you and I both knowthat customer experience is a
(05:40):
team sport.
It's something we all have towork on together.
And yet, at the same time, ifwe just use platitudes like,
well, cx is everybody's job,then that doesn't really work
either.
We have to treat this like aserious part of the business.
So that is one of the attitudesthat you can bring.
You can say you know, I reallybelieve customer experience is a
(06:02):
business driver.
It's a way to achieve growth.
It's a way to achievesustainable customer lifetime
values.
It's a way to get more renewalsand retention and all the
things that come with those.
So once you state that, don'tbe afraid to ask questions about
how much support do leadersgive these efforts?
(06:24):
What if we need more data?
What if we need more insights?
What if we need to crosscollaborate with different
leaders?
Help me understand what thatwould look like and how we could
do that in a way that isfitting into the culture of
today.
So ask about where they aretoday as a culture and where you
want to bring them.
(06:44):
And then, of course, we can'tdo any of this without a budget.
We can't do any of this withouta team.
We can't do any of this withoutcertain things like technology
and tools.
So ask those questions aboutresource allocation and autonomy
.
How will I be able to lead here?
(07:04):
Who do I need to get approvalfrom?
How many people will be able toprovide insights and action for
this program?
How can we make sure thatcustomer experience is seen as a
strategic asset?
So when resources, budget andauthority come up, ask about how
(07:27):
will that be allocated in thecustomer experience function and
how do you envisioncollaboration with the rest of
the leadership team.
Go ahead and ask thosequestions, because that can give
you insight as well into whatsort of culture am I walking
into.
That can be absolutely criticalto success at your next role.
(07:51):
If customer experience isprioritized, the organization
will invest in the right tools,the right headcount,
cross-functional support, all ofthose things.
Now we live in a world wheresome budgets are shrinking, so
let's be realistic about that.
Maybe they're going to tell you, you know what, we aren't
willing or able to invest rightnow in a huge team of people.
(08:14):
What we want to do is startwhere we are and we want you to
lead that.
That's a great place to be, aslong as everybody understands
what the limits are and what youmight be asking for in the
future.
As far as allocation.
Now, as long as you can makeyour business case that this is
a strategy that will helpeverybody win, customers,
(08:35):
employees and the overallorganization, then they're going
to be more likely to trust youonce you ask for that allocation
in the future.
Keep making the business caseas you ask these questions.
These aren't just fluffyquestions.
Customer experience is not justabout soft skills.
It's not a nice to have.
(08:56):
It is something that will drivethe business forward, and
here's how and here's how I canhelp.
That's what leaders want tohear.
And then finally ask about howare you listening to customers
today?
What does the feedback looplook like?
How do you apply that tocontinuous improvement of the
customer journey?
(09:20):
How do you get people to hearand see the feedback that they
need to know about theirproducts, their services, their
departments.
How do we incorporate differentways to collect voice of the
customer, like checking in withour frontline employees?
How do we make sure that we aregetting the right information?
Explore the feedback mechanismsthat are available.
(09:41):
Explore how they're attached toactions and explore that, you
know, if you have that robustfeedback loop, maybe that's a
part of the business they'vedone really well.
We've seen that a lot wherethey get the feedback kind of
figured out that loop but theydon't ever take it to that next
level.
You want to be the one who saysthis is great, feedback is
(10:03):
important.
I can't wait to turn this intomore actions to drive the
business forward.
So if they don't have any sortof feedback, that's a great
place for you to say well, Iwould love to start
understanding customers more.
I would love to tap into notonly what they tell us, but also
(10:27):
how are they behaving?
What do their actions tell us?
How can we track the rightoperational metrics so that we
get the full picture of whatcustomers really want and need
for the future?
If you go in there and askthese questions and explore
these topics, this will give youan idea of how to be the right
leader for their organization.
It also gives you the feedbackso that you can decide hey, this
(10:50):
isn't the right place.
They're talking about customerexperience, but that's it.
Set yourself up for successfrom the beginning.
Define what customer experienceis, explore how it fits into
the culture, poke around and askabout resource allocation and
leadership buy-in before youeven walk in the door.
(11:15):
That way you will look preparedand efficient and like the
leader you are.
So I wish you great luck as youstart looking and exploring at
leadership roles andunderstanding how you can make
the most out of not just thisrole, but really the role of
customer experience at theorganization.
That's an exciting place to be,and we need to embrace the
(11:36):
challenges, understand thelimitations and really get
excited about the vision.
Bring that kind of energy tothese discussions that you're
having and I cannot wait to seeyou lead.
Now, for those of you who arecurious about how you're doing
with customer experience, Irecommend you check out our CXI
(11:58):
Compass tool.
This is a free tool availableto you.
It takes about three minutesand you essentially answer a few
questions and we let you know.
Where do you want to investmore?
Where would it make sense foryou to put in the effort to get
the biggest impact from yourcustomer experience program?
This is based on our CXInavigational framework, which
has four sections (12:22):
intentional success, customer collaboration,
cultural commitment andexperiential innovation.
It's all about continuousimprovement so that we're not
only meeting our customer needs,but we are looking to the
future and making sure that weare staying ahead of what
they'll need tomorrow.
(12:42):
Thank you so much for joining meon the Experience Action
Podcast.
Thank you for all the greatquestions.
Don't forget you can leave me avoicemail at askjeannievip and
ask a question of your own.
So keep doing the hard work ofcustomer experience that leads
to the business results we knowit can achieve.
Keep leading out there and keepfighting the good fight on
(13:05):
behalf of your customers.
Thank you so much for beinghere and I'll see you next week.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience, check out freeresources at
experienceinvestigatorscom,where you can sign up for our
newsletter, our Year of CXprogram and more, and please
(13:27):
follow me, Jeannie Walters, onLinkedIn.
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