October 21, 2025 • 12 mins
In this episode, we explore one of the toughest CX challenges: balancing company policies with the flexibility needed to deliver exceptional experiences.
Policies should guide and protect, not block great service. We share how to design rules that empower teams, use exceptions as insights for improvement, and align every decision with your customer experience mission. Plus, we discuss how rethinking outdated policies — like libraries eliminating overdue fines — can strengthen trust and deepen customer relationships.
Tune in to learn how to turn rigid rules into opportunities for better customer experiences — and don’t forget to register for our upcoming webinar, From Assessment to Action: Building Your CX Roadmap, on November 4th via bit.ly/CXAction.
Resources Mentioned:
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.
Jeannie Walters (00:00):
Hi everyone, it's Jeannie Walters with
Experienced Investigators.
I want to invite you to a veryspecial webinar that we are
hosting for your fourth quarter.
This will be on November 4th,and it's called From Assessment
to Action.
This is about building yourcustomer experience roadmap.
Join us at the link on yourscreen, which is
(00:21):
bit.ly/CXAction.
See you there.
Sometimes we have to followpolicies that might not be the
best for the customer.
That's what we're tackling hereon the Experience Action
Podcast.
Listener Question (00:38):
This is Shawn in operations here at
Experience Investigators.
I received this question viaemail and thought it'd be good
for the podcast.
What's the secret to balancingcompany policies with the
flexibility required forexceptional customer experience?
Jeannie Walters (00:52):
Fabulous question.
And this is a good reminderthat if you have questions for
me and you don't really want toleave a voicemail, maybe you're
a little shy, go ahead and emailus at Experience Investigators,
or just go to askjeannie.vipand there's an option there
where you can type in yourquestion as well.
We love hearing from you.
This is such a great questionbecause all of us are in this
(01:17):
world and in this job wheresometimes we have to follow the
rules, right?
We don't necessarily write thepolicies, we don't necessarily
understand even where they camefrom.
So sometimes we have to makedecisions that don't feel quite
right for the customer, eventhough we're technically quote
unquote following a policy.
(01:38):
So let's think about this alittle differently.
You've heard me talk about theimportance of a customer
experience mission statement.
And the reason is because if wedon't have that agreement of
this is who we are in principle,this is who we are for our
values, then we're making everysingle person in the
(01:58):
organization really makejudgment calls.
An individual judgment is basedon our life experience, our
history, our values, ourassumptions about people.
So if we don't have alignmentaround that, this is where it
can get very, very tricky.
I like to think about policiesas kind of principles more than
(02:22):
policies.
We want a little flexibility ifwe can get there.
We there isn't really a secretbetween choosing policies or
flexibility.
Instead, we want to designpolicies that empower employees.
We want employees to make thequote unquote right decisions
(02:43):
with some guardrails.
Because if we don't have thoseguardrails, there are chances
that, you know, customers dosometimes exploit the system,
right?
They sometimes try to takethings a little too far.
We want to make sure we haveproper policies in place so that
we can be prepared for thosethings.
But at the same time, we wantto have the flexibility and
(03:06):
empowerment for our people tomake different decisions
sometimes based on thesituation, based on the
relationship, all sorts ofthings.
So before we get too far intoit, I want you to think about
yourself as both the customerand as the person who is acting
on that policy.
(03:27):
Because when you can see bothsides of this equation,
sometimes that leads todifferent outcomes.
So for example, we might haveat a retailer a policy that says
30 days only for refunds orreturns.
But a loyal customer shows upand says, hey, the reason I'm
here is because I got thispackage late.
(03:49):
So while the purchase happened35 days ago, I only got this
package a few days ago.
If we have a long history withthat customer, if they have
shown themselves to be a loyalcustomer, why would we
jeopardize that relationship fora few days?
These are the types ofquestions we have to train our
frontline on so that they can beempowered to make the right
(04:10):
choice for the right moment forthe right customer in the right
situation.
So a couple ways to balancethis.
First of all, clarify intentbehind the policy.
If a policy doesn't make sense,we need to raise the alarm on
that.
We need to ask that question.
Because sometimes the intent isbased on one thing that went
(04:32):
wrong 10 years ago with onecustomer.
So now we're punishing allother customers with a policy
that no longer makes sense.
Feel free to use your radarwhen you are thinking about your
customers and their experience.
Look around for policies thatdo not make sense for them.
(04:52):
And if it's something that youknow was based on one time or
one customer, start asking aboutchanging that policy.
Look for ways that you can givepeople leeway around that
policy.
We want to make sure that we'renot doing something because one
time something didn't go ourway.
(05:13):
We want to look at the majorityof the experiences that our
customers have and making themeffortless and seamless and
delightful.
And so we can't do that if wehave a bunch of policies that
basically are based on what ifsomething goes wrong this one
time?
It's really about intent.
So ask yourself, what is thispolicy protecting or promoting?
(05:37):
If it's protecting financialrisk, that's a reality.
We have to be prepared to thinkthat way.
But let's make sure there'sstill room here for human
judgment.
Let's make sure we can stillalign ourselves with that
customer experience mission andask people to really understand
the situation.
There are times, especially inregulated industries, where you
(06:02):
cannot mess around with thosepolicies.
So if that is the truth of thesituation, make sure everybody
understands that too and why.
Because the why is alsosomething we can share with
customers.
If they are facing a policythat isn't going to be good for
them, we want to make sure theyunderstand, we understand this
might be frustrating for you,but we are doing this because of
(06:25):
XYZ.
Now, if the XYZ is alwayssimply because that's what we're
told to do, that's not a verygood reason.
That's why part of this isabout the culture.
When we say empowerment, wewant to empower people with the
knowledge and wisdom andunderstanding so that they can
back up these policies if theyneed to.
(06:46):
We also want to equip our teamswith not only the, you know,
checklist about policies, butreally a framework about this.
Why are we making certaindecisions?
When are you empowered to makecertain decisions?
You can even use things likedecision trees to help employees
understand when do we need tostick to this policy no matter
(07:09):
what?
And when could we have a littleleeway based on the loyalty
that we've seen from thecustomer, based on the situation
or the circumstance, or simplybased on the fact that we're
looking at a customer who wereally believe needs us to make
a few adjustments so that theyfeel like they were treated
fairly.
Now, can we do that all thetime?
(07:31):
No.
But there are certaincircumstances when we can.
We also want to startcollecting data on exceptions.
If you have one of thesepolicies that a lot of people
complain about that you don'tfeel good about, start looking
around for when are the timeswhen we would have made an
exception but we couldn't, orwhen are the times when we have
(07:54):
made an exception because we hadthat leeway.
If you find that there are moreexceptions than following the
rule, that is giving you data togo back and look at this
policy, these processes, and seeif you can make them more
proactive, more effortless, andjust more feasible for you and
the customer.
(08:14):
And then, of course, whenemployees make these decisions,
when they are in that situationwhere they give a little leeway
on a policy, or they feelempowered to really do something
a little outside of thoseguardrails, we want to make sure
we're looking at all of thoseexamples.
And sometimes we want tohighlight that was a great thing
(08:35):
to do.
You made the right choice here.
Or it could be a coachingmoment where you say, I
understand why you wanted togive some leeway on this policy.
Let's go over why that probablywasn't the best option in this
specific circumstance.
Now, policies are there for areason.
We want to protect ourorganization.
(08:57):
We want to make sure we'regiving people who work those
front lines the ability toreally do what they need to do
within the structure of ourorganization, and we want to be
fair to customers.
So we can't give one customer awhole bunch of options that
another customer hasn't.
So we have all of these thingsin place for a reason, but there
(09:22):
are individual policies thatprobably were put in for the
wrong reasons.
So I do encourage you toquestion the policies that you
have.
Are they always needed?
Are they always necessary?
A great example of this is theculture shift that has happened
among public libraries in theUnited States.
(09:44):
Most of us have borrowed a bookfrom the library.
When we've done this in thepast, there used to be a fee if
you did not deliver back thatbook by the due date.
Now there's a lot moreflexibility.
There usually aren't fines andfees, and libraries are really
embracing the role of being apublic good, of helping people
(10:08):
really connect with books andinformation and all the great
things that our libraries giveus.
The shift in that has actuallyprovided a lot of opportunities
for them to build betterrelationships with the
communities that they serve.
So that was a big shift becausethat was we're talking decades,
maybe even a century or more,of if you did not return the
(10:32):
book, that was on you as acustomer and you had to pay
fines for it.
They would come after you forthat.
So now there's an understandingthat maybe that policy didn't
serve the people we were servingand our organizational mission.
So once they started connectingthose things together, they
(10:52):
changed the entire culture ofthose policies.
That's the type of thing tolook for.
Ask why.
Why do we have these policies?
Is that a good enough reasonfor today's experience?
And then deliver the experiencethat you want and that your
customers want within thoseappropriate guardrails of
(11:13):
appropriate policies.
So I wish you a lot of luckwith this idea of flexibility
and this idea of reallyprincipled intent.
We want to make sure that weare providing the right
intentions when we set uppolicies, journeys, and
everything else for the peoplethat we serve.
(11:35):
Bottom line is policies shouldbe guardrails, not roadblocks.
So I encourage you, look aroundtoday, see if there are
policies that maybe you canadjust or even get rid of, and
then ask yourself (11:46):
what are the things we can do to empower our
people to live within thosepolicies and still deliver what
they need to to our customers?
This is another great question.
So thank you so much to all ofthe CX leaders out there who are
listening, who are watchingthis.
And don't forget, you canalways ask at askjeannie.vip.
(12:10):
See you next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience, check out freeresources at
experienceinvestigators.com,where you can sign up for our
newsletter, our year of CXprogram, and more.
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
Hi everyone, it's Jeannie Walters with
Experienced Investigators.
I want to invite you to a veryspecial webinar that we are
hosting for your fourth quarter.
This will be on November 4th,and it's called From Assessment
to Action.
This is about building yourcustomer experience roadmap.
Join us at the link on yourscreen, which is
(00:21):
bit.ly/CXAction.
See you there.
Sometimes we have to followpolicies that might not be the
best for the customer.
That's what we're tackling hereon the Experience Action
Podcast.
Listener Question (00:38):
This is Shawn in operations here at
Experience Investigators.
I received this question viaemail and thought it'd be good
for the podcast.
What's the secret to balancingcompany policies with the
flexibility required forexceptional customer experience?
Jeannie Walters (00:52):
Fabulous question.
And this is a good reminderthat if you have questions for
me and you don't really want toleave a voicemail, maybe you're
a little shy, go ahead and emailus at Experience Investigators,
or just go to askjeannie.vipand there's an option there
where you can type in yourquestion as well.
We love hearing from you.
This is such a great questionbecause all of us are in this
(01:17):
world and in this job wheresometimes we have to follow the
rules, right?
We don't necessarily write thepolicies, we don't necessarily
understand even where they camefrom.
So sometimes we have to makedecisions that don't feel quite
right for the customer, eventhough we're technically quote
unquote following a policy.
(01:38):
So let's think about this alittle differently.
You've heard me talk about theimportance of a customer
experience mission statement.
And the reason is because if wedon't have that agreement of
this is who we are in principle,this is who we are for our
values, then we're making everysingle person in the
(01:58):
organization really makejudgment calls.
An individual judgment is basedon our life experience, our
history, our values, ourassumptions about people.
So if we don't have alignmentaround that, this is where it
can get very, very tricky.
I like to think about policiesas kind of principles more than
(02:22):
policies.
We want a little flexibility ifwe can get there.
We there isn't really a secretbetween choosing policies or
flexibility.
Instead, we want to designpolicies that empower employees.
We want employees to make thequote unquote right decisions
(02:43):
with some guardrails.
Because if we don't have thoseguardrails, there are chances
that, you know, customers dosometimes exploit the system,
right?
They sometimes try to takethings a little too far.
We want to make sure we haveproper policies in place so that
we can be prepared for thosethings.
But at the same time, we wantto have the flexibility and
(03:06):
empowerment for our people tomake different decisions
sometimes based on thesituation, based on the
relationship, all sorts ofthings.
So before we get too far intoit, I want you to think about
yourself as both the customerand as the person who is acting
on that policy.
(03:27):
Because when you can see bothsides of this equation,
sometimes that leads todifferent outcomes.
So for example, we might haveat a retailer a policy that says
30 days only for refunds orreturns.
But a loyal customer shows upand says, hey, the reason I'm
here is because I got thispackage late.
(03:49):
So while the purchase happened35 days ago, I only got this
package a few days ago.
If we have a long history withthat customer, if they have
shown themselves to be a loyalcustomer, why would we
jeopardize that relationship fora few days?
These are the types ofquestions we have to train our
frontline on so that they can beempowered to make the right
(04:10):
choice for the right moment forthe right customer in the right
situation.
So a couple ways to balancethis.
First of all, clarify intentbehind the policy.
If a policy doesn't make sense,we need to raise the alarm on
that.
We need to ask that question.
Because sometimes the intent isbased on one thing that went
(04:32):
wrong 10 years ago with onecustomer.
So now we're punishing allother customers with a policy
that no longer makes sense.
Feel free to use your radarwhen you are thinking about your
customers and their experience.
Look around for policies thatdo not make sense for them.
(04:52):
And if it's something that youknow was based on one time or
one customer, start asking aboutchanging that policy.
Look for ways that you can givepeople leeway around that
policy.
We want to make sure that we'renot doing something because one
time something didn't go ourway.
(05:13):
We want to look at the majorityof the experiences that our
customers have and making themeffortless and seamless and
delightful.
And so we can't do that if wehave a bunch of policies that
basically are based on what ifsomething goes wrong this one
time?
It's really about intent.
So ask yourself, what is thispolicy protecting or promoting?
(05:37):
If it's protecting financialrisk, that's a reality.
We have to be prepared to thinkthat way.
But let's make sure there'sstill room here for human
judgment.
Let's make sure we can stillalign ourselves with that
customer experience mission andask people to really understand
the situation.
There are times, especially inregulated industries, where you
(06:02):
cannot mess around with thosepolicies.
So if that is the truth of thesituation, make sure everybody
understands that too and why.
Because the why is alsosomething we can share with
customers.
If they are facing a policythat isn't going to be good for
them, we want to make sure theyunderstand, we understand this
might be frustrating for you,but we are doing this because of
(06:25):
XYZ.
Now, if the XYZ is alwayssimply because that's what we're
told to do, that's not a verygood reason.
That's why part of this isabout the culture.
When we say empowerment, wewant to empower people with the
knowledge and wisdom andunderstanding so that they can
back up these policies if theyneed to.
(06:46):
We also want to equip our teamswith not only the, you know,
checklist about policies, butreally a framework about this.
Why are we making certaindecisions?
When are you empowered to makecertain decisions?
You can even use things likedecision trees to help employees
understand when do we need tostick to this policy no matter
(07:09):
what?
And when could we have a littleleeway based on the loyalty
that we've seen from thecustomer, based on the situation
or the circumstance, or simplybased on the fact that we're
looking at a customer who wereally believe needs us to make
a few adjustments so that theyfeel like they were treated
fairly.
Now, can we do that all thetime?
(07:31):
No.
But there are certaincircumstances when we can.
We also want to startcollecting data on exceptions.
If you have one of thesepolicies that a lot of people
complain about that you don'tfeel good about, start looking
around for when are the timeswhen we would have made an
exception but we couldn't, orwhen are the times when we have
(07:54):
made an exception because we hadthat leeway.
If you find that there are moreexceptions than following the
rule, that is giving you data togo back and look at this
policy, these processes, and seeif you can make them more
proactive, more effortless, andjust more feasible for you and
the customer.
(08:14):
And then, of course, whenemployees make these decisions,
when they are in that situationwhere they give a little leeway
on a policy, or they feelempowered to really do something
a little outside of thoseguardrails, we want to make sure
we're looking at all of thoseexamples.
And sometimes we want tohighlight that was a great thing
(08:35):
to do.
You made the right choice here.
Or it could be a coachingmoment where you say, I
understand why you wanted togive some leeway on this policy.
Let's go over why that probablywasn't the best option in this
specific circumstance.
Now, policies are there for areason.
We want to protect ourorganization.
(08:57):
We want to make sure we'regiving people who work those
front lines the ability toreally do what they need to do
within the structure of ourorganization, and we want to be
fair to customers.
So we can't give one customer awhole bunch of options that
another customer hasn't.
So we have all of these thingsin place for a reason, but there
(09:22):
are individual policies thatprobably were put in for the
wrong reasons.
So I do encourage you toquestion the policies that you
have.
Are they always needed?
Are they always necessary?
A great example of this is theculture shift that has happened
among public libraries in theUnited States.
(09:44):
Most of us have borrowed a bookfrom the library.
When we've done this in thepast, there used to be a fee if
you did not deliver back thatbook by the due date.
Now there's a lot moreflexibility.
There usually aren't fines andfees, and libraries are really
embracing the role of being apublic good, of helping people
(10:08):
really connect with books andinformation and all the great
things that our libraries giveus.
The shift in that has actuallyprovided a lot of opportunities
for them to build betterrelationships with the
communities that they serve.
So that was a big shift becausethat was we're talking decades,
maybe even a century or more,of if you did not return the
(10:32):
book, that was on you as acustomer and you had to pay
fines for it.
They would come after you forthat.
So now there's an understandingthat maybe that policy didn't
serve the people we were servingand our organizational mission.
So once they started connectingthose things together, they
(10:52):
changed the entire culture ofthose policies.
That's the type of thing tolook for.
Ask why.
Why do we have these policies?
Is that a good enough reasonfor today's experience?
And then deliver the experiencethat you want and that your
customers want within thoseappropriate guardrails of
(11:13):
appropriate policies.
So I wish you a lot of luckwith this idea of flexibility
and this idea of reallyprincipled intent.
We want to make sure that weare providing the right
intentions when we set uppolicies, journeys, and
everything else for the peoplethat we serve.
(11:35):
Bottom line is policies shouldbe guardrails, not roadblocks.
So I encourage you, look aroundtoday, see if there are
policies that maybe you canadjust or even get rid of, and
then ask yourself (11:46):
what are the things we can do to empower our
people to live within thosepolicies and still deliver what
they need to to our customers?
This is another great question.
So thank you so much to all ofthe CX leaders out there who are
listening, who are watchingthis.
And don't forget, you canalways ask at askjeannie.vip.
(12:10):
See you next time.
To learn more about ourstrategic approach to
experience, check out freeresources at
experienceinvestigators.com,where you can sign up for our
newsletter, our year of CXprogram, and more.
And please follow me, JeannieWalters, on LinkedIn.
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