Stop Calling CX ‘Good Service’

What if customer experience stopped living in customer service and started living in the core of your business? We tackle a listener’s challenge and turn it into a practical playbook: define a shared mindset, build a success blueprint tied to revenue and cost, and practice the daily discipline that makes change stick. Along the way, we share the one-line definition leaders can use to rally teams: customer experience is the system we build to deliver on the promises we make.

We start by stripping away the fuzziness around CX. Instead of ten different definitions across the company, we push you to craft a clear CX mission statement that guides choices in sales, product, marketing, operations, and HR. From there, we elevate CX from reactive troubleshooting to proactive design—fixing upstream processes that create downstream tickets, refunds, and churn. The message to skeptics is grounded and simple: fewer service issues, lower cost-to-serve, stronger retention, and more referrals.

Then we map CX to executive priorities with a customer experience success blueprint. We talk through how to align with the CFO’s bottom line, show the CMO how advocacy can lower paid media spend, and help product and operations choose fixes that move the needle. You’ll hear how to translate friction into financial levers, set a tight measurement set that includes outcome, perception, and behavior metrics, and build governance that runs like any other business function. Finally, we offer storytelling tips to earn buy-in, celebrate small wins, and keep momentum through the long, non–light switch journey of change.

If this resonates, share it with a colleague who still thinks CX is a department. Subscribe for more practical plays, leave a quick review to help others find the show, and send us your questions—your challenges fuel the next conversation.

Resources Mentioned:
Order your copy of Experience Is Everything -- experienceiseverythingbook.com
Experience Investigators Website -- 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/)

Episode Transcript

Jeannie Walters (00:00):
You know, this podcast is called Experience
Action because that's what Iwant you to do.
Take action to deliver on yourcustomer experience for
strategic business results,which is why I was thrilled to
get this question from Katrin.

Listener Question (00:15):
How do you explain the strategic value of
customer experience toorganization where customer
experience isn't a defined roleand is still seen as a good
service?
What's the simplest way tocommunicate its business impact,
cross-functional nature, andthe need for ownership so that

(00:37):
leaders from sales, service,marketing, and HR finally
understand what customerexperience strategy actually is.
Thank you.

Jeannie Walters (00:50):
Alright, this is such a good meaty question,
and this is something that I seeand I'm betting that a lot of
you are currently dealing with.
When we are talking aboutcustomer experience, it is easy
to assume that everybody shouldget this, right?
It seems so logical.
We deliver great experiencesfor our customers.
They in turn stay with us ascustomers, they spend more

(01:15):
money, they refer others to us,and this is key, there are fewer
service issues, meaning thatwe're not spending money on
service requests or refunds orretributions or simply unhappy
customers.
We have everything from thatlens of the customer so we can

(01:36):
make better decisions.
So let's walk through this.
The way that I've always talkedabout customer experience, and
this is really what's outlinedin my upcoming book, Experience
is Everything, it is a mindset,a strategy, and a discipline.
And what do I mean by that?
Well, essentially, customerexperience has to be an
organizational mindset.

(01:56):
But sometimes I say that andpeople say, yeah, yeah, we're
told to be customer centric.
But the key here is making surethat you've defined what is
that mindset for yourorganization.
We can't just say, let'sdeliver great customer
experience.
That could mean differentthings to different people, to
different buyers, to differentemployees.

(02:17):
And so it's up to us as thecustomer experience leader to
make sure that we have thatclear vision of the mindset,
that we have defined it in a waythat everybody understands this
is who we are for our customersand this is how we show up no
matter what.
That step alone, creating whatwe call a customer experience
mission statement, is somethingthat makes everything else

(02:40):
easier.
So start there.
When we think about customerexperience, it's really about
the human outcomes of ourbusiness decisions.
And when we conflate it withcustomer service, what we're
saying is we're going to bereactive.
We're only going to respondwhen things go wrong, or we're

(03:01):
only going to worry about thosetransactions in front of the
customer.
Customer experience is aboutmaking sure that every process
leading up to that is alsodelivering for the customer.
We have to deliver to oneanother within our organization
to make sure that the experienceis what we want it to be.
So think about your processes.

(03:22):
Think about the folks thatmaybe think, well, I don't deal
with customers, so this doesn'tapply to me.
We are all on the customerexperience team, if you will.
But customer experience is somuch more than a role or a
department.
We have to make sure that weare defining that mindset.
That is step number one.
So if you are not sure rightnow, I would encourage you,

(03:46):
Katrin, to go out and talk to afew people in your organization
and ask them, what is a greatcustomer experience here?
How do we define that?
I bet you'll get a lot ofdifferent answers.
And that gives you ammunitionto come back and say, we need to
get this right.
We need to centralize this, weneed to define it as an
organization.
Then if we think about customerexperience as a winning

(04:09):
strategy, what we're saying iswhen we do this well, when we
deliver on the customerexperience, when we focus on
refining our internal processesand external processes to reduce
friction, to make sure peoplecan get what they need in the
easiest, seamless way possible,that becomes a winning business

(04:30):
outcome for us.
So the way to define this, weuse something called a customer
experience success blueprint.
And essentially what we'resaying is okay, let's make sure
we understand what ourorganizational goals are.
Now, I don't know yourorganizational goals, but I know
that your organization has atleast two of them.
One is we need to make morerevenue.

(04:51):
This one comes up.
Even in nonprofit, even inhealthcare, all of those things.
Revenue is very important, topline.
The other easy one to thinkabout, how do we reduce
expenses?
Look at your customer servicearea right now.
What are some of the metricsthat you know are costing the
company money?
Is it customers are callingback because they're not able to

(05:14):
get their issue resolved?
Is it because they're allcalling about similar issues
that maybe we should have fixedbefore they became problems?
Look at all of those thingsbecause that will help you
understand how we can reduceexpenses.
We can invest in the customerexperience.
When we invest in the customerexperience, when we make sure
that earlier in that customerjourney, they don't have those

(05:36):
problems.
We get proactive andintentional.
And that's what I want you tothink about.
How can you get others tounderstand that this is about
being proactive and intentional?
When you have a definedstrategic blueprint, what you're
doing is saying, these are ourorganizational goals.
This is what we've agreed to.
Well, then think about yourleaders.

(05:58):
What do they care about?
Your chief financial officerwants the dollars and cents.
We need to explain things inthis is what it means to the
bottom line of the organization.
Your chief marketing officermight get excited if you say,
you know what, I think investingin customer experience could
actually reduce the cost ofbrand awareness.

(06:20):
Because we will have people outthere singing our praises,
evangelists and those who referbusiness to us.
And then you want to break thatdown into what are the levers
you can actually pull?
And how can you get otherpeople to understand that they
are part of this?
Now, you might get a lot ofcomplaints about a product, but
you don't design that product,you don't engineer that product,

(06:42):
you're not even distributingthat product.
So going through those teamsand saying, this is what we're
hearing, this is why it's a winfor you.
If we do this well, if wecreate a better product, or if
we fix what's broken right now,what that means is your goals
are going to be achieved as aleader, as a team, as an

(07:04):
organization.
The strategic blueprint allowsyou to think through what are
those things that we can do.
And then finally, we have toshow up and do this work every
day.
That's why customer experienceis a business discipline.
I like to think about this as,you know what, why isn't this
like every other part of thebusiness?

(07:25):
We would never just get rid ofmarketing.
We would never just get rid ofoperations.
We would never say, well,everybody should understand our
operations.
So we don't need a team, wedon't need a leader looking at
that.
But that happens with customerexperience because we make
assumptions that peopleunderstand what they should be
doing every day around this.
We need to help people definewhat are the ways that they can

(07:48):
actually contribute to thisstrategy and this mindset, and
what will they get out of it?
So by investing in a few dailyefforts, what will they get in
return?
So the more we can define that,that is usually tied to the
measurements and the metricsthat you might already be using.

(08:10):
So when we get that customerfeedback and when we start
tracking things like netpromoter score, customer effort
score, or customer satisfactionrates, when we share that
information in a meaningful way,others can understand their
role in that number and how thatshows up.
So we have to make sure that weare consistently showing up

(08:33):
within our own organizations asa strategic leader and saying
this isn't just this genericthing called strategic customer
experience.
We are defining it for us heretoday.
It gives people somethingtangible and it gives everybody
a shared goal and experience.
Now, obviously, this is notsomething that happens

(08:55):
overnight.
I sometimes say this isn't alight switch moment.
This is a journey that you'reon.
So what I would do, Katrin, isstart with the folks that you
know might be supportive on thisand start reaching out and
saying, you know what, I thinkwe need to do a better job of
defining this.
This is how I think we shoulddo it.

(09:16):
By showing up in that strategicway, that's how you get the
buy-in that is so incrediblyimportant for customer
experience.
So, yes, customer experience isa winning business strategy,
but we can't just say thosewords.
We have to do the work todefine what that means, to make
sure we understand how do wemeasure success, and then we

(09:40):
have to become incrediblestorytellers and coalition
builders.
That's how you move from justtalking about customer
experience to actually receivingthe results and outcomes you
want from it based on the workthat you do.
I know you can do this.
I'm very excited for you.
And really, when we wrap thisall up, and if you're looking

(10:03):
for that one line to share, Iwould encourage you to think
about saying something like, youknow what, customer experience
isn't a role, it isn't adepartment, it isn't just
customer service.
It's the systems we build todeliver on the promises we make.
By showing up as that leader,by creating the right systems,

(10:26):
by making sure you'reapproaching this as a mindset, a
strategy, and a discipline, youwill see the outcomes you want.
And better yet, so will allthose naysayers that you're
working with.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Now, if you have a question, ofcourse we want to hear from
you.
Don't forget, you can recordjust like Katrin did at

(10:49):
askjeannie.vip.
And I have two final requestsfor you today.
One, if you like this podcast,please go ahead and get those
ratings and reviews in.
Those really help us and theyhelp others discover this
podcast.
And the second is to check outand hopefully pre-order my
upcoming book, Experience isEverything.

(11:09):
You can find this atexperienceiseverythingbook.com
or frankly, wherever books aresold.
I can't wait to hear your nextquestion and to support all the
amazing work that you continueto do.
Keep up the great work,everybody.
We're in this together.
See you next time.