#155 The Evolving State of Customer Experience: Insights and Future Trends

What happens when a profession built on human insight faces a tidal wave of change—from evolving business demands to the rise of AI? How do CX leaders stay relevant and drive meaningful results in this new landscape?

This episode digs deep into the shifting world of customer experience (CX) with Greg Melia, CEO of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA). I bring Greg back to the show because he sits at the epicenter of the profession’s evolution, witnessing firsthand how CX is growing up—no longer a scrappy teenager, but a vital contributor to business outcomes. The impact of this transformation is profound: The role of the CX professional is expanding, expectations are changing globally, and methods that once worked are being questioned. If you care about getting your organization, team, or career ahead of the curve, you’ll want to hear what’s unfolding—and what’s next.

Why should you listen to Greg Melia? As CEO of the CXPA, Greg is more than a thought leader—he’s a connector, advocate, and global influencer whose work directly shapes how companies and governments alike approach customer centricity. He and his team are pushing the boundaries of CX, integrating the latest research, championing AI-driven design, and framing the case for customer experience in terms the C-suite can’t ignore. If you want practical, future-facing insight from someone who leads the charge in building the future of CX, this is the episode for you.

Here are three questions Greg answers on the show:

• What are the most significant shifts happening in customer experience today, and how is the CXPA responding?

• How can CX professionals and organizations approach AI ethically and effectively to enhance—not replace—the customer’s voice?

• What does it take to earn C-suite respect for customer experience initiatives, and how can you build a business case that drives real outcomes?

Don’t miss this episode—listen, rate, and subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms!
Apple Podcasts: Listen here
Spotify: Listen here
Or find Delighted Customers wherever you get your podcasts!

---

Meet Greg Melia

Greg Melia, CAE, is CEO of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)—the premier global association dedicated to advancing the discipline of customer experience. Greg brings more than 25 years of association leadership to the table, having previously served at the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) and held executive roles in strategy, membership, and organizational development.

Greg has shaped CXPA’s direction during a time of profound change, leading initiatives to define the competencies of customer experience, expand global reach, and harness technology—including AI—to serve both corporate and public sector needs. Under his guidance, the CXPA has launched global research, overhauled its brand, and rolled out innovative tools, certification programs, and learning experiences to unite and uplift CX professionals worldwide.

A frequent speaker and advisor on customer experience, leadership, and association management, Greg is recognized for fostering collaboration and creating professional communities that thrive in a rapidly changing world. He is committed to building the business case for customer centricity at every level and supporting the next wave of CX leaders as trusted advisors in their organizations.

Connect with Greg Melia on LinkedIn: Greg Melia, CAE

---

Show References & Resource Links

• Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA): https://cxpaglobal.org

• Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) certification: CXPA CCXP Information

• CX Book of Knowledge on Amazon: Buy here

• CX Education courses (including “Becoming a Trusted Guide”): https://cxeducation.com/

• CX Day and upcoming white paper on AI in CX: CXPA Events

• Jason Barro, Bain & NPS Prism: .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, on today's episode of the Delighted Customers podcast, I'm excited to
have Greg Melia, who is the CEO of the
Customer Experience Professionals association and
back on the show. Welcome back Greg. Great to be here, Mark. I'm
interested in really getting your perspective and I know a
lot of people listening to the show. My audience are also

(00:22):
interested in everything cx. I've
guests from all different walks of life and academia.
But you're kind of square in the sights of CX and
got a front row seat to what's happening in our profession and I really would
like to explore where sort of from a
macro any micro points, what is the association

(00:45):
doing in order to adjust to the ever changing needs
in our profession? And let me
just start off by asking you, what do
you see as some of the evolving changes and
shifts that are happening today in the world of cx? I love
that the word evolving and adapting. Those are

(01:07):
critical parts not only for CX professionals, but for the
association in the field as well. I'll give a shout out
to Andrew Carruthers CCXP recently
posted. A few years ago he posted that CX was in
its teenage years and he recently posted that it's now gone off to
college. And so your comment about academia is kind of

(01:29):
right and I think he's correct. We are at a time where the
expectations on customer experience have
moved from that of a teenager to that of
a productive training member of society. So
CX professionals are now being called upon to
really make sure that they're contributing to the overall business

(01:51):
outcomes of the organization. And what's important to
recognize is how those business outcomes are measured really
is dependent on where you're operating in the world, what industry
you're operating in, and the degree
of maturity or mindset of the leaders that are
involved in that organization. Here in the US Companies customer experience

(02:13):
and the business marketplace is very advanced.
Increasingly, customer experience officers are being asked to
serve as chief staff officers are being asked to serve in sort
of blended CX sales roles. They're looking at coming across
to different market research and data spots. But it's it's not the old
department that that sat in one space and

(02:35):
and surveyed people after the fact in other parts of the world in
introducing CSAT or NPS or metrics
and giving customers the chance to share their opinion are
new concepts. And so they're just establishing CX
roles and CX spaces. So I guess what I'm saying is it's a complicated picture
and I'm glad that we're here to have that conversation. So one of the things

(02:58):
that you share with me is you're seeing an increase in
interest at the early adopter stage overseas.
Absolutely. And this isn't just at the
corporate level. It's also the governments in Singapore
and in the Netherlands and in Saudi Arabia and

(03:18):
in Dubai that are all looking at
citizen experience and customer experience as a way to
really mobilize and differentiate their communities to move
forward. And in many of those areas, some of the things that
may feel a little bit dated, you know, checking in with people by
mobile phone is actually a very

(03:41):
advanced space or technique because that's where their
audience is, you know. And so as CX professionals,
we're masters at making sure we don't treat every customer
the same. We shouldn't treat every CX market the same. You talked
about the difference between mature markets like the US and
overseas in terms of cx. What do you see for

(04:03):
the CX profession ahead? Yeah, CX profession is at an
incredible inflection point because on the one side
we are beginning to question some of
the foundational metrics and approaches that have been
brought forward and asking is this the right
method to use as we continue to move forward? CXPA is very

(04:25):
involved in that. We're looking at the research behind these
different theories in these different spaces and we want to be able
to help organizations and professionals differentiate
between what works and what doesn't. You know, for a long time
it was enough to just share ideas. Now we need to know
what is the proof in the data behind it. The second

(04:48):
element is that you're got this cast
shadow from AI. You know, it is
undeniable that AI is going to change the way
that customers interact with their organizations, that customers have
expectations of their organizations, and that the
way that businesses make decisions, you know, is it

(05:10):
okay for the business to use a
artificially generated Persona or do they need to have that
developed in concert with their customer? I don't think there's a right
answer. I think that there needs to be a process for, for a
CX professional in the business to look at the pros and cons
of those two different pieces and to figure out

(05:32):
what's the projected return on investment and the difference there.
So as CX leaders, we need to get just
as good at designing using AI as
we've been at using traditional customer experience
metrics. Because it isn't wrong to evolve the
way that we move forward. What's wrong is if we lose

(05:54):
the voice of the customer, we lose the perspective of the Customer in the
business making decision. Yeah, Greg, that's an interesting point.
And there's two elements of that point that I have questions about.
One of them, and you may have alluded to this already, is the ever
changing role of the CX leader and the shift to start with being
a business leader first and then a customer experience leader

(06:17):
second. And part of that's influenced by the onset of AI
and the inclusion of AI in all things things. It's interesting when I think about
it, and I speak to people who have been guests on the show, let's say
in marketing, they're dealing with the same thing. Change management,
friends dealing with the same thing, product friends dealing with
the same thing. You could almost fill in the blank, a whole bunch of

(06:39):
different departments. And so it kind of starts with we need to
have a comfort level, speaking the language and really understanding,
especially where we work, what is important. I worked in a bank, so they
looked at things like return on average assets, liquidity
ratios, loan to loan to debt, loan
to deposit ratios. So we're familiar with those things and

(07:01):
then track back to, okay, so clearly the
roll up of our customers are leading to revenues and leading
to profits. And so we have to, we have to be able to understand how
those dots connect. And I guess I'm saying AI is
proliferating beyond just cx, you know, and. You'Re right, everything
is at the same transition point. I think AI is a big,

(07:24):
big part of that. I think the second part is that we've just had a
fundamental shift. The reality is that
most businesses nowadays are governed by
that relentless pursuit of profit.
And oftentimes that relentless pursuit of profit on
quarterly earnings and on annual earnings. We as

(07:45):
customer experience professionals. There was a time when some
people thought it was okay to say happy customers will
have a return in the long run. And that was sort of a. We were
asking people to make a leap of faith with us. And I think the reality
now is people are asking us to show that data. And
so, you know, I was having this conversation with, with somebody the

(08:07):
other day and I was like, do we need a new metric in customer
experience? And, and I said, well, what if we actually just had
our metric be customer growth? Do we have more customers and
are they spending more with us? And then our question of
satisfaction or loyalty becomes a supporting metric
or a guidepost rather than the goal. And so

(08:30):
I don't suggest that we don't. I just suggest that we need to have more
advanced conversations. Because it was never about
just creating raving fans, it was about creating
sustainable profit that will allow us to serve our
customers and our, and our fans. And so we need to be able to do
all of those things. And we need to recognize that the business

(08:51):
model for a luxury property is different than
a business model for a utilitarian,
budget sensitive market. And so customer experience
is about the customer and it's about the business outcome. Experience
is a portion of that. Yeah, you just reminded me
of Jason Baro, who's, who's the founder

(09:13):
of nps, Prism Bain. And one of the things he
talked about was the ability to understand which
levers to pull and how. Far
to your point is not every customer in
every industry needs to have this wow experience.
And you and I shared some of the airlines, like Spirit, for

(09:36):
example, maybe Frontier, who, you know, no one's really
expecting a wow. And if they actually, if they get one, they're going to be
a bit curious about what's going on here. Why am I getting all this service?
I'm not paying for it. I don't expect anything and I don't. Want to
pay for it and I. Certainly don't want my prices to increase because of it,
you know, that kind of thing. And so, yeah, there's, there's

(09:57):
a whole bunch of things under, underneath the hood of CX that would,
you know, we can talk about experience, design and
you know, metrics and expectate customer expectations. But
it is, it is an evolving thing. And that's why I was curious about
what is, what is the association doing to
align with some of these changes? Yeah, let me pick up on that

(10:19):
specific question about design is if you almost think about
it, we have our five competencies and a good portion of
CXPA's history has focused on the reactive
measurement after the fact. And so, you know, we have people
go through a process and we ask for their feedback. It's expanded to sort
of bring in the journey orchestration,

(10:41):
where now we're collecting data and making a change. But
what is probably a growth opportunity is to focus more
on the design from the front end. You know, how can we
create a space where an individual doesn't even have to
enter that data, but that we've had a way that
the system is moving them naturally through the flow

(11:03):
and orchestrating this journey or experience for them, which
oftentimes is about a smooth and reliable path rather
than a wow moment. That's really critical and that's really where AI
can come in and help us in a lot of spaces. We have a great
white paper that is coming out on CX Day about
leveraging AI and CX and

(11:25):
what it really focuses on is three levels. You know, you need to understand
how to sort of write prompts. And to bring that forward, you
really need to then understand how you can build AI
into your customer experience design. And then you need to
make sure that that CX AI design that you've built fits
within your organizational culture and that it is kept and

(11:47):
sustained across the organization. I'm sure that all sounded very familiar
to you because that's the same thing you did as a human element with CX
in a box and with the work that you did with your clients and
your employers. But it's empowered
by this additional set of data that can
crunch data at scale and do routine tasks in a way that we haven't

(12:09):
before. So that's a big part. What is this all in service of?
The number one thing that CX professionals are looking
for is to have respect and support from
this C suite. You know, yes, they want to have a job, but that job
comes because CX is a trusted business
discipline. Yes, they want to have a long and sustained career, but that

(12:31):
comes from customer experience being that space.
So One of our three initiatives in service of our
2032 goal is to build the business
case for customer experience by collecting
the data that shows what happens over time.
Not what is the return on investment on this survey, but what is the

(12:53):
return on investment for keeping customer focus
and customer centricity involved in the business decision making. The
second thing that goes with that is that you have to have the
trusted professional practices. And that's why we put the
CX Book of Knowledge together and why it's available on
Amazon now. A little plug there. But the idea is

(13:16):
that people should be able to get
that college level education at an affordable and
accessible way for them to advance their,
their CX programs. The last part of that is, is that
like every organization, CXPA needed to think
about how we organize ourselves and equip ourselves to serve our community.

(13:39):
So we went out and we surveyed more than 1200
stakeholders worldwide, did sort of three rounds of that in
conversations, and we brought that back so that we've
adjusted our brand, we've adjusted our organizational structure,
and we've adjusted our technology. So if you go
now to cxpaglobal.org you'll see those three things

(14:00):
right on our front page. Building the business case, getting the
professional tools, and earning your certification so that you can
have a trusted career path. I'm curious, Greg. I know, I know you
were very involved in the American
Society of Association Executives ASAE and came
from another association as well. Prior to cxpa, are other

(14:22):
associations having, from your personal experience,
having a similar inflection point when it comes to the impact of
AI and their associations? The good news is,
is we found at the American Society of Association Executives meetings that
we're doing a lot of things that are on the leading edge. We've got a
CX chatbot that is based solely on our publications

(14:44):
that was written by Krishna Dasari, CCXP and some
fellow members. We have been using AI to
condense and create a podcast last CX Day and
we're having this conversation and this white paper that will be
released. With that said, there is a tremendous
amount that we really need to pick up and move to. And it's

(15:06):
not about which tool we should be using to
analyze survey results. It is about what strategy
should we be using to think about how
CX leaders compile data center data and
integrate that into their journey. It's about how
will a customer feel when they're interacting with

(15:28):
AI and what are the ethics around that disclosure
in that space for them? And basically the question of
just because you can do it doesn't mean it's the right. Doesn't mean it's the
right thing to do. I think there's a lot of cool and interesting spaces there.
I think that CXPA is in a solid position on
that. And what I'm curious about is how AI might help us

(15:50):
better serve our global audience and our growing global audience.
Yeah, I'm curious about that too, knowing that
the global audience continues to grow. On that
note, I'm curious about what's next for cxpa.
Yeah, well, we are sitting just a few days away from
CX day on Tuesday, October 7th. We're

(16:12):
excited about that. That is such a great time. You know, I just got an
invitation this morning and so now I know that on
CX Day I'm going to be speaking to
audiences in Vietnam and in Lithuania.
And I'll look forward to seeing what, what the next opportunity is
as well. CX Day on on Tuesday, October 7th will also

(16:34):
have the release of that white paper. We have a new course
coming out on using customer experience to serve
traditionally underrepresented markets. And anytime we can
have an educational program that helps CX leaders
drive growth in their organization, that's a really important thing
to do because it's good for the customer, it's good for the organization, it's good

(16:57):
for the employees. We also have some great work that's being done by the
research committee that is creating a tool and
checklist so that every CX professional can think
about these quotes that are floating out there on the
Internet. Because if you choose a quote that is
from a poorly resourced source, you undercut

(17:19):
your credibility. You know what we need to do is we need to give
people the right research information to make
the right case to the right leader at the right time. And that
is a great dovetail into next April.
The 27th to the 29th will be in Toronto, Canada.
We'll have a pre conference program that will be a

(17:41):
one day MBA style boot camp on
understanding those terms that you mentioned earlier in the podcast
about liquidity and things that people who don't work in banks
don't always know so that you can be a business leader at
the table with everyone else. And then the main program is going
to really focus on accomplishing three goals. One, introduce

(18:04):
people to Canada and the diversity and
richness of Canada as a global market. The
second is to really focus in on this question around
AI and what do you need to do as a
professional to make sure that you will be a trusted advisor
on your organization's use of AI? And then the third is

(18:25):
making sure that we give people practical, proven advice
on how to drive business impact. So what
are the latest techniques that people are using
to unite their organization and drive their organization
to better business outcomes through customer experience? Those
are the things that are most on my mind. I'll note that

(18:48):
while the new website is [e-mail],
all the troubleshooting and adding new content to that,
you know, all the way through and we've got a great new online community as
well. Well and if I could just affirm and piggyback off that
you said great, great new platform for sure as you
continue like any conversion over takes a lot of energy and effort.

(19:11):
But I can testify firsthand that the learning management
platform is well done. I work closely with by
Gabe Smith in coordinating and
designing content in a way that's fitting and
palatable to people who are either looking for
continuing education credits for their CCXP or they just interested. They're

(19:33):
not even members yet. There's always future members and
they want to learn more. Speaking of trusted advisor, I did a course
around that topic called Becoming a Trusted Guide. So many people have
already taken it. But whether it's my course or someone else's, if
you're looking for a great resource, it's well constructed it's
designed in a way that's, you know, simple to digest

(19:55):
and has quality controls built into it. And if
you're going for your certification, it automatically tracks that for you.
So another great tool in serving those people in our
profession. Yeah. Thank you. And just like Andrew said, CX
has gone to college. And if you're listening to this podcast and
you haven't taken a course that involves a quiz

(20:18):
or an interactive element in a little while, you are selling
yourself short. You're not going to get by just on doing free
webinars. You need to raise your game. And the Trusted Advisor
course and the other [e-mail] are great ways
to do that. Excellent. Well, great information. Always love the updates from you,
Greg. Exciting. The things that you and your team and

(20:40):
the board and everybody else are doing to advance our professional profession.
I want to land the plane by asking you one question that I ask all
my guests, and you probably didn't know this was coming, but what
delights you as a customer? What delights me as a customer? You know,
I'll give you two different things. One, I really like
having a inventory that

(21:02):
always has something new, you know, so I happen to be a whiskey
fan, and so, oh, I like being able to go into a
whiskey store and see a bottle that I've never seen before
or a restaurant that has a new menu item. So
that's. That's the surprising delight for me, is keep doing
something new for me. But the second thing is, is I

(21:24):
absolutely expect to have a
seamless, reliable encounter. And so if it's
going to be difficult to order or pay for that special item, I'm
out. So make it easy and keep it interesting. Simple enough.
I didn't know that about the whiskey. So, yeah,
I may be able to tell you some good shops not too far from your

(21:46):
house, Mark. Nice. Very nice. Very
nice. Well, on that note, we'll say cheers. Cheers.
And thanks so much for being on the show, Greg. Thanks, Mark. And thank you
for your leadership, not just on the podcast, but on helping to
guide CXPA through a pivotal time when
you were on the board of directors. What we're doing today is important

(22:08):
because of your work, and it continues to grow because of your
support. Thank you. Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it.