You’re struggling to demonstrate leadership in Customer Experience. How can you improve?

1 Assess your CX maturity

The first step to improve your CX leadership is to understand where you are and where you want to be. You can use a CX maturity model, such as the one by Forrester, to evaluate your current capabilities, challenges, and goals. A CX maturity model can help you identify the gaps and opportunities in your CX strategy, culture, processes, and technology. It can also help you prioritize your actions and align your team around a common vision.

2 Develop your CX mindset

The second step to improve your CX leadership is to cultivate a CX mindset, which is a way of thinking and acting that puts the customer at the center. It requires being empathetic, curious, and collaborative, and also being willing to learn, experiment, and adapt. To develop your CX mindset, you should listen to your customers, involve your team in co-creating solutions and experiences for them, measure and monitor your CX performance using relevant metrics and indicators, and celebrate and reward your team’s successes while learning from their failures.

3 Sharpen your CX skills

The third step to improve your CX leadership is to sharpen your CX skills, such as customer research and analysis, customer journey mapping, service design, and CX communication. These skills enable you to design, deliver, and improve CX by collecting, analyzing, and using customer data and insights to inform decisions and actions. Additionally, they help you visualize and optimize the end-to-end customer journey across different channels and stages. Furthermore, these skills enable you to design and implement services that meet customer needs and expectations while creating value for both customers and the business. Finally, they help you communicate effectively with your customers, team, and other stakeholders using clear, consistent, and compelling messages and stories.

4 Expand your CX network

The fourth step to improve your CX leadership is to expand your CX network. This group of people can include your peers, mentors, experts, influencers, and communities. By having a CX network, you can learn from others’ experiences, best practices, and insights. You can also seek feedback and advice for your challenges and opportunities. Moreover, a CX network can help you discover new trends, tools, and resources for CX innovation and improvement. Additionally, it can build your reputation and credibility as a CX leader.

5 Challenge yourself and your team

The fifth step to improve your CX leadership is to challenge yourself and your team. Pushing beyond your comfort zone and exploring new possibilities and perspectives is key in being open to change and growth. Being accountable and responsible for your actions and results is also essential. To challenge yourself and your team, you should set clear and ambitious goals for CX performance and impact, encourage and enable your team to take ownership, initiative, and risks in their CX projects, provide and seek constructive feedback and coaching to improve CX skills, recognize and address your CX blind spots, as well as address any biases that may hinder CX effectiveness.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?