"Stop the Silo Bullsh*t: Why Your CX Strategy is Failing"

Here’s the hard truth: siloed CX is a dumpster fire, and your brand is probably fueling it. Everyone talks about “breaking down silos” and “working cross-functionally,” but let’s be real—almost no retail brand is actually doing it. You’ve got your product team in one corner, marketing in another, customer service on an island, and operations somewhere in between. No one’s talking, and your customer sure as hell can tell.

This isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s killing your customer experience, wrecking trust, and lighting your retention rates on fire.

You think you’re fixing CX? You’re not.

It’s time to stop the siloed thinking and unf*ck your entire approach. So here’s how to actually make it happen.

Player Tip 1: Build Cross-Functional CX Hit Squads

Here’s the biggest issue: nobody in your company owns the whole CX problem. Everyone’s got their own little piece of the puzzle, and it’s a mess. The solution? Hit squads. These aren’t your typical CX committees—they’re cross-functional, fast-moving teams with the authority to actually get sh*t done. No waiting for exec approval. No endless meetings. Just rapid, tactical execution.

How to leverage it:

• Authority, not bureaucracy. These CX hit squads need to have the power to make decisions. No one’s running back to check with legal, finance, or middle management. They fix the problem on the spot.
• Immediate action. Identify the biggest pain points your customers are experiencing right now and make the hit squad’s job to fix them. One problem at a time. If it takes more than a week, they’re moving too slow.

Player Tip 2: Fire the Excuse-Makers (Yes, Really)

It’s time to get brutal: If someone in your organization isn’t contributing to CX improvement, they’re dead weight. You don’t need CX evangelists who are “all talk, no results.” You need people who get it, deliver it, and own it. If someone’s not pulling their weight, cut them loose.

How to leverage it:

• Quarterly CX performance reviews. Each department should be held accountable for their direct impact on CX outcomes. Sales, product, marketing, support—no one gets a free pass. Miss your targets? You’re out.
• Fire the people who make excuses. Seriously. If someone on your team is more focused on explaining away why things went wrong instead of fixing them, they need to go. Accountability isn’t a suggestion—it’s a requirement.

Player Tip 3: Run CX War Rooms (Every Week)

CX isn’t something you fix in quarterly meetings. The best brands run CX war rooms weekly. These are cross-functional huddles where every department gets in a room (virtually or in-person) and tackles the biggest CX issues immediately. The goal? Identify pain points, solve them fast, and move on.

How to leverage it:

• Daily problem-solving. Forget the endless discussions—focus on fixing one major CX issue per week. Got an onboarding problem? Solve it in days, not weeks. A misalignment between marketing and sales? Sort it out and ship it.
• Use real-time data. Everyone in the war room has access to the same live data from customer feedback, support interactions, and product analytics. No excuses about “not knowing what’s going on.”

Player Tip 4: Kill the Vanity Metrics

NPS? CSAT? Let’s be honest—they’re nice to have but they aren’t paying your bills. If you’re still hanging your CX strategy on vanity metrics, you’re doing it wrong. The top brands tie CX directly to money—revenue, churn, CLTV. If it doesn’t impact the bottom line, why are you even tracking it?

How to leverage it:

• Revenue-focused CX metrics. Focus on metrics that tie directly to financial outcomes—like customer lifetime value (CLTV), churn rates, and upsell revenue. Kill everything else.
• Quarterly financial CX audits. Every quarter, run an audit where you map every CX initiative to revenue outcomes. If a project isn’t driving real results, cut it. No time for feel-good projects that don’t pay off.

Player Tip 5: Centralize the Data and Share It Ruthlessly

Your teams are probably using 10 different platforms to track customer interactions. Support has its CRM, marketing has its automation tool, and product is using their own system. It’s 2024—why are you still siloing data? Centralize it, and share it ruthlessly.

How to leverage it:

• One platform for everything. Your customer data needs to live in one system—no exceptions. Every department should have access to the full 360-degree view of your customer.
• Live data, live solutions. Use real-time data to identify problems the second they occur. This allows your teams to take immediate action before small issues snowball into major problems.

Framework 1: The CX Hit Squad Playbook

Here’s the step-by-step playbook for building and deploying your CX hit squads. This isn’t about endless brainstorming sessions—it’s about fast, focused problem-solving that delivers real results.

Steps:

1. Assemble your team. Pull your best people from product, marketing, sales, and support. No middle management—just people who can fix problems. This is your hit squad.
2. Assign authority. Give this team full power to make decisions and changes without needing to run back for approval.
3. Focus on one issue. Pick the biggest customer pain point and fix it. No 10-point plans. Just one issue, one solution.
4. Deliver results in one week. If it takes longer than seven days, you’re doing it wrong. The goal is fast execution, not perfection.

Framework 2: The No Bullsh*t CX Accountability Model

Your CX strategy is only as good as your ability to hold teams accountable. This framework forces every department to own their impact on customer experience—and punishes excuses.

Steps:

1. CX ownership across departments. Every team—product, support, marketing, operations—owns a specific part of the customer experience and is measured on it. No exceptions.
2. Tie CX metrics to financial outcomes. Assign clear, revenue-focused CX targets for each department. For example, product teams are measured by churn reduction and upsell opportunities, while marketing focuses on lead-to-customer conversion.
3. Quarterly CX reviews. Every quarter, hold CX performance reviews where each department must present their impact on the customer experience—with financial results. Excuses aren’t tolerated.

Thought-Provoking Question:

If your CX is truly everyone’s job, why is no one being held accountable when things go wrong?

This question forces your team to confront the lack of ownership that’s crippling your CX efforts. It’s designed to spark real, uncomfortable conversations about accountability.

Conclusion: Enough With the Excuses—Get Aggressive About CX

You can keep pretending your siloed approach to CX is working, or you can wake up and realize your customers don’t care about your departments. They want seamless, pain-free experiences, and they want them now. The brands that are killing it in CX aren’t playing nice—they’re running war rooms, firing dead weight, and holding teams accountable.