Who Really Owns the Customer Experience, part two

How to Build the Teams That Make Customer Experience Stick

Episode 262 of the Customer Service Revolution Podcast

Launching a customer experience initiative is one thing. Building the internal structure that keeps it alive is another.

In this episode of the Customer Service Revolution Podcast, John DiJulius continues his conversation with Dave Murray, Vice President of The DiJulius Group, about the stakeholders required to successfully launch and sustain a customer experience transformation.

They focus on two groups that can determine whether a CX initiative becomes part of the culture or quietly disappears: the customer experience steering committee and CX ambassadors.

Dave explains who should serve on a CX steering committee, how often the group should meet, what responsibilities it should own, and why representation must extend beyond customer-facing departments. John and Dave also explore how frontline employees can become influential CX ambassadors who reinforce standards, build peer-level support, and help organizations identify future leaders.

Related:  Building an initiative that lasts

Why a Customer Experience Steering Committee Matters

A CX steering committee serves as the governing body of a customer experience initiative.

The group helps select workshop participants, shape implementation priorities, review ideas, approve realistic next steps, and turn workshop content into usable training materials, playbooks, standards, and tools.

The strongest committees include representation from both customer-facing and support departments. Sales, customer service, operations, training, finance, accounting, logistics, and other internal service providers all influence the experience customers ultimately receive.

The committee must also be able to evaluate what can be implemented immediately, what requires additional technology or funding, and what should be scheduled for a later phase.

Who Should Serve on the Committee?

Most steering committees include managers, directors, department leaders, training professionals, and employees who understand how work moves across the organization.

Members do not need to meet constantly. During normal periods, a monthly virtual meeting may be sufficient. During rollout or content-development phases, the group may meet weekly until key deliverables are complete.

The goal is not to add another meeting. It is to create accountability for the customer experience.

How CX Ambassadors Build Frontline Buy-In

CX ambassadors are often frontline employees who participated in the original customer experience workshops and want to remain involved.

They may not hold formal leadership titles, but they have influence among their peers. They understand the initiative, believe in its value, and can explain how it will improve the experience for customers and employees.

Ambassadors help communicate what is coming, reinforce new behaviors, identify obstacles, share best practices, support individual locations, and keep the initiative visible after the formal rollout.

John and Dave also explain why organizations should consider including respected skeptics and informal influencers during the development process. When these employees understand the purpose behind the initiative, they can become some of its strongest advocates.

Related: How to get company wide buy in

CX Ambassadors Should Support, Not Police

One warning from the episode is especially important: CX ambassadors cannot become the “gotcha police.”

When ambassadors visit teams only to identify mistakes, the program becomes associated with punishment rather than improvement.

Effective ambassadors recognize what employees are doing well, provide constructive coaching, replenish resources, answer questions, and help teams succeed. Their role is to support the culture, not inspect people into compliance.

Customer Experience Has No Finish Line

The most successful organizations continue meeting after the initial initiative has launched.

Steering committees should review customer experience metrics, recognize employees, update standards, identify emerging service defects, and ensure CX training remains embedded in onboarding and leadership development.

Ambassadors should continue sharing observations, comparing results across teams or locations, and identifying practices that can be adopted throughout the organization.

Customer expectations, internal processes, technology, and business models change. Customer experience standards must evolve with them.

CX Programs Can Help Identify Future Leaders

A strong CX ambassador program creates another valuable result: it reveals which employees are ready for greater leadership responsibility.

Employees who volunteer, coach peers effectively, reinforce standards, and take ownership of the experience demonstrate many of the behaviors required of successful leaders.

Organizations can also reduce the number of accidental managers by allowing aspiring leaders to experience leadership training before they are promoted. This gives employees a realistic view of the responsibilities involved and helps companies evaluate more than technical performance when selecting managers.

Key Takeaways

• A customer experience steering committee should govern the initiative after the initial workshops and rollout.
• The committee should include customer-facing departments and internal support functions.
• Steering committees translate ideas into realistic standards, training materials, playbooks, and implementation priorities.
• CX ambassadors are often influential frontline employees rather than formal managers.
• Employees who are skeptical of change may become powerful advocates when included early.
• Ambassadors should coach and support employees, not operate as compliance police.
• Monthly meetings help steering committees and ambassadors maintain momentum.
• Customer experience materials should be treated as living documents and updated as the business evolves.
• Ambassador programs can help organizations identify and prepare future leaders.
• Customer experience is an ongoing operating discipline, not a temporary project.

Quotes

• “The steering committee becomes the governing body of the project.”
• “We want to have cross-departmental representation because that is the group that shapes the project.”
• “The primary thing ambassadors do is take that message back to their teams.”
• “Sometimes the people who do not like change become advocates.”
• “We do not want ambassadors looking only for the bad stuff and ignoring the good.”
• “When it comes to customer experience, there is no finish line.”
• “This is who we are as an organization, and we need to keep the focus on it.”
• “Everything they have created is treated as a living document.”
• “A customer experience ambassador program can help identify your future leaders.”
• “Organizations often promote people without looking at the soft skills required to lead.”

Chapters

00:49 — Recapping the Six Customer Experience Stakeholders

03:23 — The Role of the CX Steering Committee

05:08 — Who Should Serve on the Committee?

06:46 — Time Commitment and Meeting Structure

08:25 — Creating a CX Ambassador Program

10:51 — Why Ambassadors Are Usually Frontline Employees

11:18 — Turning Skeptics Into Advocates

12:26 — Ambassador Best Practices from Financial Services

13:55 — Avoiding the “Gotcha Police” Problem

15:22 — Building a Regional Ambassador Network

17:04 — How to Maintain Buy-In and Momentum

18:08 — Why Consistent Meetings Matter

20:54 — Developing CX Knowledge Across the Organization

22:32 — Keeping Customer Experience Standards Current

24:28 — Using CX Programs to Identify Future Leaders

25:46 — Preventing Accidental Managers

27:05 — Leadership Training Before Promotion

28:11 — Helping Employees Decide Whether Leadership Fits

30:29 — Final Thoughts