Building a Customer Experience (CX) team is one of the most crucial steps for organisations aiming to deliver exceptional service and meet the ever-growing expectations of their customers. A well-structured CX team does more than just enhance customer satisfaction, it drives business growth, reduces operational costs, and improves workplace culture.
This guide will walk you through the steps of setting up a CX team, explaining the importance of each role and sharing best practices to ensure your team thrives.
Why you need a CX Team
From our experience, in companies that are only starting with CX, the department often is a one-man show. However, if you invest in a proper CX team including multiple members it will have a major impact on your overall customer experience and as a result your bottom line.
Organisations that prioritise CX, see great improvements in their customer retention and loyalty as well as shareholder value. With a dedicated CX team, you can be sure that your business listens to customers, understands their needs, and their feedback is actioned upon.
One of the most important responsibilities of a CX Team is to identify areas in the customer journey that can be improved or even fixed. Through consistent analysis, the team can uncover potential problems, like a broken check-out journey, that directly impact operational efficiency and revenue generation.
Without a CX Team, all initiatives may be siloed and may lack customer-centric thinking. As we know a seamless customer experience, leads to repeat purchases, and purchases of higher value, but these will occur less often if all teams are only worried about achieving their goals and targets.
Which brings us to the benefits beyond financial gains. Having a CX team also greatly impacts internal culture. When employees see the direct impact their efforts have on the customer experience, it fosters a sense of pride and engagement. A positive feedback loop emerges: engaged employees deliver on customers’ expectations, which improves the overall CX. This makes the employees feel more connected to the company’s values and mission – and the cycle repeats.
This connection between employee satisfaction and customer experience can transform a company’s workplace culture, making it a place where people want to work and stay. (Which also impacts the company’s profits.)
Ultimately, a CX team is far more than just a stand-alone department; it’s a team that focuses on the customer and one that can break down the silos and drives long-term success. Whether it’s increasing revenue, cutting costs, or improving workplace culture, the ripple effects of a strong CX team touch every corner of the business.
What roles are included in a CX Team?
A successful CX team requires diverse skill sets, with each role contributing to a cohesive strategy. However, depending on the size of your company you may have different needs and therefore different team sizes.
Smaller companies will only have a few people in their CX Team. The team members may be responsible for multiple areas, some even outside of the CX realm, making the team more cross-functional.
Some examples of roles in these organisations can include:
- CX Manager / Director
- VoC Manager / Insights Manager
- UX Manager / Experience Design Manager
- Customer Experience Specialists / Admins
In larger organisations, the teams may have up to 20 people. In these cases, the team members will be more focused on specific tasks. In these types of teams, it’s important that the whole team works together and communicates so that all projects and initiatives are aligned.
Some examples of roles in these organisations can include:
- CX Manager / Chief Customer Officer (CCO)
The CX Manager oversees the entire CX program, ensuring that strategies align with both customer needs and business objectives. This leader is responsible for fostering collaboration across departments and is often the voice advocating for customer-centric decisions.
- Voc Manager / Insights & Analytics Lead
The insights and analytics function is critical. This team gathers and analyses customer feedback, identifying key trends and business drivers that inform decision-making. They help track performance like NPS, CXi, CSAT and CES (Customer Effort Score), providing actionable insights for improving the customer journey.
- Experience Design Manager
The design team’s role is to apply design thinking to solve roadblocks in the customer journey. This role works closely with departments to map out the customer journey and ensure every touchpoint is intuitive, easy, and rewarding.
- CX Specialists / Admins
The core of your CX Team will be composed of CX Specialists and Admins who play a supportive role in the team. They will be the ones to carry out strategy tasks such as creating new experiences, gathering and analysing customer feedback and customer journeys.
As well as these roles, you should have a CX Task Force set up which will be composed of multiple representatives from different departments. Having a CX Task Force will further foster collaboration and delivery of unified goals across the organisation.
Steps to Set Up Your CX Team
Assess Your Starting Position – Inside and Out
Before forming your CX team, evaluate your organisation’s current standing in two critical ways. First, look “outside-in” by comparing your company’s CX performance to that of key competitors. Then, take an internal inventory of the CX capabilities you already have.
This dual assessment will highlight your strengths and gaps, offering a realistic view of the resources and changes required to reach your CX vision. Conducting this analysis within your broader strategic planning process can ensure CX development aligns with the company’s long-term goals.
Define Your Goals and Objectives
Begin by clearly identifying the objectives your CX team should achieve. These goals should be closely aligned with the company’s overarching mission and business objectives. As well as this you should also understand the extent of change your organisation can manage effectively. This way leadership can agree on both the pace, scale and budget of this transformation.
Identify Key Roles and Hire the Right People
A well-rounded CX team needs a variety of skill sets, from data and analytics to design thinking and change management. Start by identifying internal candidates, who can often bring valuable insights into customer pain points and a strong understanding of the current company culture. Then recruit individuals passionate about enhancing the customer experience.
Integrate Cross-Functional Collaboration
Effective CX teams work seamlessly with other departments, from marketing and product development to sales and support. This is why setting up a CX Task Force is so important.
With regular touchpoints and feedback loops, you’ll be able to create a unified approach to CX, ensuring that each department is aligned with the CX team’s objectives and that customer insights are shared across the business. Collaboration is key to fostering a customer-centric mindset organisation-wide.
Implement Measurement and Feedback Mechanisms
Develop a system to track progress towards your goals and continuously gather customer feedback. Regularly review this data, refine strategies, and use these insights to adjust goals or reallocate resources where needed. Continuous measurement ensures the CX team’s work remains aligned with business priorities and responsive to customer needs.
What a Good CX Team Looks Like
A successful CX team is open-minded, collaborative, and influential, working across the organisation to ensure every decision keeps customers front and centre. They maintain a customer-centric view without losing sight of business impact, using creativity and trust to develop customer-focused solutions that drive measurable results. Through strong collaboration, a shared vision, and a blend of data-driven insights and customer-focused creativity, a good CX team leads the way in establishing a culture where the customer is at the heart of every decision.
If you would like to learn more about CX and how to develop a successful CX Strategy enrol in our Professional Diploma in CX today.
