 |
| Image courtesy of Pixabay |
I originally wrote today’s post for the CXPA blog and have modified it slightly since then.
Simon Sinek said: A community is a group of people who agree to grow together. I think that describes the customer experience profession, and especially the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), quite well.
There’s a lot of value in connecting with other customer experience professionals, whether those connections are made through the CXPA or not. As you know, this customer experience profession is relatively new, having been formalized and validated five years ago by the formation of the CXPA. (Yes, I know, you may have been a customer experience professional longer than that.) Given that, plus the challenges newbies to this field experience (were you plucked from another role or department to tackle CX?), connecting with other customer experience professionals who have faced the same opportunities, challenges, and victories as you have is actually quite rewarding, for a variety of reasons… not the least of which is, as Simon states, growing together.
I can sum up the benefits of connecting with other CX professionals in two words: (1) education and (2) support; in some ways, they can both be lumped together and defined as:
- learning from each other,
- having someone who understands what you’re talking about
- having someone who can answer questions about the same challenges or experiences you’re having,
- bouncing ideas off each other,
- sharing failures and best practices,
- mentoring someone with less experience or knowledge,
- having a shoulder to cry on and also one to pick you up and help you along,
- and more.
We are all still learning! Even after almost 25 years in this space, I learn new things from other CX professionals every week. As this field and this profession evolve and as we continue to define what it means to be in this CX profession, know that your professional connections become even more important.
Take the time to reach out to other CXPA members, join the discussions on the Discussion Forum, share your experiences and best practices or offer up resources that have worked well for you, and ask questions of the CX Experts. And if you’re not already a member, join this growing community!
Get involved and connect with other CX professionals. Grow with other CX professionals. You will not regret it!
The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity. -Keith Ferrazzi
Just joined CXPA after reading this post.
Annette, I think there is value in connecting with those who see the world you do, but maybe there is more value in connecting with people who don't.
How about connecting with a group of Data Scientists, or Sales Mangers. A group of Actuaries or Hospital Managers. I guess they will bring a totally new perspective.
Having said that, it is far easier said then done. And I'd be lying if I said I had mixed it up this way. Birds of a Feather…
Thanks, Bill! There are a lot of good things ahead for CXPA. Look forward to meeting you in person at one of our events. The SoCal Local Networking team hosts events in OC and LA (used to in SD when we had a planning team member there), so maybe we'll meet in person one of these days. We're also just starting to plan our annual event, which will be in Phoenix in May. Or we can just meet for coffee one day.
I think there's real value in connecting with other groups with which you interact or support or who feed into what you're doing. Great idea. But, as you say, easier said than done…