5 Inspirational Ways To Increase Your CX Skills

People often ask me for advice on how to increase their CX skills. They want to understand more about the customer experience field and proven methodologies to differentiate their brands. While I’ve had a lot of on the job and academic training over the years (before CX was even an acronym), I continue to learn from inspirational people. I’m happy to share a sample of some of my favorites as they’ve impacted me in small and big ways. The list continues to grow. I will share more in 2020.   

1. Get CX Certified From A Reputable university. Attend Events Too.

• The list of universities offering CX Certifications is growing. Contact me about my online and classroom experiences. You can leverage the same 20% discount code I used. It’s worth about $1k.
• Join me and my inspirational colleagues for honest discussions about CX plus career-enhancing topics at Go Bold Event. August 26 & 27, 2020.

2. Watch Videos & Listen to Podcasts To Increase Your CX Skills.

• Be Amazing or Go Home. Hosted by my friend & world-renowned business coach & customer service savant, Shep Hyken.  Check out how Shep created a Wow Moment for me & our episode launching in February.
• More Happy Life by Andy Proctor. This is one of my favorites as we go into depth about the science and art of happiness & customer impacts.
• MyCustomer. Chris Ward is a great host. I especially enjoyed our show about Journey Mapping best practices. Listen to our episode.
• Sweets of CX by Cloud Cherry. My friend James Gilbert & Summer Interior feature well-known experts i.e. Matt Dixon, Eric Ullman, Jeannie Bliss, Joey Coleman, James Dodkins, Jeff Toister, Kate Nasser & more. Check out our episode: Customer & Employee Onboarding best practices. 
• Voice of CX led by Mary Drumond. She interviews experts including (but not limited to) Nate Brown, Dan Gingiss, Michael Barlett, Becky Roemen, Jenny Dempsey, Jeanne Bliss, Jeannie Walters, Ian Golding, Sue Duris (host of Twitter #CXChat)  & more. Thank you for featuring me too.
• Crack The Code led by Adam Topek and Jeannie Walters. They’re a dynamic duo. I highly recommend.  Stay tuned for my episode in March.
• IFS. For those in Field Services, you’ll like Sarah Nicastro. We spoke about the Pros & Cons of using NPS, a debatable topic that was in the WSJ Journal and much more. Listen to episode & view the WSJ article here.

3. Read Articles on CX Websites & Blogs.

• Can’t resist starting with Me, Stacy Sherman of DoingCXRight. While you’re here, subscribe to my newsletter to elevate your CX skills.
• Annette Franz of CX Journey. Also, check out her article on DoingCXRight. 
• Neil Davey of MyCustomer. I love his Top 10 most popular blog posts in 2019. (Thank you for including me on the list)
• Jennie Dempsey and Jeremy Watkin of Customer Service Life. You’ll find them sharing valuable information across different channels.
• Bob Thompson of CustomerThink. There’s so much great content. It will take you months to read through it all. List of top authors here.
• Bill Quiseng. His blog, Facebook, & Twitter pages offer endless practical tips & inspiration to improve your delivery of customer service. Thx for featuring me Bill. I’m honored.
• CXPA. Provides training and resources for readers. Read my article with former CEO Diane Magers.

4. Watch TedX Videos about customer experiences 

There are so many inspirational stories. One of my favorite videos that keep my attention from beginning to end is Jeannie Walters, who talks about meaningful micro-engagements. Like Jeannie, I believe small actions and “wow moments” can make big differences in customer experiences and in life. We must not let technology and processes dehumanize experiences with brands.

5. Find Your Cx Tribe. Networking Is A Great Use Of Time.

Social media is an awesome tool to bring like-minded people together. I’ve met incredibly kind people who are incredibly knowledgable and giving of their time to support the CX community as a whole. Leaders who immediately come to my mind include Debbie Szumylo, Erica Marois, Kaye Chapman, Murphy Fraser, Sean B Hawkins, Ben Motteram. I also am a huge fan of CX Accelerator, created by Nate Brown. He and his team continue to inspire me daily! Hope to see you at the Go Bold event mentioned (#1 above).

While not in my direct CX world, I can’t forget to thank Madelyn Sklar who has taught me more than she’s aware about leveraging Twitter (which is where I first connected with most names above) Check out her #TwitterSmarter chats.

Interested In More Resources and Articles To Elevate Your Skills?

• Sign Up for my newsletter. You’ll get instant access to my free whitepaper about going from CX Novice to CX Expert.
• Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram for daily updates.
• Read more articles and listen to podcasts. Please share with others.

*All views expressed are Stacys & do not reflect opinions of or imply endorsement of employers or other organizations.