The Past and Exciting Future of Your CXPA

I wrote this POST for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) blog, but decided to also post it here because it’s an important message for all CX Professionals…

As 2014 comes to an end, it’s a great time to reflect on where the CXPA is at in its evolution. Or to put it another way, let’s be proud about what we’ve collectively achieved. If this was a “State of the Union” address, I’d say that the state of your association is strong, and getting even stronger.

This past year was a great year for our association. We introduced the first-ever industry-wide professional certification in our field, the CCXP, expanded our community to new heights as we helped our members succeed in their roles with webinars, Local Networking Events, Best Practice Visits, Coaching Calls, CX Tools, Ask the CX Experts, our Insight Exchange, and many other activities.

Next year should be even more exciting as the CXPA plans to enhance many of its offerings and introduce some new things such as our UK Insight Exchange and Mentoring Program.

After Jeanne Bliss, my wife Karen, and I launched the CXPA in April 2011, it’s amazing to see how much the association has blossomed in less than four years!

As a matter of fact, we’ve created such a strong organization that it’s achieved most of our initial goals. Don’t worry, though, we’re not done yet. The board of directors started a process this year to define our key strategies for the next several years. I’m excited about what was developed, and I’ll share more of those details next year.

As a part of the process, we examined the CXPA’s mission statement. While it did not need a radical change, we’ve updated it as follows:

The Customer Experience Professionals Association is the premier global non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and cultivation of the Customer Experience profession. We increase the impact and visibility of Customer Experience professionals, facilitate effective member-to-member sharing, and establish respected standards.

One of the key additions to the mission statement is the mention of member-to-member (M2M) sharing. I believe that M2M is the CXPA’s “secret sauce.” Rather than trying to create new content or duplicate activities across the CX profession, we’ve focused on developing and facilitating opportunities for our members to share their knowledge and skills with other members. In other words, YOU are the CXPA’s secret sauce.

I hope that you are inspired to dedicate even more of your passion and energy to the CXPA in 2015. Here are some ideas for getting more involved:

• If you’re qualified, try and get CCXP certified.
• Participate in our large planning groups for the UK Insight Exchange, 2015 Insight Exchange (San Diego), and CX Day.
• Attend Local Networking Events in your area and ask if you can join or help the planning teams.
• Make plans to celebrate CX Day 2015 (October 6^th) within your organization.
• Attend the Insight Exchanges (UK or US).
• Submit a CX tool that you use so that it can be shared with other members.
• Join the conversations on our CXPA Community site.
• Turn to the CXPA community when you need help, and provide help to other members when you can.

I hope that you and your family have a happy, healthy 2015 and that you become even more engaged in YOUR association’s M2M sharing throughout the year.