Customer Experience (CX) Day 2025 is an opportunity to brush up on the habits that customer-obsessed leaders repeat on a consistent basis. Leaders who set the example and tone for the organization can help build a customer-centric culture that makes support and service part of a brand's DNA and thus its reputation.
Organized by the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), CX Day is the first Tuesday in October. It is meant to inspire people to put customers at the forefront of their companies. This is how the CXPA describes the celebration:
"Today, we celebrate the individuals and organizations that strive to create a better world through a focus on understanding, designing and delivering customer experiences that are good for customers, employees and organizational growth."
25 Habits of customer-obsessed leaders
That's why CX Network is focused on how CX leaders can take action to ensure customers remain their top priority. Discover the 25 habits that customer-obsessed leaders apply:
Listen and learn
1. Quickly resolve issues
In the latest Global State of CX, respondents said that the number one customer behavior that is impacting CX is the expectation for instant service/delivery. Responding to customers quickly and proactively goes a long way to improving satisfaction.
2. Study quantitative and qualitative data
Nowadays, companies have so much data at their fingertips that they sometimes overlook some of it. Or they simply do not put enough stock in qualitative versus quantitative data. Inspirational leaders put stock in both. And make plans to translate the findings into action.
3. Be predictive and proactive
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning allows users to uncover patterns that lead to predictions. For CX leaders this means they can identify potential customer support problems and address them proactively. Leaders are wise to do this, so customers have a seamless experience.
4. Check in with frontline employees
Customer-facing employees know the painpoints of CX. Leaders talk to them regularly to find out what is keeping them up at night. Then, they fix those problems - swiftly!
5. Predict churn
By tracking customer health scores - various CX metrics that are meaningful to the business and its objectives - leaders can avoid customer churn.
Design and Deliver
6. Focus on value drivers
CX leaders, like everyone else in the business, must pay attention to what is bringing in the money. Improving products, services and delivery - with the customer in mind - is important.
7. Never ignore operations
Automation in operations is a priority for respondents of the latest Global State of CX. It behooves leaders to pay attention to the processes and how they impact customers across their end-to-end journey with a brand.
8. Be inclusive
Inclusion never goes out of style and makes good business sense. Creating products and services and ensuring the experiences offered are accessible to more customers helps leaders broaden the tent.
9. Maintain a source of knowledge
The top skill CX leaders trained employees on was product knowledge, according to the Global State of CX. Keeping everything in one place for employees and leaders alike is smart. It makes everything easily accessible when people have questions.
10. Deploy personalization
Customer expectations are rising. In addition to speedy responses, they expect personalized attention and support. AI is enabling hyper-personalization, but leaders must be careful to avoid being creepy and maintain data privacy and compliance.
Orchestration
11. Keep the human in the loop
While smart CX leaders are investing in AI to increase efficiency and bring down costs in the contact center, they should never forget the importance of the human touch. After all, people forget what someone says to them. They remember how the person made them feel.
12. Automate the post-call documentation
Contact center agents lose a lot of time writing reports to summarize calls, and AI and other technology can take these tasks off their shoulders. This should free up the humans, so they can do more blue sky thinking and address problems that require empathy.
13. Offer self-service
Self-service is another option enabled by AI. While customers like to have this offering, so they can resolve issues faster and without getting passed around to different representatives, they also want a quick path to humans whenever necessary.
14. Resolve issues without handoffs
Self-service may or may not be the solution, but customers do not want to call for support and get handed off to multiple agents. CX leaders who are successful find a way to avoid those handoffs.
15. Communicate early and often
If there are delays or other hiccups in service or delivery, address them before customers do. Of course, try to make amends as soon as possible when necessary.
Track CX metrics
16. Pick your top metrics - and follow them
AI is changing the metrics that are most important to CX leaders. Different businesses might be more interested in improving one metric over another. What good leaders do is focus on two to three metrics that matter to their business, track them and work hard to keep improving them.
17. Think beyond the scores
Net promoter score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) are the defaults for many CX leaders. But what separates successful leaders from others is that they look at what is driving a lower or higher NPS or CSAT. The drivers of the scores are usually more telling than the data point itself.
18. Be unafraid to experiment
Good leaders want to take risks and try different things. Experimenting by regularly and often running small tests can be a path to greatness.
19. Build trust with customers
As machines become more present in CX, the idea of building trust with the customer grows in importance. Being careful with customer data, protecting privacy and being kind can help develop a relationship that will endure.
20. Balance the long- and short-term goals
While all CX leaders need to have a vision for the future, they also must find ways to get quick wins. That will help customers stick with them. It will also help them build toward larger goals.
Leading change
21. Break up the silos
Too often, CX initiatives are conducted either as an afterthought or separately from most other parts of the company. Good leaders unify the organization, and make CX part of each division. Everyone learns the language of the customer.
22. Speak the language of the chief financial officer (CFO)
The customer is not the only language people need to know. Successful CX leaders must prove the return on investment of their intiatives. To do so, they must directly link CX work with the bottom line. In other words, they must do math.
23. Incentivize CX workers
Adept CX leaders reward behavior that improves the customer journey. They align rewards with supporting customers, delivering memorable experiences and keeping customers at the core of the work.
24. Be a storyteller with numbers
Data analytics is an important tool in the CX toolbox. However, the numbers alone rarely move people. Using the data to tell a story that touches people is most effective.
25. Stay connected with the people
CX leaders, who stand out, roll up their sleeves and connect with employees and customers alike. They keep their head in the game, which means that they pay attention to details, notice what is working and what is not and address problems immediately. Staying close to the people translates to successful leadership that sets the standard for the entire team.
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