The Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) just launched as a “non-profit industry association dedicated to the advancement of customer experience management practices.”
The association will offer networking, professional development and a variety of programs and content to help advance customer experience as a discipline.
I’m really happy to see this for 3 reasons:
- CXPA is the brainchild of two thought leaders that I greatly respect:
– Bruce Temkin who last year launched his own firm after a distinguished career at Forrester. His blog Customer Experience Matters is a must-read for anyone seriously interested in this field.
– Jeanne Bliss who has done pioneering work as a Chief Customer Officer both as a practitioner and consultant leading her firm CustomerBliss. Any CCO should have leadership in customer experience as a top priority. - CXPA is a mission-driven non-profit association. The mission, according to Bruce and Jeanne, is to build Customer Experience into an established profession and not to drive revenue. I think it is critical that the association be developed into its own entity 100% focused on helping business practitioners, and not as a tool to drive consulting or technology sales.
- CXPA is launching at a time when the industry needs to work together on some common issues. In this case, the CXPA can help ensure a balance of strategy, people and technology (something the CRM industry largely failed to do). As Bruce put it so well in the webinar, the CXPA will focus on the “entire ecosystem” and help practitioners get out of the trial-and-error mode of learning.
My take: the CXPA can help companies more quickly get the basics right so they can focus more energy on creating truly innovative and differentiated experiences.
Memberships are very reasonably priced. Individuals can join for just $195 annually, and corporate memberships are available from $2,500 to $10,000 per year, depending on company size. This seems like a very modest financial investment for those that strive to turn customer experience into a competitive advantage.
Hats off to CXPA co-founders Bruce and Jeanne for their leadership. I’m looking forward to collaborating with the association to help make it a shining success!
More information:
* Blog post by Bruce Temkin
* Press release
Thanks so much Bob. The CXPA is founded on partnering with important CX sources such as CustomerThink. When we link arms, this profession will grow as it should!
The website is now live: http://www.cxpa.org
Bob: Thanks for your kind words about the CXPA, Jeanne, and me. We truly hope that the association becomes a valuable resource for all customer experience professionals; helping them learn, succeed, and prosper.