The State of CX

CX as Strategy

Customer Experience is not a stagnant and stringent definition. 20 years ago, customer service sat in the call center and the formal CX title was far and in between. Now, we see an evolution as excellent customer experience is no longer a nice to have, but mandated to continue to keep customers in a hyper competitive economy.

CX no longer lives in the call center, in the customer service function, and most definitely not limited to one department. Instead, CX permeates to the business strategy of many leading organizations and across the entirety of the enterprise.

To illustrate the reach and impact of emerging CX we asked some of our leading experts coming to speak at CX Week Canada to give us an insight into what CX means in their role, organization, and strategy.

We asked a few of our speakers their perspective on CX:

• Johnny Russo, Vice President, Marketing and Ecommerce, The Kersheh Group
• Christopher Mahlberg, VP Business Banking, BMO Financial Group
• Stefany Singh, Director, Digital Innovation at the Canadian Institute for Health Information
• Jessica Cryer, VP Business Development & Marketing, CSPN
• Paul Pellizzari, Vice President, Global Social Responsibility, Hard Rock

Per our theme, we see CX as relevant no matter department, function area, discipline, instead displayed in our speakers from diverse backgrounds of social responsibility, marketing, digital, development and more. See below our featured insights of how CX plays in each position:

What is your current role and how does it utilize CX?

Christopher Mahlberg

I am the VP Business Banking for BMO FG. Client experience is at the forefront of every decision we make. Today, the offerings and perhaps more importantly the differentiations between large financial institutions, have become more homogenized than ever. Therefore we need to differentiate ourselves through CX. Increasing our capability to be more insightful and predictive in our advice we provide to clients is one of the main goals we our driving towards to achieve superior CX.

Stefany Singh

I am the Director, Digital Innovation at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Digital Experience team reports to me which includes a full UX team (designers, researchers, testers, IA, search and analytics).

Johnny Russo

I am the Vice President of Marketing and Ecommerce at The Kersheh Group, a leader in the sleepwear and underwear apparel category. While I recently joined the amazing people at The Kersheh Group, I can quickly tell customer experience is front and center. While a major component of the business is wholesale, and it’s been hugely successful for over 40 years, Direct to Consumer and Ecommerce will play larger and larger role. Be it on marketplaces or through our very own webstores, we want to understand the needs of our customers, and build our experiences accordingly. The Kersheh Group has several proprietary brands, and also owns the license for several major characters and superheroes we all know and love. So you can imagine, very different demographics and psychographics for each of our brands and target markets, whether it’s the kids wearing them, or the parents buying our clothing. We’re going to find out how they like to browse, shop, and buy, and use our various owned channels to ensure our pre, during, and post shopping experience is A+.

Jessica Cryer

As the VP of Business and Customer Strategy at CSPN, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with clients across various industries to help them design and activate their CX Strategy and Vision. Leveraging tools like Customer Journey Mapping and Design Thinking, I help helped organizations take a truly customer-centric view on creating and consistently delivering memorable customer experiences. Starting with designing their CX Vision or Moniker, our team of CX gurus at CSPN then help to translate that vision into reality by identifying and operationalizing the related initiatives to make this a reality – this includes exploring the people, process and technology changes that need to take place.

Paul Pellizzari

I head global corporate social responsibility for Hard Rock, across its cafe, hotel, casino businesses

The fundamental customer experience common across our businesses is the power of music and our vibe (unique energy) into all we do, wherever we are.  With one of the worlds most recognized consumer brands, Hard Rock is built on a culture that started with our first cafe in London, UK in 1971.  

Since 1971, Hard Rock has lived by four mottos: Love All-Serve All, Take Time To Be Kind, Save The Planet, and All Is One.

I work with each business area to serve people & the planet by infusing these values into customers’ experience.

To hear more from our speakers on the role of CX , CX in projects, and where they see the future of CX moving, download our State of CX Report here .

Or speak to them in person at our CX Week Canada Event—See Agenda Here!