The debate is real. Should a Customer Experience Head be a Contact Center expert too?
Welcome to our CX–Contact Center Bridge Series — exploring the intersection of CX and Contact Centers, and the knowledge, practices, and lessons that flow both ways.
This article is also included in our Contact Center Management Series and our Customer Experience Hub.
What People Agree On
Customer Experience and Contact Centers share a deep connection — but they aren’t the same thing.
CX takes a broader view of how organizations design and deliver experiences, while Contact Centers put much of that into practice with Customers every day.
With that said, the question is — should your CX Head be a Contact Center expert too?
I ran a LinkedIn poll to find out what people thought — and then looked more closely at who voted each way.
The Poll: Should Your CX Head Be a Contact Center Expert?
I used the LinkedIn polling feature and here’s the poll I put up:
How important is it that your Customer Experience Head/Chief Customer Officer also be a Contact Center expert?
There were three options:
- Extremely important
- Moderately important
- Not very important
Before you read further, take a moment and decide which option you would choose yourself.
Then ask yourself one more question: Why did you vote that way?
I chose the phrase ‘Contact Center expert’ for the poll question very deliberately.
Not just someone who likes Contact Centers. Or thinks that Contact Centers are important. Or has worked in a Contact Center for a long time.
An expert is someone credible you’d hire — either as an employee or consultant — who can measurably bring a Contact Center to a higher level of performance.
The Poll Results
I left the poll open for seven days. Here were the final results:
How important is it that your Customer Experience Head/Chief Customer Officer also be a Contact Center expert?
Extremely important 50%
Moderately important 26%
Not very important 24%
Total votes received — 235
The poll also generated some interesting comments, which I share further in this article.
A Note About the Research
Clearly, a LinkedIn poll isn’t statistically representative. We cannot confidently extrapolate these results across the industry.
But that wasn’t the point of the poll.
Informal polls like this can surface interesting patterns, raise useful questions, and point toward areas where more rigorous research might bring greater insight.
The comments add another dimension by helping us understand some of the thinking behind the votes.
That’s the spirit in which I look at these results.
Who Voted ‘Extremely Important’?
Half of all voters chose ‘extremely important’, so I decided to look more closely at who these voters were.
I worked with a colleague to review the LinkedIn profile of each voter and determine their professional background.
Sometimes this was obvious — for example, someone working as a Head of Contact Center.
Other times, it wasn’t so easy to understand what someone actually did. Some profiles used strings of titles and descriptors such as:
CX | Data Analytics | Speaker | Employee Experience | Board Member
For profiles like these, we had to dig deeper to understand the person’s actual role.
It took some work, but we were able to classify each voter. Here’s what we found.
72% of those who voted ‘extremely important’ that the CX Head also be a Contact Center expert worked in the Contact Center function themselves.
Who Voted ‘Moderately Important’?
Of the 26% who voted that it was ‘moderately important’, 47% worked in a Contact Center role themselves.
The remaining 53% worked in a CX role or as a CX consultant.
Who Voted ‘Not Very Important’?
Of the 24% who voted ‘not very important’, only 30% worked in a Contact Center role.
The remaining 70% worked in a CX role or as a CX consultant.
Summing Up the Results
So while we know that correlation does not equal causation, here’s what we can say about the poll results.
The more closely voters worked with Contact Centers themselves, the more likely they were to believe that a CX Head should also be a Contact Center expert.
Voters working in CX roles or as CX consultants were less likely to see Contact Center expertise as essential for the CX Head.
What People Had to Say
Comments from Contact Center Professionals
“I can’t imagine not being a “well-seasoned” contact center manager, otherwise you will end up “well-seasoned” on a spit over an open fire on your way out as a failed CX Officer.”
“Maybe the word ‘expert’ is not the best, but CX Leaders absolutely need to know how best-in-class Contact Centres operate.”
“I voted extremely important not because I think they need to be hands on with the contact centre but they have to know how to influence the contact center managers in the grand scheme of strategic planning. If you don’t fundamentally understand how a contact Center manager goes about their day, you will undoubtedly be destined to fail.”
Comments from CX Professionals
“And this is the conundrum of CX professionals far and wide 😂 the dreaded contact centre box. CX is further reaching than just contact centre management.”
“Your chief customer officer has to be more aligned with the CEO than the contact centre. Perhaps at a lower level it becomes more important – but a CCO has to be an expert is overall operations, marketing, strategy, product development, legal, HR, etc – before specific contact centre knowledge comes into play.”
“My view has always been that the person at the top of the pyramid can’t be an expert in everything. But they need to have trusted persons who do master the various aspects and who can advise. That doesn’t mean that the boss shouldn’t be a specialist in one or more aspects of the job.”
Why the CX–Contact Center Bridge Matters
For me, the most interesting finding wasn’t that one side was right and the other was wrong.
It was how strongly our professional backgrounds appeared to influence what we believed a CX leader needs to know.
Contact Center professionals tended to place greater value on Contact Center expertise. CX professionals were more likely to emphasize the broader organizational remit of the CX Head.
And perhaps that’s exactly why the bridge between these two disciplines matters.
CX leaders don’t need to personally master every discipline that shapes the Customer Experience. But they do need enough understanding to ask the right questions, recognize good practice, and connect what happens in the Contact Center with the broader Customer Experience.
And the same works in the other direction. Contact Center leaders benefit from understanding the broader CX discipline and how their work fits into the Customer Experience as a whole.
The CX-Contact Center Bridge Series Articles
Each article below takes you deeper into how CX and Contact Centers connect — and what both sides can learn from each other.
Should Your CX Head Be a Contact Center Expert? — Part 2
Builds on the first discussion by exploring whether domain expertise in Contact Centers is essential for CX leaders to succeed.
What Lessons Can Contact Center Folks Learn From CX Folks?
Looks at how Contact Center leaders can broaden their impact by adopting perspectives and methods from CX professionals.
CX Lessons We Can Learn From The Contact Center Industry
Shares what CX leaders can take away from the rigor and discipline that Contact Centers bring to operations.
Three Suggestions for Contact Center Leaders to Master CX
Practical guidance for Contact Center leaders who want to align their work more closely with CX strategy and design.
From Contact Center Management to CX Leadership — Do You Have What It Takes?
Explores the professional shift from running a Contact Center to taking on a broader CX leadership role.
Why Your Call Quality Doesn’t Deliver on Customer Experience
Call quality hasn’t improved enough to keep up with today’s Customer expectations — here’s why.
It’s Time to Rethink Targeting Net Promoter Score at the Frontline
So much of what goes into a Net Promoter Score at the touchpoint level lies outside the control of the Advisor.
Shared Understanding: What Great CX Leaders Cultivate
Why cultivating shared understanding is one of the most powerful skills CX leaders bring to aligning people and delivering results.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience.
Feel free to get in touch anytime, or explore more of our work below.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
