This article explores what it takes to move from Contact Center Management to Customer Experience Leadership.
This article is part of our CX–Contact Center Bridge Series — exploring the intersection of CX and Contact Centers, and the knowledge, practices, and lessons that flow both ways.
It is also included in our Contact Center Management Series and our Customer Experience Hub.
It Seems to Be a Logical Move
Over the past year, I’ve received several discreet enquiries from Contact Center Managers asking what it takes to move into Customer Experience leadership.
It’s important to first establish that Customer Experience leadership is a different discipline from Contact Center management — related, but not interchangeable.
So let’s start by looking at where you work now — because that is where your experience begins and much of your exposure lies.
Does Your Organization Pursue Customer Experience as a Business Strategy?
Not every organization genuinely pursues Customer Experience. We have to get that out of the way first.
Of course, no smart CEO is going to disparage Customer Experience in conversation.
But talking about Customer Experience and doing what it takes, organizationally, are two completely different things.
CX maturity models — such as those published by Forrester, Beyond Philosophy, and Qualtrics — are useful not as labels, but as reality checks.
If you want to move into Customer Experience leadership, you must understand where your organization truly sits today — and what that means for the pace and scope of change you can realistically drive.
There’s a Common Misunderstanding
One of the most common misunderstandings I encounter is the belief that Customer Experience is simply Customer Service at scale.
It isn’t.
Customer Service is a subset of Customer Experience. And the Contact Center is a subset of Customer Service.
The Contact Center is one touchpoint in a much larger ecosystem — and not every customer will ever use it.
If you conflate these concepts, you won’t just confuse yourself. You’ll confuse your stakeholders.
And you’ll struggle to make the transition into CX leadership roles.
Your Contact Center Operation Gives Insight into Your Organization’s CX
Let’s look at how you manage your Center now – and what that bodes for your future in Customer Experience.
There Are Right Ways and Wrong Ways to Achieve Efficiency
Efficiency matters in a Contact Center — but how you pursue efficiency reveals your readiness for CX leadership.
If your primary metrics are calls handled, average handling time, or occupancy, you are optimizing the system — not the Customer experience.
Ask yourself: Which of our metrics reflect the Customer’s point of view? Which help us understand what matters to them?
There Are Right Ways and Wrong Ways to Achieve Quality
Quality also matters — but again, how it is achieved matters more than whether it is measured.
Is quality driven through ongoing coaching and dialogue?
Or is your Center a scorecard factory, where measurement substitutes for conversation?
At its heart, Customer Experience is a people business, with Customers at the heart and Employees and Partners included in the overall ecosystem.
Your proven ability to bring the best out of the people you work with is a great indicator of Customer Experience management success.
What Kind of Culture Exists in Your Center?
How do your Frontline Agents describe Customers?
Do they describe them as irritating? Entitled? Annoying? Unreasonable? Do Team Leaders chime in and say the same thing?
If so you’ve got a culture issue within your Center.
And if there’s any place where a customer-centric culture should be strongest, it’s the Contact Center.
If you’ve been able to get your Contact Center folks to be Customer-obsessed, that bodes well for your ability to influence others too.
Let’s Get Financial
Customer Experience often gets dismissed as “fluffy” when its advocates can’t articulate value in business terms.
Your background in Contact Center management should have exposed you to budgeting, ROI analysis, and trade-off decisions.
These skills are not optional in CX leadership—they are foundational.
Arguing for CX because it “feels right” will fail you every time.
The Power of Influence
The most effective Contact Center leaders work up and out.
They build strong leadership beneath them so they can influence across functions—operations, IT, marketing, finance — to solve customer problems collectively.
CX leadership is political — not in a negative sense, but in the sense that influence, reputation, and trust determine what gets done.
Your track record, credibility, and ability to mobilize others matter as much as your technical knowledge.
In Closing
I don’t think you have to come up through the Contact Center industry to succeed in Customer Experience management.
If you’re able to channel the customer-centricity you achieved in your Contact Center to the organization at large, you’ve earned credibility — and a strong degree of readiness.
Now is the time to build your formal knowledge of Customer Experience as well. There is a lot to know.
Thanks for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe on our site.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
