The Experience Edge: CX is not a department with Charissa Riddle

Charissa Riddle, former Senior Director of Experience Design and Customer Experience Strategy at Electronic Arts (EA), brings over two decades of expertise in transforming how organizations approach customer experience (CX). In this episode, she challenges the common misconception of collapsing CX into customer service and offers a more holistic perspective on creating meaningful customer interactions.

In this episode, Charissa discusses:

1. CX origins in customer service: The misunderstanding of CX as solely a service function stems from its historical roots in customer service teams being the first to receive feedback about broken experiences upstream.

2. CX as a mindset and system: Rather than viewing CX as just a department, Riddle advocates for seeing it as an interconnected system of functions that contribute to all customer touchpoints.

3. Experience defined: Riddle offers a working definition of experience as 'a series of interactions that create an emotion,' emphasizing the importance of emotional outcomes in customer perceptions.

4. Balancing emotion and business metrics: While CX often focuses on emotional outcomes, it's crucial to tie these to specific business results to create impact and speak the language of the business.

5. Narrowing focus for impact: CX loses power when defined too broadly. Teams need to identify specific entry and exit points to make meaningful improvements.

Key takeaways for CX Leaders:

By adopting this more nuanced understanding of CX, leaders can move beyond reactive service models and create proactive, emotion-driven experiences that align with business objectives and drive meaningful customer relationships.

Want to hear the entire conversation? Watch or listen to the podcast with Charissa and Jochem on The Experience Edge:

Spotify | YouTube | Apple Podcasts