Beyond Buzzwords: Unveiling the New Era of CX

Breaking down silos is a team effort

To achieve empathetic customer outcomes, organizations must overcome the challenge of breaking down internal silos to create a unified customer journey. How can they do that? According to panelists, collaboration is key.

"CX practitioners have a secret power, and that's collaboration," said Julie. She advised that one of the ways to break down silos is to create a cross-functional team that has the sole purpose of knocking down barriers.

When a legacy infrastructure leads to disconnected processes, it prevents unification. Enter: data sharing policies. "A disciplined way to [implement knowledge sharing] across the enterprise is establishing CX centers of excellence," Sudhir suggested. "You're taking what worked well in, say, marketing and bringing that to customer service. Closing the loop is a starting point."

Critically, IT has a part to play in breaking down silos. CIOs are taking a more active role in bringing CX to the forefront and bridging gaps between front office engagement and back office systems, but it needs to happen in tandem with the rest of the C-suite.

"It's everybody's job," affirmed Mark Smith, SVP of Customer Experience at CSG.