Hi customer-obsessed friends,

Who would I be if I didn’t acknowledge what’s going on in the world? Between the constant news cycle, economic uncertainty and global tensions that are escalating daily, it’s hard to concentrate.

So here's a famous quote by Palestinian poet and author, Mahmoud Darwish, that I came across.

"The war will end, the leaders will shake hands, that old woman will keep waiting for her martyred son, that girl will wait for her beloved husband, and those children will wait for their heroic father. I don't know who sold our homeland, but I saw who paid the price."

To feel connected to people all over the world, thousands of miles away at times, even though you’ve never met them, is a beautiful part of the human experience. We need more of that.

Now, there’s no natural way to transition into this next part, so let’s jump in as I continue to ruffle a few feathers. 😌

🎯 THE MYTH WE NEED TO BUST

If you’ve asked yourself if customer service has gotten worse in recent years, you’re not alone. We know customer expectations are growing. In theory, we should be able to better meet those expectations by investing in AI and other technologies that are now available. But that’s just not the case, according to this Forbes article from 2024.

Something is seriously wrong.

Here's where I want us to challenge ourselves: Customer experience isn’t the responsibility of one department. It’s everyone’s job. And everyone needs to feel accountable for it in every interaction.

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “But we have a whole CX team for that!” And sure, you might. But guess what? Your customers don’t care about your org chart or job titles. They really don't.

When your app crashes during checkout, your customer doesn’t think, “Oh, this must be an engineering issue, so I shouldn’t blame the customer service team.” They just think your company screwed up.

We’ve created this weird myth that customer experience only happens when someone with “Customer” in their job title shows up. Meanwhile, your engineer just deployed a feature that breaks the mobile experience. Your marketing team promised free shipping that your fulfillment team can’t actually deliver. Your finance department created a billing process so confusing it makes people want to cancel before their trial even ends.

Every single person in your organization is responsible for customer experience, whether they realize it or not. So make that the norm within your organization’s culture.

👥 WHO REALLY OWNS CX?

Let me break this down

Your Developer owns it when they choose between fixing that annoying bug that makes the search function wonky or shipping another feature that looks good in a demo but doesn’t solve real problems.
Your Salesperson owns it when they set expectations. Are they promising the moon when you can barely deliver a decent flashlight? That’s a CX decision.
Your Accountant (yes, really) owns it when they design invoice formats and payment processes. Ever tried to figure out what you’re being charged for on a confusing bill?
Your HR Team owns it when they hire people. Are they bringing in folks who genuinely care about solving problems, or just people who can get through an interview? Culture starts with hiring.
Your Operations Team owns it every time they choose systems that either make life easier for employees (which usually means better service for customers) or create internal chaos that customers inevitably feel.
Your Leadership owns it with every priority decision. When they choose what gets funded, what gets ignored, and what gets rushed to market, they’re making CX decisions. Keep in mind that ALL of this begins and ends with your leadership team.

The companies I’ve seen nail this don’t have the biggest customer experience budgets. They have cultures where “Will this make it better for our customers?” is a question everyone asks naturally, not because they have to, but because they genuinely want to know the answer.

🛠️ MAKING IT REAL: THE CULTURE SHIFT

What it looks like in practice

👀 Cross-department shadowing
Have your developer sit with customer support for half a day. Let your marketing team listen to sales calls where prospects are confused about messaging. Get your finance team on a customer call where someone’s trying to understand their billing.

❓ The customer question
Before any major decision, ask: “How does this affect our customers?” Not just the obvious customer-facing decisions but ALL decisions. New software system? Customer question. Hiring process? Customer question. Office location? You guessed it.

📖 Customer story sharing
Start team meetings with a real customer story. Not metrics or dashboards but actual stories. The good, the bad, and the “we really messed this up” stories. Be honest about what worked and what didn't. These are all great learning opportunities.

🕵️ Post-mortems
You just wrapped up a big project, and it went well. Or maybe it didn't go well at all. Either way, schedule a post-mortem to talk through the things you want to repeat or the things you want to avoid. Again, a great way to learn together.

📣 TAKE ACTION...NOW

Small steps, big impact

Pick ONE person from a non-customer-facing department and have them experience your product/service as a customer would. Give them a specific task to complete and ask them to document every friction point.

The 15-minute department check:

For Engineers: Find the three most common support tickets. How many could be solved with better UX or fewer bugs?
For Marketing: Review your last five campaigns. What promises did you make that other departments have to deliver on?
For Finance: Look at your billing/payment process. Is it simple enough to understand in a few minutes?
For HR: Think about your last three hires. Did you ask them about their experience handling a tough customer-facing situation?
For Operations: Audit your internal processes. Which ones create customer-facing problems when they break?

The reality check:

Ask your customer service team: “What’s the one thing that happens internally that makes your job harder?” The answer may surprise you.

Now get out there and try this with your team!

🤓 CX Resources

Articles

This HBR article talks about how CX is everyone's responsibility. Using an example of how DoorDash requires all employees, including the CEO, to deliver food at least 1x a month through their "WeDash" program. They also added the WeSupport program, where employees shadow Customer Experience agents as they solve customer support tickets in real time.
For a deeper dive, read more about the WeDash program here. They're not the only company to do this. As a former Lululemon employee 👋, members from corporate would join us on the sales floor at least once per year.
This podcast episode by HBR On Leadership: Customer-obsessed innovation. Lyft CEO David Risher talks about how he helped Lyft reach record bookings and a 31% increase in annual revenue and its first full year of profitability.
This episode of The CX Cast on how customer obsession isn't an end goal but an ongoing practice that can lead to business efficiency.

🎧 WHAT I'M LISTENING TO

Hermanos Gutiérrez: Tiny Desk Concert

It's officially Summer 😎. Which means I'm always looking for mellow jams. If you're a fan of Khruangbin, you'll dig Hermanos Gutiérrez. It's a blend of Latin and Western music that feels perfect for the season.

Check out their Tiny Desk Concert from a few years ago. The 4:22 mark is one of my favorite songs.

💭 FINAL THOUGHTS

When everyone owns customer experience, you don’t need a department to manage it. You need a culture that lives it. The best part? This doesn’t require a massive budget or a complete organizational overhaul. It just requires everyone to care. Start small. Start this week. Start with one department asking one simple question: “How does this decision affect our customers?”

Thanks for reading.

Why customer service keeps getting worse