Are You Speaking the Same CX Language as Your Team?
Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP
Customer Experience Speaker, Trainer, Podcast Host, and CEO
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If you’ve ever felt like your efforts in customer experience (CX) are lost in translation when talking to your executive team, you’re not alone.
CX change agents live and breathe customer data, emotional connections, and journey maps. Many of us are fluent in acronyms like NPS, CLV, and VoC. But outside our teams, that language can quickly feel like insider jargon.
When leaders and organizational teammates don’t get it, we risk losing momentum and support for the very initiatives that are integral to business success. So let’s bridge the gap.
In this article, we unpack how to talk about customer experience in a way that resonates with busy executives who care deeply about results — but may not be immersed in the CX world. Whether you're advocating for investment, presenting quarterly wins, or just trying to build buy-in, this guide will help get your message across.
Gaining Leadership Buy-In for Customer Experience
If we describe our work using terms that feel vague or academic to business leaders, we risk seeming disconnected from what really matters to them: outcomes.
By using language that reflects both customer impact and business value, we open the door to more meaningful conversations, informed investments, and a shared sense of purpose.
What is an effective way to communicate your customer experience ROI? Think of it like navigating a customer journey:
What’s the entry point for your executive audience?
What pain points are they experiencing?
What outcome are they trying to reach?
Tailoring your message means translating what you do into what they need to know.
How to Talk About Customer Experience to Executive Leadership
Executives operate in a world of high stakes and limited time. The best way to earn their trust is to show them how CX helps them achieve their goals.
1. Start with Strategic Relevance
Begin by connecting your CX initiatives to what your leadership team is already focused on: growth, retention, efficiency, and differentiation. Your CX Success Strategy Statement will define specific CX program outcomes that extend your organizational goals. This statement will help you clearly communicate how CX helps individual teams when meeting with leaders.
“We’ve identified friction in the onboarding journey that’s increasing early churn. Addressing this could reduce cancellations by 18%—saving us more than $750,000 annually.”
“Our surveys confirm that customers overwhelmingly want this specific product feature. By prioritizing that feature development, we believe we can boost retention and stay ahead of our competitors.”
2. Be Metric-Minded
Executives are driven by numbers, but not just any numbers. Prioritize key performance indicators (KPIs) that show business impact, like retention rates, customer feedback signal trends over time, or customer lifetime value changes.
Do say: “Improving first contact resolution boosted customer satisfaction (CSAT) and reduced support costs by 12%.”
Don’t say: “Our NPS is up on the post-chat survey.”
Feedback is an important measurement and indicator if you connect it to the big picture. Don’t make your executives work! Connect those dots for them.
3. Offer Clear, Actionable Insights
Avoid “data dumping.” Summarize what the data says, why it matters, and what’s being done about it.
“Survey results show our mobile checkout is a recurring issue. We’re piloting a simplified version in Q3 with two customer segments. This testing should help us drive more conversions.”
4. Frame Success Stories as Customer Narratives
A compelling customer quote or story can light up the boardroom. Tie emotional impact to measurable outcomes whenever possible.
“One customer shared how effortless our support was during a crisis. She said: ‘This company was there for me when it mattered.’ That experience directly influenced a $40,000 renewal.”
5. Use the Rule of Three
When presenting updates or proposals, bundle your key messages into three clear takeaways. This helps busy leaders process and remember what you shared.
Building Ongoing Momentum for CX
Customer experience is a cross-functional strategy that demands shared understanding.
When we align CX language to business goals, we empower executives to support, invest in, and amplify our work. We make it easier to see the ROI, spot opportunities, and champion the customer as a driver of success.
This article is included as The Language of Customer Experience: How to Speak so Leadership Listens on ExperienceInvestigators.com.
Customer Experience Focused | People First | Solution Oriented
3wThis is true. And it all starts with confusing Customer Experience with Customer Service. I found that this is the first thing to clarify before moving any further 😅
Customer Experience and Business Transformation Leader | CX Strategy • Customer-Led Change | Driving Growth via CX Design and Voice of the Customer | Marketing Strategist | Non-Executive Director and Trustee
1moGood stuff, Jeannie. In #2 - speak their language. Know their hot buttons and what resonate for them. They won't care about NPS. But FCR boosting CSAT and reducing support costs, they will. What will help growth, important. What will reduce costs, also important.
Executive Manager, Customer Experience Solutions | 20+ Years in Tech & Retail | Digital Transformation • Delivering Memorable Customer Experiences
1moGreat insights, Jeannie! As someone who has worked in CX for years, I’ve seen exactly how easily our language can create distance instead of alignment. Translating CX initiatives into business outcomes isn’t just about numbers, it’s about building credibility and trust with leadership. I especially agree with your point on strategic relevance: when we connect CX improvements directly to retention, growth, or efficiency, it becomes much easier for executives to recognize CX as a driver of business success, not a side initiative. This article is a great reminder that being a CX professional also means being a translator: turning customer insights into strategic business language.
COO @ Simply Contact | Customer Support Operations Expert | Leading resilient, scalable, and human-centric outsourcing projects for global companies
1moSuch an important point. I’ve seen so many good CX initiatives lose momentum simply because teams weren’t speaking the same “language.” When everyone defines key terms differently, you end up solving different problems under the same project name. Getting aligned on definitions might feel basic, but it’s often the foundation that keeps strategy, execution, and outcomes connected.
Spot on Jeannie Walters, CCXP, CSP as usual you nailed it