Simon Sinek said: A community is a group of people who agree to grow together. I think that describes the customer experience profession, and especially the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), quite well.
Connecting with other customer experience professionals is very valuable, whether through the CXPA or other means. As you may know, this field is fairly new, having been established and recognized five years ago with the creation of the CXPA. (I understand you might have been in this role longer.) Considering this and the challenges newcomers face (did you move from a different role or department to focus on CX?), building connections with other professionals who have encountered similar challenges and successes can be very rewarding for many reasons, including what Simon mentions about growing together.
I can sum up the benefits of connecting with other CX professionals in two words: (1) education and (2) support; in some ways, they can both be lumped together and defined as:
- learning from each other,
- having someone who understands what you’re talking about
- having someone who can answer questions about the same challenges or experiences you’re having,
- bouncing ideas off each other,
- sharing failures and best practices,
- mentoring someone with less experience or knowledge,
- having a shoulder to cry on and also one to pick you up and help you along,
- and more.
We are all still learning! Even after almost 25 years in this space, I learn new things from other CX professionals every week. As this field and this profession evolve and as we continue to define what it means to be in this CX profession, know that your professional connections become even more important.
Get involved and connect with other CX professionals. Grow with other CX professionals. You will not regret it!
The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity. -Keith Ferrazzi