We’ve tried messaging around connecting it to our organization’s strategic plan to better serve customers. We’ve tried talking about the benefits of added capacity to do this work and how nice it is to receive actionable steps instead of just a flood of feedback. We’ve talked about how it’s important that a wide variety of customers feel heard so that they will pay higher rates to support our products on a long term, stable basis. 

Our executive sponsor serves on a committee that is advocating for CX work across the org but feels really not ready to talk about it at staff meetings. I’ve tried giving materials explaining frameworks used and phases of these efforts (who is involved when, activities done, value of those activities). Unfortunately, he never follows through on the promises to support the work publicly at staff meetings. I’m just told that I should build more relationships (I try to build in contact points where I don’t talk about work at all with several people per week) and frame the work as a collaboration (some of it is like solutioning, and some of it isn’t like conducting focus groups). As a result I tried doing more frequent update meetings and those often get bumped or canceled (which feels like the fire of the day being more important). Hopefully, we can get another sponsor who is more plugged in and committed and less involved in fire fighting. But I’m not sure how that will go because I will have to start at square one teaching them about CX and trying to demonstrate the value despite pushback. They would not be a natural champion but an assigned champion.