A Tactical Framework to Assess CX Culture

Let’s face it: your contact center already has a culture. Probably more than one. There’s the one on the breakroom posters and the one that shows up in queues, dashboards and behavior when no one’s watching. You can’t bulldoze your way to a better customer experience — you have to work with the culture you’ve got and slowly, strategically bend it toward customer centricity.

Most contact center leaders aren’t asked to redesign culture from scratch. But every leader can assess where their culture helps (or hurts) their ability to deliver better service. The trick is knowing what to look for.

Use this five-part lens to assess whether your current culture is aligned, misaligned or MIA when it comes to delivering outstanding customer experiences:

1. Espoused vs. Actual Values

What does your company say it believes — and what really happens?

• Compare your organization's mission, vision and values with the behaviors you see daily.
• Look at Glassdoor reviews, customer feedback verbatims and frontline frustrations.
• Are the stated values lived or are they merely lip service?

➡️ Takeaway: Culture isn't what’s on paper — it’s what gets rewarded and repeated.

2. Incentives and Scorecards

Do your incentives promote customer-centric behaviors? I refer to these as “special forces” on your CX and quality assurance metrics because they can create the illusion of customer-focus while genuinely prioritizing personal profit.

• Are CX metrics on anyone’s scorecard beyond the CX team?
• Do billing, IT, or fulfillment teams get rewarded for preventing contacts — or generating them?
• Is “fast handle time” prioritized over first contact resolution?

➡️ Takeaway: Incentives are culture in motion. CX leaders must learn and align with them to influence change.

3. Tempo and Timing

What’s the operating rhythm of your company? Startups and century-old companies generally operate at different paces and have a profound impact on expediency and consideration.

• Is the culture fast-paced and quarterly driven, or slow and strategic?
• Are CX insights shared in time to influence planning cycles — or after decisions are made?
• Does leadership expect visible wins in 30 days or measurable impact in 12 months?

➡️ Takeaway: Your CX efforts must keep pace with the company’s pulse — or they will be ignored.

4. Employee Experience as Fuel

What do your employees need to deliver better service? There are employees in your contact center today who are eager to inform you about what’s broken and how to fix it.

• Use employee feedback to identify internal friction. If it annoys your agents, it likely annoys your customers.
• Recognize employees by name when customers do.
• Create tools, not just policies — such as more intuitive systems or simply better chairs.

➡️ Takeaway: Culture change happens through people. Start by making their jobs easier.

5. Shared Understanding and Visibility

Are people connected to the customer? Contact centers can become the dumping ground for issues stemming from various upstream errors in products, processes, billing, and other areas.

• Let employees hear customer voices — literally. Share verbatim feedback and show who said what.
• Highlight CX wins in internal comms and meetings.
• Link individual roles to real customer outcomes through story, not just stats.

➡️ Takeaway: What gets visibility gets valued. Make CX real for every department.

Don't Wait for Culture to Catch Up

Changing culture takes time. However, you don’t need a reorganization or a rebrand to start shifting it. You don’t need permission either! You can “add to the culture” with small, consistent actions:

• Host Lunch & Learns with frontline teams.
• Celebrate CX Day and promote service wins — especially when peers do the nominating.
• Get your execs speed dating with real customers. Five minutes of exposure to live calls beats five slides of metrics.

The contact center is where culture gets tested — and exposed. That makes you the perfect leader to influence it.

As I wrote in Customer Experience Management Field Manual, the CX leader is the “keeper of the flame” for customer centricity. You’re not just delivering on goals. You’re showing the business how to think like a customer — and act accordingly.