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Earlier in my career, I was 100% the squeaky wheel in the room when it came to advocating for customers. If I thought a decision wasn't in the customer's best interest, I wasn't exactly shy about saying it lol.

Over time, though, I learned that being right about the customer doesn't necessarily mean people are going to listen to you. How you bring an issue to leadership matters just as much as the issue itself.

I still advocate for customers just as much as I did then. I've just learned how to do it in a way that actually gets people on board.

The biggest thing I had to learn was how to bring up a customer issue without making another department feel like I was attacking their decision.

Marketing has goals. Operations has goals. Finance has goals. CX has goals. And sometimes those goals are going to conflict.

Instead of walking into the room with, “This is terrible for the customer,” I learned to come in with, “Here’s what we’re seeing from customers, here are the anayltics on how it is impacting revenue and future revenue, and here’s what I recommend we do about it”

Same customer advocacy. Very different delivery.

And shockingly (🙃), people were a lot more willing to listen.

Being a strong customer advocate doesn't mean automatically fighting anything that's good for sales or revenue. Part of becoming a better CX leader was learning to understand why those decisions were being made in the first place.

You can push back while still respecting what another team is trying to accomplish. In fact, I've found that you're much more likely to influence the decision when the conversation isn't framed as CX vs. everyone else.

Because if you're constantly the department saying, “No, that's bad for the customer,” eventually people are going to tune you out—even when you're right.

I used to think getting CX a seat at the table meant advocating louder for customers. Now I think it's about becoming someone the rest of the business trusts to bring the customer perspective and understand the bigger picture.

When you understand what CX, Marketing, and Operations are each trying to accomplish, you can help those teams reach their goals while still keeping the customer top of mind. That’s how you build trust, become a partner to the business, and ultimately earn that seat at the table.

You don't have to stop being the squeaky wheel entirely. Sometimes things need a little squeaking 😂

You just have to become a strategic squeaky wheel.

What’s your secret to getting people to actually listen when you KNOW you have a good point? 😂

Reply and tell me your tricks. I’m taking notes. 📝

Because apparently finding a good CX job is sometimes a full-time job itself, here are a few openings we spotted this week:

Community CX Manager @ Grüns
New York, NY (Remote)

Associate Director, Retention & Loyalty @ Dr. Squatch
Marina Del Ray, CA (Hybrid)

Senior Lifecycle Manager @ The Farmer's Dog
New York, NY (On-site)

Hiring for a CX role? Reply with the listing and we may add it to next week's Job Board! 🫶

September is officially my month of living out of a suitcase 😂 I’m bouncing around for events, podcast recordings, meetings, weddings, and somehow attempting to work like a normal person in between all of it.

I’ll be in NYC Sept 13th–16th for Beanstalk (anyone else going? 👀), then somehow turning around and heading back to NYC Sept 22nd–24th for more podcast recordings, meetings, and wedding festivities.

So basically… please pray for my suitcase because she is going THROUGH it. 😂

NEW SEASON INCOMING!!! 🎙️👀

We’ve been quietly banking some REALLY good episodes of Let’s Laugh About It, and the new season is officially coming in October.

If you like CX, e-commerce, business mistakes, and hearing what’s actually happening behind the scenes at brands, subscribe here so you don’t miss the new season →

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⏪ LLAI Throwback

Speaking of learning how to turn what you care about into actual impact…throwing it back to my conversation with Rohit Saini of Caraway on Growth from Your Passion: The Secret to Growing an Audience.

We talked about taking what you’re passionate about and learning how to use it to actually connect with people—which feels pretty fitting for this week. Caring deeply is step one. Learning how to get people to listen is the other half. 👀

Watch/listen here

Sometimes the things hurting retention or creating unnecessary support volume are hiding in plain sight.

That's exactly what we look for in an Inevitable Agency CX Audit. We dig into your customer experience, support operations, systems, and data to figure out what's working, what's not, and what we'd actually change.

Interested? Reply to this email and let's chat.