A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Buy-In and Driving Change for CX Leaders

Problem-solving and communication are the most important skills for any CX leader — particularly those who are new to the role as they gain the trust of their peers, teams, and customers. While handy for the day-to-day role of running a customer care team, these skills are equally as crucial when trying to achieve buy-in across the organization for new CX initiatives and investments.

When employees across all departments understand how CX solutions can benefit them directly, executives have an easier time gaining internal backing for investments in these tools that drive growth. With organizational buy-in, leaders can make significant strides toward transforming their business, leading to more effectiveness and profitability for everyone involved.

CX plays an enormous role in how businesses survive and thrive in the loyalty economy. CX can create new revenue opportunities, foster long-term customer relationships that pave the way for businesses to scale, and motivate agents to stay and grow within the company.

For these reasons, selecting a CX solution that’s capable of achieving such lofty goals is not just important — it can be transformational.

An investment in customer service infrastructure affects almost every department in any given company. With CX technology being used across sales to finance to IT, the leaders across an organization should have a say in which solution is implemented.

To achieve this level of buy-in, CX leaders need to understand what matters to their departmental counterparts. Follow these comprehensive steps to guide them in the right direction:

Ecommerce businesses rely on diverse, sustainable revenue sources to launch new products, plan for the future, market products, and scale. To achieve key CX goals, a brand needs to find a supporting solution that creates regular interactions with shoppers and ensures sustainable revenue generation for an organization’s long-term success.

But how can a CX leader prove the value of CX solutions to their counterpart department heads? The key to getting their approval lies in exhibiting how CX is the cornerstone of a sustainable business, and that various parts of an organization can benefit from strong CX.

Use and refer back to the following checklist to ensure you follow the clear path to organizational certainty on your next CX investment.

• Build cross-functional relationships across your organization
• Understand the unique needs of each team in your company
• Identify the downstream benefits CX can create for that team
• Explain those benefits and provide use cases to those respective teams
• Continually question and audit your approach to CX in the context of different departments
• Maintain an effort to improve CX and monitor new options or technologies available to your organization

While this breakdown is straightforward, convincing department heads presents a challenge for CX leaders. Often, they must engage in extensive research and value propositioning to secure the support required for executive investment.

Next, we’ll share the most influential internal teams included in the decision-making process when choosing a CX solution, along with a roadmap to securing their support. Consider the various ways in which you can conduct an internal sales process, then use the following team-centered solutions to interview and gauge whether these common sentiments are held within your organization or if additional internal auditing is required.

Improving CX is a major IT undertaking that can absorb a substantial amount of their time. This team needs to be able to implement new CX technology while keeping the flow of business moving.

At the forefront of every IT leader’s mind today is the growing role of AI in all facets of a business, but particularly in CX. The IT persona sees the power of AI to transform the efficiency of customer care as a whole. However, they need to understand how it works within an existing IT infrastructure, and how AI can lead to better customer interactions.

IT’s Key Concerns:

• Reducing implementation time
• Lowering effort to deploy new technology
• Simplifying daily technical processes
• Migrating to a new system while ensuring the least disruption
• Managing customer interactions efficiently across a wide range of channels
• Strengthening data integration, analysis, and security

Solutions for IT:

• Focus on finding a CX solution that provides the fastest implementation process, the best support for in-house IT management, and deep collaboration from the service provider.
• Prioritize solutions that provide clear instruction and technical support to the in-house IT counterparts.
• Implement state-of-the-art AI solutions effectively within the customer service ecosystem to automate routine and tedious CX processes while improving responses and personalization.

The CX solution a company uses can drastically change the day-to-day operations of an ecommerce business. For the operations team, understanding this technology’s impact on organizational structure is key to determining how they’ll weigh in on a final decision.

Central to an operations leader’s considerations is the ability to balance immediate functional improvement and long-term adaptation with an evolving ecommerce landscape. Technology supercharged with the capabilities of AI and a simplified approach to personalization make for a more scalable CX solution overall.

Operations’ Key Concerns:

• Maintaining internal organization
• Simplifying workflows
• Improving productivity
• Scaling current operational processes for all employees, including agents
• Balancing the needs of physical stores with ecommerce

Solutions for Operations:

• Select a program that creates lower demand from each agent, allowing them to serve more customers faster without loss of performance.
• Consolidate all necessary product and brand information into a single, readily accessible digital hub — reducing the reliance on external input from additional departments.
• Invest in technology that helps align overarching business strategies with operational excellence, implementing solutions that enhance overall efficiency and interdepartmental cooperation across processes.

The finance team won’t just need to know the upfront costs of a CX solution — they’ll also want evidence that the solution can provide long-term value for the company and scale as the business grows.

Far more than just calculators, the finance team has a real stake and is eager to invest in the right technologies with proven business value. In particular, effective digital technologies, AI-driven ones especially, pose exciting opportunities that if properly explained will get enthusiastic buy-in up to the CFO level.

Finance’s Key Concerns:

• Easing budgeting
• Allowing more transparent forecasting
• Finding a consistent third-party partner
• Combining complex, fragmented management of financial processes
• Reducing the difficulty of monitoring and analyzing financial data

Solutions for Finance:

• Pinpoint a scalable pricing model that aligns with the size of the company, ensuring access to features is not limited by cost or size restraints.
• Use cost-benefit analyses to identify how the solution will improve the business’s bottom line by generating additional revenue streams, fostering proactive sales, and increasing the number of returning customers.
• Identify the way digital technologies powered by AI improve individual agent performance and reduce the need for additional labor costs, creating a much faster-scaling support center at a fraction of the price.

Your CX team, as the frontline employees of the business, needs a solution that provides proven, tangible benefits to their work — including easy-to-use systems; handy supplemental tools and technology; and opportunities for driving revenue.

But CX is larger and more strategically minded than ever before, particularly further up into managerial roles. The out-of-the-box tools shouldn’t just be singular applications of AI — a platform that prioritizes strategic use of the technology and analytics to form actionable insights in the support center will win the most buy-in.

Customer Care’s Key Concerns:

• Improving customer experiences
• Simplifying troubleshooting and requesting approvals
• Expediting CX team workflows and capabilities
• Overcoming challenges in anticipating customer needs and preferences
• Integrating disparate systems and data sources to create a unified view

Solutions for Customer Care:

• Work directly with CX team members to pinpoint which issues need the most resolution speed improvement, the best channels to access customers, and the most user-friendly interface that enables their day-to-day tasks.
• Teach CX teams about how leveraging AI can bring in a truly intelligent, customer-supporting self-service option that handles simple tasks effectively and personably — enabling the freedom to handle more complex, hands-on tasks.
• Gain access to greater resources and avoid “tech debt” by defining the data and tech requirements needed to transform CX into a legitimate revenue driver.

Company executives need to keep consistent revenue flowing above all else. By showing them how CX builds loyalty, and how loyalty creates consistent shoppers, C-suiters will connect the dots on how CX solutions can secure their bottom lines.

Most importantly, the CEO is always looking to best steward the complex ship of a modern ecommerce business. They want a solution that provides proven monetary value, of course, but also a more intangible market value that puts the brand in a better position to lead its respective market.

The C-Suite’s Key Concerns:

• Allowing for rapid scalability
• Improving overall brand affinity
• Enabling organizational efficiency
• Ensuring high-quality service in line with the brand image
• Retaining customers and their satisfaction

Solutions for the C-Suite:

• Demonstrate a provable pathway to long-term scalability and room for additional revenue growth tied directly to the benefits of your ideal CX solution.
• Offer examples of success with different levels of business from startups to enterprise-level companies.
• Prove how CX is an effective pathway for positioning a brand as a market leader in their respective space, giving an ecommerce company the greatest social cachet with their customers.

From Jason Finkelstein, Gladly CMO: “Start with your brand’s strategy. What are you and your leadership trying to solve? Putting customers at the center of service interactions? Best of breed offerings, an all-in-one offering, or both? Total cost of ownership and platform/vendor consolidation? An automation/AI experience that doesn’t make customers feel deflected?

Starting with what’s most important to your brand and your company’s strategy will help you approach executives in a way where you can steer the conversation and know what to ask all of them.”

During a “CX Change Makers” panel at Gladly Connect Live 2024, three CX leaders advise on how to get the ball rolling on getting buy-in and driving change:

Stephanie Kalch, Samsonite: “You need the data to tell the story. So much of customer service is people’s perceptions of what’s happening with your brand. Tailor your stories to different stakeholders using data — it’s so important to have data rather than opinions.”

Mike Beaubrun, Condé Nast: “You have to be able to build bridges and know the different aspects of the business. What’s important to me may not be for [other teams] — it’s about speaking their language. Multiple voices amplify the message that we need change, and you’re not the only one singing the song.”

Leslie Nelson, Holly Hunt: “Build that one-to-one relationship. Will you support this and stand with me? Will you make this happen? What’s the common ground, and how do we build out the case together so it’s beneficial to everyone? There are lots of ways to implement change. Understanding the culture of your organization is key. And figure out your tactical plan, what’s going to get you from A to B.”

Read more here.

Pushback is inevitable when it comes to organizations adopting a new technology, no matter the department. Typically, this is a symptom of risk aversion — the underlying question being, “Even if this partner promises improvements, how can we be sure there won’t be long-term downsides?”

To understand the concerns and needs of stakeholders, particularly around the role that CX will play in their department’s daily tasks, consider asking them the following questions to identify what they need most from you.

• Do you require technical support from the CX solution provider for full implementation?
• How can we confirm that this solution will work well with the existing integrations that we use in CX?
• What would you look for in a specialty solution that would get you to prefer it over an enterprise option from a larger brand (e.g. Salesforce)?
• What are your migration concerns for a new CX technology?
• What bandwidth do you think your teams would require to implement AI-driven CX tools?

• Are you concerned about this solution disrupting the day-to-day operations of our growing ecommerce business?
• How can the right solution help project management within our company and improve interdepartmental communication and efficiency?
• Are you looking for a solution that includes modern technology, like AI, to support a more robust, intelligent corporate infrastructure?
• What could be the most difficult barriers to scaling your current operational processes?
• What agent and service team siloes are getting in the way of overall productivity?

• Are you looking for a solution that provides its full list of features, regardless of payment tier?
• What is your maximum CX budget and how does it compare to your investment in other aspects of our internal technical infrastructure?
• What are some of the best ways for a CX solution to provide return value to our company, especially the more we invest in it?
• How have previous solutions helped or hindered your ability to centralize complex and fragmented financial management processes?
• What level of transparency in financial performance and data have you been afforded from previous or legacy systems?

• What support staff capabilities are we currently lacking and what would you want a CX solution to do to allow us to handle greater volume?
• What are your biggest concerns and challenges with maintaining personalization with valued customers at scale?
• How would the right solution help support staff seek out and act on revenue opportunities more proactively?
• How much visibility do you currently have into your customer journey? How easily can you identify and tackle common customer pain points?
• How much do you currently leverage AI to tailor responses and solutions to customers?

• What would you look for in a CX solution and its provider to believe it would act as a partner to our brand as we grow?
• How concerned are you with this solution upholding the standards of our brand and corporate culture, regardless of size?
• What talking points, proof points, or KPIs do you need to sell this solution to our board or investors as a means to better drive revenue for our business?
• How do you manage spikes in CX demands during promotions, holidays, or other sales opportunities? Has poor CX previously hindered potential value-driving chances during those periods?
• What do you see as your biggest internal barriers to customer retention and satisfaction, and how have you tried to address them in the past? What level of success have you had?

Another key to reducing pushback as much as possible during the buy-in phase is proving your case through a thorough cost-benefit analysis. Conduct this as soon as possible to ensure your case is clear and that each department can easily understand how their team stands to benefit.

Use the following worksheet to enter the predictive costs for each department’s use of a new CX software. Then, use some of the question responses received from the previous sections to identify the benefits of implementation and show how they outweigh the costs — demonstrating a net positive for that department and your business as a whole.

With your completed cost-benefit analysis, you’ll have an easily demonstrable graphic of how the right CX tool can generate positive outcomes regardless of a department’s cost and resource concerns.

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Take a look at some examples of Gladly in action that can ease stakeholder fears and demonstrate to them an ability for this CX upgrade to provide the benefits you’re promising your organization.

Gladly solutions are easy to implement and integrate with existing systems, making it simple to onboard new employees and IT, especially with the advanced power of AI incorporated. The thorough, white-glove approach to migration ensures all integrated solutions fully adhere to internal and external security compliance requirements — with 80% of current customers noting the ease of data integration, according to SoftwareReviews.

Top ecommerce brands like Bombas and Crate & Barrel rave about the simple, rapid implementation process for Gladly:

“The implementation process was suspiciously easy. … I think the biggest thing we had concerns about was transferring all of our historical tickets into Gladly and injecting them into there. But the team was able to figure it out. Everything is where it’s supposed to be. And we were really off to the races with really zero downtime for our customers, even for our phone support.”

Glady is conversation-driven, simplifying the ability for consistent interaction between agents internally across channels, while helping make customers feel connected and like they’re a part of the brand’s growth. The Gladly system’s simple structure and interface make it a naturally scalable CX solution, no matter how fast or big your organization grows.

The interconnectedness of the interface ensures the typical siloes that ops teams see are broken down. In fact, compared to options like Zendesk, Gladly provides far more seamless operations — with an average 87% increase in first-call resolution.

Gladly provides an entire suite of tools out-of-the-box at a flat, consistent, per-agent rate. The platform streamlines CX into a single cost center, which can be transformed into a revenue center. It also provides complete transparency of performance, enabling simple and effective financial decisions based on results.

Moreover, by consolidating different parts of the CX tech stack, brands save immensely in the long run. For example, brands that switched from Kustomer to Gladly reduced their CX costs by 40% on average.

Gladly promotes radically personal service, making it easy for support teams to identify the unique characteristics of each customer and share that information with multiple departments. Powered by AI, Gladly delivers fast, at-scale personalization with the precision of intelligent technology. This creates new revenue opportunities for individual agents by providing a much deeper understanding of each customer.

By providing this white-glove level of service in an ecommerce space that brands are typically only able to provide in brick-and-mortar stores, Gladly brings CX to new heights. With help from Gladly, glasses brand Zenni Optical simplified their physical-digital CX connection and received their sixth consecutive placement on Newsweek’s “Best CX” list in 2023.

The popularity of Gladly among support centers is fully apparent — SoftwareReviews found that 100% of respondents with Gladly CX solutions planned to renew in the following year.

Gladly provides proven long-term benefits to a brand’s affinity and scales rapidly with businesses so growth can happen seamlessly. No matter the changes in external factors or your ecommerce business’s promotional schedule, CX is prepared to handle both large and small volumes of customers.

With new AI-powered solutions, such as Gladly Hero and Sidekick, brands can rapidly upgrade CX infrastructure to be future-proof while paving the way for more effective service per agent at scale. Immediately, this upgrade makes customer retention far easier and more successful as agents are elevated to the roles of Heroes — with the rapid ability to identify, respond to, and delight customers through each request.

On a deeper level, C-suiters can feel confident that Gladly will help their business grow. According to SoftwareReviews, 100% of respondents found Gladly technology inspiring to strategy and innovation while 95% said that Gladly was key to helping them innovate further.

After all the work invested in getting full internal buy-in, it’s entirely possible — even probable — you’ll still face hesitation and pushback once the new technology is implemented, particularly from teams like IT that will deal the most with the initial phases of the transition. Be sure to address the more difficult personalities in your organization directly.

To do so, consider a few post-buy-in questions that demonstrate empathy and encourage an open dialogue to overcome these final challenges.

1. How satisfied are you with this new approach to CX? Can it be improved in any way?
2. What is your hesitation about fully embracing this solution?
3. What is your prior experience with dealing with new CX solution implementation or onboarding? With any new technology?
4. What would a successful use of this new product look like for you? What would you want to see?
5. What performance results would you like to see to consider this new technology a success?
6. How can I better include you in this exploratory and implementation process now and in the future?
7. What are our competitors doing in this area, and why?
8. If we were to change the way we’re approaching this process, what would you like it to look like?
9. How has this new technology helped or hindered your ability to better communicate with other departments on CX (or otherwise)?
10. Do you consider this new CX approach on par with our customer care approach in our physical stores? (ask where applicable)

By recognizing the intricate relationship between each of your ecommerce brand’s departments and the overall customer experience, you can establish a mutual understanding of the benefits that come from high-quality CX solutions. Using that knowledge, you can persuade decision-makers to buy into the value and benefits of a powerful CX solution — pinpointing their problems, taking the initiative to offer a tangible solution, and ultimately creating meaningful change in your organization.

Try a demo of Gladly to discover the power of white-glove service and high-quality, loyalty-driving CX — with it, everyone benefits, and your brand can grow rapidly.

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