In many organizations, customer experience (CX) is a one-person show.

It’s even common for CX responsibilities to be a small slice of a much larger job description. If you’re a solo CX warrior balancing CX alongside marketing, operations, or other functional roles, you’re not alone. (Maybe you’ve been “voluntold” that you’re in charge of customer experience!)

The good news is that while you may not have a formal team (yet), you’re not without support.

CX lives across every department, touchpoint, and employee. By tapping into that shared ownership and laying the right groundwork, you can scale your efforts strategically.

This article will show you how to build influence, mobilize support, and grow your CX impact without needing to hire an entire department. Let’s dive in.

A Strong CX Foundation for Scaling Growth

To make the most of your team resources—whether you’re a team of one, two, or twenty—it’s essential to have a solid customer experience strategic foundation in place.

These aren’t just internal talking points; they’re the north stars that guide every initiative, conversation, and decision related to CX.

Here are the key foundational elements to define:

• Your CX Vision: Think big. Paint a picture of what an outstanding customer experience will look like in your organization’s future.
• CX Mission Statement: This is your why. It explains the purpose behind your CX efforts and should align closely with your organization’s broader mission and values. Learn more about crafting your CX Mission here.
• CX Success Strategy Statement: This is the bridge between your mission and results. It defines what success looks like for your CX efforts, as well as how to measure progress and stay focused. Here’s how to develop one.
• Customer Journey Mapping: You can’t improve what you don’t understand. Journey maps help you visualize your customers’ real experiences, not just the ones you assume they’re having. Building your journey maps is an ongoing process, however, you may want to start with a foundation to guide your initial efforts.
• Feedback Strategy: Whether it’s surveys, social listening, or informal feedback from frontline teams, you need structured ways to hear directly (and indirectly) from your customers. Learn how to optimize your customer feedback program in this article.

This type of strong foundation will allow you to communicate your CX vision clearly, connect initiatives to meaningful outcomes, and gain buy-in more easily across your organization.

But if you’re starting with the mandate to “make CX better” or with few of these resources, that’s okay. Start where you are. Get traction. Keep going!

Building Your CX Foundation From Scratch

Here’s the really good news: You can recruit others to help you develop these key parts of the strategy.

People like to be included in creating these big ideas and contributing to long-lasting strategies. So in a way, even before you get started, you have an opportunity to engage others in meaningful ways with customer experience.

If you’re starting from scratch, here’s how to get feedback and bring partners into the fold:

• Share a CX survey: Create a quick survey to solicit thoughts and ideas for CX from across the organization. The survey can identify perceived CX strengths, areas of opportunity, and visions for the future. You may receive many disparate insights, which you can channel when developing your foundation.
• Host a CX brainstorm: Invite a group of people from across your organization to discuss your CX Vision, or workshop your CX Mission and CX Success Strategy statements. The brainstorm allows for deeper conversations around the areas your survey explored. This is also an opportunity to share any draft foundational elements you have ready and gain early feedback to refine your foundation.

Your foundation doesn’t have to be perfect or complete to get started. You may need just a few elements to guide you as you start focusing on CX and laying your groundwork.

How to Scale Your CX Team Without Adding Headcount

In an ideal world, once you have established your CX foundation, it’s time to scale. The magic lies in building cross-functional support, tapping into existing resources, and being strategic about where and how you invest your energy.

Gaining Leadership Support

Let’s be real: if leadership doesn’t understand the importance of CX, you’ll constantly be swimming upstream. The good news? Most leaders do care—they just need help understanding how CX ties directly to business outcomes.

Here’s how to earn their buy-in:

• Speak Their Language: Use data to show how customer experience impacts revenue, retention, and cost-to-serve. Lead with metrics they already care about. We explain the language of CX in this article to get the buy-in you deserve.
• Share Success Stories: Highlight examples from within your industry where CX investments led to measurable improvements. Lean into storytelling techniques to capture attention and create emotional resonance.
• Create Regular Touchpoints: Keep CX on the radar with short updates in leadership meetings. Don’t wait for an annual report; keep it conversational and ongoing. Challenge yourself to report on something outside of the regular, expected “metrics” every time.

Your goal is to help leaders become champions of CX, not just supporters. A champion is someone who doesn’t just nod along in meetings. CX champions advocate for customers in budget discussions, defend CX priorities, and set the tone for the entire organization. When they see the value, they’ll help carry the message forward.

Empower Individuals Across Departments

Here’s the secret sauce: CX isn’t owned by a single team. It’s everyone’s responsibility, from HR to sales to finance. We like to say that CX is everyone’s business! The more you can embed CX thinking across departments, the stronger your efforts will become.

• Onboarding With CX: Make CX part of every new employee’s first-week experience. Share your mission, your journey map, and why their role matters.
• Consistent Communication: Whether it’s through company-wide town halls, department updates, or internal newsletters, keep CX top of mind. A monthly “CX Mission Moment” shared in meetings can go a long way.
• Recognize CX Heroes: When employees make a positive impact on a customer, celebrate their efforts! Internal recognition programs or shoutouts in company meetings are great ways to reinforce what “good” looks like.

The more you build awareness, the more people will raise their hands to support you.

Form a CX Committee

A CX committee can be a powerful force for change, especially when it’s cross-functional. Based on your culture, this could be a CX Governance Council or simply the CX Team of Champions. Find a way to brand this that fits into your environment.

• Recruit Passionate Volunteers: Look for team members who light up when talking about customer experience. Ask for their insights and invite them to contribute in a more formal discussion.
• Set a Cadence: Monthly or quarterly meetings give your committee structure and respect the time of everyone involved. Use these sessions to share updates, gather feedback, and co-create next steps. (Bonus! Create your CX Charter to start strong and consistently focus on the right priorities.)
• Give Them a Voice: Encourage committee members to bring back CX ideas to their departments. Empower them to be champions in their own right.

This approach not only scales your reach but also builds grassroots support that can influence change from the bottom up.

Growing Your Own CX Expertise

If you’re the solo CX leader (or CX-adjacent), staying on top of industry trends and best practices is a must. Thankfully, you’re not limited to what’s happening inside your organization.

Here are some ways to keep growing:

• Attend Industry Events: Whether virtual or in-person, events are a great way to hear from peers, ask questions, and bring back fresh ideas.
• Listen to Podcasts: Tune into the Experience Action podcast for practical CX insights, “CX in the wild” discussions with experts, and answers to real-world questions.
• Join Local Meetups or Online Groups: Networking doesn’t have to be formal. Look for Slack communities, LinkedIn groups, or regional meetups where CX pros share advice and support each other. (Shout out to the Women in CX and CX Accelerator communities!)
• Invest in Learning: Even short courses or webinars can add up to big growth. Prioritize ongoing development as part of your CX plan, like taking LinkedIn Learning courses at your own pace.

You May Be a Solo Leader, But You’re Not Alone

Leading CX without a formal team can feel challenging. But remember: CX lives in every department. Your role is to activate that latent energy, create clarity through foundational tools, and build momentum one conversation at a time.

And you don’t have to do it all alone.

That’s exactly why we created CXI Membership – a vibrant community of CX professionals, experts, and allies who get it. Members gain access to exclusive workshops, on-demand curriculum, live office hours, downloadable resources, and an ever-growing peer network ready to share advice and support. Whether you need a sounding board, practical tools, or a nudge in the right direction, we’re here to help.

Because when we support each other, everyone wins.

Want help building your CX committee, defining your CX Mission statement, or getting leadership buy-in? Let’s talk.