Why Every Role Impacts Customer Experience, According to Stacy Sherman

In a recent LinkedIn post, business leader Stacy Sherman argues that customer experience (CX) is not confined to specific departments but is, in fact, the responsibility of every employee. Sherman challenges the common refrain, “Customer eXperience isn’t my responsibility,” asserting that any role touching what a customer interacts with—be it through sight, clicks, signatures, or payments—directly influences purchasing decisions, loyalty, and retention.

“If your work involves anything a customer sees, clicks, signs, reads, pays, or waits for, you impact decisions to buy, return, renew, refer, complain, or leave.”

Breaking Down Organizational Silos for CX

Sherman emphasizes that customers do not perceive a company through its internal structure. Instead, they experience a sequence of emotional touchpoints. As Sherman explains, customers are indifferent to internal org charts or technical limitations; their journey is defined by their emotional responses.

Emotional Deposits in the Customer Journey

The core of Sherman’s argument lies in the concept of emotional deposits. Each interaction a customer has with a company, regardless of the department involved, contributes to an “emotional bank account.” Positive or negative emotions accumulated over time are the primary drivers of customer behavior, influencing whether they choose to buy again, renew a contract, or become a detractor.

Sherman illustrates this with several examples:

• IT Decisions: Reliability and speed foster relief, while system lag and crashes lead to frustration.
• HR Decisions: Adequate staffing and training build confidence, whereas under-resourced teams can cause anxiety.
• Legal Decisions: Transparent terms create security, while hidden clauses erode trust.
• Product Decisions: Intuitive design offers ease, while bugs and dead ends provoke anger.
• Marketing and Sales: Honest promises generate excitement, but over-promising results in a feeling of betrayal.
• Finance Decisions: Accurate billing ensures peace of mind, while delayed refunds can breed resentment.

“Every interaction people have with your work is a deposit into an emotional bank account. It is the accumulation of those emotions, both positive and negative, that dictates exactly what that customer does next.”

Shifting Perspective from Tasks to Emotions

Sherman urges professionals to move beyond viewing their work as mere functional tasks and to recognize the profound CX implications. A single confusing message or a flawed process is not just a minor oversight; it represents a negative emotional deposit that can have lasting consequences. The ultimate decision of a customer to remain loyal, according to Sherman, is a direct result of the cumulative emotional experiences they’ve had.

“You are not just delivering a product or a service; you are delivering the way a person feels across the entire customer journey. Emotion IS the Experience™.”

The Call to Action: Embrace CX Accountability

The opportunity for businesses, as highlighted by Sherman, is to encourage employees to step outside their job titles, even for a short period, and examine their work from the customer’s perspective. The goal is to identify at least one way to foster a positive emotional connection with customers and then to amplify that effort. Sherman concludes with a strong call to abandon the notion that CX is someone else’s problem, encouraging a proactive approach to accountability.

As Stacy Sherman puts it:

“No more saying ‘I don’t need to be accountable for the Customer eXperience; CX isn’t my responsibility.'”

Sherman invites further questions on the topic, offering expertise for those looking to improve their customer experience strategies.