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Published On: 21st Sep 2026 08:00
A customer-centric culture is something that many organizations aspire to, but making it a reality can be difficult.
That’s where a CX ambassador programme can help – by creating a network of employees who champion the customer within their own teams – regardless of the department they work in.
To find out more, we spoke to Susanna Baqué, Senior Director Global Customer Experience at SCIEX, about the key lessons she’s learnt building and piloting her CX ambassador programme so far.
Before launching any programme, it is important to establish exactly what a CX ambassador is and what role they will play within the organization.
Without clear definitions, ambassador programmes can quickly become vague initiatives that sound good on paper but fail to create meaningful change.
And include success measures too! Without clear objectives, ambassadors may struggle to understand their role or demonstrate value.
So don’t overlook the need for structure to create accountability and provide evidence that the programme is making a difference.
For some of the lesser-known and emerging job roles that contact centres are introducing, read our article: Are These Roles Missing in Your Contact Centre?
One of the biggest concerns around launching any ambassador programme is that employees will see it as “just another thing to do”.
If ambassadors feel burdened with additional responsibilities, participation and engagement can quickly decline. Instead, the role should be positioned as part of an employee’s professional development.
“We talk about the role of a CX Ambassador as a growth opportunity; developing a customer-first mindset, as well as gathering and elevating customer insights as part of our Voice of Customer (VoC) programme.
It’s certainly not a separate job, but more acting as a bridge between their team and the centralized customer experience team.” – Susanna Baqué, Senior Director Global Customer Experience at SCIEX.
This positive positioning makes the programme more sustainable, while simultaneously helping employees develop new skills and broaden their influence.
That being said, it’s still important to keep a close eye on how this role meshes with core responsibilities, so it doesn’t contribute to burnout.
So, make sure your programme is designed to be lightweight and truly complement individual employees’ responsibilities – and not create unmanageable amounts of extra work.
For example, SCIEX’s CX Ambassadors were initially only invited to spend around 2 to 3 hours per month participating in onboarding, learning activities, and discussions around customer feedback and improvement initiatives.
This helped to make participation much more realistic for employees who already have a full-time job.
Quite simply, the emphasis should never be on creating additional projects, but on helping ambassadors bring a customer perspective into work they are already doing.
For advice on prioritizing checking in on the agents themselves, read our article: How to Limit Agent Burnout With Empathy-Led Leadership
And don’t just leave your CX Ambassadors to make their own assumptions about the role! They need ongoing support, resources, and guidance that help them confidently advocate for customers within their teams.
This means providing practical knowledge around customer experience principles, metrics, customer feedback, journey improvement, and best practices. The goal should not simply be to educate ambassadors but to equip them with the tools they need to influence others.
Take this one step further by creating a sense of community to help maintain engagement and encourage knowledge sharing. After all, a successful ambassador programme should not feel like a collection of isolated individuals.
At SCIEX, for example, they’ve set up a dedicated CX Ambassador Hub within SharePoint. They also host regular meetings to create opportunities for ambassadors to connect. All helping to reinforce the idea that ambassadors are part of something much bigger.
To uncover actionable strategies to help you create a dynamic and collaborative contact centre environment, read our article: Want to Foster Knowledge Sharing Between Your Agents?
It’s equally important that you carefully consider who you invite, as choosing the right people can make or break an ambassador programme!
Of course, it can be tempting to open the programme up to everyone immediately, but a far more considered approach is to ask other leaders to nominate the team members they think would be most suitable, based on criteria such as:
Importantly, try to steer clear of seniority being the deciding factor. Instead, put the emphasis on influence and mindset – inviting colleagues from all levels of the organization, so long as they can genuinely drive behavioural change within their teams.
Whilst the long-term goal should be to include everyone, it can make the world of difference to start the programme at the top!
That’s why SCIEX’s very first ambassadors were representatives from the C-Suite. Their role was to sponsor customer experience initiatives, amplify communications, participate in CX Day activities, and help reinforce the importance of customer experience throughout the business.
This starting point ensured that customer experience was viewed as a strategic priority – rather than “just another operational initiative” competing for attention.
And this brings us swiftly to another key point – start small! One of the most common mistakes organizations make is trying to roll out a large-scale programme immediately.
Instead, strive for a phased approach with a pilot programme. This creates a manageable environment for testing, learning, and refining the programme before wider roll-out.
Perhaps the biggest risk facing any programme is failing to act on what ambassadors share – as repeatedly failing to close the loop and drive change can dampen enthusiasm, fast!
Of course, not every piece of feedback will result in immediate action, but even so, every piece of feedback should be acknowledged, evaluated, and connected to broader customer insights wherever possible.
This demonstrates that ambassadors are being heard and reinforces the value of their contribution.
For more tips and strategies to gather customer feedback from your frontline agents, read our article: Want Your Frontline Staff to Share More Customer Feedback? Try This!
Finally, ambassador programmes should never become optional extras that sit alongside “real work”. The most successful programmes are embedded into existing workflows and behaviours.
After all, when customer-focused behaviours become part of everyday work, ambassador programmes become far more scalable and effective – ultimately creating a mindset where CX is owned by everyone, not a single department. And that’s where the real magic lies!
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If you are looking for more information to improve customer experience in your contact centre, read these articles next:
Megan Jones, Editor, Call Centre Helper
Megan interviews inspiring people across the contact centre industry to capture these amazing voices and turn them into best practice articles – covering all elements of what it takes to deliver truly outstanding employee and customer experiences.
Connect with Megan on LinkedIn
Read more by Megan JonesReviewed by: Jo Robinson
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