Editorial
Research Report
Building the Case for Modern Public Sector Messaging
The Gist
- Why do CX professionals unintentionally become "order takers"? Their eagerness to satisfy every customer request can lead them to execute tasks without questioning whether those requests solve the real problem.
- How can CX leaders shift teams from order takers to problem solvers? By coaching employees to ask deeper questions, view customer situations holistically and experiment with new solutions.
- What organizational changes make this shift sustainable? Cross-departmental collaboration and structured knowledge-sharing scale the problem-solving mindset beyond individual coaching.
I like to describe myself as an “accidental customer experience leader.” After building a career focused on marketing, sales and innovation, I found myself drawn to customer experience because I truly believe it is the key differentiator between a mediocre company and a great one. Companies that place their customers at the center of everything they do build enviable brand loyalty, competitive advantage and goodwill.
And that starts with providing a best-in-class customer experience.
One thing I’ve learned about customer experience professionals is that they come from all professional backgrounds and walks of life, but they share one common trait: a deep desire to do the right thing.
However, their eagerness to deliver on customer expectations can sometimes unintentionally turn them into “order takers,” executing requests without challenging whether they solve the real problem or advance the business. By exercising their empathy muscle and thinking critically through challenges, CX professionals can become problem solvers — an important shift that allows them to unlock tremendous value for both customers and the business.
FAQ: Building a Problem-Solving CX Culture
The following questions address common concerns CX leaders raise when shifting their teams away from an order-taking mindset.
Here are five actions CX leaders can take to make this shift — from order taker to problem solver — happen within their team:
Make Asking Better Questions Part of the Job
Even in the age of AI, the human aspect of customer experience is irreplaceable because people are inquisitive, empathetic and demonstrate judgement that algorithms lack. Not only does asking questions show attentiveness and care, but it also allows CX professionals to probe deeper into customers’ concerns and work with them to determine a viable solution.
Approach Customer Situations Holistically
In most cases, customers reach out to companies when something has gone wrong. They’re probably frustrated and looking for the company to make things right. For an insurance company like mine, customers often contact us on their worst day, when they or a loved one has had an accident or been diagnosed with an illness.
By considering the bigger context that is fueling the customer’s request, CX professionals can make better decisions to determine the best path forward in resolving the situation. Without it, teams solve symptoms, not problems.
Related Article: Human First, AI Smart: The Customer Experience Balance for 2026
Give Employees Autonomy to Test New Ideas
Frontline CX professionals know your customers better than anyone else in your organization — their wants, needs, circumstances and desired outcomes. It’s important to give these employees the freedom to come up with new, better ways to serve your customers and put those ideas to the test, with clear guardrails tied to customer outcomes and business priorities. Fostering a culture of experimentation allows organizations to innovate, evolve and differentiate themselves from competitors.
Build a Multidisciplinary Approach to Problem-Solving
Your company’s customer experience team can’t operate in a vacuum. To approach customer requests with a strategic mindset, it’s important for your team to have regular touchpoints with other departments within your organization, such as marketing, sales and product development.
The more institutional knowledge CX professionals can acquire, the more empowered they will feel to apply their best judgement to addressing customers’ challenges. Cross-functional engagement must be a requirement, not an exception.
Building a Problem-Solving CX Team: Key Actions and Takeaways
The following table highlights the most important lessons, actions and strategic considerations emerging from this framework for shifting CX teams from order-takers to problem-solvers.
| Key Area | What Happens | Why It Matters | Recommended Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Questioning Requests | CX staff often execute requests without probing the underlying problem | Unquestioned execution solves symptoms, not root causes | Make asking clarifying questions a required job expectation |
| Holistic Context | Customers often reach out during high-stress moments | Ignoring context leads to incomplete resolutions | Train staff to weigh the customer's full situation before responding |
| Employee Autonomy | Frontline staff have the most direct customer knowledge but limited freedom to act on it | Restricting experimentation stifles innovation and differentiation | Grant autonomy to test new approaches within clear guardrails |
| Cross-Functional Engagement | CX teams frequently operate separately from marketing, sales and product | Isolated teams lack the institutional knowledge to solve problems strategically | Establish regular cross-departmental touchpoints as a requirement |
| Knowledge-Sharing | Mistakes are often treated as failures rather than learning opportunities | A blame culture prevents continuous improvement | Build psychological safety and share both successes and missteps openly |
Turn Missteps Into Shared Institutional Insights
No company or employee is perfect. It is incumbent upon CX leaders to foster a culture of transparency and psychological safety where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities. By sharing both success stories and experiences that provide important lessons and insights, leaders can encourage continuous improvement, not perfection, from their team members. This creates the opportunity to turn missteps into institutional learning that improves future decisions.
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The CX professionals I work with every day are some of the most thoughtful and caring people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. We all want to do right by our customers — but sometimes that requires taking a step back and considering a customer’s challenge from different vantage points. Through a combination of coaching on the individual level and structural changes at the organizational level, CX leaders can unlock a major competitive advantage: a team that genuinely solves problems instead of just checking boxes — and, in doing so, creates value for both customers and the organization.
That’s the difference between a CX function that drives activity and one that creates a competitive advantage.
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