There’s nothing I love more than meeting senior leaders who proudly show off their shiny new certificate on the wall. It looks professional. It declares expertise. And yes, sometimes it will help unlock an opportunity.
But please. If we’re going to talk about accreditation and certification, let’s not mince words. The frame is not the point.
Accreditation and certification? The paper is just the smallest part.
Behind every certificate is weeks, months, or years of effort to build practical knowledge. To learn what works, practice it on the job, and prove you have the know-how to translate it into sustainable results.
In other words, done well, certification isn’t a finish line. It’s a means to an end. Behind that framed certificate should be proof you have skills that can measurably improve the way your organisation delivers service to your customers.
You’ve probably read something similar from me before, but here’s why.
Why accreditation matters (and why it’s not a technicality)
A quick disclaimer. There are two words we need to separate:
Certification = the process of demonstrating you can meet requirements
Accreditation = proof that the certification provider can be trusted
You can’t have one without the other, but accreditation is what guarantees certification is more than marketing fluff.
ISO/IEC 17024 is an international standard that defines how organisations should set up, maintain, and audit programs that certify individuals. ([iso.org][1])
Conformity & Assessment
It establishes accreditation criteria for bodies providing certification (“scheme owners”), including how their programs are designed, validated, maintained, monitored, and audited. ([ISO credentials][2])
International accreditation groups like the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) provide additional layers to recognise trusted accreditation between organisations. ([IAF][3])
These create a trusted chain, from recognition of achievement back to:
- how that process was audited
- how the people auditing it were qualified
- all the way back to internationally agreed standards for assessing competency in a given field
In short: accreditation matters because it provides independent confidence that the certification you earned was meaningful. It’s why “registering” with predatory certification vendors offers no credibility at all.
But how does this relate to Customer Experience?
In CX, certification only matters if it changes what people can do on Monday morning
CX is littered with feel-good posters that sound great on the surface but are quickly filed away or mocked as corporate vanity. Values statements. Mission updates. Yet another customer survey.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Certification, at its best, is the antidote to all those “seen one, seen ’em all” programs.
Real certification:
- Validates knowledge that you can apply on the job.
- Fixes the “myth or reality?” debate. Show me your certificate and I’ll believe you when you tell me you’re not guessing.
- Forces you to demonstrate a baseline capability before you’re even qualified to attempt continuing education.
It’s the closest thing to ensuring anyone who claims CX competency in your organisation has proven they can execute on Monday.
But… if they can do all that work to become certified, why do they need coaching from you?
Don’t get me wrong: certifications are no replacement for healthy cultures, effective leaders, and a willingness to invest for the long term.
But… if your organisation only cares about posting sexy posters and insists everyone memorise a list of words that “sound right,” then yes: certificates from a robust, reputable program are your best shot at proving this to people.
“It isn’t about the certificate.” So what is it about?
It’s the capability you can’t see: how to use CX as a strategic asset to grow your business, win the triple crown, and increase shareholder value.
Growing CX value across three dimensions isn’t hyperbole. It’s the foundation of your business:
Outstanding Customer Experience drives retention and advocacy, which drives growth and value.
Happy Employees who feel equipped and empowered to do their jobs create fewer headaches for colleagues and are far better at preventing mistakes and solving problems on the front lines.
Engaged Leadership with an unobstructed view into the health of the customer experience protects against nasty surprises. (<https://www.thenewstack.io/how-remote-happy-employees-can-stop-data-breaches/>)
Which means better performance on all three makes life better for customers, employees, and executives.
Leaders who ignore CX wait for problems to bubble up. Organisations with strong CX can anticipate and fix issues before they affect the customer. This doesn’t just save frustration. It prevents unnecessary waste, protects revenue, and builds trust. Every bit of which contributes to the shareholder value mentioned above.
There are plenty of ways to measure and discuss what great CX looks like. As long as you remember the outcomes above, I don’t care if you call it “paint drying” levels of experience. We can agree to disagree.
What matters is that world-class CX creates value on all three fronts, and has been shown to correlate with stock performance and revenue growth. ([Bain][4], [Forrester][5])
[The Five Disciplines of Customer Experience Leaders][4], by Bain and Company.
I don’t care if you track CX with NPS, applause rate, or emojis sent via QR code. Excellent CX won’t magically happen on its own. But here’s the good news:
When you lead with great CX practices, your customers will tell you. Your staff will notice. Your executives will see numbers they can trust.
There’s a reason CX leaders consistently grow shareholder value [4]while their competition watches from the sidelines. (<https://www.forrester.com/blogs/how-contact-centres-can-win-the-experience-triangle>>
The Proven Approaches piece is everything
But here’s the thing about those smiling certificates.
Good CX certifications don’t ask you to memorise memorizable content. They challenge you with topics that organisations care about everywhere:
Frontline and team leaders learn how to do small but meaningful actions that lead to big improvements. Hold recovery conversations with customers. Anticipate and prevent problems. Solve root problems without finger-pointing.
Management-level folks learn how to lead cross-functional teams to improve CX. Set goals tied to what customers say matters. Quantify the value of the improvements. Remove frustration and bottlenecks for frontlines.
Executive leadership learn how to enable the rest of the organisation. Fund & resource what matters. Avoid purple squirrels. Review progress and hold people accountable without creating theatre.
If you’re not seeing elements of your job in there somewhere, your certification program may be “better” at teaching memorisable trivia than factors that actually drive CX improvement on the job.
That’s why I say “good” certification programs will make you slightly uncomfortable.
Not because they’re boring or difficult, but because they require you to apply your thinking. Practical actions, not regurgitating buzzwords.
Show me your certificate. Now show me your work. Walk me through how you would do this in your organisation.
Who’s hungry to climb a mountain?
What to look for in a certification that’s actually worth it
OK. Let’s say you’re either choosing between accreditations and certifications for CX, or just want to evaluate the ones you have.
Beyond everything else I’ve mentioned here, are some questions that can help you tell the good actors from the ones shooting fireworks at their shareholders.
Does it actually assess applied competence? (Not just asking you to memorise and regurgitate.)
Does the certification provider have clear standards and ethics, aligned to something like ISO/IEC 17024? ([iso.org][1]) ([ISO credentials][6])
Can you see evidence of practical work, beyond a classroom? Journeys mapped. Improvements planned. Metrics defined. Governance created. Teams mobilised to improve CX?
Is there evidence of lifecycle validity? Continual Professional Development (CPD), recertification, or something that proves “we know this isn’t a one-time activity.”
Agencies like IAF exist because accreditation matters. Accreditation matters because trust matters. But here’s the thing about trust:
If something is important enough, people will find ways to scam your recipients regardless of what you do.
There will always be con artists who offer to “get you certified” without earning it. Anyone can slap a certificate together and sell it without accountability.
But that shouldn’t discourage you from seeking out trusted certification providers. It just means you have to know what you’re looking for.
The certificate is the symbol. The capability is the value.
Accreditation and certification are tools. Tools people can use to become better at their jobs and prove it to you.
Whether or not that happens is anyone’s guess.
But if you pick the right program, a certificate is symbol that instantly communicates: “this person has spent time and effort to understand proven approaches for making CX better on an ongoing basis.”
Hang that certificate up. Frame it. Put it on your LinkedIn profile. Great!
But please remember:
The certificate isn’t valuable because it hangs on your wall.
The knowledge, practice, and evidence behind it are what changes what you can do for your organisation on Monday.
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References (for those who like to check sources)
1. ISO overview https: //www.iso.org/obp/ui/#search/site/17024
2. ISO credentials: What it covers, and accreditation criteria for scheme owners.
3. IAF (https: //iaf.nu/en/home/ on accreditation bodies, and international recognition intent.
4. Bain (https: //www.bain.com/insights/the-five-disciplines-of-customer-experience-leaders/?imm_mid=0d50ea&) on CX leaders growing revenues 4%–8% above market.
5. Forrester (https: //www.forrester.com/blogs/does-cx-quality-affect-stock-performance-yes-but) on relationship between CX quality & stock performance (leaders vs laggards).
What do you think? 👇
Businesses must actively engineer and continuously innovate this experience to drive success. Further, we define success as winning the triple crown: simultaneously growing revenues, Reducing Costs, and Improving Service.
Steve has also published many articles and conference keynotes (see the MOT primer below) reviewing the continued evolution of this fascinating concept.
Join us at a coaching session and become qualified in Customer Centric and Process Transformation https://www.bpgroup.org or visit https://www.stevetowers.com
Definitions
What is a Moment of Truth?
A Moment of Truth is any interaction with the customer within the Customer Experience, first discussed in my 1993 book ‘Business Process Reengineering – A Senior Executive’s Guide‘
Moments of Truth are the cause of all work.
This understanding underpins the CEMMethod, first launched in 2006 and now in version 15. It is the idea that all work an organisation undertakes is, at a fundamental level, caused by Moments of Truth. In principle, everything a company does can and should be linked to a Moment of Truth.
Managing Moments of Truth
Enlightened ‘Outside-In’ organisations actively embrace Moment of Truth Management as an essential strategic and operational necessity to deliver engineered Customer Experiences. How so?
a. Designing for Moments of Truth – The Design-Implementation Gap
Early efforts were geared towards designing optimal Moments of Truth; however, simply mapping customer journeys has never been enough. It is one thing to agree on what a future state customer journey should be; it is entirely another to implement it. This Design-Implementation gap is precisely what kills the majority of Customer Experience initiatives.
b. Implementing optimised Moments of Truth
Successful deployment of innovated Moments of Truth is key to delivering optimal Customer Experiences. The most practical immediate results focus on a rapid rollout across a key experience, using the success of that rollout to validate the smooth rollout across the organisation. Establishing ownership, accountability, metrics, controls and improvement paths are part of this discipline.
c. Operationalising Moments of Truth
Once Moments of Truth have been designed, innovated and implemented into recrafted customer experiences, they need to be actively managed ‘in the moment’ and shared. Every Moment of Truth should feed to a corporate dashboard, with real-time data showing the performance of that MOT and its associated experiences. If things go wrong, the owner should be able to ‘course correct’ and real-time monitor the customer experience delivery.
Imagine a world without customer satisfaction surveys, no need for Net Promoter Scores, no focus groups, and no mystery shopping because you will know how 100% of interactions are performing 100% of the time.
Control and Action combined
The C-suite and leaders will now have a clear line of sight into every corner of the organisation and across the enterprise landscape, in real-time. One version of the data truth (and not all those departmental/divisional versions of reality).
The need for retrospective action evaporates. Immediate and laser-focused control can be maintained, delivering simultaneously enhanced service, lower costs, higher revenues, improved compliance and uber motivated employees.
MOT primer…
Steve Towers
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers/
Richard Normann – creator of the Moments of Truth concept:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Normann
Jan Carlzon – author of ‘Moments of Truth’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Carlzon
Moments of Truth 2025 (VIDEO)
https://youtu.be/3mzz_LdgmFY
That Kodak Moment of Truth
https://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/innovation/columns/4-lessons-from-the-kodak-moment-of-truth
Mitch Belsley – Get Scientific about Managing Moments of Truth
http://customerthink.com/get-scientific-about-managing-moments-of-truth/
Accreditation & Certification in CX and Process
https://www.bpgroup.org