The CX community is full of insight. But who are the most influential experts? And who should you follow in 2022? We find out.
When was the first time you realised you loved customer experience?
Learning the power of customer-centric experiences in HBR, Forbes, or Techcrunch?
Watching Shep Hyken, Jeanne Bliss, and CXPA’s channels on YouTube?
Listening to The CX Cast, The Chief Customer Officer, or Crack The Customer Code podcasts?
However you got into loving CX, the most influential customer experience experts offer something else entirely.
They help you keep on top of the latest CX trends and offer real-world examples that give you a deeper, more meaningful understanding of customer experience itself. And they do it almost every day on Twitter and LinkedIn. Sometimes, they do it on their blogs, too.
At Chattermill, we get it. CX experts matter. And that’s why we’ve put this piece together: to help you learn who the real CX experts are so that you know who’s worth following in 2022 (if you’re not following them already!)
It has to be said, I’m no CX expert myself. Certainly, I’m nowhere near as well-informed or experienced as the people mentioned in this article.
Because of this, this comprehensive list of CX experts is based on a data-led, social analysis of the most influential voices in CX, using my favourite (and the best) audience research tool – SparkToro.
Unlike most lists, this isn’t based on my opinion. Nor is it a fluff piece to attract media coverage. It’s a list of CX experts’ based on their real-world influence and engagement.
Now we could have listed everyone in the CX space, but that would make this piece beyond any sane level of comprehension. So, I’ve picked out the 42 most influential. Because as we know, 42 is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Which in businesses today, also happens to be the case for customer experience.
But before we dive into the customer experience experts themselves, let me briefly tell you about why this list exists in the first place, and how I went about putting it together.
Why This List Exists
The term “Customer Experience Expert” is in its essence, quite vague.
Do a Google search and you’ll find plenty of fluffy lists of who to follow.
But these lists are often flawed. Generally speaking, these lists are an underhand way for brands and people to position themselves as CX experts, or to attract attention purely for attention’s sake. And we didn’t want to do that.
That’s why we’ve put this list together based on audience research data. These people are the top authorities in our industry, and simply put, you need to follow them if you want to learn and improve your brand’s customer experience in 2022 and beyond.
How This List Was Compiled
Chattermill has created this list for 2022 to bring you an intelligent, data-led view of who the most influential people are within CX today.
To achieve this, we used SparkToro’s audience research tool, using the criteria of “my audience frequently talks about customer experience” to discover who the most influential people are in the space.
We then filtered out any corporate/company accounts so that we could see who the influential people are in CX. We also filtered out people who aren’t directly involved within the CX, or customer-focused spaces.
It’s important to note that the people on this list simply aren’t those with the most followers. These are the people in CX whose content is engaged with the most across Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media channels.
How did we do it? Filtering using SparkToro’s engagement score.
We used SparkToro for this research as we believe it’s the most effective, comprehensive, and intelligent audience research tool on the market today.
Our ultimate goal with this list is to highlight people who are both moving the industry forward and sharing their unique insights and experiences. It is these people who we can learn most from. And it is these people who will help us all improve our brand’s CX in the year ahead.
Finally, this list isn’t ordered in order of most to least influential. It is delivered in random order. After all, everyone on this list brings value to the CX community in their own unique way, with their own distinctive voice.
Follow all 42 CX Experts using our Twitter list
The 42 Most Engaged With Customer Experience Experts
It’s time for the main event – Chattermill’s list of the Top 42 Customer Experience Experts.
The people listed below really know their stuff when it comes to customer experience. If you want to up your professional game in 2022, be sure to give them a follow. You won’t regret it.
And if you think we’ve missed anyone out, let us know on Chattermill’s Twitter or LinkedIn pages.
Right, let’s get down to business.
Here are the 42 CX experts to follow in 2022…
Allison Pickens
Founder & GP at The New Normal Fund
Follow @PickensAllison on Twitter
Catherine Blackmore
GVP of SaaS Customer Success at Oracle
Follow @catherineblckmr on Twitter
Matt Myszkowski (CXMatt)
VP Customer Experience at Cision, Founder of CustomerSuccessMatters
Follow @MattMyszkowski on Twitter
Jeff Toister
President, Toister Performance Solutions, Inc
Nancy Porte, CCXP
VP of Customer Experience at Verint
Kate Leggett
VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research for CRM and Customer Service
Follow @kateleggett on Twitter
Kerry Bodine
Author, speaker, customer experience thought leader. CEO of Bodine & Co.
Follow @kerrybodine on Twitter
Irit Eizips
Chief Customer Officer and CEO at CSM Practice
Susan Hash
Senior Content Writer at LiveVox, longtime #cctr journalist
Augie Ray
Vice President, Customer Experience at Gartner
Stephanie Thum, CCXP
Founder, Practical CX, Series Editor - Customer Experience Business Cases at SAGE
Follow @stephaniethum on Twitter
Jeannie Walters
Customer Experience Speaker, Trainer, Podcast Host, and Consultant
Peter Lavers
Director at Customer Attuned, Director at ThinkCX
Follow @PeterLavers on Twitter
Bob Thompson
CustomerThink founder and global evangelist for customer-centric business
Follow @Bob_Thompson on Twitter
Adrian Swinscoe
Customer experience advisor, author, speaker, and aspirant punk at Punk CX
Follow @adrianswinscoe on Twitter
Ian Golding, CCXP
Certified Customer Experience Professional, speaker & blogger. Author of 'Customer What? The honest and practical guide to customer experience'
Lincoln Murphy
Customer Success Growth Expert, Consultant, and Thought Leader
Follow @lincolnmurphy on Twitter
Dan Gingiss - The Experience Maker
Customer Experience & Marketing Keynote Speaker and author of The Experience Maker: How To Create Remarkable Experiences That Your Customers Can't Wait To Share
Jeremy Watkin
Director of Customer Experience and Support at NumberBarn
Debbie Szumylo
Manager, Customer Advocacy/Customer Experience Evangelist at Thomson Reuters Elite
Follow @DebbieSzumylo on Twitter
Colin Shaw
Founder and CEO, Beyond Philosophy, Best-selling Author, Podcast Host, Business Influencer
Follow @ColinShaw_CX on Twitter
Paul Greenberg
Founder, Managing Principal, The 56 Group, LLC
Arie Goldshlager
Customer Strategy and Customer Insight Consultant
Follow @ariegoldshlager on Twitter
Micah Solomon
Follow @micahsolomon on Twitter
Annette Franz, CCXP
CEO CXJourney Inc. CX Coach, Keynote Speaker, and Author of Customer Understanding
Follow @annettefranz on Twitter
Ben Motteram
Principal at CXpert customer experience consultancy
Roy Atkinson
CEO and Principal Advisor at Clifton Butterfield, LLC
Follow @RoyAtkinson on Twitter
Jeanne Bliss
Cofounder CXPA.org, Global leader, keynote speaker, 4x bestseller author on experience leadership & customer-driven growth
Follow @JeanneBliss on Twitter
Shep Hyken
Customer Service and Experience Expert, Keynote Speaker, NYT Bestselling Author
Dr. Natalie Petouhoff
Customer Experience Business and Value Consulting and Sales Enablement Thought Leadership at Genesys
Steve Curtin
Author of Delight Your Customers & The Revelation Conversation
Blake Morgan
Customer Experience Futurist, Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker
Follow @BlakeMichelleM on Twitter
Martin Hill-Wilson
Owner, Brainfood Consulting, Customer Service & Conversational AI Strategist
Colin Taylor TRG
CEO and CCO at The Taylor Reach Group
Follow @colinsataylor on Twitter
Andrew McFarland
Advisory Board Member, Customer Experience at University of Houston Bauer Business College
Bill Quiseng
Chief Experience Officer at billquiseng.com. Award-winning Customer Service Expert, Keynote Speaker, Author and Blogger
Follow @billquiseng on Twitter
Flavio Martins
Senior Product Manager at DigiCert, Author of Win The Customer, HuffPost Top CX Influencer
Follow @flavmartins on Twitter
Ernan Roman
President, ERDM Corp. Author, Voice of the Customer Marketing
Adam Toporek
Customer Service Expert, Speaker, and Author, CTS Service Solutions
Follow @adamtoporek on Twitter
Marsha Collier
Author of 47 books on eCommerce, Social Media, Customer Service & eBay. Technology podcast host
Follow @MarshaCollier on Twitter
Al Hopper
Senior Insights Leader at Etech Global Services
Jenny Sue Dempsey
Consumer Experience Manager at Apeel
Follow @jennysuedempsey on Twitter
