Sadly, one of the most common things I find when I start looking at a new client’s CX operation is that the problem they brought me in to solve isn’t actually the problem.
It usually starts with, “Can you fix XYZ?” or, “Can you look at these numbers?” Then I start digging. We make a few process changes here, look at a policy there, find something upstream that’s creating unnecessary contacts, or compare when customers are actually reaching out to when the team is working.
And suddenly, we uncover a much more uncomfortable problem: You’re overstaffed. You’re scheduling people at the wrong times. Your team doesn’t want to change their hours.
No one likes being the person who has to say, “You need to repurpose these people or cut them.” I mean, I certainly don’t.
That’s why I believe companies need to start thinking strategically about CX much earlier.
We Need to Look at CX Before We Build on the Sand
When customer volume grows, it’s easy to assume the CX team needs to grow with it. More orders create more tickets, more tickets require more agents, and more agents eventually require more managers.
Except that shouldn’t always be the equation.
If you’re looking at the right data early enough, you can start reducing tickets as a percentage of orders while the company grows. Instead of only asking, “How many people do we need to answer all of these tickets?” we should also be asking, “Why do we have all of these tickets?”
Some contacts are unavoidable. Others exist because of a confusing policy, a bad process, unclear information on the website, a fulfillment problem, a product issue, or a dozen other things that can be fixed. If you identify those things early, you don’t have to keep hiring people to handle problems that shouldn’t exist in the first place.
That’s what I mean when I talk about building on the sand.
You can hire, outsource, add AI, buy another platform, and build beautiful dashboards, but if the foundation underneath all of it isn’t right, eventually you’re going to have to go backward and fix it. Going backward is a lot more painful when people’s jobs are involved.
I Learned This Because I Didn’t Know How to Do It Either
When I moved from SaaS into eCommerce, I knew the startup I was at didn’t have a system for root-cause analysis or a real process for reviewing CX data. What I didn’t realize was just how many things I didn’t know that I didn’t know.
I could see the numbers. I could see the tickets. I knew there had to be a better way to structure things. But knowing something is wrong and knowing how to fix it are two very different things.
Over time, I learned how to use CX data to understand what was creating contacts instead of simply managing those contacts once they arrived. I learned to forecast and how staffing, scheduling, processes, policies, tools, automation, outsourcing, and customer behavior all fit together.
I also made mistakes along the way.
That’s a big part of why I started Current CX. I want startups and growing eCommerce companies to have access to that knowledge before they make the same mistakes I did. You shouldn’t have to build a bloated CX organization first and optimize it later. If you have the right direction early enough, you can build it correctly from the beginning.
The Career I Thought I Wanted Changed
Early in my career, I had a very specific picture of what success would look like. I wanted to join a company, help it get huge, and eventually lead a massive team.
I love coaching and teaching. I love watching someone finally understand something and then seeing them turn around and do it themselves. I wanted to become the woman who had taught me everything I knew about CX leadership.
Eventually, I realized I still wanted that last part. I just didn’t necessarily want the rest of it.
Startups are addicting. When they reach a certain size, change naturally starts to slow down. There are a few people from each startup I’ve worked at who I still talk to, and somehow we always end up reminiscing about the same thing: the magic of the early days.
The days when we were stealing plastic forks and napkins from the bagel place next door because that’s just what you did. When everyone was figuring things out as they went, everything was changing constantly, and you were building the processes that would eventually support a thriving, scalable company.
Watching those scrappy early days turn into something huge is a high you will chase for the rest of your life.
The more experience I got, the more I realized that that’s the part I love. I genuinely prefer working with smaller companies because there’s something different about getting into a business early enough that your decisions can still have an enormous impact.
You can find the problem before it becomes a department. You can change a process without unwinding years of “this is how we’ve always done it.” You can teach a manager something they’ll use for the next five years as the company grows.
There’s also a practical reality: a growing company can need experienced CX leadership long before it makes financial or operational sense to hire a full-time senior CX leader.
That’s the gap I want Current CX to fill.
I Don’t Have to Help Just One Company
That was the lightbulb for me. I don’t have to sit inside one company to coach, teach, and build. I can help a lot of companies do it.
And not every company needs the same level of help.
Some founders and CX managers just need the tools and a little direction, so I’ve built templates and resources they can use themselves. Some know they have a problem but don’t have the time or expertise to dig into it, so they can delegate the project to me. Others already have a great CX manager who simply needs someone in their corner to teach them the parts of CX leadership they haven’t had the opportunity to learn yet.
That’s why Current CX has different ways to work with me.
The goal isn’t for every company to hire me forever. It’s to give growing companies access to the right level of CX direction when they actually need it, instead of waiting until the operation is big enough, expensive enough, or broken enough to justify bringing in senior leadership.
Build It Right Before You Build It Big
I still want to be the woman who teaches people everything I know about CX leadership. Current CX just lets me do it differently than I imagined when my career started.
Instead of building one giant department, I get to help a bunch of smaller companies build smarter ones. I get to teach founders what to look for, help managers become leaders, and hopefully catch staffing problems before someone has to have an awful conversation about layoffs.
Most importantly, I get to help companies understand that a growing customer base doesn’t automatically require a growing CX headcount. You need the processes, data, forecasting, and reporting that allow you to understand what’s actually happening and make intentional decisions about what comes next.
Because sometimes you do need more people. Sometimes you need to change schedules. Sometimes you need a BPO, new technology, automation, or another manager.
But you should know why you’re making that decision.
And sometimes you just need someone who’s already made the mistakes to show you where the sand is before you start building on it.
That’s why I started Current CX.
August 18, 2026
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