What I Have Consistently Found Across Industries is That When a Company Drifts Away from its Commitment to Customer and Employee Experiences, the Business Begins to Suffer: Jason S. Bradshaw on Why Maintaining Focus on CX and EX is Crucial for Long-Term Success

Jason S. Bradshaw, co-founder and CEO of Bradshaw, Koh & Co., is a global strategic advisor to C-suite executives and startups, as well as a keynote speaker specializing in customer and employee experience, business transformation, and leading through crises.

Jason has led change with some of the most recognizable brands, including Target, Fairfax, and Volkswagen, driving outstanding, customer-centric growth. This includes a 200% increase in lead generation, $36 million in e-commerce sales within one year, and decades of improvements in customer and employee metrics.

He is a best-selling author on customer and employee experience, the recipient of over 40 industry awards, and was named one of the top 30 global gurus on customer service/experience.

SME Business Review reached out to Mr. Bradshaw for an interview, and here’s what he had to say about his journey, his approach to customer and employee experience, and his vision for the future of business transformation.

Interview Excerpts

Could you start by telling us a bit about your career journey and what initially sparked your interest in becoming a Customer Experience (CX) leader?

When I was around 11 or 12, I started reading business magazines and books. One of my favorite authors was Tom Peters, whose work strongly advocated delivering a level of service and experience that competitors weren’t willing or able to provide.

At 14, I started my first business and quickly realized that I couldn’t compete on price, but I could compete on the level of service delivered. Little did I know at the time, this would become the launching block for a lifetime of helping organizations transform the customer experience to drive business growth.

What are some of the significant challenges you faced during your journey, especially while leading efforts to improve customer experiences, and how did you overcome them to drive meaningful results?

It’s easy to assume that the more senior someone's job title, the easier their role becomes. However, in my experience, nothing could be further from the truth.

In the critical work of Customer and Employee Experience, I always had to ensure that my team’s efforts were directly linked to commercial outcomes. This not only protected the budgets that funded the work but also kept it a priority within the organizations I worked for.

Unfortunately, I have seen too many cases where CX and EX initiatives were defunded because leaders failed to articulate—or believe in—the link between this work and the company’s commercial performance.

The biggest challenge in my corporate career was getting fellow C-suite executives to align on a set of commercial metrics and recognize how CX and EX impacted them. Even after securing that agreement, it required constant reinforcement to ensure these metrics were valued alongside traditional ones from departments like sales and marketing.

What I have consistently found across industries is that when a company drifts away from its commitment to customer and employee experiences, the business begins to suffer. Eventually, the need for CX and EX transformation becomes not only more urgent but also much harder to achieve.

Could you share a defining moment in your career that significantly shaped your path as a CX leader, and how that moment influenced your approach to creating impactful customer experiences?

It wouldn’t be fair to my past mentors, employers, team members, or customers to say there was just one defining moment that shaped my path as a CX leader.

However, the four lessons I learned over the years that have shaped me are:

1. Don’t stay silent—champion what you believe in and your role in achieving it.

2. Results matter; deliver wins consistently, even while working on big, audacious goals.

3. Believe in your team. Encourage them, give them stretch opportunities, reward them, promote them, and, most importantly, be willing to share your experiences to help them grow. You win when your team wins.

4. Set a clear vision for what success looks like, outline the milestones for achieving it, and explain why the vision matters.

Finally, a colleague once said, “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.” As leaders, we must be prepared to have uncomfortable conversations to ensure that we are not falling short by accepting anything less than the standard we have set—even if it means having an uncomfortable conversation with ourselves.

Who are your typical clients, and what industries or sectors do they represent?

My clients typically fall into two camps—small to mid-sized established businesses looking to accelerate growth, and corporates seeking to engage in sizable transformation projects.

My engagements range from keynote presentations to strategy and program development, as well as executive team coaching.

What advice would you offer to aspiring CX leaders who want to turn their passion into a successful career, and which key skills or strategies should they prioritize to drive meaningful impact in the field?

First and foremost, be curious!

1. Be curious about the field of customer experience. This means reading widely, listening to podcasts, attending events, and asking why something was designed the way it was.

2. Be curious about why a customer or employee feels the way they do. Ask that extra question to understand why someone is delighted or dissatisfied.

3. Be curious about how a system or process can be enhanced to give team members more time to focus on human-to-human interaction and experience.

Finally, use the insights gained from that curiosity to consistently deliver real, tangible value.

What are your long-term goals, and how do you plan to achieve them?

I want to speak on 100 stages in a single year because the compounding impact will significantly improve both customer and employee experiences, creating a movement of people passionate about enhancing these experiences.

I will achieve this by continuing to deliver value to my existing clients and amplifying their success through my work.

I also have several books in progress, designed to help leaders transform experiences and, in turn, transform their businesses.

Who knows? I may once again join a large business in the C-suite and lead it through a substantial, experience-focused transformation. I am sure we can all think of a few big brands that could benefit from truly committing to a CX transformation.

Do you have any final thoughts or comments before we conclude?

As a CX professional, don’t give up when your budget shrinks or a program doesn’t quite work as expected. Budgets will return as you become better at proving the link between your work and the commercial success of the business. When a program doesn’t deliver as anticipated, be curious about why. Learn from it and apply that knowledge to your next initiative.

Finally, focus on continuous small improvements rather than trying to deliver one big, make-or-break project. The compounding impact of just one percent daily improvements is significant and will change your business for the better.

Jason S Bradshaw, Co-Founder & CEO, Bradshaw, Koh & Co.

My clients typically fall into two camps—small to mid-sized established businesses looking to accelerate growth, and corporates seeking to engage in sizable transformation projects.

As leaders, we must be prepared to have uncomfortable conversations to ensure that we are not falling short by accepting anything less than the standard we have set—even if it means having an uncomfortable conversation with ourselves.