BIFT Aquarium: CX Ecosystem Analysis
Because culture isn't about fish—it's about the water they swim in.
Built on the Foundations of CX Legends
The voices that have most shaped my customer experience approach are:
Don Peppers, the USAF engineer-turned-marketing-turned-CX architect who brought analytical
rigor to service design, and Myra Golden, the escalations pro who proved
angry customers become loyal advocates with the right human connection.
From Don Peppers, I learned:
- 📊 How to engineer loyalty: Turning subjective satisfaction into measurable growth
- 💼 The language of boardrooms: Making empathy as quantifiable as quarterly earnings
From Myra Golden, I adopted:
- 🗣️ De-escalation as an art form: How to transform rage into CSAT boosts across any industry
- 🤝 The golden bridge: Giving upset customers a dignified path back to satisfaction
- 📝 Service recovery scripting: Words that heal when systems fail
Their published works gave me textbook knowledge, but my real-world CX education comes from the brilliant women in CX leadership who trained me, particularly the women of color who innovate daily while being the unsung heroes underpinning most customer experience operations in the US.
This collective wisdom empowered me to build frameworks that bridge human connection with scalable systems, like diagnosing culture toxicity through aquarium chemistry. (When your CS team is gasping, no amount of "resilience training" fixes poisoned water.)
Remember: CX excellence happens when we pool our knowledge and give each other chances to shine!
Anyways... Here is my Fish Tank Analogy CX Manifesto
Your Culture Isn't a Fish Problem 🐠
Originally written 7-years ago but still painfully relevant today.
Recently someone asked me for advice about a high turnover problem in a customer service department.
They were convinced that the core issue was the candidates they were bringing on-board, but that's pretty hard to get wrong so consistently for an entry-level position. So I told them the following:
Buying new fish will not fix the pH of your aquarium.
You need to test and treat the water in order to create a system that can support fish before expecting them to live long, healthy lives. Different pH levels can be good for different types of fish: Your Sales department might be very healthy, and your Marketing department as well, but the demands that they create on your Customer Service system might be killing the pH for your CS fish.
Customer Service systems do not exist independently and they can be impacted deeply by other fish they share the aquarium with.
Is your existing CS team lead having regular meetings with sales and marketing teams? Are your teams making moves that overload your CS department's coverage with in-bound calls or emails for special offers?
Within CS: Does your current scheduling leave gaps in coverage that impact CS morale, and then performance?
Sometimes the solution to common CS problems is found outside of CS, but whatever the source of the problems they can be re-balanced with a little communication, a slight shift in perspective, and planning.
PS: What kind of fish best represents your team? Mine are definitely sea cucumbers: nature's patient janitors who thrive on cleaning up everyone else's messes.
How to Detox Your Tank 🧪
A CX-driven culture overhaul that puts your money where your mouth is.
1. Test Your Water (For Real This Time) 🔬
Stop guessing why the fish are gasping. Measure what actually chokes your team:
- Track promo-to-panic ratios (how many "urgent" campaigns flood CS per quarter)
- Audit shadow workloads (the invisible labor of fixing other departments' oversights)
- Map compensation currents (if Sales gets bonuses for overloaded CS, you've found your toxin)
2. Install Better Filters ⚗️
Replace "resilience training" with structural protection:
- No campaign launches without CS headcount analysis (1 promo = X additional staff hours)
- Pre-written KB articles created with CS, not for them
- Buffer weeks before/after major initiatives (no back-to-back "emergencies")
3. Stop Stocking Predators 🦈
That "rockstar" who burns through CS agents? They're a piranha. Realign incentives:
- Tie all bonuses to cross-team health metrics
- Promote for ecosystem stewardship (not just individual metrics)
- Fire repeat toxin-dumpers (yes, even "high performers")
Toxicity Audit Worksheet 📋
Use this checklist to diagnose where your ecosystem is poisoning your CX team:
- ☐ "We'll address this in the next quarter" (then don't)
- ☐ "That's just how [Sales/Marketing/Product] works"
- ☐ "Can't you just be more efficient?"
- ☐ Actually addressed with process changes
- ☐ Never happened
- ☐ Happened once, but they were promoted 6 months later
- ☐ This does actually happen because accountability is part of our culture
- ☐ Only during crisis clean-up
- ☐ In post-mortems after damage is done
- ☐ During planning stages for major initiatives
- ☐ And it includes veto power over unrealistic demands
- ☐ Only individual department performance
- ☐ Some cross-team metrics, but easy to game
- ☐ Full ecosystem health measurements
Scoring: The more checks that you have, the more attention you need to pay your CX before more staff and revenue opportunities flush themselves. Your tank is heading towards being toxic. And of course, if you have fewer checks, you have a low churn, well-staffed and effective CX operation! You're cultivating healthy waters.