What is the mission of this organization?
The Mid-Atlantic CX Forum is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing among customer experience (CX), customer contact, and technology leaders in the Mid-Atlantic region. Our mission is to empower members with insights, strategies, and best practices for driving customer experience excellence through technology adoption, optimization, and innovation. We aim to achieve this by facilitating networking opportunities, hosting educational events, and providing resources tailored to the needs of our diverse membership base.
Is there a cost to join?
Yes, as a non-profit, the organization is funded by annual membership dues, corporate sponsorships, and solution partner sponsorships. The investment made by our members is used solely for operating and coordinating events, thought leaders, charitable opportunities, peer networking gatherings, resources, etc. We are grateful to our solution partner and community sponsors whose whose sponsorship allows us to reduce membership dues to an accessible price point for the investment.
We offer two options: Individual Membership and Corporate Memberships. Fore more details on membership dues and what your dues get you, please see the membership page on our website.
Do you have any options or for membership if I'm interested in joining, but financial constraints (either personal or employer budget) would prevent me from doing so?
Yes! We created this community with the goal of providing an ACCESSIBLE and valuable community for CX and IT leaders. If you are interested in membership and are excited about what we're doing, but are considering foregoing the opportunity due to lack of budget or financial constraints, we'd like to hear from you and will work with you to explore options to make it more accessible and affordable.
Why was the Mid-Atlantic CX Forum founded?
The organization was born out of industry experts recognition that there are many CX, Retention/Support, and IT leaders who are deserve a local, regionalized peer group with whom they can collaborate, strategize, learn, empathize, and grow as they all collectively and individually seek to deliver better employee and customer experiences.
The team who founded the organization did so with the desire to facilitate and foster a peer group for the leaders who are responsible for customer and revenue retention, support and experience, and the technology leaders tasked with deploying and supporting the tools they rely on to meet their goals.
Beyond that, we wanted to create a community of like-minded individuals who can share war stories, talk about "where the rubber meets the road" situations, and engage in valuable discussions on topics that they drive. This organization exists for its members and solicits regular feedback to ensure that our membership base and sponsorship partners receive their desired value from their investment.
What was the gap in the market that this organization aims to address?
We kept hearing from many CX, IT, and executive business leaders we support that they wished they had a community like this that was available to them, so we created one! With the goal of facilitating a valuable peer membership organization that aimed to engage, educate, and enable the larger community of CX and IT leaders as a whole.
After confirming through more research, we were were unsuccessful in finding anything in the Mid-Atlantic region. Despite there being several incredible groups that were focused on either subset - IT Executives, IT Help Desk/Internal Support leaders - there was nothing that focused specifically on the bridge between CX and IT.
There was nothing we could find that focused on addressing the topics and the gaps that exist between two very critical and codependent areas of an organization.
IT's role within businesses has evolved over the last several years - from cost center, to service center, to being looked to as one of the most critical parts of an organization's strategy, requiring that they act as a proactive partner for the business to meet their desired employee and customer experiences through the technology which enables it.
Are Solution Partners/Technology Vendors allowed to join as members?
No - Through membership, you will have access, should you choose to leverage it, to a portfolio of resources about over 400 industry leading technology solutions, but you will not be solicited by other members for business.
There is a place for the Forum's vetted solution partners, but it won't be as folks who simply pay for access to our members. Appropriate and applicable solution partners will have the opportunity to sponsor events, provide educational material upon member requests, and share unique customer challenges that they have experience successfully addressing.
How does the organization enable better technology decisions and deployments?
We aim to arm our members with the tools that they need to help make informed decisions for their teams and their organizations in the use, delivery, and support of critical CX and EX technology solutions. All too often we see leaders responsible for delivering on CX KPIs while being hamstrung by the tools they inherited, resulting in frustration and a difficult environment for IT to support.
CX leaders are highly dependent on IT to enable the best customer experience journey. It's our hope that this community will provide a platform for both CX and Technology leaders to collaboratively educate themselves and one another on critical topics, enabling their collective responsibility to deliver an exceptional customer and employee experience.
How do I know if I'm a good fit for membership?
If you are responsible for leading, or have direct influence on any of the following areas of the business, you've come to the right place!
1. Enterprise Technology Solutions and Infrastructure
2. Customer Service and Support
3. Customer Experience/Customer Engagement
4. New Client Acquisition/Revenue
5. End User / Employee Technology
6. Integrations and Data Flow
7. Quality Assurance
8. Digital Marketing
9. Overall Support Operations
10. CRM/ERP/EMR Application Administration
11. Contact Center Technology Procurement
12. Telephony, Collaboration and Unified Communications
If so, your voice has a place at our table and we'd welcome the opportunity to hear from you. This list is not exhaustive, but will hopefully provide general guidance for the types of professional roles that might benefit from a community like ours.
Still unsure if that means you? Reach out, we're hopeful that it does!
How does the organization determine what topics to focus on for events, webinars, discussions, etc.?
With the oversight of our Advisory Board, we will leverage member feedback for topic prioritization, event structure, and sponsor solution partners when applicable.
An example of one way that we gather the required preferences and feedback from our members is through an onboarding intake survey that we ask all new members to fill out so that we can ensure we're delivering the value they are hoping to receive from their investment of time and engagement in our community. You drive what matters to you, the learning style, and the conversations, while we do the work :)
Where and when will in-person events be held?
There will be at least 4 large regional in-person events in a calendar year, with smaller gatherings planned in different cities across the Mid-Atlantic region throughout the year. Our goal was to create an event structure that is portable and can be easily brought to the major cities throughout the region where our members express interest in having a local event.
What opportunities are available for members to establish their own professional brand and thought leadership amongst their peers and industry?
This organization exists for its members - period. There will be several opportunities for members to take advantage of the organization for personal and professional brand growth and visibilty. From leading roundtable discussions to sitting on topic panels to member influence spotlights, our members will have as much of an opportunity as they'd like, to establish themselves as a thought leader and mentor others.
Does membership in this organization accompany the opportunity to give back to the community and industry in a philanthropic capacity?
Yes! As a registered 501(C) 3, we're pleased to share that a portion of all membership dues and sponsor proceeds are used to purchase technology resources/support the most underfunded students in the Philadelphia Area School District.
Beyond that, all membership funds and sponsorship funds are reinvested back into the organization for the benefit of the members - current and future.
What does membership include?
Membership in the Mid-Atlantic CX Forum is open to both individuals and corporations who are committed to advancing customer experience excellence through technology.
This includes, but is not limited to:
1. Access to exclusive networking events, workshops, and conferences featuring industry experts and thought leaders.
2. Participation in peer-to-peer learning sessions and roundtable discussions.
3. Access to curated resources, research reports, and best practice guides.
4. Opportunities to collaborate on special projects and initiatives aimed at advancing CX and technology innovation in the region.
5. Recognition as a supporter of customer experience excellence and technology innovation in the Mid-Atlantic region.
6. The opportunity to give back and support underfunded youth in a meaningful and tangible way through the purchase and funding of tech resources for local school districts.
Who is an ideal candidate for membership?
- Senior IT Leaders
- Customer Experience Management/Leadership
- Customer Support Leaders and Professionals
- Quality and Workforce Optimization Leadership
- CRM/ERP/Application and Systems Integration Owners
- Senior Business Operators
- Chief Customer Officers
- Sales and Marketing Leaders