How to Build a CX Culture People Actually Want to Join

At Microsoft, customer experience (CX) isn’t just about smoothing digital interactions. It’s about creating a movement that employees are proud and even excited to join.

When Nick Paladino and I sat down with Zehra Syeda-Sarwat, Global Head of CX Strategy and Insights at Microsoft, on a new episode of The Frictionless Experience, she described how her team is turning CX from a business initiative into a cultural force. What struck me was how often she came back to the same idea: data, accountability, and measurement matter, but so do pride, fun, and recognition.

In her words, CX isn’t something you bolt on. It’s something you build in. And when you do it right, it becomes contagious.

Why Culture Matters in CX

Culture change is notoriously challenging in any large organization, let alone one with over 200,000 employees, such as Microsoft. Yet Zehra emphasized that culture was non-negotiable for CX transformation.

She credited Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, with laying the groundwork:

That acknowledgement — that change is hard but possible — is what set the stage for Microsoft’s CX journey.

The Three C’s: Connection + Conviction = Commitment

Zehra distilled her philosophy into a simple but powerful formula:

“It’s really the three C’s, right? It’s connection plus conviction is equal to commitment”.

Connection means the mission resonates personally. Employees don’t just follow instructions; they believe the work matters. Conviction, meanwhile, comes from leaders who fully embody and champion the mission.

Together, the two create a lasting commitment. And that commitment is what sustains execution, even when results take years to prove.

Why Conviction Matters: The Long View

One challenge in CX is that improvements often take years to translate into measurable business results. Zehra was candid about this reality:

Nick Paladino, my co-host, shared his own example:

“I went to my business computer in 2016, being a Surface from a standard Dell laptop… I refuse to work on a non-Surface now… That took years… but it shows how much the experience pays off over time”.

That’s conviction in action — sticking with the belief that CX drives loyalty, even before the revenue metrics catch up.

Embedding CX into the Operating Rhythm

Conviction alone isn’t enough. To stick, CX must become an integral part of the company’s daily operating rhythm.

In other words, CX isn’t a quarterly campaign or a one-off initiative. It’s embedded into how teams plan, measure, and evaluate success.

Recognition as Fuel: The Power of Swag

Still, rhythms and OKRs alone don’t create energy. That comes from recognition.

Microsoft launched a CX award to recognize employees who deliver exceptional customer experiences. And they didn’t want the recognition to be hidden in a dashboard or a newsletter. They wanted it to be visible.

Zehra recalled one idea her team debated:

“Little things like golden jackets, like shiny jackets that they then wear all day at the event. Because then people are looking at it, you ignite curiosity. So it’s little things. Never underestimate the power of swag”.

From jackets to stickers to posters, swag makes CX tangible. It sparks curiosity and creates a sense of pride that people carry — sometimes literally — through the office or an event.

As Zehra put it with a laugh:

“I love stickers on your laptop because it tells a story. There are stickers that you can give away at hackathons, stickers for specific events, so there’s always a story connected to stickers” (16:26).

Recognition, when done right, doesn’t just reward people. It pulls more people into the movement.

Internal Marketing: Making Transformation Fun

This is where Microsoft takes a different approach from many organizations. Instead of treating CX transformation as a serious, top-down mandate, they use internal marketing to make it fun.

That philosophy shapes everything from how wins are celebrated to how stories are told. Internal campaigns, playful recognition, and visible swag all help attract not only eager early adopters but also the skeptics on the fence.

“It welcomes more people who might be on the fence to embrace the change, to become part of the change,” Zehra explained.

The Foundations Beneath the Fun

Of course, connection, swag, and fun only work if they rest on strong foundations. Zehra highlighted three:

1. Data-Driven Strategy: “Driving a very clear correlation, causation through our analytics work between business metrics and targets and customer experience metrics really sort of proves the path that, for every dollar that you invest in customer experience, here is the ROI that you can expect”.
2. Accountability: “We have looked at customer-facing roles and literally gone in and looked at role descriptions, responsibilities, and made a few tweaks to ensure that there is a focus on customer experience and that performance can be quantified against those expectations”.
3. Standardized Measurement: “There are 1,001 CX metrics out there and probably a million ways to calculate each of them… it was really important for us to come up with a framework of what the right metrics are we should go measure? How do we calculate them? What is the definition? And why is it actually important to measure this?”.

These foundations ensure that the celebration isn’t superficial. It’s grounded in data, accountability, and business outcomes.

Measuring Intention, Not Just Outcomes

One unique idea Zehra shared was measuring customer intention as a signal of transformation success.

That shift — from measuring only what customers do to also measuring what they intend to do — is helping Microsoft capture progress earlier in the journey.

Final Thoughts

What Microsoft is building is more than a CX strategy. It’s a CX culture.

A culture where connection and conviction drive commitment. Where CX is part of daily rhythms, not side projects. Where swag and awards spark pride and curiosity. Where transformation is marketed internally with the same creativity and energy as an external campaign.

And where data, accountability, and measurement anchor it all in business results.

As Zehra reminded me, transformation isn’t a one-time event:

“It has to be continuous. It has to really become part of every operational rhythm”.

The lesson for all of us is clear: if you want a CX culture that lasts, don’t just measure it. Celebrate it. Make it fun. And above all, make it something people want to be part of.