Roxie Strohmenger is the Overall Winner of CX Leader of the Year 2023!

When Roxie Strohmenger joined Ultimate Software - now UKG - she aimed to define a CX North Star that aligns with the brand's promise of "Our Purpose is People" and set up a CX Center of Excellence.

Over time, she achieved significant milestones, including building a CX strategy team from scratch, comprising seven professionals who diagnosed CX quality and optimised customer journeys. The team championed CX best practices across the organisation.

“What Roxie recognises, is the importance of involvement of others to achieve success in CX, and access to insight provides an authentic view of the customer which is the most powerful source in this regard,” says judge Christopher Brooks. 

What Roxie recognises, is the importance of involvement of others to achieve success in CX.

Roxie secured buy-in across the organisation for an emotional North Star centred around ‘Confidence’. All strategies were required to align with this, ensuring a consistent customer experience. She also built a VoC program that streamlined prioritisation efforts by capturing high-level CX insights, CX quality, and key CX drivers. This approach led to more effective decision-making with fewer, more impactful initiatives.

Following the merger of Ultimate Software with Kronos Incorporated to form UKG, Roxie’s role expanded:

• New North Star: She identified UKG’s new North Star, tethered to the brand promise.
• Unified VoC program: Roxie unified disparate VoC programs into a single, best-in-breed program named “USpeak,” enabling real-time insights and actions.
• CX strategy and execution team: She expanded the CX team to 50 members, responsible for strategy and execution, ensuring a tangible impact on customer experiences.
• CX journey: Roxie designed an enhanced experience journey for joint customers and ensured legacy customers received consistent, high-quality support during the merger.

Judge Ian Golding states: "You are a brilliant example of what can be achieved by a CX Leader - your combination of experience, knowledge, determination and passion has delivered significant results for your organisation. Your involvement with the CX community also proves that you are focused on not just developing yourself and those who work with you, but other professionals as well."

You are a brilliant example of what can be achieved by a CX Leader.

Under Roxie’s leadership, UKG achieved impressive results:

• UKG exceeded revenue goals with impressive growth.
• Despite challenges, UKG maintained and increased feedback response rates, with high utilisation of USpeak dashboards and improved survey response rates.
• Launch (a five-stage template-driven integration setup) initiatives led to improved customer satisfaction scores and faster time-to-live.
• SuccessCare (a tailored enablement and proactive instruction during a customer’s first months using UKG) improved customer engagement, reducing support cases and increasing customer satisfaction.
• Success Krew (a new support model where UKG re-organised its customer success group into smaller teams called Success Krews) delivered excellent customer satisfaction scores, reduced resolution times, and improved customer support.

To MyCustomer, judge Michael Hinshaw says: "Roxie Strohmenger has definitively demonstrated a unique blend of insight, innovation, and impact. Her performance as a CX leader was exceptional, characterized by complete, detailed execution aligned seamlessly with the organization's vision and objectives. What makes her achievements particularly noteworthy is that she drove true CX transformation amid the tumult of COVID-19 and through the challenges of a mid-pandemic merger, which doubled the number of employees to over 15,000. 

"She didn't just lead her team through tumultuous times; she steered them to excellence, leaving a clear impact and influence not only within UKG and for their customers but also in the broader CX community. Her approach to customer experience management – combining insights and empathy with data-driven decision-making – has not only rewritten the rules of customer engagement but has charted a course for future leaders in the field."

UKG is seeing the CX fruits of their labours financially and is on track to cross $4B in revenue almost a year earlier than planned. UKG has also received numerous awards and accolades, reflecting its commitment to employees and customers alike. Roxie’s dedication to CX also earned her a place on the board of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), where she continues to mentor and inspire early-stage CX professionals.

"It is impressive to read about your work to create greater inclusion in the CX space and brilliant opportunities for those early in their careers - you are truly an ambassador for the discipline and it's such good news to see that your knowledge and skills are being shared at the industry's most influential level," judge Sandra Thompson notes.

You are truly an ambassador for the discipline.

Roxie Strohmenger’s achievements in championing customer experience within UKG have reshaped the organisation’s approach to CX and elevated the importance of customer-centricity. She is also dedicated to the broader CX community, sharing her knowledge and experiences. Her passion, innovation, and dedication to excellence make her a deserving Overall Winner of CX Leader of the Year 2023.

Join us in congratulating Roxie!