{"id":7754,"date":"2021-03-08T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/?p=7754"},"modified":"2021-03-07T14:08:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-07T20:08:14","slug":"my-experience-taking-the-ccxp-exam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juneux.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/my-experience-taking-the-ccxp-exam\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience Taking the CCXP Exam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was mentally prepared to fail the CCXP exam this past weekend, but as it turned out\u2014it wasn\u2019t nearly as difficult as I expected or feared. I was nervous there would be a lot of trick questions, questions about obscure<\/em> facts, and\/or highly subjective questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my relief, those fears were unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There isn\u2019t a lot of specific information online about the testing process by other CCXPs, so wanted to share my experience and observations for future exam-takers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Wait, what\u2019s CCXP?<\/em> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

CCXP (Certified Customer Experience Professional) is a designation given by the CXPA<\/a> (CX Professionals Association). To earn the CCXP, candidates must meet eligibility requirements, work 3+ years as a CX professional, pass a 100-question exam covering 6 domains (culture, adoption and accountability, VOC, experience design, metrics, and strategy), and then maintain the credential with 20 CEUs every 2 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My CCXP prep process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ugh, I hate<\/em> studying. I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I don\u2019t have (and never had) very good study skills or habits. I get distracted easily when I\u2019m required<\/em> to read\u2014and generally don\u2019t take many notes. My note-taking style is to maintain a spreadsheet called \u201cCX Toolkit\u201d on Google Drive where I track and organize CX terms, tools, reference articles, metrics, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regularly consume a lot of CX books, podcasts, webinars, reports, and blog posts, and found that my work experience and foundational knowledge about CX was actually a lot more helpful during the exam\u2014rather than the \u201cstudying\u201d (major air quotes there) or practice tests I tried to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the week before the exam, I plowed through the exam resources provided by the CXPA. However, I found most of the articles and webinars to be too abstract and not geared enough to the actual exam questions. On the morning of the exam, I re-read\/skimmed The Effortless Experience<\/strong><\/em> by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick Dilisi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Side note: Outside In<\/em><\/strong> by Harley Manning and Kerry Bodine is another book commonly recommended for the exam. It\u2019s an excellent book, but it\u2019s been a few years since I\u2019ve read it and so don\u2019t recall whether it\u2019s specific enough for the exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not sure what to study or focus on for your CCXP exam, I recommend focusing on the job tasks and competencies listed in the handbook<\/a> under the \u201cblueprint\u201d section (e.g., reward and recognition strategies in a customer-focused culture). If you can confidently write or say aloud how to do (or not do) each one\u2014these are almost exactly the questions in the exam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were many questions that asked for the \u201cbest\u201d or the \u201cfirst\u201d or the \u201cleast.\u201d In addition to best practices, you may want to learn about common misconceptions and mistakes made by CX teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My CCXP testing experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The testing process itself was unsatisfactory. I\u2019d give it a CSAT score of 3, on a scale of 1-7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the check-in process at the facility took almost an hour even though there were only 20 other people checking in for the same test time. I arrived at 11:50am for my 12pm test, but didn\u2019t get seated at a test computer until almost 1pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before you go to the testing facility, know that you cannot bring anything<\/em> into the test room\u2014not even a bottle of water or chapstick. The facilitators were very thorough checking me over to ensure I was not bringing anything into the test room (which was totally fine). They even inspected my eyeglasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At my testing site, the test UI looked like it was designed in the early 2000s. The font faces, point sizes, and layout were very fatiguing and created eye strain within a few minutes. I did like that there was a built-in calculator and a way to keep track of questions I wanted to return to later. I was also provided scratch paper, but couldn\u2019t take my notes with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of the 100 questions in the exam, I\u2019d estimate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n