We’re four months into 2025 and there has been no shortage of volatility to challenge even the most seasoned CX executives. To stay on course, we recommend keeping a ruthless focus on customers while also balancing disciplined spending, change leadership, and risk management. But what has this looked like, in practical terms, for CX leaders?
I recently asked Brad Smith, Head of CX & Insights at Securian Financial, to share what’s been top of mind for him in 2025. Below, Brad describes Securian’s CX transformation journey, including the evolution of its CX org structure, headwinds and tailwinds created by AI, and work underway to establish links between CX, EX, and business outcomes.
Brad, thanks so much for sharing your insights!
How Brad Is Leading Securian’s CX Team During Turbulent Times
As a CX leader, what headwinds and tailwinds are you facing as you enter 2025?
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that Securian Financial is navigating the complexities of integrating AI into its CX strategies, and I’d call AI both a headwind and a tailwind. When thinking about how and where AI can help Securian, the company needs to answer three main questions:
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- What tasks can be trusted to AI and which ones should be kept within human control?
- How can we overcome challenges related to compliance, data management, technology adoption, and even expense management?
- How should we evaluate AI as a productivity tool for customers and associates while considering the cultural change required?
Securian is a 145-year-old company built on trust and relationships, so fully leveraging the capabilities of AI will need to be done with extreme care and it will require a huge cultural change to be successful.
What are your top CX priorities for 2025? How have you established the link between CX initiatives and broader organizational objectives?
In select areas of the business, we have found a direct correlation between the customer experience and repeat business/revenue. In other areas, we are taking a leap of faith for now that there is a correlation until we have a larger data set to confidently conduct the analysis. Philosophically, the leadership team agrees that providing enhanced experiences to our customers will result in a win-win for Securian and our customers.
We continue to reinforce customer-centric behaviors to demonstrate our belief that every role in the company impacts our customers in some way. Valuing empathy and creating an emotional connection with customers is crucial to the long-term sustainability of a customer-focused business model.
Additionally, we are evolving our CX measurement capabilities to more broadly leverage AI. Having quicker access to deeper insights will transform our measurement approach, especially if we can push those insights to the correct decision-makers without a lot of heavy lifting. Currently, we are testing migrating from static dashboards to query-driven insights and recommendations created by the user.
Many organizations are just getting started on their CX transformations. Where is Securian on its CX journey?
Securian has been on its CX transformation journey for nearly five years. We started slowly by targeting one business line which was a willing business partner. Initially, we focused on CX measurement and formed a team to map out a priority journey aligned with the CX measurement work. By leveraging SWAT teams to tackle top pain points, we improved the overall customer experience scores, shortened cycle times, and reduced defects/rework. Building on these wins, we gradually expanded our focus while simultaneously building our expertise. Since our CX maturity still varies across business units, we are currently focusing on bringing the less mature areas up to speed with our leading areas.
In 2025, we will continue the journey to better understand the impact Securian associate experience has on our customers and channel partners. We’ve spent the last few years understanding and improving the associate experience, and now we will take it a step further to understand the linkage between employee experience and customer experience.
Describe your CX org structure. How did you land on this structure? What makes it effective today and how do you see it evolving in the future?
We began with an advisory model, where a centralized team of CX professionals advised the business on CX strategy, conducted measurements and shared insights. Initially, business units were responsible for prioritizing and improving the experiences with their existing staff. After achieving significant activation wins, we transitioned the CX strategy roles into the business units. This allows them to better develop a vision for the customer experience within their respective areas.
Currently, the design of specific experiences is handled by shared services such as enterprise technology and operations, with experience improvement as a formal goal. As we evolve towards a matrixed model, business units will leverage insights to prioritize improvement areas in a more formal, collaborative manner. For example, a digital product owner leads a cross-functional pod to enhance the product to better meet customer needs. Pod members represent CX measurement, Adobe analytics, data analytics, and UX design. Although we have considered implementing formal journey owners, we continue to be effective using the matrix model.
Each stage of our CX evolution has been successful due to strong communication, clear roles and responsibilities and a one-team mindset.
What has made you personally successful as a CX leader? What resources would you recommend to other CX leaders?
Traits that have served me well in CX include curiosity, a collaborative mindset and strong change management skills. Being a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt has also been beneficial, as it has given me a strong process focus. I have also learned a lot from partners like the folks at Heart of the Customer, as well as experts at Forrester, Qualtrics and Medallia. Most importantly, I have learned from the highly skilled associates on the Securian team. They bring diverse experiences to the table that enrich our CX offering and thought leadership. Additionally, the ability to identify and collaborate with a willing business partner cannot be stressed enough. Working with an eager partner is both enjoyable and rewarding.
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