Customer Experience Certifications: CCXP and Alternatives, How to Choose

Individual certification, organisational certification, standard: three different things#

The word “certification” covers three realities that need to be distinguished before choosing:

• Individual certification attests that a person has mastered a competency framework: CCXP, Forrester certifications, Qualtrics XM, CCSM.
• Organisational certification attests that a company applies a framework, after an audit by an accredited body: for example COPC for customer operations.
• A standard describes good practice. Some contain requirements that can serve as a basis for certification; others, such as ISO 10002 and ISO 10004, are guidelines intended to guide practice.

These three levels complement each other. A CCXP-certified manager who structures complaints according to ISO 10002 speaks the same language as the auditor of a European client company.

The CCXP: what you need to know#

The Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) is awarded by the Customer Experience Professionals Association, whose official website is cxpaglobal.org. The requirements below come from the August 2024 candidate handbook.

The exam covers the five domains of the current framework, with a similar number of questions for each: customer insights (22 questions), CX strategy (20), metrics and return on investment (20), design, implementation and innovation (19), and culture and accountability (19). The former six-competency model, still cited in many materials, is no longer in force. These domains also structure our guide on the customer experience profession in Morocco.

The CXPA recognises training organisations whose programmes follow its framework (Recognized Training Providers). These organisations do not have access to the exam questions. The published list includes organisations in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and France, but no organisation based in Morocco at the date of verification. A Moroccan candidate therefore prepares with a foreign provider, online, or on their own.

Alternatives in customer experience and customer success#

Forrester CX Certification. Self-paced online training of about six modules and 12 to 18 hours, to be completed within 60 days, with a final open-book exam. The “CX Foundations” track is one of the programmes offered. It suits teams that need to acquire a shared vocabulary quickly.

Qualtrics and the XM Institute. The XM Institute offers the XM Fundamentals and XM Professional certifications, focused on experience management method and distinct from the certifications for using the Qualtrics platform. They are of interest to voice of the customer teams, especially if the tool is already in place.

CCSM (Certified Customer Success Manager). A three-level certification that originated with SuccessHACKER and is now awarded under the SuccessCOACHING name, also offered through the University of South Florida's continuing education programme. It is aimed at customer success managers in software and business-to-business service companies (see our guide on customer experience and customer success).

For contact centres: COPC and ISO 18295#

The COPC CX Standard, in its version 7.0, is a performance management framework and certification for customer operations organisations: in-house customer services, outsourced providers and organisations that manage providers. It is directly relevant to Moroccan centres serving demanding client companies.

ISO 18295-1:2017 sets service requirements for contact centres, whether in-house or outsourced; its revision is under way. ISO 18295-2:2017 is aimed at client organisations that use these centres; it has been announced as due for revision. To measure quality beyond handling times, see our guide on contact-centre quality indicators.

The ISO standards that frame practice#

ISO 10002 is the most useful reference for structuring a complaints system, alongside our guide on managing complaints by their causes. ISO 10004 helps design reliable satisfaction measures, which requires knowing their biases (see our guide on courtesy bias).

How to choose by role#

Three criteria complete this table: language (the CCXP does not exist in Arabic, which matters for Arabic-speaking teams), recognition by your clients (a European client company often knows COPC) and the cost of maintaining it (training credits to accumulate over three years).

Action plan for a team#

1. List the roles in the team and what each person needs to be able to do in a year's time.
2. Choose one certification per role, not one for everyone.
3. Train internally in the fundamentals first, in French and Arabic, before exams in English or French.
4. Plan the preparation time and the renewal plan.
5. Link each certification to a real project: a journey, a complaints system, a dashboard.