Connection Over Silos: What Technology Leaders Must Get Right About Customer Experience

August 15, 2025 in CX by Tech Scout

At our Portland Technology Summit, customer experience expert Stacy Sherman of Doing CX Right delivered a keynote with a message that technology leaders need to hear. The real measure of IT and security is not only in systems that stay online or threats that never materialize. It is in how these functions connect people, processes, and priorities across the business.

Sherman compared a flawless event setup—lights, sound, connectivity—to the hidden wins of technology teams. When everything works seamlessly, people rarely notice. Yet these behind-the-scenes successes are what give organizations an advantage.

Why Connection Matters Most

Sherman stressed that connection outranks communication and trust alone. Connection links internal teams to each other and to customers. Without it, even the most advanced tools will fail to deliver results.

The Cost of Building in a Silo

One example made the stakes clear. A contact center leader gathered critical customer feedback months before contracts were up for renewal. The data included urgent signals such as security concerns and legal risks that required immediate action. The technology needed to share this information across the company was months from rollout and designed without her input. By the time the system arrived, costs had increased, the rollout was delayed by a year, and the opportunity to act had passed.

Sherman called it a leadership problem. Silos slowed communication, shifted priorities, and allowed a preventable gap to turn into a costly miss.

Own the Full Journey

Technology leaders must align on customer-focused goals across departments, design the full customer journey before a crisis, and take responsibility for results even when the work falls outside their direct role. Connected and equipped internal teams create better customer experiences. Disconnected and under-resourced teams damage them.

Lead by Example

Sherman closed with an image of Walt Disney picking up trash in his parks. He did it to set the tone for every employee. Technology leaders who model cross-functional ownership create organizations where silos do not take hold and connection drives results. That is when IT and security move from support functions to competitive advantages