Joining the right CXO community helps you connect with peers, share insights, explore emerging tools in customer service, and solve real challenges. If you want fresh ideas, helpful resources, and a stronger professional network, this guide will help you pick the best group for your next step.
Best CXO Communities Shortlist
Here's a shortlist of the best CXO communities I think are worth joining:
- The CX Lead- Best for hands-on CX resources in SaaS
- Customer Experience Professionals Association - Best for global CX certification opportunities
- Execs In The Know - Best for vendor-free brand-side CX networking
- CX Accelerator - Best for free day-to-day CX collaboration
- CCW Digital - Best for large-scale CX event access
- Pavilion - Best for private GTM executive networking
- Chief - Best for women in executive leadership
- CONNECTIONS (LinkedIn) - Best for free CX networking
- Customer Success Collective - Best for CS certifications
- Gain Grow Retain - Best for SaaS CS leaders
The 11 Best CXO Communities
Below are my summaries of the best CXO communities that made it onto my shortlist, plus others worth mentioning. My reviews offer a look at each community's audience, size, cost, and more.
1. The CX Lead - Best for hands-on CX resources in SaaS

- Audience: CX and customer success leaders in SaaS businesses
- Cost: Free
- Platform: The CX Lead website and member dashboard, with additional touchpoints across its newsletter, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram
Our community is built for CX professionals who want practical resources, not just inspiration. From playbooks and templates to AI prompts and tool recommendations, we've designed The CX Lead around what customer experience leaders actually need to do their jobs well.
Why join? If you're working through challenges around retention, service design, or customer success in a SaaS context, this is the space for it. You'll get unlimited access to how-to guides, CX tool recommendations, exclusive events, and newsletter archives tailored to your role.
Senior leaders can also apply for early access to a focused executive peer community built around candid, trust-based conversations.
2. Customer Experience Professionals Association - Best for global CX certification opportunities

- Audience: CX practitioners, managers, and leaders across industries
- Size: 71,000+ members
- Membership Cost: From ~$225 per year
- Platform: Website-based online community, virtual events, in-person meetups, annual conference
CXPA is the global professional association for customer experience practitioners, founded in 2011 and now active across 70+ countries. It's run as a non-profit and is best known for establishing the Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) credential—the most widely recognized certification in the field.
Why join? If earning or maintaining your CCXP is on your radar, this is the only place to do it. Membership gives you discounted access to the application and exam prep resources. Beyond certification, you'll get access to the CX Book of Knowledge, an AI-powered knowledge tool, network meetups, and an annual conference where CX leaders across industries connect and share what's actually working.
I'd particularly recommend it if you're looking to formalize your expertise or build credibility within your organization.
3. Execs In The Know - Best for vendor-free brand-side CX networking

- Audience: Corporate CX leaders at director level and above
- Size: 1,500+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Website-based community, in-person summits, dinner series, webinars
Execs In The Know is a global community for corporate CX leaders built around a "Leaders Learning from Leaders" model, with members from brands like United Airlines, Nintendo of America, The Home Depot, and Zillow Group. Its Know It All (KIA) community is free to join for qualifying corporate CX leaders at the director level and above.
Why join? The biggest differentiator here is that KIA is intentionally vendor-free. It's a space where brand-side practitioners can speak candidly with peers without sales pressure, which is genuinely rare at this level. You'll get access to the twice-yearly Customer Response Summit and exclusive dining experiences like The Leadership Table, where the conversations tend to be more frank and strategic than what you'd find at a typical industry conference.
It's especially worth joining if in-person peer connection is a priority for you alongside the online community.
4. CX Accelerator - Best for free day-to-day CX collaboration

- Audience: Customer experience professionals at all career stages
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Slack, website, podcast
CX Accelerator is a free, non-profit community for CX professionals at every career stage. It is co-founded by Nate Brown and led by a board that includes recognized CX voices like Jeannie Walters and Matt Lyles.
The community runs primarily through a Slack workspace with facilitator-led channels covering everything from AI and VoC to contact center operations and career development.
Why join? If you want a community where you can drop a question and get a real answer from a working practitioner, this is it — the Slack-based format makes it one of the most active day-to-day CX spaces out there.
It's worth noting that this isn't an executive-only room, which I'd actually frame as a strength. CX Accelerator is a great space to mentor, share perspective, and stay connected to what's happening across the full CX ecosystem.
5. CCW Digital - Best for large-scale CX event access

- Audience: Customer contact and CX professionals worldwide
- Size: 185,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Website, webinars, in-person events, podcasts, email newsletters
CCW Digital is the online community and research hub behind Customer Contact Week, one of the longest-running CX and customer contact event series in the world. It brings together CX professionals ranging from contact center practitioners to senior executives.
Why join? The biggest draw here is access to the CCW event ecosystem — particularly CCW Las Vegas, which is one of the largest in-person CX gatherings you'll find anywhere. Beyond the events, free membership gets you into a deep library of analyst-led research, market studies, and webinars covering AI adoption, customer expectations, and contact center strategy.
I'd go in knowing this is more of a content and event hub than a peer discussion space — there's no active member forum — but if research and large-scale event access are priorities for you, it's worth the free sign-up.
6. Pavilion - Best for private GTM executive networking

- Audience: Senior GTM leaders in B2B tech companies
- Size: 10,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Depends on seniority and location
- Platform: Slack, website, in-person events, virtual events, Pavilion University
Pavilion is a private, application-based membership community for senior GTM leaders across sales, marketing, customer success, and RevOps. It was originally founded as Revenue Collective by Sam Jacobs and is now home to 10,000+ members, 70% of whom are VP-level or above.
The community is designed for operators who own a number, lead a team, and want access to high-trust peers who are navigating the same pressures.
Why join? If you're a Chief Customer Officer or CS leader, Pavilion is worth your attention. It has a dedicated CCO School through Pavilion University and a Pavilion Gold tier (invite-only for CXOs at $100M+ ARR companies) that includes private executive retreats and off-the-record peer groups of 10. Day-to-day, the Slack workspace is genuinely active, with member questions often answered in under 10 minutes.
I'd be upfront that this is a GTM community at its core, not a CX-specific one — so if you want peer conversation around journey mapping or VoC, other communities on this list are a better fit.
7. Chief - Best for women in executive leadership

- Audience: Senior women executives with 15+ years of leadership experience
- Membership Cost: From $5,900 per year
- Platform: Member portal, physical clubhouses, in-person events, virtual events
Founded in 2019 by Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan, Chief is a private, application-based network built exclusively for senior women executives. It's one of the most established executive communities on this list, and one of the very few designed specifically for women leaders.
Why join? What sets Chief apart is the combination you won't find elsewhere: a guided peer advisory group (Core Group) of ~10 vetted executives, four 1:1 sessions with a certified coach, quarterly Wharton Executive Education courses, and access to physical clubhouses in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and DC — all under one membership.
If you're working toward a board seat, building a leadership brand, or just want a high-trust room of peers navigating the same seniority pressures, this covers a lot of ground.
8. CONNECTIONS (LinkedIn) - Best for free CX networking

- Audience: Customer experience professionals at all levels worldwide
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: LinkedIn
The CONNECTIONS community is open to CX professionals at all levels — from frontline practitioners to senior leaders — making it one of the most accessible communities on this list. It functions as a discussion forum inside LinkedIn, where members share articles, post questions, and exchange perspectives on CX topics.
Why join? If you want a zero-cost way to stay plugged into CX conversations and expand your network without committing to a paid membership, this is a reasonable starting point.
That said, I'd set realistic expectations: as a free, open LinkedIn Group, the discussion quality is mixed — you'll see vendor pitches and job posts alongside genuine peer exchange. It's worth joining, but I wouldn't rely on it as your primary CXO community.
9. Customer Success Collective - Best for CS certifications

- Audience: Customer success and support professionals at all levels
- Size: 100,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Website, Slack, virtual events, in-person summits, meetups
The Customer Success Collective is a global community and learning platform for customer success and support professionals at every career stage. It's run by the same team behind Product Marketing Alliance and sits under a broader portfolio of B2B professional communities.
Why join? The main draw here is the certification catalog — CSC offers 12+ expert-led credentials, including Customer Success Certified: Core and Masters. It is one of the stronger options if you're looking to build or validate your CS skills formally.
Beyond certifications, you get access to a Slack community, on-demand event content, templates, and in-person Customer Success Festival summits in cities like San Francisco and London, with speakers from Google, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Microsoft.
10. Gain Grow Retain - Best for SaaS CS leaders

- Audience: Customer success leaders in B2B SaaS companies
- Size: 12,800+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Online community platform, podcast, virtual calls, in-person events
The Gain Grow Retain community is built specifically for Customer Success leaders in B2B SaaS. It was founded in 2020 by Jay Nathan and Jeff Breunsbach and later acquired by Higher Logic.
This is one of the few communities that's genuinely senior-focused from the ground up, rather than a broad CS community that happens to include leaders.
Why join? What sets GGR apart is the weekly leadership calls — consistent, live peer time with other CS leaders is rare in a free community, and that alone makes it worth joining if you're in a SaaS CS leadership role. The community is also B2B SaaS-specific, so conversations stay relevant rather than generic.
Add in the GGR podcast with guests from companies like Zendesk, Gong, and monday.com, plus occasional in-person events, and you get a well-rounded peer network without a membership fee.
11. Support Driven - Best for support leaders

- Audience: Customer support professionals and leaders across industries
- Size: 30,000+ members
- Membership Cost: Free
- Platform: Slack, in-person events, website
Support Driven is a global community dedicated to Customer Support as a career, founded around 2015 and now home to 30,000+ professionals ranging from frontline agents to support leaders.
It's one of the longest-running communities in the support space, with 9+ years of programming and 24 events across 15 cities under its belt.
Why join? If you lead a support function, the sheer scale of this community means you'll find peers at your level — and the in-person Expos and Summits (with 550+ speakers across 600+ talks to date) give you real face time with other professionals across the industry. The Slack community is free and covers everything from tooling and hiring to leadership-specific conversations in dedicated channels.
I'd say it's best treated as a broad professional network rather than a curated leader peer group, so pair it with a more senior-focused community if executive-level programming is your priority.
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