The standard of record for customer experience leadership.
The CX Hall of Fame recognizes the people and companies whose customer experience work is visible in the public record. What we publish is a reading of that record. It is not a survey, a vote, or a nomination.
What we publish
Four programs run on their own schedules. Each is drawn separately, so a score in one program is not comparable to a score in another.
| Program | Recognizes | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Leading Global 100 Professionals | People worldwide | Quarterly |
| Leading Global 100 Companies | Companies worldwide | Annually |
| Leading 25, by country | People and companies | Monthly |
| Hall of Fame alumni | Inducted practitioners | Annual class |
Country programs currently cover Portugal, the United States, Italy, and Vietnam. The alumni community numbers 106 practitioners inducted since 2023, with each annual class recognized at the CX Summit.
A ranking is not an induction. Being ranked in a Leading 100 or Leading 25 is a reading of a public record at a point in time. Induction into the Hall of Fame is a separate recognition, decided separately, and announced as an annual class. Neither one produces the other.
How ATLAS³ reads the record
ATLAS³ reads what people say publicly, to each other, across independent sources, over time. It does not ask customers questions and it does not score what an organization says about itself.
The superscript names the three tests every piece of evidence passes before it can move a score.
Public and attributable
Publicly accessible, traceable to a named source, and dated. Private or anonymous material is excluded.
Recurring
The finding appears in more than one unrelated source. A single citation, however credible, does not produce a score.
Reliable
The source meets a credibility threshold. Sources below it are excluded, and the exclusion is logged.
Two sources are never read: anything the subject published about themselves, and anything paid for. Sponsored content, self-reported claims, and nominations submitted by a candidate or their employer are all out of scope.
What we measure
People and companies are read on separate measures, because the evidence behind them is different. Each measure is scored 0 to 100.
| People | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Trust | How strongly the person's work builds, restores, or protects customer trust. |
| Reach | How clearly the work reaches the market and shapes professional discussion. |
| Practice | Demonstrated operating competence, methods, and execution depth. |
| Influence | Influence on how customers, companies, and practitioners understand CX. |
| Results | How clearly the work connects to revenue, retention, and business outcomes. |
| Companies | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Trust | How far customers trust this brand to get the experience right. |
| Evidence | How much independent, observable evidence supports the quality of the experience. |
| Reputation | How clearly the brand is tied to a strong, distinct experience in customers' minds. |
| Consistency | How consistent the experience is across public sources and touchpoints. |
| Delivery | How closely the real experience matches what the brand promises. |
On the Leading Global 100 Companies, the composite is the equal-weighted average of the five measures. Where a page shows a measure outside the composite, such as belief movement or exposure, it is shown as context and does not affect rank.
Confidence
Every person we rank carries a confidence score alongside the ranking. Companies do not currently carry one. It reads how much the ranking can be relied on, based on source quality, how much evidence exists, whether independent sources agree, how recent it is, and how clearly the person's role can be traced in public.
No public record is ever complete, so confidence is never reported at the top of the scale. On the Leading Global 100 Professionals it runs from 31 to 75, and on the country rankings from 57 to 89. High confidence means a rank is stable. Moderate confidence means the entry may move further as evidence accumulates. Confidence never reorders a ranking. It qualifies the reading.
The seven CX archetypes
Each ranked person carries one archetype describing the dominant pattern in their work. Archetypes do not affect the score.
| Archetype | Sees | Builds | Protects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evidence Strategist | Proof needs | Evidence systems | Decision quality |
| Friction Fixer | Effort | Process relief | Customer confidence |
| Journey Operator | Sequence | Working journeys | Continuity |
| Economics and Risk Advisor | Exposure | Business case | Financial resilience |
| AI Service Builder | Automation moments | Responsible AI service | Human trust |
| Employee Champion | Worker burden | Enablement | Dignity |
| Trust Economist | Belief movement | Trust systems | Long-term value |
An archetype marked Pre-Assessment was read from public evidence. It does not mean unqualified. It means the classification was observed from the outside rather than confirmed by the person. Verified means the person completed the archetype assessment and confirmed it.
Find your own archetype. The assessment takes a few minutes and returns the pattern your work already follows, along with what it builds and what it protects.
How to read a ranking
A score reads the strength of a public record at one point in time. It answers a single question: how much independent, recurring evidence shows this work shaping customer experience right now.
Rank movement between editions reflects newly observed evidence. Someone who rises did not become better at their work in a quarter. More of the work became visible, or more independent sources named it.
Each program is drawn on its own date, so compare a rank to the previous edition of the same program. A score of 88 in the Leading Global 100 Companies and a score of 88 in a country Leading 25 are two different readings of two different pools.
Coverage
The Leading Global 100 Professionals spans 25 countries. Just under half the people ranked work primarily outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, including practitioners building the field in Zimbabwe, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Egypt, the Philippines, Lebanon, Kenya, Brazil, and Portugal.
That spread is the work. Country programs run in Portugal, the United States, Italy, and Vietnam, and each one adds to what the global record can see. Where a market documents its CX work in its own language and its own channels, we read it there rather than waiting for it to appear in English.
Independence
Sponsorship
Sponsorship supports how recognition is published. It does not affect research, scoring, selection, or rank. Recognition cannot be purchased.
Founder recusal
Dennis Wakabayashi is excluded from scoring, validating, or reviewing his own rank.
Endorsement
Recognition is endorsed by The Global CX Alliance.
Every score traces to logged evidence with a named, dated, publicly accessible source. Where source material is thin, we publish it as thin or hold the entry. We do not fill a gap with inference.
If you believe a reading is wrong, write to us and name the evidence. We will check it against the record and correct what needs correcting.
Who runs it
The CX Hall of Fame is operated by Team Wakabayashi LLC and founded by Dennis Wakabayashi, Global Voice of CX. Recognition is endorsed by The Global CX Alliance, the practitioner body connecting CX communities across markets.
The rankings, the alumni class, and the CX Summit exist for the same reason: customer experience is a global profession, and a profession needs a public record of who is moving it.
