The IMPACT Awards is a prestigious recognition program, celebrating exceptional work in the field of customer experience. Honors are bestowed on both exceptional practitioners (individuals, departments and teams) and vendors (companies and their customers).

Visit awards.simplermedia.com/cx to apply.

We have added 1 new practitioner and 2 new vendor categories, for added nuance around AI-enabled CX products. The following categories are all new for 2027:

• Best Use of Agentic AI in Customer Experience
• Best Use of AI for Customer Data, Identity, or Personalization
• Best AI-Powered Self-Service or Conversational Experience

• Nominees for the practitioner awards should be customer experience, digital experience or customer service leaders, departments or teams that have deployed impactful initiatives or technology over the past 12 months.
• Nominees for the vendor awards should be vendors who have either solved a particularly impressive challenge for one of their clients or produced particularly impactful capabilities for their products or solutions within the last 12-24 months.
• You may self-nominate for any award.

• If you want to showcase your company’s internal practices you should apply for the practitioner awards.
• Companies whose business model includes CX programs, platforms or solutions may not apply for the practitioner awards.
• If you want to showcase your platform, solution or the work you’ve done for a customer/client you should apply for the vendor awards.
• Your customer’s name may remain anonymous, although we encourage you to identify them in your application. Failure to disclose customer names may hinder recognition efforts, should your application win.

Please scroll to the top of this page for the full list of awards categories.

You may apply to as many categories as you wish and it is possible to win or rank in multiple categories.

• There is no cost to apply for the Customer Experience Leader of the Year award.
• The cost to apply for all other Practitioner awards is $149 per application.
• For all Vendor awards, there is a $995 fee per application.
• A 30% discount will automatically apply as long as you register at the awards portal and create an application during the Early Bird period (August-September). This discount will apply even if you submit your application after September.
• If you plan to submit multiple applications, finalize and submit them at the same time for a discount. Use the code TWOORMORE at checkout for 40% off your total application fees.
• All application fees are payable by credit card prior to application submission. Applications are not considered final until fees are paid in full.
• If you are unable to pay by credit card, contact us.

Applications typically take 1.5-4 hours to complete.

• All application questions have maximum word counts. These vary and are listed on each question.
• Charts, photos and other attachments are not allowed.

• Judges are volunteer practitioners, specialists, consultants and CX experts, recruited for their field expertise.
• Please scroll to the bottom of this webpage to see the list of last year’s judges.

• Judges apply through the awards portal and are vetted by CMSWire prior to reviewing applications.
• Judges receive detailed instructions and a scoring rubric to assist in the review process.
• Judges agree to keep all material confidential. Certain application fields with proprietary information are not shared with judges.
• All applications are reviewed by multiple judges to minimize bias. Judges are not assigned applications from participants in their own industry and judges can recuse themselves from any application to avoid direct or indirect conflicts of interest.

• Questions are weighted according to importance. Judge scores are aggregated to determine the final winners of each category.
• Judges only score the “category-specific questions” section of each application. Demographics information is not shared with judges and not scored.

Yes; there is no limit on the number of categories an applicant can win in any given year or across multiple years.

• Winners are notified through email once the judging period is over. The Awards Director will notify the main point of contact for each winner. Please provide alternate contact information if you are an agency or otherwise applying on behalf of an individual or company.
• Winners are announced in the spring.

Winners are publicly recognized in the following ways:

• Press release on CMSWire, promoted through PR channels.
• As part of a longer awards article on CMSWire.
• Mention on awards website.
• For Leaders of the Year, interview opportunity with CMSWire Editor-In-Chief.

• Gold award winners receive a physical trophy as well as a digital badge for social media promotion.
  
  • One trophy is included in your win. It is possible to order additional trophies at your cost; contact us for details.
• Silver award winners receive a digital badge for social media promotion.
  
  • It is possible to order a trophy or trophies at your cost; contact us for details.
• All awards participants (winners and nonwinners) receive a PDF scorecard with their score and judge comments.

• 2025 Winners
• 2024 Winners
• 2022 Winners
• 2021 Winner

By signing up for the IMPACT Awards, you agree to receive emails related to the awards program, including (but not limited to) reminder emails, open/close dates and finalist status. All finalists and winners will be contacted through email and may be contacted via phone for additional information. Winners’ contact information may be shared with our Events team for the purpose of coordinating your participation in our events. Winners’ addresses will be shared with our awards vendors for the purposes of awards delivery and digital badge distribution. Finalists’ and winners’ application data may be shared with our Editorial team for background information only.

Please send all questions to [email protected].