Joan Ntabadde Kyeyune: Rebuilding Trust from the Inside Out

Kampala, Uganda | June 2025

Uganda’s Joan Ntabadde Kyeyune has spent her career helping organisations navigate transitions, improve service delivery, and rebuild trust. As President of the Customer Experience Association of Uganda, her mission is clear: restore coherence where systems have lost alignment and elevate CX practice.

Leadership Forged in Transition

Joan’s two-decade career spans banking, telecoms, hospitality, government, and health. She has helped institutions navigate mergers, systemic breakdowns, and post-crisis realignment – often in roles where she was asked to restore and elevate order rather than merely maintain it.

A Restorative Approach

Joan refers to herself as “restorative,” a strength confirmed by Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, but also evidenced in her day-to-day choices. She’s the person who enters conflict zones – between staff and management, between public image and private culture – and works to bring resolution. Not through force, but through empathy, structure, and patience.

Introducing Empathy into Public Systems

She applied this approach to the Uganda Revenue Authority, where she supported efforts to humanise tax collection with the previous revenue commissioner to reduce wait times, improve communication, and equip frontline staff to have value-adding conversations, even during enforcement.

When Brand and Culture Diverge

Joan is wary of institutions that say the right things externally but fail to embed those values internally. In her words: “Sometimes the data is correct. But the truth is missing.” She has seen institutions promote customer obsession publicly while quietly cutting salaries or reassigning staff without clarity.

Professionalising CX in Uganda

In 2025, Joan became President of CXA Uganda, a non-profit association working to professionalise customer experience in the country. She helped shape its legal framework, identity, and member engagement strategy. Under her guidance, the association anchors its work in the five CXPA principles: CX strategy, insights and understanding, metrics and ROI, design and innovation, and culture and accountability.

A Strategic Perspective on Measurement

Joan notes that CX professionals are often asked to prove ROI without having the structural support to do so. Many teams face leadership scepticism, unclear mandates, and limited budgets. This disconnect results in overreliance on surface-level metrics that mask deeper dysfunction.

The Diagnostic Gap

Joan refers to the difference between institutional perception and reality as the “diagnostic gap.” It’s the space between what’s reported and what people are living. For Joan, bridging that gap is not just technical – it’s ethical.

Why CEM Africa Matters

Joan sees CEM Africa as a platform to elevate this conversation. Not just to benchmark tools or attend workshops, but to reflect. “We are often underappreciated,” she says of CX professionals. “CEM provides visibility, validation, and connection. It brings our work to the boardroom.”

She hopes the summit will help shape more consistent, trustworthy systems – where frontline staff are supported, organisational culture is aligned with stated values, and customers can experience institutions as fair and competent.

About the Interviewer

This interview was conducted by Dominic Wilhelm, Executive Director of The Global Trust Project, a supporting partner of CEM Africa and an organisation dedicated to helping institutions embed trustworthiness at scale.

Joan’s reference to Gallup’s StrengthsFinder offers a useful analogy: if StrengthsFinder helps individuals understand their aptitudes, TGTP’s Trust Equity Index (TEi) does the same for institutions. It assesses how integrity, benevolence, capability, and impact are perceived across levels – revealing gaps and opportunities for alignment.

Explore the TEi framework at: https://www.theglobaltrustproject.com/the-trust-equity-index