As companies experience an increase in the difficulty of sustaining meaningful differentiation based on product innovation alone, a new executive position focused on maximizing customer satisfaction has developed – the Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
Yes, this means another new C title, but this role is driven by a very clear business need: the importance of the customer. As a CCO, this person is responsible for managing and improving the customer experience (CX) and the impact it has on the business.
Although not every customer experience management (CXM) executive is necessarily called the CCO, jobs like this share many similar characteristics. The job title may be new, but those who fill it generally have a lot of experience at the company and have been with the business for about eight years. In addition, these individuals are often part of their firm’s executive management team, therefore they have the power to allocate resources and make changes to the CX. Most CCO’s exert their influence through the small CX team they run, which acts in an advisory or change management role for the rest of the firm. CCO’s are hired to solve problems that have been negatively impacting customer satisfaction, but their end goals are to accelerate company growth, facilitate the integration of acquired firms, and rearrange priorities in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
The CCO position has arisen because more and more businesses are beginning to see the significant value of improving the 360 customer experience at every touch point. The perception of the company brand is affected by the interactions consumers have with the firm’s employees, website, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, and social media channels. It’s important to monitor all the tools consumers can use to interact with a company and show a company presence. Additionally, by keeping a close eye on customer reactions or issues, companies are able to provide a quicker response and truly put the CX first.
The various points of contact between the business and the customer make up the “voice” of the company. If this “voice” is not well-maintained and constantly updated to stay relevant with users changing needs, then customer satisfaction levels decrease, ultimately leading to diminished revenue. However, with the development of the CCO position, a company can devote a specific executive leader to dedicate time to the customer, ensuring an optimal CX when interacting with the “voice” of the company. This person is in reality acting as the “voice of the company” or the “Chief Voice Officer (CVO).” When it comes to IVR and call center technology, we take this role seriously and recognize its importance.
How important do you think the CX role is in a business? Does your business provide a customer bill or rights or outline how you put the CX first? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
In this customer era, relationships are the new currency. It’s great that companies are establishing CCO roles; but more than just having a c-level person in charge, true customer experience/success should be an organizational change, a new way of running a business.
I’ve noticed this to be even more true for SaaS companies and blogged about how software is changing the world and customer success processes: http://ow.ly/bJN6z
Ideally, the CCO role will be supported by other functions within the organization (like sales engineering and support) and not be siloed on its own.