CMO & CCO: Most Valuable Player?

Many CCOs hope they are the first and last Chief Experience Officers in their companies. “They want their?focus on keeping customers happy to seep into all levels and departments of the company, essentially putting themselves out of a job,” reports the?Wall Street Journal. Two prominent responses include:

• “Shouldn’t everybody be encouraged to regularly test the customer experience? Does it take a CXO?to remind us of that?”, echoed James Heskett, author of?The Service Profit Chain.
• “The CXO?position may indeed rightfully go away as the focus on experiences becomes infused in the organization,” said Joe Pine, author of?The Experience Economy.

Heads up!?That level of ingrained customer-centricity is muscle memory. It requires tremendous practice. However,?none?of the interviewed CCOs are in a position to score this customer-centricity trophy. Do you see anything in a job scope below about?customer-focus seeping into all levels and departments of the company?

• The CCO at Under Armour oversees global marketing, e-commerce, and retail.
• Bed Bath & Beyond combined the Chief Digital Officer and Chief Brand Officer into a new CCO role in 2021, with responsibility for customer service, store remodeling, and partnership with Kroger.
• McDonald’s CCO focuses on Marketing, data analytics, digital customer engagement, restaurant development, and restaurant solutions.
• Comcast Cable CCO is responsible for field service and care operations, emphasizing (a) development and delivery of new technologies, tools, and platforms and (b) VoC for Support and staying ahead of rapidly evolving consumer needs.
• CCOs with software as a service (SaaS) business models typically oversee Support, Professional Services, Onboarding and Education, and Customer Success.

Foul ball!?Those job scopes are centered on?customer touchpoints?— not seeping?customer-focus?into all levels and departments of the company. You’ll never ingrain customer-centricity without?primary emphasis on outside-in thinking for every function, as explained by these B2B CCOs:

• “I remember working at a Japanese company in the early 90s. All everyone talked about was the customer, whether they worked in Product Planning, Design, chassis engineering, procurement, or any other department. There was no need for a customer-centric program or a CX team. It was in their DNA,” says Kim MacGillavry , CCO at Otis Elevator.
• “I only really understood this when I started working in other companies that had lost touch with their customers and where departments worked on?their own agenda in silos,” he continued.
• “Let’s see how long it takes for companies to become truly customer centric where the basic mindset of everyone in the organisation puts customers first,” he challenges.
• “The most important role of a CCO is to bring a customer perspective to the many different functions of the company,”?says Eduarda Camacho , CCO at BMC.

Time out!?Why do all these CCOs say?customer-centricity is a high priority for every player?in your enterprise ecosystem?

• Like a sports team, you can’t have something else at the center of your attention in the off-season, locker room, or practice field — and then expect stellar performance in your league competitions.?Is everyone’s attention consistent?
• “Centricity” is whatever is at the center of your decisions and actions. When your whole enterprise is not unified in the quest for customer-aligned management, you’re creating silos.?Is everyone unified?
• Silos?are toxic to seamless customer experience. Any weak player on your team is apt to ruin a play or cost you a game or even a season. Defensive plays (and a lot of offensive plays) in CXM are mainly necessary to make up for catastrophes or weak plays. Often, these failed plays are originated by non-customer-facing work groups.?Who’s pursuing this?

Forfeit??Every industry today is on the sidelines with?customer trust. For “How much do you trust each type of business to do what is right?”, the percentages below are the bottom 5 rating points (1-5) on a 9-point scale (32,000 respondents, 28 countries) in the?Edelman Trust Barometer?study:

• 33% do not trust family-owned businesses (versus 34% in 2016).
• 42% do not trust private businesses.
• 45% do not trust public businesses (versus 48% in 2016).
• 50% do not trust state-owned businesses (versus 54% in 2016).

Prosperity for everyone suffers?due to low trust (for example, wasted time, stress, duplicated effort, lost opportunities, inconsistency, squandered resources, negativity, etc.). Imagine how much more value every individual, family, and entity could gain with higher trust! Maybe it’s not just the Chief Customer Officer on a path to dispensability, but your enterprise?as well?

Indeed, the highest value for your Chief Customer Officer strategy is seeping customer focus into all levels and departments of the company!

Learn More

This is an excerpt from Chief Customer Officer Strategy: Dispensable Playbook or Most Valuable Player. See detailed recommendations for CCO role, goal, competencies, and value in the last half of this article:

Let's talk! Meet with author Lynn Hunsaker for 15 minutes by phone or Zoom.

Author?Lynn Hunsaker?is Chief Customer Officer at ClearAction Continuum. (virtual mentoring for automatic experience excellence)?ClearAction.com

Fast-track "walking the CX/EX talk" through ClearAction's virtual mentoring for your?C-Suite,?VPs,?experts,?experience managers, and?everyone else.

Newsletters:

1. 'Ease of Work & Business' Growth?for your C-Suite and Board.
2. CX Skill-Building?for Marketing, PX, CX, CS, and EX professionals' self-managed career growth. You are a vital cog in your enterprise's success in the ways you collect, share, and advocate experience insights!
3. Clear Ways to Influence Action?for CMOs and CCOs' indispensable value.
4. ClearAction Continuum newsletter: roundup of what's new and upcoming.