Who in the C-Suite Should Be Your Customer Experience Champion?

10 min

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Darshan Shah

December 16, 2022

Everyone knows how important customer experience (CX) is as a competitive advantage, from your customer service representatives at the forefront to your C-suite leaders.

For a better customer experience, 86% of consumers are ready to spend extra. Following a favorable experience, these clients are willing to pay a price of up to 16% premium.
93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service.
54% of customers who report positive emotions like feeling happy, valued, and appreciated are willing to forgive brands that make mistakes.

However, getting the best customer experience is a complex undertaking and necessitates the support of every function inside an organization. It takes the coordinated efforts of key stakeholders from across an organization and involvement and support from every C-suite member to deliver outstanding customer experience across the customer's lifetime. In short, your C-suite must comprise CX champions.

Transform C-Suite Into CX Champions

Today's business models must provide omnichannel experiences that enable seamless continuity throughout the customer journey to fulfill customer expectations. Let's examine why every executive in the C-suite should be concerned about customer experience and how they can help to guarantee outstanding experiences at all points of contact with customers.

The CEO (Chief Executive Officer)

In a recent Clootrack study on CX challenges, 8% of the CX survey respondents have highlighted that brands, in some cases, lack commitment and follow-through on CX-led improvement and innovation leveraging insights from customer behavior and feedback. Brands tend to lose steam midway and abandon a focus on customer experience when/if they don't get a quick return on customer experience investments.

The chief executive officer, or CEO, keeps an eye on the whole company to ensure it stays on course and adheres to the brand's core values. The CEO typically holds the highest position inside the business. Businesses that prioritize their customers are better positioned to gain a competitive edge, which is the objective of every CEO.

The most competent CEOs know that businesses that provide gratifying and engaging CX experiences will develop faster and at greater levels.

Ian Golding, CEO and Founder of Customer Experience Consultancy Ltd, described his commitment to customer experience in this way. "Despite organizations 'talking' about the customer experience more and more over the last ten years, many still struggle to separate what they DO from what the customer actually EXPERIENCES. This represents the difference between organizational processes and the customer journey.

Changing the mindset from thinking and acting in the interests of the business to thinking and acting in the interests of the customer is easier said than done!! To become sustainably customer-centric, all organizations need to give their employees the time and ability to genuinely 'put themselves in the customers' shoes' so that they are able to think beyond the task."

The COO (Chief Operating Officer)

As per KPMG Advisory, the customer experience is provided by core operations. The chief operating officer, or COO, manages a company's operational activities, which include hiring, management, and corporate strategy.

Metrics are crucial in this regard. So, COOs must do as follows to become CX champions:

Ensure CX activities are carried out correctly and consistently to enhance customers' views of the business, increase sales, and promote customer loyalty and advocacy.
With your considerable influence, help advance the customer-centricity agenda by collecting customer feedback, sharing metrics, and keeping an eye on how internal departmental collaboration affects customers.

So, while the CEO sets the direction for an organization, the COO is responsible for carrying that direction out, and customer experience directly affects the business operations department.

Aleyda Vargas de Aviles, Senior Advisor Business Operations Empresa, says, "The most important challenge companies are facing is to keep their employees motivated. This is part of the employee experience which is fundamental in a more customer-centric culture.

The employee experience is a key challenge nowadays because employees are going through many difficulties in their lives, and above all, they are vigilant in taking care of their health and their families. Motivation is a key challenge."

The CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)

Marketing is a vital function in customer experience (CX). In fact, by 2023, 25% of firms predicted that marketing, sales, and customer experience would be combined into a single function.

The chief marketing officer, or CMO, holds the highest marketing position inside an organization. They manage the marketing staff and create and implement the brand's marketing strategies. The main objectives of the CMO are to raise sales and brand recognition.

The scope and depth of CX can be broad and extend beyond the conventional realm of the marketing arena. CMOs are frequently the owners and drivers of CX. The requirement drives this chief customer officer narrative that CMOs take the lead or play a significant role in CX.

To become CX champions, CMOs must follow the advice as follows:

Promote collaboration to remove silos.
Create an accurate buyer persona that guides all CX touchpoints and promotes growth.
Keep tabs on changes in consumer behavior and digital innovation.

Moreover, COOs should use customer data to give the rest of the organization a clear picture of the customer. It is not advisable to keep data, research, analysis, and—most importantly—customer insights in a separate compartment. They are crucial marketing tools.

Mary Drumond, CMO of Worthix, shares her opinion about cx, "You're only as good as the data you have. And you can't expect to gather good enough data to base your decisions on if you're asking the wrong questions. While designing Voice of Customer surveys to gather customer feedback, companies essentially use guesswork to identify which questions to ask their customers or resort to basing their entire strategy on satisfaction and recommendation potential.

This means that even if they get a good response rate and have the most robust platforms to process feedback on the back end, there is a big chance that the data collected has little to no correlation with the results they'll see from customer churn and loyalty."

The CDO (Chief Data Officer)

Since they began employing data analytics reports, 90% of corporate executives have allegedly significantly improved the customer experience.

Speaking of data, we know that extensive digital techniques have revolutionized marketing and are assisting companies in enhancing the customer experience (CX). Customers now actively choose businesses based on how well those businesses anticipate their wants and needs and provide personalized experiences catered to their interests.

66% of customers believe that they will provide personal information about themselves if they sense it will improve their customer experience. You must already be gathering a vast quantity of data, but if it is properly maintained, it will be helpful to you. So, your CDO can do the following:

Turn your data into a resource by using it to keep your company competitive.
Create and implement a system to analyze data in a way that gives the data value for your organization.
Automate data gathering and processing for reliable and simple data analytics.
Create strategic data access policies for internal and external users to protect your organization's data from manipulation, theft, corruption, and loss.
Keep an eye on the constantly evolving data regulation laws as per the nation where your organization operates.
Make sure that only individuals with permission and in a secure environment may access the data that your company collects.
Effectively inform each key position holder of the data insights so they can organize their CX actions properly.

You can transform your company and hasten your growth process with well-structured data analytics. The Chief Data Officer is the finest candidate to carry out this task for your company. Furthermore, they can encourage cooperation across various business departments, making it much easier for your corporation to achieve its customer experience objectives.

Jorge Calvachi, Director of Insights, La-Z-Boy Incorporated, who closely works with data, says, "Everything about your customer experiences starts with a good foundation of insights. Hire somebody to do segmentation and figure out how the brand fits in within a persona and into a customer journey map. We need to have a lot of empathy for the customer. Not everybody is close to the customer. The consumer insights need to create that empathy. We can do storytelling and analyze personas to develop empathy."

The CFO (Chief Financial Officer)

Businesses concentrating on enhancing customer experience see an 80% boost in revenue. In fact, if you can satisfy your customers, you can double your company's income in 36 months.

Money is what CFOs focus on. And even though the CFO may appear unrelated to customer experience transformation, their choices significantly impact how consumers view a brand.

The chief financial officer, or CFO, is in charge of the company's financial planning, risk management, financial services, record-keeping, financial reports, and, frequently, data analysis. This is the highest level finance role in a business.

Some of the informed decisions that can transform CFOs into CX champions are as follows:

Eliminate cumbersome or inadequate billing and payment procedures to avoid upsetting clients and suppliers.
Make sure the proper procedures and mechanisms are in place to reduce complexity.
Verify that there are enough resources in the budget designated for customer care and support.
Participate effectively in decisions on funding distribution for CX initiatives, such as whether to bring in-house or outsource company operations like customer support and service.

The main objective of CFOs is to contribute to decisions that boost revenue, ensure the business has a stable cash flow, and make sure money is used wisely during budget cuts while also considering exceptional CX delivery.

Leeny Oberg, CFO of Marriott International, says, "I mystery shop at our competitors and our competitors are good. I let employees know how well we are doing but that there are other luxury hotel companies out there doing well, too. I come back from a competitor and talk about my experience at our Line-up meetings. What stands out to me is how we deliver service. My favorite word in The Ritz-Carlton Credo is "genuine." To me, when you provide service that is genuine versus service that is laissez-faire, that's a huge differentiator. We can't overplay the need for our service to be delivered sincerely."

The CPO (Chief Product Officer)

One out of every five products needs to live up to customer expectations. This increases the significance of turning a Chief Product Officer (CPO) into a CX champion. The skill levels of 45% of Product Managers at their company varied greatly.

Organizations have been working with various specialists due to the compelling need to empower customers more than before. Namely, to effectively harness growth, a Chief Product Officer (CPO) aligns product experience with business goals and product insights.

These are professionals who specialize in increasing the performance of products. They are tech-savvy, customer-focused, and ultimately decide the best products. They can become CX champions in the following ways:

Customer engagement should be a top objective for CPOs. They should listen to and understand, eventually improving the CX.
The role calls for a person who can develop cutting-edge products to enhance the digital experience for clients.
The CPO must be able to distinguish a USP and be focused on service delivery.

Leading the digital transformation of their companies is a shared duty assigned to CPOs. Every aspect of the firm is affected by this shift, from culture to customer experience.

"In a world where products and services are becoming more and more commoditized, customer experience is the only true differentiator." ― Annette Franz, founder and Chief Experience Officer of CX Journey Inc.

The CHRO

CHROs also called Chief People Officers (CPOs), and the HR division should be very concerned with CX as it affects an organization's reputation. After all, their capacity to recruit and keep talent depends on how the general public views the company and its brand.

Gartner HR Research finds just 25% of employees are confident about their careers at their current organization. CPOs can ensure that they improve the employee experience for highly engaged employers to enhance customer experience and report higher sales.

The senior position in a company's human resources division, known as the chief human resources officer, or CHRO, is in charge of hiring, talent management, and compliance with HR laws.

To become CX champions, CHROs or CPOs can do as follows:

Make sure that employees are motivated and pleased with their tasks.
Give them chances to advance their careers.
Encourage a good work-life balance.
Recognize and reward their excellent work.
Employ candidates who demonstrate a passion and mindset for providing outstanding CX.
Develop a cx program that is highly effective.

Along with CKOs, CHROs or CPOs can also impact how knowledge management is handled within a company, particularly when it comes to customer connections.

Customers' contacts and interactions are more consistent when information about them is securely shared and used inside the company. This increases productivity and customer satisfaction.

Tracy Maylett & Matthew Wride says in The Employee Experience: How to Attract Talent, Retain Top Performers, and Drive Results. "Your employees are the soil and nutrients in which your Customer Experience grows. If you have a workforce of engaged people who feel respected and appreciated, and if they trust their leadership team enough to take risks and invest emotionally in the organization, your CX will take care of itself. Conversely, if you don't have that foundation of great people who care about providing a terrific experience and making customers' lives better, all the technology and systems in the world won't keep your CX from being a money-losing mess."

The CTO (Chief Technology Officer)

Three years ago, companies used machine learning and AI to automate 25% of all consumer interactions. This number is projected to increase to 40% by 2023. Technology serves as a link between customers and businesses.

A company's technological and scientific needs must be understood and implemented by a chief technology officer (CTO) to support the achievement of business objectives.

The CTO plays a leadership role in the technology and engineering departments and participates in decision-making for a company's research and development as the top executive-level position for technology-related matters.

Moreover, a considerable number of companies these days also have a CTIO or chief technology innovation officer. A CTIO keeps the firm current and competitive with the rest of the industry, analyzing the market and product trends to adapt to its clientele continuously.

In addition to assuring easy access to the infrastructure and services that keep a business functioning, CTOs (and CTIOs) are in charge of evaluating, choosing, and putting CX tools and technologies into practice.

CTOs and CTIOs can invest in the following to become CX champions, given the abundance of new options for communicating and engaging with customers that are currently accessible:

Improve the quality of customer interactions by using conversational AI, automation, chatbots, intelligent voice-based virtual assistants, and omnichannel CRM software.
Work on expanding and improving the company's capacity to respond quickly and effectively to customer inquiries.

Note that today's businesses are using procedures that do away with the requirement for customers to engage with humans. However, CTOs must also ensure that this increases the standard of interactions and makes it easier for customers to acquire the required assistance.

To fine-tune their strategy and quickly roll out the proper solutions, CTOs must use CX performance data. They must also ensure IT is kept in the way of the company's capacity to please consumers.

Sriniketh Chakravarthi, Former SVP & Head of BFSI & Enterprise Alliances, Tech Mahindra, says, "The best special effects in movies are the ones where you don't even realize it's a special effect. The same goes for AI and ML. As an agent takes a call, this kind of deep technology can work behind the scenes to detect who the customer is, what they attempted to accomplish at another channel, and problems commonly associated with such queries. All of this can now be displayed on the agent's screen, turning the agent into superman or superwoman. Suddenly, they have all the answers when the customer picks up the phone."

Final Thoughts

The C-suite in any company creates the foundation for excellent CX. Their ideas, goals, and deeds hugely impact corporate culture, and every facet of the company will benefit from their enthusiasm and desire to provide outstanding CX.

Every executive team member should prioritize CX because it is cited as crucial to attaining business growth by 95% of leading organizations—the highest percentage of any job responsibility.