The C-Suite is witnessing quite an evolution with new roles beginning to emerge: the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) is one of the newest among them. Last year CCO Council’s Annual Chief Customer Officer Study identified the role of CCO as quickly turning into “a staple of modern business” with 22% of Fortune 100 companies and 10% of Fortune 500 companies having one on board already. Founder and Executive Director of CCO Council, Curtis Bingham explains the trend, “With accessibility and the consistency of customer experience in mind, many companies have turned to creating a chief customer officer (CCO) position in the C-Suite. This still-emerging and evolving role can be defined as: the executive responsible for the total relationship with an organization's customers.”
With customer-related executive roles like Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or Chief Sales Officer (CSO) already existing, why would a company need a CCO? Is it just another fad? Well, I don’t think so, and neither should you. Let me explain why.
Customer Centricity is the New Game
Today consumers are more empowered than they have ever been, and they are increasingly seeking an active involvement with brands they want to trust and be associated with. As it turns out, customer-centric marketing involves more than just knowing your customers. And as such, the marketing department’s job has shifted from promoting what customers should buy to a much broader role: interacting with customers, engaging them, listening to them, creating better experiences for them, earning their trust, and building a relationship that leads to advocacy. Now, since many of these functions are owned by different teams within a business, there needs to be a common force that brings them together. Vested with diverse responsibilities from improving profitability, to maintaining customer-centricity, and driving sustainable growth for the organization, the CCO is that common force.
When it comes to customers, CCOs are a cut above CMOs and CSOs, not because they have a better understanding of the customer, but because their role touches upon customer relations on more than one level. In a recent EY survey, 73% of CCOs were confident in adding value by “using customer feedback to help develop the business” compared to 58% of CMOs, and 68% of CSOs. Moreover, the sales and marketing teams have never really been able to work in tandem due to an entirely different set of goals. The CCO, with distinct functions of both teams, can close the divide.
Customer is Not a Sales or a Marketing Phenomenon Anymore
The customer is no longer “owned” by any particular department, but rather “shared” between various key business verticals: operations, marketing, product, IT, etc. As one-to-one conversations are becoming more and more important, it is paramount that the highest level of the organization is represented by someone who cares deeply about the customer. Someone needs to be responsible for making sure that customers and employees are engaged in the organization and connected to communities and areas of the business where the goals of customer satisfaction and retention can be met. The CCO breaks down the silos to align the company’s goals with the customer’s needs.
As customer satisfaction and retention become the key factors that indicate a company’s success, or lack thereof, it is safe to predict that CCOs will become an indispensible part of the C-Suite. And as that role becomes more prominent, who knows, by then some C-Suite titles might even cease to exist.
