The Customer is King. Or is it?

We all know companies who claim their customer service is first-rate and that they put the customer first. However, when you look at their management structure, the customer is left without a seat at the table.
Sales and marketing are busy attracting and signing new customers, but who’s nurturing those existing relationships? In other words, who’s putting their money where their mouth is?

The Rise of the CCO

In a recent survey of senior leadership across the United States and United Kingdom, which appears in Calabrio’s Success in The Experience Era: Connecting Customer and C-Suite, 100 percent of senior leader respondents list the customer as the chief priority. By contrast, only 58 percent identified sales or revenue as a “strong focus.”

Today, that’s more than just good business, it’s a survival strategy. Research from HBR.org shows it costs companies 25 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. And, customers are four times more likely to defect if their negative experiences are related to customer experience, rather than price or product quality. Just one dissatisfied customer can influence an entire network of prospective customers.

If customer experience is genuinely a top priority for the company, someone needs to lead the charge. That’s where the Chief Customer Officer (CCO) comes in.

Instead of trusting a company’s most valuable asset to a fragmented strategy, organizations with a CCO have dedicated leadership that is constantly focused on the interests of the customer. Employing a CCO allows marketing to focus on marketing, sales to focus on sales, and the entire organization moves more efficiently and with clarity.

Signs your company needs a CCO

A logical argument can be made that any company touting customers as their most important asset must have a CCO. However, some companies need this organizational upgrade more urgently than others.

You need a CCO if your company:

• Has failed to instill customer retention as a success metric.
• Focuses on financials (over customers) in quarterly reports.
• Lacks data and direction on the wants and needs of customers.
• Has no dedicated voice of the customer in the C-suite.

Enlisting a CCO can be a competitive advantage that ensures your customers’ voices are heard at the highest level.

For more tips on how your company can place a greater focus on the customer, check out this report from CCW Digital, CCW Executive Report: Customer Experience Game Changers.

Scott Henderson