Will The Chief Experience Officer Become Obsolete?

The customer experience is no longer a differentiator, it’s a requirement in today’s market. To attract customers, companies must now offer experiences that not only meet growing expectations but go above and beyond to exceed them. With the pandemic being one of the catalysts for change, 65% of companies now place more importance on the customer experience than they did before 2020.

To spearhead the customer experience cause, many companies are appointing Chief Experience Officers — a title dedicated to innovating and improving the end-to-end experience. But, not everyone believes that the position should be a long-term role and some are questioning its permanence as a c-level fixture.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Allison Peterson, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Best Buy, notes that her goal is to create an environment that does not require a separate team or position to define the experience. She aims to instill a customer-obsessed mindset that naturally prioritizes the experience over the long term.

However, the article infers that the current CXO position is a product of slow-moving and early staged customer experience programs. Therefore, the Chief Customer Officer position is often a lead in initiating change, taking the first steps to actively plan and execute experience developments. But, once these changes are enacted, will companies still need an experience leader if they initiate an organization-wide focus on the customer and their journey?

To answer this, some point to the fact that the position can act as a bridge between departments, keeping focused on unifying both the internal and customer-facing factors to establish a more seamless experience across every touchpoint. Emily Fink, CXO of Liberty Mutual Insurance even noted that her company created the position to encourage consistency across the entire experience, from the moment they pick up the phone to contact a support representative.

Another important component that may be missing from the argument to retire the CXO position is that it is also meant to account for the employee experience. The Harvard Business Review’s article ‘Why Every Company Needs a Chief Experience Officer’ heavily discusses the significance of weaving the customer and employee experience disciplines into the Customer Experience Officer role. Rather than allow CX to ‘become the new marketing’ executives must see beyond just the customer to understand the impact employee’s have on business performance. The article highlights MIT research that states companies in the top quartile of EX developed more successful innovations and doubled the amount of revenue from these innovations than those in the bottom quartile. Additionally, companies that focused heavily on the employee experience experienced Net Promoter Scores that were twice as high.

The employee experience is pivotal to customer success, as knowledgeable and confident agents allow for a more seamless and pleasant experience for customers. Beyond this, employees who feel supported and inspired to achieve more in their roles will clearly benefit the organization more than just subject-matter experts. Once the employee experience is prioritized, agents are able to better support customers and understand their journey in a more cohesive and empathetic way, leading to exceptional service experiences.

Therefore, appointing a leader to improve and coordinate both the employee and customer experience is surely worth considering, especially with the renewed emphasis on employee engagement. CCW research found that 63% of companies value the employee experience more than they did before last year — making the case that this role is now more relevant than ever.

Ultimately, the Wall Street Journal article concludes with a quote from Fink stating that, “... whether or not the role still exists, the work still exists.” This quote encompasses the argument perfectly; the question is not whether this work should be done, but if just one person should be responsible for maintaining the ‘customer-centric’ tone or if it should simply be prioritized in every facet of the organization. Regardless of the title, companies must work to create an experience that keeps customers engaged and satisfied, in an era where they can achieve almost anything with the click of a button. If this can be accomplished by an alignment of the customer and employee journey’s, then it's probably worth keeping around. With customer behavior continually evolving, it would be remiss to discount the long-term value of the Customer Experience Officer role.