Most executives today are in agreement that customer experience has never been more important in fighting off the competition. Customer-centric businesses are increasingly employing a Chief Customer Experience Officer (CCEO) to ensure the focus on the customer is never lost. European CEO spoke to Barry Smith, Senior Consultant at Ikano Insight, about this role and the all-important issue of customer engagement.

Can you tell us a little about the role of the CCEO?
From our point of view, the role of the CCEO is really there to represent the customer in what should be a customer-centric business. So, this person understands what it is their customers want and builds a strategy to provide that single vision of customer contact with the brand. It’s really about managing experiences across the entire customer journey. So, that’s not just in the pre stages or during the sale, but also post-purchase.
Why is it important to have a CCEO?

The headline is that it grows your business. It’s really obvious for us because we work in customer engagement and loyalty, so we see the benefits of collecting data to help and understand your customers and grow your business. From our point of view, what’s important is the more you know about your customers the easier you make it to engage with the brand.

Without data how can you take a reading of the customer journey?

It’s ultimately about return on investment. It’s the role of the CCEO to put strategy behind data to then make sure you’re not missing any gaps and you’re using the data to deliver a superior customer experience.

You’ve mentioned data a few times. How important is data in the modern CCEO role?
It’s critical. Without data how can you take a reading of the customer journey? We work a lot with retailers, and if you think about how the customer journey has changed in the last 10 years it’s incredible. It used to be quite linear – you’d go into a store and you’d have a look at the different styles of jeans, for example, pick a certain cut and colour, try them on, buy them, and leave the store. Nowadays, the customer journey is non-linear.

You have a whole phase where customers might browse online to determine which products they want in the first place. They’ll check reviews, speak to friends, look at social media. Some go to the store to check products and then go online, while others go online to buy in store. All of these options represent different touchpoints and different opportunities to collect data, which is absolutely critical for the customer experience. It’s almost like a blueprint, mapping out which customer journeys work and which don’t.

Could you expand on the idea of customer engagement and why it’s such a hot topic at the moment?
It’s really interesting to see how data and customer engagement have changed significantly over the years. If you think back to the mid-90s when Tesco was quite a way down, the company made a decision to put data at the centre of everything it did. By putting data at the centre Tesco essentially put the customer at the centre – for me the data equals the customer. Within a few years, Tesco became the market leader.

Now the company has started sliding back again, so it’s the customer engagement element that makes the difference. Understanding customers and driving behaviour is one thing, but actually keeping on top of that is difficult because customers are a lot more savvy now than they used to be. Today there’s a much stronger appreciation for the value of the data I give you as a customer.

Typically, savvy customers are expecting some sort of value exchange. So with Tesco, the firm was just pumping out vouchers and discounts and not necessarily thinking about what relationships were like with customers. While you’re trying to measure and understand customer behaviour, you need to be mindful that it’s much more on the customer’s terms. So, they’ll only give you information in exchange for value.

What are some of the common issues companies face when it comes to delivering a good customer experience?
The biggest challenge is speaking to businesses. Retail is a good example, where retail ops guys want shoppers to come in store and spend money, while the e-commerce people want to drive people online to spend money. The customer doesn’t really care about any of that – they just want to buy products, so you’ve got silos within the organisation competing against each other.

I’ll speak to businesses where they have a marketing department, an insight and analytics department, a digital department, and I’m having a meeting with them about loyalty and customer engagement and they’ll say “that part is the insight guys” or “that’s the digital guys”, when they need to put the customer at the centre of everything they do.
It’s frustrating, because if you think about it the customer doesn’t care about any of that at all, they just want to be able to engage with a brand.

In terms of strategy, how might having a CCEO in place change the way that a company operates?
Well, I think it’s down to a couple of things. First, by putting a CCEO in place, businesses are putting their hands up and saying “we are now a customer-centric business”. Secondly, when putting that strategy in place, it really needs to be deep seated throughout the whole organisation. That’s what I meant earlier about businesses needing to let everybody know the importance of the customer and the importance of the data they’re collecting, because actually that’s the lifeblood of the company.

It’s about collecting the right types of data and not missing any gaps, particularly in terms of the omnichannel experience. I might look on my smartphone for a particular website and at lunch make the order. Later, I might be second screening on my iPad to check the status of my order. So, again, three different points at which I’m touching that business from an engagement point of view.

The importance of having this kind of customer experience officer role is that, by having the strategy in place, you’re making sure everyone in the business understands the true value of data, and uses it to learn and refine the customer experience.

What would you say to those who worry the C-suite is becoming an increasingly crowded place?
I’d say what is more important than the customer? I have 20 years of experience working in data and marketing, and I genuinely can’t believe there are so many businesses out there that don’t have a customer focus in terms of that role.

The customer is the person that’s going to make a difference between the business being a market leader or a follower. I just think the strategy that gets attached to the customer, making sure customers engage with your brand, is the only way you’re actually going to grow a business. So, what’s more important than that at C-level?

Ultimately, the customer determines success so why wouldn’t they be central. If you’re going to sustain and drive growth then you need to be able to understand the customer, and it’s about combining those marketing, IT and insight roles to form one truly customer experience-driven strategy.