CMOs, Who Owns Your Customer Experience?

CMOs may be the undisputed owners of the corporate message, but who owns the customer experience? It’s a question that plenty of companies grapple with. In fact, when 1,600 survey respondents were asked who owns the customer experience, “Don’t know” was one of the top five answers.

Today’s customers are more educated, more proactive and more autonomous than ever before. They may even progress as much as 60 percent through the buying journey before engaging with a company representative. It only makes sense that all functional areas of your business take responsibility for delivering a clear, compelling and consistent customer experience. Maybe instead of asking who owns the customer experience, we should ask: Who is leading the charge?

The answer: CMOs.

While only 59 percent of CMOs agree that marketing owns the customer experience, there is no denying that today’s customer-centric environment demands that CMOs step beyond their historically defined boundaries and take on a cross-functional leadership role. This new role requires CMOs to assume accountability for ROI linked to customer experience, including attracting customers, growing loyalty and boosting sales, meaning they must take charge in infusing a clear, compelling and consistent corporate message, anchored in a Corporate Messaging Platform, throughout all customer touchpoints.

But a clear and cohesive message, by itself, is not enough. To truly lead their company in owning the corporate message, CMOs must strategically partner with each member of the leadership team and influence how that message is brought to life throughout the business. This means working closely with HR to develop a messaging-driven Organizational Change program that infuses corporate messaging into the hearts and minds of employees and reinforces it throughout their tenure with the company. It also means teaming up with sales to leverage a Sales Enablement Methodology that deliberately infuses messaging into compelling sales tools and selling conversations. And it means creating and spearheading strategies that pull messaging forward through other key avenues of customer interaction, including content development and face-to-face marketing.

As the tide turns decisively from capabilities-centric to customer-centric, everyone in your company must take responsibility for the customer experience. But it is up to the CMO to lead the charge and ensure that experience is compelling and consistent, no matter where customers are in their buying journey.

Check out this quick read for more essential tips to creating a consistent and compelling customer experience.