Should the Chief Marketing Officer Oversee the Whole Customer Experience?

The Risks and Rewards of Leading an Organization to Deliver Superb Experiences that Keep Brand Promises 

The shift to digital marketing, electronic commerce, and social media and mobile interactions continues to bring a massive transformation to how brands and organizations engage prospects and customers. Customer Experience Management is a major pillar in many B2C and B2B organizations’ efforts to engage and retain customers. As it gets more complicated to engage and retain customers, organizations are realizing there is more to the job of customer experience than many first realized. This is in part because providing superb customer experiences often means getting many different departments or functional areas to collaborate, especially when they had not been in the habit of doing so before. 

There are many points along the customer experience journey where an organization can miss the mark and not even come close to meeting customer expectations. However, market leaders realize the future requires proactive, digital online engagement, integrated with in-person and/or in-store experiences to support the strategy. Constellation has identified some of the requirements, rewards and risks as CMOs lead their organizations to become more customer-centric by creating and maintaining top-notch customer experiences. With this paper as a guide, leaders can create a basic blueprint to embark on a discussion about customer experience and how best to lead this key strategic initiative in their organization.