Customer Experience Evolution in Organisations

Over the past decade, we have witnessed the evolution and transformation of the role and responsibilities of Customer Experience in organisations across industries. This responsibility began as a virtual presence in committees with departmental representatives. Over time, customer experience has become the responsibility of a well-defined position in the organisation chart. As market and customer requirements evolved, the CX function proved its usefulness and the appointment of a CX manager and the development of a CX team followed.

It is clear that there is no standard model for the CX function to be implemented in companies, nor is there a need for it to exist in the same way as HR, Legal or Marketing, in-house or outsourced. Each organisation has developed its own solution depending on the industry in which it operates and the specifics of the product or service it offers to customers.

Confirmit and MyCustomer (www.confirmit.com) have published a study on the requirements, responsibilities and outcomes of CX leaders, which involved 75 CX leaders from EMEA and North America. The main conclusion of the study is that the key challenge for CX leaders is to transform themselves from data reporters to culture change drivers for the organisations they work for.

Recent years have shown the importance and impact of having a leader or team that polarises the development of customer-centric strategies and actions. And because there has been no institution to academically develop CX leaders, they have “emerged” from different departments within organisations.

Almost half of customer experience professionals come from customer service (22% service and 7% contact centre) and marketing (22%) backgrounds.
The other half have backgrounds in sales (5%), business management (8%), HR (3%), training and process management, with only 15% having worked exclusively in customer experience since the start of their career.

There has been a lot of movement in the CX job market over time, with migration between departments and companies, with some managers new to the role and others with significant experience in the field.

Around two-thirds (62%) of CX leaders in the Americas and Western Europe have between five and 10 years of CX experience, with only 28% having been in the role for more than a decade. 38% have been with the same employer for less than a year and have initiated CX programmes in that time.

The ability to deliver and demonstrate ROI for implemented projects is critical.

All CX leaders said this, and it is often a challenge to convince senior management of the value of CX initiatives. All respondents to the above study confirmed that one of their top priorities is to focus on demonstrating ROI and linking CX KPIs to financial results. KPIs have their role to play, but the continued and sustained implementation of initiatives lies in demonstrating their impact, not only from an emotional, reputational or competitive perspective, but above all in financial terms.

The Conformit study shows that there is also a link between the seniority and longevity of a CX leader in an organisation and the results demonstrated in the projects they have implemented and coordinated. All leaders who had coordinated projects for more than 10 years showed improvements in CSAT, while only 81% of those with less than 5 years’ experience were able to influence this KPI. Apart from CSAT, NPS is the most commonly used metric by CX leaders, with 74% of them using it as a priority.

However, as important as measuring KPIs and demonstrating ROI is, it is the impact of implementing actions that changes organisations. The metrics themselves help, but they alone will not bring about change.
For example, only 9% of executives see measuring ROI as a priority in the next 18 months. Developing a CX strategy, customer journey map and voice of the customer programmes, and implementing the resulting actions, is seen by 85% of CX leaders as far more important to achieving real business impact.

One of the key issues in developing the CX function is its position in the organisational structure.

The industry in which it operates, the type of products and services offered to customers, the size of the organisation and even the appetite of senior management to demonstrate customer focus have led to the development of different models that determine the internal reporting and resourcing of the CX function.

The most common size found in organisations in the Americas and Western Europe is relatively compact, consisting of 2 to 6 members. 44% of respondents lead teams of at least 6 members, and half of these have permanent teams of at least 20 specialists. At the other extreme, 11% of respondents are alone in this role.

Just over a third of CX leaders, 39%, report directly to the CEO and are members of the board (C-suite). As expected, marketing plays a significant role in developing and coordinating the customer experience, with 20% of CX leaders reporting directly to the CMO. Respondents to the Conformit survey also reported that 14% report to the COO, 4% report to the head of sales, and the remaining 23% report to various departments or board members in various positions within the company.

60% of organisations use the expertise and involvement of CX consultants to develop strategies, implement actions and initiatives.

It is common practice to bring in external firms or specialists for specific projects, with some organisations having ongoing partnerships for consultancy on a regular monthly basis.

Economies around the world have recently experienced, and continue to experience, many challenges between economic booms and crises of all kinds. It is clear that budgeting has been one of the priorities to secure future investment, i.e. there has been a focus on short-term benefits.

However, almost 95% of companies have increased or maintained the amount budgeted for customer experience projects, initiatives and programmes. The most ‘popular’ investments, at 69%, were in the development of customer journey applications and customer satisfaction research tools.

The provenance of CX department budgets is also important to note. Nearly half, 48%, are dedicated CX budgets, 30% come from marketing departments, and the remainder, up to 100%, come from operations, sales, IT and HR.

The CX function has grown and evolved over the last few years.

It has earned its place and been recognised for the way it has built the context of customer experience for the future. It has built processes, constants, not moments, that have led to changing organisational cultures.

I expect future research to show an increase in the importance and impact of CX leaders, regardless of the size of their teams or their position in the structure of the organisations they represent.