When it comes to customer experience (CX), every executive has skin in the game. Here are some real, recent, and common examples clients brought us:

  • CMOs who need marketing and CX to work together for better experiences across the customer lifecycle.
  • CIOs and CTOs who need CX management to improve outcomes of digital transformation efforts.
  • COOs who need CX to shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive meeting of expectations.

Just as executives need CX for today’s businesses to thrive, so the CX leader needs buy-in. “Everyone owns CX,” so any misalignment around a strategy and the skills, insights, and coordination to improve CX leads to missed opportunity, redundant efforts, or even self-sabotage. Yes, self-sabotage! We see too many companies where functions unintentionally work against each other, leading to a customer experience riddled with pain points and unfulfilled promises.

But there are success stories of CX functions that are established, funded, and now scaling. We looked across these diverse CX functions (because no two are alike) and stripped them down to the common elements that are key to success. Specifically, this includes the elements that make up their mission and the elements that enable them to fulfill that mission:

cx function elements

The Customer Experience Function Priority Model, pictured above and detailed in my recent report, is intended to bring clarity to your objectives in establishing, funding, and scaling a CX function. Winning executives over to your cause starts with being clear on why CX matters to your organization, your approach to transforming CX, and the specific roles these executives will play in the transformation.

Want to boost executive buy-in for customer experience transformation? Take the Forrester CX Reality Day challenge on July 13, 2021. Rally your executive team and key stakeholders and have them “go undercover” as customers to see your organization’s experiences from the outside in.