[Posted by Megan Burns]

I’m excited to announce the release of my latest report: “How Chief Customer Experience Officers Gain Active Executive Support.” Executive involvement is critical to the success of any customer experience transformation, but it’s hard to get. I interviewed several successful CC/EOs to find out how they got their peers on the leadership team on board.

Here are a few highlights from the report:

·       Uncertainty stops executives from acting. Senior leaders agree with the principles of customer centricity, but often fail to actively engage in efforts to be more customer centric. Why? Because they’re uncertain about one of two things: 1) the business value of customer experience efforts as compared to other potential investments, and 2) what, exactly, they should do to help.

·       CC/EOs should tailor their approach to each executive’s current level of support. The report includes a scorecard that helps the CC/EO classify each member of the leadership team based on his or her current level of support for customer experience. The first category, called “Passives,” resist participation in customer experience programs because they don’t see the value. “Willing” executives are happy to help, but need the CC/EO’s help charting out a plan of action. Leaders in the “Engaged” category are the firm’s customer experience champions. They set the example for others and are a great asset to the CC/EO.

·       The CC/EOs passion and attitude are a powerful tool. The advice we got from one former CC/EO was “Be positively relentless.” This journey can take a long time, so you have to be persistent in the face of many challenges. And through it all, the CC/EO must put their belief in customer experience front and center to help others move forward in the face of uncertainty.

For the full report, see: http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,54957,00.html

Have a great week!

-Megan