For this work to become valued and considered critical to driving growth it must rise above the fray of being defined by problem solving or chasing survey scores. These 5 Customer Leadership Competencies clarify the role of the Chief Customer Officer as the enabler of embedding these competencies into the organization. They define leadership behavior of world-class organizations focused on customers and employees. And they impact how these organizations decide to grow, how they lead in unison, how they identify and resolve issues, and how they collectively build a ‘one company’ experience.

COMPETENCY #1: HONOR AND MANAGE CUSTOMERS AS ASSETS.

Know the Growth or Loss of Customers and Care About the ‘WHY?’

With this Competency, the goal is to align leaders to make a defining performance metric – the growth or loss of your customer base. Customer Asset Measurement is about knowing what customers actually did to impact business growth or loss versus what they say they might do via survey results. For example; how many new customers did you bring in this quarter, volume and value (power of your acquisition engine); how many customers were lost this quarter, volume and value (power of the experience and value perceived); how many increased their purchases; and how many declined in their level of engagement with you?

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is to bring leaders together to establish Customer Asset Metrics and customer growth behaviors they will stand behind as a united leadership team.

COMPETENCY #2: ALIGN AROUND EXPERIENCE

Give Leaders a Framework for Directing the Work of the Organization.

Unite Accountability as Customers Experience You, Not Down Your Silos.

Competency 2 gives leaders a framework for directing the work of the organization: requiring cross-silo accountability to deliver deliberate customer experiences. It unites the organization in building a framework for “Earning the Right” to Customer Asset Growth.

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is to unite leaders and the organization in building a one-company version of their customer journey. It includes focus the organization on priority one-company experiences. And on changing the conversations from silo driven conversations to collaborative conversations about customers’ lives – their experiences across the journey they have with your organization.

COMPETENCY #3: BUILD A CUSTOMER LISTENING PATH

Seek Input and Understanding, Aligned to the Customer Journey.

Competency 3 unites your organization to build a ‘one company’ listening system constantly refreshing with multiple sources of quantitative, qualitative and experiential feedback to tell the story of your customers’ experience, guided by the customer journey framework.

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is to engage leaders and the organization to want to be a part of ‘one company’ story telling to unite decision-making and drive cross-company focus and action. That’s why I’ve coined this competency as building a customer ‘listening path.’

COMPETENCY #4: PROACTIVE EXPERIENCE RELIABILITY & INNOVATION

Know Before Customers Tell You, Where Experiences Reliability is Out of Sync.

Deliver Peace-of-Mind, Consistency and Innovation.

Competency 4 builds out your “Revenue Erosion Early Warning System” and your evolving experience innovation process in “marquee” moments in your customer journey. These are the intersection points which impact customer decisions to stay, leave, buy more and recommend you to others.

Here you build your discipline to know before customers tell you – if your operation is reliable or unreliable in experience delivery in the moments that matter most, as well as embed a customer experience innovation process to evolve past current state to future state.

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is to drive executive appetite for wanting to know about these interruptions in customers’ lives, simplifying how they are delivered, and facilitating a one-company response to these key operational performance areas.

COMPETENCY #5: LEADERSHIP, ACCOUNTABILITY, and CULTURE

Leadership Behaviors Required for Embedding the Five Competencies.

For this work to be transformative and stick, it must be more than a customer manifesto. Commitment to customer-driven growth is proven with actions and choices. To emulate culture, people need examples. They need proof. Competency Five is the glue that puts into practice leadership behaviors required by a united leadership team to enable and earn sustainable customer asset growth.

The role of the Chief Customer Officer is to work with the leadership team in building the consistent behaviors, decision-making and company engagement that will prove to the organization that leaders are united in their commitment beyond words.

A passionate customer experience practitioner, Jeanne Bliss pioneered the role of the Chief Customer Officer, holding the first ever CCO role for over 20 years at Lands’ End, Microsoft, Coldwell Banker and Allstate Corporations. Reporting to each company’s CEO, she moved the customer to the strategic agenda, creating transformational changes to each brands’ customer experience. She has driven achievement of 95 percent loyalty rates, improving customer experiences across 50,000-person organizations.

She is now the President of CustomerBliss, where she guides the C-Suite and Chief Customer Officers around the world on earning business growth by improving customers’ lives. Her clients include: AAA, Johnson & Johnson, Brooks Brothers, Bombardier Aerospace, and Kaiser Permanente. She is a sought after speaker and thought-leader, and co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association.

Chief Customer Officer 2.0 is Jeanne’s third book. Her previous, best-selling books are “I Love You More than My Dog: Five Decisions that Drive Extreme Customer Loyalty in Good Times and Bad,” and “Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action.”