The UK Chief Customer
Offi cer Report
Nish Kotak
May 2017
/02
In theory it’s very simple to
talk about wanting to put the
customer at the heart and
centre of everything you do,
but how do you achieve that
when you have been created
as a product-led business?
/03
The purpose of this report is to provide a benchmark and basis for
understanding how the role of a Chief Customer Officer is emerging
in UK businesses. The report identifies the degree to which this is
happening and aims to provide some insight as to why.
Talecco conducted extensive research in the first
quarter of 2017 with the aim of identifying how
companies are reacting to the challenge of becoming
more customer-led. This research is the first of
a number of planned activities that will help define
and describe the rapidly changing landscape of the
Chief Customer Officer and customer-led thinking.
This particular research piece focused on the
individuals that are being appointed as CCOs and the
companies that hired them. We aimed to identify:
• What sort of businesses are hiring CCOs?
• What types of people are becoming CCOs?
• What are the requirements of a CCO in terms of
core skills and abilities?
The aim of this research is to help those who are:
• Thinking about hiring a CCO
• Considering what the benefits of such a hire
might be
• Trying to understand where customer thinking
might fit into their business
• More broadly interested in how successful
businesses are changing
The research was conducted through a combination
of extensive desk-based research, social channels
and direct conversations with over 50 business
leaders and existing CCOs. It shows the incredible
growth of the function in British businesses, the
wide range of backgrounds from which the new
generation of CCOs are drawn and the breadth of
skills encompassed by the role.
Nish Kotak
Director
Talecco
www.talecco.com
INTRODUCTION
Nish Kotak is Managing Director
of Talecco, a talent business
helping organisations throughout
their journey of becoming
customer-led, from hiring at
executive level, through the
transformation process, building
and upskilling teams. He has
been working in executive search
and placement for 15 years and
was previously a management
consultant with PwC and has held
roles as strategy and business
development manager at both
Great Universal Stores and
United Business Media.
ABOUT NISH KOTAK
Talecco provides a complete solution for building
and developing your Customer function and team.
We too are constantly learning from our Community
of CCOs. We run the largest community of Chief
Customer Officers and Customer executives across
Europe. The forums and seminars that we hold
provide a real insight into the ways that CCOs are
being engaged and the challenges facing them as
they join a business.
ABOUT TALECCO
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• 84% of UK CCOs are new to the
title/role
• The CCO role is crossing the border
from B2C to B2B
Who are the new CCOs and where
do they come from?
• There is no clear and consistent
background for CCOs, although
many come from previous positions
that were either customer facing or
operations
• The rapid growth in CCO numbers is
likely to raise competition in hiring for
those roles
• A business’s own digital maturity,
marketplace, and legacy situation has
a huge impact on the specification of
the CCO role
• Because the skill set and job
description are so new and poorly
defined, companies are going to have
to educate themselves or seek support
in order to make good hiring decisions
What creates the need for a CCO?
• Customer focus and customer-led
leadership are increasingly hot topics
and indicators of commercial success
• To become customer-led requires
a shift in the DNA of a business with
new requirements in leadership
• In addition to requiring the buy-in
of the CEO, customer-led thinking
requires its own internal champion –
the CCO
What’s happening in 2017?
• The US has led the way in this thinking
but European markets are now rapidly
catching up
• Customer-led businesses tend to have
a commercial advantage over those
that do not put the customer at the
heart of their thinking and delivery
• In the UK the number of CCOs has
risen from 14 in 2014 to 90 in 2017
• 46% of all UK CCO roles have been
created in the last 12 months
To become customer-led often
requires a fundamental change
in the DNA of the business.
/05
In theory it’s very simple to talk about
wanting to put the customer at the heart
and centre of everything you do, but how
do you achieve that when you have not set
the business up that way?
To become customer-led requires
a fundamental change in the DNA of the
business. This can have an impact on the
way that all departments interact with each
other and with the customer. It changes the
way that internal and external performance
is measured and requires a new way of
thinking about how you create and service
new solutions for your customers.
To achieve successful change of this
type is not something that can be done
overnight. It’s also not something that can
be done without the full backing of the chief
executive of the business. The CEO will not
only need to sponsor such a move, but will
also need to appoint a leader who can guide
the business through that journey. That
person is a Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
This report is derived from a number of sources, these include discussions
with CCOs in the UK, on-line media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, web based
research and publicly available company reports and postings.
This initial report is not intended to
be exhaustive in terms of this rapidly
moving marketplace, but it does provide
a perspective on the UK CCO market
and forms the basis for future research
currently being developed.
For the purposes of this report we have
concentrated on those who actually have
the titles Chief Customer Officer and
Customer Director. There are a number of
variants which have similar responsibility.
These include Employee Experience Officer
(internally focused), Customer Experience
Director (can be front end/digitally focused),
Customer Success Director (found mainly in
software and Cloud based businesses). These
will be included in future research reports.
REPORT BACKGROUND
AND FINDINGS
WHAT CREATES THE NEED FOR
A CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER?
A CEO cannot move these days without some research or report stating
the benefits of being customer-led.
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THE UK CHIEF CUSTOMER
OFFICER MARKET
The Chief Customer Officer is the executive ultimately accountable
for both customer strategy and all customer initiatives across the
business. They effectively become the voice of the customer in all
business decisions.
The role, in its purest form, has oversight
over all functions within a business where
there is a Customer touchpoint – including
those areas creating products and services
for customers.
Please note that in this definition there
is no distinction between Business to
Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business
(B2B) customers. The CCO role has been
prevalent in the USA for the last 20 years.
The first officially titled Chief Customer
Officer was Jack Chambers, appointed in
23 years ago in 1994 as CCO of Texas New
Mexico Power. Businesses who have a CCO
have been proven to outperform their
marketplace competition.
Although the CCO role is more established
in the USA, it can only be considered as
in the early stages of maturity. Other
countries are not even at this stage. The
USA experience has paved the way for
businesses in other countries to start
looking at the CCO role and understand
how they could take these learnings and
apply them in their own territories.
THE RISE OF THE CHIEF
CUSTOMER OFFICER
There are currently 90 CCOs in the UK.
They vary in terms of seniority and influence
across their businesses, but based on the
research, and validation discussions with
CCOs, this report identifies the core facets
of the CCO role.
The Talecco research shows that UK has, over the last 3 years, seen
a significant increase in the numbers of CCOs appointed.
/07
Businesses who have
a CCO have been proven to
outperform their
marketplace competition.
/08
The outlook for CCOs in
the UK market is very
positive.
In 2014 there were only
14
such roles in the
country.
In 2017 this number
has risen to
90
This number is rising on
a weekly basis.
Although the scope of the role
varies from business to business,
the need for the role is recognised
in all sectors.
We have seen continued validation – from Forrester,
Gartner, Harvard Business Review, and also from
all of the large strategy houses – of the benefits to
adopting a customer-led approach to running your
business.
We will, over time, reach a general consensus about
the responsibilities of the role. It is equally certain,
based on the US experience, that the way this role
is embedded into a company will vary significantly
between businesses. Jeanne Bliss1 one of the leaders
in this space speaks of 4 different models that the
Customer functions can take within a business.
• manager with dedicated team
• director with dedicated team
• manager with dispersed team
• director with dispersed team
We are already seeing derivatives of these in the
UK, with models ranging from the CCO as a senior
executive with a full range of responsibilities (any
department with customer interaction reporting
in to the CCO), to businesses whose CCO leads
a small lean team. The latter can be an executive/
senior leadership team role, but tends to work
within a matrix as an influencer rather than a having
direct control over key areas. In either case the
core responsibility of the role is to put customer
considerations at the heart of the business’
operations and thinking.
1 Customer Bliss: http://www.customerbliss.com/how-to-build-a-cx-
structure-to-influence-change-and-drive-action/
OUTLOOK
/09
The CCO role is often seen as being specifically applicable to B2C.
This research indicates that this is not the case.
The rise of the CCO has been seen in both
B2C and B2B companies, some of those
identified in the research operate in both
markets.
There is no great surprise that there are
more B2C companies who are employing
a CCO. The origins of the role stem from
a customer experience perspective and
B2C companies have historically been
more focused on delivering good customer
experience. What might be surprising
is the number of B2B companies who
are adopting the CCO role and the
customer-led approach.
B2B’s interest can be explained in two ways.
On one level a customer is a customer,
they need the same level of attention and
understanding if you are aiming to put
them at heart and centre of your business.
In addition to this there is a recognition
that B2C companies are ahead of the game
when it comes to enhancing customer
experience. There is also wide recognition
that these activities create more successful
businesses. As the link between customer
focus and corporate success becomes
better understood it is inevitable that
forward thinking B2B companies would
want to follow this lead to gain a competitive
advantage. Interestingly, the same also
applies to public sector organisations in the
UK where we are seeing a real growth in
customer focused roles (although to date
there are few specific CCO appointments).
IS THE CCO ROLE ONLY
APPLICABLE TO B2C BUSINESSES?
As the link between customer focus and corporate
success becomes better understood it is inevitable
that forward thinking B2B companies would want
to follow this lead to gain a competitive advantage.
/10
THE GROWTH OF THE ROLE OVER
THE LAST 3 YEARS
These figures show the growing emphasis being placed on the customer
agenda, they also show that the historical lead of B2C continues.
The market is seeing a level of growth in
CCO hires that is projected to continue.
Organisations who are looking to hire a CCO
are likely to face increasing competition
as the demand for the skill sets increases.
Equally importantly, potential CCO
candidates now really need to understand
the broader range of skills that such
a role demands.
46%
63%
of all UK based CCO roles have been
created in the last 12 months
of these newly created roles were in
the B2C markets
/11
WHERE DO YOU FIND
THESE CCOs?
By definition there is no readily available pool of
talent (certainly in the UK). Businesses are going
to have to hire and upskill. They will also have to
look further afield to find candidates with the right
combinations of talents and aptitudes.
Companies face a huge challenge in
defining both the role and the skills
required to be successful.
We have found in our
research that
84%
of all UK based
CCOs are new to this
particular role,
only
16%
having had a CCO
or Customer Director
role before.
/12
Forward looking businesses are clearly
aiming to develop the ability to use
customer experience and understanding
as a point of differentiation and to deliver
competitive advantage.
There is a clear trend of CCO hires
in industries where there is limited
opportunity to differentiate in
product or service.
WHICH SECTORS ARE EMPLOYING
CCOs?
28%
The largest number of CCO
appointments have been
made in the UK retail sector.
/13
Not surprisingly, a large number of new
CCOs have previous experience in customer
facing positions or roles where there is
a strong customer interaction. There are,
however, 20% of the CCO population who
come from an operations background.
This can be explained by the central role
operations plays in facilitating the customer
journey throughout the organisation. Those
with a strong operational background have
a very good understanding of how every
department influences customer experience.
43% of businesses promote internal
candidates into the CCO role. These
people will already most likely have a very
good network in the business and good
understanding of the business operations
and their customer base. There is also
a recognition that moving skills across
sectors (B2C to B2B) can be hugely beneficial.
43% of businesses promote internal
candidates into the CCO role
Currently there is no specific career path for someone to become a CCO.
Our findings indicated that there are 5 broad categories where CCOs in
the UK are recruited from a variety of backgrounds.
WHAT IS A TYPICAL CCO
BACKGROUND?
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FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF
A CCO
The CCO needs to:
• Be strategic
to create a customer strategy
• Understand data and insight
be detailed, numerical and understand
trends and feedback
• Be commercial
be able to see how changes to the
ways that customers are interacted
with lead to measurable financial
returns
• Run design and innovation
to deliver proposed changes in/create
new products and services
• Be digitally savvy
have a very good understanding of
digital/omni-channel solutions
• Be able to deliver solutions
have a strong delivery focus moving
solutions from the design and
innovation phase, to physical products
or services for their customers
• Create listening platforms
once delivered the business needs to
understand what the customers think
of these solutions, so the ability to
create measurements and platforms
for measuring to really understand
how the products and services are
meeting the customers’ needs.
• Be a change agent
with any customer programme there
is this change in the DNA of how
the business operates. This cultural
change underpins the success of any
Customer initiative (small or large), thus
being able to manage cultural change
is pivotal to the success of the role.
The breadth of this skillset and degree of
emphasis on each of these depends upon
the businesses own particular needs. The
result is that the business needs to be an
educated buyer or at the very least take
advice from an advisor who can help them
really understand what they are looking for.
Any such hire is likely to need some form of
personal development; understanding this
upfront is also key.
In hiring a CCO, the business needs to be an
educated buyer or be prepared to take in-depth
advice from an advisor who can help them really
understand what they are looking for.
The CCO role is both new and encompasses a range of skills and
knowledge that has traditionally either been dispersed through an
organisation or not present at all.
/15
This research highlights the shift in how businesses are viewing their
customers and the customer agenda that is dominating a lot of board-
room conversations.
The journey to becoming customer-led
can be a long one and needs not only
executive sponsorship, but someone to
drive the agenda and to be the voice of
the customer for the business. If the USA
experience is an indicator then we are likely
to see a significant number of CCO board
appointments over the coming years.
The CCO is a key role for a business, but
as demonstrated in this paper, there is no
clear path to choosing the right one for
your business. There is no specific historic
role that aligns exactly to the CCO role.
The choice is further affected by a range of
factors, including, but not limited to sector,
maturity of the business, digital capability,
ambition, and ability to drive change.
It is also becoming increasingly clear
that many more businesses are coming
to recognise that this is an essential
conversation. Customer-led thinking is likely
to be a key driver of business performance.
There are probably a number of questions
that businesses need to ask.
• Do you recognise or measure the
potential for commercial gains through
being closer to your customers?
• Can you identify competitors that have
already started this process and are
potentially gaining ground?
• Do you have the clearly defined will to
turn customer focus aspirations into
DNA changes within your organisation?
• Are you able to articulate the skills
required within your business to lead,
define, and execute the necessary
changes?
• Do you know how to find the people
and partners you will need to help you
through this process?
SUMMARY
Customer-led thinking
is likely to be a key driver
of business performance.
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www.talecco.com