Devil's advocate turns employees and customers into ambassadors
Chief Customer Officer on the verge of entering Dutch boardrooms
The Netherlands hesitantly counts one Chief Customer Officer. A recent study showing that this role can make a significant difference in the boardroom in these dark economic times, this stands to change. The U.S. and Europe now know two thousand CCO's. Devil’s advocates, who guided their organizations through large positive change.
"Executives who dare to think countercyclical, greatly increase their chances of winning strong in these times of recession. An important strategic consideration being to focus on the customer now more than ever. And to leave it to a specialist, the Chief Customer Officer (CCO). The Netherlands is hardly aware yet of the CCO-role. Time to introduce this role in every Dutch boardroom where customer value, loyalty and self-criticism are seen as differentiating factors. "
Nicolette Wuring observes how the Dutch boardroom struggles with pessimism in their own ranks and customers. She knows how companies can make that one strategic component “to put the customer at the heart of your business”, so often heard, but much less often successfully executed on in a meaningful way, work for a business and a brand. She studied the response organizations in other countries found. They appointed a Chief Customer Officer.
Meanwhile the pressure of the crisis has a major impact on the mindset of employees. “They become risk averse, they ‘dive’, biding their time, hoping to survive the crisis undamaged. At the expense of service. While precisely now loyalty and optimism can make a big difference. We live in the Age of the Customer. Businesses need a different mindset to fully take advantage of this opportunity. A CCO can bring the required change in mindset and behavior. Inspire with a strategy that gives meaning to customer value and deliver material returns on taking real care of the customer. A CCO first turns employees and then also customers into ambassadors who are authentically and passionately committed to the organization. "
A company considering to appoint a CCO has some thresholds to cross, recognizes Wuring. "The CCO-role has a lot of latitude and is not easy to embed into complex organizational structures. Moreover, there are not many CCO's available that can handle this heavy duty task. And ‘the issues of the day’ reign. Customer trust is still falling in our country. In our neighboring countries the CCO has created a tipping point for many organizations. Research shows that truly customer-driven organizations experienced the largest positive change in 2012. "
Wuring is a pioneer in this field. Among others, she was the 'architect' and 'catalyst' of the transformation that led to the turnaround of the reputation of the European cable operator Liberty Global (e.g. UPC Broadband Europe) and is an international author, speaker and strategic advisor.
NewBase 25 March 2024 Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
Manifesto The Winning Aspiration of the Chief Customer Officer
1. Manifesto
The winning aspiration of the CCO
This is how you put your customer
at the heart of your business…
Keizer Karelweg 389 • 1181 RG Amstelveen •The Netherlands
www.customeradvocacy.nl
3. Manifesto
3
An economic recession gnaws at strategic objectives of organizations and their directors,
requiring difficult decisions, which often have a significant impact on the attitude and
behavior of employees.
Directors can, however, restore trust with their employees and their customers by
articulating a winning aspiration, shifting their chances by redirecting energy consuming
pessimism to commitment that generates energy, both internally and externally.
How? By turning the frequently expressed strategic ambition of‘putting the customer at
the heart of your business’into an inspiring, meaningful, border-crossing aspiration that
people (employees, customers, in fact every stakeholder) can connect to and that connects
people; and by consistently walking the talk. With a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), still a rare
phenomenon in the Netherlands, arguably making the difference as catalyst, guide and
inspiring leader.
In every boardroom there’s a seat at the table for Finance, Marketing, IT and HR. However, in
spite of the fact that a business lends its existence to its customers, a seat for someone who
represents the customer is in the Netherlands not obvious.
What prevents an organization from appointing a CCO? What can you expect from a CCO?
How does he work? What does he deliver?
This manifesto provides the answers and presents the link to your CCO...
The winning aspiration of the CCO
This is how you put your customer
at the heart of your business…
4. Manifesto
4
Impasse
‘The Netherlands still in recession,
record unemployment continues to rise…’
‘Economy shrinking for the fourth
consecutive quarter…’
‘Number of vacancies at ten year low…’
Your employees are bombarded daily with ill-omened
posts in the media. Closer to home they are confronted
with dismissal or threat of dismissal. Friends and family
lose their jobs; feel the pressure to sell their homes; etc.
Even when looking for entertainment, the threat is palpa-
ble, with TV shows such as‘My life in ruins’.
This has a major impact on the mindset of your employ-
ees. The consequence is risk aversion and lack of energy.
They‘dive’, biding their time, hoping to survive the crisis
undamaged.
Way out
In this doomsday scenario, the meaning of the word
‘service’is rapidly deteriorating, both the service to in-
ternal and external customers. Which is difficult to avoid.
What’s inside will leak out. The customer shrugs. Choice is
abundant.“I’ll just choose another provider. All products and
services are interchangeable anyway...“
Meanwhile, you discover that there are customers out
there looking for more than just low prices. The experi-
ence you offer them matters to them, and service is a key
differentiator to them. So you set out to‘put the customer
at the heart of your business’. It acquires the highest prior-
ity on your strategic agenda. Examples of Dutch compa-
nies that preceded you: Jumbo, Landal Greenparks and
Bol.com. Organizations demonstrating that even in times
of recession they are successfully creating opportunities
to outperform the competition. The question is how can
you best create these opportunities.
Direction
You can answer this question by articulating a winning as-
piration. By co-creating an ambitious, yet realistic horizon
together with the people in your organization.
A horizon that touches the hearts and minds of your
employees. By acknowledging their deeply rooted human
needs. By giving them an anchor point, meaning, respect
and appreciation; inspiring them to add meaning and
authentic content to the vision, mission and core values
of your organization; recharging and refocusing their
emotional contract with their job and employer (brand). A
shared strong sense of purpose – the horizon – connects
the people in your organization. It generates a winning
mood, in people, and in your organization. The perception
shifts from‘surviving’to‘thriving’. Pessimism makes way for
commitment, ambition, drive and contagious enthusiasm.
Newcomer
In 2011, Forrester 1
called the era we’re in the Age of the
Customer, a time when focus on the customer matters
more than ever before. In this era, Forrester argues that
companies need to start treating customer experience as
a business discipline instead of a cliché. The Age of the
Customer puts the spotlight on the customer experience
and ultimately the arrival of the Chief Customer Officer,
a role that has been the subject of extensive research at
Forrester for seven years already.
During the Gartner Customer 360 Summit 2
this year, it
was revealed that there are more than 2,000 companies
now who have a Chief Customer Officer. The number is
growing.
“The Chief Customer Officer is a powerful asset that can help
resolve chronic customer issues, create sustainable competi-
tive advantage, help retain profitable customers, and drive
profitable customer behavior through the effective customer
strategy… Creating the role is a serious undertaking and
executives must be firmly committed to supporting the role
vocally and visibly to ensure the CCO has the authority and
credibility that is necessary for success.” 3
Plenty of action
In the Netherlands the awareness that customers are im-
portant has also penetrated, partly thanks to for example
the Twitter action of the well know comedian Youp van
‘t Hek and a book like‘F..ing Customers’from Egbert Jan
van Bel. Rijn Vogelaar has unleashed a true epidemic with
companies setting out to turn their customers into Super-
promoters. Bain & Company introduced the Net Promoter
Score, a widely adopted KPI. Marketing departments are
extended with employees engaged in social media, web
care, customer experience, et cetera. Some companies
have allocated service under the CMO (Chief Marketing
Officer) reasoning that‘service is marketing’. But market-
ing is all about the interests of the company, not the
interests of the customer.
There’s a lot of‘customer-movement’in organizations.
To generate customer insights Enterprise Feedback and
5. Manifesto
5
Closed-Loop Feedback systems are deployed; customer
safaris held; customers adopted; Meet & Greets organized
with customers; interactive feedback and co-creation
platforms deployed; social media monitoring tools
deployed. All this activity notwithstanding, there is not
much improvement in the perception of the customer in
the Netherlands. Companies in the Netherlands still score
low on advocacy (turning employees and customers into
ambassadors).
Stumbling blocks
Is the customer really at the heart in all this marketing
violence? No, not enough. And that is partly explainable.
Because there constantly loom stumbling blocks.
Markets are saturated and hyper competitive; products
and services are commoditized and interchangeable;
digitalization and globalization are rapidly increasing; eve-
rything and everyone is connected; markets are conversa-
tions and customers have more power than ever before.
In this playing field new rules apply, making it increas-
ingly difficult to stand out as a brand and create value
for customers. The‘output’of an organization (products,
services, operation) only provides access to the market.
Output concerns the functional and rational part of the re-
lationship of a customer with a brand. Differentiation and
value are generated by the‘impact’you have as a brand
on the customer, the emotional part of the relationship
of the customer with the brand, where the challenge is
to consistently do the right things at the right time in the
perception of the customer.
‘Putting your customer at the heart of your business’is
a layered objective, which starts with doing things right
(output), to then do the right things at the right time
in the perception of the customer (impact).‘Doing the
right things’from the customers’perspective is all about
relevance and credibility.
Experience
The value that emotionally binds a customer emotionally
- impact - is largely (co-)created at the interface between
customer and employee. A customer’s experience is key.
But, experience is intangible, situational and a snap-
shot. Perception is personal, emotional and meaningful
(positive, but also negative). The employee makes the
difference, makes it personal for the customer. The feeling
an employee gives a customer is the impact of the brand.
And if that is consistent at every interaction, and an expe-
rience that in all circumstances gives the customer a good
feeling, the customer remains, creating the chance that he
is so excited that he becomes an ambassador.
Customers previously moved through a clear linear
process. Marketing was responsible for branding, brand
awareness and lead generation. Sales qualified leads and
was responsible for conversion to sales. Customer service
took care of the after-sales and service process. Today little
remains of this clear linear process. The concept devel-
oped by Forrester, Agile Commerce 4
, is a good visualization
of the variety of interaction moments in all stages of the
customer cycle.
Most companies are not organized with the customer
in mind but in departments, fragmenting the customer
experience. Each department is responsible for a part of
the customer experience. Everyone is responsible for part
of the customer experience, but no one for the whole
end-to-end customer experience. Resulting in an incon-
sistent customer experience. If‘putting your customer
at the heart of your business’is used as a marketing tool,
without the alignment, buy-in and commitment of (every
person in) the organization, it is an impossible (at times
even frustrating) task for the (people in the) organization.
‘Putting your customer at the heart of your business’is a
long-term goal that touches all the constituent parts of an
organization. When‘putting your customer at the heart of
your business’is a strategic objective, it is crucial to ensure
that, prior to communicate externally about this objective,
the basics of the organization are in order, that the output
of the organization is up to par, that the organization‘does
things right’. Only then can employees focus on‘doing the
right things’in the perception of the customer; creating
the desired impact and consistently charging the desired
6. Manifesto
6
emotional bond between the customer and the brand.
Employees can only do that when‘putting your customer
at the heart of your business’is meaningful for them. A
feasible horizon, a winning aspiration that touches their
heart, offers them an anchor point, inspires them to
authentically add meaningful content to vision, mission
and core values.‘Putting your customer at the heart of
your business’has become part of the‘why’of the organi-
zation, of its reason for being. Felt, experienced and lived
by the people in the organization. It’s become part of the
DNA of the organization and part of everyone’s job.
Balance
‘Putting your customer at the heart of your business’
does not require a complete transformation of the
organization. The challenge is to create balance between
outstanding customer experiences and economic feasi-
bility. After all,‘putting your customer at the heart of your
business’doesn’t mean you do anything the customer
wants. If the strategic objectives are‘customer first’and
profitable growth, these need to be synchronized with
a structure and control mechanisms aimed at achieving
both objectives. It especially means making clear and
understandable (for employees and customers) choices,
and being transparent, so customers have realistic
expectations and employees can make meet or even
exceed their expectations. Creating balance between
quantity and (perceived by customers) quality, between
output and impact, and understanding of the correlation
between the two.
Freedom
‘Putting your customer at the heart of your business’
means creating‘room for play’and‘freedom to be’for your
employees. Every person has what Aristotle called‘practi-
cal wisdom’, the moral will and skill to the right things.“A
wise person knows how to make the exception to every rule.”
It is crucial that employees feel ownership, and take
responsibility for the perception of each customer as well
as their contribution to the results of the company.
‘Putting your customer at the heart of your business’
invokes other capabilities from employees. Whereas in the
past mainly competencies at a task level (‘human-doing’)
were important to the success of a company, a company
as a‘well-oiled machine’, today you need employees as a
‘human being’. The‘machine’mustn’t only be‘well-oiled’,
but also be capable of deploying empathy and creativity.
In addition to professional and intellectual capabilities
(‘left brain’), social, ethical, and other expressive skills
(‘right brain’) are increasingly important. The first category
can be‘implemented’. The second category can be stimu-
lated by creating a winning aspiration and a safe environ-
ment where people bring more of themselves to their
job. An environment where people dare to experiment
with their behavior; a learning environment; an environ-
ment where people are generally happy and feel valued
and respected as a human being. You cannot‘implement’
this kind of environment. It is an interaction between
all employees, an environment they together‘co-create’.
Facilitating such a fertile environment, if‘putting your cus-
7. Manifesto
7
tomer at the heart of your business’is one of the strategic
objectives, is a key leadership task. For to consistently cre-
ate the, by the customer desired, perception, you not only
need employees to perform at a task level, but they also
need to (be able to) perform optimally as a‘human being’.
Thresholds
The role of the Chief Customer Officer has been around
internationally for some time, and originally grew organi-
cally out of frustrations with organizations that realized
no one person in the organization owned the end-to-end
customer experience.
The Netherlands hesitantly counts one single CCO. This
might be explained by several factors. The role is insuffi-
ciently defined. A CCO’s (direct or indirect) responsibilities
typically include customer service, customer acquisition
and retention, customer experience and most impor-
tantly, customer advocacy. CCOs centralize the ownership
of the customer relationship; they ensure long-term value
is created in the relationship between the brand and
the customer: a two-way street benefiting both parties.
Successful CCOs orchestrate organization-wide change, a
difficult task that requires collaborating with a wide range
of employees and partners in the company. This shift in
culture requires leadership skills, influence and trust.
CCOs typically bring marketing; sales; distribution;
customer service and support; systems, processes and
procedures experience; financial and governance experi-
ence to their role. In addition they are savvy in company
culture and have excellent leadership skills. The depth and
breadth of expertise and the personality profile, required
for the role, make it challenging to identify and recruit the
right person for the job.
The firm commitment to support the role vocally and
visibly to ensure the CCO has the authority and credibility
necessary for success can represent a threshold especially
in combination with the economic environment we cur-
rently live in, all too often forcing‘the issues of the day’to
priority and dominating agendas.
Last, but not least, creating a truly customer-driven
organization is not something you can do‘on the side’. It
requires undivided and active commitment, support and
attention, but the amount of work behind this simple
sentence is a fulltime job.
Precursors
The weight of the CCO role rapidly increases. Turning
customers into ambassadors, and restoring trust are more
and more often key in companies’vision, mission and
(core) values, and as part of companies’strategic objec-
tives. Yet in the Netherlands customer confidence in large
companies and the feeling that companies put customers
first is still declining. Unlike countries such as Germany,
France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In these countries the Edelman Trust Barometer 20135
shows the largest positive change in organizations, CCOs
inspiring and guiding to become truly customer driven
organizations; aligning vision, mission, values, organiza-
tional structure, business model and customer strategy;
breaking down organizational barriers; driving customer
strategy deep into the operations of key departments and
business units; building/improving customer (experience)
competencies company wide; driving accountability for
the customer (experience) across the organization; mov-
ing management and workforce to a customer-centric
culture and organization. So that‘putting the customer at
the heart of your organization’becomes leading at strate-
gic, tactical and operational level.
It works
It won’t be long before the value of the CCO will also be
recognized in the boardroom in the Netherlands, seeing
that the value that this professional adds is of great signifi-
cance for companies in today’s day and age. The CCO, with
the depth and breadth of expertise and the personality
profile, required for the role, has an extensive track record,
contained in verbs.
A CCO…
… achieves strategic objectives with respect to the
topics‘putting the customer at the heart
of your organization’and‘restoring trust’;
… plays the role of driving force and catalyst
behind the transformation to a truly
customer driven organization, top-down
and bottom-up;
… inspires to action and generates ownership and
contagious enthusiasm for‘putting the
customer at the heart of your organiza-
tion’and‘restoring trust’;
… leads by example;
… breaks down organizational barriers;
… connects people horizontally, vertically en diago-
nally;
… transfers ownership and responsibility in a natural
way to then fade into the background.
8. Manifesto
8
Summarizing
‘Putting your customer at the heart of your business’is a
journey that takes time. With on the horizon
• Reaching the point where it starts to work for a brand.
It has become a relevant, credible, and unique part of
the sustainable competitive advantage of the brand;
• Sustainable, and profitable growth, because happy
customer (and happy employees) cost less and deliver
more. Customers stay longer, spend more and recruit
new customers.
The question is, how to tackle this journey.
In the Netherlands there’s a lot of focus on the customer
already. But is there enough coordination, consistency
and continuity, necessary for successfully realizing the
ambition? Start the journey with an‘HD 3D picture’of
the organization. Obtain a three dimensional view of the
organization, its culture and what is required before the
customer is really at the heart of your business’.
En route you create
• Awareness for the difference between output and
impact;
• Awareness for the fact that successfully realizing the
aspired ambition requires:
o Creating a shared ambition (a winning aspiration)
and shared goals;
o Creating a shared language;
o Combining output & impact;
o Connecting values & results;
o Making the ambition meaningful for everyone and
an intrinsic part of everyone’job;
• Awareness for the gaps between the ambition and its
successful realization;
• Buy-in for the synchronization of strategic goals (short
and long term);
• Buy-in for the phasing and prioritization (which ele-
ments can happen simultaneously; which need to
happen sequential);
• Buy-in for setting up result areas in alignment with the
aspired values, ambition and strategic goals;
• Buy-in for an integrated roadmap of strategic actions
aligned with the ambition,‘going concern’, already in
progress actions, and actions required to fill the gaps;
• Buy-in for appointing a‘driving force’within the or-
ganization to guide the organization in the process of
realizing the aspired ambition. The CCO
o Develops and executes a strategic roadmap, and
governance mechanism really‘putting your
customer at the heart of your organization’;
o Develops a shared ambition, a winning
aspiration, shared goals, a shared language,
an own(-ed) agenda, and produce communicable
pro(-c-)(-g-)ress;
o Generates company-wide contagious enthusiasm
and ownership.
The key questions directors starting the journey ask
themselves are:
• Are we prepared to initiate and devote ourselves to
this journey?
• How will we devote ourselves to make this journey?
• Who will be our ultimate travel guide?
In the United Stated and the countries surrounding the
Netherlands, the answer to the last question is appointing
a Chief Customer Officer. A person with the appropriate
competencies, personality profile, commitment, buy-in,
contagious enthusiasm, a viable position and the
right mandate.
A travel guide who ensures that the perception of
employees and customers shifts from ‘surviving’
to ‘thriving’. Pessimism giving way to commitment,
ambition, drive, ownership and contagious
enthusiasm.
You aspire to restore the trust of your employees, your
customers and the marketplace? To put your customers at
the heart of your business? Create sustainable and profitable
competitive advantage by turning your employees and your
customers into ambassadors? So you can yield the material
and immaterial harvests? Contact Nicolette Wuring,
CCO pioneer in the Netherlands. nicolette@wuring.com /
+31(0) 6 52 007 662
9. Manifesto
9
Notes
1 Forrester, Competitive Strategy In The Age Of The
Customer, Only Customer-Obsessed Companies Can
Survive Disruption, June 8, 2011; http://www.forrester.
com/Competitive+Strategy+In+The+Age+Of+The+Cus
tomer/fulltext/-/E-RES59159?docid=59159
2 Gartner Customer 360 Summit, May 1-3 2013, San
Diego, USA;
3 Chief Customer Officer Council; www.ccocouncil.org;
USA
4 Forrester Research, 2011,“Welcome to the Era of Agile
Commerce”
5 http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-proper-
ty/trust-2013/