Will the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) Role Become Obsolete?

Will the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) Role Become Obsolete?

This write-up evaluates whether the CXO role will become obsolete in the coming years.

Chief Experience Officer
Chief Experience Officer

When you research Google – CXO role to become obsolete, you will get approximately 3,66,000 results. However, if you ask me whether the Chief Experience Officer role will no longer exist in the future, I will say there are two faces of the coin. There is an ongoing debate in the B2B SaaS world whether there is a need for a CXO position. Let me put that to rest today.

There have been lots of topics that have been written on CXOs, but there is one article titled – Some Chief Experience Officers Want to Make Their Jobs Disappear where a number of Chief Experience Officers and Chief Customer Officers from large companies across the country have been interviewed. All of them say the CXO role will become obsolete in a few years. But that is hardly true.

If you ask me, honestly speaking, there is a lot of importance of a Chief Experience Officer in a B2B SaaS organization. CXOs, just like the other modern positions, encompassing Chief Growth Officer, Chief Data Officer, Chief Omnichannel Officer, or even a Chief Sustainability Officer, have their own relevance in a B2B SaaS organization.

Reasons that make CXO position a must in the C-Suite of an organization 

Let me provide some reasons that make the CXO position mandatory in the C-Suite of an organization.

Value of a great campaigner 

The Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is considered a great campaigner of the organization. They lay a sturdy foundation in the B2B SaaS world by propagating the relevance of customer experience in the organization. Without a CXO, an organization will always miss out big on understanding the customers’ needs.

A Chief Experience Officer plays a crucial role in determining customers’ pain areas and then addressing them in front of the CEO. This helps ensure that the B2B SaaS organization always has an individual in a position who can spread the word of the customer in the organization and become a great campaigner.

Voice of the customer 

The Chief Experience Officer (CXO) always raises the customers’ concerns by becoming their voice. The CXO gets first-hand information about the likes and dislikes of a customer while they are using your product. With the help of becoming a good voice of the customer, a CXO can ensure that the word gets in the ears of the CEO and they implement the necessary changes in the product as per the feedback received by the customers.

Change in the customer obsession 

The CXOs are always in action when it comes to the changing dynamics of the B2B customers. Today, there has been a drastic change in customer obsession which can only be used positively by a Chief Experience Officer. Once they can decipher the changes, it is possible to work around and derive the best possible results for the B2B SaaS organization.

Need to reinvent core customer experiences in the B2B SaaS organizations 

The CXO is responsible for taking necessary actions to ensure that the customers meet their expectations while using their products/services. In case any discrepancy is found, the Chief Experience Officer needs to reinvent core customer experiences in the B2B SaaS organization to ensure that the needs of the customers are met with complete satisfaction.

Transform customer advocacy into meaningful reimagination of core experiences 

A Chief Experience Officer is solely responsible for converting customers into brand advocates by providing meaningful reimagination of core experiences. They need to experiment with different facets of the experience provided to the customers and ensure that their core experiences are excelled to another level.

What traits do CXOs put on the line while working in a B2B SaaS organization? 

Here is my opinion on the traits that CXOs showcase while working in a B2B SaaS organization which is crucial for its success.

Hardcore customer advocate 

A Chief Experience Officer must reimagine customer engagement through excellent marketing, sales, and service journeys. This can only be achieved when they know the ins and outs of the customers and then match it up with the services and products that match their requirements.

An exemplary change agent 

The Chief Experience Officer (CXO) needs to play a crucial role in integrating the organization’s brand and ensuring that necessary changes are driven smoothly. They need to make bold decisions about adopting the changes and ideas that need their backing to achieve the organizational goal.

There are times when certain changes will not be accepted by the CEO, which is well-understood. Still, the CXO should not lose heart and try to find out ways to bring about necessary changes in the way the company provides a class-apart customer experience in the best viable way.

A relentless trendsetter 

The role of a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is to set the trend for the entire B2B SaaS organization. The only way to do that is by obsessing over the customers. They need to ensure that all the departments in the organization follow their suit when it comes to providing excellence to the customer.

When the entire organization has one central theme to work on, i.e., to ensure customer success, the B2B SaaS organization will achieve its goal of becoming top-notch in the coming years. This way, they can become a relentless trendsetter for their organization.

Interdepartmental collaborator 

The job of a CXO is not limited to managing their department. It goes well beyond that. They need to ensure that all the departments in the organization collaborate and contribute to a better customer experience. The only way to achieve that is by developing a customer-centric approach within the B2B SaaS organization. They also need to ensure that all the physical and digital avenues are exploited optimally to push their organization’s growth to the threshold of success.

Conclusion 

I know many of you might still argue that a CCO can deliver the value that CXO puts in. However, regardless of the title, there is no way you can ignore the importance of CX that keeps the customers engaged and satisfied. Having a separate person designated at the CXO position helps an organization experiment with its product experience and deliver top-class value to the customers.

In this fast-paced era of instant gratification, having a CXO in your B2B organization is a blessing in disguise. With evolving customer behavior, you might miss out on something big if you discount the long-term value of the CXO role in your B2B SaaS organization.

The role of Chief Experience Officer (CXO) can never go obsolete. The only thing that you can do is rename the designation. Still, you can never take away the benefits that the B2B organization can derive by having a CXO at its disposal.

What are your thoughts on the CXO’s role in the organization? Do you really think the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) role will become obsolete in the coming years? Please let me know your views on it by commenting below.

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