Who is really responsible for the customer experience?

‍Defining the customer experience

From a customer’s perspective, customer experience (CX) is defined by how they perceive their interactions with your company. From a business perspective, CX can have multiple definitions. For example, the CX team can be the department responsible for ensuring customer-centric practices and delivering exceptional customer journeys. It can also be defined as a mindset (or culture) shared by all employees in the company, placing the customer at the center of their activities. Finally, it can also be thought of as a framework or set of practices that enable the company to deliver on the promises it makes to the customer.

Regardless of how a company defines it, a very common question usually arises: Who is truly responsible for customer experience? That is, who is responsible for governance, collecting and sharing customer information, applying CX frameworks and putting the right methodologies into practice, and finally, who is responsible for leading, participating in and executing all the transformation initiatives needed to elevate, optimize and differentiate the company from its competitors?

There is no universal answer to this question. Objectively, it all depends on the level of maturity in customer experience management of each organization, which can be the result of several factors, such as: the existence and role of the CX team, the existing company culture, the organizational structure, the company's CX strategy, the clarity of the customer promise, the ability to integrate the voice of the customer into decision-making, the role of leaders in promoting the customer-centric culture, etc.

The Importance of Understanding Your Customer Experience Management Maturity Level

As mentioned, assessing a company's CX maturity level is crucial to identify responsibilities for improvement and allows companies to:

• Have an overview of their “ cultural entropy ” CX (the delta between the existing culture and the desired culture);
• Measuring their levels of customer centricity, a sometimes abstract and qualitative subject, which can be difficult to approach with executives without the appropriate data;
• Understand where they are and their speed of progression on the maturity curve, allowing their improvements to be adequately monitored over time;
• Recognize weaknesses and areas for improvement, as well as the actions needed to develop maturity in a practical and tangible way;
• Identify resources to be used and priorities to achieve rapid gains and significant improvements;
• Clarify the need for an iterative process of defining, prioritizing, documenting, executing, measuring and communicating initiatives, so that everyone is systematically engaged in improving CX;
• Determine a tailored governance model to organize their contributions (strategy, vision, values) in order to use CX as a tool to achieve better results, such as better products, journeys, processes and services;
• Organize and measure strategic, tactical and operational efforts accordingly, so that there is no overlap, but rather clear roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization, not just those with customer-facing tasks;
• Create a sense of urgency to drive immediate action and commitment to improving the customer experience, ensuring all employees understand their critical importance.

CX Maturity Assessment? Done.
So who is really responsible for customer experience?

Having different levels of CX maturity certainly requires varied action plans to develop customer-centric practices, as well as to lead customer-focused initiatives. However, it is not only the overall level of CX maturity that plays a role in defining the best CX roadmap for a company, but also the understanding of who will be held accountable. The same goes for the choice of governance model that helps make decisions and determine priorities regarding this roadmap.

Oops! We don't have a CX team. What should we do?

Of course, in an ideal world, companies would have a dedicated CX department that reports directly to senior management, has buy-in from all stakeholders, and has the ability to lead, define, and develop all customer initiatives. However, this is not the case for all companies, as many may not have the resources or strategic support to achieve this ideal. As such, companies that do not yet have a dedicated CX team may struggle to know who is (or should be) responsible for ensuring a customer-centric approach in the day-to-day operations of the company. So who should step in?

For a company to answer this question, it is important that it understands what actions are needed to improve its customer experience. Depending on its maturity level, it will need to do a backwards thinking exercise, that is, knowing what it needs, and what its priorities are, to discover the resources needed and thus determine which department would be best placed to act as interim CX champion.

What if it was the Marketing team?

For example, for companies with a low CX maturity level, it is very common that they encounter difficulties in collecting customer feedback and/or integrating the Voice of the Customer and its insights into their processes, products and services. This results in negative experiences (for customers and employees) at different stages of the customer journey. To improve its CX maturity level, the company will need to start by identifying improvement opportunities in these journeys in order to launch targeted initiatives taking into account the Voice of the Customer (VoC).

To coordinate efforts to execute these improvements, they will need to map their customer journeys. To do this, they must have access to a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data on the customer experience. This allows the company to validate current journeys, as well as identify pain points, their moments of truth, and priority opportunities.

Once this is done, they can develop an ideal customer journey to fill these gaps and define the target experience. To validate the desired journey, they also need to know their brand promise to ensure that all processes, products, people and systems truly embody it.

In the example above, most companies that don’t have a dedicated CX team would point to the Marketing department as the best choice to step in as a CX ambassador, since delivering great experiences is about meeting and exceeding customer expectations around the brand promise. So, having the department responsible for the brand promise itself, along with the personas or customer segments, the brand archetype and attributes, and owning most of the customer data (CRM, qualitative and quantitative research, awareness, focus groups, social media, etc.), seems like a natural fit. However, it may make sense to share this responsibility with other departments that, in addition to being directly involved in implementing improvements, also cultivate a customer-centric approach and demonstrate a strong commitment to improving the customer experience (CX).

What if it was the customer service delivery teams?

Let’s take another example. In companies with low CX maturity levels, it is also very common that they are oriented towards cost savings and prioritize efficiency, which usually has a significant impact on frontline employees. In this case, it would be necessary to think about which team has information on the key performance indicators (KPIs), which impact productivity, and where they can see the potential for savings. Thus, the customer service team would be an excellent starting point for developing CX practices, since they are the ones who already have access to and control operational KPIs, customer data and a lot of feedback. In this way, this team would be the most suitable to examine the opportunities for prioritizing initiatives that would bring both efficiency and customer excellence.

And the Product teams?

Another example is companies with low CX maturity that offer products requiring the delivery of a high-quality experience (e.g., SAAS products for B2B customers). These companies must improve their customer centricity from development to product launch to avoid problems and reduce low-value customer interactions. To progress in CX maturity without a dedicated team, it may be necessary to expand the roles of product managers to include customer-centric practices beyond feature development. The product team should continue to deliver value to customers while broadening its vision to include research, insights, and improvements to other stages of the customer journey. This will enable them to deliver seamless and delightful experiences, be more proactive, and identify problems at their source to resolve them permanently, thereby improving CX maturity levels. In this context, synergy between Product and Marketing teams could be the key to transforming the customer experience: companies where Product and Marketing teams collaborate closely achieve results 7 times higher than those where this collaboration is less developed ( Leanplum ). This collaboration helps ensure that the product roadmap reflects customer and market needs, thus improving customer engagement and satisfaction ( Mind the Product ).

Again, there is no universal answer, and for different companies with different organizational structures, sizes, decision-making processes (e.g. vertical or horizontal organizational structures), adaptation speeds, data models, change management capabilities, among other things, the answer can be very far apart. One thing is for sure, all companies must avoid the trap of making decisions based on siloed interests or viewing CX as a short-term project.

Knowing what needs to be done and what resources are needed is crucial to choosing the right team to improve CX. The ultimate goal is for everyone to understand their role as stewards of the customer-centric culture and to be aligned with the company’s mission to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Which department will take the lead on CX depends on whether they are willing to step back from their current roles to coordinate efforts and engage other employees in the effort.

We have a CX team and we're ready to take action!
What are our exact responsibilities?

We’ve already talked about companies interested in improving the customer experience but not yet ready to invest in creating a dedicated CX team. On the other hand, companies that already have a CX team, or are looking to create one, see many opportunities and often have questions about the role and responsibilities of this department.

CX experts can act in many ways under the direction of different departments, both as leaders of customer-centric initiatives and as facilitators, supporting teams in developing solutions to address improvement opportunities. In other words, centralized CX roles and responsibilities can vary greatly across companies, while the governance structure to adopt can be very different for each of them.

Typically, companies with a low CX maturity level rely heavily on executive leadership and strategic vision to choose the right projects that drive customer experience improvement. They often adopt centralized models where CX efforts are led by a leader or a dedicated team, with strong executive involvement to ensure that each department contributes to improving the customer experience. However, their specific role in this ecosystem sometimes remains unclear, which can make it difficult for CX experts to be heard by teams when they make recommendations.

Conversely, companies with higher CX maturity rely more on alignment and coordination between departments, and often use decentralized approaches to gain speed and facilitate decision-making. In these companies, customer experience is already integrated as a core discipline of the corporate strategy, and every employee is aware of it in their daily activities. However, in a rapidly changing world, it seems relevant to consider the hybrid model with a clear direction. Although this approach is not without challenges, this model encourages regular communication on the strategic role of customer experience (CX). This ensures employee involvement at all levels, and in all departments, as well as dedicated CX resources for tactical and operational tasks. Most companies at intermediate stages of CX maturity can benefit from this approach.

As mentioned in the previous section, an organization’s CX maturity level cannot be the sole factor in defining the roles and responsibilities of a CX team. Other variables come into play, such as leadership buy-in, initiative management (e.g. waterfall or agile methods, requiring different leadership roles), cross-departmental alignment capabilities, internal communication practices, openness to continuous improvement and change, and employee engagement. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the qualitative aspects of the organization and be open to iteratively testing what works at the CX team role level. This approach is not only recommended, it is essential for success.

Conclusion

Most companies recognize the importance of providing a good customer experience. Unfortunately, many still view customer experience as a simple outcome rather than a specific management practice, as essential as finance, human resources, or marketing. It is crucial to understand that investing in developing dedicated customer experience management teams is essential to remaining competitive.

Determining customer experience responsibilities requires more than just analyzing your industry or competitors. A comprehensive CX maturity assessment is crucial. It directly influences the company's maturity rate and expected return on investment. Companies with higher CX maturity benefit from higher customer engagement, greater loyalty, more referrals, higher employee engagement, and better business results. This assessment also identifies the skills and tools needed to develop your CX team and practice.

Interface&co can help you thoroughly assess your CX maturity, collecting the right data and generating tangible learnings for your development. We will provide you with a structured roadmap with personalized recommendations. Contact us today!

‍