Chief X Officers (CXOs) — Designations that power the C-suite — drive decisions for a company, lead change and build teams. The “X” has increasingly expanded to include some of the most important shifts in work today — around digital, data and other areas of transformation.
CXO vs. CMO — Customer experience, not marketing, is becoming the main focus for many brands. This causes some companies to replace the CMO role with a CXO, which is often a rebranding rather than the firing and replacement of a CMO. However, many organizations still have both CMO and CXO roles.
Chief Marketing Officer — Traditionally, the CMO is responsible for driving marketing strategy, which includes understanding the company’s position in the market, directing marketing campaigns and overseeing branding strategies. However, the roles of the CXO and CMO often overlap, and CMOs are expected to have skill sets and tools that drive CX strategies.With a primary mandate to drive business growth, the CMO bridges the gap between brand perception and modern CMO, however, has evolved drastically since.
Chief Experience Officer — The CXO drives the company’s entire CX strategy. This involves mapping customer journeys, overseeing the customer success and customer service teams, and digging into customer data analytics. The CXO is often responsible for improving employee experience and engagement, while a CMO is generally not.
Becoming a CXO requires a combination of experience, skills and qualifications. Some of the most important qualifications to prepare for the CXO role are the following:
Collaboration is essential for a CXO to succeed. CXOs should cultivate strong partnerships with other C-level executives such as the chief financial officer, CMO, chief information officer and chief human resources officer. This will help CXOs gain buy-in for CX initiatives and ensure the integration of CX into all aspects of the organization.
CXOs attend conferences and webinars, as well as read relevant publications, to monitor the latest CX trends, technologies and best practices. This can help CXOs expand their knowledge, drive innovation and retain a competitive advantage.
The role of a CXO is dependent on the evolving nature of CX. As CX changes, the CXO position and job description will also change. Some important trends that could affect the role of the CXO include the growth of AI and automation technologies. AI and automation are already changing the speed and accuracy of analytics-based customer profiles. CXOs must understand these technologies to lead personalization, automation and other future projects.
At the same time, CXOs must balance increased use of AI and automation with ethical and responsible CX practices. As data privacy, security and responsible AI concerns grow, CXOs will have to ensure ethical and responsible handling of customer data to build trust with customers. CXOs will play a critical role in driving ethical CX practices and maintaining transparency in data collection and usage.