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Unless you have been living in a cave, it will not have escaped your attention that a number of organisations around the world have been introducing a new job title. In fact, they have been doing so for quite some time. Even if your company does not yet have a ‘Chief Customer Officer’ or ‘CCO’ it is unlikely to be long before they do!

Whilst the title may have been in existence for a while, there is still not a plethora of experienced executives who know ‘what it takes’ to be a successful CCO. This is partly due to the fact that Customer Experience is still in its relative infancy as a profession. Re-branding a Marketing professional, or a Customer Service professional a CCO does not mean they have the competencies required to fulfill the role.

Fortunately help is at hand – and has been since 2006. The significance of that date is because it was the year that Jeanne Bliss wrote her first book for CCO’s – if you have  never read ‘Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action‘ – I urge you to do so. However, that essential reading is not the subject of this review. 9 years after Jeanne wrote her first guide for Customer Experience executives, she has published a new, modernised CCO ‘bible’ – ‘Chief Customer Officer 2.0 – How to Build Your Customer Driven Growth Engine‘, really is a MUST read for any existing or aspiring leader of Customer Experience.

If you do not know Jeanne, let me fill you in!  Having held the role of Chief Customer Officer, reporting to the Presidents of Lands’ End, Mazda, Coldwell Banker, Allstate and Microsoft, Jeanne wrote Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action as the book she wishes she had on her desk when she was on her journey as a Customer Zealot. Not only has she served as a CCO for 25 years, Jeanne is also the co-founder of the Customer Experience Professionals Association – she is rather well qualified to write a book on the subject!

So what should you expect from this excellent read? Jeanne covers everything from clarifying the role of the CCO, to ‘how to unite leadership to achieve customer driven growth’. Jeanne expertly guides readers through 5 Customer Leadership Competencies, before telling you how to establish and fill the CCO role. To whet your appetite, let me share a high level view of the competencies with you:

Competency One: Honor and Manage Customers as Assets – Know the growth or loss of customers and care about the “WHY?”

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Competency Two: Align around Experience – Give leaders a framework for guiding the work of the organization. Unite accountability as customers experience you. Not down your silos.

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Competency Three: Build a Customer Listening Path – Seek input and customer understanding, aligned to the customer journey. Tell the story of customers’ lives.

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Competency Four: Proactive Experience Reliability & Innovation – Know before customers tell you, where experiences are unreliable. Deliver one-company consistent and desired experiences.

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Competency Five: One-Company Leadership, Accountability, and Culture – Leadership behaviors required for embedding the five competencies. Enabling employees to deliver value.

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Jeanne has created an invaluable resource – I hope you get as much value reading it as I have. If you want to reach out to her, I am sure she would also be delighted to connect with you. Happy reading!


 

Please note that all images used in this post are subject to copyright and have been re-produced with the express permission of Jeanne Bliss.

Jeanne Bliss

Jeanne Bliss