A great customer experience strategy begins by truly understanding the customer that you intend to serve. Customer experience professionals and their teams use market insights, historical data, voice of the customer feedback, and co-creation to develop customer understanding and personas that help to ensure that customer needs and perspectives are considered in the design, development, delivery, and ongoing relationship across the customer lifecycle. Most CX programs have a broad collection of customer personas reflecting the differentiated needs of the many different customer segments. In some companies, this has even extended to developing employee personas as organizations recognize that employees are a key constituency to be served as well. But how much do we really know and understand about the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as a key stakeholder?
The Chief Executive Officer is typically the single most influential individual in the way an organization conducts its business, from setting the cultural tone to establishing strategic priorities — not to mention making choices about how to staff and resource the organization to achieve objectives. As Harry S Truman displayed on his desk, "The Buck Stops Here" when it comes to the ultimate actions of the organization - whether that desk is that of the American President or CEO of a growing manufacturer.
CX professionals are nearly unanimous in agreeing that CEOs' lack of support and understanding is an inhibitor to customer experience progress. But what do we know about the CEO role and its myriad competing priorities for organizational success? How have we gathered insight to develop our understanding of this very important customer - understanding their role and context from their typical challenges, aspirations, and jobs to be done?
Much has been written about the CEO role — biographical case studies about what did and did not work; simplified platitudes such as the importance of walking around or "one pizza" meetings; or general admonitions about traits such as leadership, humility, and risk. Each adds a piece to the puzzle - but how are we looking at the role as a customer segment, developing understanding of the consistent challenges across organizations regarding the myriad factors that must be balanced? And, for customer experience professionals, how are we looking at that through the lens of how CX fits into those priorities?
That's why we have invited Joel Trammell, an expert on the professional role of being a CEO, to Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)'s CX Leaders Advance. Joel is an accomplished multi-time CEO and equity fund manager. He is also a dedicated lifelong learner who is committed to studying, understanding, and teaching about the CEO role. He is the author of The CEO Tightrope and The Chief Executive Operating System. Joel will share insight into the internal and external pressures CEOs face, the factors that influence CEO decisions, and why he views CEO success as a balancing act.
Joel also has found that CEOs must develop capacities for their organizations to become decision-making organizations to deal with the increasingly complex factors to be considered. As he has written, "This is why it is so important to recruit and hire talent you trust to make the right calls — at every level of the organization." During the session, we’ll also have additional voices including Eytan Hattem, CCXP join in a fireside chat discussion to help address the role of CX leaders and how they might interact with the CEO for greater success -- as well as questions you would like to - but can’t – ask in your own organization.
This session is one of several at CX Leaders Advance that are specifically designed to help CX professionals understand and communicate better value through a focus on delivering business outcomes for the organization. If you are leading or helping to lead a CX program at a for-profit, non-profit, or governmental organization, this is a must-attend event.
P.S. Joel has also studied how to build effective collaborations between HR leaders and CEOs, and has upcoming workshops for HR leaders in March and May.
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