Tag Archives: cco

Study finds need for chief customer officer

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A study into priorities driving marketing decisions, conducted by Vanson Bourne, has found more than two-thirds of marketers believe their organisation needs a chief customer officer (CCO).

The study, conducted at the behest of SPSS (an IBM company), found 66% of those surveyed understood the value a CCO could bring to an organisation, 39% believed the CCO should be based within the marketing department and 25% stated the CCO should be at board level.

The research suggests the CCO’s priority should be customer service rather than retention and acquisition. 

“Although attracting, retaining and growing customers are the key priorities for marketers, they see the recruitment of a CCO, with a customer service oriented role, as a natural next step to heighten the organisation’s customer strategy. Our research shows that marketers in larger organisations understand the importance of a CCO but are slower to recruit one,” said Colin Shearer, senior vice president of strategic analytics, SPSS.

Of businesses employing up to 1,000 employees 27% are planning to recruit a CCO within 12 months. However, of organisations with over 3,000 employees only 12% intended to fill the position in the next year. More than half of those surveyed have already employed a CCO.

“By definition a CCO offers in-depth customer insight to drive customer strategy that feeds the rest of the business. With direct ROI being a key focus point for organisations in today’s challenging economy, it is possible that a CCO may be seen as an unnecessary expense currently. While financial accountability is important, customer service and retention are increasingly vital in delivering return on investment and preparing to be ahead of the game for the imminent recovery,” added Shearer

CCO importance grows during GFC

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Global corporate communications officers are being valued more and now report directly to company CEOs, according to a survey from executive search firm Spencer Stuart.

‘The Rising CCO’ survey conducted by the firm, in partnership with global public relations firm Weber Shandwick and KRC Research, says that 58% of global chief communications officers (CCOs) surveyed report to the CEO, compared to 48% a year ago.

Not only do more CCOs call the CEO their boss, 40% consider the CEO to be their biggest ally in the organisation.

This leadership momentum, according to the survey, also coincides with an increase in CCO tenure in 2008 – CCOs’ average tenure was 65 months, compared to 54 months in 2007.

“The data reinforces the fact that when many organisations endure critical times, CEOs are increasingly looking to the CCO for their strategic crisis communications and ability to quickly react to a variety of scenarios,” said George Jamison, who leads Spencer Stuart’s Corporate Communications and Investor Relations Practice.

As corporate reputation encounters extreme stress and the internet provides unanticipated opportunities and risks, the report indicates skills often ‘owned’ by the CCO are in greater demand: crisis and issues management, social media monitoring and online engagement, reputation management, and management of a complex portfolio of stakeholders such as employees, investors, nongovernmental organizations and trade media.

“Like never before, CEOs are depending on CCOs for crisis and issues counsel to steady their company reputations and calm stakeholders. CEOs who do not communicate using traditional and social media do so at their own peril,” explained Weber Shandwick’s chief reputation strategist, Dr Leslie Gaines-Ross.