Where Should CX Live Within A Company?

I’ve written in the past that CX is a team sport, and I firmly believe that everyone in an organization plays a role in delivering a great customer experience, whether that is directly serving the customer or assisting those who do serve the customer. But all good teams have a leader or coach guiding the strategies and tactics of the team. Ultimately, the CEO is responsible for the customer experience because it is one of the key growth engines of the company, but they should obviously have a senior leader responsible for CX. Without that senior leader, there won’t be a cohesive strategy or effective collaboration.

If we can agree that someone must be coordinating the CX strategy and activities across the organization, then is there a single best place for CX to live in a company, or can it be successful in multiple areas?

Having led the customer experience function in multiple Fortune 500 companies — and having reported to the CMO, the COO, and directly to the president/CEO at various points — I’ve witnessed the impact these various reporting relationships have on CX success and have some observations and recommendations below.

Is There an Optimal Organizational Position for CX?

Regardless of where CX lives, the leader and team must remain unbiased and have the purview to work cross-functionally to drive collaboration and break down silos. Without that organizational freedom and neutrality, the team’s efforts are already handcuffed and the chances of CX success are greatly diminished.

While more and more companies have added a seat at the table for a Chief Customer Officer (CCO) or Chief Experience Officer (CXO) in recent years, I still see most CX functions reporting to either marketing (the CMO) or operations (the COO). There are pros and cons to each of these reporting relationships:

What I learned from my own experiences is that CX can be successful in any of these reporting relationships, but I do believe it has the best chance for success as an independent function, reporting directly to the president/CEO. This reporting relationship signals the importance of the function to the organization as well as removes both the biases and budget manipulation that may happen if it reports elsewhere.

Every organization is different, and one size doesn’t fit all. If CX is not going to be an independent function reporting to a C-level executive who solely represents the customer, then I suggest it has a head start if it reports into the predominant power core of the organization. Some companies are operations-led, others are sales and marketing-led, while still others are product-led. Tying CX to the true cultural and power core of the company, though it brings some of the bias mentioned above, aligns it better with the political and leadership realities of the company.

However, I’ve also learned that regardless of where your CX function reports, there are key organizational elements that must be present and the CX leader also must have certain key skills, strengths, and characteristics for it to be successful.

I’ll cover the organizational factors and individual characteristics in future posts. In the meantime, if your CX program is not delivering the hoped-for results, compare your current CX structure to the pros and cons laid out above to consider whether its reporting relationship is inhibiting its potential success through potential bias or prioritization based on where it reports. Given the political realities of most organizations, this is a difficult assessment, but one that must be made with honest self-awareness, transparency, and integrity to truly put the customer at the center of your company.

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