Shel Israel last week asked me if companies should have a Chief Community Officer, to which I replied that communities, with the customer insights that they can provide, would allow CMOs to transform their role in that of Chief Customer Officer - representing the voice of the customer at the executive table.
That reminded me how Forrester has been pushing for the role of Chief Customer Officer for awhile - as a separate entity from the CMO.
Somehow this seems odd to me. I understand that many CMOs have been relegated to running pre-sale programs, and that many developed real bad habits in the name of promoting the brand. But does that mean that we should have a parallel organization to ensure that someone looks at the consistency of experience across all the touch-points that a customer can have with the company? Or should that become part of the CMOs role?
Maybe you need an empowered temporary team to look at all the touch-points and develop cross-organizational processes to ensure consistency across all those points, but that team should report under the CMO as (s)he should be the person responsible for the voice of customers, prospects and detractors in the marketplace.
What do you think?
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