Editorial
The Gist
- The new kid in the C-Suite. The Chief Customer Officer (CCO) role still fights for definition, authority and respect among more established executive peers.
- The unicorn problem. Organizations expect CCOs to transform the customer journey, drive revenue and fix silos—often without direct control over teams or budgets.
- The real ROI test. To gain credibility, CCOs must translate CX metrics like NPS and retention into financial impact that resonates with CEOs and boards.
- Culture is the battlefield. Without leadership-wide commitment to customer centricity, even the strongest CX strategies fail to take hold.
Over time, organizations have realized that customer experience isn’t just “nice to have.” In fact, most now understand that CX is an engine of growth, loyalty and differentiation.
But unlike the CFO, CMO, or COO, the CCO is still considered the new function on the block at some leadership tables. And, like Cady in "Mean Girls," the new kid often has a lot to prove before they are allowed to simply…be.
Why does acceptance often come slowly for the CCO? In a role that is at best unicorn-ish and at worst, at odds with other cross-functional leaders, survival is hard won and often only comes after amassing some decent wins.
Table of Contents
- The Chief Customer Officer: New Seat, New Challenges
- The Unicorn Problem Chief Customer Officers Face
- The Language Gap for Chief Customer Officers
- Culture Is the Real Battleground
- How Chief Customer Officers Can Avoid the Burn Book
- The Bottom Line for Chief Customer Officers
The Chief Customer Officer: New Seat, New Challenges
Traditional C-Suite roles have decades of time served. They also usually have very clear role definition, goals and positions reporting into them to support and execute the work. The same cannot always be said for CCOs. Aside from leading a relatively new area of focus, the role comes with some unique challenges:
- “Chief Customer Officer” often means different things to different organizations. A quick scan of LinkedIn job descriptions makes it very clear that Chief Customer Officers can have responsibilities ranging from research to customer service to growth marketing to customer success to digital to branding. (And that’s just what I found as I wrote this!) Clarity of function, thy name is not Chief Customer Officer.
- The reporting structure for CCOs is rarely consistent. Best case scenario, it reports to the CEO and has a clear and measurable job description. But quite often, CCOs are layered into marketing, operations or strategy, either reporting to a leader who inherited this new function and knows little about it or one who has very specific ideas of how they want it to run. Neither scenario is ideal.
- The CCO depends on resources that usually report elsewhere. Data, tech, brand communications, finance – all teams that the CCO will need to not only interact with but deeply rely on to be successful. And yet they are often begging, borrowing and stealing to get time and attention from those key resources.
Sound daunting? Well, we haven’t even gotten to the really hard parts yet. Because for a seasoned CX pro, navigating ambiguity, driving alignment and influencing are tricks of the trade. But when it comes to outcomes and expectations, things get even trickier.
Related Article: CX Leadership: Essential Personas of a Chief Customer Officer
The Unicorn Problem Chief Customer Officers Face
CCOs often face a mythical set of expectations. (Or, if we’re being honest, delusional for one role.)
- Drive revenue and reduce churn
- Improve customer satisfaction but lower costs
- Champion customer centricity while navigating organizational silos
- Influence every customer touchpoint without owning most of them
In short, the CCO is asked to be transformational and collaborative at all costs while sometimes dealing with territorial, change-averse or downright hostile forces that are pushing back against the progress that is sorely needed.
Here’s the bigger paradox: remember how we talked about borrowing resources? Well, the CCO is also tasked with transforming the customer journey but rarely controls the functions that define it. Sales, service, product and marketing often remain under other executives. Without budget or direct authority, the CCO is left to influence rather than direct making it difficult to deliver impact at the scale expected.
Related Article: Why a Chief Customer Officer Is Essential for Unified Brand Messaging
The Language Gap for Chief Customer Officers
Remember in "Mean Girls" when Gretchen tries to make “fetch” happen? Well, CX leaders are trying to make things like retention, churn and NPS happen with similar success. Traditional CX metrics do not resonate in a landscape of revenue, margin and cost. CX outcomes need to be translated into a story that ties to shareholder value and makes bottom-line minded leaders sit up and take notice.
The need to prove ROI is real, and as economic environments destabilize in trying times, so too does the patience of a CEO who needs to paint a meaningful financial picture that is data-backed and compelling.
This disconnect forces CCOs into a constant cycle of proving ROI in terms that the C-Suite values. Which often feels to the CCO like they are in a constant state of defending. The smartest CCOs are focusing all their energy not on trying to make new words matter but instead linking customer friction to meaningful financial outcomes that don’t require translation.
Related Article: The One-Dial Illusion: Why CX Leaders Keep Crashing on ROI
Culture Is the Real Battleground
Even with the right strategy, right roles and right intentions, culture determines success every time. If customer centricity isn’t truly embedded as a leadership priority, CX becomes an initiative, not a commitment. The CCO becomes the lone voice, pushing for “holistic experience” while others focus narrowly on quarterly results.
Many organizations believe that it is enough to put a fancy “Chief” title on someone to prove that the organization’s commitment is real. In "Mean Girls," the Burn Book was a tool used to victimize and shame, and, while that example is extreme, the result can look similar – strong CCOs feeling undermined and marginalized.
How Chief Customer Officers Can Avoid the Burn Book
Despite all the challenges, there is a path to driving real change as a highly effective CCO if you know what matters to key stakeholders. Click the drop-downs to see how to pull it off.
The Burn Book Edition: What CCOs Hear vs. What They Should Say
A cheeky look at how Chief Customer Officers can survive C-Suite politics — without losing their fetch, as they say in 'Mean Girls'
| What CCOs Hear | What’s Really Going On | What CCOs Should Say |
|---|---|---|
| “We already care about the customer.” | Translation: We say that, but our org chart still screams product-first. | “Great — let’s make that care measurable with retention and satisfaction goals.” |
| “You don’t own that channel.” | Translation: You can influence everything, but control nothing. | “Perfect — then let’s align KPIs so every channel reflects a shared customer outcome.” |
| “Show me the ROI.” | Translation: I don’t speak CX; I speak EBITDA. | “Reducing churn by 5% increases margin by X%. Let’s tie our CX initiatives to that.” |
| “We don’t have budget for that.” | Translation: Your project doesn’t scream short-term gain. | “Understood. Let’s start with low-cost pilots that deliver quick wins.” |
| “Everyone’s responsible for CX.” | Translation: No one’s actually accountable for it. | “Then let’s clarify ownership by mapping accountability across the journey.” |
| “Can you make NPS happen?” | Translation: We think CX = one number on a dashboard. | “Let’s focus on friction reduction and repeat purchase — those are our true loyalty levers.” |
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The Bottom Line for Chief Customer Officers
Like high school, the CCO role is tough and sometimes thankless, but it can also be transformational. Customer experience is not a trend; it’s the foundation of sustainable growth. The organizations that empower their CCOs will outpace those that don’t.
Yes, the C-Suite may act like The Plastics at first. But if the CCO can navigate the politics, earn trust and connect customer outcomes to business value, they will be at the forefront of defining and reshaping the future of their organizations.
Fetch, indeed.
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