The UK Chief Customer Officer (CCO) Report Nish Kotak

In theory it’s very simple to talk about wanting to put the customer at the heart and centre of everything you do, but how do you achieve that when you have been created as a product-led business?
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Customer CCO business role CCO role Chief Customer Officer Customer led research understand hire
In theory it’s very simple to talk about wanting to put the customer at the heart and centre of everything you do, but how do you achieve that when you have been created as a product-led business?
About manojranaweera

Customer CCO business role CCO role Chief Customer Officer Customer led research understand hire
<p>The UK Chief Customer 
Oﬃ  cer Report
Nish Kotak
May 2017
/02
In theory it’s very simple to 
talk about wanting to put the 
customer at the heart and 
centre of everything you do,  
but how do you achieve that 
when you have been created  
as a product-led business?
/03
The purpose of this report is to provide a benchmark and basis for 
understanding how the role of a Chief Customer Officer is emerging 
in UK businesses. The report identifies the degree to which this is 
happening and aims to provide some insight as to why.
Talecco conducted extensive research in the first 
quarter of 2017 with the aim of identifying how 
companies are reacting to the challenge of becoming 
more customer-led. This research is the first of  
a number of planned activities that will help define 
and describe the rapidly changing landscape of the 
Chief Customer Officer and customer-led thinking. 
This particular research piece focused on the 
individuals that are being appointed as CCOs and the 
companies that hired them. We aimed to identify:
• What sort of businesses are hiring CCOs?
• What types of people are becoming CCOs?
• What are the requirements of a CCO in terms of 
core skills and abilities? 
The aim of this research is to help those who are:
• Thinking about hiring a CCO
• Considering what the benefits of such a hire 
might be
• Trying to understand where customer thinking 
might fit into their business 
• More broadly interested in how successful 
businesses are changing
The research was conducted through a combination 
of extensive desk-based research, social channels 
and direct conversations with over 50 business 
leaders and existing CCOs. It shows the incredible 
growth of the function in British businesses, the 
wide range of backgrounds from which the new 
generation of CCOs are drawn and the breadth of 
skills encompassed by the role. 
Nish Kotak 
Director  
Talecco 
www.talecco.com
INTRODUCTION
Nish Kotak is Managing Director 
of Talecco, a talent business 
helping organisations throughout 
their journey of becoming 
customer-led, from hiring at 
executive level, through the 
transformation process, building 
and upskilling teams. He has 
been working in executive search 
and placement for 15 years and 
was previously a management 
consultant with PwC and has held 
roles as strategy and business 
development manager at both 
Great Universal Stores and 
United Business Media.
ABOUT NISH KOTAK 
Talecco provides a complete solution for building  
and developing your Customer function and team. 
We too are constantly learning from our Community 
of CCOs. We run the largest community of Chief 
Customer Officers and Customer executives across 
Europe. The forums and seminars that we hold 
provide a real insight into the ways that CCOs are 
being engaged and the challenges facing them as 
they join a business. 
ABOUT TALECCO 
/04
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
• 84% of UK CCOs are new to the  
title/role
• The CCO role is crossing the border 
from B2C to B2B
Who are the new CCOs and where 
do they come from?
• There is no clear and consistent 
background for CCOs, although 
many come from previous positions 
that were either customer facing or 
operations
• The rapid growth in CCO numbers is 
likely to raise competition in hiring for 
those roles
• A business’s own digital maturity, 
marketplace, and legacy situation has 
a huge impact on the specification of 
the CCO role
• Because the skill set and job 
description are so new and poorly 
defined, companies are going to have 
to educate themselves or seek support 
in order to make good hiring decisions
What creates the need for a CCO?
• Customer focus and customer-led 
leadership are increasingly hot topics 
and indicators of commercial success
• To become customer-led requires  
a shift in the DNA of a business with 
new requirements in leadership
• In addition to requiring the buy-in 
of the CEO, customer-led thinking 
requires its own internal champion – 
the CCO
What’s happening in 2017?
• The US has led the way in this thinking 
but European markets are now rapidly 
catching up
• Customer-led businesses tend to have 
a commercial advantage over those 
that do not put the customer at the 
heart of their thinking and delivery
• In the UK the number of CCOs has 
risen from 14 in 2014 to 90 in 2017
• 46% of all UK CCO roles have been 
created in the last 12 months
To become customer-led often 
requires a fundamental change 
in the DNA of the business. 
/05
In theory it’s very simple to talk about 
wanting to put the customer at the heart 
and centre of everything you do, but how 
do you achieve that when you have not set 
the business up that way? 
To become customer-led requires  
a fundamental change in the DNA of the 
business. This can have an impact on the  
way that all departments interact with each 
other and with the customer. It changes the 
way that internal and external performance 
is measured and requires a new way of 
thinking about how you create and service 
new solutions for your customers. 
To achieve successful change of this 
type is not something that can be done 
overnight. It’s also not something that can 
be done without the full backing of the chief 
executive of the business. The CEO will not 
only need to sponsor such a move, but will 
also need to appoint a leader who can guide 
the business through that journey. That 
person is a Chief Customer Officer (CCO).
This report is derived from a number of sources, these include discussions 
with CCOs in the UK, on-line media, including LinkedIn, Twitter, web based 
research and publicly available company reports and postings. 
This initial report is not intended to 
be exhaustive in terms of this rapidly 
moving marketplace, but it does provide 
a perspective on the UK CCO market 
and forms the basis for future research 
currently being developed.
For the purposes of this report we have 
concentrated on those who actually have 
the titles Chief Customer Officer and 
Customer Director. There are a number of 
variants which have similar responsibility. 
These include Employee Experience Officer 
(internally focused), Customer Experience 
Director (can be front end/digitally focused), 
Customer Success Director (found mainly in 
software and Cloud based businesses). These 
will be included in future research reports. 
REPORT BACKGROUND  
AND FINDINGS
WHAT CREATES THE NEED FOR  
A CHIEF CUSTOMER OFFICER?
A CEO cannot move these days without some research or report stating 
the benefits of being customer-led. 
/06
THE UK CHIEF CUSTOMER 
OFFICER MARKET
The Chief Customer Officer is the executive ultimately accountable  
for both customer strategy and all customer initiatives across the 
business. They effectively become the voice of the customer in all 
business decisions. 
The role, in its purest form, has oversight 
over all functions within a business where 
there is a Customer touchpoint – including 
those areas creating products and services 
for customers.
Please note that in this definition there 
is no distinction between Business to 
Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business 
(B2B) customers. The CCO role has been 
prevalent in the USA for the last 20 years. 
The first officially titled Chief Customer 
Officer was Jack Chambers, appointed in 
23 years ago in 1994 as CCO of Texas New 
Mexico Power. Businesses who have a CCO 
have been proven to outperform their 
marketplace competition.
Although the CCO role is more established 
in the USA, it can only be considered as 
in the early stages of maturity. Other 
countries are not even at this stage. The 
USA experience has paved the way for 
businesses in other countries to start 
looking at the CCO role and understand 
how they could take these learnings and 
apply them in their own territories.
THE RISE OF THE CHIEF 
CUSTOMER OFFICER
There are currently 90 CCOs in the UK.  
They vary in terms of seniority and influence 
across their businesses, but based on the 
research, and validation discussions with 
CCOs, this report identifies the core facets 
of the CCO role. 
The Talecco research shows that UK has, over the last 3 years, seen  
a significant increase in the numbers of CCOs appointed. 
/07
Businesses who have  
a CCO have been proven to 
outperform their  
marketplace competition.
/08
The outlook for CCOs in 
the UK market is very 
positive. 
In 2014 there were only 
14 
such roles in the 
country. 
In 2017 this number  
has risen to 
90 
This number is rising on 
a weekly basis. 
Although the scope of the role 
varies from business to business,  
the need for the role is recognised 
in all sectors. 
We have seen continued validation – from Forrester, 
Gartner, Harvard Business Review, and also from 
all of the large strategy houses – of the benefits to 
adopting a customer-led approach to running your 
business. 
We will, over time, reach a general consensus about 
the responsibilities of the role. It is equally certain, 
based on the US experience, that the way this role 
is embedded into a company will vary significantly 
between businesses. Jeanne Bliss1 one of the leaders 
in this space speaks of 4 different models that the 
Customer functions can take within a business.
• manager with dedicated team
• director with dedicated team
• manager with dispersed team
• director with dispersed team
We are already seeing derivatives of these in the 
UK, with models ranging from the CCO as a senior 
executive with a full range of responsibilities (any 
department with customer interaction reporting  
in to the CCO), to businesses whose CCO leads  
a small lean team. The latter can be an executive/
senior leadership team role, but tends to work 
within a matrix as an influencer rather than a having 
direct control over key areas. In either case the 
core responsibility of the role is to put customer 
considerations at the heart of the business’ 
operations and thinking.
1 Customer Bliss: http://www.customerbliss.com/how-to-build-a-cx-
structure-to-influence-change-and-drive-action/
OUTLOOK
/09
The CCO role is often seen as being specifically applicable to B2C.  
This research indicates that this is not the case.
The rise of the CCO has been seen in both 
B2C and B2B companies, some of those 
identified in the research operate in both 
markets.
There is no great surprise that there are 
more B2C companies who are employing 
a CCO. The origins of the role stem from 
a customer experience perspective and 
B2C companies have historically been 
more focused on delivering good customer 
experience. What might be surprising  
is the number of B2B companies who  
are adopting the CCO role and the 
customer-led approach. 
B2B’s interest can be explained in two ways. 
On one level a customer is a customer, 
they need the same level of attention and 
understanding if you are aiming to put 
them at heart and centre of your business. 
In addition to this there is a recognition 
that B2C companies are ahead of the game 
when it comes to enhancing customer 
experience. There is also wide recognition 
that these activities create more successful 
businesses. As the link between customer 
focus and corporate success becomes 
better understood it is inevitable that 
forward thinking B2B companies would 
want to follow this lead to gain a competitive 
advantage. Interestingly, the same also 
applies to public sector organisations in the 
UK where we are seeing a real growth in 
customer focused roles (although to date 
there are few specific CCO appointments).
IS THE CCO ROLE ONLY 
APPLICABLE TO B2C BUSINESSES?
As the link between customer focus and corporate 
success becomes better understood it is inevitable 
that forward thinking B2B companies would want 
to follow this lead to gain a competitive advantage.
/10
THE GROWTH OF THE ROLE OVER 
THE LAST 3 YEARS
These figures show the growing emphasis being placed on the customer 
agenda, they also show that the historical lead of B2C continues.
The market is seeing a level of growth in 
CCO hires that is projected to continue. 
Organisations who are looking to hire a CCO 
are likely to face increasing competition 
as the demand for the skill sets increases. 
Equally importantly, potential CCO 
candidates now really need to understand 
the broader range of skills that such  
a role demands. 
46%
63%
of all UK based CCO roles have been 
created in the last 12 months
of these newly created roles were in 
the B2C markets 
/11
WHERE DO YOU FIND  
THESE CCOs?
By definition there is no readily available pool of 
talent (certainly in the UK). Businesses are going 
to have to hire and upskill. They will also have to 
look further afield to find candidates with the right 
combinations of talents and aptitudes.
Companies face a huge challenge in 
defining both the role and the skills 
required to be successful.
We have found in our 
research that 
84% 
of all UK based 
CCOs are new to this 
particular role,
only
16% 
having had a CCO  
or Customer Director 
role before.
/12
Forward looking businesses are clearly 
aiming to develop the ability to use 
customer experience and understanding 
as a point of differentiation and to deliver 
competitive advantage. 
There is a clear trend of CCO hires 
in industries where there is limited 
opportunity to differentiate in 
product or service.
WHICH SECTORS ARE EMPLOYING 
CCOs?
28%
The largest number of CCO 
appointments have been 
made in the UK retail sector. 
/13
Not surprisingly, a large number of new  
CCOs have previous experience in customer 
facing positions or roles where there is  
a strong customer interaction. There are, 
however, 20% of the CCO population who 
come from an operations background. 
This can be explained by the central role 
operations plays in facilitating the customer 
journey throughout the organisation. Those 
with a strong operational background have 
a very good understanding of how every 
department influences customer experience. 
43% of businesses promote internal 
candidates into the CCO role. These 
people will already most likely have a very 
good network in the business and good 
understanding of the business operations 
and their customer base. There is also  
a recognition that moving skills across 
sectors (B2C to B2B) can be hugely beneficial. 
43% of businesses promote internal 
candidates into the CCO role
Currently there is no specific career path for someone to become a CCO. 
Our findings indicated that there are 5 broad categories where CCOs in 
the UK are recruited from a variety of backgrounds.
WHAT IS A TYPICAL CCO 
BACKGROUND?
/14
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF 
A CCO
The CCO needs to:
• Be strategic 
to create a customer strategy
• Understand data and insight 
be detailed, numerical and understand 
trends and feedback
• Be commercial 
be able to see how changes to the 
ways that customers are interacted 
with lead to measurable financial 
returns
• Run design and innovation 
to deliver proposed changes in/create 
new products and services
• Be digitally savvy 
have a very good understanding of 
digital/omni-channel solutions
• Be able to deliver solutions 
have a strong delivery focus moving 
solutions from the design and 
innovation phase, to physical products 
or services for their customers
• Create listening platforms 
once delivered the business needs to 
understand what the customers think 
of these solutions, so the ability to 
create measurements and platforms 
for measuring to really understand 
how the products and services are 
meeting the customers’ needs.
• Be a change agent 
with any customer programme there 
is this change in the DNA of how 
the business operates. This cultural 
change underpins the success of any 
Customer initiative (small or large), thus 
being able to manage cultural change 
is pivotal to the success of the role.
The breadth of this skillset and degree of 
emphasis on each of these depends upon 
the businesses own particular needs. The 
result is that the business needs to be an 
educated buyer or at the very least take 
advice from an advisor who can help them 
really understand what they are looking for. 
Any such hire is likely to need some form of 
personal development; understanding this 
upfront is also key.
In hiring a CCO, the business needs to be an 
educated buyer or be prepared to take in-depth 
advice from an advisor who can help them really 
understand what they are looking for.
The CCO role is both new and encompasses a range of skills and 
knowledge that has traditionally either been dispersed through an 
organisation or not present at all. 
/15
This research highlights the shift in how businesses are viewing their 
customers and the customer agenda that is dominating a lot of board-
room conversations. 
The journey to becoming customer-led 
can be a long one and needs not only 
executive sponsorship, but someone to 
drive the agenda and to be the voice of 
the customer for the business. If the USA 
experience is an indicator then we are likely 
to see a significant number of CCO board 
appointments over the coming years.
The CCO is a key role for a business, but 
as demonstrated in this paper, there is no 
clear path to choosing the right one for 
your business. There is no specific historic 
role that aligns exactly to the CCO role. 
The choice is further affected by a range of 
factors, including, but not limited to sector, 
maturity of the business, digital capability, 
ambition, and ability to drive change.
It is also becoming increasingly clear 
that many more businesses are coming 
to recognise that this is an essential 
conversation. Customer-led thinking is likely 
to be a key driver of business performance.
There are probably a number of questions 
that businesses need to ask.
• Do you recognise or measure the 
potential for commercial gains through 
being closer to your customers?
• Can you identify competitors that have 
already started this process and are 
potentially gaining ground?
• Do you have the clearly defined will to 
turn customer focus aspirations into 
DNA changes within your organisation?
• Are you able to articulate the skills 
required within your business to lead, 
define, and execute the necessary 
changes?
• Do you know how to find the people 
and partners you will need to help you 
through this process?
SUMMARY
Customer-led thinking  
is likely to be a key driver  
of business performance.
1 East Poultry Ave, London, EC1A 9PT
hello@talecco.com
www.talecco.com
</p>