At least 47% of chief customer officers (CCOs), identified by Forrester in its eighth annual CCO evaluation, work at firms with $1-billion or more in annual revenue.
In addition, 31% of these large firms are S&P 500 companies, which means that more than 6% of firms on that index now have a CCO in place.
While this sounds like it should be good news for the customer experience field, the story is not so clear-cut.
While 86% of examined CCOs hold a seat on the executive management team, these C-level execs are largely newly minted: a full 85% are the first to hold this position within the company; more than one-third of CCOs are new to the job in the past year; and a mere 12% have held previous customer experience positions.
For these reasons, Forrester foresees a choppy road ahead for CCOs, who must prepare for both increased attention and operational responsibilities as they strive to establish their position and drive change.
