Why CIOs Play a Critical Role in Providing a Great Customer Experience

It’s hardly a secret anymore: Customer experience is now officially a key business differentiator. CX, as it’s commonly called, is quickly becoming a priority. Companies are now championing slogans such as “We treat you like you’d treat you,” “It’s everywhere you want to be” and “Be your way.” In fact, Gartner has predicted that 89 percent of businesses soon will compete almost solely based on customer experience. With that in mind, C-level executives have taken a growing interest in what was once relegated to the customer experience management (CEM) or marketing departments, and that’s a good thing. Chief information officers (CIOs) play a critical role in providing great customer experiences, even if they don’t realize it. In this eWEEK slide show, Fabrice Martin, senior vice president of product management of CEM maker Clarabridge, explains why.

A full-blown CX program requires the proper technology to support it; tracking what customers are saying manually isn’t feasible for most companies, and there needs to be a central system of record to store data in order to analyze the voice of the customer properly. CIOs must be sold on the importance of a full-scale customer experience management (CEM) program, otherwise companies are unlikely to invest in the necessary technology.

Large companies often have a complex technology stack with intricacies only the CIO understands. When it comes time to select a CEM solution, the CIO should play a central role to ensure the system is compatible with and complementary to those on which the company already relies. This makes data integration easier down the road. 

CIOs are seasoned veterans when it comes to selecting the right technology. They won’t be distracted by flashy or gimmicky interfaces, which can sometimes trick even the savviest of business executives. The CIO will weigh in on things like business value, scale and performance, security and compliance.

CIOs have a unique opportunity to break down siloed information barriers within the organization. CEM dashboards aren’t just for the CEM team. This is a platform the entire company can and should be comfortable using. While not all of the data will be relevant to every department, CIOs can help teams set up custom dashboards that deliver the appropriate data to each employee. Everyone at a company has a hand in customer experience, so it’s important to empower them to make the right decisions with the right information.

Every company has a wealth of data stored in various systems—everything from voice of the customer (VOC) and customer segmentation data to operational data and beyond. To understand the end-to-end customer experience, the CEM team will need access to all of this data. The CIO can educate teams on what data is already available and grant access as necessary.

A well-executed CX program can have a massively positive impact on your brand—less churn, increased customer loyalty and so on. But it’s important to have a solid understanding of the impact this program has in order to institutionalize it and continue improving customer experience down the road. The CIO plays a key role in unearthing the financial impact of a CX program with access to overall business results and data that lives in platforms such as Salesforce and Oracle.

More and more C-level executives—especially CEOs—are tech- and new-gen marketing-savvy before they even get into their leadership positions. In fact, it’s becoming a requirement for many companies to seek out tech-savvy leadership. CIOs are integral players in connecting what’s happening on the digital front lines with the decision-makers of enterprises.