Off to Germany this week to help my colleagues there get our Chief Customer Officer Forum (www.budd.uk.com/chiefcoforum.html) started. Having seen the Yank, Australian and Indian CCOs, as well as the UK of course, I started running through the characters in my head to define what makes a great CCO great. Given German grammar makes your head spin I thought maybe I should start that way…amo, amas, amat and all that – darn it wrong language!
So thinking about CCOs… I, You, He/She, We, You, They……
I – CCOs have a personal awareness of what it’s like to be a customer. They don’t just put themselves in the customers shoes, they live there all the time. Somewhere in their careers they learned empathy, Empathy from the memory of serving customers in their youth and knowing how to do it well, with candour, with fun. Often they’ve been sales people for a while. Certainly they sell well all the time without necessarily being conscious of it. Empathy from being treated well or badly as a junior employee and knowing the difference. Now as a senior person, they have no airs and graces, but plenty of space and grace.
You (singular) – CCOs have an ability to turn the spotlight on people when talking to them, to think about them, not to be elsewhere in their head. Really listening. Using silence often, rather than just the power of their vocabulary and knowledge. They coach constantly. Themselves, their colleagues, their family. But they’re good at not coaching their friends, at switching off at the right times.
He/She – Although the group is of mixed sex, people tend towards using their feminine side more – less fighting, less macho, more conversation, more connections, more passionate, less reserved.
We – Undoubtedly team players, but more than that CCOs create and generate teams. You see people who respect them right across their companies and this is a key weapon in fighting for what customers want. They generate loyalty that travels when they travel across companies and countries. They make people feel braver so they can speak their minds even in the corporate kingdoms they inhabit.
You (plural) CCOs are endlessly positive and optimistic in a crowd. They exude energy and help others charge their batteries, never drawing others down, or flattening a solid idea. They stay open to others’ ideas. They must eat 3 bowls of stamina for breakfast each day to keep this optimism going. They are realistic about what can be doe now, but never lack ambition about what needs to be done for customers.
They – CCOs are ever curious about what others are doing. They look externally before they look internally. For ideas, for what’s possible, for how to do things. Always proud to steal a good idea, they are never shy about lending their own learnings. They connect with people as much as they can. They never see an end point to working for their customers or a point in time when things will be good enough to relax.
Having looked at these things one of the things that strikes me is how young in mind they are, regardless of age. Active, gregarious yet professional.
Are you a CCO?
