Is Your Company Ready for a Chief Experience Officer?

Let’s explore the ideal time to hire a Chief Experience Officer, how to overcome this role’s common challenges, and the expert strategies that guarantee early success in this role.

Previously, we discussed what a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is and what qualities to look for when hiring this role.

But businesses must also consider: when is the right time to appoint a CXO? What are the potential challenges that a CXO stepping into a newly-created role may face? And, most importantly, what recommendations can we make to ensure a new CXO succeeds?

What are the signs that your company is ready to appoint a CXO?

Your company may not need a Chief Experience Officer if it already has a deeply ingrained, cross-functional culture of customer-centricity. This is rare, but if your company is one of the few that already thinks and operates this way, congratulations—you’re already doing what a CXO would set out to do.

On the other hand, a CXO is not a panacea. If your company’s leadership views customer experience (CX) as a check-the-box activity, appointing a CXO alone won’t have a meaningful impact. A CXO requires strong buy-in from leadership to first connect, then break down, silos and build a culture rooted in customer-centricity.

So when is the right time to make the case for a CXO? According to Greg Raileanu and Robyn Coppell, you may have the right context to do so when you tick at least one of the following boxes:

• Your company is undergoing a significant transformation, such as a merger or acquisition, or a significant change in your servicing channel strategy.
• CX and Employee Experience (EX) signals are siloed, causing cross-functional issues to slip through the cracks.
• Your company is struggling to compete in a crowded market where all players have similar products.
• Your business invests time and money in CX/EX improvements and your leadership sees CX/EX as a long-term strategy.

What benefits can a CXO bring?

A CXO can bring value to a business on several fronts:

• Strategy: A CXO can influence the corporate strategy by guiding leaders on what to prioritize to deliver better CX and EX. They unify the CX and EX program strategies and align them with the brand promise, the employee value proposition and the corporate strategy to ensure experiences meet customer and employee expectations while delivering on business outcomes.
• Culture: A CXO works relentlessly to give customers and employees a “virtual” seat at the table in every key meeting where decisions are made. Making the company more customer- and employee-centric can provide a competitive edge in both customer and talent acquisition and retention.
• Cross-functional ownership: Experience doesn’t live in silos, so a CXO’s role is to ensure all functions work together. They create forums for different departments to discuss, decide, and act as a cohesive group, rather than as separate silos.
• Data: The CXO places a new focus on insights, analytics, and data-led decisions to prove ROI and impact. They unify CX and EX data, ensuring all teams have access to relevant information and insights.

All these efforts contribute to concrete business outcomes like higher revenue, increased market share, improved customer and employee acquisition and retention, and operational efficiencies.

Still need convincing? Here are a few tangible examples of the positive impact a CXO has brought to large organizations:

• Verizon: Brian Higgins became Verizon’s CXO a couple of years ago. Under his leadership, the company has strategically launched AI-based tools for employees and customers, and opened 400 new retail locations to make it easier for customers to access the services they need. From 2024 to 2025, revenue increased by 3.4% (vs 2.9% on average for its US competitors) and the company was the first telecommunications company on Forbes’ America’s Best Large Employers list.
• NRG: As NRG’s CXO, Suzie Dieth supported this energy company’s acquisition of a smart home solution firm and made it adopt a “hub and spoke” model, with the Experience Org acting as the hub. In 2025, NRG was recognized by the US Customer Experience Awards, becoming the Silver Award Winner in two areas: Customer-Centric Culture and Best Use of Customer Insight and Feedback.
• United Airlines: Linda Jojo is United Airlines’ Chief Technology and Customer Officer. (Granted, she’s not a CXO, but hearing her speak about her role makes it sound a lot like what a CXO would do.) Under her guidance, United constantly innovates to surpass customer expectations and differentiate itself. This includes app-based gate navigation, real-time flight delay updates, connecting flight hold information, agent assistance from other airports to minimize wait times, and increased overhead bin space for all carry-on luggage. Between 2024 and 2025, United revenue increased by 3% (vs less than 1% for comparable US competitors).
• Adobe: According to Forbes, after Donna Morris, Adobe’s CXO, unified CX and EX, the company reported a 25% annual revenue gain and was listed among Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.

I know what you’re thinking: “How can you be sure that these business outcomes are directly tied to the experience organization’s actions?” The simple answer is I can’t. But, while it’s impossible to tie these outcomes to a single org’s efforts, it’s clear that a CXO can bring a dynamic, experience-focused perspective that drives business success.

What challenges might a new CXO face?

Even when a company is ready for a CXO, the organization might still face a few common challenges:

• Role overlap: If a company already has a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), there’s likely no need for a new CXO. Instead, the CCO’s role could be expanded to cover employee and prospect experiences as well. A CXO’s responsibilities must be clearly defined from day one to prevent overlap with existing roles.
• Trying to boil the ocean: The sheer size of the task—changing culture, systems, processes, and policies—can feel daunting. A CXO needs to start with quick wins and build momentum before tackling bigger, more impactful projects.
• Focusing on metrics over stories: Some companies get too focused on metrics like Net Promoter Score without looking for what drives low scores. A CXO must teach other executives and the wider business to seek the “why” and the “so what.”
• Budget constraints: The CXO may face budget or resource pressures that delay impactful activities. Again, focusing on quick wins, but also on pilots is key. If a CXO can prove immediate, tangible results, they are more likely to unlock the resources needed for larger initiatives.

Chief Experience Officer success strategy

Setting a CXO up for success starts with a few key recommendations:

• Start cross-functional collaboration immediately: As Amelia Dunlop, Deloitte Digital’s CXO, and team wisely put it, “Pulling in other leaders and functions early in the CXO’s tenure can help generate and prove the value of experience early in the project lifecycle, building a solid foundation from which to expand.”
• Prioritize data and insights: Data, insights, and journey maps must be central to a CXO’s decision-making process. This ensures they prioritize the right problems. They can then use human-centered design methodologies to solve them the right way.
• Build the right team: The CXO’s team should include employees with a diverse set of skills and responsibilities:
  • CX and EX Program Management
  • Insights and Analytics (including AI prompt writing skills!)
  • Market Research and Competitive Intelligence
  • Journey Mapping and Experience Design
  • Change Management
  • Project Management
  • Communications
• Listen: This is easier said than done, but it’s crucial. A CXO must collect VOCE, listen to peers, talk to customers and frontline staff, and pay attention to escalations. The real insights—and the real stories—are found in these conversations, not just in metrics.

Now that you have the keys to assess whether you’re ready to appoint a CXO, why you should, and how to set them up for success, why not take the next step toward unlocking better experiences?