Is Customer Experience the Next Dinosaur?

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Customer Experience as a function started to gain awareness and traction in 2006 with Jeanne Bliss’s book, “Chief Customer Officer: Getting Past Lip Service to Passionate Action”. I have been in the customer experience industry for well over a decade beginning at Sage Software in 2010. During that entire time, I was fortunate to be part of Forrester Research’s Customer Experience Council learning and absorbing every bit of knowledge. It allowed me to experiment in my new role at a time when there was no such thing as playbooks. Forrester Research provided me with a platform to influence and became a thought leader in the customer experience field.

Let’s begin by defining the functional responsibility of Customer Experience. Professionals in this field are responsible for improving individual customer touchpoints across the entire customer journey from awareness & interest, buy, use, get help and renew. While there are multiple components to this practice, typically it involves solving for: understanding of the customer through voice of the customer, having a customer-centric culture, enabling employees with a great employee experience, applying customer experience insights in design of new products and services, and measuring customer experience KPI’s.

Fast forward to 2023, what has happened to this Customer Experience discipline that caught on fire from 2000’s to 2010’s? My observation and opinion is that it has gone murky and it is fizzling. It is on the endangered list potentially becoming a dinosaur.

Customer Experience: Here, There & Everywhere

“Customer Experience” has become an adjective for many job titles. This is particularly noticeable in Sales and Customer Service roles. In fact, entire customer service departments are now called Customer Experience departments. Former Customer Service agents are now called Customer Experience agents. Customer Experience is now the universal catchy descriptor for all things customer. That is good and bad. It is good that Customer Experience has more brand recognition now. It is bad because it dilutes the original purpose of Customer Experience function which is the discipline of improving the end to end customer journey touchpoints, not just the customer service or support stage.

No More Customer Experience Council

When I first became a Forrester Research CX Council member in 2010, the membership size doubled every year to the point where it was one of the largest leadership boards. I learned from my Forrester Research friends that sadly, the company has discontinued CX Council Leadership Boards a couple of years ago. The Council memberships were paid seats and Forrester was generating millions of dollars of revenue from them. Is this another sign that Customer Experience is fizzling?

Where are Senior Customer Experience Jobs in 2023?

Another barometer that I use is Customer Experience employment opportunities. During the height of the customer experience boom in the mid 2010’s, senior Customer Experience Executives were in high demand. Recruiters were using Linkedin to hunt for these special gifted talents. Today, these types of senior Customer Experience positions are far and few in between. Just try searching for these senior roles and prove to yourself.

2023 is a bad year for those who can’t prove their value to their organizations. This is a wake up call to all Customer Experience professionals. We are in danger of fading or dying like the dinosaurs.

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What is Wrong with the Customer Experience Function in 2023?

Customer Experience is a Staff not a Line Function

A line function such as the sales team, has responsibilities and interactions with customers (front line). A staff function like a traditional customer experience department is in the backdrop advising the line functions in a strategic or tactical way. In the majority of cases, Customer Experience functions operate on a staff function model. In a downward economy, staff functions are at a much higher risk to be impacted by layoffs versus their line counterparts.

Where is the Customer Experience Business Impact?

Many Customer Experience professionals are solely in the customer happy business. Their primary KPI is either NPS or CSAT. As long as these metrics go up, everyone is pleased. But ask any Customer Experience professional how their work positively improves business results either from a revenue or cost perspective, and you will get a few puzzling looks.

Reflecting on the Past 2 Decades of Customer Experience Discipline

Learning from Customer Success, the Customer Experience Cousins

Let me clarify. Customer Success is not the same as Customer Experience even though many businesses use the terms interchangeably. Customer Success has post-sales responsibilities helping customers to achieve value or outcomes from their products or services. These outcomes must also have an amazing experience. Great outcome + a great experience equal renewals and retention which further leads to revenue expansion in the form of up-sells and cross-sells.

Customer Success as a function is made famous by Salesforce. According to the Customer Success Association, it was not Salesforce who invented the first Customer Success department. That recognition goes to a CRM company called Vantive which created a “customer success” department for the first time in 1996.

Unlike Customer Experience, Customer Success is Booming

Try searching for a Customer Success job in 2023, you will find many opportunities. Unlike Customer Experience, Customer Success is booming. Why? Customer Success is a line function not a staff function. Their impact on the top line is clear in terms of customer retention. Every customer retained equals a measurable ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). Every cross-sell and up-sell completed is a measurable revenue expansion number. Given that strong linkage, it is not surprising that customer success is even more important in a downward economy.

How Do We Carry on the Customer Experience Torch?

Don’t Hide. Ask for Direct Customer Responsibilities

Many Customer Experience professionals are more comfortable in a staff role behind the scenes putting together fancy dashboards and analyzing data. But don’t get comfortable! During my time at Sage Software and Dwolla, I had customer escalation responsibilities. It is a wonderful learning experience personally speaking to an angry customer and salvaging a bad customer experience. My staff function morphed into a line function that more closely mirrors what a Customer Success function does today.

Prove Customer Experience Value Not as an Afterthought

If Customer Experience KPI’s stop at Net Promoter Scores or CSAT, Customer Experience value to the organization will always be fuzzy and intangible. While at Sage Software, I was able to show that an increase in Net Promoter Scores equals an increase in the customer retention rate. Each point of retention rate improvement is worth millions of dollars to the organization. You have to push the envelope and connect the dots for the company to see your team’s value.

Seek Customer Experience and Customer Success Partnership

I was fortunate while I was at Dwolla. I had direct responsibilities for all 3 functions of Customer Success, Customer Experience and Customer Service or Support. Customer Experience is one half of Customer Success’ function (Great Customer Outcomes + Great Customer Experience). These two teams must be tightly coupled and can leverage each other’s strengths. So Customer Experience professionals, go find your Customer Success partners within your organizations and see how you can help each other.

In summary, I do see Customer Experience starting to fizzle. Similar to many trends in the business world, those in the Customer Experience function must continue to evolve in order to survive and not be the next dinosaur. These are my personal thoughts and reflections. What do you think? Leave me a comment below.