What Does a Chief Experience Officer Do?
A Chief Experience Officer (CXO) must work across two key spectrums:
- Within the company—their focus is on employee satisfaction and engagement
- Outside of the company—their focus is on exceptional customer experience
Within the Company
The Chief Experience Officer ensures an optimal experience for all employees of the company, at all levels. This focus on the employee and their satisfaction with the company during every engagement—including onboarding, touch points, leadership, benefits, events and communication—is a key factor in allowing a company to attract and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive labor market.
Further, employee experience ends up being a reflection of customer experience. The principle of Symmetry of Attention suggests that there is a reciprocal relationship between an employee’s journey with the company and the resulting experience delivered to each customer. The satisfaction and well-being of employees is essential for guaranteeing customer satisfaction and ideally turning those customers into brand ambassadors (aka raving fans). It is the job of the CXO to ensure that this symmetry is achieved.
Outside of the Company
The Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is tasked with ensuring each aspect of the business contributes towards a positive engagement between the company and the buyer of their products and services. The CXO role creates a single point of accountability for the customer experience to drive greater business integration, customer focus, and to reduce costs. The CXO ensures that each department is unified in providing a seamless, high-quality experience for customers which leaves a lasting positive impact (example: consistent 5 stars reviews).
The rise of the CXO role in business reveals a growing awareness amongst executives that the customer experience must become central to the company’s culture, organization, and processes in order to achieve customer retention and acquisition. Further, more satisfied customers lowers new customer acquisition costs, as the current customers provide that critical un-buyable word-of-mouth from a trusted source.
How Does Nyla Utilize a CXO?
The Chief Experience Officer role at Nyla Technology Solutions, a software engineering and data science government contracting firm, was created to champion transparent communication, lead positive experience initiatives, and improve the company’s interaction with candidates, employees, customers, teammates, and partners.
Within the company, Nyla’s CXO is tasked with knowing each employee on a personal level in order to encourage professional development and growth to provide current and future opportunities that align with their interests, skill set, and career path.
Externally, the CXO of Nyla Technology Solutions focuses on understanding the customer’s mission and critical and future needs. They help lead Nyla’s mutually beneficial, long-term relationships with teammates and partners through clear communication of shared strategic vision.
A Real-World Example
Nyla’s recruiting process is one example of where the CXO role played had a significant impact. Recruiting qualified, outstanding employees has always been one of Nyla’s biggest business challenges.
– CXO Solution
In the summer of 2018, the CXO lead Candidate Experience analysis that reviewed the entire candidate journey with the company. With a third-party consultant, the team examined Nyla’s online presence, interview process, and even the content and delivery of offer letters. Addressing the findings was a significant evolution in Nyla’s methodology and, while it took a bit of time to get right—it was worth it. Nyla went from hiring maybe 1 person a month to a new record of 8 people in May 2019! Further, Nyla has achieved that through critical word of mouth. That way, when the amazing, passive candidate starts quietly looking, they reach out to Nyla directly to see what positions might be a good next move for them.
A Second Real-World Example
At one point, Nyla employees expressed confusion regarding their benefits package. Some employees were unsure or even unaware of specific benefits and balances. Other employees did not understand the processes for requesting different types of PTO or reimbursement for benefits. Employees were even unsure of who else worked for Nyla given the geographically dispersed nature of the company.
– CXO Solution
The CXO transformed a previously confusing dilemma into a positive experience with the implementation of BambooHR, an online HR web application. BambooHR hosts a consolidated and accessible portal where employees can clearly visualize their specific benefits, corresponding balances, and request these benefits on one easy platform. Employees may also view organization charts, other employee profiles, payroll calendars, user guides, and blog posts relevant to the company. BambooHR also allows executive leadership to maintain notes on each individual employee to document individual needs, qualifications, and preferences.
