What is a Chief Customer Officer?

I spent a long week in the Bay Area at SaaStr Annual last week. Was great to see many old friends in person and to make some new ones, too.

It reminded me—as conferences always do—that nothing replaces face to face interaction when it comes to developing and strengthening relationships. Conferences are an efficient and effective way to do that.

It’s clear that travel budgets are way down across the board this year, and understandably so. But are you getting out of your office enough these days?

↓

A simple LinkedIn title search reveals that there are about 12,000 “Chief Customer Officers” on the planet, a relatively small group when compared to 295,000 CFOs and over 119,000 CMOs.

​According to the CCO Council, only a handful of executives held this title 30 years ago. Yet today, Google worldwide search trends for “chief customer officer” indicate strong and growing interest in it.

There are well-worn ruts in the road for most executive positions. It’s not difficult to understand what finance, marketing, product, sales, and human resources chiefs do. But what exactly does a CCO do and how are its responsibilities divvied up relative to these other operating roles?

In B2B SaaS, the chief customer officer sits at the intersection of a company’s customer base, its shareholders, and the industry it serves. It’s operational in nature, and can have a massive impact on the direction, growth, and efficiency of the company.

CCOs typically own a number of customer-oriented delivery teams which may include:

• Pre- and Post-sales Consulting

• Implementation and Onboarding

• Technical Account Management

• Training and Enablement

• Customer Support

• Customer Success

• Account Management

• Renewal Management

• Customer Marketing

But beyond functional leadership, CCOs are also responsible for monetizing the customer base (e.g. renewal, upsell, cross-sell), optimizing efficiency and profitability, and championing customer-focused strategy across the entire business.

Role in monetization

Early on, CCOs might have been considered chief customer service officers (per the CCO Council article referenced above), focused mostly on customer support and professional services. But in the last decade, revenue retention and growth have become a larger part of the equation. Today, most CCOs are on the hook for revenue retention and expansion, and their goals are tied to broader company goals [1] rather than just CX metrics such as time to value, NPS, CSAT, etc.

Customer success teams now play a significant role in ongoing account management which means, at a minimum, CCOs are at the table for white space analysis, price increase, and expansion campaign discussions. More often they are directly responsible for planning, activating, and executing these activities.

Role in efficiency

A lot of folks like to chastise sales and marketing teams for the growth-at-all-costs tactics they’ve used over the past 10-15 years. But the reality is that we’ve been using retention-at-all-costs methods, too.

Rather than throwing warm bodies at problems, the CCO takes responsibility for helping customers realize value in their product purchases while adhering to a budget. This is crucial given the size and scope of their teams.

In most SaaS companies, headcount represents 75% of the expenses of the business. It’s not uncommon for a CCO to oversee as much as 60% of the company’s total headcount, and 40-50% of the cost base, most of which sits in the Cost of Good Sold line item (thus impactg Gross Profit).

The CCO plays a significant role in optimizing these costs by streamlining processes, eliminating unnecessary work, and developing scalable customer engagement strategies.

As growth across SaaS slowed in 2023 and 2024, a CCO friend of mine reiterated her commitment to operational efficiency. Going into the year, her CFO and CEO approved an increased investment in customer success headcount in exchange for an expected material improvement in revenue retention that year. She made it clear to her team that if the revenue and retention lift didn’t show up, the company would optimize for Gross Margin. In other words, they would reduce spending as quickly as they added it to make sure Gross Margin targets were achieved. Missing on Gross Margin in 2024 is nonnegotiable.

CCOs need a strong command of how to interpret and impact their company’s Income Statement. Full stop.

(Shameless plug… If you want to brush up on the Income Statement, check out the course that I put together on Financial Literacy for SaaS Leaders).

Role in customer-centricity

Customer-centricity can set in motion a virtuous flywheel for the business that drives long term company success. Increased customer value begets increased customer loyalty begets increased revenues begets economies of scale advantages begets increased customer acquisition, and so on.

Given its functional purview, the Chief Customer Officer is in a unique position to represent the voice of the customer and industry to the company. Customer service and support aren’t enough to drive retention on their own, and software is evolving faster now than ever.

Open source, cloud, and AI enable competitors to spring up overnight and mature quickly. You must have a product that solves real customer problems, stands up to competition, and that provides tangible value in exchange for the fees.

To that end, the CCO is a close partner to the Chief Product Officer. They oversee feedback loops which illuminate blind spots in product strategy, service delivery, and the competitive landscape. They are, quite literally the eyes and ears on the ground, and must take responsibility for engaging every department (and the board) in continuous learning and innovation cycles on behalf of the customer.

…

The modern CCO role is a dynamic, operational role. Done well, it goes beyond day-to-day management of services and support. It drives top-line growth, improves efficiency, and builds customer-centric culture within a company.

I am going to continue digging deeper into the Chief Customer Officer job and how it’s evolving. Would love your feedback as I do:

- What’s your experience with the CCO role?
- Have you held the position?
- Do you work for a CCO?
- Or employ a CCO?

Hit reply and let me know if my thoughts above match your experience.

🤘

[1] In my last CCO role, my variable compensation was based 50% on Gross Revenue Retention, 25% on overall ARR Growth, and 25% on EBITDA vs. plan.