From buzzword to business driver: Making CX a C-suite priority

Pop quiz! Who owns customer experience (CX) in your company?

a. The customer service department/contact center

b. The C-suite or executive leadership team

c. Everyone. We’re all responsible for putting the customer first.

How many of you said “c?” It’s the diplomatic answer, but it’s not quite right. When a company thinks “everyone” owns the customer experience, often no one truly takes accountability.

How about “a?” Nope. Although the customer service department or contact center is a major customer interaction point, it’s just one stop on the customer journey.

The correct answer is “b.” In reality, customer experience should be owned by the C-suite (the CEO, CFO, CIO and other top executives). That may come as a surprise to some executives. After all, does the CFO or CIO really need to worry about whether customers are having a good experience?

The answer is yes. If your company does not have a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) or similar role, then the executive leadership team must collectively take accountability.

Why? Because customer experience is one of the most powerful drivers of shareholder value. According to Gartner, CX investments directly impact customer loyalty, operational efficiency, and long-term business growth. These outcomes contribute directly to shareholder returns.

Customer experience is the competitive advantage

CX is no longer a soft metric; it’s a competitive differentiator. Research from Gartner shows 62% of organizations view customer experience as a key differentiator. And yet, many companies still struggle to define who owns it.

Without clear ownership, CX becomes fragmented. Departments operate in silos, customer feedback loops break down, and we miss opportunities to drive incremental revenue or simply improve the customer journey. The result? Inconsistent experiences that erode trust, loyalty, and ultimately the bottom line.

Customer experience is no longer just a service issue, but rather a strategic concern for the whole company. Those that treat it as a shared responsibility without clear leadership risk falling behind. To win in today’s market, CX must be elevated to the executive level.

Why the C-suite needs to own customer experience

Customer experience is a strategic imperative. Here’s why the C-suite must take the lead:

• Ultimate accountability: Only the executive team has the authority to align every department around a shared CX vision. Marketing, sales, operations, and IT all play a role, but without executive-level coordination, efforts remain disconnected.

• Strategic priority: CX must be embedded into the company’s core strategy, not a side initiative. When the C-suite prioritizes CX, it signals to the entire organization that delivering value to customers is central to business success.

• Cross-functional leadership: The customer journey spans multiple touchpoints, from initial awareness to post-sale support. The C-suite is uniquely positioned to bring together leaders across functions to design and deliver a seamless end-to-end experience.

When the C-suite owns customer experience, it becomes a company-wide priority. This level of leadership ensures CX goes from a talking point to an action item. It also sends a clear message to employees, clients, and shareholders that customer value is at the heart of the business.

Common challenges in CX ownership

Even companies with strong CX intentions often fall short due to structural and leadership gaps. Here are some of the most common pitfalls:

• No single owner: When CX is “everyone’s job,” it often becomes no one’s responsibility. Without a designated leader, accountability is diluted and progress stalls.

• Missing CXO role: Some organizations have a Chief Experience Officer, but many do not. This leaves a leadership vacuum where no one is focused solely on the customer journey.

• Infrequent attention: CX is often discussed quarterly or annually, which is far too infrequent to respond to real-time customer needs. Without regular executive engagement, issues go unresolved and opportunities are missed.

These challenges stem as much from culture as from operations.  Without clear ownership and consistent attention, CX initiatives lose momentum. The C-suite must recognize these gaps and take proactive steps to fill them, either by appointing a CXO or by stepping into the role themselves.

Solving for ownership

To truly elevate customer experience, organizations must rethink how they structure leadership and collaboration. Here’s how to start:

• Bring stakeholders together. Map out every operational touchpoint in the customer journey and identify which teams influence each moment. This exercise clarifies roles and exposes ownership gaps.

• Champion executive-led initiatives. The C-suite should lead cross-functional efforts to improve CX. This includes setting goals, removing barriers, and ensuring each department understands and owns their part of the experience.

• Embed CX into strategy through experience fulfillment. Experience fulfillment is a strategic approach to orchestrating and automating front- and back-office tasks so that customer intelligence — such as relationship, intent, sentiment, and desired outcome — stays intact across the enterprise. It connects the dots between what customers expect and what organizations actually deliver. When the C-suite embraces experience fulfillment, they enable the organization to follow through on CX promises by removing friction, breaking down silos, and leveraging technology that often already exists within the business.

Assigning an owner to your CX efforts is not about assigning blame. It is about creating clarity. When the C-suite leads CX initiatives and integrates experience fulfillment into their strategy, it becomes easier to align teams, measure impact, and drive meaningful change. This kind of leadership turns CX from a buzzword into a business advantage.

Final thought: Ask the hard question

If you’re an executive reading this, ask yourself:

Who truly owns customer experience in my organization?

If the answer isn’t clear, it is time to take personal and collective ownership. When the C-suite leads the charge and embraces experience fulfillment, customer experience stops being a buzzword and starts driving real business advantage.