Here’s a controversial idea that may get me unfollowed by all my Community Nerd friends…
What if the community space stopped chasing the Chief Community Officer role and internal team silo? What if we instead fought for the broader Chief Customer Experience Officer (CXO) and fought to have community efforts live in a well-funded CX organization?
Rather than constantly making a case for community alone we’d be part of a larger effort in the organization making a case for better customer experience, connection, and engagement. We’d be making a case to fund the centralization and distribution of customer insights, wherever they may come from, wherever they may go inside the business. We’d be supporting customers is deeply actionable ways beyond the efforts within the community itself.
In a growing number of companies this has centralization has started to happen, but it often feels like the age old “where does community report to?? OK fine, put it under CX!” rather than an active decision.
What do you think about rallying with and into CX?
