What CEOs Need to Know About Customer Experience

There was a time when product, price, and promotion were enough to lead the market. Today, customer experience (CX) has overtaken them all. In an increasingly digital, always-connected world, the way your customers feel about their interactions with your brand is often more influential than the product or service you sell.

If you are a CEO still viewing CX as a marketing concern or an after-sales issue, it is time for a strategic shift. Customer experience is no longer a departmental responsibility. It is a boardroom topic. It directly affects your revenue, retention, referrals, and reputation.

In this article, we will break down what you, as a chief executive, need to understand, evaluate and act upon, from the value of CX to actionable strategies for embedding it into your organisation's DNA.

What Exactly is Customer Experience?

Customer experience refers to the cumulative impact of every interaction a customer has with your business, both online and offline. This includes your website, customer support, physical locations, social media presence, product packaging, delivery process, email communications, and more.

It is important to understand that CX begins before the purchase and continues long after. It encompasses the entire customer journey from awareness and discovery, through consideration and purchase, to post-sale support and advocacy.

It is the journey. Not just the destination.

According to PwC, 73% of people say experience is a key factor in their purchasing decisions, yet only 49% of customers say companies provide a good experience. That means more than half of businesses are falling short and that represents a significant opportunity for leaders who are willing to prioritise CX.

Why CX Should Be a Priority for CEOs

You are already balancing growth, profitability, talent retention, innovation, and compliance. So why add customer experience to the list?

Because it is the glue that holds all of those priorities together. When CX is strong, everything else becomes easier. When it is weak, even the best business model can falter.

Here are five reasons why CX should matter deeply to you as a CEO.

1. CX Drives Revenue Growth

Great customer experiences encourage loyalty. Loyal customers spend more, stay longer, and refer others. Research from Harvard Business Review shows that customers with the best past experiences spend 140% more compared to those with the poorest experiences.

2. It Is a Key Competitive Advantage

In crowded markets, your competitors can match your pricing or copy your features. What they cannot replicate easily is how your customers feel. A memorable, frictionless, and personal customer journey is a long-term differentiator.

3. It Shapes Your Brand Reputation

Word of mouth is powerful, especially in the digital age. A single poor experience can lead to negative reviews, public complaints on social media, and long-term brand damage. On the other hand, a glowing experience can create lifelong brand advocates.

4. It Improves Operational Efficiency

Focusing on customer experience leads to cleaner processes, faster resolution times, fewer complaints, and reduced churn. It can save your business hundreds of hours per year and thousands in support costs.

5. It Reflects on You as a Leader

Your commitment to CX demonstrates your commitment to customers and to culture. The companies with the strongest reputations for customer experience often have deeply engaged workforces and stable executive teams.

Common Mistakes CEOs Make with CX

Even the most well-intentioned executives can unintentionally sabotage CX initiatives. Here are a few common errors to watch out for:

• Treating CX as a project, not a strategy: CX is not a one-time initiative. It is a mindset that must be integrated across departments.
• Focusing only on technology: Tools help, but they cannot fix broken culture or unclear customer journeys.
• Ignoring employee experience: Happy, empowered employees deliver better service. A toxic culture leads to disengaged teams and poor CX.
• Failing to connect CX to business outcomes: You must measure how CX investments affect revenue, retention, and other key business metrics.

What Should You Measure? CX Metrics That Matter

If you are not measuring something, you are unlikely to improve it. Here are the CX KPIs every CEO should track or ask their teams to report on:

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Measures how likely a customer is to recommend your product or service. A high NPS is a good sign of loyalty.

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)

Typically collected via surveys after a service interaction. It offers insight into how customers feel at the moment.

Customer Effort Score (CES)

Tracks how easy it was for a customer to complete an action, like making a purchase or resolving an issue.

Churn Rate

High churn often indicates a poor experience. Tracking this over time can uncover hidden friction points.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

The higher the CLV, the more valuable each customer becomes and the stronger your experience likely is.

Digital Experience is the Frontline

In 2025, digital experience is often the entire experience. Your website, mobile apps, email campaigns, social channels, and online customer service represent your brand more than your storefront ever could.

Make sure:

• Your website is fast, mobile responsive, and intuitive to navigate
• Customers can easily find help when they need it
• Social media queries are answered within an hour, not a day
• Your brand voice is consistent across platforms

Every interaction matters, especially in the digital age where switching brands is just a tap away.

Customer Experience Starts with Culture

Customer experience is not only about software and systems. It is about people. Creating a customer centric organisation requires cultural alignment at every level.

Here is how to start building that from the top down:

• Empower frontline staff: Give them autonomy to solve problems without excessive red tape.
• Celebrate great service: Share wins and stories internally. Reinforce what good looks like.
• Collect regular feedback: Internal and external voices should inform your decision making.
• Model customer centric behaviour: Leaders must lead by example. When a CEO listens to customer calls or reviews support tickets, it sends a powerful message.

The Role of a Fractional Digital Marketing Expert

You might not need a full-time Chief Customer Officer. But you absolutely need someone who understands how to align marketing, sales, product, and support to create a cohesive customer experience.

That is where a Fractional Digital Marketing Expert comes in.

Fractional experts work on a flexible basis, bringing strategic insights and hands-on execution. They can:

• Audit your current customer journey
• Improve website UX and digital touchpoints
• Establish CX metrics and reporting systems
• Lead customer listening sessions and analyse feedback
• Train your teams in customer centric practices

They provide senior-level thinking without the cost of a full-time hire.

Hire a Fractional Digital Marketing Expert through Cemoh

Real-World Examples of Great CX

Canva

The Australian design platform has revolutionised the creative space for non-designers. What sets Canva apart is not just its feature set but its obsessively user-friendly interface, delightful user journey and onboarding tutorials to rapid customer support and an ever-evolving library of templates.

Qantas

As a legacy airline, Qantas understands the importance of experience across digital and physical touchpoints. From an intuitive booking platform to the in-flight journey and elite customer loyalty programme, they consistently invest in making the customer feel valued.

Koala

This Aussie mattress company has built its reputation on fast shipping, transparent return policies, and customer-first policies. Koala’s humorous tone is backed by genuine care and a frictionless experience, whether you are ordering or returning.

Practical Steps You Can Take Today

Want to start embedding customer experience into your growth strategy? Here is your action list:

1. Ask your team for a CX snapshot: Get a simple one-page overview of how your business is currently tracking on NPS, CSAT, and other CX metrics.
2. Do a silent shop: Go through your own purchase process or support flow. What is frustrating or slow?
3. Map the customer journey: Get your team to outline every customer touchpoint. Identify the gaps or inconsistencies.
4. Appoint a CX owner: Even if it is temporary or fractional, assign someone to be responsible for customer experience outcomes.
5. Set a customer experience goal: Make CX measurable. Include it in leadership meetings and board reporting.

The Cost of Ignoring Customer Experience

If you are not actively improving CX, you are falling behind. Consider this:

• 70% of customers leave a brand after one poor experience
• Customers are willing to pay more for a better experience (PwC says up to 16 percent more)
• Negative experiences are shared twice as often as positive ones

This is not just a marketing issue. It is a business survival issue.

Final Thoughts: Experience is Strategy

Customer experience is not a feel-good initiative. It is a business strategy.

In fact, it may be the most powerful and under-utilised one you have. It can improve retention, boost lifetime value, reduce support costs, and create viral growth through word-of-mouth.

The best part? You do not need to reinvent your business. You simply need to refocus it around the people who keep it running, ‘your customers’.

And you do not need to do it alone. A Fractional Digital Marketing Expert can help you design, implement, and optimise a CX strategy tailored to your business model and goals.

Get started with Cemoh today and make your customer experience the strategic edge your competitors wish they had.