Forty-seven percent of chief customer officers (CCOs), identified by Forrester in its eighth annual CCO evaluation, work at firms with $1B or more in annual revenue. Thirty-one of these large firms are S&P 500 companies, which means that more than 6% of firms on that index now have a CCO in place. Sounds like good news for the customer experience field, right?

The story is two-fold. While 86% of examined CCOs hold a seat on the executive management team, these C-level execs are largely newly minted: A full 85% are the first to hold this position within the company; more than one-third of CCOs are new to the job in the past year; and a mere 12% have held previous customer experience positions. For this reason, Forrester foresees a choppy road ahead for CCOs, who must prepare for both increased attention and operational responsibilities as they strive to establish their position and drive change.

To learn more about this research, visit the report Chief Customer Officer Snapshot, 2014.