JDiver

In a first for Hilton, a new position directly responsible to the CEO has been established, the position of "Chief Customer Officer".

"The new position will further strengthen Hilton’s leadership in innovation and delivering exceptional guest experiences." (Diversity Inc.)

Jonathan (Jon) Witter will serve as the new Chief Customer Officer, and will be responsible for the Global Brands, Marketing, Loyalty & Partnerships, IT and Strategy teams. He will report directly to Christopher J. Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton, and will serve as a member of the executive committee.

Witter's background includes serving most recently as President of Retail and Direct Banking at Capital One Financial Corporation, and previously at Morgan Stanley Bank as COO.

Hilton CEO Nassetta said "Jon has built an incredibly strong reputation throughout his career for constantly driving innovation, being a deeply strategic thinker and keeping the customer front and center at all times. “He will be integral to ensuring that at every stage of our customers’ journey, from the time they start planning a trip to when they arrive back home, we exceed their expectations at every turn.”

Links to stories in

BusinessWire

Hotel Online

Biz Journal

Will there ultimately be significant impact on the customer experience? How long might it take?

What would the actions required to impact customer experience be?

What would you like to see?

gengar

I'm going to be quite cynical on this, but do we really believe that the establishment of a "Chief Customer Officer" is going to improve the guest experience in this day and age of seemingly constant devaluations?

RCTP

You spoke my mind. There are lots of things they could have done without hiring another person.

The devaluation you mentioned is one particular area of concern.

birdiedouble

I'm more of a contrarian by nature, so I'll give Hilton credit for creating this position, as opposed to than eliminating it, had it previously existed. I seems like there are plenty posts on FT complaining about brand inconsistency, IT issues and poor service delivery that maybe having better focus at a high corporate level won't be a bad thing. I've used some COF products in the past and have been impressed with their operation. Welcome to Hilton Mr. Witter. BTW Hilton is a for profit business. That is not to say that we should agree with all their decisions, but maybe look at some of them from a different angle.

diver858

Put me in the skeptical category. The travel industry has done an excellent job truly understanding that price is king, finding ways to incrementally reduce service and amenities to minimize cost while sustaining demand - F9 and NK are the poster children. The average consumer may whine about poor service, but will have a very short memory, put up with increasing levels of inconvenience for a perceived good deal.

In the case of Hilton, my perception of the CCO: Characterize customer behavior, tailor each brand to offer the lowest level of service for a given price point. Expect the actual responsibilities are written in more colorful corporate-speak.

chrism20

So they have employed a Marketing Director and given them a fancy title

No doubt we will hear from him in about six months time when he writes to us with something along the lines of the following:-

"Fantastic changes to your programme that you have told us you want".

thbe

And the new changes will be even greater than the last four new perks, that "make your Points more useful, valuable and flexible, and your travel experience better than ever".

chrism20

That's the one ^

kdw133

I hate to be cynical, but hard to imagine this will result in any real benefit for guests. Perhaps we've just been beaten down by too many "positive" changes. I wish him luck and hope he really does make a difference, but as birdiedouble said, Hilton is a for profit business.

gengar

The problem is that even when businesses describe changes as being "good for the customer", they often aren't - and HH has been guilty of this even recently. I view this type of doublespeak to be incredibly harmful to the customer relationship as it destroys goodwill. Also, that the "Chief Customer Officer" position oversees marketing doesn't make me hopeful that HH will be better about this - in fact, I fear it could be the opposite.

As a side note, for-profit businesses don't need to focus on cutting costs in order to make or increase profits. Rampant cost-cutting, especially in the hospitality industry, often works against long-term growth.

DiverDave

I'm sure one of the goals will be extracting more revenue from valued customers.

turtlemichael

What a load of cynics we all are! Anyone would think that we had had experience of businesses who tell us they are going to "enhance" the customer experience.

Isn't it just possible that Hilton sees genuinely improving the customer journey is in the long term interests of the customer as well as the business?

craz

I agree but thats what the preBlackstone Hilton would have done, now the hotel chains are like the airlines, the only improving they want is to pad their bonus every year by increasing their bottom lines as they decrease the benefits to us

birdiedouble

Shouldn't that be one of the goals of a profit seeking company? It's a bit ludicrous to expect the senior management at any company to sit around and devise ways to increase expenses and reduce revenues. It has to be a complex balancing act with the various stakeholders (including customers) involved in the hospitality business that it's unreasonable for us to expect that every move they make will result in lower costs for us and more benefits.

DiverDave

A profit seeking company should have a goal to make money. That doesn't have to be the goal of every last person at the company, in particular a "Chief Customer Officer".

Some years ago, I corresponded with the Delta SkyMiles manager. His frequent theme was he had to support revenue management and revenue growth. I thought that was rather sad - there are hundreds if not thousands of folks employed to achieve those goals, and that surely at least the SkyMiles manager could be the one advocate for his customers. But there was no upside in the Delta world for him to advocate for his customers. So he didn't.

For now, rooms are full and room rates are rising. When the economic cycle turns down (as it will inevitably), perhaps the tune will change.