Revolutionizing Customer Experience: Tesco Appoints Emma Botton as Customer Director in Restructure
Tesco appoints Emma Botton as customer director in a restructuring move, following the imminent departure of chief customer officer Alessandra Bellini This initiative aims to eliminate organizational barriers and enhance collaboration within the company
Emma Botton has been appointed as Tesco's group customer director, a promotion from her previous role as group brand, proposition, and marketing communications director.
As the supermarket's most senior marketer, Botton will now lead Tesco's core customer agenda. Her responsibilities include developing customer strategy and ensuring consistency in customer propositions and marketing across various units within the group. Botton will collaborate closely with customer teams to achieve these goals.
Tesco will not directly replace chief customer officer Alessandra Bellini, who will be leaving at the end of September. Instead, Tesco's UK leadership team will welcome Botton, who will report to group chief commercial officer Ashwin Prasad. Prasad will have the ultimate responsibility for executing the product and customer strategy.
There are no other planned changes within the senior marketing senior team at this time. The existing customer leadership team will join Ashwin’s leadership team.
Removing silos
Tesco is restructuring its marketing function in order to better align its customer and product agendas. Through this initiative, the supermarket aims to combine the skills and experience of each function to enhance the quality of its overall proposition and expedite the fulfillment of its strategic drivers.
The supermarket's leadership and structure are being changed to prioritize customer satisfaction. CEO Ken Murphy acknowledged in a memo to staff that Bellini's departure marks her significant contribution to Tesco's advancement in customer service, resulting in being regarded as the top-performing company.
Tesco's focus on the customer has played a pivotal role in its turnaround after the 2014 accounting scandal. This scandal resulted in a record-breaking pre-tax loss of £6.38 billion, marking the worst financial performance in the company's 96-year history and the largest loss ever recorded on the UK high street. Recognizing the need to reestablish customer-centricity, UK CEO Jason Tarry openly acknowledged in 2020 that the business had regrettably lost sight of its customers' needs.
