Customer “Centricness”

So what’s going wrong between setting a direction to be more customer centric and actually implementing it? 

To start with ; Is it definitely not just a delivery and/ or sales only role

If you look at organizations that have successfully adopted a Customer Centric Strategy, you will find that the managers of all departments including internal functions such as IT, Finance and HR are in regular contact with Customers. If I will suggest this to some companies, I am sure that I will be told about the lack of success that they have had when taking their Financial Director into a Customer to help close a deal. They’re right, it rarely works. But the important thing is - are you making the best external use of your Financial Director? Are you sure he is not uncomfortable selling? After all he chose a career in finance not in sales.

In my opinion customers need, and want, to talk to their peers in other companies about current issues and common areas of concern in their area of responsibility. Using the knowledge, expertise and the experience of your managers and staff, on topics that they understand and care about, could be far more effective as it also helps build a learning relationship between the two organisations. 

This, I feel, is a key feature of being Customer centric.

Here’s an example of a good definition from an IT company’s strategic plan. 

“Being Customer Centric is about an ability for everyone in the company to continuously learn about Customers and the market. It is also the responsibility of everyone in the company to respond appropriately to what we learn.” 

Many organisations also find it helpful to state what being Customer centric does not mean. It should be obvious that it’s not about simply doing everything the Customer wants, irrespective of the impact on the business. Obvious yes, but I’d strongly recommend still saying something like “products, services and resources should be utilized in line with the organisations overall strategy as well as meeting the needs of Customers”. 

Steve Jobs always put himself in the shoes of the customer and even takes the lift down to the customer’s level understanding and more importantly, ignorance. Then he probably wonders “how can we make sure that they use my products and use it well”?[i] 

Being Customer centric means better relationships across the organisation which leads to increased revenues.

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[i] John Scully (ex-CEO of Apple) in an interview talks about Steve approach to customer centric design. Read full article here [i]http://tiny.cc/UZCf2b