So You Want To Be Customer-Centric?

On the face of it, customer-centricity is easy.  All you need to do is figure out what your customers need, and give it to them.  But anyone who's attempted to make his business act on the voice of the customer knows better.  Silos, policies and KPI's get in the way.

So companies set up customer-centricity programmes.  They appoint someone with a fancy title and expect this person to succeed where the rest of the business has failed.  But for those in the hot seat, this may be a poisoned gift.  Getting a business to focus on the customer is probably one of the most rewarding, but also difficult challenges any executive can be given.

It is rewarding, because when it you get it right, customer-centricity is probably the biggest contributor to sustainable growth and profit in any company.  It is difficult, because most companies aren't really set up to care about their customers at all.

So as I've had the good fortune of being part of some highly successful customer-centricity projects, I decided to write down some of the lessons I learned along the way.  Some of these lessons are based on my own mistakes, others are borrowed wisdom from those who took on challenges elsewhere.

Either way, I hope a few may be helpful in pointing your business in the right direction.

So you want to be customer centric?

The People Side of Customer Centricity

I’m on a mission to help marketing catch up with the realities of today, and one of the areas I believe still requires some attention is the way businesses focus on their customers.  Or in modern day jargon, how far they are “customer centric”.  Sure, by now we know that focusing on the customer can help you grow sales, build loyalty and even get customers to recommend you to others.  There are even a growing number of people that deploy the Net Promoter Score or similar metrics as a tool to achieve just that.     

But while these numbers and theories can point you in the right direction, they do not change the way your company operates.  That needs to be done by the people in the business.  And marketers need to make sure they want to play ball too.  They need to make people in the business understand why it’s important to focus on the customer.  They need to be prepared to walk the customer talk.  Truly listen to the customer.  Change their habits and behaviours.  Even re-organise the business if that’s needed.

Management Centre Europe specialises in getting people to develop a customer-centric mindset (disclosure: MCE is a long standing Futurelab customer), and from working with them on a number of customer projects, I’ve learned that this bit of getting people to act is a completely different ball game.  In fact, at MCE they found that only companies that place equal value on the mindset of their people, stand a fighting chance.

But when it comes to the internal – people – aspects of customer-centricity, most marketers are no where to be found (nor – to be fair – are most other departments).  Still, for those who would like to take up the gauntlet of really making something happen in their business, I propose six attention areas which have been proven in other places, and they could work for you.

Attention area 1: Show them the money

No matter which way you look at it, businesses are about money.  Shareholders want returns.  Staff wants to be paid.  So marketers should start every conversation about customer centricity by talking about money, and the measurable profits the business can make by making customers “happy”.  Talking about the bonuses that can be earned by growing customer delight helps too.  After all, only if the leaders of the business and their staff clearly see what’s in it for them and for the company, will they consider changing their behaviour.

Attention area 2: Involve everyone

Customer centricity is not about graphs and PowerPoint presentations.  It is about having your people experience what customers are looking for.  Showing them why customer focus matters.  How their job, no matter how customer-remote, can have an impact.  That is why marketers must involve everyone in the business in the customer research conversations taking place.  And rather than prescribe the right behaviour, encourage them to formulate for themselves what being customer-centric means in their job.  You cannot script human behaviour anyway.

Attention area 3: Adapt the KPI’s

Getting the people in the business to understand the importance of customer centricity and what it means to their job is a start.  But if the KPI’s they face tell a different story, the initial enthusiasm will quickly disappear.  Efficiency measures can eliminate staff time to deal with the customer.  Cost controls can create bad profits.  Project priority sheets can lead people astray.  As a third – crucial - step marketers need to work with other stakeholders to review every KPI of the business.  Does it encourage people to do what is right?  Or does it get in the way?  Is it customer-centric, or is it customer-toxic?  After all, only when every KPI is aligned, will the people be able to put their intentions into practice.

Attention area 4: Back it with leadership support

Once people are willing to do what is right for the customer and have formulated a vision of how this applies to them, they need to be empowered to act.  This is where marketers need to encourage the leadership of the business to come into play.  They need to allocate resources to the right places, encourage the right behaviours and forgive well-intended mistakes.  They need to set the example by actively talking to customers, and doing what is right.  And when processes, habits or politics get in the way, they need to be decisive and clear that the customer centricity drive is not up for debate. 

Attention area 5: Break the silos

But even empowered employees can only achieve so much.  After all, customer feedback typically doesn’t fit the processes and silos of the business.  That is why – even though they should advocate it -  customer centricity should not become the responsibility of the marketing or any other department.  Instead, cross-functional teams should be created and resourced to understand what being customer centric means across departments.  And subsequently align individual parts of the organisation so they "deliver what is right for the customer and for the business."

Attention area 6: Focus on mindset and completion

Any customer feedback system is a rear view mirror for your business.  It can tell you how well the business has done and trigger improvement projects, but it cannot predict the future. Every new situation will be different.  Marketers need to help all employees and subcontractors instinctively select the right actions.  For this they should rely on the customer facts, but above all on a mindset in which they know what matters most, and are free to do this.

So what do you think.  Am I crazy?

5 CMO Steps to Customer-Centricity

Last week, I had a great chat with Donovan Neale-May, executive director at the CMO Council.  We mainly talked about their latest report "Giving the Customer Voice More Volume" (must read!) and I found our views and passions to be remarkably similar.  After all, while everyone seems to be "talking" about the need of businesses to focus on their customers, there seems to be a rather limited amount of "walking".

A few facts from the report (n= 500 senior marketers from around the world);

 

The Talk

• 59% of respondents claim that a CEO-driven culture of customer-centricity is embraced by their organisations.
• 83% think that the customer experience is (increasingly) important in determining brand advocacy and business performance.  

 

The Walk

• Three-quarters of these same respondents have not yet adopted a formal Voice-of-the-Customer Programme.  
• 56% of marketers have no programmes in place to track or propagate word-of-mouth among their customers.  
• Only 23% actually track the volume and nature of customer mail.

 

According to Donovan, many CMO's are missing the opportunity of truly connecting their companies to the customer.  Silo-based organisations ensure many have an opinion, but no one is really in charge of the customer experience.  Customer information is fragmented in various locations, depriving the average call centre employee of the integrated view they need to do their job.  Leads get dropped because departments and processes don't connect.  And in the end, the only conversations senior executives have with their customers, is in the business class lounge of their local airport.

 

So how do you then turn the corner?  I thought I'd give a shot at writing up a few "recommended steps" for CMO's wanting to make their business more customer-centric.  They are inspired by my conversations with Donovan as well as the customer experience and advocacy/NPS work I have been doing for MCE at places like Philips (click for case) and Lexus (click for case).  As always, any suggestions to improve on the thinking are very welcome.

 

STEP 1: START AT THE TOP

No matter what books or gurus may say, customer-focus is a top-down game.  From childhood we have learned to follow the example of those that lead us, and that means that customer-centricity should be mindset of all C-level executives.  Not in words, but in actions.  The management board needs to be seen talking to customers, allocating resources in the right places, balancing quick volume wins against long-term customer value.  If this commitment is not there, even the best intended customer-centricity projects will falter.  That is why CMO's should first turn their peers into customer evangelists.  Then they can move on the business.

 

STEP 2. SHOW THEM THE MONEY

Enthusiasm will get you part of the way, but no self-respecting CEO will reorganise a business around the customer without a solid business case.  After all, being nice to customers is good, but there's also that minor matter of shareholder value.  The CMO's second step on the customer-centricity ladder is therefore to demonstrate the financial benefits of "happy customers" to the organisation.  Happy customers are more profitable, so having many of them makes good business sense.  But while many customer initiatives are good at highlighting the investments they require, most forget to highlight the return.  CMO's should remedy this, by demonstrating the ROI on customer efforts.

 

STEP 3: START WITH THE PEOPLE

To really focus on the customer, companies will need to update their information systems and processes (remember the "one customer file"?).  But before getting too bogged down in flow-charts and project plans, CMO's should wire the people in the right way.  Tear up the detailed customer interaction and scripts.  Show staff and vendors how to listen and care.  Not only in the front lines, but at every level of the organisation.  Every department eventually affects the customer experience, and thus the profitability of the business.  Only when the people "get this", organisational changes have a fighting chance.  If only because they'll drive them.

 

STEP 4: HELP THEM DO THE RIGHT THING

Once a customer-focused mindset takes hold of the organisation, the people will start fixing the systems & processes themselves.  But they will encounter challenges.  Legacy implementations will limit what can be done.  Corporate politics and habits will slow down initiatives.  Unpopular, but needed budget cuts will impact morale.  Here, CMO's should step in to help the organisation get out of its people's way.  And, where needed, to roll up their sleeves and personally ensure that customers get what they deserve. Because if this support is not given, the most well-intentioned projects will get stuck at the initiative stage and in the end the customer won't notice.

 

STEP 5: MAKE IT CLEAR YOU MEAN BUSINESS

Customer-centricity doesn't always come naturally.  Reluctance and even resistance may arise.  Then, CMO's need to make it clear they mean business.  Once the financial case for customer-focus is made, dissent should not be an option.  CMO's should be supportive when possible, but firm when needed. Making customer advocacy a "hard" KPI and holding managers accountable to it, is imperative.  Publicly challenging customer toxic practices required.  But also ensuring the resources keep going to the right places, even in challenging times.  Rewarding people for getting it right.  This will require tough choices. But it is exactly from those choices that people will judge the resolve of their C-suite to be truly customer-centric.  

 

And those CMO's who believe the five step programme is a bit too ambitious, there is also a "step zero".  That is to stop reading this article, switch off their computer and go talk to a customer.  Any customer.  Now.