Customer-Centricity

"There are ducks, and there are eagles. The

ducks run around the ground quacking all
the time, stating rules, following orders,
doing what they are told and often pecking
at other ducks. Eagles soar high above to
get the best perspective and decide what is
best for the customer."
- Ken Blanchard (Leading at a Higher Level)
“A company's primary responsibility is to serve
its customers . . . Profit is not the primary goal,
but rather an essential condition for the
company's continued existence.”
- Peter Drucker
“The alignment of systems, processes and
people to deliver products and services to
internal and external customer in the most
agile way.”
- Charteris
What is Customer-Centricity?
“Customer-centricity involves
aligning organizational resources
for effectively responding to the
ever-changing needs of
customers, while building
mutually profitable relationships.”
- Craig Bailey & Kurt Jensen
Aligning Organizational Resources
✓ Personnel
✓ Operating practices and procedures
✓ Systems (internal and external)
✓ Products and services
Aligning Personnel
• Recognizing and rewarding
customer-centric behaviour.
• Training every staff on customer-
centricity.
• Ensuring that decision-making hinges
on customers.
• Using communication tools and
techniques for highlighting the firm’s
progress in customer-centricity
Entrenching Customer-Centricity via
Training cum Internalization
Customer-centricity can be
embedded on organizational
processes through adequate
training and modeling of
interdepartmental transactions as
depiction of customer relationships
that require optimization.
 Focus of Training

• Communicating effectively and

building rapport.
• Identifying and exploiting
opportunities.
• Managing complex and taxing
conversations.
• People and communication
styles
Requirements for Building Mutually Profitable
Relationships

✓ Ascertainment of customer’s request

✓ Ensuring Profitability
✓ Find out repeatability of transaction
✓ Determination of feasible term of
relationship.
Voice of The Customer Process
• Obtain customer’s pulse
• Involve the customer
• Analyze information
• Socialize results
• Implement customer-focused
changes
• Respond to the Customer
How to Obtain Customer’s Pulse

✓Survey the Customer

✓Interview the Customer
✓Get information from customer-
facing personnel
✓Observe actions and behaviours
of customers
✓Embark on mystery shopping
Three Different Faces of a Customer

• Business decision-maker
• End-user of product or service
• Procurement function
 Customer Survey

Transactional Surveys Relationship Surveys

Focuses on measuring Focuses on all aspects
customer satisfaction with of the firm such as
individual or collection of • Marketing
Interaction with firm. • Product Management
• Service and Support
• Sales/Account
Management
• Engineering/Develop
ment
• Professional Services
• Training and
Education
• Accounting/Finance
Survey on many individuals in
customer’s firm.
Factors that Aid Collection of Inputs from
Customer-Facing Personnel

• Environment of trust
• Establishing expectations with
personnel
• Managing anecdotes
 Involving Customers
This can be done by means of the following:
1. Focus Group: For obtaining information
through discussion with a group of
participants, taking cognizance of
commonality in demographics, attitudes or
purchase patterns.
2. Customer Board of Advisors: For holding
periodic meetings with selected number of
senior executives from firm’s customer
database. Factors that determine selection of
customers include strategic importance,
level of complexity/sophistication in use of
products or service, diversity of industries
which the firm represents.
 Analyzing information

Analyze customer Compare to other

feedback and information information held by the
obtained firm

Output: Such information include the

i. Positive trends following:
ii. Challenging trends i. Customer demographics
iii. Issues raised by customers ii. Transactional history

This gives rise to development of customer segmentation strategy

 Socialize Result

Top-level reporting Comprehensive

for general report for
awareness sectional,
departmental and
project
action-planning
Steps for Implementing Customer-Focused Changes

• Getting management commitment

• Conducting cross-functional reviews
• Voice of customer tracking and reviews
• Forecasting
Key Performance Indicators Targeted for
Improvement
• Customer Satisfaction
• Customer Retention
• Churn
• Revenue and
Profitability
-Overall
-By Customer
• Segment
-By Customer
Product/Service Diversity By
Customer
Responding to Customers
1. Immediate Response
i. Establishment of criteria for ‘immediacy’.
ii. Implementing ‘immediacy’ team.
iii. Management reporting.

2. Responding with Account Strategies

The six steps for implementing Account Strategies:
iv. Record account-specific results
v. Involve senior management in customer
experience.
vi. Prepare for customer review meeting
vii. Engage customer in meeting
viii. Inform the organization and respond
resourcefully.
ix. Continue the process
Other Methods of Updating Customers

➢ Newsletter
➢ E-mail
➢ Website
➢ E-zine
➢ Instituting the update as a component of firm’s
account management practices
➢ Using interactive sessions of forum or board of
advisors.
➢ Responding immediately to participants during
survey.
Common Pitfalls of CRM

➢ Accepted as a technical instead of business

problem
➢ Using a top-down approach
➢ Non-involvement of senior management
➢ Lack of focus on areas of high adoption
➢ Driven by IT department instead of Sales,
Marketing and Service.
➢ Biting more than one can chew
➢ Organizational unpreparedness
 From Product-Focused to Customer Centric Firm
Feature Product-Focused Customer-Centric
Customer Orientation ▪ Discrete transaction at a point in time ▪ Customer life-cycle orientation
▪ Event-oriented marketing ▪Work with customer to solve both immediate and
▪ Narrow Focus long term issues
▪ Build customer understanding at each interaction

Solution Mindset ➢Narrow distribution of customer value ➢ Broad definition of customer value proposition
proposition ➢Bundles that combines products, services and
➢ Off-the-shelf products knowledge
➢ Top-down design ➢Bottom-up, designed on the front lines

Advice Orientation ▪ Perceived as outsider selling in ▪ Working as an insider

▪ Push product ▪ Solutions focus
▪ Transactional relationship ▪ Advisory relationship
▪ Individual to individual ▪ Team-based selling

Customer Interface ➢Centrally driven ➢Innovation and authority at the front line with
➢Limited decision-making power in field customer
➢Incentives based on product economics and ➢Incentives based on customer economics
individual performance and team performance

Business Processes ▪ “One size fits all” processes ▪ Tailored business streams
▪ Customization adds complexity ▪ Balance between customization and complexity
▪ Complexity isolated within the system

Organizational Linkages ➢ Rigid organizational boundaries ➢Cross-organizational teaming

& Metrics ➢Organizational silos control resources ➢ Joint credit
➢Limited trust across organizational ➢High degree of organizational trust
boundaries

Source: Booz Allen Hamilton

 Solutions Advance Customer Value Proposition

Traditional Value-Added Customer-Centric

Industry Traditional = Value + Services = Value Proposition
Product Proposition
Truck ▪ Trucks “We sell and service ▪ Financing “We can help you reduce
Manufacturing trucks” ▪ Service life-cycle transportation
costs”

Aerospace ▪Aerospace “We sell high- ▪Application/Design “We can reduce your
Components Fasteners performance fasteners” support operational costs”

Utilities ▪ Electricity “We provide electricity ▪Energy asset “We can help you reduce
reliability” maintenance total energy costs”

Chemicals ▪ Lubricants “We sell a wide range of ▪Usage and “We can increase your
lubricants” application design machine performance and
▪ Lubricant up-time”
analysis
Pharmaceuticals ▪ Drugs “We sell pharmaceuticals” ▪ Product support “We can help you better
▪Outcomes-driven manage your patient base”
information database

Source: Booz Allen Hamilton

Developing Customer-Centric Culture

✓Put employees in the customers’ shoes

✓Put employees in the shoes of a particular
colleague
✓Review your habits and attitude
✓Be evaluated in a 360-degree approach by
colleagues you frequently deal with
(through a random selection.
“Being a customer centric company can’t feel
contrived; it has to feel normal. It requires a
concerted effort by the entire company: All of
its activities and all of its results must be
focused on the customers’ explicit and implicit
goals.”
- Jonathan Narducci
“In today’s commercial environment, the customer
relationship cannot be commodified. Companies must
continuously renew their commitment—and strengthen
their capabilities—for knowing and reaching the
customer, and delivering an experience tailored to the
needs, values and preference of target segments.
Engaging purposefully with the multi-polar world by
mastering these core principles of customer centricity—
know, reach and deliver—should be a key element of a
consumer enterprise’s current response to the
downturn, and a key element in part positioning the
business for long-term benefit.”
- Accenture, Customer-Centricity Principles for Acquiring Customers in Today’s Multi-polar World
Customer-Centricity as a culture must integrate
both cognizance and ratification of internal
and external customers in order to
synchronize workable behavioural acceptation
in every facet of a firm’s interaction sphere.
“Customer - centricity needs to come from the
inside out………….Leadership must avoid a
double standard that makes it OK for
managers to argue with or demean staff while
still being courteous and considerate to
external customers.”
- Elaine Berke
What is Customer Advocacy?

It’s a cross-functional role empowered to

marshal organizational resources to
resolve troublesome customer issues and
identify root cause while balancing the
financial realities and strategic goals of
the company.
The Need for Customer Advocacy Function

To steer customers away from veiled

gaps, inefficiencies and
organizational complexities that
perturb perception, thereby
managing “customer experience”
effectively.
Key Skills for Customer Advocates
➢ Straight-forward and honest
➢ Interpersonal management and
communication
➢ Good business sense and
judgment
➢ Organizational navigation
➢ Executive Presence
➢ Time management
➢ Project management
Customer Advocacy Process Framework

➢ Customer segmentation
➢ Engagement process
➢ Escalation process
➢ Response planning, analysis and
execution
➢ Managing customer experience through
resolution
➢ Internal management review
Factors to Consider When Crafting Message

➢ Ensure your communication stands

alone
➢ Consider the audience
➢ Read it “as if” you were the
recipient
➢ Acknowledge the “bigger picture”
➢ Special handling procedures when
emotionally charged
 Do’s of Customer Centricity Don’ts of Customer Centricity
1. Adjust your mission and vision statement Expect a brand new mission statement to make
you a customer-centric company
2. Segment your customer base Overcomplicate the segmentation
3.Align your organization structure with the Reorganize too often and for the sake of it
segmented customer view
4. Make good use of technology Expect technology to build customer
relationships for you
5. Create new performance measures Throw out the old performance measures
6.Study the behaviours, attitudes and Confuse behaviours and attitudes with needs
demographics of your customers
7.Try to understand the true value of your Rely on the customers past buying patterns
customers
8.Empower employees, particularly customer- Allow anyone in the company to say (or think)
facing staff for proactive relationship-building “this is not my job/responsibility”
9.Set clear goals for achieving a defined state Assume that your project/ programme were
of customer centricity by a certain point in completed, you ‘got there’
time
Think of loyalty as the tenure of a customer
10.Encourage and seek to create customer (duration of the relationship)
loyalty
Limit your change management efforts to the
11.Communicate and engage all stakeholders marketing, sales and customer service functions
in the process
The Seven Characteristics of Customer-Centric Companies
i. They conceive of themselves not as a group of products, services, territories, or
functions, but as a portfolio of customers.
ii. They know how much money they make or lose with each of their customers or
customer segments, and they understand why.
iii. They understand the different needs of different customers and group them into
operational customer segments and sub-segments based on common needs.
They thrill their customers by delivering knockout value propositions that
competitors cannot match.
iv. They continually innovate by evolving their customer segments and sub-
segments, and improve their value propositions as customer needs change.
v. They organize their businesses into customer segment business units to
establish clear ownership of the customer experience and accountability for the
financial performance of each customer business unit.
vi. They create a competitively unassailable customer innovation advantage based
on a customer R&D model grounded in continual experimentation at key
customer touch points.
vii. They understand in precise analytic terms exactly how their different customer
relationships contribute to or subtract from the total value of the firm; because
they manage their customer portfolio on this basis, they know what to
manage and where to invest in order to create sustainable, profitable growth
and drive outstanding share price performance over time.
Source: Wharton Business School
“Managers like profits just as much as shareholders
do, because the more profits the firm makes, the
more money is available to pay managers. In
other words, the need for a healthy share price is
a natural constraint on any other objective you
set. Making it the prime objective, however,
creates the temptation to trade long-term gains
in operations-driven value away for temporary
gains in expectations-driven value. To get CEOs
to focus on the first, we need to reinvent the
purpose of the firm. This is what customer-centric
capitalism is all about.”
- Irving Wladawsky-Berger
Dr Elijah Ezendu is Award-Winning Business Expert & Certified Management Consultant with expertise
in Interim Management, Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Transformation, Restructuring, Turnaround
Management, Business Development, Marketing, Project & Cost Management, Leadership, HR, CSR, e-
Business & Software Architecture. He had functioned as Founder, Initiative for Sustainable Business
Equity; Chairman of Board, Charisma Broadcast Film Academy; Group Chief Operating Officer, Idova
Group; CEO, Rubiini (UAE); Special Advisor, RTEAN; Director, MMNA Investments; Chair, Int’l Board of
GCC Business Council (UAE); Senior Partner, Shevach Consulting; Chairman (Certification & Training),
Coordinator (Board of Fellows), Lead Assessor & Governing Council Member, Institute of Management
Consultants, Nigeria; Lead Resource, Centre for Competitive Intelligence Development; Lead
Consultant/ Partner, JK Michaels; Turnaround Project Director, Consolidated Business Holdings Limited;
Technical Director, Gestalt; Chief Operating Officer, Rohan Group; Executive Director (Various Roles),
Fortuna, Gambia & Malta; Chief Advisor/ Partner, D & E; Vice Chairman of Board, Refined Shipping;
Director of Programmes & Governing Council Member, Institute of Business Development, Nigeria;
Member of TDD Committee, International Association of Software Architects, USA; Member of Strategic
Planning and Implementation Committee, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria;
Country Manager (Nigeria) & Adjunct Faculty (MBA Programme), Regent Business School, South Africa;
Adjunct Faculty (MBA Programme), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology; Editor-in-Chief, Cost
Management Journal; Council Member, Institute of Internal Auditors of Nigeria; Member, Board of
Directors (Several Organizations). He holds Doctoral Degree in Management, Master of Business
Administration and Fellow of Professional Institutes in North America, UK & Nigeria. He is Innovator of
Corporate Investment Structure Based on Financials and Intangibles, for valuation highlighting
intangible contributions of host communities and ecological environment: A model celebrated globally
as remedy for unmitigated depreciation of ecological capital and developmental deprivation of host
communities. He had served as Examiner to Professional Institutes and Universities. He had been a
member of Guild of Soundtrack Producers of Nigeria. He's an author and extensively featured speaker.
Thank You