Customer Centricity Begins at Home

Posted On: November 8th, 2010 by Roanne Neuwirth

“When you talk about customer centricity and customer delight it has to start at home.”

A CIO community member recently shared this quote with us as we were researching what customer centricity means and how CIOs are leading the way to create a customer-centric enterprise. The results were in some cases surprising to us and overall we thought meaningful for CMOs and others in the C-suite to consider. (For more information on the results of the research, click here)

Here’s what they shared with us:

1. CIOs are not alone – others in the C-suite – CMOs, CFOs and in some cases CEOs – don’t have a clear view or understanding of their external customers either.  Why?  Because they are focused internally, they are several layers removed from the customer-facing teams, they are afraid to connect directly, sales people don’t want them there.  The reasons are endless but the reality is that this disconnect at the top of the organization to the external customer has to shift if businesses are going to successfully develop competitive advantage and drive growth.
2. External and internal customers need the same thing – delighting the client is the key to success.  The ability to delight customers on a systematic and ongoing basis requires building processes and rewarding behaviors that make this happen consistently.  CIOs point out that the same processes and approaches they work hard to instill in their teams to help manage internal customer connections, service, feedback and satisfaction can translate directly to connecting to external customers.  We see benefit from leveraging internal successes to reach out to customers externally, but we have also seen organizations build powerful customer-centric programs by starting with the external customer first.  The key is to get out there and figure out what works in your organization to listen to customers and take action.
3. Listen and you will receive – Customers will tell your company things you really need to know to improve services, launch new products and meet their needs more effectively – but the information often gets mangled in the translation.   This disconnect is all the more frustrating to customers who see their input appear to be falling on deaf ears.  The solution to this is two-fold.  One is the need for more parts of the organization to become involved in the direct conversations with customers so that the translation is clear and accurate.  The other is to more systematically and effectively capture customer input and feedback to share and embed the insights across the company.  This is an area where we have seen customer communities playing a successful and vital role to making the connection.  Customer communities provide your organization with ongoing feedback in a forum that helps customers get their message out to your various constituents, while reducing the need for customers to repeat their story, and cover the same ground across your company.  This also helps you to formulate an integrated response to feedback and ideas, and create a value-based conversation with your customers.
4. The ROI of investments in customer-centric technologies, tools and approaches can be hard to quantify – and we hear from CIOs and marketers alike who wrestle with this question.  We have seen the power of customer communities to make the bridge from customer centricity program to impact.   In our work with communities, we have seen companies reap returns in terms of increased customer satisfaction, progression though the sales pipeline, referrals, and other revenue-enhancing outcomes.  The key to getting return on customer-centric investments is focus on listening, sharing value with clients, and taking action.  Consider the principles of community if you want to leverage and enhance the return to the business of customer centricity. 

As a marketing leader, how can you consider these insights from CIOs in building your own influence on connecting to the customer?  What might you be missing in your own organization about how you reach out to customers and systematically track and embed their input in your organization? We see a real opportunity for you and your executive peers to connect more directly to customers, and to lead your company towards customer-centricity.  How you are connecting with your external customers? And have you connected with your executive peers to ensure you are all in touch with what your customers want and need?