Customer-Centric Culture: Why it Matters and How to Measure it

Photo by paul bica

"A great customer experience can only be delivered by someone who wants to give it." - Ian Luxford, Learning Services Director, Grass Roots

During last week's Total Customer Experience Leaders Summit, Bill Barnes, Senior Vice President, Client Services and Jaci Jarrett Masztal, Ph.D, Vice President, Practice Leader from Burke Inc.,presented "Customer-Centric Culture: Why it Matters and How to Measure it." Bill and Jaci contend that the employee engagement process and the customer experience process, which are usually separate management processes in many organizations, be brought together to improve organizational performance.

This approach is based on the premise that a high level of employee engagement is critical to creating and enhancing positive customer experiences leading to customer engagement. To improve employee engagement, organizations should focus on ways to:

• Improve job performance
• Provide more job growth opportunities
• Enhance Talent Management
• Better serve various internal stakeholder needs
• Improve commitment and retention
• Enhance customer service

A customer-centric culture that actively focuses on what is best for the customer is a critical factor in improving organizational performance. Customer centricity is a part of all organizational aspects including leadership, strategy, decision making, operations and in ongoing job functions. It's also important to remember that culture is:

• Broader - it's more than an initiative
• Cross-functional, enterprise-wide
• Long-term strategy
• Motivation, focus, behavior
• Multi-dimensional

A challenge for most organizations is determining how measure a customer-centric culture. Measurement allows a true gap analysis and a baseline to track change and assess impact. At Burke, Bill and Jaci help their clients to measure their culture with The Customer Centricity Index, which measures across these six important dimensions:

• Leadership & Strategy
• Messaging & Modeling
• Employee Understanding & Commitment
• Product & Service
• Excellence Support & Tools
• Recognition & Appreciation

Leadership drives the strategy and culture which sets the foundation for Who, What, and How, all of which drive and support customer engagement and business success. Employees believe the products and services are worthy and are equipped to deliver. Employees are recognized and rewarded for the customer-centric behaviors to be reinforced and repeated. Full customer centricity is achieved when the organization has a collective mindset of doing what needs to be done to the benefit of the customer.

Peggy L. Bieniek, ABC is an Accredited Business Communicator specializing in corporate communication best practices. Connect with Peggy on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and on her website at www.starrybluebrilliance.com.