Overcoming top challenges

The most common hurdles when going customer-centric and how to navigate them

The top three barriers to going customer-centric and how to overcome them

If it was easy to become a truly customer-centric organization, then everybody would have it down to a fine art. But the figures show this is far from the case, with a study by the CMO Council finding that 50% of CEOs believe that their organizations are extremely customer-centric, while less than one-tenth of customers agree. This is sometimes known as the ‘customer management illusion’, where there is a gap between how companies think their customers see them, and the reality.

The truth is that implementing a customer-centric culture is hard, and very few organizations manage it successfully, for a number of key reasons.

1. Organizational silos

Most organizations have historically been structured with distinct departments for different operational arms of the business, for example, sales, marketing, customer service, and distribution teams. Or in a very large organization, divisions based on the different products and services that the company sells. As each of these separate divisions and departments has its own operational structure, processes, and technology, this can work against delivering a seamless customer experience.

“A lot of customer friction exists in the seams between departments, where issues have many owners or have a very high-level owner,” explains Aquilante at Hubspot. “When your scope is small enough it’s very easy to impact the customer experience, but it gets harder as your scope gets bigger, where you have these very wide-ranging topics. For example, what does your hand-off look like between sales to services? It’s a challenge to find those issues and then once you find them, it’s a challenge to assign the right team or the right person to own and fix those things.”

How are your departments organized?

Around region
Around product stream
Around customer segment
Around expertise

Becoming customer-centric means shifting from this siloed model to organizing departments around customer segments, not products, while also investing in joined-up infrastructure, technology and data, and a clear vision and culture, which is firmly focused on putting the customer first. It can also be hugely beneficial to assign one individual with overall authority for the customer journey, whose job it is to identify areas of friction and put in place open communication channels, so everybody is clear about who owns each particular problem space.

A recent announcement from HP showed how it is working to break down the siloes that can hold customer focus back: “We are moving from our current structure – which is built around three large regions – to a single commercial organization. Reducing the number of management layers in our go-to-market process will make us more agile and efficient, drive faster decision making, and increase flexibility and authority at the local level where it counts the most. Simply put, this brings us closer to our customers than ever before.”

Truly customer-obsessed organizations have customers who are willing to spend more, who stick around for longer, and who introduce their friends to your products and services.

2. Resistance to change

Introducing customer obsession into a product-centric organization takes a wholesale change of culture, behavior, and attitude, and resistance to this change is inevitable. Employees will revert back to old habits and processes, which may feel more practical, easier and faster than the new way of doing things. Some will be unable to change their mindset from focusing on selling as many products as possible to listening to and addressing the needs of customers. There will be teething problems and staff will wonder if the company is on the right track.

This is why ongoing training and communication are so important to reinforce the new vision and direction of the organization. Open channels of communication must be forged, to identify areas where employees are struggling, while customer-centricity must be built into processes and procedures to ensure new habits are formed. Crucially, success must also be measured, reported and celebrated, so that employees are incentivized and rewarded for delivering a joined-up customer experience.

Nothing drives profitability like great customer experience

Dan Hesse, former CEO of Sprint

Pushing changes through also demands total, unwavering commitment from senior leadership, who themselves must change how they go about their own role, moving away from a traditional top-down approach in order to empower employees.

“Implementing customer obsession is hardest for bosses because they’ve got used to the idea that bosses tell people what to do,” says Edwards at Kimble. “But the world is now changing so fast that we’re no longer qualified to do that and our job has completely changed to one where our main role is to ensure the team has clarity of mission and then help to create the environment where they can be successful.”

3. Keeping costs under control

Concern about costs can also hold organizations back from fully committing to a customer obsession strategy and, at first glance, the changes required can certainly sound expensive. However, it’s important to remember that, following the upfront investment in infrastructure and technology, a customer-obsessed strategy done right should be a revenue-driver, not a cost-center. As the former CEO at Sprint, the wireless and internet provider, Dan Hesse says: “Nothing drives profitability like great customer experience.”

Truly customer-obsessed organizations have customers who are willing to spend more, who stick around for longer, and who introduce their friends to your products and services. A great customer experience also means that your customers will spend less time speaking to your customer service or making complaints, thereby cutting overheads. Plus, smart use of data means you can channel your efforts towards your most profitable customer segments, targeting them in a highly personalized way, driving real customer outcomes.

In short, customer obsession means that businesses stop wasting time and cash on marketing strategies that ‘might’ work and focus on those that will.