I had the pleasure of speaking with M.Rauf Ates, founder of Fast Company Türkiye, about the research I helped lead with Harvard Business Review Analytical Services. In our conversation, we explored how to truly become a customer company, going beyond just lip service. This research offers 8 steps to give meaning to business, operational, and digital transformation, as informed by the experiences of companies like Ethan Allen, Kellogg’s, Kimberley-Clark, and Pacific Life. You can find the translated version of the content using Google Translate below. If you notice any errors, please let me know. Additionally, I’ve included the original text and a downloadable PDF.
Roadmap for leaders: Becoming a Customer Company
Customer-oriented companies are those that prioritize putting the customer at the center of the organization, which is great. Brian, for example, monitors customer behavior and trends, reverse engineering their journeys, touchpoints, services, and products. First and foremost, we need to start with a clear definition of customer experience. Customer experience refers to the sum total of a customer’s interactions with your company, how they feel about your brand at each stage, how your brand stays in their minds, and how all these steps together influence the overall experience. By adding the suffix “-nin,” we shift our perspective from our view of the customer experience (CX) to theirs.
A different perspective on this issue is that customer-oriented companies take their customers on a journey and transform with them. These companies empathize with and understand their customers from a technological standpoint. They are prepared to serve their customers when they are ready to engage. This means that companies need to prioritize customer insights and engagement at the core of their organization. However, recent research sponsored by Harvard Business Review Analytical Services (HBRAS) and conducted by Salesforce found that only 15 percent of companies worldwide have a 360-degree view of customer data and the organizational structure needed to leverage those insights.
Being integrated with the customer!
From my perspective, being a customer-integrated company involves three main elements:
1. Empathy Culture: Recognize that the customers you are trying to reach are not just managers. Foster a culture of both empathy and digital empathy.
2. Insight Culture: Transform into a data-driven insight organization. Focus on relevant, 360-degree customer data to understand your customers through data-driven insights.
3. A Culture of Participation and Interaction: In our HBR research, we discovered that there are two aspects of CX: insight and engagement. Organize customer touchpoints around insights and utilize both traditional and digital engagement to provide personalized, relevant, integrated, and efficient experiences.
Roadmap for customer focus
Integrating with the customer is an ongoing, never-ending process. Just as customers continue to evolve, our organizations must evolve alongside them. Here are eight steps that can help you build a customer-engaged company, where data, insights, and engagement drive competitive customer experiences:
1. Listen to and observe your customers.
2. Establish standards for end-to-end customer experience.
3. Create a framework for turning data into actionable insights that drive customer success.
4. Connect all the dots with technology powered by artificial intelligence.
5. Form a leadership committee responsible for customer experience and data integration, bringing together 360-degree customer insights and engagement.
6. Determine which touchpoints are important, identify areas for improvement, and identify any gaps.
7. Develop skills in the CX area for every employee.
8. Give each employee the autonomy to succeed in the eyes of your customers.
Becoming a successful customer company
In our work with HBRAS, we focused on documenting the journey of a few companies as they became 360-degree, customer-integrated organizations. These companies included Ethan Allen, Kellogg’s, Kimberly-Clark Corp., and Pacific Life Insurance. Along with surveying 1,100 executives, the report also featured best practices implemented by those serving on the CX steering committee and a Customer Experience Excellence Checklist.
