A recent article in a popular business magazine stated, “Becoming customer-centric positions you to stand head and shoulders above the crowd in the eyes of your customer and in terms of the results that you achieve.” Who would not want that? Lines are forming now. The article proceeds to advise companies to “get into the hearts and minds of your customers.” True indeed, but it is scarcely a revelation.

This follows the general format of prominent articles on customer centricity: stating obvious benefits followed by common sense suggestions, with the theme being that customer centricity must be defined differently according to the industry, the company’s strategies, the market forces, the level of competition, the diversity of customers, and many other factors. This makes for interesting reading but offers little beyond the sense that it is a great idea that needs to be explored.

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The reading itself is quite diverse. Some explain that customer centricity is not giving the customer everything they want. Another explained that it is a misconception to think that becoming customer-centric is a customer service issue. That is certainly counterintuitive for most people. Others focus the primary attention directly on the customer service experience. There are strategic views of customer centricity, involving product/service design and delivery, matching resource allocations to the level of customer value. There are tactical views of customer centricity that include the warmth and friendliness of the interactions between the company and the customers. Among all of these approaches, some points clearly stand out.

1.     The company must decide what customer centricity means to them. What outcome is expected if they raise the customer centricity flag?

•     Increased customer retention?

•     Deeper penetration into the market?

•     Increased market share?

•     Increased revenue in some category?

2.     The company must identify the individuals within the company that are directly involved in executing whatever customer-centric strategy is chosen. This includes the planners, the managers, the service providers, the salespeople and others that must do something differently to make the customer centricity program a success.

3.     Most importantly, the company must identify the specific job behaviors that will drive each part of the customer centricity program.

•     Do the customer service providers have to ask probing questions of existing customers?

•     Do the salespeople have to qualify their prospects to a deeper level than before?

•     Do the managers have to provide more immediate and effective feedback to their employees?

•     Do service procedures need to be followed more consistently?

•     Do service providers need to be more flexible with customer problems?

•     Do they need to make more decisions?

All of these questions and others need to be clearly answered so that all of the necessary job behaviors are known. Without this information, the customer-centric initiative will be little more than an interesting lecture series followed by a pep rally.

The reason for this is that human beings have hard-wired traits and cognitive abilities that are the foundation of all job behaviors. These can be easily measured with the latest assessment technologies. In this article, the scores derived from the measurement of these traits and abilities will be referred to as DATA. All job behaviors depend upon certain of these traits and abilities. In effect, there are some job behaviors that come easily to people who have the supporting traits and abilities for those behaviors. There are other job behaviors that are difficult or even impossible for them to perform on a regular basis because the necessary traits and abilities are not part of that person’s inherent strengths. For example, typical customer centricity plans include new or expanded job behaviors such as:

•     Ask probing questions of existing customers – About one third of the population cannot do that.

•     Be flexible with customer problems – About one third of the population cannot do that.

•     Follow service procedures consistently – About one third of the population cannot do that.

•     Empower employees to make service decisions at lower levels – About half the population cannot do that.

To put this into context for an enterprise preparing to adopt a program of customer centricity, some of the people will be able to easily execute the program; some will be able to do it adequately; but some will not be able to do it. The scope of change that is involved in the new strategy, along with the composition of the employee work groups, will determine the extent of the shortfall in performance. When a training program or initiative is launched without knowing this, the uncertain results can undermine the strategy, causing the company to question the strategy itself.

The example below1 illustrates the challenges of a traditional retail store with 189 employees in positions of serving their customers. For the most part, this had traditionally consisted of handling the transactions once the customers had made their selections. As their world became much more competitive, both with other bricks and mortar stores and with the Internet, they sought to make a major change. They wanted to become more customer-centric. In their world, this meant:

•     Approach customers and engage them in conversation

•     Ask questions so as to assist and direct their shopping

•     Suggest additional products or services to compliment their purchases

•     Present a warm and friendly attitude

Unfortunately, this is not unlike telling a baseball team that the owners have moved the team into the hockey league, and everyone is getting skates.

The first step was to inventory the retail strengths of the store’s employees using DATA.

DOES NOT SUGGEST ADDITIONAL PRODUCES/SERVICES 15 48 50 58 12 6 DOES SUGGEST ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS/SERVICES
COOL & IMPERSONAL WITH CUSTOMERS 16 15 48 75 19 18 WARM & FRIENDLY WITH CUSTOMERS

The chart above shows the distribution of the 189 employees across two hard-wired personality traits that are the prime drivers of two of the job behaviors that are key to the new strategy. The first row shows that one third (63, shown in red) of the employees cannot suggest additional products/services, regardless of training, coaching or incentives. Another 26% (50, shown in yellow) will struggle with it. In the second row, 16% (31, shown in red) of the employees will not be seen as warm and friendly, and another 25% (48, shown in yellow) will find it difficult to do so all day long without frequent breaks.

What does this mean? It means that the original plan of training the existing staff and offering incentives for executing the new strategy (playing hockey) will not work with a significant part of the team. It will work with part of the team, and with DATA, those individuals are clearly identified. It will work to some extent with another part of the team, and these too, are easily identified. A different plan is needed for the employees who cannot make the transition. Some ideas are:

1.     Not all areas need the same level of customer interaction. The DATA enable the company to reposition employees into areas that do suit their particular strengths.

2.     Schedules can be adjusted to make sure the “best” employees are in the most important areas of the store at the busiest times.

3.     Immediately begin recruiting with DATA, so that as normal attrition occurs, new employees have the strengths to deliver the new strategy.

In summary, customer centricity is a concept that is becoming critical to any company competing in today’s marketplace. Regardless of whether it is a retail operation, a manufacturer, a financial services firm or any industry, the information and data that is available today focuses attention on the customer and how to best meet their needs. At present, it is a true competitive advantage, but soon it will simply be a necessity for all businesses. The success of the concept, however, does not lie in its understanding or acceptance within the company. It does not lie in the attitude and enthusiasm of the employees or in the leadership of the management team. The success depends on the ability of the individual employees to deliver the job behaviors that translate the concept into benefits for the customers. Without DATA on their capability to do this, it is an expensive gamble with poor odds. With DATA, it is virtually a sure thing.

1 This example is a composite of several actual client situations and engagements combined to fit the demands of this article.

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