BUILDING BLOCK 1: LEADERSHIP & CULTURE

For most companies, success depends on sales. So as long as you’re selling, you’re succeeding right? Turns out, wrong. Within many companies, the culture remains sales-driven and product-focused, an outdated way of doing businesses. We now know that customer centricity, not product centricity, should be the hallmark of companies. 

After all, your business exists to serve customers, so it makes sense to put them at the center of everything you do. Having a customer-centric culture increases revenue, builds customer loyalty and goes beyond the surface level of simply satisfying a customer with a quality product. it promotes positive customer experience in every possible interaction. 

So, how does your business make the culture shift to become customer-centric?

It all starts with ...

LEADERSHIP 

Leadership plays a fundamental role in how a company views itself and in fostering an overall environment. While serving revenue goals and meeting the bottom line is important, how and who gets a company to those goals makes a huge difference. Executive alignment is the foundation to building a customer-centric environment, and while it is ultimately the responsibility of the entire organization, it’s the leadership that sets the tone. All executives must be on the same page. 

The NPS System requires a massive strategic commitment by senior executives, as they will be defining new behaviors and driving customer centricity, design making, and accountability across the organization. 

Leaders must model the behaviors and changes they want to see in their employees; they must practice what they preach. 

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 

Once the leaders are invested and committed and the foundation is set, the next area to turn to is the employees. The experience your customers have is based on their experiences with your employees. A customer-centric brand has employees whose values and actions align with their own, whether the are in the office or remote. It goes beyond just hiring the right people though. Employees must be provided with development tools and training that put core values at the root of culture and behaviors. 

It’s not about happy hours or what perks you can offer them, leaders must truly care for their people, empower them, encourage them. Happy employees usually translate to happy customers. 

Using this logic, you can see how important it is for employees to take how they treat customers personally. Many businesses use the “what if you were talking to your mom” tactic to promote empathy and encourage employees to treat customers like family. 

COMMUNICATION 

Effective communication and influence are part of the leadership strategy to engage with employees and inform on regularly, and what matters to them and the business.

Also, there should be a strategy to bring customer voice into each employee’s day-to-day work and operation, because whatever employees do explicitly or implicitly impacts customer experience. It is essential to make employees relate to customers and understand how their results add value to the overall customer experience. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

1. A successful NPS System starts with leadership and their commitment to the system.
2. Employee engagement is about value alignment and recognizes that employees' work contributes to customer value, bringing joy to employees and rewarding them in doing so.
3. Communication brings clarity to the organization's direction and the focus on the customer