Customer centricity is everybody’s responsibility

What do you think? A yes or a no? I'm curious. But before I share my opinion, we’ll go for an experiment.

Suppose. You wake up and you are happy. You jump fresh and energized out of your bed. Because you are looking forward to this new day. Full of passion you go to work. You walk into the kitchen of McDonalds, greet your colleagues and start working (after washing your hands; of course!) First order is that of a BigMac. What do you do?

1. 1. You have done this so many times that you no longer have to look at the picture of this hamburger. But you know exactly what the structure is. Sandwich, sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickle, two hamburgers, a slice of cheese and even more sauce (for the real experts, I hope I'm right). So, you build the hamburger as it should be, put it in the box and there you go: this burger is ready to be eaten.

Or

2. Today you are going to think outside the box. You have heard your manager talking about autonomy and you are going to make this hamburger even better. A little more sauce, little less meat. Because yes, you consider the environment. Maybe three slices of tomato are a good idea. Just put your passion in it and you're done. Hamburger in the box and there you go: this burger is ready to be eaten.

What do you do: 1 or 2? I hope you chose for scenario 1, because that is exactly what the customer expects. Hopefully the hamburger will be handed over to the customer with a big smile in order to create a great customer experience.

Because that is what customer centricity is all about. About the product or service the customer expects and receives in a certain degree of consistency. That requires frameworks. What should that consistency be for your company? Is this a certain speed, quality, tone-of-voice, or structure of the hamburger? And yes, of course you can give that little extra in terms of service or a small gift. But the basics is that hamburger, that product.

So, no. Customer centricity is not everybody’s responsibility. The foundation of customer centricity lies with those people who design it. That can be the customer experience team. Or marketing for example, or the customer contact center. They set up frameworks that employees can and will have to stick to. And if you know how to give that little bit extra as an employee... That smile. That service. That real contact with your customer. Then you made it: you are really customer centric. If so, you can be very proud of that.

This blog was written for CustomerFirst and published on 16 October 2019

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