WHY SHOULD WE WANT A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC CULTURE ?
Having a customer-centric culture helps us work on the right things with our limited improvement resources . And by “ right ”, we mean initiatives that actually improve the customer experience and increase customer satisfaction .
By working on the right things , you avoid wasting service improvement resources on things that don ’ t improve service .
And when we start thinking about culture , our focus changes from tools and processes to developing the skills , behaviours and attitudes of our support staff . It ’ s time to address that cultural debt !
When we start thinking about the customer , putting them first , looking beyond tools and processes , and into the customer-focused skills and behaviours of our staff , we find that the service delivery team shifts from being techno-centric to customer-centric .
These five steps are : 1 . Walk-the-walk leadership . 2 . Three listening posts . 3 . Customer satisfaction metrics . 4 . Feedback for staff coaching . 5 . Customer-driven CSI .
Customer centricity is good for the customer and good for IT too . Because many of the things that we do to improve service reduce costs . More on that later !
You can have your cake and eat it too !
Things that make your customers happy also reduce your support costs
# 1 WALK-THE-WALK LEADERSHIP
A customer-centric culture requires a leader who wants it , can inspire it and is able to create an environment where it can happen .
Leaders shape the way people think and behave . Employees look at them to see that their behaviour is consistent with the organisation ’ s vision and values .
Well-developed tools and processes ? People and culture , not so much ?
WHAT DOES A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC CULTURE LOOK LIKE ?
A customer-centric IT culture is ultimately one where the normal behaviour of everyone in IT provides customers with positive experiences . And products and services that they value .
Many IT teams are actually techno-centric . They ’ re very focused on tools and processes at the expense of customerfocused behaviours and skills .
In this article , I ’ ll outline five steps to becoming customercentric .
Without that leadership from the CIO , a customer-centric culture , homogenous across all service delivery teams , just won ’ t stick .
A CIO needs to exhibit visible signs of commitment to customer centricity , or employees will dismiss it as yet another flavour of the month .
Here are seven ways that a CIO can walk-the-walk of customer-centricity :
Sells the vision . Makes sure everyone knows where this bus is going , why it ’ s going there , what the journey ’ s going to be like , and how good it ’ s going to be when we get there .
Sets customer satisfaction targets . Gives the team clear , achievable , shared customer satisfaction goals and a way to measure progress towards those goals .
Promotes cross-functional collaboration . Removes the organisational barriers that prevent teams from collaborating . For example , in one organisation we worked
10 itSMF Bulletin — November 2017