Page 125 - MYM 2015

means different things to different people. It ranges
in its meaning from “good customer service” across
a spectrum to “ensuring that the whole organization, and not just frontline service staff, puts its customers rst”—meaning understanding customers’ needs
and doing what is right for the customer. In this last meaning, every department and every employee should share the same customer-focused vision. For this to occur, an organization must have a culture based on the belief that what’s best for the customer is best for the business. It is this meaning of customer focus we call customer culture. In fact, we maintain that to have real customer focus you must have a customer culture.
Toyota embodies this thinking and has developed customer culture practices over many years. In its Lexus division it places great emphasis on having all staff focus on the customer’s journey. This was highlighted on the rare occasions in Europe when families travelling in the French Alps were stranded due to mechanical breakdown. Lexus arranged
to collect them by helicopter to take them to their destination, understanding that it is not about the car, but it is about getting its customers to where they planned to be. As one insider said: “yes, of course we will x the car, but our rst priority is to ensure our customers get to their destination safely and on time.”
Second, customer culture needs to be embedded in people and teams through orientation and induction, leadership, processes, rewards, key performance measures, a common language, and an expected way of doing things. What’s more, customer culture is a discipline—a shared set of behaviors and
skills that can be developed, refined, and practiced to become habits that lead to better personal and business results.
Third, customer culture does not mean that a company responds to any and every request for improvements or new products and services that
any and all customers say they want. This is usually impractical and unpro table and does not allow the rm to focus on the customers it can best serve with superior value. Every business must have a clear strategy, value proposition, and target customers whose needs are understood and for whom superior value and experience are delivered. A strong customer culture is one that is clearly aligned to the company’s strategy and all managers and staff understand and respond to the current and future needs of targeted customers. It includes the discipline and skills to know when particular customers’ needs can’t be met by
the business and can better be served by competitors and to help customers to nd a solution elsewhere. A customer culture is one in which people in a business interact with both customers and noncustomers in
a way that shows they care—either by solving the customers’ problem or by referring noncustomers to other companies that can meet their needs better.
Customer culture embodies shared values across the entire business that translates into behaviors
in all functions that are aligned and committed to creating superior value for customers in a pro table way. A strong customer culture delivers a customer experience that is consistently excellent along the whole service chain. The ultimate aim is to have the customers make your business the center for everything they do for your particular offering. Then your customers will be advocates of your business and your products and services. You can’t get to the ultimate unless you build the right culture—a customer culture.
How Can We Make Customer Culture Tangible?
Our research program was built on the prior work of empirical studies by market orientation academics and corporate culture researchers. Our study was built on the premise, supported by convincing evidence, that a strong customer culturedrives positive future business performance. We set out to measure customer culture by staff behaviors with respect to customers – often described as, “What we do around here.”
Figure 1 depicts customer-centric behaviors as the foundation for creating positive customer experiences that, in turn, provide customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. These together drive sustainable revenue growth, pro tability and new product/service success. In our research we wanted to identify the tangible customer culture factors and their links to business results. We researched more than 100 companies and conducted quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify valid links19.
Customer Culture
Customer Centric Behaviors (Building)
Customer Experience
Customer Experience (Evolving)
Superior Results
Loyalty and Advocacy
Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty (Changing)
Sustainable Profitability Revenue and Profit Growth New Product/Service Success
Figure 1: Customer Centric Behaviors Drive Customer Experience, Loyalty and Pro table Growth
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