A system to increase an organization’s customer-centricity can be compared to a wellness program. Instead of treating problems, it prevents them. It creates a new direction which goes beyond break-even to create vitality. What makes them alike?
- Wellness, like customer-centricity, supports positive behaviors that are different from the status quo. Both programs show employees how to take ownership of projects that have a specific purpose—either better health and lifestyle or better results for customers.
- Individual ideas create interest in the overall change. Just as wellness programs spread the word through events, such as educational sessions, clubs or showcasing healthy snacks, customer-centric efforts focus on value-added outcomes that the company has achieved for customers, in order to promote more the same for the future.
- Also, until recently, organizations did not consider that efforts to improve wellness could yield so much in return. However, now they are realizing that wellness programs can significantly reduce their healthcare costs and increase worker satisfaction and productivity. In a similar way, customer-centricity not only reduces customer problems, but it also creates innovation because employees are more engaged in a singular purpose—to help their customers.
Customer-centricity is an attitude. It has to be powerful to break the product-centered continuum which has prevailed in most organizations until now. But it also is a program that will bring about positive change in employees and elevate their confidence to take care of customer needs. It also becomes the foundation of better overall health for the organization.
