Collaboration and customer success go hand-in-hand.

More than ever, customer success is the right that every seller ought to see as essential in its work for consumers.

One of the essential characteristics that every customer-centric organization shares is a culture of resourcefulness. It starts with the organization’s leaders. Their vision is practical, and even frugal, and it translates into the culture of everyone working there. The message is clear: “Focus on our customers rather than ourselves.” An excellent example is Barlean’s Organic […]

It’s good that the world is paying more attention to the amount of effort that a customer must exert in order to do business with us. Nevertheless, there is still a lot more that companies should be doing. “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” (Dixon, Freeman, and Toman in the HBR, July-August 2010) introduces the […]

Which phrase is correct—customers or employees first? When employees know that they can act on behalf of the customer, they are happy and are driven to develop creative ideas that customer will value. The customer comes first, but employees follow along naturally when they have the freedom to do the right thing for those customers.

Customer 3D™ is the most effective way to make customer-centricity a reality. It establishes a system in which the company can provide solutions to the customer. Customer 3D™ is transformative, resulting in culture change that impacts all employees across the organization.

Ironically, being customer-centered also makes your products better. Why? Because these products and services that you are offering are now being designed based on what matters to your customers.

All customer-centered businesses have confidence in their capabilities and inventiveness. Their leaders educate the organization by modeling creativity and calling on inner resources to take care of every situation.The message is clear: “Focus on our customers rather than ourselves.”

Solution-selling must be customer-centered. In order to be successful, it must make the primary customer’s product better in the eyes of the secondary customer. It has to be focused on the customer’s customer.

The original customer relationship systems that you developed were acceptable 10-20-30 years ago are becoming obsolete. Remastering, however, is available through new systems that replace mechanistic, product-centric cultures with more organic, customer-centric versions.

A great measure of an organization’s focus on customer success is how customers perceive their Return on Effort. High-performing companies are always searching for ways to design more user-friendly processes. This goal of reducing customer effort can best be achieved in a “question-everything” organizational culture.

Highly customer-centered organizations believe they live in the same environment as their customers and they educate their employees to carry out a strategy that judges every action by the customer success it delivers.