Many people ask me about the key ingredients to being a customer focused business and ultimately there is one answer, customer focused leadership.
If the senior leaders don’t really get it, it creates a tough environment for those employees that recognize its importance.
Customer focused leadership is not only about understanding it intellectually, which most leaders do (even the most cynical), but behaving in a way that demonstrates customer focus.
Behaving in a customer focused way means bringing the customer’s perspective into every decision. If we change the way we handle customer service what impact will this have on customers? If we increase or decrease prices how will customer perceptions change? If we invest in this IT project what impact will it have on customers? and so on.
Incorporating a customer perspective seems like a simple change to make but unfortunately many leaders pay lip service to customer impacts sending a clear message to their organizations that employees can act in the same way.
How customer focused is your leadership?
