We are constantly being told to be more customer-centric by our managers. But they rarely tell us what that means.
Many sales and procurement professionals are unsure what actions to take to become customer-centric in their day-to-day job.
Moreover, when faced with a stressful situation, such as reaching out to a business stakeholder, your manager, a customer, or a supplier, we tend to fall back on old patterns of behavior that we know best and make us feel comfortable. Unfortunately, these behaviors are mostly self-centered and rarely customer-centric.
So, what is customer-centricity?
Customer centricity is a mindset to focus your attention and actions on the needs of the other party in the relationship first. The purpose of customer centricity is to create trust in the relationship and sustainable value for all parties involved. Customer centricity is not altruism though. Customer centricity is the concept of achieving one’s individual goals through contributing to the success of the other party.
Everybody can become customer-centric by forming new habits. Our research over the past 12 years has shown that it requires you to consistently apply five simple actions and behaviors to establish these new habits.
CARE
COMPETE
IMPROVE
RESPOND
WIN
Embracing these five actions on your job is what it takes to think and act in a customer-centric way day-in and day-out. For some these actions come naturally, for others there are tools and skills that can be learned to bring your customer-centric mindset to life.
Do you care, compete, improve, respond and win with your customer?
Share your thoughts on customer centricity and help us build bridges between procurement and sales.
