Becoming customer-centric isn’t a simple change. Simple changes are linear, predictable, and manageable. Traditional change management techniques work well in these contexts but are less effective in multifaceted, interconnected, and unpredictable ones. A customer-centric change is just that – where relationships, networks, and social influence from peers have a stronger impact on success than top-down influence.
This is because behaviors, not processes or directives, are at the heart of any organizational change initiative. And without understanding and addressing the organization’s unique change context, there’s no clear framework for readjusting, redirecting, and redefining behaviors to meet customer-centric goals.
For example, say Company A wants to get employees to adopt a new customer-centric policy, which encourages people to share any service improvement ideas or opportunities associated with their areas of responsibility. Yet, rather than simply following company guidelines, individuals may tend to provide ideas only if other people with whom they are socially connected do so as well. This makes sense as people can be more personally invested in the perceptions of members of their social groups — especially those with whom they interact frequently — than in the interests of company leadership.
Creating customer-centricity begins with understanding change context – the pattern of influencing factors that shape how change is perceived and adopted within a company. Change contexts can vary widely across organizations, and leaders need to recognize their own organization’s unique terminus as a quo.
Change contexts are made up of two parts – a macro culture and a series of micro-cultures. Macro cultures are behaviors and mindsets defined by leadership, represented by an individual founder or CEO, and reinforced by corporate values, policies, and priorities. Micro cultures live inside the macro culture and form at a departmental or peer group level, where norms and behaviors are shaped by the members themselves.
Micro cultures can develop their own spheres of power. They can influence productivity, communication flow, and even the retention of new employees. Depending on their location within the organization, micro-cultures can enable or kill a customer-centric change effort from within before it even begins.
Effectively defining your own change context requires understanding your cultural strengths and weaknesses, along with threats to change initiatives and opportunities to accelerate adoption, in both your macro and micro-cultures. Because until new behaviors are rooted in the organization’s social norms, any customer-centric changes are subject to degradation.
About the Author
Andrea Belk Olson is a speaker, author, applied behavioral scientist, and customer-centricity expert. As the CEO of Pragmadik, she helps organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 500, and has served as an outside consultant for EY and McKinsey. Andrea is the author of The Customer Mission: Why it’s time to cut the $*&% and get back to the business of understanding customers, No Disruptions: The future for mid-market manufacturing, and her upcoming book, What To Ask, coming in June 2022.
She is a 4-time ADDY® award winner and host of the popular Customer Mission podcast. Her thoughts have been continually featured in news sources such as Chief Executive Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, The Financial Brand, SMPS Marketer, Rotman Magazine, and more. Andrea is a sought-after keynote speaker at conferences and corporate events throughout the world. She is a visiting lecturer and startup coach at the University of Iowa, a TEDx presenter, and TEDx speaker coach. She is also a mentor at the University of Iowa Venture School.
More information is also available on www.pragmadik.com and www.andreabelkolson.com.
