Startup CXO

Chapter 88Understanding Customers

If you want to create a great customer service organization, you'll have to do more than segment your customers and design a customer journey. That is a good start. However, if your organization doesn't understand who the customer is at a human level, then you'll always be a step behind the customer. You should understand what their problems are in the context of their business as well as what they have been doing before and after they're using your product. If you don't understand these things, you find yourself reacting to unexpected crises with clients rather than proactively delivering value.

One of the major challenges for many organizations is losing sight of the customer. Without the customer firmly fixed in the organization's collective mind, the organization makes bad decisions. As Chief Customer Officer, you need to make sure to drive an understanding of those customers as individuals deep into the organization. Your customers need to be understood as whole people who do a lot more than use your product.

In a customer‐centric organization, employees at different levels and in different functions have regular interactions with customers. In these companies, client feedback is consumed across all functions. Common techniques for driving customer understanding throughout the organization include:

• Executive sponsorships. Executives across different functions “own” client relationships. Executives attend business reviews and develop relationships ...