Long before the term 'Customer Centric' was coined, I spent 10 years working for a truly customer centric company.
The teams that dealt directly with customers were highly trained, highly regarded and some of the most valued people in the company.
As employees, we were looked after, well compensated and felt rewarded.
And while revenue targets were a measure of overall company success, we never saw them. Our individual territory targets were based solely on customer numbers:
1. # New customers
2. # New customer conversion ($)
That’s it. Just two numbers.
At first I was shocked, in previous roles I had access to much more information, including daily revenue numbers by product and region.
But the thinking was simple, manage your budget and focus on the customer numbers.
Before a cash transaction was made, the company spent a year:
♠ Developing the product
♠ Mapping user journeys
♠ Testing and gathering feedback
♠ Defining internal operations
So when they did launch, they knew there was solid process in place to attract, nurture, convert and retain customers. They just had to build a team.
And they did.
It was a different industry and a different time, but I'm yet to see anything that even comes close.
Customer centric companies think differently because they place the customer firmly at the center of their decision making.