Admit you have a problem: The first step to recovery is to admit that you are organization-centric. Say it: “We’re
organization-centric”….
Take off your coat. You can hang it over there. The evenings are closing in, aren’t they? Have a seat. Have a seat. Tea or coffee? Black or white? I like mine black too. Sugar?
First off, let me tell you that you’re not alone. I have never met an organization that didn’t suffer from some form of
organization-centricity. Your symptoms are mild in comparison to some of the cases I come across. Why, last week I had a client that couldn’t finish a sentence without a we-we.
They say that the humans have been on this planet for about five million years. Well, for 4,990,000 of those years we survived in small groups. We were described as “shy and murderous.” If we saw a stranger, our impulse was to run from them or murder them. Sure, sure, we still do that today, but not nearly as much as we used to.
The organization is a group. The customer is a stranger. The customer is not like us. We are genetically programmed to react negatively to the stranger. In the ancient jungle, that was useful. When we came across something or someone that was unfamiliar we had to make fast, gut-instinct choices: Friend or foe? Fight or flight?
So, it is perfectly “natural” to be organization-centric. It is the most natural thing in the world to be. It is normal. What I’m asking you to be is abnormal. I’m asking you to think of the customer first. That is a very hard thing to do. Every day you’ll have to work on it.
But why bother? Why do we have to pay this pesky customer so much attention today?
Some blame the Web. It’s given customers power they never really had before. It’s put knowledge at their fingertips-just a click away. And knowledge is power, they all say. But is it? No, I don’t think so. The application of knowledge-the use of knowledge-is where power lies. And with the Web, customers have an abundance of knowledge to help them make decisions.
Think of it like gut instinct in reverse. Instead of fight or flight, it’s now will I stay or will I go? Only it’s the
customer making the decision-in an instinct. The impatient, attention-deficit-syndrome customer comes to your website and makes a gut instinct decision of whether your website is any good or not. To succeed, you’ve got to suppress your gut instinct and embrace the gut instinct of your customer.
Don’t let this get you down. You clearly want to do the right thing. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. You have made the first step, which means you’ve thought a lot about this. You know that to survive and thrive in the information jungle, you must put the customer first.
You must put the customer first not because it’s the “right” thing to do. You must put the customer first because if you don’t, the customer will Back-button you from their sight and Delete you from their consciousness.
So, repeat slowly after me: “Customer-centric, not organization-centric … customer-centric, not organization-centric … customer-centric, not organization-centric.”
More coffee?
Gerry,
Good post! I am not opposed to the we, because I believe and council that to be customer-centric a business must first be employee-centric.
Employees are the customer touch points, and if we want them to focus on customers first, we need to ensure that employees’ needs are met, from training, to respect and dignity, to job challenges, and, yes, to coffee.
To be outward thinking, we must be inward looking.
Seconding Lewis, good post. Thought I’d share an anecdote from the most organization-centered (note: not employee centered) place I ever worked. We had managed to squander $40M in our investors money – building all kinds of interesting techie things that we mostly forgot to sell. This was pre-dot.com, when $40M was a lot of money. Anyway, the investors finally wised-up and told the CEO that they weren’t going to put any more money in without putting a turnaround guy in with it. The CEO complained to our HR head (a good friend of mine), saying “Liz,the investors are trying to screw us!” As you can imagine, it was the investors who actually felt that they were the screwee.
Lewis,
A funny thing I’ve found is that often employees don’t see themselves as being part of the “organization”. They see the organization as “management”.
And when we get an organization-centric intranet, we get something built from the organization chart. And most people don’t understand the organization chart very well, so they have a hard time navigating around and finding stuff they need.
But your general point is definitely true. Happy employees make for happy customers.
Gerry,
Unfortunately, you are right! I am a crusader for making every employee, bottom to top, a stakeholder in the business.
Gerry,
Wonderful post. I really agree with you. And yes it is wonderful to have the Internet and have knowledge in your finger tips. There was a time when customers where explited by companies and now a days they themselves and propogating the idea of being customer centric knowing very well that if they don’t do it…customer will ignore you and go to someone better.
And yes I completely agree with Lewis that for a company to be successful every employee should pride themselves in representing the company. Necessarily it is not the company that the employees hate but rather the management. A company logo represents pride and trust where as in many a times the management does not represent what the company represents creating we-them relationship.