case study customer centricity

Case study: Building a customer-centric B2B organization

Customer experience (CX) is an increasingly important strategic topic in the boardrooms of B2B companies in China and throughout the world. Despite the rapid development of the previous decades, the “growth first” principle of Chinese enterprises sometimes implies customer experience can be sacrificed. But CX leaders, globally and within China, drive higher growth, lower cost, and superior customer satisfaction. In times of crisis, they achieve three-times-higher shareholder returns 1 Total return to shareholders tracked for publicly traded companies in the top 10 or bottom 10 of Forrester’s Customer Experience Performance Index in 2007–09. than laggards.

Start with a vision

A successful transformation starts from the top. Cases within and outside China confirm that the CEO must be in charge to continuously push and unify the organization.

The Chinese steel industry has taken an upturn amid the country’s overcapacity-reduction program, and companies have been enjoying robust price and volume increases. In this article, we consider one Chinese steel manufacturer whose CEO set a clear vision to build a customer-centric organization in order to gain a competitive edge and to keep the organization healthy through future downturns. The company took a series of steps to systematically and holistically shift the entire organization toward customer-centricity.

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Identify the challenges.

Comprehensive diagnostics revealed that the company faced a series of challenges. In fact, interviews with some customers were alarming: the customer voice, though central to the CEO’s vision, had no conduit within the organization and was never heard by decision makers. One key account was lost well before corporate management heard its complaints. Analysis of the research revealed several serious shortfalls in customer-centricity:

Limited understanding of customers.

The company had not systemically mapped the diverse stakeholders behind each customer, relying instead in most cases on buy-side procurement managers and their associates as the only source of customer feedback. Company representatives rarely knew or approached other customer-decision influencers or the users behind procurement, thereby losing many potential customer insights. The company also lacked access to end customers further down the value chain.

Few channels for customer feedback.

As is true at many B2B organizations, sales was the major channel through which the company gathered customer feedback. But manual relays of messages could take a long time to reach managers, assuming they were not forgotten along the way. To make matters worse, sales representatives sometimes neglected to report feedback, fearing they would be punished if headquarters learned that their customers were unhappy.

Limited analysis of feedback for insights.

What customer feedback and CX data existed within the organization was not centrally managed and synthesized into easy-to-access reports to give top management the full picture. Other stakeholders also found it challenging to access the aggregated customer feedback related to their own roles.

Customer problems not addressed.

Many customers complained that issues they had reported many times had not been dealt with, and the same problems continued to persist.

Transform to a CX-centric organization through a holistic ‘diagnose, design, deliver’ process

A holistic transformation was crafted to move the company toward the CEO’s vision, knowing that no single silver bullet could address all challenges at the same time. The transformation plan consisted of multiple modules based on a “diagnose, design, deliver” process, which takes two to three years to implement fully (Exhibit 1).

The company proceeded through the process in three phases:

Phase 1: Diagnose

The first step was to map the customers and identify stakeholders beyond buy-side procurement. To achieve this, customers were divided into segments based on similar stakeholder dynamics and customer journeys. Then the segments were prioritized based on their value and strategic importance.

Phase 2: Design

After the journey diagnostics, the company built a structured “question library” based on the journey breakdown, with customized questionnaires and feedback forms for different stakeholders. This enabled the company to collect feedback and experience data, and perform a consistent longitudinal analysis across feedback channels. Using these designs, the company was able to systematically analyze experience data, dig into root causes, and identify improvement areas.

Phase 3: Deliver

An IT backbone had to be built to implement all the designs discussed in the previous paragraphs. To achieve this, the company broke down the system design into several modules and assessed how each one should be tackled. Among the three possible development options, “customized third-party solution, locally deployed” was chosen as the best option based on five evaluation criteria: feasibility, customization, data security, timeline, and price.

Survey: Chinese B2B decision maker response to COVID-19 crisis

Key learnings: prioritize segments, and collect feedback on multiple channels.

The company eventually prioritized three segments: (1) section-steel and steel-sheet-piling dealers, (2) section-steel manufacturers, and (3) steel-sheet-piling leasing companies, with the biggest customer in each category selected for deeper analysis. In analyzing the different customers, the company discovered a pattern: three journeys—scheduling inquiry, transport and delivery, and quality discrepancy—were deemed crucial by all customers.

A new, multichannel system was designed to address the company’s various challenges in collecting customer feedback. While customers can still share feedback directly with sales reps, the system incorporates new channels, including periodic on-site interviews and feedback sessions conducted by marketing personnel or the CX team, surveys on mobile devices, and a WeChat portal where customers can submit feedback whenever they want.

This system also allows the company to reach out to previously inaccessible or remote customers, who can simply scan product QR codes to submit feedback on features and quality, or even solicit technical support. A dashboard was designed to create CX transparency across the organization, allowing different stakeholders to analyze the data and generate insights. The multichannel-backed (PC and mobile) dashboard can make customer feedback and experience data visible for stakeholders from different divisions, so they can easily analyze data and generate insights.

Manage the change to maintain success

McKinsey research indicates that 70 percent of change programs fail, mostly because of human factors. Design-phase initiatives don’t stick without procedures for proper change management. McKinsey has a useful framework for change management (Exhibit 2), from which the steel manufacturer adopted key elements.

Real impact to the bottom line

To date, the company has already generated an estimated 4 percent increase in gross profit, or an 8 percent increase in pre-interest and pretax profit—a number matching the CEO’s initial expectations of the project. Moreover, the company believes that its transformation will have a lasting impact, producing better products, more satisfied and loyal customers, and a healthier, more efficient organization overall.

All in all, customer experience is an effective tool that Chinese B2B players can utilize to create long-term competitive advantages. A company should first define its priorities, lay out an implementation path based on its current reality, and use it to work toward a superior customer experience and, ultimately, excellence.

Hai Ye and Will Enger are partners in McKinsey’s Hong Kong office.

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15 Examples of Customer Centric Companies – Explained with Case Studies

Business experts often wonder why Customer Centric Companies do better than others. Their financial performance and customer loyalty is significantly higher than any others. In this detailed blog, we explore 15 such companies with case studies and examples and analyze what constitutes customer centricity

In today’s hyper-competitive business landscape , placing the customer at the heart of your business strategy is more important than ever. The ability to deliver a high-quality customer experience can set a company apart and cultivate lasting loyalty. In this blog post, we’re shining the spotlight on 15 companies that have taken the customer-centric approach to new heights. From innovative start-ups to global giants, these organizations have embedded customer-centricity into their DNA, and their success stories provide valuable lessons for businesses of all sizes. So, let’s dive in and explore the strategies, vision, and real-life case studies of these 15 customer-centric companies.

Customer Centric Companies 1: Amazon

Strategy and Vision: Amazon’s “customer obsession” motto drives its business operations, constantly pushing it to improve and streamline the customer experience. Amazon aims to make the online shopping journey as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Case Study: Amazon Prime is the epitome of the company’s customer-centric approach. Amazon identified a key customer pain point—slow shipping—and introduced Amazon Prime. It was a subscription model that gave customers access to two-day shipping, and this service has since expanded to include video and music streaming, exclusive deals, and more. This has resulted in increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Customer Centric Companies 2 : Apple

Strategy and Vision: Apple designs its products keeping the customer experience at the forefront, focusing on ease of use, high quality, and sophisticated design.

Case Study: Apple’s response to the “Antennagate” scandal surrounding the iPhone 4 demonstrated their customer-centricity. Users reported that the phone lost signal when held in a certain way. Despite initially downplaying the issue, Apple eventually offered free cases to mitigate the problem and ultimately incorporated the learning into their future product designs, showing a commitment to learning from and responding to customer needs .

Customer Centric Companies 3 : Zappos

Strategy and Vision: Zappos is renowned for its outstanding customer service, which includes 24/7 customer support, a 365-day return policy, and free shipping both ways.

Case Study: There are numerous stories of Zappos’ customer service going above and beyond, but one that stands out is when a customer service representative spent over 10 hours on a call with a customer. Rather than rushing the customer, the representative took the time to genuinely connect with them, illustrating Zappos’ extraordinary dedication to customer satisfaction.

Customer Centric Companies 4 : Nordstrom

Strategy and Vision: Nordstrom sets the standard for customer service in the retail industry with initiatives like personal shoppers and a generous return policy.

Case Study: One well-known story involves a customer returning car tires to Nordstrom—a product they don’t even sell—and the store accepting the return. While the story is from the early days of Nordstrom, it illustrates the lengths the company is willing to go to keep customers happy.

Customer Centric Companies 5 : Netflix

Strategy and Vision: Netflix prioritizes user experience, tailoring its services to the viewing preferences of each user, creating an enjoyable, ad-free watching experience.

Case Study: Netflix’s decision to invest in original content was based on extensive customer viewing data. They recognized a gap in the content they were providing and filled it by creating their own shows and movies, showing a commitment to using customer data to improve the user experience.

Customer Centric Companies 6 : Disney

Strategy and Vision: Disney focuses on creating memorable, magical experiences for customers. This is evident in their movies and theme parks, where every detail is designed to deliver joy and entertainment.

Case Study: Disney’s MagicBand, a wristband for park guests, serves as a hotel room key, park ticket, FastPass, and payment method. This investment in customer convenience greatly enhances the overall park experience.

Customer Centric Companies 7: Trader Joe’s

Strategy and Vision: Trader Joe’s emphasizes making grocery shopping enjoyable through friendly staff, unique product selection, and customer feedback.

Case Study: Trader Joe’s reversed its decision to discontinue a popular product after receiving a single complaint from an 82-year-old customer, demonstrating their dedication to customer satisfaction.

Customer Centric Companies 8 : Ritz-Carlton

Strategy and Vision: Ritz-Carlton sets the standard for luxury customer service in the hospitality industry, empowering employees to go above and beyond for guests.

Case Study: In one famous story, a Ritz-Carlton employee found a guest’s lost laptop charger and mailed it to them at their next destination, along with a note and some additional chargers for different devices. This is a perfect example of Ritz-Carlton’s commitment to exceeding guest expectations.

Customer Centric Companies 9 : Starbucks

Strategy and Vision: Starbucks focuses on consistent, high-quality customer experiences, with well-trained staff, a comfortable store ambiance, and customizable drinks.

Case Study: Starbucks’ mobile order and pay feature was developed in response to customer needs for a quicker, more convenient way to get their coffee. This feature has improved the customer experience and increased loyalty.

Customer Centric Companies 10 : Costco

Strategy and Vision: Costco emphasizes value, offering high-quality products at affordable prices, and additional services like optical and travel.

Case Study: Costco’s decision to keep their rotisserie chicken at $4.99, despite rising costs, demonstrates their commitment to providing value to customers and maintaining customer satisfaction.

Customer Centric Companies 11 : Southwest Airlines

Strategy and Vision: Southwest’s transparent pricing strategy, friendly service, and flexible policies all contribute to its reputation as a customer-friendly airline.

Case Study: When a passenger’s son was in a critical accident, Southwest held a plane at the gate and arranged for her to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. This is a testament to Southwest’s customer-centric culture .

Customer Centric Companies 12 : Salesforce

Strategy and Vision: Salesforce builds its services around customer needs, offering a variety of software solutions for different industries and constantly innovating based on customer feedback.

Case Study: Salesforce’s “Voice of the Customer” program involves extensive customer interviews and surveys to understand and address customer needs, illustrating their commitment to customer-centric innovation.

Customer Centric Companies 13 : Chick-fil-A

Strategy and Vision: Chick-fil-A focuses on high-quality food, exceptional customer service, and community involvement. Their employees are known for saying “my pleasure” instead of “you’re welcome,” demonstrating their dedication to polite, friendly service.

Case Study: Chick-fil-A has consistently topped American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) rankings in the fast food category, illustrating the effectiveness of their customer-centric approach.

Customer Centric Companies 14 : IKEA

Strategy and Vision: IKEA focuses on providing well-designed, functional, and affordable home furnishings. They aim to create a unique and engaging shopping experience.

Case Study: IKEA’s decision to offer home assembly services was driven by customer feedback and is a clear example of their commitment to improving the customer experience.

Customer Centric Companies 15 : Patagonia

Strategy and Vision: Patagonia places its customers and their values at the heart of their business, focusing on sustainability, quality, and transparency.

Case Study: In 2011, Patagonia ran an ad during the Black Friday shopping frenzy telling customers “Don’t Buy This Jacket,” highlighting the environmental cost of consumerism. This risky move resonated with their customer base, reinforcing their brand ethos and strengthening customer loyalty.

10 Core Elements of Customer Centric Companies

Understanding Customer Needs : The first step is to deeply understand your customers: their needs, desires, pain points, and what they value most. This could be achieved through surveys, interviews, focus groups, or analysis of customer behavior data.

Segmentation : Customer segmentation involves dividing your customer base into distinct groups based on common characteristics such as demographics, buying habits, or interests. This allows you to tailor your products, services, and communications to meet the specific needs of each segment.

Personalization : Personalization is about tailoring experiences, communications, and offerings to individual customers based on their preferences and behavior. This can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and it can be facilitated through the use of data and technology.

Customer Journey Mapping : A customer journey map visualizes the entire process a customer goes through when interacting with your company, from initial contact to final purchase or interaction. This tool helps businesses identify customer touchpoints and find opportunities to enhance the customer experience.

Customer Feedback and Adaptation : Businesses should regularly seek feedback from their customers and use it to continuously improve their products, services, and overall customer experience. This may involve using various feedback channels such as surveys, social media, and customer service interactions.

Exceptional Customer Service : Customer-centric companies prioritize delivering excellent customer service. This might involve providing multiple channels for customer support (like phone, email, live chat), ensuring quick response times, or empowering customer service representatives to solve problems effectively .

Employee Engagement : Employees play a key role in delivering a customer-centric experience . Therefore, companies need to train and motivate their employees to put the customer first. This might involve employee incentives, training programs, or a company culture that values customer service.

Long-term Relationship Building : Customer-centric companies aim to build long-lasting relationships with their customers rather than focusing solely on individual transactions. This may involve maintaining regular communication, offering loyalty programs, or exceeding customer expectations to foster loyalty.

Leveraging Technology : Technology can enhance the customer experience through tools like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, AI-powered chatbots for 24/7 customer service, personalized marketing , and data analytics tools to gain insights about customer behavior.

Value-Driven Approach : Above all, a customer-centric approach involves delivering value to the customer at every interaction. This means not just meeting their needs, but exceeding their expectations and providing a positive, memorable experience.

Samrat is a Delhi-based MBA from the Indian Institute of Management. He is a Strategy, AI, and Marketing Enthusiast and passionately writes about core and emerging topics in Management studies. Reach out to his LinkedIn for a discussion or follow his Quora Page

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CMR INSIGHTS

What is customer-centricity, and why does it matter.

by Jonathan Hughes, David Chapnick, Isaac Block, and Saptak Ray

Image Credit | UX Indonesia

Customer-centricity has become a hot topic, and our recent survey of 250 individuals at 180 B2B companies demonstrates why. Over the past five years, companies reporting a “very mature” level of customer-centricity experienced 2.5X revenue growth compared with those reporting their company was “very immature.” Previous research from Forrester similarly showed that market leaders in customer experience enjoyed ~450% greater CAGR, compared to market laggards, during the period of 2010-2015. 

Related CMR Articles

“A Better Way to Manage Customer Experience: Lessons from the Royal Bank of Scotland” by Stan Maklan, Paolo Antonetti, & Steve Whitty

“Customer-Centric Leadership: How to Manage Strategic Customers as Assets in B2B Markets” by Christoph Senn, Axel Thoma, & George S. Yip

“Blurring the Lines between Physical and Digital Spaces: Business Model Innovation in Retailing” by Milan Jocevski

Despite the buzz, there is a great deal of confusion about what customer-centricity is and how to put its principles into practice. At too many companies it is mostly hype — a rebranding of traditional marketing, sales, and customer service that involves no fundamental change and delivers little benefit. Genuine customer-centricity requires transforming all enterprise functions that affect customers, breaking down the silos between those functions, and building a culture that rewards behaviors aligned with customer success.

To help companies assess their efforts and guide their investment and transformation, we have developed a model (Figure 1 below) that defines four distinct levels of customer-centricity. Based on our research and extensive work with clients on customer-centricity initiatives, a majority of companies function at levels two or three. Only about 9% of companies operate in a truly customer-centric manner, with manufacturers (5%) at the low end and high-tech companies (19%) at the high end, on average. These numbers indicate an attractive opportunity for companies to differentiate themselves by enhancing the way they engage with and deliver value to their customers.

Here is what market leaders do to put the customer at the center of their business.

1. Embed customer-centric thinking and practices in company DNA — across all functions

R&D organizations are staffed by bright, innovative people, but they are usually far removed from customers, and often more energized by new technology and solving technical problems than meeting customer needs.

Product management teams are closer to customers than R&D, but their view of customers is aggregated by market segment, not individualized. They are measured and rewarded based on the sales and profitability of their products – and thus see customers primarily through the lens of those products. That’s not necessarily inconsistent with a focus on customer value, but it is certainly not the same thing. As customer needs evolve and change, the incentives of the product management function often create inertia that impedes innovation and responsiveness to customers

Marketing and sales teams use voice-of-customer surveys and interviews, customer focus groups, customer journey analysis, and various market research techniques to seek out information about what customers want. At the same time, incentives based on sales growth and account profitability often compromise a truly customer-centric focus, when they are not balanced by a deep commitment to delivering value to customers and enabling their success.

Wholesale change in how these functions operate is neither realistic nor necessary, nor even desirable. Completely replacing sales quotas with incentives based solely on customer satisfaction or success is, in most cases, a good way to drive your company out of business. Attempting to turn researchers, developers, designers, and engineers into salespeople or customer service professionals would be likewise misguided.

Nonetheless, the silos that exist in most companies between functions need to be breached. Functions from R&D, to Product Management, to Marketing, to Sales, need to expand their traditional priorities and measures of success with unifying metrics focused on customer value and success.

Too often, noncustomer-facing personnel feel disconnected from, and unaccountable for, customer outcomes. This leads to decisions and priority-setting focused on the needs of suppliers, not customers. Companies should implement policies that help employees (including those who do not touch the customer directly) understand how their work contributes not only to the delivery of specific products and solutions but to the customer’s overall business strategy.

Product designers and managers should regularly join account teams in customer meetings. Sales leaders and managers should be actively involved in the earliest stages of R&D and new product development. In practice, this often leads to a significant amount of debate and argument. R&D teams often dismiss salespeople as technically ignorant; sales teams view R&D as overly theoretical and detached from marketplace realities. But customer-centric leadership can ensure that such clashes do not lead to dysfunctional conflict, but rather serve as a source of creative abrasion that drives practical innovation.

2. Seek competitive differentiation through every aspect of the customer journey and experience

By now, most companies have embraced the practice of mapping customer journeys. According to Salesforce, 56% of companies with 2,500+ employees have adopted a “customer journey strategy” — but just 29% rate their strategies as “very effective” or “effective.”

Market leaders distinguish themselves in two ways. First, unlike many companies that manage solution implementation, service delivery, and customer service as cost centers, leaders treat them as value drivers. Rather than focus primarily on the internal efficiency of these functions, they relentlessly search for ways to improve the customer experience across every touch point.  They are willing to add internal costs when doing so will reduce complexity for customers, accelerate time to revenue, and increase customer retention and cross-selling opportunities. Customer service and support teams at customer-centric companies probe for opportunities to deliver unexpected value — versus simply solving the immediate problem. (Note that this is quite different from the common, and often counter-productive, practice of mandating that customer-service reps engage in direct cross-selling or upselling.) Such an approach requires close partnership between Sales leaders, and leaders in Operations who are responsible for many of the systems and resources that shape a customer’s experience.

Second, market leaders also balance investment in automation with continued focus on human interactions with customers. While customer journeys are becoming more automated, 75% of global consumers still want to interact with human counterparts. Why? Even as customers appreciate the ability to quickly select from a catalogue of online offerings, or self-configure a solution, when they have complex or unique needs, customers prefer to deal with a knowledgeable, consultative sales team. Self-service tools are spreading as they become more powerful, but human judgment, ingenuity, and — when things go wrong, empathy — cannot be replaced. Best-in-class companies understand the interdependence between systems and people, and optimize the customer experience by making complementary improvements to both, and by ensuring their seamless integration.

3. Externalize innovation

Research and development at most companies are inwardly focused, but market leaders realize that successful innovation requires deep customer empathy. Consider GE Healthcare IT, which made a point of visiting hospitals to understand how they (and their patients) experienced GE equipment. After noticing that children would often cry when they saw MRI machines, GE reps decided to visualize the rooms as children would, even kneeling to be at a child’s height. They ended up helping hospitals transform MRI rooms into adventure experiences, such as a pirate ship — and patient satisfaction scores increased by 90 percent.

Joint innovation centers, where technical staff from a company collaborate closely with technical staff from top customers or suppliers, are also a powerful practice. Innovation labs, embraced by companies across industries (e.g., Amazon, Huawei, FICO), give customers the opportunity to work closely with dedicated cross-functional teams of technology and solution development experts.

Even if, as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously remarked, customers themselves do not yet realize they have a need, R&D teams should be trained in customer-centric thinking — they should embrace collaboration and co-innovation with customers and partners as a key component of solution development and demonstrate how new products and features will meet real and pressing customer needs.

4. Reorient sales – from selling to customers to selling for customers

Traditional sales approaches focus on educating customers about the features and benefits of a company’s products, and then explaining why they are superior to competing offerings. Consultative selling, and a focus on becoming a trusted advisor to customers, represent attempts to go beyond a transactional “push” model of selling to something that is more collaborative, and that ideally leads to better outcomes for both customers and suppliers.

But a truly customer-centric approach to selling requires something more radical. The goal of customer-centric selling is not to close a sale. It is to help the customer make the best decision – for them . This does not mean salespeople should not educate customers on their company’s solutions and the value they can add to their customers – that is the essential role salespeople play in helping customers make informed decisions. But customer-centric selling does entail a paradigm shift, one that calls for new ways of talking about, and measuring, success and failure. 

Customer-centric sales organizations do not focus primarily on sales “wins” or “losses.” Closing the sale of a product or solution that is not the ideal fit for customer’s needs is a Pyrrhic victory that comes at the expense of trust and future sales opportunities. Conversely, working with a customer all the way to the point of disengagement without a sale, and perhaps even advising that customer that your solution does not appear to be the best fit for them, is no loss. It is an investment in a relationship that maximizes opportunities for future sales.

For an extreme case of what happens when sales practices and incentives become untethered from a focus on what is best for the customer, consider Wells Fargo. Between 2002 and 2016, a hyper-aggressive pursuit of sales devolved into outright fraud, resulting in $3B in fines, the resignation and lifetime ban from banking of the CEO John Stumpf, and sanctions by the Federal Reserve. Contrast that with Zappos, where if a customer calls for a product and Zappos does not have the product in stock, staff recommend a competitor who has it.

  5. Marry customer-centricity with employee engagement

As with many business disciplines, customer-centricity is about more than systems and tools. At root, it is about cultural transformation, and successful execution ultimately depends on people. The simple truth is that you cannot expect employees to treat customers better than they themselves are treated.

Market leaders in customer-centricity ensure the entire company keeps customers and their needs at the forefront of planning, decision making, and day-to-day execution. (Figure 2 shows how this differs from traditional practices.) Three key practices enable them to do so.

• Inspire and engage employees. Improving employee engagement creates a virtuous cycle: Top talent seeks to work for companies that delight customers, and attracting and retaining the best talent leads to better customer outcomes. That is why companies with best-in-class customer experience have 60% more employees that are highly engaged. One way to engage employees, and help embed customer-centric thinking and practices throughout an organization, is to invest in customer-focused training and development. Bank of America and Carilion Clinic, for example, have expanded training curriculums that were traditionally focused on technical skills to include customer empathy and engaging in difficult conversations with customers.
• Empower employees with customer insights. Arm all employees with relevant and actionable data about customers. Ensure information is shared freely across functions, not just within the Marketing and Sales organizations. Encourage employees across functions to use such insights to identify and act on opportunities to deliver more value to customers — and then reward them for doing so.
• Start with leadership. Active, C-level sponsorship and support is essential to customer- centricity. A genuine commitment to serving customers will always exist in some tension with a company’s obligations to shareholders and the self-interest of its employees, so enterprise-level leaders must provide the guidance for how to productively manage this tension.

Figure 2: Transforming a company’s value chain for customer-centricity

Years ago, David Packard of Hewlett-Packard observed that “marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.” In today’s hyper-competitive economy, customer relationships are too important to be left to sales teams and customer-service organizations. 

Building a customer-centric enterprise requires a commitment to delighting customers that cuts across functions and departments. Intuit launched its Design for Delight initiative in 2014 by encouraging its employees to “fall in love with” its customers’ problems. Since launching this program, based on deep customer empathy and rapid innovation with customers, Intuit’s stock price has risen more than 450 percent.

How many of your company’s customers work with you primarily because they lack a better current alternative — because they feel like they have to, not because they want to? The answer to that question is likely to determine your company’s future.

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The 5 Top Customer Centricity Examples in 2024

Editor’s Note: The Top Customer Centricity Examples article was originally written on July 19th, 2022 and was most recently updated for relevance and clarity on November 22nd, 2023

Customer centricity. Customer obsession. Customer focus. 

These are not just boardroom buzzwords but rather essential principles for businesses today – from global enterprises to innovative upstarts. Over the last 10-15 years there has been a pivot from being price- and product-focused to centering everything around the customer. Starbucks, Nordstrom, Hilton, Amazon and other brands have created the blueprint for customer experience and customer relationship management (CRM), and have shaped customer expectations for brand interactions. In 2024, all companies need to take a radically customer centric approach. 

In this post, we’re answering questions like: 

• What is customer centricity?
• Why is customer centricity important?

How to be customer centric

• What are the top customer centricity examples?

What is Customer Centricity? 

Customer centricity means you put the customer at the center of everything you do. Your products, in-store and digital experiences, and customer service are all designed with the goal of providing a consistently great experience and adding value. The entire company has a ‘customer culture’ and removes siloes to provide a cohesive, unified experience. 

Customer centric companies remove friction, preemptively solve problems and meet customer needs in unique ways. These companies often leverage powerful technology like machine learning, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence, in addition to sophisticated CRM platforms to provide truly effortless interactions and hyper-personalization

Customer centricity can exist across a variety of dimensions of a business including Customer Support, Marketing, and Sales departments.

What is Customer Centric Selling?

In a nutshell, customer centric selling is a selling strategy that values building meaningful relationships with your customers as opposed to pushy sales tactics. Similarly, customer centric service also is about focusing on growing meaningful relationships, but in the context of the customer support role.

 “Human-centric marketing is defined by brands that approach engaging their current and prospective customers via advertising and marketing tactics as whole human beings with hearts, minds, and spirits.” — Philip Kotler

Why is Customer Centricity important?

Customers today expect more. And this comes at a time when customer experience (CX) is the primary differentiator in a sea of sameness. CX now dictates where people spend their money and develop loyalty. Companies need to obsess over providing positive experiences and adding value in order to create a positive view in people’s minds. Every interaction matters. CX expert Shep Hyken says: “Customers notice almost everything. In fact, their brains are wired to make a note of anything they don’t like 1 .” 

Adopting a customer centric mindset is crucial for many reasons: 

• Every interaction matters : One in three customers will leave a brand they love after one bad experience 2 . 
• A customer centric philosophy can reduce customer acquisition costs: It’s more expensive than ever to acquire new customers: it’s 5X more expensive to acquire a new customer than keep an existing one. 
• Customer centricity unlocks revenue : 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience 3 . Personalization alone can increase overall consumer spending up to 500% 4 . 
• Customer centricity motivates people to recommend your brand: More than 65% of customers said that their experience on the website or app would be at least a “very important” factor in their willingness to recommend a brand. 

The first step in becoming customer centric is understanding what your customers need and want. Take frequent pulses on pain points and identify and eliminate friction points: 96% of customers with a high-effort service interaction become more disloyal compared to 9% who have a low-effort experience 5 . The key to creating such an experience is for the team to be intimately familiar with the customer’s journey through your buying experience.

Customer centricity is also created by personalizing and contextualizing experiences, something that 75% of customers expect today 6 . This involves surfacing the right products, experiences and information to specific customers at the exact moment of relevance. To do this, companies need to get away from silos and disconnected systems to connect all of the dots of the customer into one centralized view. According to Professor PhD Luigi-Nicolae DUMITRESCU, “You cannot departmentalize a customer centric approach. It must emanate from the very heart of the organization. All departments need to work in harmony, if not complete synchronicity in all communications with customers. 7 ” 

Customer centric brands also understand that you can’t be everything to everyone. In his book, Customer Centricity, Wharton professor Peter Fader encourages companies to look at the “overall customer lifetime value and concentrate efforts on those customer segments that were most valuable and interesting to optimize profit 8 .” Segment your customers to identify the best ones and develop strategies to provide these segments with the best experience. Don’t put resources into courting customers who don’t pay off in LTV. The most efficient way to accomplish this is by using a customer relationship management platform.

Creating a customer centric mindset needs to be managed by an internal champion overseeing everything to do with the customer. In an indication of the shift away from price focus and product focus to customer focus, the role of the Chief Customer Officer has been one of the fastest-growing. In fact, 22% of Fortune 100 companies and 10% of Fortune 500 companies now have chief customer officers 9 . 

The top 5 customer centricity examples you haven’t seen anywhere else 

Companies like Starbucks, Amazon, Netflix and Walt Disney World are often cited for their customer centricity, as they should be. In this post, we wanted to find customer centricity examples that you may have never seen before. 

1. Wayfair uses AI and data for hyper-personalization

Wayfair offers over eight million products, from furniture and décor to appliances and storage 10 . It has 37,173 kinds of coffee mugs alone, and when you account for different colors, sizes or materials, there are over 70,000 options 11 . Without taking a customer centric approach, the user experience would be overwhelming and time-consuming. 

The company uses predictive analytics and AI to create detailed buyer personas to show the most relevant products for customers, eliminating the need to scroll through pages and pages of products to find something they like. Wayfair “uses machine learning technology to work out which products complement one another and recommend them to customers. This makes sure that Wayfair isn’t wasting its customers’ time by recommending products that simply won’t work with the items they already own 12 .”

According to Wayfair Cofounder Steve Conine: “On average, we capture and store four terabytes of data every day and over the course of a year, we track approximately 40 billion customer actions on our site…..Data has been democratized across the organization — it can be accessed and used regardless of whether an employee works in marketing, logistics, or engineering. Data has allowed the company to better execute on its strategy through improved personalization.” 

2. Stitch Fix removes the hassle of clothes shopping 

Stitch Fix is one of the most fascinating customer centricity examples. The company gets to know customers through a personalized style quiz, and then after finding out clothing style and color preferences, favorite brands and styles, and budget, stylists curate pieces and outfits for the individual customer. There’s no subscription, items can be easily returned and you only buy the products that you like. Points of friction have been identified and eliminated. 

The company relies on AI and big data to power its operations. CEO Kristina Lake says, “Data science isn’t woven into our culture; it is our culture 13 .” The company reviews style trends, preferences, sizing info, and inventory. Stitch Fixes AI algorithms and data experts determine what styles typically work for each type of customer. And this is paying off: Stitch Fix increases its client base by 17% each year and currently serves more than 3.5 million customers 14 . 

3. Ikea’s In-Store and Digital Experience Elevate the CX 

The customer centricity at IKEA runs deep. According to Maja Bricevic, a Communications Specialist with IKEA Canada, “IKEA’s vision is to create a better everyday life for the many, and is committed to meeting the needs of its customers by creating a great customer experience, whenever and wherever [customers] want to meet us.”

The Swedish home retailer is recognized for its immersive in-store customer experience. Customers shop carefully furnished and curated spaces, visit a food court and snack on famous meatballs and even take advantage of complimentary childcare. 

Apart from the in-store experience, IKEA’s digital experience is also very customer centric. One way the customer delivers this is through its IKEA Place app. Shopping for home furniture can be challenging to imagine how an item will look in your space. The app gives customers the ability to virtually place true-to-scale 3D models in their own space, furnish a whole room in one tap or find the perfect product by searching with your camera. 

4. L’Oreal mixes up makeup on demand 

Unlike products like toys or books, which are the same for everyone, makeup looks different on every customer. To help customers find the exact right shade, the company launched L’Oréal Perso, an AI-powered smart device that creates custom formulas for lipstick, foundation, and skincare. A customer uploads a picture to the Preso app “which will use AI to identify skin conditions like dark spots, large pores, or wrinkles.” The app layers in real-time contextual data to account for environmental concerns that affect the skin, including pollution, pollen, and UV index. All of this is used to create a custom formula that is dispensed in a perfectly portioned, single-dose. 

The company aims to give consumers more control over their makeup and skincare, according to Guive Balooch, global vice president of L’Oréal Technology Incubator 15 . “Consumers have been asking to be part of the process of their beauty and have a stronger relationship with how well it’s working. [With Perso], you become part of the process of your cosmetics,” he says. 

5. Hilton treats every loyalty member like a true VIP 

Hilton is one of the biggest hotel brands in the world, boasting 6,110 properties with more than 971,000 rooms in 119 countries and territories. Annually, 178 million guests stay at its properties. Even with these extraordinary numbers, the brand has implemented strategies to be truly customer centric. The driving force behind this is the Hilton Honors guest loyalty program, which has over 115 million members 16 . 

With the free Hilton Honors mobile app, guests can book their stay, select the exact room they want, order meals, check-in and out, unlock their door and elevators with a Digital Key, all from their smartphone 17 . The honors program and app provide a truly frictionless experience from booking and pre-stay to on-site. Because of these digital interactions and building rich customer profiles, “front desk staff can focus on more valuable face-to-face interactions, while guests avoid worrying about losing hotel room keys.” 

Final Thoughts: Customer centricity is here to stay 

Keeping the customer at the center of everything you do is a must for companies to compete, build loyalty and generate revenue. Customer centricity needs to be a fabric of every modern organization, with siloes eliminated and departments working together with the same goal: create positive customer interactions that deliver value across the entire customer lifecycle. 

Are you interested in making one of these customer-centricity lists? Let’s discuss how AI can transform your company into a customer-centric powerhouse. 

For more information, visit:

• The 15 Best Customer Experience Tools to Elevate CX
• How Customer Self Service Can Help Your Business & Your Customers

References 

• https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2021/07/11/three-facets-of-customer-experience-youre-overlooking/ 
• https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html
• https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2019/04/29/does-it-still-cost-5x-more-to-create-a-new-customer-than-retain-an-old-one/?sh=706ef3b83516
• https://www.ttec.com/sites/default/files/eb-cx-trends-the-2021-edition.pdf
• https://www.zendesk.com/blog/digital-tipping-point-mid-large/
• http://www.mnmk.ro/documents/2007/2007-7.pdf
• https://www.i-scoop.eu/understanding-customer-life-cycle-calculating-value/
• https://www.wayfair.com/shop-the-look/dsp/wayfair+catalog-d7033755
• https://www.wsj.com/articles/retailers-use-ai-to-improve-online-recommendations-for-shoppers-11604330308
• https://etaileast.wbresearch.com/blog/wayfair-using-artificial-intelligence-augmented-reality-to-become-ecommerce-challenger
• https://hbr.org/2018/05/stitch-fixs-ceo-on-selling-personal-style-to-the-mass-market
• https://sharpencx.com/blog/customer-experience-improvement-program-tips-from-stitch-fix/
• https://www.allure.com/story/loreal-perso-customized-skin-care-makeup-device
• https://newsroom.hilton.com/hilton-honors/news/hilton-reaches-100-million-hilton-honors-members-milestone
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Sustaining Customer Centricity at Chateauform'

By: Benoit Leleux, Kurt Verweire, Marion Debruyne

The Châteauform' case describes how Jacques Horovitz founded a unique concept in the saturated hotel and seminar market that existing hotel chains find difficult to copy and conquer. The case…

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• Publication Date: Aug 25, 2014
• Discipline: Strategy
• Product #: IMD761-PDF-ENG

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The Châteauform' case describes how Jacques Horovitz founded a unique concept in the saturated hotel and seminar market that existing hotel chains find difficult to copy and conquer. The case outlines why the new company has entered that market successfully and how Horovitz grew this concept by copying his success formula in other countries and for different target groups. Permanent questioning and reinvention were keys to the sustainability of Châteauform', which maintained the agility and nimbleness of a startup even though it had grown to a company with revenues exceeding €100 million and almost 1,000 employees. Key to the success of the Châteauform' model are some very original solutions to classic supply chain management quagmires in the service industry. The case describes how Horovitz successfully managed this growth. It is a good illustration of how to implement a strategy built on customer centricity and customer intimacy. An interesting element of this case study is the emphasis on managing by values rather than rules and on realigning the whole value chain to make sure the value creation is indeed managed at the customer level, forcing a corporate structure that is very innovative.

Aug 25, 2014

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Case Studies

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With every project and engagement, our goal is to improve everything we can, and leave our clients with actionable strategies, plans, and suggestions.

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• 4-month project in 2020.
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How Customer-Centricity Drives a Reimagined Multichannel Shopping Experience

New experience results in a 98 percent increase in mobile orders.

In a growing, yet underdeveloped ecommerce landscape, Walmart Canada is leading a retail transformation. A transformation that is truly customer-first in its approach to all things digital. With great pride, we partnered with Walmart to develop the experience across all touchpoints, including a recently launched mobile app that is available on both iOS and Android.

The Imperative for Change

We took the philosophy that customers want to browse and shop anywhere, anytime to heart. So we created a responsive site that fluidly adapts to any device. The new walmart.ca incorporated best of breed technologies, modular architecture and consumer-driven insights that resulted in a seamless, consistent experience from desktop, tablet or mobile device.

The Transformative Solution 

Staying true to Walmart’s brand promise of helping customers live better lives while saving time and money, a new grocery service was integrated into an existing responsive experience. Designs that were developed and tested with buyers resulted in a customer-centric experience that includes features such as:

• A real-time slot booking engine for grocery pickup
• A fixed grocery-list style shopping cart
• The ability to save customers' carts across devices and channels

Let’s face it, some customers are in a rush and don’t have time to wander aisles. We branded innovative Grab & Go lockers that are located in select Walmart stores, 7-Eleven locations and Canada Post retail outlets. After customers place their order online, a Walmart Associate fills the order and places it in a locker. Once filled, the customer is sent a 6-digit code to access their locker.

The Business Impact

We’re #1. Walmart.ca is Canada’s first responsively designed ecommerce site for a big box retailer. In 2016, we saw incredible year-over-year growth. The numbers speak for themselves.  

“Canadians count on Walmart to save them money, both in stores and online. We’re delivering on that promise, allowing them to shop anytime, anywhere with Walmart.ca and the Walmart Canada Online Shopping app.”

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Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward?

Allianz Customer Centricity: Is Simplicity the Way Forward? ^ 522008

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Publication Date: July 02, 2021

Source: Harvard Business School

This case explores the tradeoffs between product personalization and simplicity as companies grow. The case presents an opportunity to understand whether and how each of these approaches enables and/or limits companies' abilities to provide customer satisfaction while being efficient in their operations. In October 2018, Allianz was one of the world's leading insurers and asset managers with 103 million retail and corporate customers in 70 countries. It was one of only two insurers to rank amongst the world's 50 strongest brands in 2017, a sign that the company's customer-centricity approach drove value and resonated with clients. Allianz's ambition was to reach the top 25 brands in Interbrand's ranking by 2025. For the insurer, the key to success was to focus on simplicity-reducing the complexity of products and processes in order to create a more unified customer experience. However, such a move did not align with current trends in insurance markets, where Allianz's main competitors had opted for hyper-personalization. Furthermore, a strategy focused on simplicity implied a radical move in certain key markets where Allianz had traditionally offered a large diversity of products. Was simplicity the right strategy? Would Allianz be able to embrace customer needs successfully within and across markets while simultaneously growing its business?

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CUSTOMER-CENTRIC GUIDE

Why go customer-centric, case studies.

Putting customers at the center produces loyal, active customers and moves your organization toward long-term competitive advantage.

Customer Centricity

Customer-focused competitive edge

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Solve acquisition, retention + expansion

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Learn from others

AMK’s Journey

What can be learned from the experience of AMK, a Cambodian microfinance organization that’s been customer-centric since its inception? AMK leadership plays a crucial role in shaping culture and ensuring that core values are part of its DNA.  Over the past 14 years, leadership has  equipped  front line agents and staff with the tools they need to reflect the organization's customer-centric values, and has recently  taken steps to move a new agent business vertical toward customer centricity.

Key Resources

Leadership and organizational culture in customer centricity: the journey of amk cambodia  -  (pdf, 36 pages).

Customer-centric leadership and organizational culture at AMK Cambodia.

Treating Agents as Customers at AMK, A Cambodian Microfinance Institution  -  (PDF, 34 Pages)

When AMK learned to view agents as a "customer segment," it created business value for agents and the organization.

CARD Pioneer Microinsurance’s Journey

CARD  Pioneer Microinsurance sees the value in delivering positive customer experience by having the right processes in place, hiring the right people, getting feedback from customers, and retooling based on insights and metrics. Over the past two years Pioneer Microinsurance saw an expansion of its portfolio with CARD customers from 600,000 to 1.6 million enrollments, and renewal rates doubled.

Pioneer Microinsurance: Building a Business around Positive Customer Experience Pays Off  -  (PDF, 36 Pages)

Philippines microinsurance provider PMI leverages customer data and insights to establish its customer-centric culture.

CARD Pioneer's Journey to Customer Centricity | CGAP

CARD Pioneer's Journey to Customer Centricity | CGAP  -  (Video, 19:39)

Follow CARD Pioneer's two-year journey with CGAP to better understand the needs and dreams of low-income customers in the Philippines.

Digicel’s Journey

An encouraging change in mobile money uptake and activity experienced by a mobile money service provider is evident in Haiti after lackluster results between 2010 and 2015. Mobile money services were initially set in motion to facilitate distribution of grant payments to victims of the 2010 earthquake. What drove the recent surge in uptake and activity for Digicel? This case study shows that a focus on customer needs, and empowering customers, brings results. It also demonstrates how a pull strategy, rather than a push strategy, is the best way to drive uptake and use.

Digicel Mobile Money (MonCash), Haiti  -  (PDF, 18 Pages)

A new focus on customer needs – and empowering customers – drives strong uptake and use.

Janalakshmi’s Journey

Literally translated as “people’s wealth,” India’s Janalakshmi began as a microfinance enterprise and is now a small finance bank that caters to low-income people and businesses that do not have access to mainstream financial institutions. This case study reveals how, with the assistance of CGAP, the group used customer-centric methods to learn about the aspirations and financial lives of its customers to develop products that meet their needs. It also describes the formal change management process and structural transformations that put customers at the heart of Janalakshmi’s operations.  

At the Heart of All That We Do: Janalakshmi’s Journey to a Customer-Centric Bank in India  -  (PDF, 40 Pages)

How the Indian financial institution (now a small bank) worked with CGAP to put customers at the center of its operations.

Janalakshmi: How can we improve the customer experience at branches serving the poor? | India

Janalakshmi: How can we improve the customer experience at branches serving the poor? | India  -  (Video, 5:57)

The urban microfinance organization aims to embed customer-centric processes into their company DNA.

Zoona’s Journey

Beginning in the spring of 2017, Zoona CEO Mike Quinn embarked on an intensive journey around Africa to talk with customers and agents, gather insights, and truly understand the people the money transfer company serves in villages, cities, and rural areas. Over the past three years, Zoona has strengthened its commitment to customer centricity, knowing that delivering the best customer experience becomes more intuitive when leadership is listening.

Zoona’s Journey to Customer Centricity in Africa  -  (PDF, 24 Pages)

Learn how business challenges catalyzed a shift toward customer centricity – which in turn generates value for the African fintech company.

Zoona’s Journey | Mike Quinn, Zoona

Zoona’s Journey | Mike Quinn, Zoona  -  (Video, 5:00)

The CEO of Zoona walks a mile in customers’ shoes.

Orange Madagascar’s Journey

Orange Madagascar, a subsidiary of the French telecommunications operator Orange S.A., works to give practical expression to the Group’s global vision to promote customer centricity in its operations. Improving customer experience is key in Orange Madagascar’s efforts to strengthen uptake and use of its Orange Money mobile money account. This case study shows how Orange Money Madagascar translates the global vision into local practice by generating and analyzing customer insights, improving interactions with customers, and developing solutions suited to the needs of customers and Orange agents.

Orange Money Madagascar: Applying an International Group’s Customer-Centric Strategy at the Local Level  -  (PDF, 24 Pages)

Learn how the mobile money service addressed limited uptake by increasing its customer focus.

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A first step towards Customer-Centricity: a case study at Advantech Europe

ABSTRACT This thesis describes how product-centric manufacturing companies can cope with increasing service demand of its customers by focusing on specific customer needs and preferences. The goal is to design the first steps a product-centric manufacturing company should make to become customer-centric. Three steps are executed in pursuit of this objective. First, the most profitable customers are segmented according to similar needs.

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