Comments on: Customer-Centric Managers http://thinkinglikeacustomer.com/leading-change/customer-centric-managers/ Balance your strategy Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:38:00 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Mark Price http://thinkinglikeacustomer.com/leading-change/customer-centric-managers/comment-page-1/#comment-262 Mark Price Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:04:30 +0000 http://thinkinglikeacustomer.com/?p=811#comment-262 Your comments about customer-centric managers being change agents in their organizations is particularly apt. More and more, my clients find themselves much more challenged by internal changes than by changes in customer relationships -- after all, customers WANT to have their lives simplified, if it is done authentically. You mentioned that a customer-centric manager must be willing to start a project without knowing the end destination. In my experience, the migration to customer-centricity must be started without knowing the end result, but it is also critical that the manager find a way to break up this process into clear, defined steps with goals, measurements and milestones to be able to gain executive buy-in to move ahead with each step on the journey. In this way, the manager can gain credit not only for focusing on true customer needs, but also for taking a complex process and breaking it down into manageable steps. Your comments about customer-centric managers being change agents in their organizations is particularly apt. More and more, my clients find themselves much more challenged by internal changes than by changes in customer relationships — after all, customers WANT to have their lives simplified, if it is done authentically.

You mentioned that a customer-centric manager must be willing to start a project without knowing the end destination. In my experience, the migration to customer-centricity must be started without knowing the end result, but it is also critical that the manager find a way to break up this process into clear, defined steps with goals, measurements and milestones to be able to gain executive buy-in to move ahead with each step on the journey.

In this way, the manager can gain credit not only for focusing on true customer needs, but also for taking a complex process and breaking it down into manageable steps.

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