Strengthening your customer-centric leadership
« Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients. »
Richard Branson
How to be more customer-centric?
Being customer-centric as a leader means integrating the customer more effectively into decision-making by systematically evaluating the impact of those decisions. This includes:
Continuously improving the customer experience to exceed expectations,
Offering the best possible product or service at the best price,
Shaping an organization and team culture around a flexible, autonomous, and motivated collective to drive business growth.
For a leader, being customer-centric also means focusing efforts on high-value customer segments and more easily identifying opportunities for innovation and growth.
To achieve this, the will to place the customer at the heart of the organization must be a constant priority for the Executive Committee/Management Board (Comex/Codir). This requires moving beyond silo rivalries and reinforcing decision-making processes that serve the customer, employees, and ultimately, the company.
Developing a customer-centric approach is also a powerful way to boost team performance and motivation internally. Senior management sets the tone for transformation at different levels of the organization by anticipating behaviors, expectations, or dissatisfaction, and by continuously listening to both employees and customers. Only communication that “rings true” will mobilize teams and encourage individual commitment to the collective. Striking the right balance between collective intelligence and hierarchical decision-making is key to resolving customer issues!
Collective intelligence as a driver of customer-centric culture
Collective intelligence arises from the interactions among team members and aims to solve complex problems. It enables the engagement of both customers and employees in co-creating visible, quickly implementable solutions. This approach fosters a customer-oriented “attitude” among employees. First, it gets them used to sharing information to solve problems. Then, it strengthens social bonds, maximizing the synergy potential of actions. Finally, it involves defining the benefits of collaboration in advance for all parties while encouraging risk-taking—making it a powerful lever for motivation.
By continually involving customers and employees in decision-making, collective intelligence raises awareness and acculturates teams to truly listen to customers. The more they work closely with customers, share the same goals, and experience the value of customer insights, the more responsive and attentive they become.
1. Regularly Question and Observe Your Customers
In my training practice, I manage the client relationship with HR Directors or Learning & Development Managers, the sponsor (often the CEO), and of course, all the participants. That gives me more than a hundred “clients” per year, all of whom are senior executives with high expectations. As a result, while designing my programs, I also need to structure my sales approach on all three levels, each with different needs.
To achieve this, I regularly ask for feedback on the quality of service delivered. For larger organizations, it's also possible to analyze emails and calls received by the customer service team. Organizing informal lunches or breakfasts is another good way to stay in touch and collect customer insights. What matters is gathering information.
Another effective approach is to go into the field and observe your customers directly (e.g., by using Design Thinking methods). Often, customers can’t imagine what they want, Henry Ford famously quipped:
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse!”
2. Think About Your Customers’ Needs
Set aside at least 30 minutes per month to go through a customer-oriented checklist:
What do my customers need?
What’s changing in my business environment that I should consider?
What are competitors/startups doing that could disrupt my business?
What small improvement in my processes could make a big difference for my clients?
I suggest you customize this checklist and integrate it directly into your calendar!
Also ensure that time for customer/business topics is respected in collective spaces such as Comex or Codir meetings.
3. Include the Customer’s Voice in Decision-Making Processes
It’s easier to anticipate customer reactions if you've already asked the right questions. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case! Jeff Bezos, yes him again, but he's a reference here, always takes a proactive approach and asks his teams to draft a press release for every new project, as if it were being presented to the media. This helps clarify thinking by putting ideas on paper.
Finally, internal communication with teams is key: help them internalize customer relationship “mantras” simple, repeatable phrases that reinforce customer focus. This works well at the executive level too.
4. Train Your Teams in Customer Relations and Leadership
A well-managed, well-trained person will be more professional with customers! Not everyone is naturally sales or service-oriented, it can be learned! You can learn to build a relationship or handle a dissatisfied customer. That’s why investing in employee training is highly beneficial for:
Better understanding customers and increasing their satisfaction,
Strengthening emotional intelligence, or delivering bad news or selling,
Evaluating and responding to different behavioral profiles,
Managing unhappy customers effectively.
5. Reinforce Customer-Oriented Decision-Making Processes
A business unit manager shouldn't be the sole arbitrator of everything, but also shouldn’t let issues fester between BUs. Make sure conflicts are escalated and disagreements are expressed, especially regarding the tension between innovation and execution.
Implement conflict management processes, like the “Rule of Two”: the two people most affected by the decision must find the best solution for the company within two weeks. If they fail, give them one more week, and if there's still no resolution, step in and decide yourself. This will strengthen the collective culture.
6. Influence Your Ecosystem
It’s essential to influence your ecosystem to enhance the positive image of your company, profession, service, or team in the eyes of your clients. Coaching associations, for example, have helped elevate the profession’s image, and organizations like PSF in France or ANSE in Europe are doing the same for supervision. Adapting marketing/lobbying techniques to your environment helps enhance your business’s image and increases the desirability of your services.
And you? What are you doing to reinforce your clients’ influence on your business?
Before getting too caught up in daily operations, what three priorities will you set for yourself this beautiful spring?
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#leadership #emotionalintelligence #customerrelations #positivefeedback #training