ClickFox's Customer Experience Analytics Blog

Harvard Business School professor Ranjay Gulati, an expert on leadership, strategy, and organizational issues in firms, recently engaged in a Q&A sessions where he discussed how companies can become more customer-centric. He explains why companies with an outside-in perspective aim to provide solutions for customers, while those with an inside-out orientation, on the other hand, just focus on products, sales, and the organization. In his new book 'Reorganize for Resilience: Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business', he finds that customer-centric companies tracked between 2001 and 2007 delivered shareholder returns of 150% while the S&P 500 delivered 14%. One of the main points in the interview is what we here at ClickFox have been helping our customers do for the past decade - break down informational silos in the enterprise to allow true comprehensive cross-channel understanding of the customer experience. Says Gulati:

The more I researched, the more it became apparent that the problem had to do with internal silos. Most organizations today are still typically built around product and geography, and do not have a clear line of sight to the customer. These silos not only create proverbial blind spots for firms but also impede coordinated action toward addressing what may be identified as central for their customers. As I show in my book, you don't always have to bust silos; in most instances, you sometimes have to simply find ways to bridge them. Ultimate success cannot come without a supple organization that has fluid internal and external boundaries.

The article is full of great insight into the journey a company must take to become customer-centric. Gulati has some examples of these processes and companies who have made the choice to change the way they view their customers. Read the complete article here. Go here to watch a demo video of ClickFox CEA and how it helps organizations understand customer behavior across multiple interaction channels.