My new book The 8 Laws of Customer-Focused Leadership: The New Rules For Building A Business Around Today’s Customer – comes out today, July 2nd!
One day I was giving a workshop at a major telecom provider in Texas, and someone in the back of the room on the leadership team asked, “Blake, do you think that a customer-centric culture can be built by the frontline– or does it have to be created by the leadership team?”
Think about it for a moment, building a customer-centric culture is a tough job. This means that in every decision, in every meeting, from sun-up til sun-down, each employee is thinking not about what is best for today’s bottom line, but what is also best for the customer, and the long term relationship with the customer. Most executives make the product-centric decision every time, instead of making the customer-centric decision.
Building a customer-centric culture can be determined by how the business is run, reducing back-end complexity, technology upgrades, developing good managers (that have time to be managers and not just produce), the onboarding process, resources for customer service, a feedback loop to create relevant products that evolve with customer feedback, and how success is measured.
These are just a few of the many ways that a customer-centric culture can be built. It would make zero sense for a contact center agent or frontline sales associate to have the power to create this customer-centric culture I describe.
After studying customer experience for almost 20 years it has become very apparent how a company can achieve customer-centricity.
There are many books about customer experience, and there are many books about leadership, but there are very few books where customer experience and leadership come together to provide a leadership guide on how to do customer-focused leadership.
My new book follows a framework called C.X.L.E.A.D.E.R.
The acronym is based on years of research exploring what needs to happen for each individual, as they become a more customer-focused leader. The book was written so a leader at any level can benefit, or for any individual that just wants to learn to be more customer-centric no matter their role.
I hope that readers will take these stories, research and ideas, and apply them to their own careers, and to how they manage their teams.
Here’s a sneak peak of the format the book follows:
- C.reate a customer experience mindset.
- eX.ceed long-term profit expectations by focusing on both short-term and long-term profits.
- L.ay out your customer experience strategy and stick to it.
- E.mbark on your ninety-day-get-started plan.
- A.nticipate the future: be a customer experience futurist.
- D.on’t forget that employees are customers too.
- E.valuate success and measure what can be measured.
- R.eaffirm the priority: keep customer experience front and center.
Announcing My New Book The 8 Laws Of Customer-Focused Leadership
You can purchase this book wherever books are sold in hardcover, kindle or audio – and it’s the first time I am narrating my own book! I hope this book helps people all over the world to create the customer experience mindset for themselves and their teams, so they can spread the word. Customer experience is a growth strategy, and this book can guide you!
Get your copy now on Amazon or visit www.8CXLaws.com.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.