This post is part of the Deep Thoughts at Dreamforce Series of candid interviews with customer experience thought leaders. You can view the other videos in the series here.
“Strategy that involves common sense is nearly impossible for large companies to do,” said consultant Dr. Natalie Petouhoff of companies that claim to be customer-centric yet fail to truly utilize customer feedback to grow the business.
“Leadership is the key,” said Petouhoff speaking to C-level executives. “If you’re not customer-focused, you need to be fired.”
Customers are everything. “If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business,” said Petouhoff.
One of the issues that came up during the Dreamforce conference was the need to increase customer engagement. One theory states that if you can double your overall customer engagement you could double your business.
The problem Petouhoff identified is that there are still many executives who believe that customer service should only be treated as a cost center. Instead, you should relish every single customer touch point, even the negative ones.
Don’t stick your head in the sand to negative criticism, warned Petouhoff. Talk to your customers wherever they are. Hire people who are customer-centric who want to engage with your customers.
“Integrate that back into your company and you would have an amazing company,” claimed Petouhoff.
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