Gujarat University Rethinking Marketing & Customer Centric Characteristics Paper

Customer Centricity

Without
customers, businesses could not succeed. The term “customer centric”
has, therefore, become synonymous with proactive business strategy
worldwide. Primarily due to advances in technology, we are experiencing
a fundamental shift in marketing – from a previous focus on companies
to a spotlight on consumers. This gives customers a much stronger voice
in both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C)
markets.

This core reading discusses how customer centricity fits into an organization in three ways:

1. as part of a knowledge management system (understanding the customer);
2. as part of developing strategic competence as a learning organization (building a customer-centric culture); and
3. as a foundation for corporate strategy development and execution (serving the customer).

Following your review, prepare responses to the following discussion questions:

1. According to research, what are some of the key customer-centric characteristics of successful companies?
2. What are some of the ways that technology has shifted power from companies to consumers?
3. In
   discussing Net Promoter Score (NPS), why does Reicheld suggest doing
   surveys frequently rather than annually or just a few times a year?