Discover What Customers Value Welcome to the 4th in my series on How To Build A More Customer-Centric Business. #4: Discover What Customers Value — Customer Interviews What if the real reasons customers buy aren't the ones your betting on? Customers don’t always share what really drives their decisions. In casual conversations, frustrations and pressures stay hidden — especially when the wrong person asks or asks the wrong way. Customers don’t reveal the uncomfortable truths

Sharpen Your Edge With Competitive Assessment Welcome to the 3rd in my series on How To Build A More Customer-Centric Business. #3: Sharpen Your Edge with Competitive Assessment Many companies operate with only a general sense of what their competitors are doing. They think they know — but without a structured, outside-in look, it’s easy to miss important shifts in positioning or areas where differentiation has faded. A Competitive Assessment gives leaders a clear, fact-based

Team Interviews for Early Employee Engagement Welcome to the 2nd in my series on How To Build A More Customer-Centric Business. #2: Early Employee Engagement – Team interviews “The likelihood of success increases by 30% when employees are genuinely invested in change.” McKinsey Frontline employees are closest to your customers. They see what’s working — and where the experience breaks down — long before it shows up in your metrics. But too often, those insights never make it

Stakeholder Interviews - A Pathway to Alignment Welcome to the 1st in my series on How To Build A More Customer-Centric Business. #1: Setting Your Project Up For Success – Stakeholder interviews "88% of business transformations fail to achieve their original ambitions."(Bain & Co). We've observed that big initiatives stall when leaders aren’t aligned. Each person brings their own valuable set of experiences to the table. It's important to surface what matters most to each l

De-risk Innovation Spending In hyper-volatile environments The situation Multiple industries are experiencing elevated levels of volatility in 2024-2025, driven by tariffs, geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and policy uncertainty. Manufacturing leaders cite demand volatility as their top supply chain concern , with 70% of manufacturing and distribution leaders identifying it as their primary challenge for 2025. 1 The May 2025 Institute for Supply Manageme

Restoring Customer Service Excellence After Disruption THE CHALLENGE QUICK INSIGHTS Delivering great service is hard enough when everything runs smoothly. But when disruption hits — whether from external crises or internal missteps — even the strongest service organizations can falter. Our client faced exactly that. Customer satisfaction had dropped sharply, operations were strained, and leaders needed to restore confidence and rebuild excellence across their customer servic

Cracking the Code on Digital Experience in the Chemical Industry THE CHALLENGE QUICK INSIGHTS In today’s digital world, customers expect options. They want to research, compare, and buy on their own terms — anytime, anywhere. Companies that make it easy to self-serve during key moments of the buying journey not only win customers but keep them. The evidence is clear: customers who have a better experience are more likely to pay more, forgive more, and recommend more . Yet in

Bridging the Gap Between Customer Expectations and Experience THE CHALLENGE QUICK INSIGHTS Most firms can list service failures and track transactional metrics — but understanding what customers truly expect is far more complex. Our client faced this exact dilemma. They were overwhelmed with pain points and project requests but lacked clarity on which initiatives would genuinely move the needle for customers . Transactional data, C-SAT scores, and NPS were useful, but they di

Testing Digital Channels in B2B: How to Reduce Risk and Learn Fast THE CHALLENGE QUICK INSIGHTS Digital channels have become a standard expectation for B2C customers, but the B2B world is different. Buyers often rely on expert advice and trusted supplier relationships to make highly technical purchasing decisions. Our client wanted to explore whether B2B customers would actually transact online before committing to significant investments. The question was simple — but the st

How do you breathe life into a stalled Transformation Project? THE CHALLENGE QUICK INSIGHTS Transformation is everywhere. Every company is redesigning, reimagining, reinventing — and it always starts with energy and optimism. That was certainly true for our client. After months of design work, they were ready to roll out a new customer service model that would become the single point of contact for customers and free up their sales team from administrative tasks. On paper, it

How Do You Jumpstart a Customer-Centric Culture? THE CHALLENGE QUICK INSIGHTS Culture change is never simple. Turning the barge of a global enterprise toward a new strategic direction takes both clarity and persistence. Our client had just completed a two-year supply chain transformation and was ready for the next chapter: becoming a truly customer-centered enterprise. Leadership knew the goal — to shift focus from internal efficiency to customer value — but where to begin wa

Before we talk about Customer Experience, I first have to confess something. I grew up as a Business Process Maven... wholly obsessed...

By now most B2B leaders have accepted that companies who put customers first do better. Why? Because customers reward companies that...

“57% of customers have stopped buying from a company because a competitor provided a better experience.” * As a B2B leader, what can you...

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” But which step? Many B2B leaders are eager to create memorable experiences for...

Does the phrase “digital transformation” strike fear in your heart? If you’re feeling anxious, it could be because digital...

What do B2B Chief Commercial Officers have in common with product designers? Both are accountable for experience design that strikes a...

51% of customers say most companies fall short of their expectations for great experiences. Salesforce – State of the Connected...