What is your entire company aligned around?  There are a lot of different answer to that questions -- especially since so many companies evolve more organically than strategically.   The most proactive companies have identified that the ideal fulcrum for your entire business is the customer and their experience with your company?

The question of culture and its impact on customer experience (CX) speaks specifically to the question of alignment.  And that alignment or misalignment as the case may be shows itself in key efforts centered around the customer:

#1: Acceptance and actioning VOC / Customer Feedback data

It's really amazing what a problem this is in many companies.  Tremendous amounts of effort and investment are put towards designing feedback programs and driving response rates, but when the time comes to take action, roadblocks come up internally that mute or eliminate the ROI of the feedback program.

 #2: Focusing on customer experience at all stages of the buyers' journey

We often come across amazing efforts by companies in creating a fantastic experience for prospective customers at specific stages of the buying process.  But what's equally amazing is how other stages of the same process are totally neglected.  It doesn't matter whether it's the initial interaction at a marketing level or the contracts / billing process at the other end -- most companies seem to have a real imbalance between diffferent parts of the buyer experience.

#3: Engaged employees who proactively address anti-CX factors

Aligned employees are your best weapon in the battle for CX excellence.  They are closest to the customer and they can be both an early warning system and 'handyman' to fix immediately addressable problems.   Without the alignment part -- there won't be the constant energy towards proactively tackling CX issues.  Employees often lack the clear understanding of the connection between CX and business success -- filling that gap can be a game-changer for companies.

WeBank provides a good example of how a committed customer centric organization works — highlighted by the fact that it’s taking a long term multi-stage approach to evolving its customer centricity as an organization.

Phase 1 was perfecting its VOC / listening / customer involvement aspects.

Phase 2 (currently) is focused on solidifying customer engagement and increasing NPS / Promoter activity.

The telling point is the multi-stage approach which demonstrates both a keen focus on results (ie. achieving customer centricity) and a long term focus (rather than a program of month transient focus).

Role models like these tell us that some companies are making the transition to alignment around the customer -- a key factor in long term competitive advantage.