Customer-Centric Culture Checklist

This checklist is designed to help identify areas to work on to embed a customer-centric culture. Each organisation is different so this checklist includes thought-starters to help cover off all the areas that should be considered when developing a culture programme. The areas of focus are divided into three priority areas to help build momentum quickly.

Upon the completion of this checklist you will end up with a list of actionpoints.

1 of 3: Clear customer-centric direction that’s led from the top

Socialisation - the why

Do our leaders believe that our customer vision is most important and will be achieved by putting people first?

Do our leaders have a range of stories to bring to life our customer vision?

Do our leaders feel equipped and confident to weave the “why” into their everyday conversations

Yes

No

N/A

Leadership

Do our leaders actively inspire their teams to achieve the customer vision?

Do our leaders align with our organisation’s values and bring them to life?

Do our leaders role model the desired customer experience internally, aligned with values?

Do our leaders truly trust their team and empower them to create customer-centric solutions?

Do our leaders prioritise time with their teams to:

Learn from them what decisions are required to further support the customer vision, and
Mentor them to achieve higher levels of performance?

Do our leaders help actively break down organisation silos?

Do our leaders feel confident to fulfil their leadership role?

Do our middle leaders feel equipped with clarity of vision, empowerment, and resources to deliver the customer vision with their teams?

Do we have an aligned view across our leadership team on the behaviours that won’t be tolerated in our customer-centric organisation? Are our leaders putting this into practice?

Yes

No

N/A

Communications

Do we have an established framework to make it easy to consistently communicate our customer vision e.g. Customer Promises?

Do we have an ongoing communications programme to bring to life the customer vision?

Does our programme have significant focus on breaking down organisation silos?

Are our customer priorities interwoven into other internal communications?

Have we checked that all existing internal communications vehicles align with our customer vision – do some need to stop?

Yes

No

N/A

Decision making

Have we agreed (and communicated) clear criteria to ensure that our work aligns with our customer vision? Are we clear about when we’d make an exception, so this too is consistent?

Does our decision-making framework e.g. delegated authorities support and empower teams to deliver our customer vision?

Is delivering our customer vision prioritised in our programme / business planning prioritisation forums?

Do our governance gates ensure that only work that aligns with our vision will get through (unless part of our exception criteria)?

Do we have governance in place to create, share, sequence and track the customer initiatives occurring across our organisation?

Yes

No

N/A

2 of 3: At work, our people feel like how we want our customers to feel

Training

Have our people experienced how it will feel when we consistently deliver our customer vision? Have we achieved an emotional connection with what we’re trying to achieve?

Have we provided training so our people are clear about what they need to do to support us delivering our customer vision?

Are our people confident that they have the skills to support the delivery of our customer vision?

Yes

No

N/A

Rewards / Incentives

Have we aligned our performance scorecards to support delivery of our customer vision?

Do our rewards and incentives support our people to deliver our customer vision?

Are we using “if…then” rewards that might get in the way of risk taking and innovation to create our customer vision?

Yes

No

N/A

Recognition

Do we have a range of recognition methods for both leaders and peers to recognise our people’s efforts in supporting delivery of the customer vision?

Achieving results
Achieving key milestones
Making others great
Rock-solid performance
Actions demonstrating our values

Are we using these methods often enough to make the desired difference?

Yes

No

N/A

Work environment

Is our work environment supportive of collaboration and cross-functional work to improve our customer experience?

Does the work environment communicate the importance of our team?

Does our work environment feel bright and positive to support our people to feel upbeat?

Yes

No

N/A

Routines / Rituals

Do we have routines that communicate our commitment to our customer vision – e.g. a commitment to spend time with customers each month

Have we established rituals and symbols that keeps our commitment top of mind e.g. personas to refer in team discussion, Jeff Bezo’s idea to have an empty chair to bring customers into a team conversation

Yes

No

N/A

3 of 3: Customer-centricity is embedded at every step of our employee life-cycle

Attracting

Does our careers website and job adverts align with our brand and our mission to be customer-centric?

Do we have clarity on how the values and competencies that we want to hire align with our customer vision and values?

Yes

No

N/A

Hiring

Do we have standard interview questions to bring out customer-centricity?

Do our interviews include information about our brand and customer vision to help interviewees decide whether our organisation is the right one for them?

Is alignment with the customer vision and values a key element of our hiring criteria?

Yes

No

N/A

Induction

Does our induction bring to life our desired customer experience?

Do we have our leaders share the why?

Do our leaders share their experience in leading in a customer-centric way, consistent with our brand?

Do we cover off the rituals in our organisation to keep customers at the heart of your everyday decision making?

Do new hires spend time in our channels, hearing what’s most important to our customers?

Do we share stories about how our customer experience makes a meaningful difference in our customers’ lives?

Does our leaders’ induction equip leaders to inspire and mentor their team, and bring to life the desired customer experience everyday?

Yes

No

N/A

Leaving

Do we actively celebrate people’s contribution when it’s time for them to leave?

Do we learn from their experience and advice to help us improve the ways to work together to support the delivery of our customer vision, aligned with our values?

Yes

No

N/A

Your actionpoints

You've selected "Yes" against these sections. These are the items you will need to work through these items to embed a customer-centric culture: