L4.3. Loshin & Reifer. Chap 3 Who Is A Customer-1
L4.3. Loshin & Reifer. Chap 3 Who Is A Customer-1
L4.3. Loshin & Reifer. Chap 3 Who Is A Customer-1
Who Is a Customer?
3
WHO IS A CUSTOMER?
The common use of the term “customer” hides a somewhat com-
plex ambiguity. It is one of those words whose presumed meaning
is so well-understood that it is infrequent that any organization
actually has documented a definition. Yet in any initiative focused
on customer centricity, clarifying the concept of customer becomes
a critical task to precede data collection, analytics, process improve-
ments, and change management. Precision in terminology can influ-
ence decision-making, so it is valuable to explore the concept of
customer and how those considerations impact organizational cus-
tomer centricity.
In retrospect, over the past 20 years, the industry analysts, popular
technical press, and technology vendors promoting customer relation-
ship management often use phrases such as “360-degree view of the
customer” or “single source of truth about the customer” to suggest
that it is possible to have a single business application that can address
the conglomeration of all business process requirements necessary to
support the introduction of customer-centric policies and processes.
These types of phrases resonate with people in any business function
whose processes have a customer touch point, such as sales, marketing,
support, or customer service. And while from each business function’s
standpoint, the defined characteristics of a customer may be clear,
across functions there may be subtle differences in what is understood
to be meant by the term “customer.”
• A hotel guest experiencing the failure will report it to one of the fit-
ness center staff members.
• The fitness center staff member will contact the external mainte-
nance company to evaluate and fix the problem.
• The maintenance person comes in, checks out the machine, and
determines that a part needs to be replaced, and that the broken
part should be covered under the machine’s warranty.
20 Using Information to Develop a Culture of Customer Centricity