Put the customer at the heart of your priorities with the customer-centric approach and our 5 practical tips

By Ainhoa Carpio-Talleux

Published: July 25, 2025

The value of a product is no longer enough. Even the most complete, the most powerful or the most innovative doesn't hold customers' attention. Without a seamless experience, an appropriate response and follow-up, customer loyalty is eroded. It's this realization that is prompting more and more companies to adopt a customer-centric approach. Let's take a look at this cultural shift, which is overturning the reflexes inherited from the product-centric culture!

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What is customer centricity?

Customer centricity is a corporate philosophy that overturns the reflexes inherited from product-centric culture. A customer-centric organization doesn't wait for customers to adapt to its processes. It reinvents its sales practices and communication so that every interaction meets the needs expressed.

💡 If, for example, you're used to launching a new mobile app by showcasing its advanced features and innovative interface, the customer centric approach leads you to do so by talking about the difficulties encountered by your users. Instead of highlighting the technology, you explain how this solution simplifies repetitive tasks and improves the shopping experience.

This strategy puts the consumer at the center of all decisions. Each corporate function (marketing, customer relations, development) directs its actions according to this logic. The idea is to establish a link that enhances customer satisfaction.

Customer centricity transforms the way employees work together. Customer data guides :

investment choices,
sales orientations,
the evolution of our offering.

This corporate culture based on active listening is redefining organizational DNA and revolutionizing traditional management methods.

Why adopt a customer-centric approach?

Putting the customer at the heart of your business strategy is advantageous in many ways. Here are 4 benefits you can derive from this approach.

Increase profitability through better customer knowledge

According to WiseNotify, citing a Deloitte study, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than non-customer-centric ones. This figure reveals the direct impact of a customer-centric culture on business performance.

Knowing your customers better enables you to target investments, adjust offers and prioritize high-value actions. This reduces acquisition costs, limits unnecessary campaigns and improves conversion rates.

By building customer loyalty, companies can streamline their sales processes and focus their efforts on high-potential segments.

Meeting expectations to guarantee customer satisfaction

Customer satisfaction can be ensured through a clear customer journey, fluid service and useful interactions. A customer-centric company doesn't leave the customer experience to chance. It gathers feedback and adjusts its actions based on detected friction points.

The marketing department refines its messages, customer service reduces frustration and the product evolves with usage. This precision creates an immediate sense of recognition, a powerful driver of customer satisfaction.

Creating a lasting relationship that builds loyalty

A customer-oriented organization develops an ongoing relationship with its customers. It doesn't address anonymous segments, but users whose purchasing behavior it knows. This personalized relationship is based on specific data such as order history, frequency of contact and preferred channels.

Marketing actions gain in relevance, as they respond to specific needs. Customer service draws on feedback from past customers to offer contextualized responses. This strengthened relationship logic increases retention rates, reduces churn and turns satisfied customers into brand ambassadors.

Stand out in a saturated market

In a market where products look alike and prices converge, the customer experience makes all the difference. A company that prioritizes customer relations distinguishes itself by :

the clarity of its interactions,
the relevance of its responses,
the responsiveness of its service.

It doesn't promise an experience, it proves it every day.

This customer-centric culture concerns all functions. In-store teams, online advisors and product managers all share the same concern: to meet customer expectations in a fluid, personalized way.

5 tips for becoming customer centric

Moving from a product-oriented organization to a customer-centric culture requires much more than a change of rhetoric. You need to adjust your practices to get there. Here are five steps you can take to make this transformation a success.

1- Redefine your corporate strategy

To adopt a customer-centric approach, your organization needs to rethink its fundamentals. This transformation begins by redefining your vision and values , placing the customer experience at the heart of every decision. Every employee must understand how his or her actions influence customer satisfaction.

This customer-centric approach requires changes to your internal processes and working methods. The aim is to align all your departments (marketing, sales, development) around a common customer-oriented culture.

💡 You may, for example, decide to question a strategy based on winning market share in favor of growth based on customer loyalty.

2- Understand your customers' needs

Precisely identifying your customers' expectations is the foundation of any customer-centric approach. This in-depth understanding involves implementing a Voice of Customer (VoC) program that collects feedback and analyzes your customers' purchasing behavior.

Your company needs to invest in research to capture frustrations, preferences and emerging trends. To do this, it needs to carry out :

satisfaction surveys ;
individual interviews ;
field observations ;
behavioral analyses ;
spontaneous feedback.

👉 This approach enables you to anticipate your customers' future needs and adapt your products accordingly.

3- Train your teams

Shifting your corporate culture towards one of customer centricity involves a real investment in training your teams. Every employee, whatever their department, needs to develop skills such as empathy, communication skills, problem-solving abilities and a global vision of the customer journey.

This dynamic of continuous training fuels the teams' commitment to customer satisfaction. Regular training sessions help to embed the right reflexes in daily life. Little by little, your employees become true ambassadors of this approach, capable of creating strong interactions and actively contributing to a truly differentiating customer experience.

4- Invest in your customer service

Your customer service department is often the first point of direct contact with your customers. This investment takes the form of hiring qualified agents and implementing high-performance customer relationship management tools.

This customer-centric approach transforms your support into a profit center rather than a cost center. A high-performance customer service department encourages spontaneous referrals. It has to be reachable!

Omnichannel offers your customers the flexibility to choose their preferred means of communication, reinforcing their overall satisfaction.

5- Involve your customers in development

By involving your customers from the earliest stages of development, you design products that meet precise expectations, based on real-world usage.

📌 Companies like Decathlon and AirBnB have understood this. They regularly organize co-creation workshops with their user communities to gather ideas, frustrations and avenues for improvement.

Based on early user testing and qualitative surveys :

your product and marketing teams focus on clear signals,
shorten development cycles,
avoid unnecessary launches,
and focus on developments you really want to see.

Better still, this dynamic reinforces loyalty. Your customers feel listened to and valued. Their attachment to your brand becomes emotional, almost communal.

The tools you need to deploy your customer-centric approach

Companies that want to put the customer at the heart of their decisions first use quantitative and qualitative studies to analyze purchasing behavior. These initiatives reveal real needs without skewing the information with internal assumptions.

👉 By cross-referencing multiple sources, you can identify segment-specific expectations, critical moments in the customer journey, and friction points that need to be eliminated. This data becomes the basis for a targeted and effective marketing strategy;

👉 Path mapping tools then enable you to tailor the customer experience across all channels, taking into account time, channel, content consulted and perception of the product & service. This approach transforms classic segmentation into a dynamic journey, designed to smooth decision-making at every stage;

👉 Whether on the website or at the point of sale, customer feedback provides concrete indicators for improving every interaction. Each feedback feeds a more human customer management;

👉 Implementing a CRM or relationship management software helps you centralize this data, track retention rates and optimize campaigns on an ongoing basis. In the medium and long term, this customer-centric strategy produces visible effects for your brand.

How do you measure your customer-centric performance?

There are many KPIs that can be used to assess the impact of a customer-centric strategy. We have selected the most relevant for you:

Attrition rate

This indicator calculates the proportion of customers who leave your company over a given period. A sudden rise indicates a misalignment between the experience offered and actual expectations.

To understand this figure, you need to combine it with qualitative signals such as negative feedback and unsubscribes. A low attrition rate reflects a relationship of trust, nurtured by a coherent sales strategy and targeted actions by prioritizing key moments in the customer journey.

📊 Here's the formula for calculating it:

Attrition rate = ( Number of customers lost / Number of customers at start of period ) X 100

Customer lifetime value

CLV measures the revenue generated by a customer throughout his or her relationship with the brand. It is based on three variables:

Purchase frequency ;
Average purchase amount;
Duration of loyalty.

This data helps to identify profitable segments and prioritize the most important actions to be implemented. By relying on this indicator, teams focus their resources where the impact is most lasting, building a high value-added relationship.

📊 Here's the formula for calculating it:

CLV = Average basket X Purchase frequency X Customer lifetime

Net Promoter Score

The Net Promoter Score is a revealing indicator of your customer orientation. By measuring the propensity of your customers to recommend your company, the NPS helps you to concretely assess your level of customer centricity.

The NPS question reveals your customers' actual experience. Responses are classified into three categories:

promoters (score of 9 or 10): your most loyal ambassadors ;
Passive (7 or 8): satisfied, but not committed;
detractors (0 to 6): dissatisfied, they can damage your reputation.

A good NPS score doesn't just happen. It stems from an organizational alignment around the customer, where every department, every employee contributes to creating a seamless experience.

📊 Here's the formula to calculate it:

Net Promoter Score = % Promoters - % Detractors

Here is a small illustration to better visualize the formula:

CSAT

The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) assesses customer satisfaction via a direct question after an interaction, such as "Are you satisfied with this experience?". The response, expressed as a score or percentage, reflects the immediate impact. Tracked over time, this indicator can be used to :

detect deterioration,
test adjustments,
maintain a level of service in line with expectations.

Its simplicity makes it a key tool for day-to-day relationship marketing.

📊 Here's the formula to calculate it:

CSAT = ( Total number of satisfied customers / Total number of responses ) X 100

Summary of KPIs to track to assess your customer-centric performance

Indicator	What it measures	Data collected	Target
Attrition rate	Loss of customers	Purchase frequency, number of unsubscribes, length of inactivity	Reduce attrition and improve customer loyalty
Customer Lifetime Value	The amount of money a customer will spend over the duration of their relationship with your company	Purchase frequency, average basket per order, length of relationship	Invest in the most profitable customers
Net Promoter Score	Customers' propensity to recommend your company	Recommendation scores, open comments	Identify promoters and detractors
Customer Satisfaction Score	Customer satisfaction immediately after an interaction	Post-contact satisfaction scores	Improving the experience at every touchpoint

Examples of successful customer-centric companies

The most advanced companies in terms of customer centricity belong to the tech ecosystem. Their high level of digitalization facilitates data collection, continuous analysis of user behavior and large-scale personalization of interactions.

Thanks to an agile technical infrastructure, these companies adapt their offers, communication and customer service in real time to every profile, every usage, every moment of the customer journey.

👉 Music streaming platforms are a perfect illustration of this approach. Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer offer an intuitive user experience. Each person benefits from a musical experience shaped according to their tastes and habits. You can create personalized playlists and opt for ad-free, uninterrupted premium versions. Spotify, for example, publishes an individualized annual summary, the famous Wrapped. This summarizes the most memorable listens of each of the Swedish platform's subscribers. It's a great incentive to share the experience on social networks!

👉 This customer-centric culture is gradually spreading to other sectors. In the hotel industry, for example, establishments are exploiting declared preferences to adapt their welcome, comfort and services.

👉 Retail brands such as Décathlon offer personalized loyalty programs, targeted communications and smooth purchasing paths.