What consumer-obsessed companies do

A friend called the other day and shared that a company he is working for is starting to talk about being "customer obsessed." We have heard the term Customer Obsession, or a version of it from Amazon, Intuit, P&G, and even IKEA. One of my favorite Jeff Bezos quotes describes this focus at Amazon: "The number one thing that has made us successful, by far, is obsessive focus on the customer as opposed to obsession over the competitor." ??

When my friend shared the news, my initial reaction was a big smile. Of course, implementing this type of focus requires a lot of work, but setting this intention is the first step. To avoid common pitfalls of customer obsession, we can learn from companies, like those mentioned above, who have been successfully doing this work.???

What often happens in organizations is a few leaders rally around a statement or slogan such as "customer obsession," and it generates a lot of enthusiasm and energy. I applaud these leaders for taking the first step. Then comes the challenge of making it happen. In my 13 years of being deeply immersed in the world of innovation, I have studied great companies, and I see patterns that companies can adopt on their journey to becoming “customer obsessed.” ??

Customer-focused organizations put a system in place ?

Intuit started their journey with in 2007 with their Design for Delight program, which switched to customer obsession back in 2018-19. Amazon, has had a consumer-centric innovation program in place for many years. They require teams to start with the customer using interviews, observations, storyboards, etc., to develop understanding. They call this system Working Backwards. They start with the customer and work backwards to design products or services to meet their needs. In his 2016 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos said, “A remarkable customer experience starts with heart, intuition, curiosity, play, guts, taste. You won’t find any of it in a survey." ??

IKEA describes their annual Life at Home Report: "More than 37,000 people, 37 countries, one focus: How can we create a better life at home?" Ikea says that the program, launched in 2014, is fueled by a desire to "get a clearer understanding of what life at home looks and feels like today – and how we can help make it better." That really resonates with me – what would it look like for every organization to understand how they could help make life better for their customers? ??

In 2008, I read “The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation” by A.G. Lafley, then-CEO and chairman of P&G, and Ram Charan. At that time, their mantra was “Consumer is boss,” which has evolved into the “irresistible superiority” philosophy today. Kathy Fish, Chief Innovation Officer of P&G, shared with me that they have a system in place to deliver “irresistible superior” products and experiences to customers. Richard Desmier , the Director for Global Corporate Innovation & Insight at P&G, shared with me the depth of work his team does to delight the customer. ??

Through these conversations, I learned about the concept of “deprivation testing.” Take away your product or service and offer a competitor’s to your customer. If customers do not come back, you have learned that your product, service, or overall customer experience is not superior, and it highlights an opportunity. Tests like these require processes and metrics. It is not just a mindset; it is a practice. ?

It does not matter if you are in software, consumer packaged goods or even health care. ?“Consumer obsessed” companies have a system. ??

Let me offer a point of view that I think works in health care and beyond. I have a deep belief that empathy is the heartbeat of health care. I believe that health care employees, especially those on the frontlines, already have the mindset and heartset of being “customer obsessed.” The fundamental purpose of health care organizations is to help their consumers and customers make their desired progress. Starting with that basic premise, I suggest three steps to ensure you deliver on the buzzword of "customer obsession." ??

1. Use the culture. If we believe that empathy is the heartbeat of health care (or even your company), recognize this in your employees, and "use the culture to improve the culture." Find stories of “customer obsessed” behavior and share them! Measure, recognize and reward the behaviors you want to scale within the organization. ??
2. Put a system in place to ensure “customer obsession.” The system will have a standard way to articulate the consumers’ and customers’ desired progress. It will have shared tools and language to design the business model to deliver that progress, and it will have a mechanism in place to teach the competencies and actions that leaders must have. This system will also need to relentlessly focus on removing the friction in teammates’ days so that they can thrive at work and deliver delight to customers. I wrote a bit about this type of a program and approach here . ?
3. Measure the progress that consumers and customers care about. Most corporate dashboards do not reflect the progress that consumers or customers care about in their day-to-day lives. Clayton Christensen et. al, in Competing Against Luck refer to the measures customers care about as the “Customer Benefit Metric.” My friends Roy Rosin, Ben Blank and I refer to this as the Love Metric. Update dashboards within your organization to add these metrics and put those goals into incentive plans. Creating the system above will help organizations deliver these results. ??

Professing a desire to be “consumer obsessed” is a wonderful start. To deliver on the mindset, follow the lead of great consumer-focused companies and put a formal program in place that is supported by stories, a system, and customer- and consumer-oriented dashboards. And remember, the number one reason that you will be successful is because you are obsessed with your customers and customers – not your competition!?