Highly task-oriented leaders and workers focus only on getting the job done. They define the work and the activities required, put structures in place, plan, organize, and monitor. For them, completion of particular tasks becomes their measure of success.

This type of person is very capable of carrying out transactions with customers. However, the dilemma is that he or she feels that these encounters are sufficient to deliver customer satisfaction. They cannot see that there is much more available. A musician does not simply play the notes on a sheet of music. He or she puts his energy and emotion behind it. Otherwise, the effort is flat and lifeless. The same concept applies when connecting with customers.

How do you get these people past transactional thinking? Show them a new, higher-level category of success. Educate task-oriented employees as a group by demonstrating what a customer-centered culture would do. After showing them the new way, measure the progress of the organization and its subgroups. Knowing what you should be measuring—proactive ideas for customer, reduction in silo behaviors within the organization—is fundamental.

Customer-centricity will never happen unless there is a measure of the new behavior that the culture is trying to achieve.

Can you remember back to your first day in a new school? Most of us can. I don’t know about you, but for me it was not exactly an uplifting experience. Everyone seemed to know each other from other places, and they seemed to be speaking a language that I did not yet understand. I remember feeling out of place and alone, and not really sure if I were wanted.

It is amazing that marketers today often end up providing the same experience to first-time customers. Have you gone into an electronics store to look at TVs recently? Or tried to understand the differences between computers? Electronics are often one place where the customer experience and the language seemed to be designed for insiders. I’ve also had the same experience trying to buy insurance, or automobiles…

Given that our school experience did not leave us very excited to return, you can understand why many businesses today face a very high attrition level among new customers. Old customers know their way around, are recognized by the salespeople (hopefully), and are familiar with the breath and types of products available. But new customers have none of those advantages.

Many companies today are focused on acquiring new customers. They often use complex segmentation rules to identify prospects most likely to become customers and then market to those prospects intensively. But fewer of those companies spend as much time ensuring that the new customer experience achieves the desired goal of creating repeat, loyal, profitable customers. Instead, most new customers, feeling like left-out school children, end up seeking out a playground where they might be more accepted.

If you have not focused attention on converting new customers to repeat ones, here are three approaches that can help you improve that experience:

1. Become a new customer yourself. Go into one of your stores, sign up on-line, contact a salesperson for a quote — experience what it is like to start from scratch with your company. Have a family member do so as well, so that you can see what it is like to work with your company without background, insider knowledge. Then do the same for your best competitor.
2. Get feedback from customers after their first transaction. Many companies employ a “voice of the customer” email survey as soon as a new customer has completed their first experience, to ask them the famous “Net Promoter Score” question. Analyze the survey data to see if you have strong results or vulnerabilities among specific stores or salespeople.  Then conduct interviews to determine “Best” or “Worst” Practices.
3. Analyze acquisition/retention patterns in your customer data. Understand which products, stores, salespeople, timing, markets, etc. are the ones that seem to do better than others. Identify the key drivers of attrition (what do people who never come back have in common).

Let’s build relationships with our new customers, and make them feel at home and wanted. Then we can move those customers up to deeper relationships, and hopefully “graduate” them into an even higher category, that of advocates.

Mark Price is the Managing Partner of M Squared Group, a consulting firm that specializes in helping clients understand and build customer relationships. You can find his blog at www.cultivatingyourcustomers.com, where he addresses key issues companies face in moving towards customer-centricity. He also writes weekly for www.retailwire.com.

In Click, Ori and Rom Brafman use the term personal elevation to describe the “gusto and energy” that result when people click together at an unusually high level. In these situations, the common bonds between people are so strong that they can “suspend the normal kinds of checks and balances that you might have in an enterprise.” They illustrate the concept with a study of string quartets. Although all the musicians at this elite level of performing were talented, the biggest differentiator between successful and unsuccessful ensembles was the dynamics of each group.” Those musicians that “clicked” outperformed the other groups, who approached their performances as strictly business and who did not have a close rapport.

This information does not surprise us. However, it can still seem difficult, almost magical, to make this kind of interaction happen in a company. The businesslike quartets were cordial, but they came across as less cohesive and less polished to the audiences because each member had his or her own vision for interpreting a given piece, which was not accepted by the entire group.

Within an organization, centering on customers and their needs transforms performance by overcoming any policies, procedures and territorial differences between employees or departments that could get in the way. When the core value of the organization rests on what is best for the customer, bickering suddenly disappears. A culture is created in which employees are part of a group that has “clicked” by being customer-centered.

In the commercial, of course, McEnroe is prepared for a confrontation with the National salesperson because other car rental companies typically assign a car to him without his input. Like most customers, he has been negatively conditioned from years of encounters with supplier-centric companies, which have established policies that are best for them. Unexpectedly, John is told that he can choose “any car in the aisle.” Surprised, he responds with his signature line — “Any car…??? You cannot be serious!”

There is a subtle concept revealed in the McEnroe commercial. John’s being ‘wowed’ was not caused by a courteous National employee, although the employee was, in fact, very courteous and upbeat. McEnroe’s delight was delivered because the organization recognized an opportunity to make customers’ lives easier and changed its policy.

Customer-centered organizations create positive customer conditioning. But this positive feeling must develop through a system that delivers great company-wide ideas, not through transactional courtesy on the part of individual employees. Every organization’s goal should be to design a culture that imagines itself on the receiving end of encounters and automatically thinks like its customers.

Lisa Aschmann’s 1000 Songwriting Ideas is a fantastic source of these ideas. She has developed a compendium of very creative premises for “songs” that should trigger tens of thousands of ideas within your organization. I, of course, see them all through the scenario of how they should be written to invent new approaches that will benefit your customers. Here are two examples:

Idea #922. Finish the sentence: “…and nobody objected.” If you focus your answer to ways in which you can help your customers and nobody objected to them, shouldn’t you implement them? Now, develop these ideas into a song with several verses and how your customers would react. Let a group of your colleagues analyze the song’s ideas and actually expand them into some simulations of things your customers will like. Sounds like fun to me—and beneficial, as well.

Idea #713. Imagine yourself in some club before the band is going to launch into your tune. Introduce the song by talking about some aspect of its premise (customer-related, of course) without identifying its title before you perform it. How about, “This song tells the story of a change that a service business (name your company) made that made life unbelievably easier for its customers.” Then, expand on how this idea replaced a more traditional system and how the customers thanked your company for the innovation. It could be the source of some very creative changes that your customers will love—and you get to role play as the “performer” introducing your song.

Aschmann has created some extraordinarily clever ways to help us become more open-minded—to find what she calls our “beginner mind.” You don’t have to be musical, although you might learn that you are more musical than you give yourself credit for. The secret she delivers in her book is that the music path will help us overcome our fear of rejection and open “the floodgates of inspiration.” I encourage you to experiment with some of her song scenarios. They will help your organization overcome self-imposed limitations so that you can do great things for your customers.

The employees know it. They hear it all the time from customers and they put up with it themselves. I recently spoke with one employee who told me that:

1. The bank invested a lot of money developing the system and doesn’t want to spend more (or admit its mistake).

2. Customers tolerate it. Apparently customers, in other words, don’t complain enough to warrant a change.

Fortunately, the front-line employees at this bank are difference-makers in their organization. The hospitality of these employees is fantastic. However, if these employees generally know how irritating the online banking system is, then why don’t the executives know it, as well? Are they using their system for their own financial transactions? If the investment in the computer system was hefty, it is undoubtedly embarrassing to admit the mistake and make an additional investment. Nevertheless, it needs to be done to stay competitive.

“Because customers tolerate it” is no longer an acceptable reason in any forward-thinking organization. Every dynamic company that cares about its customers must have a system to discover customer frustrations and to develop solutions to improve their processes proactively. It is one thing to talk about customer care; it is a completely different approach to share the journey with those customers by providing them with what they need and expect.

First, organizations that are customer-centered have motivated employees who develop new ideas by looking at the products and services that they offer in terms of how they are helping the customer. Their purpose is working for the success of the customer and this openness to new ideas focuses these companies on pro-activity, rather than being reactive.

In their deliverable, there is a sense of generosity that Seth Godin in Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? describes as part of the gift economy, which is “transforming the way we interact.” Gifts are more valuable than presents or favors, because they do not have to be repaid. You do not have to return the gift in the way that you might be expected to return a favor. “A gift costs the giver something real. It might be cash, but more likely it involves a sacrifice or a risk or an emotional exposure. A true gift is a heartfelt connection, something that changes both the giver the recipient.”

Customer-centered companies don’t think they are losing anything by giving something away. Rather, they think of the gift as furthering the relationship with the other party.

The second outcome occurs when a company’s attitude of sharing and designing innovative process improvements places that organization at the center of customers’ thinking. In this second meaning of being customer-centered, organizations attain a position in which their customers can’t imagine doing without them. It is customer loyalty, but deeper. Customers “repay” these companies for their generosity with allegiance — not because reciprocity is expected, but because these suppliers have become indispensable to them. These suppliers have become more valuable to their customers than other suppliers. Their customers don’t want to miss the new ideas they will be developing for them in the future.

Shouldn’t all companies want to be the center of their customers’ focus? A culture of customer-centricity creates the path to what counts—being different in the minds of customers. A culture of giving and abundance, which brings what Godin calls “gifts that touch us, gifts that change us” to customers, will place those organizations at the center of the customers’ universe.

Her phrase “running to stand still” refers to companies in hyper-mature markets, with little growth, that are frantically working to differentiate themselves from their competitors through minor changes that are almost unnoticed by customers. These companies are driven by  “assumptions embedded in our competitive practices simply crying out for re-imagination.”

In most cases, the problem is a reluctance to risk significant changes. By focusing on what competitors are doing, organizations try to tweak small features and wind up delivering many kinds of sneakers, or shampoos, or luxury hotel amenities that seem to be the same as their competitors offer. Companies are asking: How can I look different without really changing a lot? They know that the world is changing faster than ever before, but they still want to play it safe.

Companies should be asking: What things are our customers missing that we could give them (which will make us really different)? Being customer-centered is the essence of differentiation.

In the Quality field, there is a Cost of Quality concept. Essentially it is a measure of  failing to deliver quality products and services. The lower the number, the better. The theory behind the Cost of Quality metric states that the more time that is spent on up-front (Prevention) activities, the less time will need to be spent afterward on assessments and dealing with problems.

What if we had a Cost of Differentiation to measure not being different? It would quantify the potential impact if an organization gave customers greater value than its competitors are currently providing. It would also encourage more proactive ideas from the company to stay ahead of the curve. The Cost of Differentiation in the MP3 player market before the iPod was introduced turned out to be millions of dollars.

When suppliers embrace customers, rather than watching what competitors are doing, the game changes. Not only does the customer benefit, but confidence in their ability to answer customers’ needs improves dramatically, leading to even further innovations. Focus on new ideas for customers. That is the only way NOT to stand still.

My wife and I toured Wright’s home and office in Oak Park, IL, this weekend and experienced the surrounding neighborhood, including many homes that Wright had designed. It was inspiring and beautiful at the same time. Since I am always looking for parallels with customer ideas, I learned tremendously from Wright’s brilliant approach and simple, but legendary, style of design.

Wright believed in using open spaces (no doors where possible) and wide views of the outside. He used casement windows which open fully to the outside, for example, rather than traditional windows which leave half of their space closed even when opened. Everything flows to the outside. He also designed to allow lots of natural light inside. Wright’s work embodied the spirit of openness that successful customer connections require.

He also believed that buildings (like customer-centric companies) should fit into their environments, rather than the other way around. Wright said, “No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill–belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.” Included in this sharing of space is a union for a single purpose—just as the purpose of organizations should complement their customers’ needs.

The graphic with this post is the logo that Wright created for his architectural practice. It consisted of a Celtic cross inside a circle inside a square. Not only were these symbols both beautiful and simple, but there has been speculation that the logo was adopted from markers used to guide travelers. Undoubtedly he was trying to develop a new, more human, center for looking at the world, which serves as a great customer philosophy.

Wright described the essence this way: “A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.” He believed that “mechanization best serves mediocrity.” By 1908, he was using the word ‘organic’ to describe his approach to integrate space and function into a coherent whole.

Frank Lloyd Wright worked a lifetime to develop the architectural “character” of his buildings, designed to achieve flexibility and abundance. His passion for a harmonious relationship between design and function provides a great lesson for customer-centricity.

Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman in NurtureShock reminded me of the old paint-by-numbers kits that were so popular in the mid-20^th century. These kits gave users a false perception that they were creating art, when, in fact, they delivered a weak imitation.

Many businesses want to “play by the book” by grabbing on to formulas for managing. This is wishful thinking. The message from Bronson/Merryman about many of the prior beliefs in child rearing can be applied to business, as well. Their call to action is to question what has been accepted as the “only” way to succeed. In business we should ask ourselves why we are simply replicating what we read in books and, instead, allow our creativity to re-surface.

I am skeptical of managing customer connections by Top 10 or Top 5 or Top 3 lists. They are too prescriptive. They are too supplier-centric. Instead, go back to the basic needs that your customers are asking to be filled and work forward from that point. Produce intelligence that leads to meaningful answers about how the customer will prosper. Ask “how will our customers be better” when your organization succeeds. This is the essence of a customer-centric culture.

Don’t expect customer loyalty because you have followed some formulaic approach. Creative beats formulaic every time. Guide your customers to a better life and they will stay far more loyal to you for a much longer time.

If you are going to paint a masterpiece, it won’t be by following the numbers. It will be because  you’ve garnered the collective passion that exists within your organization. It will not be because you adhere to a static Top 10 list, but because your talents are directed toward expressing yourself by thinking like a customer. It will be because you have taken your customer connections to a new level that others envy.