Global Journal of Management and Business Research, E: Marketing, Volume 22 Issue 2

the customer, which means creating an open, centralized and secure space so every touchpoint with a customer reflects your brand values and fosters transparency" (p. 6). According to Kretz (2021), "Customer centricity can't simply be a marketing ploy. It needs to be a company mindset. It must become embedded in a business leader's core way of thinking about everything from product to strategy” (Para 3). Finally, a report published by Ernst and Young (2013) provides another definition: "A customer-centric organization builds an operating model around a deep understanding of its customers, what they value, and the contribution each makes to the profitability of the company" (Burns, Delany, Clark, & Sterner, 2013, p. 7). In addition, the report stresses that the aforementioned is achieved "by designing business processes that target diverse customer needs, delivering a positive customer experience at every touchpoint across the customer life cycle, maintaining an active communication channel with customers, and fostering a culture that places the customer at the heart of the organizational strategy and decision-making process" (ibid). V. B est P ractices a) Core Principles for Redefining Customer Relationships The report by Ernst and Young (2013) states five core principles for redefining customer relations. Starting with protecting the organization or business against intermediation by third parties. Organizations have to ensure a direct contact relationship with their consumers to have a strong influence on how consumers view their products and services; next, organizations have to ensure the correct understanding of customers' needs to develop and provide product offerings that target those needs. Thirdly, organizations should increase productivity to gain a competitive advantage by increasing their productivity through streamlined business processes and technological improvements that will enhance the quality of the service they provide to their customers. The fourth principle is related to the diversity of sources of revenue to attain sustainability. This affects customer-centricity recognizing that product performance and consumer needs shift with market conditions and life events. Finally, organizations should embrace collaboration with new partners across the value chain. By doing so, organizations are successful in opening new opportunities by identifying and managing strategic business partnerships. Adopting those principles, organizations "can build a strong foundation for the future while improving top-line growth and profitability over the near term. To truly succeed, they must embrace and embed the concept of innovation within their organizations" (ibid). Schiele and Sadorf (2009) present a three- component model for customer-centric performance requirements. This model consists of three pillars, internal organizational, external customer, and industry views. The first step of building a customer-centric organization is defining key-performance requirements including key skills and behaviors that make both employees and customers loyal. The second step describes the pillars individually. Pillar one, or the internal organizational view, deals with management identifying high-performance employees who can develop and sustain outstanding customer relationships. Employees can provide an internal benchmark for the organization. A quantitative approach to recognizing key result measures by an individual is preferred to avoid subjectivity. The second pillar, the external customer's view deals with gathering customers' input and feedback on their expectations. Organizations can identify, from consumers' perspectives, the activities and drivers they value the most through customer workshops and focus groups. The third pillar, the industry's view identifies specific practices and benchmarks to compare the organization's performance and customer relationships (Schiele & Sadorf, 2009). c) SMART Customer Relationship Management Sadorf (2011) presents another model for customer relationship management. This model consists of five sections depicting the word "SMART" standing for S: Start with the survey, M: Meet with customers, A: Act, R: Rate the progress, and T: Target improvement. d) Customer-Centric Organizational Factors A customer-centric organization has equally been "one which orients its whole being around customers and their requirements. It ensures an alignment of its strategy, people, and processes with customers' needs. This will affect the organization's systems, its structures, the working environment, and the skills and behaviors of its employees" (Macaulay, 2011, p. 4 cited in Osakwe, 2020, p. 457). Macaulay (2011, cited in Osakwe, 2020) mentions different success factors in dealing with an organizational customer-centric strategy. These factors include 'Customer-oriented leadership' and enthusiastic leaders driven by customer relationships. 'Supportive culture' adopts a wide customer-centric culture that includes internal and external customers. Based on this culture, an organization should reward and celebrate customer- focused success. Moreover, the 'Human Resource department plays a great role in determining the customer-centricity of an organization through recruitment policies and training and development programs. As for the importance of the HR function, Fox (2013) contends that "Customer-centric HR is the next An Assessment of Customer-Centricity Success Factors: Context of the Lebanese Market 3 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue II Version I Year 2022 ( )E © 2022 Global Journals b) The Three-component Model for Customer-Centric Performance Requirements