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

level of human resource management that will revolutionize the way companies operate" (para 2). Dave Ulrich (a Ross School of Business professor at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor) cited in Fox (2013) recommends "partnering with customers. i.e., organizations strive to be an employer of employees whom customers would choose instead of being an employer of choice — and, in some cases, do choose. Customers filter almost every HR practice" (para 5). The second recommendation is soliciting customers to partner with the organization, "professional HR executives must seek external customers, listen to them and involve them. Therefore, needing strong two-way communication channels and using collected information to inform HR decisions. Thirdly, selecting, training, and developing employees. Fourthly, rewarding employees' good behavior" (Fox, 2013). Furthermore, along the same lines as above, MacDonald (2022) recommends four best practices to support business success: "(1) Hiring for customer success. Regardless of the role, the focus must be on hiring talent aligned with customer-centric thinking and the importance of customer experience in the business. (2) Putting relationships first. Customers are people who benefit to a great extent when partnering with them. (3) Democratizing customer data. A customer relationship management (CRM) database can help facilitate a personalized relationship with customers to provide the business with a unified front (internal integration) that delivers better customer experiences. (4) Connecting company culture to customer outcomes. Indeed, employees' motivation is boosted by customer-centricity strategy when linking actions to results" (para 25-28). e) Customer-centric characteristics Embedding customer-centricity in the organization's 'DNA' is based on several characteristics of organizations. According to Macaulay (2011) and Deloitte & Touche (2014), these factors are listening to customers, leading by example, creating service standards, customer service training, internal customer cooperation, continuous improvement, and employee empowerment and responsibility. f) The Path to Customer Centricity Shah and Staelin (2006) mention several factors that an organization should consider while evaluating and developing its customer-centric strategy. (1) Organizational culture that engulfs values, norms, and beliefs. Values represent the essence of a culture driven by a central value to which each decision is focused primarily on customer needs and satisfaction. Norms represent the customer advocacy as adopted by employees. A familiar norm of customer-centric organizations is knowledge sharing between employees who become capable of best serving the customers. Finally, two beliefs; customers' understanding that comes from living with the customer and 'customers' loyalty' is considered the key to long-term success and profit (Shah & Staelin, 2006). (2) Organizational structure implying the complete integration of all functional activities to deliver superior customer value. Integrating functions and/or key account managers or segment task forces may be ways an organization can adopt to coordinate all customer value-creation activities. (3) Processes, whereby Payne and Frow (2005, cited in Shah & Staelin, 2006), identified five essential processes for an organization to be customer-centric. Strategy- development process; Dual value creation (core of exchange) process; Multichannel integration (all customer front-end points) process; Information- management process; and Performance-assessment process. (4) Financial metrics are significant to motivate individual employees to be more customer-centric and help marketing managers measure the financial implications of their decision-making. However, the challenge lies in quantifying the financial results and impact of a customer-centric strategy where the main metrics are intangible such as customer satisfaction (Shah & Staelin, 2006). g) Becoming Customer-Centric Bailey (2005) asserts that there are many steps to becoming customer-centric with three top-level primary imperatives: (1) Knowing the customer includes customer segmentation based on common characteristics whereby each customer deserves an appropriate and customized level of attention. The abovementioned help organizations leverage and allocate limited resources maximizing customers' acquisition, retention, and profitability. To be effective, "customer segmentation requires that the entire organization aligns all of its resources with the model" (p. 100). (2) Aligning resources include people, the organization's system, and products and services with the customer. "Once an organization has aligned its resources with the customer via segments, the next step is to listen to and respond to the customer on a continuous basis" (Bailey, 2005, pp. 100-102). (3) Listening and responding (also known as the voice of the customer strategy). Simply administering an organizational survey alone is not listening. Listening requires that organizations internalize and respond to what customers say. A complete "voice of the customer" strategy includes continually obtaining and analyzing input from every front-end point that a customer can have with the organization. "Truly listening requires that the organization obtains customer's input from each touchpoint, then integrating this information, internalizing it, analyzing it, and responding" (Bailey, 2005, p. 102). h) Elements and Advantages of Customer-Centric Organizations Torchlil (2004, para 5) defines the different elements of customer-centric organizations as follows: An Assessment of Customer-Centricity Success Factors: Context of the Lebanese Market 4 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXII Issue II Version I Year 2022 ( )E © 2022 Global Journals