Introduction

One of the most popular business concepts today, customer-centricity, has a dirty little secret. It is the concept with one of the loosest definitions out there. Most researchers, and business executives alike, are content with the widespread and broad definition of customer-centricity as the capacity to understand and respond to the customer’s needs.

But in an increasingly dynamic and competitive business world, this is not enough. A deeper understanding and focus on the customer is required in order to succeed.

Over the years, several researchers have highlighted the limitations of customer-centricity’s conventional definition. Unfortunately, most (if not all) research initiatives have failed to see the various interpretations as evolutionary stages of the same broad concept.

Instead, these analyses have focused on either dismissing conventional definitions while introducing new alternative theories (i.e., “torment your customers, they’ll love it”), or taking the existing conventional definitions too far (i.e., “winning the customer’s love”).

In practice, both approaches proved to be unproductive and confusing, leading to potential conflicts with the conventional beliefs. Additionally, at best these approaches can only be applied in limited situations.

Following the concept’s evolution from a historical perspective as well as from a customer knowledge and focus perspective, this article aims to explore a new, higher level of customer-centricity - Customer Issues Centricity. It also shows how to achieve this level of customer-centricity by identifying the basic steps to follow.