Collaboration as reality, not just lip service. Viewing change as part of the journey, not a troublesome detour. Powering technology with the right people, processes, and data.

When Senior Analyst Su Doyle and I reviewed Forrester’s State Of Customer Obsession Survey, 2024, we found a thread connecting B2B companies that reach the highest level of customer obsession:

They commit to putting the vision into action and never stop.

Companies that attain the highest level of customer obsession have better growth, better retention, and better employee engagement than their non-customer-obsessed peers. You can learn from them, and it doesn’t have to happen all at once. In fact, while customer obsession remains a high bar on our continuum, with 3% of companies reaching that top level, the segment right behind it, customer-committed, grew considerably in this year’s survey, from 36% to 57%.

Progress is clearly possible. But how?

Centering leadership, strategy, and operations around your customer isn’t a quick win. But it’s a worthy one. Companies see plenty of milestones and gains along the way. We found that firms in the customer-obsessed segment are more likely to:

Treat customer obsession as an investment.

Customer obsession is a perpetual business orientation that requires the right resources, applied consistently and adjusted when necessary. For example, publishing firm Elsevier stays flexible by setting aside budget to fund squads that will uncover and deliver new products separate from existing iterations.

Make change a constant, not a special event.

Moving from a company-only focus to an expanded view of value for the company and the customer requires an appetite for change. Companies in the customer-obsessed segment remove barriers that limit employees’ permission to use their best judgment, whereas just 71% of the non-customer-obsessed group do the same.

Take advantage of the CX toolkit.

The right technology is crucial, as are the right people, processes, and data. All should work in harmony; none should be sidelined. Rabobank mapped dozens of customer journeys, then ensured that customer journey managers and service designers worked closely with data analysts, web managers, call center staff, technology teams, and other lines of business to manage them.

Lead with courage and humility.

Leaders at customer-obsessed firms adhere to strong convictions and seek the right internal and external partners to help, confirm, or redirect. All the companies in the customer-obsessed group indicated that senior executives at their firms recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, compared to 72% of the non-customer-obsessed group.

Make silos an uncomfortable exception.

Companies in the customer-obsessed group encourage, even mandate, collaboration. This means real support for cross-functional alignment around customer value, ensuring that brand, customer, and employee experiences are consistent, and showing employees how their daily work and KPIs match the company’s mission.

Read the full report, The State Of Customer Obsession In B2B, 2024 (Forrester client access only), for more data and examples of companies taking action on customer obsession. Reach out to an expert to explore your own journey toward customer obsession.