Many companies struggle to understand what it means to be a customer-centric organization. While a somewhat amorphous concept, the most common definition is "to put the customer at the center of everything you do." This idea is frequently translated into new policies, procedures and processes, all intended to establish a more customer-centered operation. However, many of these efforts will fail.

In fact, according to McKinsey, around 70% of all customer-centric change initiatives don't succeed, not because of unclear directives but a lack of bottom-up support. Leaders continually overlook the power of culture and its gravitational pull to fight change.

A customer-centric culture cannot occur simply through consensus or mandate, especially if it starts solely to increase top-line sales and earnings per share — these are merely outcomes of an inherent behavioral shift. Behaviors cannot change without all employees, management, executives and board members aligned on why a customer-centric culture is good business.

A successful customer-centric behavioral change strategy begins with understanding your change context — the pattern of influencing factors that shape how........

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