Who owns the customer?

“Today’s customers seem to think the world revolves around them—and
they are right.”. This statement was written in one of the customer centricity article by Accenture.

Customers are lured by every company or most of the companies. Who ever not doing it today, either they are planning to lure customers or paying a high price for not doing it.

The customers learn very quickly (like a child). They understand that they are important and they have been pampered. They start demanding more and more. That is exactly what has happened. They observe the innovation/customer centricity in one industry and expect the same or better service/product from everyone else who is serving. In the long run, only the one who keep pace with the customer expectation wins and continues to be in the market. Though, It is not an easy job..

Let me come to the point. In this hyper customer centered market, who owns the customer? Is it sales people, is it marketing people, is it product designers, is it people who manufacture the products.. etc.. The list goes endless.

Usually the organizations are very much fragmented and at times this is the reason why customer orientation falls apart. To the customer, it does not matter who is interacting with him/her. For him, it is the company/brand which is represented by the person interacting with the customer. So, it is very important to make everyone interacting with the customer to be made aware that he/she owns the customer. It should be a cultural shift or paradigm shift in customer service.