The organization is a tribe and the customer is a stranger
18 September 2010
Sometimes the hardest thing when working with a client is facilitating a necessary change in their culture. Many big corporations have their practices and processes hardwired into management. Suggesting a departure from the way things are currently done will invariably be met with resistance.
From “The customer is a stranger”:
The essential challenge of the Web is to become customer-centric. To truly succeed on the Web the organization must shape itself around the customer. This is very difficult for any organization to do because at heart all organizations are tribes. And the one thing a tribe does not like to do is shape itself around the stranger, the outsider.
The success stories are insightful. Which do you think would have garnered more attention from the client at the outset:
“We think you should make this change as testing has shown it’ll improve sales.”
Or:
“Making this change will increase your revenue by more than 2000% per quarter.”