Best practices in achieving a customer‐focused culture

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims: to provide practical insights into how organisations can become more customer‐focussed; to share with researchers and organisations a framework that can be used to research “customer focus culture” and assess an organisation's level of customer focus; to describe how New Zealand's first consortium approach to benchmarking was managed so that others interested in planning a consortium study can learn from this experience.

Design/methodology/approach

The benchmarking study was conducted by member organisations of the New Zealand Benchmarking Club and facilitated by a doctoral student from Massey University's Centre for Organisational Excellence Research. The methodology involved conducting an extensive literature review to identify national and international best practices in customer focus, developing a survey that was completed by 32 potential best practice organisations, and selecting seven of these organisations for a best practice visit.

Findings

A framework for the examination of customer‐focused culture was developed and the findings from the study reveal practical “new” insights into best practices in customer focus.

Research limitations/implications

Benefits would have been gained from extending the study to include a larger international group seeking further examples of good‐to‐best practices.

Practical implications

Insights into how organisations can become customer‐focused; a framework that can be used by researchers to research “customer focus culture” and by organisations to assess their level of customer focus; insights into how to run a benchmarking study.

Originality/value

This paper reports on the first consortium approach to benchmarking that has been used within New Zealand; it shares some of the latest best practices in customer focus; a customer focus culture framework has been developed – the first of which the authors are aware.

Citation

Bartley, B., Gomibuchi, S. and Mann, R. (2007), "Best practices in achieving a customer‐focused culture", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 482-496. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770710761889