Forgetting the Customer: The Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make
This is part of the Failure Friday series, a weekly reflection on transformation mistakes and learnings you can take forward next week
"The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer." – Peter Drucker
It’s a well-known fact that most business transformation initiatives fail. I think a common reason they fail is because they forget the one thing that matters most—the customer.
I first saw this when helping an organisation implement a new compliance system and process. The rationale for the change was around meeting regulator needs and managing cost. I thought these to be noble objectives at the time but six months into the programme the wheels came off. Budgets were less of an issue, and the resources working on the project were being requested to work on a new sales initiative. Much to the frustration of the project team, and at significant expense, the compliance project was “deferred” but never restarted. Another initiative to build the statistics that show most transformations fail.
I’ve since seen it happen over and over again. Teams pour time, energy, and budgets into initiatives focused on internal wins, only to realise too late that they’ve neglected the very people who keep the business alive.
The fact is that if your transformation isn’t directly tied to improving the customer experience, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
Let me share three things I’ve learned about why customers must be at the heart of any transformation:
Internal Wins Don’t Pay the Bills
You can celebrate internal milestones all you want—streamlined workflows, reduced process times, increased compliance efficiency—but none of it matters if the customer doesn’t feel the impact. It’s easy to get stuck improving internal processes that seem important internally but deliver zero value to the people who actually buy your product or service.
Take complaints handling as an example. Automating the process to respond faster might feel like progress. But step back: is solving complaints faster what your customers really want? Or would they prefer fewer reasons to complain in the first place? If you’re not addressing the root cause, you’re just putting a Band-Aid on a bigger problem.
If your transformation efforts aren’t improving customer outcomes, they’re just busywork with no ROI. Focus on what moves the needle for your customers—not just what’s convenient or measurable internally.
Irrelevant efforts die eventually, it’s just a question of when
When times get tough—and they always do—initiatives without a clear customer focus are the first to be cut. Why? Because nobody can justify their relevance.
Imagine pouring resources into a system upgrade that improves internal reporting but has no direct impact on customer experience. It might look good in quarterly updates, but when budgets are tight, no one will fight for it. Now imagine tying that same upgrade to a customer-centric goal—like reducing delivery times or improving service quality. Suddenly, it’s no longer expendable; it’s essential.
If your transformation doesn’t have a clear line of sight to the customer, it’s built on shaky ground. Anchor your work to what matters most, and your initiatives will weather the storm.
Nobody Cares About Your Internal Metrics
Internal KPIs are great for running a business, but they’re irrelevant to the people who actually drive your revenue. Your customers don’t care about your improved back-office efficiency or your 10% faster ticket resolution time—they care about how those improvements make their lives easier.
Consider a system overhaul designed to reduce data-entry errors. If it doesn’t translate to faster, more reliable service for your customers, it’s just noise. The same applies to flashy new tech implementations. Unless they improve the customer experience, they’re little more than expensive distractions.
Stop measuring success by internal wins. Instead, focus on metrics that reflect customer value—like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), or Customer Effort Score (CES). That’s where the real story is.
How to Recentre Your Transformation on the Customer
Along with the failures, I’ve also seen some great customer centric organisations and teams. Here are the things they do to make sure transformation efforts start and end with the customer:
1. Define a Customer Experience Vision
Your customer experience vision isn’t just a feel-good mission statement—it’s the foundation of your transformation strategy. It should clearly articulate the kind of experience you want to deliver to your customers and serve as the lens through which every decision is made.
Take Disney, for example. Their vision, “creating happiness by providing the finest entertainment experiences,” guides everything from theme park designs to how employees (or “cast members”) interact with guests. It’s not just a slogan—it’s a directive.
To craft and apply your customer experience vision you must:
Collaborate Across Teams: Involve marketing, customer service, and product teams in defining the vision. They know your customers best and can provide invaluable insights.
Translate Vision into Metrics: Define measurable goals that align with your vision. If your goal is to “personalize the customer journey,” focus on metrics like personalized product recommendations or reduced customer effort scores.
Communicate Relentlessly: Your vision needs to resonate with everyone, from the C-suite to the frontlines. Make it a part of your culture, not just a document collecting dust.
A strong customer experience vision ensures your transformation efforts remain relevant, aligned, and impactful.
2. Go to the front line
Want to truly understand your customers’ pain points? Get out of the boardroom and into the trenches. This is where Gemba walks come into play. Gemba, a Japanese term meaning “the real place,” emphasises observing work where it happens.
Effective Gemba walks involve:
Observe Without Interfering: Watch frontline staff interact with customers. Whether it’s call centre agents resolving issues or retail employees handling returns, focus on understanding the process and identifying friction points.
Ask Open-Ended Questions: Ask questions like, “What’s the most frustrating part of this process for you?” or “What do customers complain about the most?”
Document Everything: Capture insights, anecdotes, and potential inefficiencies.
Engage Frontline Teams: Make it clear that your intent isn’t to evaluate performance but to improve processes and support their efforts.
By grounding your understanding in reality, you’ll make better decisions that reflect the actual needs of your customers and employees.
3. Track the Right Metrics
Not all metrics are created equal. Too often, transformation initiatives get bogged down in internal KPIs that have little to no relevance to customer outcomes. It’s time to focus on the numbers that truly matter.
Here are three key metrics to prioritise:
Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measures customer loyalty by asking, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?”
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Provides real-time feedback on how customers feel about specific interactions, products, or services.
Customer Effort Score (CES): Gauges how easy it is for customers to interact with your business.
Regularly review these metrics, use them to measure transformation success, and ensure customer impact remains the focus.
4. Walk in the Customer’s Shoes
If you want to understand your customers, don’t just study them—become one of them. Experiencing your business from the outside-in can reveal hidden friction points and opportunities that data alone can’t uncover.
Here’s how to do it effectively:
Try Every Touchpoint: Experience every part of the customer journey, from browsing your website to calling customer service or visiting your store.
Be Critical: If something doesn’t feel seamless to you, it’s likely worse for your customers.
Capture Insights in Real-Time: Document observations as you go.
Walking in your customers’ shoes gives you more than insights—it builds empathy, driving smarter, more customer-focused decisions.
Transformation isn’t about shiny new tech or hitting internal KPIs—it’s about delivering meaningful, measurable value to your customers. By defining a strong customer vision, immersing yourself in the customer experience, tracking the right metrics, and walking in your customers’ shoes, you can turn your transformation efforts into a success story.
