As Customer Experience (CX) professionals, we dedicate our time to creating outstanding experiences for customers.
However, what happens when a brand ignores your needs? It feels frustrating and disappointing.
In this article, John Kalambayi Mpungadelve breaks down customer-centricity and introduces KEOM Nature—King, Employer, Oxygen, and Marketer.
By recognizing these four key aspects, organizations can empower employees to engage customers more meaningfully.
This approach strengthens customer relationships, enhances CX, and fuels business growth.
1. The Customer is the Supreme King of Your Business
Many organizations struggle to deliver great customer experiences. Often, this happens because they don’t fully understand customers or their impact on business success.
Just as we respect a Supreme King, we should approach customers with the same level of care. The way we speak to and respond to them should reflect that respect.
Prioritizing customer experience means treating every interaction as an opportunity to build satisfaction and loyalty. Shep Hyken’s book The Cult of the Customer captures this well. However, I’d take it further—we must venerate the customer.
When a customer complains, defending yourself instead of apologizing and fixing the issue is a mistake. The moment you argue with a customer, you’ve already lost. No matter what they say or how they say it, never engage in conflict.
Instead, approach complaints with empathy and a proactive mindset. Handling issues professionally builds trust and strengthens relationships. A positive reputation starts with every customer interaction.
Shep Hyken says, “The customer is not always right, but he is the customer.”
This quote highlights the heart of customer-centricity. While customers may not always be correct, their satisfaction remains critical to a company’s success.
2. The Customer is the Undisputed Employer
Many employees think it is their organization that pays them, this way of thinking is totally wrong. The one who pays your salary is the customer.
No Customer = No Business = No Organization = No Career = No Money
Throughout my professional journey, I’ve observed a trend where employees exhibit greater deference and professionalism toward their managers and managing directors (MDs) than they do toward their customers. However, I firmly believe this dynamic should be reversed.
Employees should certainly demonstrate respect and professionalism towards their managers and MDs, but their focus and efforts should be primarily directed toward enhancing the customer experience.
After all, satisfied customers are the lifeblood of any successful business, and prioritizing their needs ultimately benefits everyone involved.
3. The Customer is the Oxygen of Your Business
Science teaches us that our Atmosphere is made of mostly O2 (Oxygen) which our bodies have evolved to breathe. Oxygen is very important because most living things need it to survive. It is the key for generating energy in cellular operation.
In this same idea, you need to know and believe that the customer is the only key for your business to survive. Your business depends totally on the customer, I was even on the verge of saying, your life depends totally on the customer (but well, let us keep it to business). So, you need to know how to behave towards such an important person.
Just as oxygen fuels our bodies, exceptional customer experience fuels business growth. By prioritizing customer needs and delivering seamless interactions, businesses can cultivate a loyal customer base and drive revenue generation.
By focusing on key aspects of customer experience, such as personalized interactions, efficient service, and proactive communication, businesses can create a positive and memorable customer journey. This, in turn, fosters customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy, ultimately leading to increased profitability and business success.
4. The Customer is the Best Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is one of the key customer experience metrics in many organizations, and this metric is totally driven only by the customer.
In essence, NPS captures how likely those customers are to recommend your business to others, a powerful indicator of whether your products and services are truly resonating in the market.
It’s the customers who tell you if your products and services match the market you are operating in, it’s them who control your ads on all the channels you choose to do it, and it’s them who bring growth to your business by adding other customers.
I always believe that the customer is the best ads agent you have in order to increase footfall in your business, though I recognize that the other marketing plans are important as well.
What I mean is that when you treat customers as the Supreme Kings they are, as the undisputed employers they are and as the oxygen they are, they will bring you more other customers than your Ads you will do.
This one customer will talk to his relatives about how they are treated by your organization and will even ask them to come and do business with you, and guess what? They will come.
In my professional career I have discovered that when a customer is satisfied, happy and pleased with an organization, they can talk about that organization to their relatives better than the employees of the organization can do.
Many organizations continue to record high rates of customer churn just because their employees have no understanding or very little understanding of the nature of the customer.
Consider Each Customer as the Only Customer You Have
I was discussing with one of my colleagues on the behavior of customers, he told me that one of our customers abused his rights because he was told to move out of the office as there was a space constraint, but the customer refused by saying that he can sit wherever he wants, and nobody has the right to tell him where to sit. My response was:
“Customers can abuse only when they become physically violent, anything they say or do other than being physically violent is not at all an abuse.”
Many employees think in their heads:
“If I treat badly this one customer and he leaves, this will not change anything for the business.”
Very wrong way of thinking, employees should consider each customer as the only customer they have for their business; and given that they are the only customer the organization has, treating them not the way it should, will have a serious negative impact on the business.
Conclusion
With this article, I wanted to raise awareness among leaders to emphasize their organization on the nature of the customer if they want to see growth in numbers.
By prioritizing an understanding of your customer’s nature – their needs, wants, and pain points – you can unlock significant growth for your brand.
This customer focus should permeate your entire organization, informing everything from product development and marketing strategies to customer service interactions.
By fostering a culture of customer centricity, you’ll be well-positioned to not only attract new customers but also cultivate enduring loyalty among your existing ones.
Always remember, the customer has the KEOM nature!
