A very insightful article from Timothy Smith of Tahzoo. Becoming a customer centric organization is not achieved through initiatives, it is achieved through a culture change.

From my perspective, too many of the current efforts in financial services are internally focused, and are being solely thought about as technology projects. As I pointed out in my webinar, technology is only one part of the solution. Companies need to be thinking about transforming their business and marketing approaches in addition to their technology infrastructure. If companies don’t invest in these other transformations, they may not ever deliver on their customer centricity goals. Time and money needs to be spent on creating organizational alignment, understanding the customer journey, and deploying marketing strategies that reward, recognize and respect customers.

Companies tend to look at their technology in terms of deficiencies instead of what a technology will allow. Technology should never be purchased until there is a specific business need the technology will solve. If your company isn't ready to evolve beyond their current technology platform, a better tool will not help your company evolve. To become a customer centric organization, the culture needs to evolve first and then technology can support the organization as the needs arise. It should never be the other way around. Customer centricity does not happen through more data about a customer, it happens when all decisions are focused on the customer.