Why Companies Claim to Be Customer-Centric—but Still Fall Short?
Finally, my first post! I’m excited to share my thoughts on a topic that has long fascinated me: the gap between the promise and practice of customer-centricity in companies.
A Personal take on a pervasive problem
Everywhere you look today—from glossy websites to boardroom presentations—companies assert that they put the customer at the center of everything they do. Yet, when you dig a little deeper, the reality is often very different. Despite collecting mountains of feedback, measuring Net Promoter Scores, and celebrating supposed “customer-first” policies, many organizations struggle to make customer insights a driving force in their decision-making.
This disconnect isn’t just a minor oversight—it’s a fundamental flaw in how customer intelligence is managed. And over time, it leads to misaligned priorities, missed opportunities, and a culture that values slogans over substance.
In this newsletter, I plan to unpack several core problems that lie at the heart of this disconnect. Here are the areas I’m immersing myself into.
The organizational problem: Companies don’t operationalize feedback
Companies invest in a lot of activities to collect feedback, run surveys, record calls and mine support or social, but the process stops there. Feedback is collected, but not operationalized or orchestrated in a systematic way.
Customer insights live in silos:
Support has one version of the truth.
Research has another.
Sales has a completely different take.
The result? Teams debate about the taxonomy of data rather than of acting on it. Separate reports create more confusion than clarity.
How to operationalize feedback?
Create a centralized system where feedback is automatically categorized, prioritized, and routed to the right teams. Implement tools and rituals that integrate insights into product roadmaps and day to day workflows.
The product builder problem: Intuition vs. evidence
The best product builders never stop shadowing sales calls, reading support tickets, or doomscrolling mean tweets. They know that great product intuition isn’t magic—it’s built by staying close to customer reality, which requires a lot of time and energy.
Product managers are expected to channel the customer’s voice, but as companies grow, they often become distanced from firsthand customer interactions. Relying on secondhand summaries or filtered reports can dilute the nuance of real customer feedback.
How to empower your product builders?
The best companies build systems that keep PMs connected to raw, realtime customer intelligence—not just when they have time, but as a way of working.
Leadership dissonance: More than validation
Leaders increasingly emphasize the need for evidence-based decision-making. Yet, in many organizations, the pressure to support established plans can create an environment where suggesting alternatives feels risky. As a result, teams often gravitate toward feedback that simply validates the status quo rather than challenging it.
True customer intelligence goes beyond mere validation—it should drive discovery and help refine strategies based on new evidence. The most effective leaders nurture a culture where feedback not only builds confidence in decisions but also paves the way for innovative, strategic shifts.
How to build a culture of customer-centricity?
Leaders must model the ideal behavior if they want a thriving customer-centric culture—especially when scaling up. When leaders actively prioritize engaging with customers and champion open dialogue, they set the tone for the entire organization and can build rituals for others to adopt.
The over-reliance of insights reports
Recurring insights reports are now table stakes—they help organizations build awareness and accountability around the top customer needs that aren’t being met. However, there’s a growing dependence on these reports, even among leadership, which comes with several drawbacks:
Timing Mismatch: Leaders operate at a much faster clip than the pace at which recurring reports are produced. As a result, these reports are often outdated or not actionable by the time they reach decision-makers.
Stifled Discovery: Over-reliance on reports creates an easy excuse for stakeholders to avoid engaging directly with customer feedback. This dependence can stifle continuous discovery and dull the product intuition that comes from firsthand insights.
Limited Scope: While recurring reports highlight critical issues, they should serve as a catalyst for conversation rather than the sole source of truth for decision-making.
How to complement your VoC reporting?
Build systems that make real-time customer feedback easily accessible across the organization, fueling a culture of continuous discovery. Set clear expectations for your recurring reports—they’re not meant to do all the heavy lifting but to spark deeper discussions and informed decisions. By integrating live insights with periodic reports, you empower teams to remain agile, proactive, and closely connected to customer needs.
Waiting too late to invest customer intelligence
When your team is small, the gaps in your processes and data are glaringly obvious—but they're often ignored until the pain becomes unbearable. Many organizations postpone investing in customer intelligence until a crisis hits, locking themselves into entrenched practices that are difficult to untangle.
Imagine if you could harness the power of customer insights from the start: by building the right strategy, cultivating a data-driven culture, and setting up robust systems early on, your team can act swiftly and decisively—before issues spiral out of control. Early investment isn’t just a defensive measure; it’s a catalyst for growth and agility that positions your organization to thrive in a competitive market.
Where to start?
I bet you already have passionate people in your organization itching to dive into a Voice of Customer program. Start by talking to your customer-facing teams and researchers—those on the front lines who know where the real issues lie. Their insights can spark the conversation and help you lay the groundwork for a robust customer intelligence strategy. Get the ball rolling today and harness that internal energy before challenges escalate.
Let’s navigate this journey together!
Bridging the gap between collecting customer feedback and truly acting on it is one of the biggest challenges organizations face today. The best companies don’t just talk about being customer-centric—they embed customer intelligence into their decision-making DNA. Whether it’s operationalizing feedback, empowering product builders, fostering a culture of discovery, or reducing over-reliance on static reports, the key is to create systems that make customer insights actionable, accessible, and continuous.
If any of this resonates with you, I’d love to hear about your experience. How is your company tackling these challenges? What roadblocks have you faced in making customer insights a real driver of strategy? Let’s connect—I’m always happy to chat, share ideas, and help however I can.
Michael, Head of Customer Intelligence @ Enterpret