Recently, I personally had a not even close to satisfying customer service experience at a place where they boast they deliver, "The Luxury Hotel Experience," with "Unparalleled Service." Sadly, they over promised and way under delivered. This experience (or lack there of) has left me searching for the businesses that get and deliver a Customer Centric Experience. (The sad puppy eyes tell all...)

Do I start with what Customer Centric means, because I feel like there are a lot of companies out there that give this responsibility to the sales and customer service departments only, when in fact, this is the mistake. Real customer-centric businesses invest the whole team focus on supporting their prospective and existing customers. 

Validate customers' decisions.  Even if you do not agree with customers' choices, always validate their decisions.  If the vacuum salesperson was not able to make the sale, he could validate the customer's decision by saying, "I understand how you feel.  This brand is costly."

- Renee Evenson, Customer Service Training 101

It seems that some businesses have over-complicated delivering good, solid customer service.  The focus is often on technical processes rather than a genuine, natural service flow.  For example, a service person will think, "I have to do this first, this second, third...etc."  The result of that is an impersonal disconnect with the the customer who is trying to do business with that company.  We have all been on the receiving end of the person behind the desk or at the checkout counter who is so lost in their "processes" that greeting the customer, helping them, or taking their money will only happen when they have finished their paperwork, computer transaction, conversation, and so on.  A big miss.

Getting an audience is hard.  Sustaining an audience is hard.  It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time.

- Bruce Springsteen