{"data":{"id":1217,"title":"Customer Centric Strategy","edition_statement":"2nd Edition","volume":null,"copyright_year":2024,"isbn10":null,"isbn13":null,"license":"Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike","language":"eng","accessibility_statement":null,"accessibility_features":[],"description":"Customer centricity is about organizational transformation making the customer the focus for business decisions, processes, product development, services, and procedures. Some companies purport to be customer centric but they fall short in connecting this concept throughout all functional areas of the business. While it is important to offer superb customer service, being customer centric is far more than that. It's about mapping the customer journey to discover customer needs and wants, what's working and what is not, then taking action to improve the customer experience. Customer loyalty is built through providing exceptional customer experiences. This in turn increases revenues through positive company image, referrals, and increased customer lifetime value. Most organizations today realize that they must focus on the customer to remain competitive.","contributors":[{"id":5850,"contribution":"Author","primary":true,"corporate":false,"title":null,"first_name":"Kerri","middle_name":null,"last_name":"Shields","location":"Centennial College","background_text":"Working as a college professor for many years I have honed my customer service skills in working with cross-departmental teams, external partners, and internal customers, and it seems that regardless of the job you choose to do, developing your customer service skills will help make you more effective and efficient. In the past, I have worked as a customer service representative in B-2-B and B-2-C environments, as a customer service manager in HR solutions, as a training coordinator in corporate training, and as a call center manager (both in credit and collections and loyalty programs) and have come to realize that every job role has a customer service component. During my time as a corporate trainer, I designed and delivered training programs in “Exceeding Customer Expectations” as one of the various sessions my employer delivered. In 2016 I designed a college course called, “Customer Service and Relationship Building” and then in 2018 I designed another college course called, “Customer Centric Strategy” which became the catalyst for this OER book. In developing this book I have researched many sources and compiled the resources that support the concept of customer centricity. When I teach this college course I also include exercises for students on Salesforce CRM using the Trailhead learning platform. It is important for students to learn technologies used in business today and especially those used to support building long-lasting positive relationships with customers. Another exercise I usually provide students is one in which they use the Hootsuite platform to practice promoting a business through social media. They learn to respond positively to customer enquires and complaints. I hope you find the content interesting and the lessons helpful, and maybe you get a few ideas for practicing customer service skills from the exercises in each chapter. I will try my best to update it from time to time just in case some videos or resources become obsolete or outdated."}],"subjects":[{"id":2,"name":"Business","parent_subject_id":null,"call_number":"HF5001","visible_textbooks_count":144,"url":"https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/business"},{"id":22,"name":"Marketing","parent_subject_id":2,"call_number":"HF5415","visible_textbooks_count":22,"url":"https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/subjects/marketing"}],"publishers":[{"id":1195,"url":"https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/","year":2025,"created_at":"2022-07-27T09:37:09.000-05:00","updated_at":"2025-04-24T17:25:13.000-05:00","name":"eCampusOntario"}],"formats":[{"id":3025,"type":"Online","url":"https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/customercentricstrategy2/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3022,"type":"PDF","url":"https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/customercentricstrategy2/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3021,"type":"eBook","url":"https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/customercentricstrategy2/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3023,"type":"XML","url":"https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/customercentricstrategy2/","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null},{"id":3024,"type":"MS Word","url":"https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/customercentricstrategy/open/download?type=odf","price":{"cents":0,"currency_iso":"USD"},"isbn":null}],"rating":"5","textbook_reviews_count":2,"reviews":[{"id":34363,"first_name":"Emmett","last_name":"Dulaney","position":"Professor","institution_name":"Anderson University","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"A loyal customer can be a profitable customer and as the name of the book implies, making the customer the focus of everything is imperative in today’s marketing environment. Proactively choosing to include the customers’ journey as a part of a well-planned strategy can give a firm an advantage over its competitors. \r\nThis book excels in walking through the process of doing that in a concise and clear manner. It includes not only lessons, but also key takeaways, exercises, and links to additional resources. This makes it not only timely, but also well-illustrated, well-sourced, and well-written. Because of that, it can work equally well as a standalone text or as a complement to another in many marketing-related courses such as those focused on sales or marketing management.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The author does an excellent job of providing sources and links to other information that helps create a solid foundation on which they then build.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"One of the key metrics used in marketing today is the customer lifetime value (CLV) and this text covers all dimensions of that and concepts related to it.","clarity_rating":5,"clarity_review":"Every term is thoroughly explained and most appear again in the Key Takeaways section at the end of each chapter as well as the glossary at the end of the book.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Each chapter follows the same format and the content is evenly divided among them.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Each chapter is self-contained enough that it could be used as a standalone.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"While each chapter is self-contained, the topics are presented in a way in which they build as the text progresses.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"The visuals are compelling and add to the comprehension of the content.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"The text is well written and appropriate for an undergraduate marketing course.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"The text is culturally appropriate and interesting.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"A loyal customer can be a profitable customer and as the name of the book implies, making the customer the focus of everything is imperative in today’s marketing environment. Proactively choosing to include the customers’ journey as a part of a well-planned strategy can give a firm an advantage over its competitors. \r\nThis book excels in walking through the process of doing that in a concise and clear manner. It includes not only lessons, but also key takeaways, exercises, and links to additional resources. This makes it not only timely, but also well-illustrated, well-sourced, and well-written. Because of that, it can work equally well as a standalone text or as a complement to another in many marketing-related courses such as those focused on sales or marketing management.","created_at":"2023-01-11T13:05:35.000-06:00","updated_at":"2023-01-11T13:05:35.000-06:00"},{"id":35680,"first_name":"Velda","last_name":"Arnaud","position":"Department Chair, Instructor, and Advisor","institution_name":"Blue Mountain Community College","comprehensiveness_rating":5,"comprehensiveness_review":"This textbook is clearly designed. Each chapter begins with learning outcomes, Chapters are well organized. There are videos, tables, bulleted lists, key takeaways, exercises, and resources for each chapter. At the end of the book, there is a glossary of terms.","accuracy_rating":5,"accuracy_review":"The book was last updated in 2024, so examples are current. I was concerned that there would be a Canadian focus, but it is not. There are references to Canada, as well as other countries. It would be easy to update a few sections with U.S. data.","relevance_rating":5,"relevance_review":"As stated above, the book was recently updated. There is also some global references, and students are encouraged to use technology to explore current data.","clarity_rating":4,"clarity_review":"For me, the book is clear and easy to read; however, younger students, especially community college students don't really read. They seem to scan. Hopefully, the tables and bullets will work with those students.","consistency_rating":5,"consistency_review":"Yes, definitely. As stated previously, each chapter is laid out logically and consistently.","modularity_rating":5,"modularity_review":"Yes, that's one of the things that I like about this book. I want to update my customer service course, and I already see some sections in this book that be perfect. For example, making everything more global than U.S.-centric.","organization_rating":5,"organization_review":"The book starts with defining customer centric. That is followed with the knowledge and skills needed to serve the customers. That builds to teams, technology, design thinking, and building strong relationships.","interface_rating":5,"interface_review":"I found no problems. I reviewed the PDF version and clicked on the interactive links. Everything worked just fine.","grammatical_rating":5,"grammatical_review":"Not that I found.","cultural_rating":5,"cultural_review":"There is a very good balance.","overall_rating":10,"overall_review":"The only thing that I questioned was why they only talked about the Millenials (Generation Y) and Generation Z consumers. There are six distinct generations that I am aware of. Those others should be added.","created_at":"2025-11-26T17:23:10.000-06:00","updated_at":"2025-11-26T17:23:10.000-06:00"}],"url":"https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/customer-centric-strategy","updated_at":"2026-05-18T12:03:54.000-05:00"}}