Customer-centricity is a powerful strategy, but it is also a buzzword that saturates the business landscape. Companies proudly declare that they put the customer at the heart of everything. But the truth is, most organizations still operate under a CEO-first culture, whether they admit it or not. While they may pay lip service to customer experience (CX), their internal priorities often betray this promise. These organizations focus on satisfying leadership metrics, cutting costs, and maximizing profits, rather than fostering genuine relationships with their customers. The real danger lies in the disconnect between company intentions and customer realities.
The CEO-First Trap: When the Customer Takes a Backseat
Let’s be clear: a CEO-first culture doesn’t mean executives are deliberately ignoring their customers. It’s more insidious than that. Many CEOs believe they’re driving customer-first strategies when, in fact, they’re reinforcing company-centric practices. Here are a few key ways this happens:
1. Leadership KPIs Over Customer KPIs
The most obvious sign of a CEO-first culture is when company success metrics precede customer experience metrics. For example, many organizations prioritize operational efficiency, cost-saving measures, or quarterly profits over customer satisfaction or retention. While business performance is critical, focusing too narrowly on internal goals can blind companies to the larger picture. Customer satisfaction metrics often become secondary, an afterthought addressed only when complaints pile up or churn spikes.
2. Top-Down Strategy with Minimal Customer Input
In a CEO-first culture, strategy flows top-down. CEOs and senior leaders develop strategies based on their vision, goals, and understanding of market trends. What’s often missing is the customer’s voice in that conversation. Sure, data analysts may throw in a few stats about customer behavior or preferences, but those insights typically play a supportive role, rather than a guiding one. On the other hand, a customer-first approach would invert this model, allowing customer needs, frustrations, and desires to shape the strategic direction from the beginning.
3. Misalignment Between Departments and the Customer Experience
Another hallmark of a CEO-first culture is when internal departments focus on their KPIs rather than aligning around a unified goal: serving the customer. Marketing should concentrate on brand awareness, sales emphasize conversion rates, and customer service looks at resolution times. Each department operates in isolation, giving little thought to the customer’s journey across touchpoints. In an authentic customer-first culture, every department aligns around a shared vision of customer success, rather than treating it as someone else’s responsibility.
The Cost of Ignoring the Customer
What’s the actual cost of a CEO-first culture? Companies that put their internal metrics above customer needs risk losing the trust and loyalty of their audience. Today’s consumers are more discerning than ever. They can tell when a company’s priorities are misaligned with their interests, and they won’t hesitate to jump ship.
I’m sure everyone reading this is aware of the ancient stat that attempts to paint CX as a priority: 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience, and companies that lead in customer experience outperform laggards by nearly 80%. But seeing this stat over and over has led to a dangerous complacency. Instead of serving as a call to action, it’s become just another data point that’s easy to acknowledge but harder to act upon. Companies may recognize the importance of customer experience, but far too many fail to translate that recognition into tangible, customer-first changes. The real challenge isn’t knowing the stat, it’s ensuring it drives meaningful action to avoid ignoring the customer in favor of lesser internal priorities.
How Leaders Can Shift to a Customer-First Culture
Declaring a company’s customer-centricity in mission statements or marketing materials is insufficient. Leaders must actively build a culture where the customer is the driving force behind every decision. Here’s how to make that shift:
Lead by Example: Get Out of the C-Suite and Into the Trenches
Customer-first cultures begin at the top. If CEOs and senior leaders aren’t engaging directly with customers, they rely on second-hand information that may not fully reflect reality. Leaders need to get out of the C-suite and into the trenches, spending time with customers and frontline employees to understand their challenges and opportunities.
For example, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz famously spent hours visiting stores, speaking to baristas and customers to get an unfiltered view of their experiences. This on-the-ground engagement allowed Schultz to see firsthand the impact of his company’s policies and adjust them accordingly.
I challenge every CEO to step out of the office and speak directly with customers. Saying you’re too busy, that you have other priorities, or the belief you have people in positions “to do these types of things” are just weak excuses. Genuine customer understanding can’t be delegated, it requires personal engagement from leadership.
CEOs should listen to customer service calls, read customer complaints, and personally respond to responses, demonstrating a commitment to a customer-first culture. They should also provide invaluable insights that may never reach them through reports alone.
Align Every Department Around the Customer
A customer-first culture cannot exist if departments are working in silos. Each department must be accountable for the customer experience, even if they don’t interact with customers directly. This means aligning KPIs across departments so everyone’s goals ultimately lead to customer success.
For example, track how well marketing efforts support customer needs and journeys instead of measuring marketing success by impressions or clicks. Long-term customer satisfaction and retention should be considered in sales instead of focusing solely on conversions. Customer service metrics should go beyond resolution times to include how healthy interactions build trust and loyalty.
Even the interview process should reflect your organization’s commitment to customer focus by incorporating customer-centric questions and evaluating how candidates prioritize customer needs. Regardless of its function, every role should be framed around building relationships and aligning with the company’s customer-first philosophy from the start.
By creating cross-functional teams focused on customer outcomes, leaders can ensure that every part of the organization works towards the same goal: delivering value to the customer.
Make the Customer Part of the Strategy Development Process
If you want to truly understand your customers, you need to give them a seat at the table. This doesn’t mean relying on static surveys or outdated feedback loops. Instead, involve customers in strategy development through more dynamic, real-time methods.
Some companies have taken bold steps in this direction. Adobe invites customers to participate in design thinking sessions, co-creating products that solve real-world problems. Similarly, the LEGO Group has built an ecosystem where customers actively shape product development through feedback and direct input.
Leaders should seek opportunities to actively involve customers in decision-making through focus groups, beta testing, or online communities. The goal is to make the customer an integral part of the strategic conversation, rather than a distant observer.
Celebrate Customer Success, Not Just Business Wins
The company celebrates business achievements in a CEO-first culture: hitting revenue targets, launching new products, or expanding into new markets. But how often do companies celebrate the success of their customers?
Customer-first organizations flip the narrative. They make customer success their core metric of success. Celebrate when customers achieve their goals, solve their pain points, or feel genuinely delighted by your products or services.
For example, HubSpot famously tracks “Customer Love,” a metric that captures how much customers appreciate and advocate for their platform. Instead of focusing solely on internal wins, they measure how well they’re helping their customers achieve business success.
Making customer achievements a central part of the company’s celebrations and storytelling reinforces a customer-first culture and deepens customers’ emotional connection with your brand.
Case Study: The Fall of Disney’s Customer Focus
The Walt Disney Company once epitomized what it meant to be a customer-first company. Under the visionary leadership of Walt Disney, the company was known for delivering magical experiences, putting customer satisfaction above all else. Walt clearly understood that delighting guests was the key to long-term success. His philosophy was simple: “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”
Over time, however, Disney’s customer-centric ethos has shifted. Today, many argue the company has prioritized profit over the guest experience, with leadership focusing more on shareholder returns than customer satisfaction. A glaring example of this shift is the consistent and steep increase in ticket prices at Disneyland.
In 2022, ticket prices for the highest tier jumped to $179, up from $164 in 2021. By 2023, that price had risen again to $194, an 8.38% increase. The most recent hike in 2024 brought the top-tier ticket price to $206, a 6.2% increase compared to the previous year. For those looking to enjoy Disney’s magic year-round, the lowest-priced annual pass option saw a staggering 20% increase. These price hikes have made the once-accessible Disney experience feel increasingly out of reach for average families.
While Disney’s revenue has undoubtedly increased, these decisions have come at the expense of customer loyalty and satisfaction. Fans who grew up with the brand are beginning to feel alienated, perceiving the company as more concerned with maximizing profits than maintaining the magic that once made it special. Frustration is rising as many loyal guests express that Disney’s focus has shifted from creating a magical, inclusive experience to simply cashing in on its brand.
I often imagine a two-month competition between myself and Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger. I would be given free rein to make any changes I saw fit, and at the end of those two months, we’d compare customer satisfaction scores and revenue. I’d reduce prices, reduce capacity limits in the park, and even close the park on Wednesdays, providing time for everyone to recoup.
I have no doubts that refocusing on customer delight rather than profits would result in higher satisfaction scores and, ultimately, more significant long-term revenue. By putting the customer first and restoring the magic slowly drained by a CEO-first mentality, I’m confident that Disney could reclaim its once-untouchable status as a brand people love, not just tolerate.
The Bottom Line
Transforming from a CEO-first culture to a customer-first one isn’t easy. It requires a fundamental shift in organizations’ operations from top-down leadership to cross-functional collaboration. But the payoff is immense: increased loyalty, stronger relationships, and a competitive edge in a crowded marketplace.
It starts with a simple yet powerful mindset change: the customer isn’t just another stakeholder in your business, they are your business. Everything else is secondary. If leaders can embrace this truth, they’ll create an organization where both the customer and the company thrive together.