Customer at the Centre: Why Breaking Down Silos Pays Off

Customer orientation and cooperation of departments

Modern companies like to declare thatthe customer comes first for them. However, the reality of daily operations often reveals the opposite – especially if there are strongin the company organizational forces. Each department optimizes its results, often in isolation, resulting in a fragmented customer experience.Let’s imagine a typical situation:marketing launches a great campaign with the promise of a one-on-one approach, but the prospect then encounters a salesperson who doesn’t know anything about the campaign or slow customer service. The result is client disappointment and brand trust. This problem is not unique – according to a survey in the financial sector, almost half of managers (46%) say that the biggest obstacle to a smooth customer experience is the division of the client’s life cycle between different departmentsliferay.com. In short,the customer pays extra for silos in the company. Topiccustomer experienceis key today.

When a customer crosses organizational boundaries

In 2025 we see thatthe most successful companies are distinguished by their ability to break down internal barriers and align all teams around the customer’s needs. It’s not just a nice marketing phrase, but a targeted change in how it works. One prominent trend isbreaking down organizational walls– instead of the traditional structure where each department has “its customer”,are created cross-functional teamsoriented to specific customer segments or phases of their life cycle. For examplenew client onboarding teamit can be made up of a combination of people from marketing, sales and operations, who are jointly responsible for the first months of cooperation with the client. Such an approach ensures that everyone solvesthe same– customer experience – and not just your narrow segment.Instead of passing the client from department to department, the team takes care of the entire customer journey together.Surveys confirm that it is the fragmentation of ownership of the customer cycle that holds companies back; the solution is to authorizeinterdepartmental teamsmanaging the entire customer journey from outreach to loyaltyliferay.com.

Hand in hand with that goesinformation and data sharing across the enterprise. If each department has its own software and database, the customer pays extra – he has to explain his requirements over and over again, because the information is “stuck” in some silo.That is why progressive companies introduce uniform CRM systems and the so-called 360° view of the customerfor everyone. The goal is for the seller, marketing and service to see the complete history of the customer’s interactions with the company. For example, if customer support finds out from a client that they can’t use a mobile app, this information needs to get to the product developers immediately – otherwise an otherwise loyal customer runs the risk of leaving due to a bad experience in the digital channelliferay.com. Only through joint forces and shared data can the departmentsprovide a consistent experience– and the customer will not be troubled by the company’s internal boundaries. Finally, the customer at allnot interested in the internal organizational structure, he perceives the company as a whole. The task of leaders is therefore to ensure that information about customers does not get “stuck” anywhere and that everyone has up-to-date knowledge. As Amazon’s Jeff Bezos aptly notes, if a business truly wants to becustomer-obsessed, he must know the customer better than himself – and react even before he realizes the needqualaroo.com qualaroo.com. This cannot be achieved without sharing information across the company.

Customer experience translates into results

Invest energy in improving the customer experience at the same timedemonstrably repays. Data from recent years confirm this: up to73% of companies that provide an above-average customer experience also achieve above-average financial resultsinvestcro.com. In other words, customer-centric businesses simply outperform competitors—loyal customers spend more, make repeat purchases, and spread a positive reputation. On the contrary, companies that neglect CX often lose sales – customers dissatisfied with communication or service leave for competitors. One unsatisfactory experience today can mean the loss of a customer,the acquisition of which cost considerable funds. Customer Experience (CX)thus became one of the main engines of growth. “In today’s world, where both products and prices are easily imitated, the customer experience is the only lasting differentiator,” emphasizes expert Annette Franzqualaroo.com qualaroo.com.

It’s not just a theory – managers today are increasingly looking atCX metrics. Net Promoter Score (NPS), measuring a customer’s willingness to recommend a business, became“gold standard”customer loyalty and it also gets into management reports. In some companies, the top management already earns according to the improvement of NPS – for example, the insurance company Cigna has started tying part of the management’s bonuses precisely to the achievement of the target NPScustomerexperiencedive.com. And according to a Forrester survey, half of companies pay employees bonuses for improving customer metricscustomerexperiencedive.com. All of this sends a clear signal:customer satisfaction is a common goal, not only the role of customer service. Of course, there are challenges with using such metrics – for example, the creator of the NPS concept, Fred Reichheld, warns that if a reward is attached to the number, people may tend to “play for the score” instead of actually improvingcustomerexperiencedive.com. According to him, the cure is to build a culture of learning and improvement around NPS, not to see it as a bureaucratic goal. In other words,metrics should serve as a compass for a better customer experience, not a whip. However, when set up judiciously, they can very effectively unite different teams for a single mission. Ultimately,what we measure and reward, we get– therefore, if the company only rewards sales and ignores satisfaction or retention, it should not be surprised that customers buy once, but do not return.

Mindset of the entire organization: customer first

The permanent elimination of the “silo mentality” cannot be achieved by processes and systems alone; it is primarily a question ofcorporate culture and mindset. Every employee, from front desk to development, should understand how their bot affects the customer. Sometimes evenwill help just to remind the “big picture”: One well-known story tells of an airline company where the management prepared a training session for aircraft maintenance technicians with real passenger stories. The technicians heard, for example, how the speed of fixing a machine breakdown decided whether a family could celebrate together. This experience is said to have greatly increased their sense of responsibility – they realized thatthey don’t just fix a machine, they enable someone to fulfill a personal plan. A similar principle was coined by the founder of Walmart, Sam Walton, who recalled:“There is only one boss – the customer.” Aj Tony Hsieh, a customer service visionary from Zappos, popularized the idea that“customer service should not be just a department, but the whole company”qualaroo.com. In practice, this means that every team – even those without direct contact with the customer – should feel co-responsible for the customer’s experience. Sometimes it helps if employeeson your own skinthey get a taste of what it’s like to be a client.Amazonhe established a remarkable practice in this direction:all managers (including Jeff Bezos himself) must complete at least two days of customer support training every year, where they directly handle phone calls from customersjohnrossman.com. The goal is for bosses to hear the customer’s praise or frustration with their own ears and see where the company is fumbling. Similar “immersion” in customer reality makes cold reports a living experience – and can break through indifference or ossified internal views.

Finally,being customer-centric is not the name of a project or the name of one department – it is the mindset of the entire organization. When all employees agree thatthe common mission is to bring value to the customer, forces lose their meaning. When different teams have a common goal and share information, they naturally begin to help each other instead of bickering over competencies.The result is a smoother experience for the client and better results for the business.Customer orientation creates a positive spiral – a satisfied customer will bring more business, and his satisfaction in turn motivates employees when they see the meaning of their work.

Challenge for leaders: are you ready to break down silos?

This is a clear challenge for top management. If you’re serious about being customer-centric,try to empathize with the role of your client. When was the last time your financial or IT director sat directly with a customer or tried a purchase through your e-shop? Do you have mechanisms in your company tocustomer voicebrought to the decision-making table in each department? Are the leaders of individual sections aware thatonly togethercan they create a consistent customer experience? Experienced CX authorBlake Morganclaims that“everyone – from the CEO to the customer center worker – should know what it’s like to be a customer”qualaroo.com. So let’s ask ourselves a question:Are we willing to tear down internal walls for the benefit of the customer?Businesses that can join forces across functions will gain customer loyalty and grow. Those who remain locked in their silos risk the opposite. The decision is up to us – the customer has already voted with his feet.

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3 key questions and answers to facilitate implementation:

1. How to practically start breaking down silos in our company?
Answer:Start from the top –set a unified vision and common goalsfor the whole company. Top management must clearly communicate thatsuccess is measured by customer satisfaction along the entire journey, not only the performance of individual departments. Updatingmay help KPI: in addition to financial indicators, establish a commonCX metrics(e.g. company-wide NPS or retention rate), for which all teams are responsiblecooperative.com. Next, identifycritical moments of the customer journeyand buildinterdepartmental working groupsorproject teamsfor these areas. Give them clear authority and responsibility to make decisions for the benefit of the customeracrossdepartments. At the same time, remove barriers to communication: establish regularcross-functional meetings, where, for example, marketing, sales, product and support exchange knowledge about customers. Make it physically easier too – mix teams into common spaces or createdigital collaboration platforms, where everyone sees input from colleagues to customers. Don’t forget themodel behavior from above: if management openly praises collaboration (e.g. praises a team that solved a customer problem together, instead of singling out individuals), it sends a signal thatcollective success comes first. Breaking down forces is a long-distance run – you need patience. However, the reward will be not only more satisfied customers, but also more engaged employees (they don’t like barriers and “politics” between departments). At the same time, the old familiar applies:“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”A joint push towards the customer will bring more sustainable results than the isolated efforts of individuals.

2. What tools or technologies will help connect customer data and improve cross-departmental coordination?
Answer:The base isunified CRM system or customer data hub. All formations should useone platform(or connected systems) to record interactions with the customer – from marketing campaigns to sales activities to service interventions. Only then will you get360-degree view of the customerin real time. If each department manages data separately, no “Customer 360” will helpkhoros.com– therefore invest in the integration of existing systems (middleware, API connections, data warehouses). Next, introducecommon dashboardsaccessible across the company: for example, live reports on the main customer indicators, which can be seen by both the manager and the rank-and-file employee in support. With the help of modern tools (Business Intelligence, Customer Data Platform), you can set notifications – if, for example, NPS worsens or more complaints arise at some point, all relevant managers will receive a notification.Collaboration Toolsare another support: use company chat platforms (Teams, Slack) with common “voice of the customer” channels, where front-line employees share insights from the field. People from development, finance or back-office should also follow these channels – so that they havedirect windowto customer issues and didn’t live in a bubble. Technologies can also automate the transmission of information: for exampleticketing systemintegrate with CRM so the merchant can see what open support requests the client has. Or vice versa, if marketing launches a campaign, the system automatically informs customer support about the details of the offer so they can respond. Not to mentionintranet or knowledge database, where customer insights and best practices are collected, to which all departments have access. Importantly, technology is only an enabler –you must also support the culture of information sharing procedurally. Set the rule thatall important data about the customer are recorded in the common system, not into personal excels or local software. Continuously train the team to work correctly with CRM and collaboration tools (data must be of good quality and up-to-date). With good tools and data discipline, you will ensure that the information does not “fall under the table” and the customer does not have to explain anything twice.

3. How can we strengthen customer mindset and empathy among employees, especially among those who do not work directly with clients?
Answer:An excellent move is to enable all employeesexperience the customer’s point of view first hand. For example, you can introduce the “Customer Day” program, when back-office workers also try out a day on the customer line or in the store. Many firms allow both newcomers and managers to spend a certain amount of timeby shadingfront-line colleagues – monitor phone calls with customers, read real feedback.Amazonis again an example of good practice: it requires all managers toonce a year they worked for two days in the call center, precisely because of building empathyjohnrossman.com. Similarly, you can organizeworkshops with customers– invite real clients to tell their story of working with your company (what made them happy, what upset them). Such meetings can open the eyes of, for example, IT developers or financial analysts who otherwise would not come into contact with the client. It is very effective to embedcustomer’s voice to internal communications: share specific compliments and complaints from clients in the newsletter or on the intranet, highlighting how the work of different departments contributed to the success of the client. For example:“Thanks to the quick intervention of IT when removing an error in the application, we saved an order for €100,000 – the customer appreciated that we reacted promptly.”When people see a direct connection between their work and customer satisfaction, theirgrows internal motivation to do things well. Next, integratecustomer-centric values ​​to all training and recruitment. During onboarding, introduce new employees not only to their role, but also to the customer journey of the entire company – so that they understand the context. Also regularly train “soft skills” – for exampleempathyand the ability to look at the process through the eyes of the client. Sometimes a simple exercise is enough: go through your own customer experience as a “mystery shopper” (try to order a product, file a complaint, etc.) and then discuss what frustrated the person in this role.Reward and appreciatemanifestations of a customer-oriented approach: if, for example, the maintenance team completes a repair faster because it realized that otherwise it would cost the customer the operation – praise it publicly. Create heroes out of employees who show extra initiative for the customer. And last but not least,leadership: middle management must lead by example. When department heads show an interest in customer feedback and address it with their teams, it gradually becomes the norm. It is useful to establish a rule that every important decision will be checked with the question:“How will this affect the customer?”– and managers must be able to answer this question. By gradually combining these steps, you will achieve that even the employees “behind the curtain” will naturally start thinking about who we are all here for. Customer empathy will become part of your company’s DNA, which will translate into better customer relationships and results.

Sources:Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Sam Walton (Walmart), Fred Reichheld (Bain & Co.), Annette Franz (CX Journey) – quotes and data taken from their statements and studiesqualaroo.com johnrossman.com customerexperiencedive.com invespcro.com liferay.com. Also used data from Invesp (CX statistics)invespcro.com, Liferay (Financial Forces Survey)liferay.comand CX Dive/Forrester (NPS and Compensation)customerexperiencedive.com.