Mike Trotter, head of the esteemed Center for Customer Driven Quality at Purdue, sent me this definition of what it means to be Customer-Centric.

Being Customer-Centric means the customer is the heart of your business and drives your processes, policies, products and people to all be focused on insuring that any outcome is being created in support of meeting a customer’s needs, demands or expectations. This requires a proactive approach to engaging, listening and responding to customers. The customer-centric company attracts the customer to their products and services by offering an experience that customers desire to be a part of. The company that places itself in the customer’s circumstances in order to design its products, services and processes is customer-centric. Customer-centricity is a convergence of all company resources on the customer.

Maybe every call center manager should have that laminated and put on the wall where they can absorb it.