This blog was written in collaboration with Anna Synakh.

Intel, a tech giant with over 121,000 employees, sets an example for organizations that are considering becoming more customer obsessed. Despite its size and complexity, Intel has made big strides in all three customer obsession competencies: leadership, strategy, and operations.

In our new report, Case Study: How Intel Systematically Improves Its Customer Obsession, we explore seven ways that Intel improved customer obsession. Here’s a preview of improvements that Intel made in all three customer obsession competencies.

  • Executives visibly invest in sharpening the focus on customers. Intel’s leaders put customers front and center in their own work and across the company. Executives across departments are inspired to champion customer experience (CX) improvements as they learn about customers’ perspectives via the executive customer sponsorship program and meetings with the customer board of advisors. Executives cemented the centrality of the customer by awarding Intel’s highest internal honor to a team focusing on customer success.
  • Strategy explicitly connects business success with customer success. The brand understands that if its customers succeed, its own success will follow. As a result, it expanded its strategy for providing value to customers, assisting them in overcoming roadblocks with the goal of creating mutual successes. For example, the brand may help customers procure non-Intel products or collaborate with them to create new markets.
  • Teams across the organization implement customer-focused practices. Intel uses multiple methods to collect customer feedback, ensuring that the insights it sends throughout the organization are as accurate and useful as possible. The entire organization then uses those insights to inform improvements to products and experiences.

 Intel’s Progress Toward Customer Obsession Improved Outcomes

Intel’s investment in customer obsession has paid off. For example, the company improved its customer effort score (CES) by 15 percentage points. Intel uses CES as its primary KPI, highlighting the ease of customers’ communication with the brand. Such an improvement shows that an organizational commitment to the customer experience can have significant impact on companywide performance by helping narrow down customer pain points and addressing them to increase customer loyalty.