Client centricity is a stated core value of all enterprises. However, few organizations scientifically build processes to measure it, use it to direct incentives and rewards, and most importantly, leverage it to shape company culture. I call those that do so “maniacally client focused organizations.” The impact of such an approach is sustainable growth driven by stronger client penetration, a state in which client recommendations expand the frontline’s reach and effectiveness, and a more engaged and stable workforce.

1. I N T E L L I G E N T E N T E R P R I S E
Building a“maniacal”
customer-centricculture
Client centricity is a stated core value of all enterprises. However, few organizations
scientifically build processes to measure it, use it to direct incentives and rewards,
and most importantly, leverage it to shape company culture. I call those that do
so “maniacally client focused organizations.” The impact of such an approach is
sustainable growth driven by stronger client penetration, a state in which client
recommendations expand the frontline’s reach and effectiveness, and a more engaged
and stable workforce.
Introduction
Every enterprise in the world has client centricity at the core
of how it defines itself. Processes are designed around clients,
and all businesses state that the customer comes first. What
differentiates some from others is the extent to which they focus
on client centricity. Put differently, in moments of truth, what
takes precedence in decision-making? Is it the client’s needs or
another set of considerations? The “maniacally client focused
organization” will always choose what the client wants or
what is optimal for the client, even if it hurts, and even if an
alternative path would create more immediate value for the
organization.
A few crucial questions that we will explore in this paper are as
follows:
• Is client satisfaction a central theme in our organization and
does it lead to customer loyalty?
• Why does this matter? Is there a demonstrable connection
between customer loyalty and company growth?
• How do we measure loyalty? Are there biases in
measurement systems and can we resolve them? How do
we go beyond measurement?
• To foster the virtuous circle of satisfaction from loyalty
to sustainable growth, how do we connect customer
satisfaction to employee engagement?
Iscustomersatisfactionenough?
Customer satisfaction is defined as “the number of customers,
or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience
with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds
specified satisfaction goals.”1
Tiger Tyagarajan,
President and CEO,
Genpact
1 Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer, and David J. Reibstein (2010). Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance. Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

2. For any business, satisfied customers may act as a strong
antecedent to loyal customers who usually stay with the
organization, who sometimes expand the range of services
they use, and who may even be willing to recommend the
business to others, thereby providing a form of extremely
effective and free marketing for the organization. Indeed,
customer loyalty is widely seen as a key
determinant of a firm’s profitability, as
discussed later in this paper.
The corollary to being focused on client
satisfaction and to making linkages to
loyalty and growth is the necessity for
a measurement system that enables a
company to monitor loyalty. This focuses
employees on the importance of fulfilling
customer expectations and then exceeding
them, as well as providing early warning signs of problems
that could potentially affect profitability. However, an effective
measurement system needs to differentiate between client
satisfaction that just “exists” and that which is substantive and
transitions into loyalty, actually motivating the behavior of
clients. In other words, in measuring and obtaining ratings,
are we actually receiving information that we can connect to
substantive results such as company growth and increased
revenue? In this context, a key measure related to client loyalty
is “willingness to recommend.”
Firststep:establishingaloyalty
measurementsystem
At its core, an effective loyalty measurement system needs
to answer a simple question: will the client recommend your
company to others? The Net Promoter ScoreSM
(NPS)2
is a
customer-relationship metric that aims to provide a very clear
answer to this by asking clients how likely they are to recommend
a company or product/service to friends or colleagues. This is
a significant step beyond asking if they are happy with their
experience. It’s not just about “are you satisfied with what we do
for you?” but actually “will you promote us and what we do for
other organizations?”
In the NPS system, willingness to recommend is rated from 0
to 10, where 0 is “highly unlikely to recommend” and 10 is
“highly likely to recommend.” Scores of 9 or 10 are viewed as
promoter scores, 7 and 8 are passively satisfied scores, and 0 to 6
are detractor scores. NPS is then calculated as the percentage of
promoters minus the percentage of detractors. “Promoters” are
clients that are willing to stake their reputations to recommend the
brand, and they only take this risk if they are “enthusiastically
loyal to the brand, the company and the product.”3
A “passively
satisfied” client is happy with the services of the brand but sees an
opportunity to do more. A small percentage of passively satisfied
clients may sometimes act as promoters. A “detractor” is a client
who is not satisfied with the service or the promise of the brand
and will definitely not recommend it.
As an example, Genpact has been using
the NPS system since the late 1990s. We
ask more than 4,000 people within client
organizations twice each year whether
they will recommend us and what we do,
to other organizations. To get a holistic
response, the survey is administered at the
C-suite level as well as at the process owner
level. The former provides us with a strategic
view on the client relationship, guiding us
as to what to focus on to meet their needs and strengthen the
overall relationship. The process owner survey provides more
“operational” insights, which help us stay alert and judge the
health of operations on an ongoing basis.
The score is lower at the C-suite level 100% of the time. This can
be attributed to the fact that the senior-management expectation
bar is set higher, and senior managers will always be looking for
more results, efficiency, and innovation. It is also a more dynamic
response based on the economic environment, industry challenges,
and the fact that it is predominantly the “bad news” that travels
up to the management level. In H1’2013, our first survey yielded
scores of 64% NPS from process owners and 31% from senior
level executives. The scores may vary from survey to survey, but
are still indicative of a trend, since both scores have doubled over
time and 64% is a historic high for us. Genpact has seen in the
past that the process owner survey acts as a lead indicator for our
C-suite results.
2 Net Promoter®
is a registered trademark of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company and Fred Reichheld.
3 Domenico Azzarello, Frédéric Debruyne, and Ludovica Mottura (2012). The Chemistry of Enthusiasm: How Engaged Employees Create Loyal Customers, Bain & Company.
4 http://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/why-net-promoter.aspx
Figure 1. Customer experiences translate into tangible business results4
0
0
100
5 10 15 20
200
300
400
500
Growth (indexed)
Loyalty Leader
• Buy more
• Stay longer
• Refer friends
• Provide feedback and ideas
Customer promoters
drive real value:
Average
Years
>2x
CAGR
Promoters are clients that
are willing to stake their
reputations to recommend
the brand, and they only
take this risk if they are
“enthusiastically loyal to
the brand, the company
and the product.”

3. Beyondmeasurement:creating
momentumandmanagingwhatyou’ve
measured
To create momentum for enterprise actions, one must
understand what a high or low NPS means for the company.
Why should we invest our energy into managing it? Can
we link a higher NPS to company and revenue growth? It is
imperative that a focus on customer loyalty be rooted in the
belief that it is critical to the company’s success and profitability.
In fact, all of the values that guide how we work should be
linked to profits and growth, because this means that programs
will be far more effective than those based on the sentiment
that it is the “right thing to do.”
Research shows a strong correlation between a company’s
growth rate and the percentage of its customers who are
“promoters.” Reichheld suggests that “the only path to
profitable growth may lie in a company’s ability to get its loyal
customers to become, in effect, its marketing department.”5
Analysis by Bain & Company6
has revealed that sustained value
creators—companies that achieve long-term profitable
growth—have NPS scores that are two times higher than
the average company. On average, NPS leaders grow at
more than twice the rate of competitors.
Ensuring an effective customer loyalty program not only requires
the right measurement science and method, such as NPS, but
a holistic approach to embedding the system in the company,
in order to achieve results that truly impact customers. The real
issue then comes down to how to manage what you measure
and how to predict and monitor the impact of corrective
actions. What is needed is a continuous closed loop tracking
system that makes sure that insight from the feedback received
actually delivers impact to the client. This system ensures that
the organization listens and acts on client feedback, monitors
progress, and takes further corrective action on a
continuous basis.
Bridgingthegapbetweenintention
andaction
Consider the fact that businesses in our field are entering into
long-term relationships, often for a range of services. Decision-
making processes are lengthy and necessarily involve speaking to
many people about whom they should partner with. Therefore,
a set of clients willing to promote you and speak about you,
reinforcing what you say about how you work, is very important,
even invaluable. However, it is also important to consider that
scores may not always mean what we think they mean.
Metric-driven models often inadequately account for individual
relationships. Client relationships are between individuals and
have often been developed over a long period of time. These
sustained relationships can affect answers, leading to scores
that are too high—a sort of “false positive,” if you like. The
consequence of this can be assessing clients as promoters based
on their scores but discovering that when it comes to behavior,
they do not actually act as promoters. This means that, as
companies, we might not be getting the picture that is needed
to drive improvements and, even worse, we might be creating
complacency. It is critical to remember that the “true score” is
not the score itself, and that it is the underlying behavior that is
relevant. The entire hypothesis around NPS is that a person will
actually do what they think and express that they will do, and
that this will equal growth.
However, companies must realize that most measurements
reflect disposition and attitude as opposed to behavior.
Put differently, NPS is an “attitudinal measure of intention to
recommend,”7
and does not in itself guarantee how a promoter
may behave.
5 Fred Reichheld (2006) The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth HBSP, 2006
6 http://www.netpromotersystem.com/about/measuring-your-net-promoter-score.aspx
7 http://www.qualtrics.com/research-suite/survey-types/net-promoter-score/
Companies that achieve long-term
profitable growth—have NPS scores that
are two times higher than the average
company. On average, NPS leaders grow
at more than twice the rate of competitors
Figure 2. Insight to impact - A continuous, closed loop tracking system
Corrective Action
Track
Predict
Implement
Action Plan
Insight
Measure

4. Given the potential gap between scores and promoter behavior,
one way forward is to engage more with promoters.
“Promotion” involves client referencing, but may also translate
into things like how often a particular stakeholder mentions the
partner in conversation or in social media, including in blogs,
or even refers publicly to work produced by the partner, such
as thought papers. These actions all contribute to creating
greater awareness of the organization, which in turn helps to
improve its recall factor. Encouraging promoters to undertake
these actions necessitates a high level of continued engagement
aimed at increasing their awareness and understanding of the
company, and developing their confidence in the partner in its
entirety.
Achieving the requisite clarity on what’s really happening on the
ground may necessitate a self-driven revision in our scores, but
it also prevents complacency. In addition, once companies know
who their “real” promoters are, they know where to focus their
attention, their appreciation, and their encouragement, and how
to retain their actual promoters and coax the affectionate but
inactive ones off the proverbial fence.
Ignitingavirtuouscirclethrough
employeeengagement
It is increasingly becoming clear that client loyalty is directly
related to employee happiness, engagement, and enthusiasm.
Recent research by Bain & Company reveals that “engaged
employees go the extra mile to deliver. Their
enthusiasm rubs off on other employees and on
customers. They provide better experiences
for customers, they approach the job with
energy—which enhances productivity—and
come up with creative product, process
and service improvements. They remain
with their employer for longer tenures,
which reduces turnover and its related costs.
In turn, they create passionate customers who
buy more, stay longer and tell their friends—
generating sustainable growth.”8
In fact, Bain & Company suggest that one of the most significant
factors influencing customer advocacy on behalf of a particular
company is the positive behavior and attitude of employees.
Therefore, businesses like ours can benefit from asking how
much time we spend concerned about staff satisfaction, levels
of engagement, and enthusiasm. Do our employees love their
work and work environment? Do they like it enough to stay?
And just as we look at clients’ willingness to recommend, do
our employees like the company enough to recommend it
to others? Indeed, researchers suggest that “just as the Net
Promoter approach has strong descriptive and predictive power
with customers, it works just as well in the realm of employee
engagement”9
and may therefore be a useful tool for companies
to use in terms of analyzing a pivotal source of customer
advocacy.
According to Bain & Company’s research,10
on the global level,
employee NPS (willingness to recommend to others) is slightly
negative in North America and significantly negative in Europe.
It is clear that attaining high levels of employee engagement
is not a simple matter, and requires deliberate operational and
management decisions, such as:
• Creating a work culture that makes employees feel valued,
provides opportunity for growth and a sense of affiliation,
and rewards employee performance and initiative
• Changing performance metrics to emphasize customer
satisfaction rather than time or cost
• Allowing employees a certain degree of autonomy in
decisions relating to clients, and creating an environment
wherein their individual contributions make direct
contributions to changing the business outcomes for their
customers
Finally, we should be connecting customer loyalty to
staff rewards. At Genpact, for example, NPS is
one of the key metrics used in performance
evaluation, which is further linked to
compensation and reward decisions such as
pay increments and bonuses for employees.
In addition, the ability to understand the
client agenda, craft solutions that create
client impact, and build trust relationships
with clients are key leadership competencies
that are used to determine long-term leadership
potential and promotions for our leaders.
Bain & Company’s “promoter flywheel” summarizes the market
and organization dynamics involved: customer advocacy (“buy
from them”) creates growth and opportunity, which in turn
creates employee advocacy (“come work here”), resulting in
enthusiasm, creativity, and consequently, excellence and trust that
further reinforce customer advocacy and ignite the virtuous cycle.
8 Domenico Azzarello, Frédéric Debruyne, and Ludovica Mottura (2012). The Chemistry of Enthusiasm: How Engaged Employees Create Loyal Customers, Bain & Company.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.

5. Consolidatingthesolution:
embeddingcustomercentricityinto
companyculture
“Culture isn’t defined by nice sounding values and mission
statements posted on the wall or website –it is defined by the
behaviors and principles being practiced every day, from the
boardroom to the shop floor.”11
As mentioned above, a work culture that drives employee
engagement and builds a sense of ownership amongst
employees impacts customer relationships favorably. In addition,
being able to adapt to and embrace the customer’s culture,
working as one virtual, extended organization, fosters trust,
comfort, and longer-term business relationships. Indeed, culture
is the overarching framework guiding companies. It’s the way we
do the things we do. It’s about how you deal with situations, how
you behave with each other, how you solve problems, including
client problems, together, how you approach opportunities, how
you accomplish trade-offs and how you take risks. If the way you
do this, your culture, is a winning one, and is valued by clients, it
becomes a differentiator and gives your company a competitive
edge. More specifically, it gives you:
• An edge with clients but also with staff, because as Culey
points out, “a dysfunctional culture can drive your best talent
away; an exciting, supportive, and empowering one can
attract and retain them.”
• A defensible edge that is built on your history, your legacy,
who you are, and how you got there, which means that it is
very difficult to copy, at least when we are talking about a
culture that runs deep and permeates the organization. This
means it feels the same everywhere, and with everyone, no
matter where you operate, who your employees are, or how
young or old the organization is. Since global business
relationships necessitate different cultures being able to
work together everywhere, the value of this factor cannot be
overestimated.
Conclusion
Client centricity needs to be a core value of any company’s
functioning, not just because it seems like the right thing to do
but because it is integrally linked to growth and profitability, as
well as to employee engagement and happiness and, ultimately,
organizational sustainability. The NPS measure of “willingness to
recommend” is relevant for both customers and employees. It
provides them with a “true north” with regard to what they like
and what they are ready to commit to.
However, a measurement and explicit reward system alone
may be too fragile to sustainably guide globally-distributed
organizations. The key to sustainable client centricity resides
in the ability to embed the ethos of the NPS or similar
measurements into the company’s culture, to the point where
a single question can be answered univocally and positively: Do
we at every point of time, at every crossroads, take the clients’
best interests into account and make the decisions that are best
for them, and, in fact, focus “maniacally” on the customer?
When this commitment is visible amongst employees who are
passionate about it, it permeates the organization in a way that
everyone can see and feel, shaping company culture, in terms of
the way we do the things we do, even when explicit rules
are not in place. And when this “way” is valued enough by
customers and employees to prompt them to stay with us and
recommend us to others, it is the key to sustainability, growth,
and evolution.
11 Sean Culey, “Leadership and Culture: Part 1 – The Case for Culture,” The European Business Review.
http://www.europeanbusinessreview.com/?p=6529
Client centricity needs to be a core value
of any company’s functioning, not just
because it seems like the right thing to do
but because it is integrally linked to growth
and profitability, as well as to employee
engagement and happiness and,
ultimately, organizational sustainability.

6. About Genpact
Genpact Limited (NYSE: G) is a global leader in transforming and running business processes and
operations, including those that are complex and industry-specific. Our mission is to help clients become
more competitive by making their enterprises more intelligent, meaning more adaptive, innovative, globally
effective and connected to their own clients. Genpact stands for Generating Impact – visible in better
management of risk, regulations, costs and growth for hundreds of long-term clients including more than
100 of the Fortune Global 500. We offer an unbiased, agile combination of smarter processes, analytics and
technology, which limits upfront investments and enhances future adaptability. We have 60,000+ employees
in 24 countries with key management and corporate offices in New York City. Behind our single-minded
passion for process and operational excellence is the Lean and Six Sigma heritage of a former General
Electric division that has served GE businesses for more than 15 years.
For more information, visit www.genpact.com. Follow Genpact on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Copyright © Genpact 2013. All Rights Reserved.
About the author
Based in New York, Tiger has held
a number of executive roles within
Genpact since its inception, as
well as at GE Capital. Prior to his
appointment as Genpact’s president
and CEO in June 2011, Tiger served
as chief operating officer and
executive vice president of Sales,
Marketing, and M&A.
For more information, contact:
tiger.tyagarajan@genpact.com