To create something of value, organizations carry out a variety of tasks, that together is called their activity system. All tasks that directly result in value in the eyes of the customer are the primary activities, while support activities are undertaken to provide the necessary resources to run the primary activity system (see model 50, the Activity System Dial).
Organizations are customer-centric when they place the customer journey at the center of all their activities and organize their primary activity system as a seamless flow following the steps taken by the customer.
The Customer-Centricity Circle gives a generic picture of what a typical customer journey looks like and then shows how an organization’s primary activity system should be wrapped around this customer journey, to accompany each customer in a seamless manner. The framework suggests that the customer experience should be actively managed throughout the full journey, using the many moments of interface to create customer value. The people and departments performing this flow of activities must therefore work closely together, instead of only focusing on their own task and leaving customers to wander between departments. In practice, each type of customer journey, and therefore each primary activity system, will be different.
The five steps of every customer journey, and the linked types of activities, are the following: