Customer retention and loyalty should be a top corporate goal, if not the top goal. So why aren't all companies walking the customer-centric walk? Many companies think they are, but from my experience, companies that are customer centric make very different decisions than companies that aren't.

These decisions fall in five key areas: customer experience, employees and brand ambassadors, process changes, performance management, and technology. To make customer-centric decisions in those areas, an organization's leadership has to be willing to change the way they do business and think about customers, then spend the money and resources to align the company for successful customer-centric advocacy.

The most important decision customer-centric companies make is to deliver a unique customer experience. These firms rely on their front-line employees to deliver that unique experience—and boost their bottom lines. Studies show that a customer's opinion of a company is created by the experience with the agents. More than likely, customers will stop doing business with a company because of a bad experience.