What the customer-first approach means + 9 strategic steps

Many organizations live by the mantra “the customer is always right.” While prioritizing quality customer interactions is a good start, businesses need to take it one step further and consider their customers with every decision. This is called being customer-first, and embracing this philosophy can help you improve your bottom line, develop quality customer relationships, and create an unmatched competitive advantage.

In this article, we’ll cover the main tenets of a customer-first culture. From action steps to real-world examples, you’ll understand how to deliver an outstanding customer experience (CX) today and guarantee success tomorrow.

More in this guide:

• What are the benefits of a customer-first strategy?
• How to put customers first in 9 steps
• Examples of businesses putting the customer first
• Frequently asked questions
• Embrace a customer-first approach with Zendesk

What are the benefits of a customer-first strategy?

When you prioritize the customer in every business decision, you create a foundation for profitability, growth, and long-term relationships.

Many of the most successful industry disruptors of the last decade—Uber, Airbnb, and Warby Parker, to name a few—can be classified as customer-first organizations. Instead of operating around product creation and delivery, these brands organized their business around customer needs, catapulting their operations into the mainstream.

That said, every organization should prioritize customer satisfaction—not just those on the Fortune 500 list. A few benefits of doing so include:

• Improved customer retention: Customers with positive experiences purchase more often and tell others about their experiences, improving brand loyalty and building customer relationships.
• Increased bottom line: Happy customers are more likely to make frequent purchases. This, coupled with improved customer retention, results in a positive impact to your balance sheet.
• Stronger competitive advantage: Customer-first businesses are more likely to resonate with consumers and stand out in the marketplace. This amounts to a considerable competitive advantage over other companies that don’t subscribe to this mindset.

Being customer-first is about doing the right thing for the customer and ensuring everyone in your organization aligns with that mission—and doing so makes a positive impact across your business.

How to put customers first in 9 steps

Being customer-first is a key component of a successful customer experience strategy. To boost your CX efforts, ensure these processes are happening in your organization.

1. See your business through your customers’ POV

Successful companies don’t simply focus on products or profits—they prioritize how they can best help their prospects. To do this effectively, view your operations through the lens of the consumer.

Looking through your customers’ eyes can help you better understand the frustrations and challenges that lead to an initial purchase. The buyer’s journey describes a prospect moving through the sales funnel, whereas the customer’s journey focuses on the support customers need to continue a relationship with your organization.

Throughout the customer acquisition and retention processes, ask yourself a few questions:

• How can we align our offering with our prospects’ initial concerns?

• What features do prospects consider the most valuable?

• After the initial purchase, what level of support and service do our customers expect from us?

When you reframe your organizational efforts around these journeys, you can improve your customer service management and proactively find ways to improve your support, product features, and overall customer experience.

2. Define what success looks like

Leaders throughout your organization need to understand and deliver consumer-centric outcomes—and that starts with tying organizational goals to customer experience metrics.

Reframe your thinking to prioritize service rather than forecasting solely on profits and successful quarters. Embrace customer obsession to guide your decision-making and define your success with positive prospect experiences.

Start by identifying important variables to your industry—churn and retention rates, customer lifetime value (LTV), and similar customer retention metrics are good places to begin. From there, create an action plan to improve these metrics in the short and long term.

3. Provide better personalized support with AI

Personalization creates better support interactions and customer experiences. Take it one step further with AI.

Customers don’t want to feel like just another cog in the wheel—they want to be catered to. They want to receive personalized product recommendations, tailored communications, and instant, helpful support interactions. In fact, according to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2025, nearly two-thirds of consumers say they expect more personalized service with AI.

Organizations can use AI for better support in several ways. For example, let’s say a customer reaches out to a customer support agent for product help. The agent can use AI to review the customer’s previous support interactions to get up to speed on their situation and provide personalized customer service. Alternatively, teams can embrace custom escalation paths to route customers to the right support agent based on previous history or the customer’s status with the company.

4. Offer AI-powered proactive experiences

Anticipating customer needs helps resolve issues before they arise. Embrace AI to keep a pulse on what matters to your customers.

Proactive customer service helps organizations offer solutions to customers before they even ask. You can stay one step ahead of future issues by engaging in activities like:

• Using AI to detect customer sentiment, tailor support experiences, and provide personalized service.

• Leaning on AI to help forecast staffing needs—ensuring you always have enough support agents on call to assist customers.

• Using AI-powered quality assurance (QA) tools like Zendesk QA to automatically detect workflow inefficiencies and areas of improvement in your team.

According to the CX Trends Report 2025, 81 percent of consumers believe AI has become part of modern customer service—and a modern CX requires teams to be flexible, agile, and proactive.

5. Conduct employee training to foster consistency

Employees are often the first line of communication with consumers. Ensure they are well-trained on your customer-first initiatives.

Investing in comprehensive training programs for your employees empowers them to deliver a positive customer experience time after time. Armed with organizational principles, customer service training, and a drive to prioritize customer needs, your team will be well-equipped to handle any interaction—no matter their department.

Most importantly, a standardized training program ensures a consistent customer experience. This means that no matter who a client speaks with, they’ll reach reps with the knowledge and customer service voice to resolve issues expertly.

6. Deliver 24/7 support with AI agents

Consumers expect 24/7 support—deliver on those expectations with round-the-clock virtual agents.

Advanced bots like AI agents are changing the way businesses approach customer service. They can offer nonstop support, independently resolve even the most complex customer issues, and handle customer interactions from start to finish. And, if a support ticket needs human intervention, AI agents can route customers to the right support agent in a flash.

Not only that, but AI agents can convey emotions like empathy and friendliness to customers and act just as human agents would. This is key for customers, as per our CX Trends Report 2025, 68 percent of consumers say they’re more likely to engage with and trust AI agents that exhibit human-like traits.

7. Establish clear action plans for (difficult) customer interactions

It’s nearly impossible for an organization to deliver perfect service at every touchpoint. Your team should be ready to handle negative customer interactions and turn them into positive results.

Creating action plans for difficult interactions can teach employees the skills to empathize with frustrated customers and how to diffuse these situations effectively. Bad customer service can sink an operation, so everyone in your organization must know the best course of action, even in times of stress.

These plans should include conflict resolution techniques and follow-up procedures. Empower your employees to close the loop with upset customers to ensure you resolve their problems and integrate their feedback to address the root cause of the negative interaction.

8. Pivot when change is needed

While it’s crucial to establish action plans and customer-first initiatives, successful businesses know how to pivot when consumers demand change.

Pivoting could mean empowering employees to make a judgment call when faced with a difficult situation. Not every negative interaction will follow a predefined script. Allowing employees to slightly bend the rules when it makes sense—such as issuing a refund or sending a product replacement—can significantly upgrade customer support.

Pivoting could also mean changing organizational strategies in the face of emerging trends. Customer expectations can change by the week, and just because an action plan was successful last quarter doesn’t mean it will continue to be. Always seek to pivot and improve strategies to stay competitive and customer-centric.

9. Assess your plans and performance for improvements

Customer-first isn’t a “set and forget” approach—it’s a philosophy that should be continuously monitored and improved.

You won’t know how effective your strategy is unless you compare it to consumer data. Regularly conducting surveys, evaluating your customer service metrics, and revisiting customer service best practices can help you determine where your strategy is successful and where you need to improve.

Use this data to pivot, alter, or completely change your approach. Consumer preferences change rapidly, and your customer-first initiatives should be just as fluid.

Examples of businesses putting the customer first

Now that we’ve covered why a customer-first strategy is so important, let’s look at how three companies used Zendesk to create a customer-centric strategy.

CARET

“One of our brand values is ‘We care big,’ which centers around how we provide exceptional experiences for our customers. We show that care through designing and delivering solutions that delight. And by providing the support and services our customers need to be successful. That’s where Zendesk comes in.”

-Daniel Prouty, business analyst on the CARET business systems team

Warren

“We aimed many resources toward planning the business opening and daily dealings with customers. However, the partnership with Zendesk has helped us realize it was possible to boost relationship management even further and fully explore the enormous potential of the CX platform. It was like a Ferrari that we were not driving and that remained parked in the garage.”

-Yordanna Colombo, relationship leader at Warren

Unity Technologies

“Zendesk tools enabled us to quickly recognize a large increase in ticket volume, identify the cause, and create steps to mitigate the problem. Without Zendesk, our support team would have stayed underwater.”

-David Schroeder, senior manager of services support at Unity

Frequently asked questions

Embrace a customer-first approach with Zendesk

It’s not enough to simply declare yourself customer-first. Businesses need to develop a customer-focused culture while giving employees the tools, technology, and resources they need to personalize the customer experience—and we can help with the latter. Software like Zendesk can enable you to revolutionize your customer service and experiences, boosting your bottom line in the process.

Learn more about how Zendesk customer service software can help your CX and customer-first initiatives.