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Why “Customer-Centric” Companies Still Struggle to Listen—And How to Fix It
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Michael's original post on Substack: Why Companies Claim to Be Customer-Centric—but Still Fall Short?
Michael recently wrote post on something critical: most companies say they’re customer-obsessed (and want to be customer obsessed), but their actions tell a different story.
They collect feedback but don’t act on it.
They measure NPS and call it “listening.”
They mistake reactive problem-solving for proactive learning.
We see this all the time at Enterpret. Companies don’t struggle to gather customer feedback—they struggle to use it.
The Core Problem: Customer Intelligence Is Broken
Michael nailed it: customer insights get trapped in silos.
- Support has one version of the truth.
- Product sees a different story.
- Sales is working off a completely different reality.
By the time insights make their way to decision-makers, they’re stale, diluted, or worse—ignored in favor of gut instincts and pre-existing plans.
This isn’t just a data problem. It’s an execution problem.
Listening ≠ Acting
At Enterpret, we work with companies that genuinely want to be customer-driven but face the same roadblocks:
🚧 Teams operate on different timelines.
🚧 Leadership wants more insights but defaults to confirmation bias.
🚧 Reports take weeks to compile—by then, the insights are outdated.
This is why we believe customer intelligence shouldn’t be a report—it should be a real-time operating system.
How Companies Can Actually Become Customer-Centric
🔹 Operationalize feedback. Insights should be categorized, prioritized, and automatically routed to the teams that need them—without manual effort.
🔹 Keep PMs connected to customers. Instead of relying on secondhand insights, PMs need real-time digests and unfiltered feedback streams baked into their workflows.
🔹 Challenge leadership bias. Establish rituals like monthly “challenge meetings” where teams present insights that contradict existing strategies.
🔹 Ditch static reports. Instead, surface real-time, AI-powered insights that detect emerging trends and customer pain points before they become fires to put out.
AI Is Changing the Game
Michael ended his post with an important point: AI is redefining customer intelligence.
At Enterpret, we’ve seen firsthand how AI can transform fragmented feedback into clear, actionable insights. Instead of drowning in feedback and debating what’s important, teams can focus on what actually matters: building better products, delivering better experiences, and making smarter decisions.
Because at the end of the day, being customer-centric isn’t about collecting more feedback. It’s about making sure feedback fuels action.
How to build a culture of customer intelligence early
Invest in hiring a dedicated person or team to focus on this problem. See how a few of our customers do this right
- Jesse Walker, Head of User Voice at Canva
- Adena Bauer, Head of Membership at The Browser Company
- Kayla Eliaza Head of User Insights at Notion
Join the Movement
If you’re working in VoC, CX, or product, this is the moment to act. Building customer intelligence into how companies operate isn’t just important—it’s essential.
- Get inspired: Follow Enterpret on LinkedIn
- Be a part of the movement: Community Waitlist - launches Spring 2025