For my 40th birthday my husband bought me a microscope from Carolina Biological. They sell lab supplies to schools. My husband loved the experience because "the rep knew that I was only going to buy one microscope ever in my lifetime, but she still took the time to help me get the right one."

Imagine my delight when I got to meet Jim Parrish, the CEO of Carolina Biological. He told the room that the customer centric culture didn't happen by accident. 

When he started he admitted that he was the lone wolf howling into the wind. Over time, and through very disciplined actions, he is now "the cheerleader on the sidelines" and his front line people are have taken over as the architects of the customer-centric culture.

To bring his people along he tried two "break out" moves.

1. He took customer comments to the front lines. Too often program leaders share NP scores with the front line but never let these folks hear what the customers are saying. But for CB, by sharing the comments the people quickly took ownership of the improvements and really took the feedback to heart.

2. The second thing CB did was connect the dots between poor customer services and the financial cost to the company. As an employee-owned company, this made a big impact. Error dropped fast and the NP score skyrocketed.

Ask yourself, who talks to your customers more? I bet 9 out 10 of you reading this will say that you talk to customers less than 2 hours a day. But the front line its 90% of their day.