Helping teams build a culture that truly puts the customer first by wearing customer spectacles
Introduction
When was the last time your team truly saw the world as your customers do?
Most organisations say they are customer-focused, but targets, processes, and politics often pull attention inward. The result is experiences designed for internal convenience, not customer ease.
Years ago, when I was running KC Business at KCOM, I gave every staff member a pair of glasses frames to stick on their monitors. I even put oversized glasses cut-outs on the department doors. It wasn’t a gimmick; it was a daily reminder to put your Customer Spectacles on before you make a decision.
That simple, visible act changed behaviour more than any policy or strategy document ever did. The principle is just as urgent today.
Why Customer Spectacles Still Matter
1) Most companies don’t see what customers see
- Internal view: metrics, processes, hand-offs.
- Customer view: delays, jargon, dead ends.
The gap between those two realities is where frustration lives.
2) Customer-centricity isn’t a slogan
You can plaster “we put customers first” on your website, but if systems are optimised for internal convenience, customers notice. True customer focus is a discipline.
3) Empathy is a competitive advantage
In crowded markets, the ability to see through your customers’ eyes and act on what you see often makes the difference between loyalty and churn.
From Symbol to System
The glasses frames worked as a symbol, but the real value appeared when they became a system. Every meeting, policy, and new feature had to pass a simple test:
Would this make sense if I were the customer?
That framing flipped discussions. Instead of defending internal processes, people started questioning them. Instead of “How do we make this easier for us?”, it became “How do we make this easier for them?”
A Personal Story: My Kilt Order
Customer Spectacles aren’t abstract — they are lived experiences. Here’s mine.
In April 2025, I ordered a kilt for a very special occasion. Not just any kilt, but one specific to my father’s region in Ireland. I lost my father in 1997, when I was 26. It mattered.
A couple of months later, I was told it wouldn’t be available until September — which would be after the event. So I had to settle for a national Irish kilt instead. That was fine; it wasn’t my first choice, but at least it would arrive on time.
It was due on 1 July. Then I was told 1 August. Then I was told 15 August. At no point did the company proactively contact me. Every update came only after I chased — at least ten separate phone calls, and increasingly desperate. I even hired a kilt from a separate company, just in case the order could not be fulfilled.
From my side, the experience was stressful. I got increasingly frustrated, and my partner became upset. Yes, the kilt eventually arrived, and it looks great, but it wasn’t the one I wanted and the journey to get it left a bad taste.
From the retailer’s perspective, they eventually fulfilled the order. From my perspective, they failed. They didn’t see the emotional context — that this wasn’t a casual purchase but a once-in-a-lifetime event — and they left the burden of communication on me.
That’s the gap Customer Spectacles are meant to close.
Common Blind Spots Without Customer Spectacles
Over-engineered processes
- Internal focus: compliance, approvals, hand-offs.
- Customer view: unnecessary friction.
Example: multiple forms and signatures for a simple account change.
Jargon and complexity
- Internal focus: acronyms, industry speak.
- Customer view: confusion and hesitation.
Example: onboarding emails packed with technical terms and internal names.
Success metrics that ignore the customer
- Internal focus: tickets closed, average handle time.
- Customer view: unresolved issues, rushed support.
Example: call centres optimised for speed rather than resolution.
Short-term gains over long-term loyalty
- Internal focus: quarterly sales targets.
- Customer view: feeling pressured rather than helped.
Example: upsell prompts before solving the original problem.
How to Put On Customer Spectacles
1) Build customer lenses into decision-making
Filter every major choice through three lenses:
- Ease: Does this make the customer’s life simpler?
- Clarity: Is the language plain and unambiguous?
- Value: Does the customer clearly win, not just us?
2) Make it visible
Symbols work. Physical reminders on desks, customer quotes on walls, live feedback dashboards, short customer videos in team meetings. Visibility keeps customers front of mind between quarterly reviews.
3) Challenge inside-out thinking
Role-play as your own customer.
- Sign up for your own service.
- Try to resolve a support issue through your channels.
- Read your messages as if you have zero insider knowledge.
Most leaders are surprised by how hard their own experience is.
4) Change what you measure
- Replace “tickets closed” with “problems solved”.
- Replace “average handle time” with “first contact resolution” and “customer satisfaction”.
- Treat NPS as a signal that triggers action plans, not as a vanity score.
Customer Spectacles in Action
- SaaS onboarding: A software company rewrote its onboarding journey after reading it with customer glasses on. Jargon disappeared, and activation rates doubled.
- Complaints to resolutions: A logistics company mapped the complaints process from the customer’s perspective and cut average resolution from five days to 24 hours.
- Better KPIs, better behaviour: A bank replaced “cases closed” with “customers helped”. Agents stayed with customers until problems were fully resolved, improving satisfaction and retention.
Framework: The Customer Spectacles Test
Use this checklist in reviews, stand-ups, and sign-off meetings:
- Would I understand this in ten seconds?
- If I were busy, would this help me or slow me down?
- Would I recommend this experience to a friend or colleague?
- Does this interaction build trust or erode it?
If you cannot answer “yes” to all four, you are not truly wearing your Customer Spectacles.
Practical Moves You Can Start This Week
- Run a one-hour “through the customer’s eyes” workshop. Pick one journey and remove three steps.
- Rewrite one customer email with a ten-year-old reading level and time-to-read under 45 seconds.
- Replace one operational KPI with a customer outcome KPI and share the result at your next all-hands.
- Shadow five live customer interactions and record three improvements each. Implement at least one within seven days.
Final Thoughts
Customer Spectacles are more than a metaphor; they are a discipline. The companies that win are not necessarily those with the biggest budgets or the flashiest tech. They are the ones that relentlessly see through their customers’ eyes and act on what they see.
Tomorrow, when you sit down with your team, ask one question:
Are we wearing our Customer Spectacles?