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The Cat’s Whiskers · Foundation 04 of 7

Customer Truth

A current understanding of who is being served.

04

of 7 foundations

5

checks in this foundation

Has anyone walked the journey the customer actually takes?

Customer Truth is the fourth foundation. It asks whether the business holds a current understanding of who it serves, or an assumed one. Customers will not change how they buy to suit how a business sells; this foundation checks whether the business has noticed. The failure cluster is Customer Blindness.

From this page

Customers will not change how they buy to suit how a business sells.

The five checks

  1. Does the business act as its own customer?
  2. Does it avoid assuming customers know what they want?
  3. Does it avoid assuming customers know how to find it?
  4. Does it serve all four journey types, not just the browser?
  5. Does it recognise that the homepage is no longer the front door?

The three readiness ratings

Foundation Ready

Strong foundations. External investment in platforms, acquisition and channel expansion is likely to generate returns, and the focus shifts to optimisation and scale.

At Risk

Meaningful gaps in one or more foundations. Continued investment generates diminishing returns until they are addressed, so a prioritised fix programme comes before scaling.

Foundations First

Critical gaps across multiple foundations, with external spend destroying value. Stop, rebuild the base, then grow.

Terms of Trade reads through this foundation

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