Any entrepreneur that is not in touch with customers - is out of touch with reality. Thinking like a customer enables entrepreneurs to harness the power of thinking differently! Quite literally putting themselves in the customers' shoes!

As an entrepreneur, you also need to think like a customer - and not a manager, sales executive, or anyone else from the company's perspective. For sometimes, the perspective should be solely focused on the customer.

Sainsbury's

David Quarmby of Sainsbury's used to make it a point to regularly visit stores and talk to at least three customers with full trolleys! The former Joint Managing Director of the supermarket giant wanted to understand the views of serious shoppers with serious views!

Tesco

Michael Wemms of Tesco used to become a customer as frequently as possible! The former Director of Retail used to frequently use car parks, filling up petrol and using credit cards - to understand what it takes to be a Tesco customer!

As a leader, it is essential for you to put yourself in other people's shoes - whether they are employees, vendors, customers or any other stakeholder! You can understand the business with a great amount of depth if you do this. The key is to not take this as an academic exercise - for it will defy the very purpose.

Thinking like a customer can enable your business to identify the different phases, emotions and processes that a customer goes through will transacting with you. Once you understand how the customer thinks, you will be able to identify areas of improvement, and reach out to them with a better offering. Any organization that is proactively able to do this can create customer delight.

This responsibility starts at the top. The mindset of the leader creates the culture of the organization! And culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch & dinner!

In order to talk to customers in a better way, check out our perspective on how to conduct productive user interviews.