How do you design a successful modern-day business? You start with customers; not products. You focus on what those customers want to do. If you design any organization (for profit or not for profit) from the customers’ perspective, your organization will remain nimble and focused on customers’ changing needs and market conditions.

As customers, we recognize when we’re interacting with a company that really values us and our business. It’s clear that everyone in the organization understands what we need and what’s important to us. We also notice when we cross the boundary between the customer-centric brand we value and one of their partners who doesn’t deliver the same kind of experience.

As customer-centric executives, we want to anticipate customers’ needs and delight them with solutions they might not have thought of, yet they immediately love and value. We want our customers to bond with the enjoyable experience that we, and our partners, provide.

These five steps can empower you to design (or redesign) an organization that customers love to do business with. Taking these steps over and over again will continuously improve the viability of your business and help you grow a vibrant win/win ecosystem of employees and partners who all benefit from their engagement with your mutual customers.