Focusing on What The Customer Thinks

This interview on the Forbes MarketShare blog with Jim Bush, EVP of World Service at American Express, contains some great insights regarding the American Express customer experience strategy.

I was particularly struck by the following quote:

We also strongly believe that great service doesn't come down to what we think about our performance internally. It's all about what the customer thinks after every interaction. So we're not measuring our performance by internal measures. Instead, we're gauging it by looking at whether customers would recommend American Express to their friends based on their experiences.

Is your company doing anything to shift the focus from internal performance to customer reactions? If so, how? How are you measuring customer loyalty? The American Express study mentioned in the blog is interesting reading regardless of where your current strategy stands.