Consumers today are a tough bunch to keep loyal. According to a report issued by McKinsey & Company in October, approximately 75% modify their buying behavior in some form and around 40% opt to purchase different brands.
The elderly demographic tends to switch brands due to financial value and availability, while younger crowds pay more attention to how much they’re getting and the higher purpose behind it.
Nowadays, customer-centricity is a key component for brands who want success, possibly more so than ever before. What steps can be taken to make the customer the focus of all business activities? How can success be measured, and how will being centered around the customer improve the brand?
Annette Franz, CCXP, founder and CEO of CX Journey Inc. stated that customer centricity is deeply embedded in the company culture, so they have intentionally crafted it to revolve around the customer. It requires CEO commitment to do just that. It requires a change of attitude, a change of habits and a change of environment.
Customer Centricity
According to Franz, customer-centricity is an approach to doing business in which the business do the following:
- Focus on creating a positive experience and delivering value for the customer by understanding the customers, their needs, pain points, problems to solve, and jobs to be done — and by understanding that, not all customers are created equal
- Understands that customers are the only reason they exist
Franz emphasized that businesses should always consider involving their customers in any conversations, choices, or plans. He suggested asking customers how it would effect their individual lives, what emotions it sparks, if it solves any issues for them, and if it brings any benefits.
According to Jeannie Walters, CEO of Experience Investigators and certified customer experience professional, customer-centricity means putting the customer first in everything a business does. It is clear that many businesses primarily focus on their products and/or the strength of their brand.
Making sure that the customer is the main focal point of choices means being cognizant of what they want, what their hopes are, what they anticipate, and what makes them dissatisfied. The organization must determine what a successful outcome would look like for both the customer and the group itself in order to accomplish this goal successfully.
Some Examples of Customer-Centricity
Walters expressed her delight in seeing brands that think about the genuine needs of their customers besides just the transaction of the purchase.
An example of this is a local toy store that offers gift wrapping as well as a “elf” service for parents who are too busy to wrap their Christmas presents ahead of time and would prefer to leave them at the store until Christmas Eve. Walters indicated that this was a great service that provided a suitable solution for customers who wanted to store their presents until the appropriate time, which evidently pleased customers.
Franz remarked that giving real-life illustrations is difficult since centering on the customer is not just a business strategy but more importantly a lifestyle. “It’s strategic,” Franz added. “It’s proactive. It’s co-creation.
It’s long-term. It’s relationships. It’s omnichannel. It’s enterprise-wide; it’s not simply individual heroic efforts. This culture has been constructed with intention to be as it is.
Franz believes that a customer-oriented focus permeates the day-to-day work of the company and is reflected in every action an employee takes, not just in situations when a customer is present.
How to Become Customer-Centric
In our past, tackling this problem effectively necessitates a focused attempt on three different levels.
- First, a customer-centric leadership structure must ultimately report to the chief executive. It should be designed to stimulate cross-silo activity and collaboration.
- Second, leaders must commit to serving as role models to deliver customer-experience goals to frontline workers. They must refine and reinforce those goals over the long term.
- Finally, having the correct metrics and incentives is critical for aligning typically siloed units into effective cross-functional teams.
1. Executive Oversight at Customer-centric Organizations
Customer satisfaction must be upheld at all costs, your customer experience team needs support from higher-ups to stay aware and flexible to the frequently fluctuating political and social environment. The responsibility can no longer be solely placed on one section.
All components of an organization that puts customers first should strive to deliver positive customer encounters. The chief executive must take direct control of the customer-experience initiatives due to the high degree of integration.
Let us envision a business that has a map of the customer experience that features the following areas: marketing, sales, operations, and technical assistance. The marketing team creates the leads. The sales team makes the sale. The operations team keeps things running. The technical support follows up on any issues. Nothing new there.
Let us examine how these teams influence the purchaser’s experience. The link between marketing and sales to conversion is clear.
Marketing draws them in, sales seal the conversion. But what about the other two. Operations and technical aid are still relevant components of the purchaser’s experience and thus should be included in the mapping.
The operations group ensures that everything functions properly, so that the client seldom runs into a problem.
This gives them a favorable opinion of the brand, product, or service. The outlook being optimistic may cause them to stay aboard and promote the company to other individuals, which can create leads for free.
The technical support team is integral to the customer’s experience. They are the ones who give answers to the customer’s queries, problems, or demands for product/service improvements.
Now is the perfect moment for the organization to make available technical marketing, upselling, or advice to the purchaser. That’s a lead generated from an already existing customer.
In a normal company structure, every one of these compartments would have a distinct executive in charge of it. The strategies employed by each silo would be separate.
For example:
- Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) or President for the sales and marketing silos
- Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the operations silo
- Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for the technical support silo.
In a customer-centered organization, that just doesn’t work. Examining the journey of the individual customer is necessary for personalized customer lifecycle mapping.
Someone needs to comprehend and decide what the entire customer experience must entail from the very first contact with them all the way through to any support they may need after they have purchased a product. The CEO must be directly involved in this type of decision-making process, necessitating a plan that spans different divisions.
2. Modeling and Reinforcing Customer Customization and Personalization
Leadership in a customer-centric organization must demonstrate the same behaviors that they expect from their staff. Constructing an enjoyable experience for clients requires the whole group operating as a smoothly functioning unit.
Those in the line of duty can quickly forget what the organization is seeking to do and accomplish without frequently being reminded. They are focused on delivering help or services in a swift, economical, and productive way.
These are all critical elements of the customer experience. Leadership has an overall perspective of the entire customer journey and can establish the support essential to keeping customer-experience objectives in the forefront.
Tending to customers’ queries or worries promptly could be all that is needed. A leader who declines to set aside a part of their duties and allot some of their time to attend to customer needs shows their employees that they don’t have to do the same.
Alternatively, if a worker inquires their boss for assistance on a customer concern, the superior could suspend some of their other obligations in order to address the difficulty immediately.
The customer experience goes beyond just what the customer perceives; it also takes into account how long it takes to meet their requirements.
Illustrating the customer-oriented attitude of the company, a manager who is ready to inconvenience themselves in order to meet a customer’s requirement shows the staff how vital the customer experience is.
Leaders should begin with showing and advocating for changes in the client’s experience, in order to guarantee the delivery of a standardized approach and methodology. This could entail supplying tuition, seminars, or tutelage for managers as they put into practice novel tactics.
3. Evaluating and Incentivizing Personalized Customer Experiences
Defining measurements and rewards is an essential part of the process for managing client life cycles. These are the motivating factors for adjusting and enhancing your customer journey mapping.
Customer Customization and Personalization Metrics
Metrics ensure that goals are being met. The measurements you decide on will be impacted by your understanding of your patrons, the tactics that have been successful previously, and the aspirations of your organization. Not sure where to start? According to Forbes, these are the best metrics to use for customer experience initiatives:
- Net Promoter Score
- Sales
- Customer Loyalty
- Customer Engagement
- Customer Retention
- Employee Satisfaction
- Customer Effort Score
- Customer Acquisition
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Customer Satisfaction
- Churn Rate
- Average Time Resolution
- First Contact Resolution
- Visitor Intent
- Task Completion
- Stock Price
- Contact Volume by Channel
- Social Listening
- Referral Rate
- Cart Abandonment Rate
Putting an emphasis on customer relationship management is an effective way to improve your marketing.
This involves monitoring measures such as customer involvement, customer faithfulness, and the worth of a customer over the entirety of their relationship with the business. These measurements aid in concentrating your customer journey mapping on strengthening customer devotion while making a purchase.
It is particularly important to make sure your customers receive what they need when they require your product or service infrequently. In the realm of information technology, one might buy a digital service and then allow it to execute its intended purpose.
The customer won’t need to contemplate the software unless something doesn’t go according to plan. That’s a good thing for the customer. It keeps them satisfied. Sounds great, right?
However, then consider how that same customer could likely endorse your digital service…but may not be able to recall your company’s name. They certainly won’t think of procuring any other services from you in the future, mostly because they had forgotten that you even existed.
They had no further contact with you after their transaction concluded so they have no idea who to recommend or whom to do business with. This is the reason why customizing customer interaction and devotion are so significant.
Some Challenges of Being Customer-Centric
Stephanie Thum, who is the founding principal of Practical CX and is certified in CCXP, encouraged people to observe the government’s attempt to create excellent customer experience when researching the difficulties of integrating customer-orientation.
She described the challenging dichotomy government agencies confront of balancing their status as a government agency against their clients’ demands and anticipations. “The two aren’t always in sync.”
According to Franz, some other challenges to becoming customer-centric include:
- Not deliberately designing a customer-centric culture and making customer-centricity the foundation of the business
- Assuming that it’s tactical, that it’s what this department does or how a message is sent, without having it woven through the fabric of the business
- Assuming that it’s the same thing as being customer-focused. It is not, Franz said.
Walters expressed that creating products may require a long time frame, possibly many years, and it can be a challenge to suddenly slow down development if customers request a specific item to be added.
She went on to state that this is able to take place if the business is devoted to putting the client first. If you don’t set a clear definition of success, it’s simple to sense that an individual’s priorities can frequently change. Realizing what accomplishment resembles and how to quantify it is essential.
The Advantages of Being Customer-Centric
In a customer-oriented company, customers feel like they are being taken seriously and are being given individualized attention, which they are often enticed to discuss with others, states Walters.
Warby Parker revolutionized the eye care business by placing emphasis on customer satisfaction and creating a more favorable environment for them. Their customers told others, and it grew from there. Walters also expressed that this is true for all other companies who have disrupted the past two decades relying heavily on customer experience.
The customer was the main focus in their decisions, and they created experiences that could be shared rather than concentrating on creating products and then attempting to find customers.
Franz mentioned that when the business focuses on the customers, clients can get a sense of it.
They understand the importance of their presence; they understand that you are hearing them; they are aware of how you are managing issues and providing worth. By providing customers with something of worth, you are also adding worth to the business. She stated that when this occurs, you are taking strides towards constructing more enduring connections with your patrons.
Businesses that prioritize the customer put a high emphasis on constancy and making sure that the same level of service is always provided.
Clients can anticipate the services these companies offer due to the brand guarantee they have heard or experienced. According to Franz, having a consistent behaviour helps to create trust, which is a key part of any relationship.
Franz expressed that businesses that prioritize the customer gain the advantage of innovation as well.
This advantage brings together the commercial and the personal components of this narrative. Customers provide feedback. Businesses listen, co-create and innovate to solve customer problems.
Firms that are devoted to their customers experience growth as a result of innovating solutions to meet unmet needs and tackle issues. According to Franz, doing this will draw in prospective buyers who did not know this was a problem or may come to realize it later. Solving new issues leads to the obtaining of new clients which translates to growth.
According to Franz, other benefits of becoming customer-centric include:
- Increased retention and CLV: Customers want to continue to do business with brands that listen to them, care about them, solve their problems, and create value for them
- Increased loyalty: Not only do customers stay, but they buy more, spend more, etc.; customer-centric organizations focus on journeys, not just on touch points, which means that they focus on relationships, not transactions.
- Increased referrals: All of that customer love leads to a supplemental marketing and sales force (your customers) that can’t wait to advocate for your brand.
- Reduced costs: When brands listen to customers and use that feedback to make improvements, they realize operational efficiencies through process improvements and more.
- Increased revenue: It’s easier to sell products when they solve problems for your customers, and they solve problems because you took the time to understand customers.
Conclusion
In order to become a customer-centered organization, an organization must:
- have executive leadership that promotes cross-silo activities related to the customer experience
- have leaders committed to modeling behaviors that deliver customer-experience goals to frontline workers
- and have the correct metrics and incentives for optimizing the customer lifecycle
0 comments