Implementing customer centricity in certain departments such as sales and customer service can be difficult; however, these employees serve as the first line of defense for your company when engaging customers and will shape how interactions take place with them.
Offering customers an unforgettable customer experience will lead to increased retention and loyalty, leading to higher profit margins in turn.
1. Focus on the customer
Implementing a customer-centric business strategy may take time and energy, but its payoff for both your company and customers makes the investment worthwhile.
Customer-centric companies are founded upon the premise that all aspects of their business – business model, products and services – should revolve around providing customer value. To truly become customer centric companies, every employee should understand who customers are and their desires – including engineering, product development and marketing teams as well as managers and frontline employees.
This may involve creating new core values that all members of an organization can rally behind, as well as having a central hub for storing and organizing customer information and data; customer relationship management (CRM) systems can be an excellent tool to accomplish this.
Some organizations take it one step further by mandating that all employees interact directly with customers on an ongoing basis, giving each an opportunity to gain first-hand customer interaction experience they can share among employees, as well as ways they can improve themselves and the overall customer experience. Chargebacks 911 implemented such a policy and discovered their technical service and support staff could accurately identify customer business goals, leading them to provide more accurate recommendations that increased customer satisfaction and satisfaction levels.
2. Build a culture of customer service
Customers-first companies take a different approach. While sales-driven businesses don’t place much importance on customer service, customer-centric organizations make customer care part of their culture and establish it as a core value within the organization.
Building a customer-centric culture means getting everyone on board with the new approach. To set an example, add customer-centric components into employee onboarding and training so they feel involved from day one of your customer-focused journey. Share updates and success stories throughout your organization so all feel like part of it all!
An effective customer service team is essential to the success of any customer-centric business strategy. By placing customers at the heart of what you do, it becomes necessary to develop a support group capable of quickly solving customer issues.
Some companies take it one step further and require every employee to engage with customers directly, providing employees with firsthand insight into what customers experience, which in turn may spark ideas on how to improve it and also act as a morale boost for teams.
3. Create a customer-centric website
One effective way of being customer centric is through developing a website that speaks directly to customers, providing information that shows how your products or services will make their lives simpler, as well as using language and tone consistent with your brand image and values.
Personalization is another essential feature of an effective customer-focused website, and when executed well it can increase sales and brand loyalty while making it difficult for competitors to duplicate your strategy.
Customer-centric websites should go beyond personalized messaging to focus on segmentation as this will allow businesses to focus their efforts on their most valuable customers and avoid allocating resources towards unprofitable customer segments.
Trader Joe’s is an excellent example of a company using customer-centric strategies, consistently scoring highest in customer satisfaction surveys because they focus on satisfying each individual customer and offer them a great shopping experience with variety in products, pricing options and price points.
4. Create a customer-centric marketing strategy
Implementing a customer-focused marketing strategy takes time and dedication from businesses, but can pay dividends in terms of standing out in the marketplace and driving brand growth. To truly be customer centric means having an in-depth knowledge of customer needs and expectations through conducting market research or creating targeted campaigns.
Customer-centric marketing may also involve personalizing content based on customer data. This can help connect with customers and make them feel valued; however, you should be wary not to overdo this technique as overdoing it could make you appear invasive and creepy.
Implementing a customer-centric business strategy is vital in today’s highly competitive marketplace. By prioritizing customers first, you can foster long-term loyalty while building trust among potential clients. And with so many people using review sites such as Yelp or social media to discover businesses, being customer centric has never been more crucial! So get planning your customer-centric marketing plan right away!
5. Implement a customer-centric sales strategy
Customer-focused strategies can bring many unexpected benefits that are hard to quantify in dollars; yet, they may help your brand generate new revenue streams that are quantifiable.
For instance, having front-line field technicians trained to assist customers beyond typical service can position your product as a solution to unexpected challenges that they might not even recognize themselves; providing this additional value can drive referrals and boost lifetime customer values.
Implementing a customer-centric sales strategy requires your team to move away from traditional methods of product promotion and focus on building meaningful relationships instead. A customer-centric selling model involves asking appropriate questions to identify pain points and provide exceptional experiences that increase win rates, retention rates and foster loyalty with customers.
