“A customer culture is as fundamental to your business as breathing is to living. It is the life force of your business” ~ Dr Linden R. Brown
As a sales leader, I cannot understand the lack of focus on customer centricity. The evidence is all around us. Brands that are doing incredibly well share the same belief that growth is only achieved by doing what’s best for the customer at all times. Companies want customer loyalty, business, and attention, yet, many do very little to earn that privilege.
Customer -Centricity Defined.
Customer-centricity is defined as an exceptional customer experience. It starts before the sale and continues after the sale. Done well, it generates customer loyalty, repeat business, brand elevation, and profits.
Customer-centricity is the belief that the organization reason of being and its success lie on the following:
1. Better Customer insight: An elevated inbound understanding of customer wants/needs.
2. Superior value proposition: The internal process of using the gather insight to create a value-proposition that mee/exceed customer demand.
3. Delightful customer experience: an outbound action that delivers on its value –proposition promises.
Customer-centricity is an internal culture of excellence that drives all cross-functional teams to work as one unit of collection, transformation, and delivery of customer excellence. It’s reflected in its belief, communication, action, and responsibility. Customer-centricity culture is the product of leadership belief on putting the customer first and at the center of what the company does.
When, it comes to choosing between what right for the company and what’s right for the customer, the answer is always “Do what’s right for the customer.”
Customer-centricity is not common despite CEOs declaration “We are customer-centric.” A good example of customer-centricity is brands like Ritz-Carlton, Apple, Singapore Airlines and Disney.
It is not limited to excellent customer service. It means putting your customer needs and wants at the core of your business, starting from the awareness stage, through the purchasing process and finally, through the post-purchase process.
Deloitte and Touche found that customer-centric companies were 60% more profitable than companies who are less focused on their customers.
According to an article by CMO.com. 90% of marketers believe that customer individualization is key to a positive response.
63% of CEOs think that rallying their organization around customer –centricity as a top priority.
According to CEB, 90% of surveyed customers attest that customer service agents fail to answer 50% on their questions.
12% of B2B marketers surveyed validated that their functional teams ( R&D teams, product development, operations, IT) were aligned with the organization customer experience strategy.
Science or Art?
Imagine, a world where the customer only pays if he is delighted with the service rendered. Settles just after approving the quality of the product/service. If that was the norm! What level of standards, attention to detail, and inspection would one provide before deploying consumers product?
Rushing a product to the market, without thorough inspection, care and genuine concern for the well-being of the customer tarnish good brands name. A good dose of paranoia and attention make a positive lasting difference.
I am always amazed by the quality of work, due diligence and attention to details great artists put into their practice. It seems as every single product created is imbued with their pride, dignity, and heat signature. Why can’t we all set in the same effort, care, and pride to create better products, better conversations and better customer experience in everything we do?
It takes resources, R&D, energy, time, innovation, and ingenuity to create great products. Surprisingly, it takes almost the same effort, energy, time and resources to synthesize below par products. Studies have shown that product failures are due to anecdotal tests on safety, no market demand (Segway) and product fail short of claim and get bashed (Microsoft Windows Vista). Last year was cringe-worthy of manufacture gaffes, ranging from Toyota product recalls to Volkswagen allegations of cheating emissions tests, leading these giants brands to scramble to apologize and contain PR damage.
Six Sigma reduces manufacturing defects. However, integrity, attention to details, education and care creates customer satisfaction and loyalty post-sales. The difference is the focus embedded in every single step making the product.
“To achieve consistently terrific customer service, you must hire wonderful people who believe in your company’s goals, habitually do better than the norm and who will love their jobs; make sure that their ideas and opinions are heard and respected; then give them the freedom to help and solve problems for your customers. Rather than providing rules or scripts, you should ask them to treat the customer as they themselves would like to be treated — which is surely the highest standard” ~ Richard Branson
Imagine a company that tells its customers, “take my product, test it and settles your bill only when you are 100% satisfied with the outcome.” Would you buy from such company? How often?
Does Price Matters?
Many great companies become global brands because their business model revolves around customer-centricity. People want to buy from companies they trust and believe in. Companies that show character, dignity, and pride in everything they do, companies that invest in their employee’s, communities, and customers well-being. People buy Apple products because they believe in the brand quality, purpose, and mission. No one buys Nike because of price; you buy Nike because of its brand and perceived quality. These brands have built reputations beyond reproach, and when things go wrong, they get fixed quickly.
Amazon is a good example; it focuses on simplicity, speed, value, and reliability. Apple created a superior product, that looks good, feels good and provide an incredible value to its customer. Zappos is an organization that builds its brand around the simple philosophy of “to provide the best customer service possible.” Zappos rewards its employees for achieving customer excellence, and customers reward Zappos with their loyalty and recurring purchases.
“Customer service shouldn’t be a department; it should be the entire company” ~ Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos
Explosive growth happens only when customer-centricity is center to the company business model, and when every employee becomes a fanatic believer in its power and magic and act accordingly in every decision made. Customer centricity drive revenue and long-term growth. Therefore, the “CCO” Chief Customer Officer position should be as important as the Chief Financial Officer “CFO.”
www.Pixabay.com
Major Fortune 500s face significant problems and limitations of varying severity that stem primarily from lack of customer-centricity and corporate negligence. We become accustomed and almost immune to the adverse corporate news. The cost of fixes, buybacks is often staggering, but the reputational damage is sometimes impossible to repair.
Common reasons that hurt brands.
- Periods of rapid growth and expansion followed with significant product recalls.
- Inability to replace the defective products promptly due to a surge in returns and an acute shortage of replacements.
- An absence of supporting infrastructure. Distribution channel, service facility, trained specialists, creating chronic delays and customer frustration.
- A lack of technological standardization. Quality control below standard, creating customer’s dissatisfaction.
- Customer confusion. Ranging from technological variations to internal manufacturing dissimilarities.
- Erratic product quality. Product defect and poor quality control. Resulting in a tsunami of customer complaint and brand destruction.
The key is to focus on making happy customers by building trusted relationships while thinking long-term. Great brands focus on the value they bring to the market, the profit is often a by-product of customer-centricity. Happy customers create profitable businesses, contribute to a healthy environment, promote satisfied employees and produce very wealthy CEOs.
The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer ~ Jeff Bezos,
Brands like Zappos, Amazon, and Apple are known to be customer-centric, their employees are passionate to make every buying experience memorable, and their success is based on the following core values.
- Every employee is committed to delivering an exceptional customer experience at all times passionately. Everyone is aware that his or her success depends on client perception and belief. There are no silos within the company; data is freely shared to understand consumer behaviors, insight, and feedback to build a future around customers needs and wants.
- Every product and service is created conceptually with the customer in mind first. Customer feedback is viewed as a gold mine of valuable insight and market subliminal needs.
- Every product and service is created to cement customer relationship, build tribes of fans that believe in the brand and promote it subliminally.
- Every customer feedback matters, data is analyzed, plans and strategy modified to meet market evolving standards.
Customer-centricity is a win-win formula, it is a philosophy and a discipline, that governs brand reputation in this digital world. It is a corporate survival mandate and the essence of a job well done.
Technological barriers have been broken down. Geographic barriers are all but nonexistent. But what remains are the relationships that companies have-or don’t have- with their customers ~ Peter Fader
To think of it, it is every CEO legacy. It is a corporate culture that encourages its employees to do what’s right. There is no better feeling than selling products free of defects that the customer raves about. We are all consumers and producers, and we can contribute universally to standardized customer-excellence.
Conclusion
CEOs who are customer-centric and employee-centric dance to work. They love what they do, they lead by example and spread their enthusiasm downward. They are passionate about their work, and they spend every moment of the day trying to improve their customer’s lives as well as their employees and shareholders. They love to make a positive difference, by empowering their employees to make the right decisions through the application of a sound customer-centricity doctrine.
The best brands are entrepreneurial at heart; they do not pretend to care, they genuinely care. Customer centricity requires leadership and empowerment in decision making at all level. It works best when the CEO and the committee board empower employees decisions making and support them fully.
It is simple common sense and wisdom. It pays high returns and creates true hardcore obsessed fans and employees.
Your voice, insights comments are unique! If the subject is of interest to you, feel free to add value and help your LinkedIn tribe 🙂
Be social! share with your followers!
Picture source: pixabay.com