The heart of every business is its customers. Customer-centric is a policy in which businesses place the utmost value on customers’ needs and build and foster a good relationship. It aims to ensure a fulfilling event for customers and promote a long-lasting relationship between customers’ business owners.
Businesses thrive due to customer’s patronage, and continuous patronage depends on their satisfaction. Incorporating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with deliberate customer-centric measures provides you with vital information that you may need to understand the customer’s needs and how you can please them.
You can gather accurate data with the help of reporting software that may be beneficial to you. The collection of customers’ data cannot be overemphasized as it serves as the foundation for customer analytics. Some of the importance of the collection of customers data includes :
- Enables you to design a better product: You can have a fair idea of what your customers need based on the information gathered using reporting software tools. Use this information to design your products to suit the needs of your clients.
- To help boost your conversions: Once you understand customer’s buying patterns and interests, you can structure your business in a way that increases conversion from customers and visitors alike.
- It helps you attract new customers since you already have an idea of their expectations: Customer data allows you to access critical information, which includes the customer’s expectations and desire for how a particular product should be. Such information is vital as they would come in handy when designing subsequent products.
- It helps you identify customer’s value based on how much they spend.
- Provides better communication with customers
- It helps recognizes opportunities that can enable you to develop and create products for your biggest customers
One of the reliable ways of maintaining or boosting business earnings is by developing a system where customer satisfaction is key. Based on verifiable research findings, more customer-centric companies are more efficient and profitable than companies that are not.
For this reason, some businesses continue to commit resources to see to the development of a better customer-centric approach to their business. Interestingly, more companies are beginning
Challenges of companies seeking to adopt a customer-centric approach to their business
In the past, customers were only limited to only a handful of brands to choose from. Today, the business space is far more open and competitive, leaving the average customer to be spoiled for choice.
During the late nineties, the economic meltdown became a catalyst for brands to develop and improve their customer-centric approach to business. The move was crucial because customers now had higher bargaining power, and the competition for market share by rival brands was intense.
Every customer wants to be valued and respected regardless of their spending power. However, it is not surprising that businesses that have maintained their relevance are those that have a good customer-centric approach to their business.
Companies that offer great service coupled with excellent customer service are more likely to stay longer in business than those who do not.
The advent of social media as a tool for marketing has further deepened the business space making it easier for customers to have an array of choices to pick from.
With the level of competition among brands to outdo each other, more brands turn to be a more customer-centric organization to stay relevant.
However, companies are faced with daunting issues in their bid to adopt a customer-centric approach to their business. Some barriers a business may face in becoming a customer-centric organization includes the following:
The customer-centric illusion: Many business owners and managers have the illusion that their business is customer-centric when, in real terms, they are far from it. Having a misplaced perception about how your customers view your business can hamper your business’s growth.
Placing more emphasis on how to sell your products: One mistake some organizations make is focusing too much on selling their products to the customers and neglecting the customer’s needs. It is expected that every business strategy of selling a product should be tailored to the customer’s perspective. By so doing, the customer’s needs would be taken into consideration.
Organizational silos that prevent data sharing from having a clearer picture of the client: This has remained a lingering challenge for many organizations. Linking of information across departments greatly affects their ability to implement a customer-centric approach to their business.
Poor communication channels between the executive, mid-level, and frontline teams. Unfortunately, most managers do not demonstrate the fact that the company is indeed customer-centric.
Transitioning from the status quo to a culture where the business is centered around the customer may be quite challenging for a lot of them.
A problem-solving approach to these challenges
Transitioning to a culture where the customer is king in business requires a shift in business owners’ and employees’ behavior. Implementing customer-centricity should be beyond mere rhetoric for business owners or managers but also demonstrated.
In an environment that truly exhibits customer centricity, all communication channels are geared toward making the customer the business’s focal point.
Going customer-centric: Top strategies you can use
#1. Focus on your customer’s expectations
Anticipating customer’s needs is one vital part of customer-centricity. Your ability to develop products that match your customer’s expectations is crucial to your business’s sustainability. Several companies have been able to utilize this strategy effectively.
The company’s goal is to build processes and create a culture where customers can relieve their experience. The value of the customer in a business cannot be overemphasized. Based on this fact, companies formulating policies that promote customer-centricity and expand their reach by attracting new customers.
A brand that dares to undermine its customers is likely to face the serious backlash that may lead to the company’s crumbling. Every customer-centric organization’s goal is to capture the customer’s data via reporting software tools and use it as a lens in viewing into the minds of their customers.
For example, a customer-centric company can get insights into the wishes of customers regarding their upcoming product. The company can then decide to design their product to suit the expectations and desires of their customers.
#2. Companies must concentrate on fostering a relationship that encourages customer satisfaction and fulfillment
The end goal of every business relationship should be the satisfaction of the customer. Once a consumer can derive maximum satisfaction from a product, the company has successfully built a potential long-lasting relationship with the customer.
#3. Personalize the customer experience
As part of the customer-centric strategy, organizations can incorporate a personal appeal regarding the relationship with their customers. Statistics show that customers derive satisfaction when businesses are on a confidential level, such as personalized messages, items to them based on prior purchases, etc.
For this reason, you must separate your customers into segments according to the frequency or volume of purchases and transactions they have with the company. Personalized messages are then sent to each customer based on the group they fall into.
Companies can also personalize consumer experience by sending messages to customers who haven’t engaged with the company. Such a move would help stimulate the customer’s interest to once again transact with the organization.
#4. Organizations must request and accommodate feedbacks
Every customer-centric strategy always revolves around the customer. Organizations must solicit feedback from their customers to enable them to develop a robust feedback mechanism. This feedback also aims to help organizations to improve on how best they serve their customers.
Brands can adopt several measures to help them generate feedback based on their type of services. They can also make use of reporting software to collect data and also provide insights. Well planned feedback channels provide the opportunity for companies to ascertain how well they are faring on their customer-centric approach.
#5. Organizations should evolve with their customers.
A customer-centric strategy is never a one-off approach.
Organizations must recognize that as time goes on, the expectations of their customers would begin to change. As an organization that embraces customer-centricity, the company should evolve with the ever-changing preferences of their clients.
Several other factors play a major role in influencing customer expectations. The ability of a brand to identify these factors with the latest reporting software tools and develop measures to respond positively to the customer’s expectations is very vital.
How to assess the success rate of a customer-centric organization
Measuring the success rate of a customer-centric organization is largely hinged on three significant metrics. They include the following:
1. Churn rate
Churn rate is the frequency at which businesses lose their customers. The churn rate is calculated by dividing the number of customers who left in the last twelve months by the total number of customers under the same period.
An organization can maintain its profitability level by reducing its churn rate. Attracting new customers while losing old ones might not be an effective strategy to adopt as a business. Increasing customer retention rates can significantly boost your profit margins and also lead to massive growth.
While it is not guaranteed that an organization can retain all its customers, organizations must ensure they promote a policy that encourages customer retention.
2. Customer Lifetime Value
CVL to assess the amount of money a customer provides to your business while they are still customers. CVL helps to provide a better understanding of why businesses must invest in retaining their customers. You can calculate the CVL by adding up the total revenue received multiplied by the duration of the business relationship between both parties.
3.Net Promoter score
One very vital aspect of measuring the customer-centricity success rate is the Net Promoter Score(NPV). It simply measures the level of satisfaction customers derive from your product or services. Results are measured based on predefined criteria, including the following i) Promoters (9-10): These people are very satisfied with your products or services. They are likely to give favorable reviews about your company.
ii)Passive (7-8): Customers who fall under this score are not entirely loyal. They may choose to jump ship once they discover a better product than yours.
iii)Detractors( 0-6) As the name suggests, these customers are not impressed with your product and are likely to give your company bad reviews.
Keeping your customers happy by implementing effective customer-centricity is the best way to maintain a good NPV score.
Five ways organizations can engage with their customers.
Companies that emphasize the need for customers’ interests to be at the center of every important business decision would certainly continue to stay relevant and profitable. The communication channels between organizations and customers must be efficient and seamless if customer-centricity goals are to be achieved. The following are five ways companies can engage their customers.
- Via Telephone, email, or live chat: Companies should endeavor to have an easily accessible communication platform. Customers can decide to relay their complaints or feedback through any of these mediums.
- Adopting the use of reporting software tools: The customer service unit of any company is usually seen as the company’s face. As a result, companies can adopt reporting software to collate information and provide feedback to customers when the need arises.
- In-person meetings with customers: Aside from the other means of engaging with customers, inviting customers to events and other functions can serve as an opportunity for organizations to meet with customers and interact better with them. While direct meeting with a customer may be considered old-fashioned, it still serves to know the customer further and create a tremendous customer experience.
It is a known fact that no business can exist without the customers. Putting your customers’ needs above every other thing is an important component of building a robust relationship with your customers. Combining Customer Relationship Management(CRM) and other customer-friendly techniques would certainly put your organization on the path of growth and sustainability. You can visit our website for more vital information you need.