Getting the right customer-centric approach

Each of us is a customer, so “Customer Centricity” should be a very simple topic to understand. What do you, as a customer, think it means for those you buy from to be customer-centric? To me, it means that they “get” me to the extent that I can easily access and use their offer that helps me do something in my life/business. Just stick to that statement and the gems are there:

• “Easily” generally means without much cost such as burdens of time, worry, effort, and finances.
• “Access and use” generally means both finding the solution that helps me do something and using it to do something (pre-purchase and post-purchase)
• “It helps me do something” usually means that what I buy is a means to an end. I’m just trying to live my life and run my business.

Please note that as a customer, this is about me. Sure, I’d like to provide feedback to my vendors, but usually because I hope it will help me in the future, or at least help a human being not experience the pain that I might have experienced. And this is the fundamental fallacy of most CRM/CEM/NPS/C-Sat/etc. Efforts: Companies tend to ask questions from their perspective, chart the customer journey from the company’s perspective, incentivize employees from the company’s perspective, and so on, NOT from the “customer’s perspective.”

To be customer-centric, companies simply need to see things as customers see them and focus their daily decision-making accordingly, with all other aspirations being secondary to, or within the context of, seeing things as customers see them. customers.

Customer-focused ROI

Why should a company focus on the customer? Because customers enable the money machine. Shareholders leave when customers leave, not the other way around. When companies to line up with customers, they abandon efforts, policies, processes, behaviors, time and costs that do not add value and are useless. And alignment helps customers feel “got” by the company, which leads to organic customer evangelism: retention, portfolio share, positive word of mouth, company growth.

The book endearment signatures (by Sisodia, Sheth & Wolfe) explains how “lovable companies tend to be enduring companies.” To identify signatures of endearment (FoE), the authors asked a broad sample of people which companies they loved, and then worked backwards to identify the distinctive and collective set of core values, policies, and operating attributes of companies. those companies, and so its return on equity: surprising results were obtained. FoE’s list includes the usual suspects, and then some: Amazon, BMW, Caterpillar, Google, Harley Davidson, IDEO, IKEA, JetBlue, Johnson & Johnson, LL Bean, REI, Trader Joe’s, UPS, to name a few. “They actively align the interests of all stakeholder groups, not just balance them…and can do seemingly contradictory things, like pay high wages, charge low prices, and get higher profitability.” Indeed, the financials seal the deal: “Public FoE returned 1,026 percent to investors for the 10 years ending June 30, 2006, compared to 122 percent for the S&P 500—that’s more than a ratio of 8 to 1! Over a 10 Over the one year horizon, FoE outperformed Good to Great companies by a ratio of 3.1 to 1”. While the customer-centric journey for these companies is still underway, they stand out from their peers by seeing things the way customers do and focusing their daily decision-making accordingly.

Don’t bastardize customer service

When the term “Customer Centricity” is used, it is often misused! It is overused in an attempt to gloss over egotistical approaches. Claims of customer centricity are too often expressed from the flawed perspective of companies. Therefore, many people see this as a buzzword, jargon, something fleeting, a misconception. Your business can become customer-centric, but not just for the sake of saying so. This term implies a deep and broad substance. Please don’t say it if it’s not really in the fabric of your culture.

Focusing on the customer is not a way to interact; it is a way of life that must transcend the front line to embed the ripple effect of transfers throughout the internal value chain of the entire company. Family businesses often see this as a necessary way of doing business, but when a business’s management expands, it tends to become self-centered. Salespeople, engineers, accountants, and everyone else in the value chain will only be customer-focused when they see their roles as advocates for what’s important to customers; when they put other aspirations first, they will always be at odds with customers and create waste, mistrust, and ill will. These negatives are not initiated by customers, they are created by people within the company.

Customer centricity is a culture that “prevents” lack of customer value while maximizing customer value. In a customer-centric culture, the well-being of employees and shareholders is pursued within the context of doing the right thing for customers. This is valid for both B2B and B2C. Very few companies have been truly customer focused. But let’s be real: Since YOU are a customer, you know what that should really mean.