What does customer centricity mean to you? For some leaders, it is seen as a Business mindset focused on building strong emotional relationships with customers to drive engagement and boost sales. On the other hand, some perceive it as a guiding philosophy shaping decision-making across an entire organization, ultimately aimed at customer happiness and enhancing customer experience. But regardless of the interpretation, the essence lies in putting a customer at the center of business strategy.

Customer-centric businesses are reported to be 60% more profitable than those that are not.

Deloitte

Yet:

A mere 14% of marketers believe their organizations embrace a customer-centric approach, and only 11% are convinced that their customers share the same opinion.

CMO Council

Given the proven benefit of becoming a customer-centric organization, why does customer-centricity often remain lip service?  

One possible answer lies in the lack of a holistic approach to fostering customer centricity. In this article, we will explore strategies that, when combined, contribute to fostering this mindset. 

Recruit the Right Employees 

When building a customer-centric company, hiring the right people is paramount. An organization that has customer-centricity at its core tends to hire employees with strong communication skills, high levels of empathy, and commitment to improving lives. To build loyalty and trustful relationships, it is wise to ensure that communication is personalized and comes from dedication to delivering a positive customer experience.  

While job-specific skills can be learned over time, changing someone’s personality to fit a customer-focused culture can be a mountain to climb. So, paying attention to the right personal qualities is crucial, rather than just looking at their years of experience or specific hard skills on their resume. 

Ensure Service Consistency 

Companies focusing on service consistency get rewarded with customers’ loyalty.

The statistics show that 86% of customers give up on their preferred brand only after two negative experiences.

Emplifi

This means you do not have much wiggle room to make mistakes when it comes to service delivery.  

Consistency not only boosts customer satisfaction but also conveys to your Audience that they can trust and rely on you. While it does not necessarily mean leaders should not rest at all, in emergencies, it is crucial to stay connected, especially if the task cannot be delegated. So customer feedback is one of the best ways to hear from your clients whether your company is truly customer-centric.

Empathize 

The capacity to identify customer needs, understand the reasons behind these needs, and address them in a timely and efficient manner is specifically called customer empathy. Salesforce’s survey of more than 6,000 customers suggests:

66% of customers expect businesses to understand their preferences and pain points.

Salesforce

Another study reveals:

80% of customers emotionally connect with a brand if their problems are solved.  

Motista

While many brands recognize the role of empathy in their customer relationships, the evidence suggests that their expectations are rarely met.

Only 38% of American customers believe that businesses they engage with acknowledge their needs.  

PwC

The problem with an empathetic approach is that it often ends with marketing. Many companies remain sales-driven and seem to overlook the essential concept that, to build trustful relationships, it is crucial to provide value to customers without expecting immediate returns.  

For example, AstraZeneca, a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company, brings the patient voice at each stage of drug development, going beyond product marketing. This involves considering patients’ needs in the design of clinical trials, ensuring the materials are translated into multiple languages and trial sites are accessible to all participants.  

Instead of looking at what your rivals are already doing, concentrate on the needs of your customers. Identify their fears, desires, emotional struggles, and pains. Then, think of changes you will need to undergo to put your clients’ needs at the core of your business strategies. 

It might presuppose adopting new digital tools to alleviate customer journey from start to finish or involve changes in recruitment policies. You may find yourself building training programs from scratch for your employees, or perhaps achieving customer centricity will only necessitate a minor shift in your company’s culture. 

Pay Attention to Detail 

What differentiates successful businesses is the effort they put in the final 10%. Be it product development or business culture, when you can demonstrate the attention to detail, it shows that you genuinely value your audience. It highlights that customer centricity is no empty phrase for you.  

The definition of positive customer experience might be vague. If you operate in the B2B space, you provide experiences not only to your customers but to their customers, too. Becoming a B2Human business that alleviates each step of their journeys will give you an edge in our highly competitive world. 

Make Experiences Personal 

Treat personal customer data as an asset. The same rule applies as you collect feedback. This information offers valuable insights into customer needs.

56% of customers don’t mind sharing their personal information in exchange for better service.

Salesforce

Another study corroborates this idea:

71% of consumers expect personalization and 76% get disappointed when this need is not met. 

McKinsey

When discussing personalization, I am not just referring to automatically suggesting products based on a customer’s browsing history. It is also about crafting and delivering your message in a way that captures their attention, resonates, or provokes emotions. The point being is that successful personalization makes your consumers feel important and seen.  

To get personalization right, consider implementing technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics. These solutions allow you to tag all your existing content and assess the performance of separate modules. Based on users’ interactions with your assets, you can compose an engaging story that truly connects with individual segments of your target audience. 

Meet Your Audience Where It Is 

Most successful companies recognize that they need to adapt to their customers’ lives, not the other way around. While thinking of bringing value, also make sure customers can easily access it. No matter how helpful, entertaining, and educational your new blog post is, it is of little use if you share it through channels your target audience barely uses.  

If your consumer reaches out to you on LinkedIn, it is smart to address their problem right on the platform, instead of directing them to fill out a lengthy form on your website. If providing customer support service on the social media platform is not possible, smoothly guide your customer to the appropriate channel for seamless transition. 

Collect Customer Feedback 

Customers are not interested in a quarter-inch drill. They simply need a quarter-inch hole. Basically, your audience is looking for solutions to their problems, not your product on its own. Your goal is to ensure that they succeed in achieving their goals.  

Building a customer-centric culture presupposes that a business has a system in place for keeping the line of communication open with its clients. So, when some needs are no longer met, the company can timely rectify customer experience based on their feedback.  

To embrace a customer-centric approach at the organizational level, it is important to grant every employee access to customer insights. Keeping all the valuable data confined to the sales and marketing departments could lead to a shallow perception of the customer. Make sure there are no data silos in your company, different departments align and work together to boost customer loyalty and satisfaction. 

Building a customer-centric company does not happen overnight. It takes time, patience, collaboration, and a holistic approach. The strategies mentioned earlier will guide you in assembling the right marketing teams, fostering collaboration between them, cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with your customers, bringing them genuine value, and delivering services that make their lives easier and more fulfilling.

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Originally Published on Martech Zone: How to Build a Client-Centric Culture