By going the extra mile, a core value of the brand, you are able to build experiences that please time and time again, and this is the priority for your business if you are willing to become a customer-centric company. Without the customer, you’re out of business and it is the fact that customers are the lifeline of any business and upsetting is the last thing you would like to do. Being mindful of this simple yet powerful fact, just keeping it on top of your mind can go a long way toward achieving a customer-centric culture. Brands that take the steps to please the customer in every encounter from in-app copy to email drops and phone calls understand the importance of customer centricity as it is their sincere goal to meet customers’ needs, and if you have the same motivation, you are moving in the right direction.
Businesses are facing many challenges because of ever-rising customer expectations, intensifying competition, greater transparency, reduction in trust and customer loyalty, technological disruptions, management of resources, etc., are all becoming pressure points of businesses. Hence, companies today want to delight customers at every interaction but most of the companies forget that the experience you provide your customers is only as good as the culture you build within the company. In simpler terms, becoming a customer-centric company is an inside job rather than only looking at customers. Being a customer-centric company means more than just offering good customer service and today, being acutely aware of service is more important than ever. Successful companies come and go, but the ones that tend to stay around are customer-centric to the core because in most market sectors, there’s an abundance of suppliers and so if you want to stick around for a long time, you will have to ensure your customers stay loyal to your brand no matter the competitors come up with.
You are investing enough time and effort to create a culture that values both employees and customers and to make your brand recognized, you talk to your customers about what they like about your products and services, and more importantly, what they don't like. You must implement this because customer-centric companies look to deeply understand customer problems and deliver solutions for them. The best customer-centric companies not only put their customers first, but they also design products and services to meet the customers’ needs, and create seamless experiences across the board as studies shows, 88 percent of CEOs are concerned about customer loyalty, realizing that mastery of the customer agenda is essential.
So as a leader, you build and maintain an organization that not only emphasizes customer service but fosters a customer-oriented outlook since it’s the businesses that deliver remarkable customer experiences that are succeeding. Other studies have concluded that customer-centric companies were 60 percent more profitable than companies that weren’t focused on the customer and you should take a note here as 60 percent more profitable could really set your business apart from all your competitors. If businesses don’t prefer to be customer centered, 90 percent of organizations are at risk of becoming irrelevant to their customers unless they learn to adapt their practices much faster in ways that customers value.
Customer-centric companies develop a holistic view of individual customer’s interactions and experiences over the life of their relationship and naturally, a lot of brands claim about being customer-focused. Customer-centricity is a way of doing business that fosters a positive customer experience at every stage of the customer journey and there’s a link between organizations that instill a sense of purpose, build loyal customers, address customer’s needs, etc., were building all these traits leads to their long-term success.
Customer expectations are rising all the time in terms of what they want the product or service to be, how they want it, when they want it, etc., and successful businesses are the ones that manage to create a customer focus throughout the entire customer lifecycle.
