As the country continues to recover from the current economic downturn, it is important that businesses, whether small, medium or large, do things differently to remain in business over the long-run. In today’s competitive and fast-changing business environment, it is not enough to offer a good product or service. You need to stand out from competition and create a lasting impression on your customers. This implies it is necessary to disrupt your market by delivering value that goes beyond their expectations. But how do you do that? How do you innovate and differentiate yourself from your competitors? How do you create loyal and satisfied customers who will spread the word about your business and brand? Keeping a customer-centric focus is the answer.
What is customer-centricity?
Customer-centricity is not just strategy but a mindset that puts the customer at the centre of everything you do. Whether in the development of products or services or our internal processes that service the customer, the customer has to be at the centre of it. This means understanding your customers’ needs, wants, preferences and pain points, and designing your products, services, processes and interactions around those needs.
By this, you will be creating a seamless and personalised customer experience that delights them at every touchpoint while listening to their feedback and acting on it. It also means measuring your success by how well you solve their problems and enhance their lives – not just by your profitability metrics like Return on Equity (RoE). In the long-run, only businesses with a customer-centric approach and culture will be sustainable.
Why is it important?
Customer-centricity is important because it provides a competitive edge and sustainable advantage in any market. Focusing on your customers can:
Enhance your reputation and brand image: Customers who are happy with your brand are more likely to share their stories and opinions with others, both online and offline. This generates positive word-of-mouth and social proof for your brand, increasing your visibility and credibility in your market.
Secondly, being customer-centric will set you apart from your competitors as you innovate better by learning from customer feedback. Customers are the best source of ideas for improving your products and services. By listening to their needs and feedback, you can identify gaps and opportunities in your market and create solutions to address them.
You can also tailor your offerings to different segments and niches, creating a unique value proposition for each customer. Innovation in products and services is therefore a result of aligning the business goals with customer expectations, and delivering solutions that solve customer problems, enhance customer experiences and create customer delight.
Thirdly, focusing on your customers can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customers who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to stay with you, buy more from you, and recommend you to others. There is a direct correlation between customer loyalty and long-run profitability. This is achieved through reduced costs and increased efficiency. Customers who have a positive experience with your brand are less likely to complain or switch to competitors. This reduces the costs of customer service, marketing and acquisition. Additionally, by aligning your processes and systems with your customers’ expectations, you can eliminate waste and optimise your operations.
How do you develop a customer-centric business?
Developing a customer-centric business is not a one-time project or a quick-fix. It is a long-term commitment and cultural shift that requires the involvement of everyone in your organisation. It involves a plethora of activities and actions which may vary with industry, size of the business and stage of its development. However, a few things are generic irrespective of these factors.
First, know your customers and how they interact with your organisation. This means define your customer segments: you cannot serve all customers equally well. You need to segment your customers based on their characteristics, behaviours, needs and preferences, and prioritise the ones that are most valuable and profitable for your business.
You can achieve this by creating customer personas. Customer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers that help you understand them better. They include demographic information, goals, motivations, challenges, preferences and expectations. You can use personas to guide your product development, marketing, sales and service strategies.
Develop your customer journey to show how you interact with your customers. A customer journey map is a visual tool that shows how customers interact with your brand across different channels and stages of their lifecycle. It helps you identify the key touchpoints, pain points, emotions and opportunities for improvement in your customer experience.
The second critical part is collection and use of relevant customer data. Data is the fuel for customer-centricity. You need to collect data from various sources – such as surveys, reviews, feedback forms, social media, web analytics, CRM systems, etc. – and analyse it to gain insights into your customers’ behaviour, preferences, satisfaction, loyalty, etc. You obtain critical customer feedback through this process. Implement the resultant feedback you get from your customers. Customer feedback is essential for improving your products, services, processes and interactions.
Another critical action is to empower your employees. Your employees interact with your customers directly or indirectly every day. They can make or break your customer experience. You need to empower them with the right tools, training, information, incentives and autonomy to serve your customers effectively and efficiently. Investing in your employees is as critical as any other investment you make in your business.
Finally, monitor and measure your performance on a regular basis. You need to track and evaluate how well you are delivering value to your customers and meeting their expectations. You need to define key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect your customer-centric goals and objectives – such as customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), net promoter scores (NPS), net satisfaction scores (NSS), among others – and monitor them regularly.
Customer-centricity is a necessity and competitive advantage in today’s market. By keeping a customer-centric focus, you can disrupt your market and create loyal and happy customers who drive your growth and success for a long time. The growth and sustainability of your business is dependent on how customer-centric you are, as you’re not the only one providing your product or service.
Kweku is Manager-Business and Commercial Banking, Stanbic Bank
