It is no secret that investing in customer service will drive better results for any company but building a customer centric culture within an organisation requires commitment and courage.
If you want to build a customer-centric culture within your business, you will not only need to commit to a strategy that put customers’ needs first but instil them across the entire company. Customers must come first foremost in all decisions. Of course, it comes with its challenges but if you can master this culture… you will find yourself ahead of your competition and it will have a positive impact on your bottom line.
What is customer centricity?
Being customer centric means focusing every aspect of the business on customers needs and interests, where customers long-term success is prioritised over short-term business goals.
A recent roundtable that we have conducted, highlighted some key things to focus on when building a customer-centric culture.
Make customer experience everyone’s responsibility:
For employees that never interact directly with customers, it can be hard for them to put customers first and customer-centric organisations have adopted a practice where everyone within the company spends time in the support queue, in order to help customers together.
Whole company support allows marketing teams to understand how customers perceive the product and practice handling customer objections, and it allows product development teams to hear from the people using the product in order to make improvements. This simple practise goes a long way in increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Invest in customer service:
Companies with a successful customer-centric culture see investment into customer support as a revenue generator. The support team are the people closest to your customers talking to them every day and the better the support team the better the customer experience.
Companies should consider placing a high priority on not only hiring excellent people, but also paying customer support agents more.
Be active in acquiring customer feedback:
Your customers do not care too much about your product or service itself, but they care about what it will help them achieve. How does your product or service make their life and work easier? It is so important to understand the customers point of view and respect the customers interest, and so listening to customer needs is essential.
Go the extra mile:
What sets companies apart from their competition is the extra mile, which often requires the most demanding work. Although it can be challenging, going the extra mile highlights that you really care for your customers.
For B2B organisations to set themselves apart from the competition, they should remember that the business is not just there to support their own customers, but they are supporting their customers customers too!
Recommendations from customers can go a long way in driving new business... and negative feedback travels twice as fast!
The benefits of customer centricity:
There is not necessarily a blueprint for a customer-centric growth strategy, but it goes without saying that investing time and money into this area of an organisation is good for your customers, your employees and your bottom line.
Depending on your industry and market, you may be out-competed by organisations with more money and more people… but you can gain a significant advantage by simply taking good care of your customers.