Is Your Business Customer-Centric?

A customer-centric businesses place customer experience as their top priority. By being customer-centric, your business will be able to achieve customer retention, brand loyalty boost, and an increase in revenue. 

What Does It Mean to Be Customer-Centric?

Customer-centric is defined as an organizational mindset that makes customers the key focus of the business. Once customers are first introduced to your brand at the time they make a purchase, you have to build systems that facilitate positive customer experiences consistently.

Being customer-centric goes beyond being polite and delivering on what you promise. It is nurturing a company culture that works to satisfy and impress customers. For customer-centric businesses, all decisions are centered on how they will affect the consumer experience.

Why Should Businesses Be Customer-Centric?

Customers have always been an important part of any business strategy. In the modern digital-first environment, customer-centricity has undeniably become even more so important for any business.

Technology increases the competition for user attention, and a customer-centric approach can help you stand out among potential customers and existing customers. This is especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, which limits face-to-face interactions between companies and customers.

The Benefits of Being Customer-Centric for Businesses

1. It can help you build brand loyalty.

If you don’t put the customer’s experience as a top priority, their engagement will decrease and instead turn to your competitors. In contrast, a customer-centric approach allows you to connect with customers and build brand loyalty. 

According to the statistics compiled from GetVoIP, 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them; customers who rate the company as providing a good customer experience are 34% more likely to buy more and 37% more likely to recommend the company, and 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

2. It can improve the results of your advertising campaigns.

A customer-centric approach makes your customers enthusiastic about your brand, gives you insight into their preferences and needs, and allows you to better serve them and target marketing activities more effectively.

Your marketing efforts will be more relevant when you connect with customers and understand their needs. This allows you to focus your spending on ads that resonate with customers, research and develop topics that interest them, and effectively engage potential customers.

3. It protects your image.

Potential customers are actively looking for product and service reviews from real customers. Websites such as Yelp, Google Business, Etsy, and Amazon actively recruit reviews so that their users can understand the reliability of sellers, products, or services. Also, Instagram and YouTube have countless accounts dedicated to reviewing various products and services. 

A customer-centric approach enables you to understand customer needs and respond to their feedback. If the feedback is negative, you can take the initiative to contact them to solve their needs and solve the problem. If you do not address the issues your customers face, you could turn your greatest asset, your customers, into the greatest threat to your company because they convey a negative image of your brand.

How to Be A Customer-Centric Business?

Now that we have all understood why businesses should be customer-centric, it’s time to discuss how to actually be a customer-centric business.

1. Seek feedback from customers and use it to predict their needs. 

There are many ways to understand what your customers are thinking, what they want, and what they want you to do better. For example, you can send follow-up emails one week after delivery or service, asking customers to fill out surveys or leave you comments. To motivate them to take these actions, you can offer discounts. 

If your company is small, you may need to spend time talking in person with your customers via direct messages, phone calls, or video chats on various social media platforms. The detailed feedback you will get from these conversations can help improve your marketing, product development, and customer service.

While it’s great to listen to customers and use their feedback, it’s even better to predict their needs. When you can do this, customers will be attracted to your business because they will feel seen, understood, and valued.

2. Provide first-class customer service.

First-class customer service is not only about sales consultants and customer service teams; it is also related to how easy it is for your customers to get support. If you rely on the traditional 9 to 5 call support model, you still have a lot of room for development in the field of customer-centric customer service.

For example, according to We Are Social, nearly 4 billion people worldwide use social media, so if you can’t let customers easily interact with you on social media or on their smartphones, it’s time to brainstorm ways to achieve this goal. For instance, you can use Messenger on Facebook or your website to get customers the support they need without having to wait on hold.

3. Nurture customers every step of the way.

When someone joins your email list, you will get an excellent opportunity to participate, thereby boosting sales.

Try doing the following:

• Teach subscribers something.

• Add value to their lives.

• Give them a chance to save money.

• Invite them to earn free items through a loyalty program.

• Urge them to connect with your free content.
  
  

You know what your customers like, and if you provide it to them, they will be more inclined to continue reading your email rather than unsubscribe.

After completing the sale, it is also important to nurture customers. If you forget your customers immediately after receiving their money, they may also forget you. Make sure you find a way to thank your customers or potential customers.

How do you make a customer who just bought a car at your dealer happy? Give them a free oil change as a thank you. Or, if someone makes an online purchase, please send them free samples of products they might like or a coupon code to add to your email list. Be creative!