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What Is Customer-Centricity and Why It it Important?
Creating a customer-centric environment allows you to cater your messaging, services and products toward clients' needs and preferences. Providing an exceptional experience for customers can make a brand stand out and lead to stronger retention rates and greater customer loyalty. You can create a more customer-centric culture by implementing these practices into your sales, marketing and product development strategies.
In this article, we review what customer-centricity means, why it's important and ways to be more customer-centric in the workplace.
Customer-centricity is a method many businesses follow that emphasizes the importance of putting the customer first and creating a positive experience for them at all times. When customer-centric businesses make big-picture decisions, they constantly consider the effect it has on their customers.
As technology continues to evolve, there are more ways for companies to connect with customers, such as through phone, email and instant messaging systems. Because it's so easy to reach them, customers often expect companies to be available to support them with any questions or concerns at all times. Customer-centric businesses work to find ways to regularly contact customers and provide them with this support when needed.
Customer centricity is important because fostering a customer-centric environment can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, which results in stronger relationships with customers, higher retention rates and an increase in customer referrals. Providing a positive and one-of-a-kind customer experience allows your company to stand out from others, leading you to acquire and retain more customers.
There may be other organizations that sell similar products. Implementing a customer-centric environment can make customers choose the company you sell for over others, as many customers value a positive experience as much as the product's performance. Creating products that exceed customers' needs, anticipating their wants and offering personalized services are great ways to build a customer-centric culture that makes customers stay loyal to a brand.
There are many different techniques you can apply to encourage and uphold a more customer-centric environment. Common ways you can be more customer-centric in the workplace include:
While getting new customers is important and should be a key part of your sales strategy, another main focus should be on retaining customers. This is typically because acquiring new customers is often more costly than keeping current ones. If you maintain impressive retention rates with satisfied customers, they may recommend products to their own colleagues, which saves you time and money on building and conducting selling and marketing strategies for them.
Ways you can provide a great customer service experience and increase retention rates include:
Training customer support teams to have advanced knowledge of the company's products and services to provide valuable solutions to customers
Adopting technology solutions like instant messaging channels, self-service systems and knowledge bases for customers to access when needed
Rewarding customers for their commitment and loyalty to the company through gift baskets, discounts or account credits
Another way to prove that you're a customer-centric company is to gain valuable input from current customers. This shows them that you care about customers' needs and are doing what you can to improve their experience with you.
You can also use the feedback you receive and apply it toward experiences with new customers. Regularly reviewing the customer feedback you receive allows you to enhance the service you provide customers and show you're putting their needs first.
Ask current customers to submit feedback on the service you provide through surveys. Administer simple surveys that they can quickly fill out and return to you. Prove that you're listening to this feedback by implementing customers' suggestions. You can also offer a rewards program that allows customers to get discounts or special offers if they complete the surveys.
An essential part of the customer experience is how easy it is to contact the support team with any questions, concerns or comments. Make sure you have plenty of resources for customers to reference as well if they're unable to reach the support team. Ways to make it easier for customers to contact the support staff include:
Consider adding several members to the support team to ensure customers wait a reasonable amount of time for help.
Include a resources page with answers to common questions for customers to quickly find and reference when the support team isn't available.
Add a "contact us" page on your website that's simple for customers to locate, so they can send an email or make a call to quickly find their answer.
Since technology is growing and making it easier to contact people from any location, some professionals find it more challenging and unnecessary to see customers in person. Providing an in-person experience to customers can be a unique way to stand out from the competition, who may spend a majority of their time talking on the phone or emailing with customers. Ways to meet with customers in person include:
Hosting seminars to speak on new industry topics and demonstrate the company as a thought-leader
Visiting the clients' office to conduct meetings, discuss potential upgrades or introduce new product lines
Holding events, like conferences or conventions, for industry leaders to network and build additional connections
When you bring on a customer, it's important to show them you'll provide customized and attentive service from start to finish. Implement efforts that show how customers can get the most from the product or service you offer.
One key effort is through an onboarding process that provides an introduction to your product or service and gives customers key descriptions of the product and how to use it to meet their needs or solve any of their individual challenges.
Since all of your customers' needs are typically unique, customize your onboarding process toward each customer. This makes them feel more like individuals, rather than simply customers giving you a profit. Instruct sales representatives to conduct instructional onboarding sessions and to be available when the customer has questions about the new product or service.
To ensure customers' needs are top priority, the entire team should know this and should consider the customers' experience when completing their daily tasks. Make exceeding customer expectations and providing an exemplary service a core value for employees to closely follow. Encourage employees to closely evaluate all products they create and ask themselves if it provides value or support to customers.
You can also motivate any client-facing employees to provide impressive service by implementing reward systems or initiatives. For instance, you can provide bonuses to customers who receive over three positive praises from clients each review period.
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Producing marketing materials focused solely on customers means making them a key part of your marketing messages. Your marketing efforts should focus on attracting new, valuable leads to the company, but it should work to retain current customers or encourage previous customers to continue coming back. Great methods to implement into a customer-centric marketing strategy include:
Creating quality content, like blogs, articles, e-books and white papers, that add value to a customer by answering questions or solving their problems
Building a website that's easy to navigate and locate valuable resources quickly
Advocating for customers by sharing their successes via email newsletters, social media posts or client testimonials
Implementing a customer-centric selling strategy focuses more closely on tailoring your selling methods toward the needs and preferences of current customers. While it's important to communicate with leads and prospective customers, the sales team should also work to support and assist current customers when needed by sharing helpful insights with customers, connecting with clients on social media outlets and speaking at industry events to educate customers on current industry trends and topics.
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About: Andries vanTonder
Over 40 years selfemployed
He is a Serial Entrepreneur, an Enthusiastic supporter of Blockchain Technology and a Cryptocurrency Investor
Find me at my Markethive Profile Page | My Twitter Account | My Instagram Acount | and my Facebook Profile.
