How should companies use these concepts?
Can they actually increase financial results ?
What is the cost of implementing these customer-focused policies?
Is this temporary or is it here to stay?
If you have these and other questions, you've come to th chief vp sales marketing officers email lists right place. We'll discuss and answer them throughout the text.
How to transform a company into a customer centric company?
Having products, services, support, and the entire infrastructure of a customer-centric company doesn't happen overnight.
It is a process. And it requires cultural adaptation, transition and implementation, as well as a change in the company's values so that the customer is always at the center of the actions and decisions taken by a company.
It also depends on how you define the customer. At this point, it is good to ask yourself the following questions:
After all, is it just the existing customer?
Are there any other interested parties?
And the potential and future buyer?
And your customers' customers?
Or your social connections?
Your employees?
Suppliers?
Channel partners?
Journalists?
Public relations, for example, works best if we view journalists as buyers who have a need – to inform their readers or viewers adequately – and thus ensure that their publications thrive and survive.
With the above questions validated, you now know that a customer-centric business goes far beyond your end customer. It involves many people, areas, processes and routines.
In this context, we can highlight some essential points to adapt and transform your company to a 360-degree customer-centric environment. See:
Anticipate the customer's needs, pains and problems;
Collect Customer Feedback;
Be easily accessible;
Meet customers personally;
Provide proactive customer service;
Adopt customer service tools;
Have a vision beyond the final purchase;
Create an integration process between the customer and your company.
The customer-centric business
The customer doesn’t want to see or taste how your company is organized and performs its activities. They want to be seen as a person and want to find what they need to solve their problems and pain points quickly. They want it to be easy. This applies to browsing the websites they visit, the interactions they have with a call center, and any interaction between them and your brand and company.
In other words: being customer -centric is about the way you work. Things work best when they are connected to specific business goals that will only be achieved when the people involved take center stage: the buyer in marketing, the employee in adopting an internal IT system – usability –, among others.
So, people above all. Customer centricity even involves a corporate mindset and culture.
Benefits of adopting a customer-centric culture
Before understanding the benefits, it is necessary to have knowledge and application of some metrics that can guide a business that wants to become or improve its customer centricity. The three most important customer-centric metrics that should be carefully monitored are churn rate, Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer lifetime value (CLV).
Churn rate
Acquiring new customers is becoming increasingly difficult. That’s why more companies are investing in keeping existing customers rather than finding new ones. Here’s why:
Acquiring new customers can cost up to 5 times more than retaining existing ones. A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%.
On average, businesses lose about 10% of their customer base each year (also known as customer churn). Businesses with high retention rates grow faster. The key to success is understanding why people leave and why they stay as customers.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Are your customers satisfied? How do you know?
The answer lies in NPS . NPS or Net Promoter Score focuses on uncovering customer loyalty by asking just one simple question:
Based on your experience with [Insert your company name here], how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?
Give a score from 0 to 10 and wait for the responses.
Each response is then segmented based on predefined criteria:
Promoters (9-10)
These people are passionate about your product or service and are likely to recommend it to potential buyers. Customers who rate you 9 or 10 are repeat customers and will have a high lifetime value.
Liabilities (7-8)
Those people who rate you a 7 or 8 are happy being a customer of your company, but are the most likely to switch to a competitor if they find a new or better product.
Detractors (0-6)
These people are not satisfied with your product or service and will likely damage your brand reputation by sharing their negative experiences with friends, family, and contacts.
The more Promoters you have, the healthier your business will be.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
For a customer-centric company, the most valuable “asset” is its customer base. If you’re investing in long-term relationships, you can measure the “health” of the relationship with customer lifetime value, or CLV.
CLV measures the amount of revenue a customer contributes to your business while they’re a paying customer. It starts with their first purchase and ends when they stop doing business with you.
To be or not to be customer centric? That is the question
Business leaders are beginning to recognize that culture and strategy go hand in hand. Only when customer-centric strategies are supported and advanced by culture will a company realize its customer-centric vision and reap the rewards.
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