Adopt a "Customer Centric" approach

Published on August 13, 2024  - Updated on August 13, 2024

Putting the customer at the centre of your strategy and your concerns is essential. New technologies make it possible to take the "Customer Centric" approach one step further.

1) What is the "Customer Centric" approach?

Putting the customer first is nothing new in itself. However, at a time when new technologies are emerging, digital tools are increasingly enabling you to analyse your customers' data via the web. The possibilities are multiplying for companies to personalise their customer relations.

Adopting a "customer centric" approach means adopting a strategy in which you place the customer at the centre of your concerns. Every decision you make will be systematically based on its impact on the customer. It's a real corporate culture that takes precedence over all your interactions.

2) What benefits does this strategy bring?

What is the added value of this approach? Customer Centricity is profitable. Understanding customers' wants and needs will give you a better idea of growth opportunities. After all, the best source of information will always be your customers! Instead of justifying yourself if your customers are not satisfied with your services, you can adopt another approach, which consists of surveying unhappy customers, and finding possible areas for improvement!

- Making decisions with your customers in mind will boost your sales! Your financial prospects will automatically be boosted if you are more in tune with them, because you are more likely to sell your product to your customers if you know them better.

- By meeting their expectations more precisely through regular listening and understanding with your customers, you will greatly increase customer satisfaction. You'll be more inclined to retain your customers, who can then become regular consumers.

- Understanding how your customers feel enables you to personalise your customer experience more effectively. In fact, by satisfying the expectations expressed, you will build a much more solid customer relationship over the long term. In the long term, this will lead to increased customer loyalty.

- Stand out from the competition, especially if you're a small business. By creating a close relationship with your customers, the bond will be stronger and your customers will tend to recommend you to their friends and family, thereby increasing your market share.

- Increase your profitability. Growth opportunities are easier to spot. A customer-centric company regularly surveys its customers. As a result, it is aware of dissatisfactions that may in fact turn into genuine business opportunities as the company seeks to provide an appropriate response to the customer's needs.

A concrete example: what are the secrets of Amazon's success?

"If you don't take care of your customers, your competitor will" - Jeff Bezos

One of the secrets of Amazon's undisputed success lies in its profound adherence to the Customer Centric philosophy. For Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, this quote is of paramount importance. From the company's earliest days, he has instilled a customer-centric culture, seeing customer satisfaction as a fundamental pillar of the company's success.

Amazon has chosen to differentiate itself by focusing on customer loyalty rather than customer acquisition. Jeff Bezos understands that word-of-mouth is the most powerful customer acquisition tool there is. To achieve this, Amazon strives to ensure a seamless online shopping experience, building trust with consumers and encouraging them to return while recommending its services.

Amazon's added value comes in the form of a highly personalised shopping experience, taking into account the preferences of each customer. The company also offers dedicated and responsive customer service, real-time order tracking and a reliable transaction environment. The entire customer journey is designed to bring simplicity and convenience to everyday life. This obsession with customer satisfaction is undoubtedly behind Amazon's success. The figures bear this out, with 89% of shoppers saying they are more likely to buy products from Amazon than from other online retailers.

In short, the Customer Centric approach is one of the pillars that have enabled Amazon to rise to the top of online retailing. This underlines the importance of placing the customer at the heart of the strategy of any company wishing to build a loyal and lasting customer base.

3) How can this approach be implemented?

Being customer-centric can be a challenge for any new company wishing to embark on this approach for the first time. Choosing this culture can take time, and a lot of trial and error before it really works. Making all your business decisions based on the impact on the customer will inevitably require you to increase your knowledge of the customer.

Putting the customer at the heart of your business strategy

For this Customer Centric approach to be successfully implemented in your company, it needs to be integrated into your overall strategy. In fact, by adding the customer to the company's values, you will be able to bring the whole company into line on the subject, as well as communicating by placing the customer at the centre of attention.

Make all teams aware of the importance of the customer experience.

In line with the previous paragraph on the company's strategy and values, for this to be a complete success, all the company's employees must be committed to it. And not just those in contact with the end customer! If every department in the company believes in the importance of this strategy and feels involved in it, it will be all the more effective.

There's nothing more important than communication! Make your employees aware of this approach, why it's important, what their role is, etc. If they trust you and believe in this strategy and these values, they will be more likely to move in the same direction as you.

You can also reward them on the basis of results, for example when there is a significant increase in the NPS (Net Promoter Score) or CES (Customer Effort Score) or when a major irritant has been corrected.

Use customer reviews

Q°emotion 's solution for analysing customer emotions provides a good basis for embarking on this strategy. This approach makes it possible to analyse and understand customer opinions and comments on the internet or in surveys. It is possible to segment the different emotions felt by customers as effectively as possible.

It is also very important to understand that the customer experience does not stop after the purchase, it is global. It goes from the first point of contact right through to after-sales service and sometimes, unfortunately, attrition. That's why customer reviews are a crucial part of your Customer Centric strategy. Not only can positive comments and feedback be used to motivate employees, but negative feedback is essential for identifying areas for improvement!

The use of an automaticsemantic analysis tool will greatly assist you in this task by enabling you to quickly process a large volume of customer comments. That way, you can concentrate on implementing your action plan.

Data analysis is essential to the customer-centric approach. By effectively exploiting the traces your customers leave on the web about you, you can then predict the best decision to take, in the event of negative reviews for example.

4) How do you measure the effectiveness of a Customer Centric strategy?

Having seen what a Customer Centric strategy is and how to implement it, the work doesn't stop there. The next step is to monitor your strategy and measure its effectiveness. Broadly speaking, there are two particularly effective indicators for this. These are :

- The attrition rate. This is a key indicator, the aim of which is to quantify the proportion of customers lost. The attrition rate is highly relevant for monitoring the effectiveness of your Customer Centric strategy. If your attrition rate is high, this may indicate that your customer centric strategy is not effective, probably because customers do not feel valued or have not been satisfied with their experience. On the other hand, a low attrition rate may indicate that your strategy has succeeded in meeting your customers' expectations and strengthening their commitment to your company. By regularly measuring your attrition rate, you can identify problems and opportunities for improvement so that you can continue to improve your customer-centric strategy and strengthen the relationship with your customers.

- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Also known as Customer Lifetime Value, this is another important indicator to track. This metric enables you to calculate the total value contributed to your business throughout the "lifetime" of a customer. By calculating CLV, you can understand how much you can invest in acquiring and retaining your customers, which can greatly help you determine your marketing and customer service budgets. If your CLV is high, this may indicate that you are on the right track, your customers are continuing to buy products or services and are more likely to recommend your company to their friends and family. Conversely, if your CLV is low, this may indicate that there is room for improvement in your strategy to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Conclusion

In the long term, adopting this strategy of putting the customer at the centre of your priorities will bring many more benefits than a traditional approach can provide. You'll consolidate your company's reputation and your customer relationships, with other non-negligible benefits enabling you to go from strength to strength.