How A Customer-Centric Approach Will Help You Win In Business

[Shahriar Tasjid]

With online reviews and recommendations becoming more popular, buying decisions are being greatly impacted. Having a customer-centric approach to business is more important now than ever. To be the best, you must have the best customer service. But what does being "customer-centric" actually mean? The American Marketing Association says there are seven pillars of a customer-centric business model, so let's unpack them.

Experience

Customer experience seems obvious, but it all starts with the experience the customer actually has, not the experience you think they should have. The customer may not always be right, but they still deserve to be treated with empathy and respect. Customer service strategies are often built to mitigate loss, not to encourage growth, but both are equally important.

• Empower your employees to make the best choices for the customer.

• Being friendly is great, but you also need to remember to fill the customer's needs.

• Consider the experience they are having -- empathy goes a long way.

• Adopt the top-down approach. As business owners and entrepreneurs, it's your job to not only treat your customers well but also your employees. Lead by example.

Loyalty

To have a customer-centric business, you must set customer loyalty as a goal and measure business decisions against it.

• Recognize and reward long-term customers. This can be something as simple as a signed note thanking them for their continued business, or sending a small gift on the anniversary date of them becoming a client. Offering a loyalty points program is also a great way to reward your frequent customers.

• Communicate your appreciation often.

• Advocate for them and they'll advocate for you.

• Recognize and reward great customer service from your employees.

Communication

Communication is all about personalization. It's extremely important to ensure that your customers don't just feel like a number. This can be challenging, especially when managing hundreds or thousands of customers.

• Don't blast an email out to your whole list. Ensure your communication through email is relevant to customer needs. This can be accomplished by segmenting email lists based on customer types.

• Coach your employees on answering phone calls and emails in a personal, professional and friendly way. As Ben Franklin once said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

• Use a CRM to manage customers. Legal pads just don't cut it anymore.

• Remember important dates like birthdays, anniversaries or other milestones.

Product And Service Assortment

When developing new products and services, make sure to take into account what your customers actually need, not just what you think they need. Don't be afraid to try new things and innovate the space you're in, but focus on what the customer wants first.

• Use data and analytics to refine product and service offerings.

• Fill their need. It's not enough to be friendly -- you must give the customer what they need.

• Pride of ownership is real. Don't let emotions get in the way of making the right decisions for your business.

• Keep an eye on the market. If another business isn't offering the service that customers want or doesn't provide great value, step in.

Promotions

Offering new sale promotions is a great way to acquire new customers, but don't forget about your current customers when marketing your products and services.

• Empower your employees to honor requests made by current customers -- within reason, of course.

• Keep your current customers updated with new price plans or ways they can save money. They might be more inclined to refer new business.

• Honor your promotions. Sometimes you need to give up short-term profit for long-term customer satisfaction.

Pricing

You don't always have to compete on price, but you always have to compete on value. Don't sell out of your own pocket. Focus on the value you offer, not on the price you offer it for.

• Short-term profit is important, but long-term satisfaction will pay the bills.

• Don't gouge on price just because you can. You might keep customers, but they'll jump to your competitor as soon as a better price comes around.

• Always offer the best value, even if you don't offer the lowest price.

• Let customers walk away happy because they got a good deal.

Feedback

Customer-centric businesses always seek feedback, regardless of whether it's good or bad. You can use free tools to gain feedback and help increase your positive reviews at the same time.

• Listen to opinions and reviews and make changes when you need to.

• Always take ownership. It's not your employees' responsibility to champion change, it's yours.

• Consider the customer's experience. Empathy goes a long way

• Fix what's wrong and build on what's right.

Each of these pillars has the ability to directly impact your business. Adopting these pillars and creating a customer-centric
approach to your business might be just what your business needs to take customer service to the next level.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/