For businesses, it’s the age of the customer.
Customers have more choice than ever before. And, without customers, your business won’t last very long. This has created a drive to offer a customer-centric experience.
Customer-centricity is both a buzzword and a viable business practice in equal measure.
It’s a growing trend that puts the customer’s needs first. But there’s more to customer-centricity than great customer service.
Here, we explore exactly what it means to offer a customer-centric experience.
What is customer-centricity?
Customer-centricity is where the customer is the centre of your business focus. It’s also known as ‘client-centric’.
A customer-centric business revolves around creating positive customer experiences from the off. It makes the customer’s wants, needs and interests the pivotal point of the business’s philosophy, operations, decisions and service.
The driving belief behind customer-centricity is that without the customer, the business cannot exist.
So, you need to make the entire business about the customer.
Offering a customer-centric experience, then, means putting the customer at the heart of everything your business does.
Why offer a customer-centric experience?
The theory behind customer-centricity is that when you serve the customer in every way you can, you generate loyalty.
Acquiring new customers is expensive and difficult. Competitors are vying for their attention and putting out countless resources for them to compare.
As a result, there’s a wave of noise to shout through to get attention in your market. Meanwhile, by keeping your current customers satisfied, you can sell them more.
Plus, in the age of the customer, offering a customer-centric experience gives you a competitive edge.
When the core of your business is your customers' experience, it makes you more attractive. After all, it’s well-touted that customers will pay more for a better experience.
How to offer a customer-centric experience
Another way to understand what it means to offer a customer-centric experience is by understanding how to create one. Customer-centricity (and the experiences to match it) needs you to understand your customers.
Customer data and CRM systems are great tools to help with this. They make it easy to keep track of your customer relationships and what customers want from you.
When you design and create your products, you should do so with the customer’s needs and wants in mind. So, right from the start, you’re striving to see the world (and your business) through the customer’s eyes.
You should also respond quickly to your customers and focus on creating great relationships. (No matter where in the journey they are.)
This means effective, accessible, empathetic service. After a sale, a customer-centric business also listens and reacts to customer feedback.
The goal behind offering a customer-centric experience, remember, is to encourage customers to come back.
More than great service
Offering a customer-centric experience is more than offering great service. It’s not just treating the customer right.
Rather, it’s building your business around your customers, from the ground up. It’s an internal culture that prioritises the customer, rather than the product.
Customer-centricity, then, isn’t just something that comes from your customer service team. Offering a customer-centric experience means everyone in the business works with the customer in mind.
Useful links
- - Why the real nanoinfluencers are your customers
- - A brief history of the age of the customer
- - The three cornerstones of the human touch in customer service
- - Top customer service myths debunked
- - One lump or two: knowing your customers has never been easier
- - Small but mighty: the power of brand advocacy