Is Customer centricity the right path to success?

I have worked with customers in both retail and online space. It is from my observation that brands tend to look forward to spending budgets more towards customers who have the potential to be the loyal audience in coming times. As the word, “centricity” suggests the focus in on the customer and most importantly fulfilling customers’ expectations.

What is Customer Centricity and what is often confused as Customer Centricity?

Customer centricity can be seen as a process where the organization aligns its resources in such a way that customers are responded back in time when it comes to resolving their concerns. It gives the organization a chance to build mutually profitable relationships ensuring high repeat business.

I have worked in organizations where customers were treated as a central point and their ideas were welcomed with open arms as it ultimately contributed to the betterment of the product. You as an organization can say “NO” to customers with unreasonable demands. This will help the organization in catering to the right and potential set of customers.

The points of Confusion

Customer centricity does not mean that everything is all about customer service and most importantly you as an organization are bound to provide all the services as expected by the customer.

Why is this Customer Centricity important?

• It makes use of a differentiation strategy
• It results in low cost- high revenue outputs
• Ensures customer loyalty with the brand

Offering a consistent customer service experience specially tailored to address the needs of the clients is what the idea of Customer Centricity a success. I am pretty sure working as a Business Analyst, you must have experienced clients getting sentimental about their expectations and most of you must have quietly aligned the priorities for delivery accordingly. This type of personal attention is what drives the success of the phenomena of Customer Centricity.

“I will quickly share my experience with one of the clients where the expectation from my team was to get on a call once in a week with the client and update the client with the status of the expected deliverable. Every Wednesday, our call took 15 minutes of time and the client openly expressed the concerns in the case of any delays. This passage of communication is a good example of Customer Centricity and the benefits in terms of loyalty associated with it.”

How to reap benefits out of it?

• Design business processes to define and address customer expectations
• Derive communication channel to regularly interact with the customer
• Encourage a culture where customer’s active participation drives the programme
• Adopting a target customer perspective in understanding why they have chosen your brand and what distinguishes your brand from your competitors
• You can learn more about the spending habits, identify the potential buyers and unmet expectations
• Utilizing the Survey techniques, you can have a continuous channel of feedback both qualitative and quantitative from these customers.

Leave your comments in the comments section to let me know your inputs. Do check out the survey technique blog in case you want to explore more on creation of the blog.