If you want your business to excel, then you will know that the customer will be at the heart of all you do — this is also known as customer centricity.

But what exactly is customer centricity, and how is it achieved? Well, it’s the ability of people in an organization to understand customers’ situations, perceptions and expectations. The customer should be at the center of all decisions related to delivering products, services and experiences to create customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.

You might think that’s easy. But is it really that simple?

Being customer-centric means anticipating a customer’s wants, needs and communication preferences. And then getting it right.

If you can achieve this, you can create meaningful experiences and build lasting customer relationships. But one wrong move, and you could lose precious customers.

In terms of marketing, it’s really important to consider how advertising and marketing activities will be helpful and useful to the customer. For example, people hate being interrupted and bombarded, but if advertisements are relevant to them, they are often less likely to get annoyed and, moreover, will remember them and eventually act on them.

Why Is Customer Centricity Important For Brands And Businesses?

Think of customer centricity as a strategy as much as a culture. It should be ingrained in an organization in order to be recognized by the final decision-maker: the customer.

If customers aren’t happy, they won’t buy from you. And without customers, you don’t have a business.

Think about whom you buy from regularly and why. What are they doing that keeps you loyal? They aren’t making it hard for you to do business with them or you simply wouldn’t do it.

Instead, they make it easy. They communicate with you well, using the means you will have asked them to use. They may even present offers for things that interest you specifically at the exact time you plan to buy. Clever, right?

What about the ones you’ve parted company with? They likely failed to make you feel good, or they annoyed or upset you. Did they bombard you at the wrong times or make mistakes with their marketing? You may have seen pop-up social media ads for weight loss or funeral plans and wondered why on earth they were shown to you.

According to PwC, nearly one in three customers will leave a brand they love after just one bad experience. The company says: “Experience is everything. Get it right. Good customer experience leaves people feeling heard and appreciated. It minimizes friction, maximizes efficiency and maintains a human element.”

Research by Havas Group shows that 84% of people expect brands to create good content — content that engages them through storytelling, provides useful solutions and creates entertaining experiences.

Today’s digital environment not only focuses on but demands personalization, and organizations are being built on their commitment to do what’s right for their customers.

Many would argue that Amazon is a customer-centric company. Obviously, it’s global and massive, so it has the budget and the tech team to really consider its customer buying data to focus the right messages via the means customers ideally prefer.

Challenges And Best Practices For Becoming A Customer-Centric Company

The first step is getting everyone on board — leadership, marketing, sales, service, support, finance, etc.

Then, customer-centric marketing can be achieved through:

• Thoughtful targeting: Figuring out who your most likely customers are and finding them on different platforms.

• Creating marketing material for the entire customer journey: People need different sorts of information and will be hooked by different content at different parts of the journey. For example, in the awareness stage, we usually want their attention, so ads should be fun, interesting and shorter; whereas in the consideration phase, people need information, they want to compare products and possibly want to learn more. Having the right data at the start is one thing. But over time, as you gather more data and connect it with the customer’s profile, it guides future decisions and helps you build more personalized campaigns.

There’s a caveat here, though, and one marketers need to be mindful of: The digital marketing world is going toward less identification, less data and more privacy (for example, the removal of third-party cookies from most browsers, or the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation). Properly targeting someone requires proper automation and optimization setups, which are not necessarily possible on a small budget or with small amounts of data.

Customer-Centric Best Practices To Help You Achieve Your Vision

• Build a customer-centric culture. Ensure that every employee, from the CEO to the front-line worker, lives and breathes the customer. Build it into your mission, values and vision.

• Improve your data. Improve the quality of your data, and make it consistent and available to everyone in the organization. Data is often underused and used incorrectly. If it’s not a tangible asset, people in the organization won’t understand how to interpret and use it properly. With AI, for example, data can be automatically connected to resolve identities and reveal insights that improve personalization and next best offer initiatives. (But take heed of my caveat above.)

• Capture customer feedback. It’s imperative to really listen to what your customers want and need by getting their feedback, reading it and using it to help drive your business. Not every customer is always right. You will know when someone is nitpicking or worse. But it pays to listen to many customers who provide the same feedback — verbally or through their behavior.

• Think long term. A long-lasting relationship with a customer is more valuable than a single transaction. Create and nurture relationships with your customers to make them feel like more than just a number. The contact you provide them with, the tailor-made offers, and the knowledge you have of them and their preferences help you build long-term relationships with them, which will result in loyalty and retention.

Repeat, regular customers will bring you greater revenue. This is truly where customer centricity has an impact.

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(Article featured in Forbes on Jan 20, 2022)