+13236381128
+15199002991
+61480040096
Book a Demo
en_US Englishde_DE German
en_US Englishde_DE German
+13236381128
+15199002991
+61480040096
en_US Englishde_DE German

How To Become a Customer-Centric Organ

SHARE THE ARTICLE ON

Customer centricity: customer centric
Table of Contents

Customer centricity means putting “people who add value to your business,” i.e., customers, at the center of everything within your business. 

While that description is a solid beginning point for generally explaining customer centricity, there’s more to it than merely listening to our consumers. That’s because a customer-centric organization is an attitude that permeates every aspect of a company, not simply customer-facing teams like support, success, and sales.

With the plethora of options customers have, it is imperative to offer exceptional experience and meet (even better, exceed) expectations. And brands that take steps to understand their customers and empower employees to act on that feedback understand that consumer-centricity is not an option but a necessity.

In this blog, we will explore the impact of a consumer-centric culture in your business and how to implement it best. What is a customer-centric organization?

What is a customer-centric organization?

A consumer-centric culture focuses on obtaining, understanding, and acting on customer feedback with the ultimate objective of creating products/services that consumers truly enjoy and value.

The purpose of every customer-centric organization is to build a stronger customer relationship that fosters loyalty and advocacy. 

Every decision a customer-obsessed business takes is affected by customer feedback and the value it will bring to customers. Customer-centric businesses try to co-create with their consumers by encouraging and enabling them to provide candid feedback. This fosters a mutually beneficial collaboration between customers and the company, which is a critical differentiation between listening to consumers and genuinely being customer-centric.

An organization focused on customers:

✔Is driven by customer satisfaction. 

✔Prioirtizes eliminating pain points. 

✔Considers the impact of every decision on customer experience.

✔Creating the best customer experience. 

In a consumer-centric culture, the focus should be on the customer rather than your initial business plan. For example, if your hotel has an online booking and you notice an increasing number of cancellations, maybe it’s time to evaluate your communication channels. Put a customer experience platform to deploy a web survey and understand the reason for cancellations. 

Explore: Customer Experience Hub

Read how Voxco helped Walmart expand its Online Grocery PickUp Service & increase product variety to 7000 on customer need.

Read their story>>

What are the characteristics of a customer-centric organization?

In a customer-centric organization, every employee and team in your company is working towards the shared vision and goal of exceptional customer experience. The consumer-centric strategy focuses on understanding and empathizing with customers to improve CX continuously. 

Let’s look at the key factors of this approach. 

Consumer-centric leadership:

Leadership plays a key role in shaping customer-centricity, setting priorities, and driving necessary organizational changes. Business leaders or executives help set the vision for the entire organization. Serving as role models, they articulate how to prioritize customers and thus teach & empower employees to make decisions that benefit the customers. 

Ownership, accountability & responsibility: 

Empowering employees to solve customer concerns, whether part of the internal or customer-facing department, encourages customer-centric organization. Everyone across the organization takes responsibility and ownership to ensure a seamless customer experience. 

When employees are held accountable for their actions, it empowers them to make decisions that benefit the customers and seek new ways to serve customers better. Creating a culture of ownership and responsibility drives innovation and improvement and delivers exceptional experiences. 

Cooperation across the organization: 

By fostering a culture of collaboration across the organization, you ensure that all the teams are aligned and working towards a shared goal. This helps open communication and customer data sharing across departments to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

When you overcome silos, helps all teams work in harmony, resolve concerns together, and find innovative ways to deliver seamless customer experience.

See how Voxco can help you improve customer experience. Diverse question types, 100+ survey languages, advanced logic, white-label, etc.

Download Online Feature Sheet

Why is it important to create a customer-centric organization?

Customers that are dissatisfied with your brand will abandon it. 

Consumers today have a simple method to abandon businesses they adore, and they are not scared to do so. One out of every three clients will abandon a brand they love after one bad experience. 

A customer-centric strategy helps you meet and exceed customer expectations at every interaction of the journey, from awareness to purchase to advocacy.  Deloitte shows that consumer-centric companies are 60% more profitable than companies that don’t have a customer-centric culture. 

So, let’s look at some positive benefits of a customer-centric organization. 

1. Increase customer retention rates:

The more you learn about your customer’s needs and resolve their pain points, the happier they become. By putting customers first, you improve customer satisfaction which nurtures loyalty and increases lifetime value. 

2. Build a better relationship with customers: 

Creating a customer-centric culture allows you to open transparent communication with your customers. Seeking customer feedback regularly helps you meet their expectations and better serve their needs. This allows you to close the loop and open a two-way conversation. 

This way, you build a better relationship with customers, which reduces churn rate, increases lifetime value, and boosts NPS score. 

3. Gather a holistic understanding of customers: 

Becoming consumer-centric means you gather data on end-to-end customer experience. This enables you to understand customers’ pain points, needs, and demands. With a holistic insight into customer experience, you learn why your customers leave or stay with your company. 

You can personalize the experience, add value to every interaction and boost satisfaction across the customer journey. 

4. Increase sales and profit:

The more you understand your customers and pay attention to their needs, the more likely they are to listen to your recommendations. Satisfied customers make repeat purchases and recommend brands to others. Better experience improves customer advocacy leading to business growth and increasing revenue.

5. Increased word-of-mouth/referrals:

When you keep putting customers at the center of your business decision, you keep adding value to the customer experience. This encourages customers to recommend your brand, product/services within their network. When loyal customers refer your brand to others, it helps reduce acquisition costs. 

When customer-centricity is done correctly, your customers trust that they will not only get what they want and need from your company but that they will also have a seamless experience. You build trust that helps to retain customers for the long haul.

Improve digital customer experience with Voxco

Here you’ll learn how to improve digital CX, gain actionable insights, and empower decision-makers to exceed customers’ needs.

Download Now
Forrester & Voxco Webinar : Maximize Customer Lifetime Value - Desktop
Forrester & Voxco Webinar : Maximize Customer Lifetime Value - Mobile

Best practices for becoming a customer-centric organization

“Does this product/service help our customers?”

A consumer-centric company builds products/services that meet customers’ expectations and needs. It adds value to their experience and encourages them to keep coming back to your brand. 

Ingrain consumer-centric culture within your business:

From customer-facing teams to internal teams, ensure everyone is aligned with the customer-centric vision and the value of the customer experience at your company. From the leaders to the employees, your company should nurture a customer-obsessed environment. 

Count on leaders who understand the importance of valuable customer experience and its impact on the company. With leaders and decision-makers paving the way, you can establish a customer-centric culture at different levels of the company.

Gather customers’ feedback:

The top brands who excel in customer experience frequently listen to their customers. A great way to start is by using online surveys embedded in your website or sent via different channels. 

Using surveys, you can leverage quantitative data to evaluate your product/services and qualitative data to uncover driving factors of customer behavior. Listen to customers’ voices and close the loop on critical touchpoints to understand customers’ perspectives and anticipate their needs. 

Leverage online survey tools that allow you to gather data across multiple channels and uncover insights from quantitative and qualitative data. 

Prioritize connections: 

Customers aren’t just numbers that may be evaluated and studied in a revenue performance report. They are people who profit from establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with your brand. Look beyond purchases and provide customers benefits that create a memorable experience. This way, customers start to associate your company with great experiences. 

Offer proactive customer service:

The best way to become a customer-centric organization is by offering proactive services that effectively resolve customers’ concerns and add value to the customer-company relationship. One way you can offer proactive services is by offering them online documentation or IVR customer services that allow them to resolve their problem without waiting on hold. 

Centralize customer data: 

A new customer-centric approach necessitates consolidated access to customer data and insights. Leverage an omnichannel survey software that unifies survey data across all channels enabling you to offer better customer experiences by facilitating a better knowledge of consumers.

Voxco is trusted by 500+ global brands & the top 50 MR firms to gather data, measure sentiment, uncover insights, and act on them.

See how Voxco can enhance your research efficiencies. 

Book a Demo

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC V/S PRODUCT-CENTRIC

The difference between a customer-centric organization and a product-centric is in its approach to customers. 

Consumer-centric culture is to put customer needs above all. A company analyzes customers’ needs to create solutions that resolve their concerns. It relies on customer loyalty for upselling and referrals. 

A product-centric organization aims to create the best product regardless of the customer’s needs or experience. It relies on its product for sales and business growth. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, a customer-centric approach enables you to deliver exceptional customer experience and drive business growth. Implementing customer-centric culture across organizations may not be easy. However, the right leadership, aligned goals, and the desire to meet and exceed customer expectations help put consumers at the core of the business.

Net Promoter®, NPS®, NPS Prism®, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. Net Promoter Score℠ and Net Promoter System℠ are service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., Satmetrix Systems, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.

Explore all the survey question types
possible on Voxco

Try a Sample Survey

Explore Voxco Survey Software

Customer centricity: customer centric

+ Omnichannel Survey Software 

+ Online Survey Software 

+ CATI Survey Software 

+ IVR Survey Software 

+ Market Research Tool

+ Customer Experience Tool 

+ Product Experience Software 

+ Enterprise Survey Software 

Get a Free Demo

Read more