We are constantly told by our managers to be more customer centric. But we are rarely told what that actually means. In fact, many business professionals are unsure of what actions to take to become customer centric.
Moreover, when faced with a stressful situation, such as reaching out to a customer or supplier, we tend to fall back onto old patterns of behavior that we know best and make us feel comfortable. Unfortunately, for many of us, these behaviors are mostly self-centered and rarely customer centric.
So, what is customer centricity?
Customer centricity is a mindset. It is a mental trigger to always focus your attention and actions on the needs of the other party in the relationship first.
The purpose of customer centricity is to build trusting relationships that create sustainable value for all parties involved. A true win-win situation.
Most importantly though, customer centricity defines that other party in the relationship as your customer, be it a supplier, a manager, or effectively a genuine customer of your product or service. This stipulates to actively build an understanding for what is important to them, their needs, and what support you can offer to realize their goals.
But the concept of customer centricity is not altruistic. It is also about finding out what is important to oneself in the relationship. What does one expect in return for meeting the other party’s needs and expectations? Only when both sides win can customer centricity work effectively and achieve its purpose. Customer centricity is hence the concept of achieving one’s individual goals through contributing to the success of the other party.
Customer centricity is also everybody’s full time job. There is no hiding behind “we”, “our company”, the manager or colleagues. It is your behaviors and actions that drive customer centricity in the relationship with your “customer”, whomever they are.
How to put customer centricity into action?
Everybody can become customer centric by applying five simple behaviors in their day-to-day interaction with their respective customer: to care, to compete, to improve, to respond, to win. Our research over the past 12 years has shown that it is these five actions that cover all elements to establish winning business relationships consistently and sustainably.
Let’s look into these five behaviors more in detail.
To CARE
“To care” represents the idea of building a holistic understanding of the customer and their respective needs. Whilst this might sound like an obvious and simple task, it is one of the most underdeveloped parts in forming a customer centric mindset.
Caring is the action of fully immersing oneself into the customer’s environment. It requires curiosity and the ability to comprehend, anticipate and relate to the customer’s perceived and real risks, fears, desires, wishes, constraints, hopes, and opportunities.
To care goes beyond just listening and asking questions. It is an approach to proactively and relentlessly gather insights across the customer’s ecosystem, to then form a consultative opinion on the risks and opportunities they face, succinctly identifying their most relevant needs to succeed in their environment.
To COMPETE
To compete stands for the action of meeting the previously identified customer needs with excellence. It represents one’s wiliness to avoid complacency and the eagerness to always address the customer’s expectations better than the competition and the next best alternative the customer has available to them.
Competing does not mean to be the best in everything, all the time, but should rather represent the concept of always trying to stay ahead of competition.
Consequently, competing means to have a concrete plan in place on how to best meet the customer’s needs. This plan should be continuously reevaluated and adapted based on the assessment of how competitors are performing in pursuing the same quest and the changes in customer needs.
To IMPROVE
Status quo is never acceptable for a customer centric mindset and not a state to fall back onto in a relationship. What made one succeed in the relationship up to a certain point might not be good enough moving forward.
To improve stands for the willingness and dedication to continuously challenge oneself and the overall relationship with the customer to always get better. It is about having a concrete plan in place on what needs to be done to reach the next level in the relationship.
The essential questions to ask here are: What are the strengths and weaknesses in the relationship, the opportunities and threats? How can these be overcome and leveraged to make the relationship even stronger?
To RESPOND
To respond means to interact with your customer on their schedule, in their language, in the way that makes them feel most comfortable. Responding is taking your customer’s concerns and requests seriously, whatever they might be.
It consists of the visible actions that you care, compete and improve. This can be as simple as readily replying to an email, informing pro-actively of the status of a project or taking swift actions in case of an emergency.
In more complex relationships, responding requires one to understand several important points.
First, with whom to primarily interact with on the customer’s side: where are the touchpoints and of what importance do these points have in the overall relationship?
Second, how to address the various requests of these different stakeholders appropriately and swiftly?
And third, how to interact with the customer effectively: how does the customer want to be communicated with?
To WIN
The last, and most neglected step in building a customer centric mindset is to define, articulate and align on what to win means in the business relationship for YOU together with the customer.
What is it that you individually want to achieve with your customer? How do you see the relationship evolve over time?
“To win” defines your goals and vision for the relationship. It further includes the actions to articulate these goals and to align them with your customer.
It is the essential step to address the important question of the WHY for both parties: why do they engage in this relationship? What are the goals both want to achieve? Can they be achieved?
This can be a difficult conversation, but this friction is needed to make sure that the purpose of customer centricity is met, namely to create an environment where needs and expected results are transparently shared, discussed and aligned. This transparency builds trusting relationships that create sustainable value for all parties involved.
Customer centricity is not an art. It can be learnt. Embracing the above five actions in the day-to-day dealings with the customer is the first step. For some these actions come naturally, for others there are tools and skills that can be learnt to bring the customer centric mindset to life. Sustainably and consistently.
Do you want to learn more about HOW to best care, compete, improve, respond and win? Get in touch with us and learn more about our approach to customer centricity. Sign up for our free webinar here: How to build a customer centricity mindset in 5 simple steps – https://www.fivis.io/how-to-build-a-customer-centricity-mindset-in-5-simple-steps/
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