We say that a company is Customer Centric when the customer is at the centre of all its decisions and actions. Many companies claim to be Customer Centric but, in reality, very few really are. In fact, we could say that most companies are boss-centric rather than customer-centric, as most of the decisions and actions taken by their managers and employees are aimed at keeping their bosses happy. In short, if I have a happy boss, how can I go wrong?
The problem is that, no matter how happy the bosses are, if the clients are not happy with us, things will probably soon stop working and even that boss who was so fond of us will stop being fond of us because the results achieved have not been ideal. So, if we want to keep the boss happy, the best alternative is to keep the real boss happy, i.e. our client.
But what conditions does a company have to meet for us to be able to say that it is truly a Customer Centric company? In the following, we will develop the three pillars on which Customer Centric companies are built: organisation, culture and value creation.
The organisation
In the traditional company, which maintains a boss-centric organisation, customers are at the lowest level of the organisation where most of the contact with customers is made by employees at the lowest level within the company, among others, delivery drivers, telephone agents and shop assistants.
These employees have very little decision-making power because in the hierarchical company decisions are made by managers, who are the best trained. Moreover, in the traditional hierarchical company, decisions are made according to the strictest regulatory procedures. Therefore, if a problem needs to be solved by two different departments, the problem is escalated to the common head of both areas and, in some cases, to the CEO.
In the end, customers have to wait and the employees at the point of contact are not very committed because, after all, decisions are made by those “at the top”. And this is what they show to the customers, who wait and despair.
In a Customer Centric company, on the other hand, all employees and managers of the company have direct contact and first-hand information about the customers. In this type of company, it is not uncommon for even the CEO to be the sales manager of one of the company’s most important customers. In the case of a company that only has private customers, it is common to see the company’s top executive going to the point of sale to talk to customers and learn first-hand about their needs and concerns.
Decision-making is at the lowest levels of the organisation because customers cannot wait. Moreover, often the person who is closest to the problem is the best person to solve it.
Leaders understand that their main role is not to make decisions, but to ensure that the team works, making their employees grow and ensuring the systemic development of the team. This type of company does not operate in silos because there are many forums in which different departments collaborate. You have cross-functional teams that solve complex problems and have people who are empowered to make decisions without having to consult with their managers.
In this type of company, front-line employees feel committed and contribute ideas and initiatives, being able to make decisions without fear of making mistakes, because in the Customer Centric company, mistakes do not penalise the person who makes them, but are a source of learning and continuous growth for the organisation.
Culture
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a quote by Peter Drucker, probably apocryphal, but it could not be more graphic since there is no point in defining the best strategy if the majority beliefs among the members of the organisation are not aligned with it.
So, if we really want to be Customer Centric, we have to ensure that this vision is shared by all employees and managers and, thus, that the real values that prevail in the organisation materialise this vision.
The values needed in a Customer Centric culture are, at least, these three:
- Empathy. We need empathetic employees and managers who always put the interests and needs of the customer before all other considerations.
- Empowerment. We need employees who are truly committed and who handle customer issues with total dedication. To do this, we need managers and middle managers who trust their teams, who empower them and who do not penalise mistakes.
- Continuous improvement. Very importantly, the organisation has to be equipped with mechanisms and a mindset that favours continuous improvement because, for mistakes to be a real source of learning, we need to learn from them in our company, to look back and to look in depth at the causes and opportunities for improvement. If there is no culture of continuous improvement and no processes to ensure it, empowering employees will lead to a culture of sloppiness and lack of control.
Value creation. From designing and delivering products to designing and delivering experiences.
Customer Centric companies focus on designing experiences, not just products. To do this, it is necessary to incorporate the voice of the customer in the design of the product and/or service and the introduction of elements that help to minimise the customer’s effort. In this way, we will generate memorable experiences throughout the relationship with the company.
To generate an extraordinary experience is not only about providing the customer with quality products and services, but also about exceeding the customer’s expectations and connecting emotionally with them by personalising the service and taking maximum care of the emotional aspects of the main interactions. It will be of little use to offer the customer quality if we are not also able to give them our warmth and even turn our brand into an element that becomes part of their personal identity.
Delivering customer experience also includes measuring the experience through metrics such as NPS or Customer Effort. In addition, we must introduce Close the loop processes that allow us to measure the experience in real time, acting quickly to reduce pain points and continuously gathering information that allows us to improve the experience in the future.
It is not easy to make a company a truly customer-centric organisation as the transition from the traditional hierarchical model to a Customer Centric model takes years and, to some extent, is always an unfinished journey.
If you would like to know more about our experience in helping our clients focus on their customers, we would be happy to share it with you.
