How loyal are your customers? Did you know that an 8/10 customer satisfaction score is meaningless? Customers who give a supplier this score will swap supplier the next day! It is not a good indicator of how customer centric your business is.
What proportion of your business measures are important to your customers –
versus the internal measures you track e.g. revenue?
Every company Strategenic has ever worked with claimed they look after their customers well, that they were customer-centric. Yet, when we started to look at what is really happening, every single one realised they are not.
Is your business customer centric?
5 ways to tell if you are customer centric:
- Does the value you provide beam out like a lighthouse?
- How well do you understand your customers’ pain?
- Is great customer service a priority?
- Have you designed a customer experience your customers enjoy?
- Is your innovation a great commercial success?
Does your company beam out like a lighthouse?
Wherever there are many suppliers, customers are in a fog, not knowing how they can really solve their issues, overcome their “pain”. Does your business stand out like a lighthouse in your market? Ignore what your marketing says. Is the value you provide a real benefit in the eyes of your customers….and significantly better than anything else in the market? If you can truly answer Yes to this it is a good sign that your business is customer centric.
How deep is your customer insight?
The leaders of fast growth companies gain such deep customer insight that their finger is on the pulse of what really is important to their customers. It is so important they make time to see customers every week.
If your leadership team can put themselves in your customers’ shoes, knowing what pain wakes them up in the middle of the night, this is an another indicator that your business is customer centric. When your empathy with your customers is so good that you understand that pain fully, the commercial success of all new innovation will multiply ten fold.
Is great customer service a priority?
Companies often believe that providing an “ok” level of customer service is the way to good profits. Actually, fast growth companies do the opposite. Great customer service:
- Cuts down the amount of times customers ask for support
- Makes your company look far better than the competition – so sales cost less
- Boosts the likelihood of customers recommending your business
- Ensures your happy customers are far more likely to buy more from you
Does your company deliver such good customer service that your customers find it easy? If so, this is another indicator that you are customer centric.
Is the customer experience enjoyable?
Do your customers find interacting with your company so enjoyable that they tell others to use you? If not you are missing a significant business opportunity.
Customer experience is an area that is increasingly helping companies to achieve impressive business growth.
So how will you get your business start to become so customer centric that growth and profits become easier?
[cta]Learn how fast growth companies drive top performance[/cta]