Imagine a world where businesses could identify opportunities and concerns associated with each of their customers before they happen—and then take action by delivering relevant, valued messages and offers to them in real-time. Chances are that company would have fewer issues with retention rates and loyalty, while they would also be likely to make every interaction more valuable, or even profitable. That’s the promise of customer-centricity.
Customer-centricity is not just a matter of making vague commitments to “put the customer first.” It’s about literally building your customer relationships, conversations and service around the needs, preferences and actions of your individual customers on an ongoing basis. This can include:
- Interacting with customers via the channels they prefer, when they prefer it
- Tailoring product and service offerings to each customer according to individual needs and preferences
- Anticipating—and fulfilling—customer needs at the right time and place
True customer-centricity requires unlocking silos (organizational, system and data) and the collaboration of both cross-functional teams and vendors/suppliers as “partners within the value chain,” in order to innovate and radically change the customer experience. At the crux of the customer experience should include the up-to-date customer knowledge, with data from all systems, so that systems can access a holistic and individual-customer view. With that, you can then generate the insights required to drive actions that demonstrate true customer centricity.
The key to delivering superior customer experiences is to contextualize the data, and get personal—understand your customers at the individual-level so you can interact with the proper messages and offers that are pertinent to them, via the right channel, at the right time. When you do that, you aren’t just talking customer-centric, you are being customer-centric.
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