Putting the Customer at our heart or Customer Centricity
We hear these terms
a lot these days but what do they actually mean and why exactly is it so
important?
I’ve sought here to
explain and provide some definitions that may help along with a couple of examples.
Deeply
understanding your customer and truly putting them as a focus of what you do
starts with fully immersing yourself into their world and experience as it
relates to your product or service.
There are a couple
of key terms that relate to this:
1.
Customer immersion is
a process whereby people in organisations can experience their business from a
customer point of view.
2.
Customer experiences: The activity you undertake to immerse
yourself. These can take many forms and varies depending on the company and
this is referred to as ‘Customer experience’.
A
customer experience is an interaction between an organization and a customer as
perceived through a customer’s conscious and subconscious mind.
Importantly:
·
A
customer experience is not just about a rational experience (e.g. how quickly a
phone is answered, what hours you’re open, delivery time scales, etc.).
·
Did
you know more than 50 per cent of a customer experience is subconscious, or how
a customer feels.
·
A
customer experience is not just about the ‘what,’ but also about the ‘how.’
·
A
customer experience is about how a customer consciously and subconsciously sees
his or her entire experience.
To do this effectively you
need to ‘walk a mile in the customers shoes’, experience your product or
service from their perspective rather than your own perceived perspective.
Making it as real as possible is key.
Why immerse yourself?
The better
your organization understands the complexity of the relationship you have with
your customers the better equipped you are with the knowledge to help drive for
growth. When this knowledge is addressed effectively - You ‘do something’ as
a result of the knowledge, customer experience improves, and customer loyalty
increases.
The more
you act on the knowledge you learn from these customer immersion activities the
more you are actively demonstrating a customer centric approach. Many companies
talk about being customer centric and maybe have really good intentions but few
in my experience actually act as a result of those good intentions. It leaves
the customer feeling like it’s all spin.
Cisco
IBSG Consulting Tip: Walk in Your Customer's Shoes
Customer immersion stories
Some company’s
senior managers are encouraged to spend time on a regular basis to live the
customer experience see this video of how it was done in Adobe who have created
the customer listening post.
In some stores Managers
actually hold meetings with staff whilst walking around the store, and at
Credit Suisse, executives have in the past been asked to spend a day in a
wheelchair so as to better understand the experience of disabled customers. Both of these approaches attempt to remove the
stigma - often attached to senior managers - that they are ‘out of touch with
consumers’.
So finally if it’s your responsibility to ‘Drive customer centricity@ start by watching this video and read the book that’s mentioned!
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