Becoming a customer-centric company is about actions, not words. Every company in the industry says they care about customers, but which ones really do? You can tell by what they do, not what they say.
Truly customer-centric companies that engender trust and loyalty from their customers dedicate themselves to customer satisfaction. They are courteous, engaged, and will do anything to make a problem situation right again.
But that kind of dedication doesn’t happen overnight.
If you’re aiming to transform your business into a customer-centric company, it takes reworking the company culture from the ground up.
Fortunately, any business determined to achieve customer-centricity can do this. Let’s dive into the basic steps to become truly customer-centric:
1. Write a new mission statement
What is your business motto? What is the mission statement you share with employees when they are onboarded? If it’s not about serving the customers, it should be.
It may be time to rewrite your company’s mission statement to be all about saving your customers time or money or bringing customers joy.
Whatever suits your brand and best serves your special audience with the most dedication.
2. Train your team to always ask “How does this help the customer?”
To change the company culture, naturally, you need to get your whole staff involved.
Retraining, fun events, and enthusiastic meetings focusing on the new mission statement are a good start. But from there, every decision should include the questions:
- How does this help the client?
- What should we do to add value?
- Can we make our customer happier with our services?
Look for new ways to add value through products and services.
Speaking of adding value, do. Get creative, get focused, get dedicated to finding new ways to add value to every aspect of your service. Make your boxes fold into toys for children or fold out into potted-planters.
Package your products in kits that are more useful together than separate. Make sure to include your customer service channels on a card in each box. Always be adding value.
3. Listen through all channels when customers have something to say
When your customers speak, listen. Whether they post reviews on Google, engage in the forums, make comments on your blog, or share on Social media, listen. Pay attention to what customers are saying and commit yourself to making improvements based on that feedback.
Because when customers feel compelled to reach out, they often have something important to say or are asking for help you can provide. Which leads us to the next point.
4. Engage through social channels to nurture customer relationships
When customers communicate, engage with them. You need social media managers and customer service specialists on the job making sure that every complaint (that is really a request for service) is met with courtesy and compassion.
Every compliment is thanked. Every discussion is commented on. Your customers want to feel like you care, so show them how much you care with ongoing community engagement. And if your team isn’t big enough to handle every channel, don’t be afraid to outsource with community experts.
5. Post your favourite customer quotes in the office
While you’re out there engaging with the customers, pick up a few quotes. Clip and share the kindest thank-you’s, the funniest reviews, and the most poignant descriptions of your services with the entire staff. Create a regular newsletter or even print and post these quotes on the wall so help your entire team feel the warmth of customer appreciation for all their hard work being customer-centric inside and out.
6. Go above and beyond to solve customer problems
Last but certainly not least, be a problem solver. Never find yourself saying you can’t help a customer. Always look for ways to offer alternatives even when you hit a roadblock. Send packets of replacement hardware, send customers a digital copy of their lost instructions, or hunt down their original activation key when a customer’s cat deletes their email. Go above and beyond at problem-solving and your customers will truly feel the difference between your brand and others whose care and concern don’t shine through in everything they do.
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A strong brand consists of both internal productivity and the quality of your customer service. Becoming a customer-centric brand will help you serve both purposes by optimising your entire way of doing things toward making customers happy. Contact us today for more branding guidance and insights.
