9 Ways To Become Truly Customer Focused
Lots of companies say they are “Customer Focused”. Under the category of Customers, this is one of the 17 Common Values.
But what exactly does this mean? What are the expected behaviors associated with this value?
- Show Respect? That’s a separate value.
- Demonstrate Excellence? That’s a separate value.
- Offer good Service? That’s a separate value.
Suggesting a company is Customer Focused seems rather trite. Of course it’s about the customer. Without customers, there would be no business. So why list Customers or Customer Focused as a value?
It turns out that this can be a differentiating value.
In a market riddled with average (or poor) quality, and average (or poor) service, there may be an opportunity to make a difference by focusing everything on the customer. Equally important, it shouldn’t cost more.
Being customer focused is a mindset that starts inside. It’s baked into a company’s culture. So where to start?
9 Ways To Become Customer Focused
This is not a journey for everyone. But if the leaders of a company are committed, here are nine ways to become customer focused.
- It all starts with employees. Hire people who love to serve customers. Ensure every employee believes in what the company offers and stands for – it’s the brand. Then give front-line employees the power and authority to solve customer problems.
- Clearly define who the customer is. Not everyone should be considered a customer. There are good customers, and not-so-good customers (who are be better off buying from your competitors). To be customer focused means to have a clear understanding of who the right customers are and their key attributes. A powerful tool here is the use of Personas (note: most businesses have only 4 to 7 different kind of customer personas).
- Think long-term partnerships. Show customers how your business strategy aligns with and support’s their goals and objectives. In a business-to-business market, this means showing how your strategy meshes with your customer’s business strategy, and how this will help them sell to their own customers.
- Own your mistakes quickly. When a problem is discovered, proactively communicate with customers on how and when these will be fixed. To err is human. To acknowledge and fix a problem quickly is customer focused.
- Dedicated to continuous improvements. Don’t wait for customers to highlight issues or problems. Be proactive in making constant improvements – in products, processes, and procedures – that’s grounded in customer insight and feedback. There’s a direct link between being proactive and being customer focused.
- Establish regular listening posts. This ranges from web forms to surveys, from engaging with customers through 800#s to social media channels, and from sales rep feedback to the leadership team making customer calls. The goal is to continually gather feedback and useful insight, seeking out what’s working well, what’s not, what’s needed next, and why customers buy from you.
- Realign brand experience to the brand promise on a regular basis. It can happen to any company at any time, when the brand experience does not equal the brand promise, and customers are left feeling disappointed, let down, or confused. It means a misalignment occurred between what was promised (expected) and what was delivered (experienced). Customer focused companies realign experiences with expectations as soon as they become aware of such issues.
- Show that customer focus is a priority. A great way to reinforce the importance of customers is to recognize and reward customer focused behavior. This applies mostly to employees. But also contractors, suppliers, and even family members of employees. Everyone involved in the delivery chain needs to be engaged and motivated to deliver an outstanding customer experience.
- Make the customer the hero. The reason the company exists is for the customer. So whenever anyone is communicating with a customer, they need to be treated with immense respect, viewed in the same way as a hero.
Of course, many customers can appear fickle as their needs change, emotions spill over, and “life” happens. Dealing with customers can be quite difficult at times. But rather than getting frustrated, it’s imperative to be flexible and adaptive. That’s also what it means to be customer focused.
If your company claims to be customer focused, when was the last time it made an honest assessment?
