Creating a Customer Centric Company

Classical marketing, with its focus on product, price, promotion and place is fast becoming a thing of the past. Business itself is moving from a manufacturing to a service economy and consequently the spotlight is on customer service and winning customer preferences, as opposed to brand management. The new marketing paradigm offers service and ‘value added’ elements of service as its competitive advantage. This shift has originated from the growth in direct marketing characterized by databases, call centres, internet initiatives and the use of the internet as an additional channel to market. In a customer centric company, every employee from the CEO to the most junior staff member, has one focal point – the customer – what he needs and how to deliver that. Customer centricity is a market driven approach that aligns the organization with the needs of customers, rather then the marketplace at large. In simple terms, a brand is an entity which offers customers value over and above its functional performance. These brand values differentiate the offer and provide the basis for customer preference and loyalty. The trick, however, is to ensure that your brand does not become over exposed. Take for example the recent shift in preference from Nike to Adidas in the sports and casual wear sector. Despite millions spent on advertising and brand exposure, Nike struggles to outpace Adidas. Over exposure remains a new and poorly understood phenomenon, however evidence of shifts in brand preferences is a strongly prevalent reality. As a result, it is imperative for top brands to consider the shift towards customer centricity. Customer centricity addresses how business leaders should be questioning customer value. How did the small corner store survive for so long before being replaced by the modern convenience store? It survived because the shopkeeper had an uncanny ability to understand and respond to the specific needs of the customer, the shopkeeper was completely customer centric. This ‘age-old’ cognitive ability is now being used by organisations to best serve the customer through elements such as company culture, technology, process and systems.

The Role of the CEO The most important person in the customer centric approach is the CEO. He needs to guide the process in order to achieve the following: • • •

Align the organisation and the brand Ensure superior customer service value Create profit opportunities

The CEO needs to lead 5 key processes to guarantee customer centricity: • • • • •

The process of understanding the market The process of managing relationships The process of innovation The process of supply and demand management The process of managing customer knowledge

It is essential to bear in mind that processes refer to people doing things. People cannot be doing things in isolation and therefore the above processes dictate a series of behaviours that determine the way the business is run. In order to practically address the role of the CEO, have a look at the case study below which indicates a generic problem and possible solutions. Current Reality: Customer needs are changing • • • • • •

Customers are more informed about what is available Customers are time dependent Customers need solutions Customers require a relationship with their partners Customers feel misunderstood about themselves, their issues and their needs Customers are not interested in what you have to sell if you are not interested in them

Current Solution: Product centric rather than customer centric • • • • •

Organisations go to market with an offer – ABCD Most customers may enjoy ABCD, but some may want ABDC Organisations find it disruptive to accommodate ABDCs Organisations try to convince ABDCs to use ABCDs If they cannot convince them, they lose the customer to a competitor who does offer ABDCs

Customer Centric Solution .

If those competitors were astute (never underestimate your competitors) they would provide ABDC’s at a premium, because they know they are the only providers of ABDC’s. Customers tend to support them at premium, because they know ABDC’s are specific requirements that are not supported all round. Many companies have a preferred response to address ABDC needs: ‘We can’t be all things to all people’.

However, this situation provides the perfect platform for a CEO to change behaviours – to set up processes and systems to accommodate not only ABDCs but also ACDBs, ADBCs and ACBDs.

What is this worth? Why should CEOs consider changing a business strategy to suit the needs of customers? What is it really worth? These are 2 logical and critical questions, however many organisations cannot answer them as they do not really know their customers: ‘We don’t really know our customers well enough to make an informed decision. They are reluctant to tell us how worthy a change is, as we don’t have the type of relationship with them where we could get involved with them to find out what the potential value would be.’ So, should we let this opportunity pass? The very simple answer to this question is – think again. Imagine organisations understood their internal processes so well, that creating a few shifts was quick, easy and painless: • • • • •

In order to create ABDC, we need to consider X hurdles Cost impact is Y per unit, so we need to charge Y plus to extract full benefit We need the customer to pay Y plus in order to accommodate our process We need to talk to our customers to establish what ABDC is worth to them Understand reasons for customers wanting ABDC so that solutions can be created if the same issue arises in future

The vital step in this process is understanding that the customer needs could potentially lead to a more profitable opportunity, rather than assuming that anything out of the ordinary is out of scope for the organisation. The essence of being able to deliver ABCD or ABDC ultimately lies at the customer interface. The employees who deal with customers on a daily basis have the knowledge of what the customer wants. It is imperative that these interactions are consistent and full of deliverables. It is the role of the CEO to ensure that the organisation is equipped to deal with customer needs and to shift focus if market demand is high. Processes and systems that manage relationships need to be put in place as this will guide employees to build rapport with customers to a point of specific discussions of ABCD or ABDC and to ensure that innovation drives the ABDC solution. Provisions need to be made for delivery and the CEO needs to make sure that end-to-end allowances have been made to handle ABDC in accordance with customer requirements. This should act as a generic platform for all future inquiries, so

when an ABDD query comes in, every employee throughout the organisation knows how to handle it. Ultimately, this could lead to a very prosperous future for the organisation as they would then be in a position to open a dedicated ABDC line, as ABDC customers increased and were extremely impressed by the organisation’s ability to deliver the ABDC request. This case illustrates how easy it is to walk away from opportunities and yet, how simple it is to stop and think again in order to create something exceptional through maintaining a customer centric approach.

About Carpedia Consulting… Carpedia Consulting is an internationally relevant management consultancy firm, dedicated to assisting clients to improve sales and profits through the implementation of improvement programs. Our approach is what makes us unique. The way we design, develop and execute our programs is hands-on, solutions-based and excellence driven. Our programs are customized to the needs of your organisation and are designed to ensure significant and sustainable improvements are made both internally and externally – by the sales team, for the customer.

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