Last month, we briefly looked at the power of entrepreneurial skills development and concluded that entrepreneurial skills development is crucial in improving your business operations and that learning new skills to better your business is one of the keys to success. This month we look at yet another crucial side of the business journey, namely ‘customer centricity’.
Customer centricity and a customer-centric culture defined
Customer centricity is a strategic mindset that places your client’s experience and well-being at the centre of the business and the business activities.
When a business has a customer-centric culture, the customer experience is intentional from the very first interaction to the very end of implementation – it is not just an accidental result of customer service from your sales team members.
A customer-centric culture is the responsibility of the whole business and not just that of your customer-facing sales team. It is a proactive way that considers every spoken and even unspoken expectation of your clients.
Why is this culture so important?
SAICA Enterprise Development’s Investor Relations Manager, Adelaide Vambe, comments on the concept and its importance: ‘Having a business model that revolves around customer centricity is essential. It helps the organisation to achieve a positive and personalised experience for their customers and also makes it easier for employees to pay more attention to customers.’
Adelaide adds: ‘A culture of customer centricity is imperative for doing business because it focuses on providing a positive customer experience both at the point of sale and after the sale in order to drive profit and gain a competitive advantage. Every individual in every role should work under the assumption that they have the potential to impact the overall experience of a business’s customers.’
What we can see is that building a customer-centric culture is a long-term strategy that allows long-term relationships and trust to be built over time, thus assisting businesses retain their clients. Commenting on customer retention, Deloitte say 80% of customers gradually gained loyalty for a brand over time due to experiences with excellent products, service, reviews, etc. They also shared that customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies that are not focused on the customer.
Building blocks of a customer-centric culture
In closing let us dive into some of the necessary components or ‘building blocks’ of a good customer-centric culture.
Systems thinking Acknowledging the big picture and linkages between all internal departments. Allowing space for feedback, transparency and suggestions between all staff members to get better solutions that can impact client experience. Analysing your business procedures and tools for their contribution or detraction from the goal of making it easier and nicer for customers to get and use your products/services.
Consistent communication Communicating this culture should become a group habit and way of thinking. The key is consistency − at every opportunity communicating the necessity of making life easier for your customers as well as the value of retaining them for the future. Consistency builds trust and passion, which are necessary ingredients for true customer-centricity.
Skills Employees should be encouraged to try new approaches to selling and building customer relationships. Staff should always feel that they are trusted to always do what is right for the business’s clients. Customer-centric values must be supported by proficiency in related technical and soft skills in order to deliver an excellent service and build that positive customer experience.
Did you find this information helpful? Then drop us a quick review – email enquiries@saicaed.co.za. We would also like to wish everyone a happy Youth Month this June 2021. Keep a look-out for next month’s issue where we will be featuring Youth Work Readiness Programme initiative.
Author
Kelly Sin Hidge, Marketing, PR and Design at SAICA Enterprise Development and The Hope Factory
