Fact: 96% of the consumers say customer service is an important factor to earn their brand loyalty (source)
This fact explains why more and more companies focus on becoming customer-centric as this is what customers prefer.
Let us share the expert guide on how you can create a customer driven company. But first, what does a customer driven company mean?
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What is a Customer Driven Company?
Simply put, Putting your customers first makes you a customer driven company.
Prioritizing your customer first at the core of your business means putting customer needs first at every stage of a customer journey. This helps create customer loyalty, hence better business retention.
Good customer centric companies not only just provide excellent customer service but also design their product and services around their custom needs.
What Are Some Characteristics of a Customer Driven Company?
A lot of companies claim to be customer centric businesses, but their products and services say otherwise. Here are common characteristics found in customer driven companies.
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Get customers feedback regularly
If customer centricity is at the core of your business, knowing what customers want or what they are thinking needs to be known.
A customer centric company always focuses on customer feedback and acts upon it. Oneplus is a good example of that. In a sea of mobile companies, OnePlus rose above into a top-tier company by focusing on customer feedback. Customers felt they were being heard, and their feedback is continuously incorporated into the product.
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Easy onboarding and feedback process
You always want your customer to feel at ease when using your product. Onboarding is the first step every customer has to go through when they opt to do business with you. For a better customer experience, good companies in the world keep the onboarding process simple.
Not only that, but they also look for customer feedback and know what kind of problems new customers are facing, so it can be addressed and make the onboarding process more user-friendly.
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Focus on customer relationship
Customers are not something that you only quote in your reports, but humans using your product. Focus on relationships with the customer. Let them know that you value them. Make it your business strategy to help customers even if you have to go a little out of the way, make them feel unique and valued.
Build an advanced knowledge base for your customers and give them answers fast – real fast.
Take your app and help center to the next level with CloudTutorial.
Why are Customer Driven Companies Successful?
Fact: 84% of companies that focus on customer experience report an increase in their revenue (source)
No matter what your motivation is to start your company, it is bound to fail if it does not have happy customers. That is why following best practices of customer centricity is important. Successful companies keep their products and services according to customer needs and try to make their customer experience as friendly as possible.
Here are a few reasons why customer centric companies are successful
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It reflects on how much you care for your customers
Today’s customers do not buy a product but a whole customer experience. If your policies are genuinely customer focused and take care of customer’s needs, your customers will know and feel the difference. This increases customer loyalty and keeps them coming back for more.
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The whole company has a unified goal
When you have a true customer focused company-wide policy, it unites the whole company under one umbrella. Be it marketing strategy, technology being used, the team’s approach to problems, customer support, sales team, product managers, and brand advocates, everything and everyone work with the same goal in mind.
That is an enhanced customer experience. This unified goal makes the company run smoothly and focused, making it more productive.
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Feedback makes you create things the customers want
Instead of focusing on what you want or your team wants, a customer-centric company focuses on what customers want i.e. What your user base wants becomes the long-term vision of your organization.
This makes customer feedback a necessary part of your process. If what you are creating is coming from customer feedback, your customer is bound to be happy about it. You (customer and the company) help each other out to create something that helps everyone, including your new customer base.
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Makes you develop useful partnerships
Businesses that focus on customer retention and customer satisfaction make them create strategies to help customer’s experience. Often that involves creating partnerships with relevant brands to make customers’ journey more comfortable, i.e., instead of talking to multiple suppliers, the customer has a one window solution for all of their needs.
That gives quite an edge over the competitors. For example, a football training club can partner up with an apparel company and offer discounts on athletic wear.
10 Ways to be a Customer-Driven Company
Now that we know what customer-centric business means and why these companies are successful, here are some useful tips that can make your organization a customer driven company.
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Great customer service
Customer service is where most of the interaction happens when customers need to solve their problems. Having a great customer support system is an absolute must.
Pro Tip: Create flows where customers do not have to wait for an answer. Using a knowledge base like CloudTutorial will help answer questions immediately without the need for any human interaction. This helps solve issues instantly.
To make it easy on the customer, you have to create an omnichannel support network where customers can connect with you using any medium they like, i.e., emails, social media, call or chat.
Also, make it your policy to go beyond normal norms to help solve your customer’s problems. Tell them you feel their frustration and will help them solve the problem. This creates unforgettable customer experiences, which helps retain customers and get new ones.
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Use of proper tools
Using tools that help in creating customer centric business is the right thing to do. To enhance customer service, you can use a knowledge base like CloudTutorial for your organization. That will help answer customers’ queries immediately without the need of waiting for a customer service agent.
Similarly, you can use tools like Zendesk for an omnichannel support system where you can talk to customers on their preferred method like email, chat, social media, ticket, or a call.
Using CRMs like HubSpot also helps manage user communication and their activities, which can later be used to talk to the customer without asking the same information again.
Small things like that make sure you are on top of everything and really want to help your customer.
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Constantly look for customer feedback
Customer centric organizations always need to focus on what customers want. That is why having feedback from customers is quite necessary. How can you know what customers want if you don’t ask them?
Constantly try to get feedback from your customers. Fill in surveys, offer discounts in return. Create a forum where your clients can talk about your products or leave feedback. Use customer data to see what customers really like and expand on the feedback.
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Marketing strategy that focuses on customer satisfaction
If you are offering a customer focused experience, you need to market accordingly. Let potential clients know this is where you excel, and these are your goals. Your marketing team needs to constantly think and plan how they are going to market this approach.
Make a social media marketing strategy where potential buyers can see you act upon the promises as compared to your competition.
Fact: A whopping 80% of customers say they would do business with companies that offer more personalized experiences (source)
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Implement Seamless user experience
Perhaps one of the most important and long-term factors for a customer-centric business is to implement a seamless user experience. No matter how good or powerful your product is, if a user finds it difficult to use, it is not going to make your customer happy.
Design your product keeping user experience in mind. Always keep this as your priority. Focus on little things that matter to the user. Make it easier for a user to switch between different product modules.
For example, there is no point in creating a robust knowledge base if users cannot search and find the information they are looking for. Create a strong search module and place it on the top of your knowledge base homepage so users can easily find it and start searching for the required information.
Build an advanced knowledge base for your customers and give them answers fast – real fast.
Take your app and help center to the next level with CloudTutorial.
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Senior leadership to lead by example
Leading by example is the best way to make employees focus on customers’ needs. If you are bad mouthing your customers, your employees will never approach customers’ problems in mind.
Your leadership should be polite and should always look to make customers happy. Show by example how important the customer is, and this is your goal.
Pro tip: Create an “idea day” once a month where employees present new ideas on how they think the company can make the customer experience easier and how customers can be happier. You might find some good ideas and work on it.
You should also involve managers, engineers, and employees directly with the customers. In recent years, when every button click matters, having the development team directly involved with the customers can help them identify necessary features, know the pain points of customers, prioritize and develop user-friendly flows.
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User testing is a must
Every engineering environment knows the importance of user testing. No matter how amazing you think you have created an app, you cannot cover all user flows. Always get your product user tested and see what is the user behavior and get the team to take care of it.
Fact: according to experts, you only need five customers to find 85% of the problems (source)
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Ask the leaving customer necessary questions
No matter how good your product is, there will always be customers leaving your product. Asking them the right questions will help you identify what are the common complaints leaving customers have.
Knowing the reasons can help you identify what needs to be improved and create a strategy accordingly.
If you haven’t gotten feedback from ex customers, you are missing the opportunity to make your product more user friendly.
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Reward customer loyalty
Customers are loyal because they find your product useful. Keep these customers close. Reward them for their loyalty. Ask them what can make your product better, Value their feedback.
Going the extra mile will make them know you care; this will increase their loyalty.
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Balance the use of technology vs human interaction
AI-based Chatbots, knowledge bases, feedback forms e.t.c are great tools that can help solve customer issues faster and smoother.
But that can frustrate customers as well, as sometimes talking to chatbots or referring links to the website can be tiresome as they won’t be able to understand the customer’s issue completely.
Statistics show that 30% of customer service calls can be forwarded to chatbots and knowledge bases.
Find the right balance between technology and human interaction. Customer centric businesses tend to create human connections when needed. If a customer issue is not solved immediately by looking into the knowledgebase, give them easy access to talk to an agent.
FAQs
- 9-10 scorers are happy customers who will promote your product
- 7-8 scorers are ok with your product but likely switch if they find any better one.
- 0-6 scorers are not happy and probably will damage your reputation
Conclusion
In today’s digital world, where customers are looking into more of an experience, creating a customer centric culture is a must. To create a customer experience environment, you have to look into the list we shared above.
Using tools like CloudTutorial can help create a great customer service experience and help transform your company.
Try it out before you decide.
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