Customer Friendly Was So 30 Seconds Ago

Take a pile of social media, add a heaping scoop of CRM, and sprinkle in some CEM, you now have a powerful weapon for retailers and brands. More advanced companies have formed analytic and statistician teams that decipher their consumers’ shopping, personal, and social behavioral characteristics.  These blended consumer insights allow companies the opportunity to market to their customers with a laser focus. Laser focus marketing, however, does not make your company customer-centric.

Customer Friendly vs. Customer Centricity

Sadly, customer friendly is how most companies function. The

concept of being "friendly" is that your company is business and

product driven, in order to satisfy the masses. You treat "Sometime

Sally" the same as "Loyal Larry" with a smile and a fair price. 

You may have the same savvy analytic's team as a customer-centric 

company, and you may even be customizing your marketing to speak to "Sometime Sally" or "Loyal Larry" but marketing 

alone does not make your company customer-centric.

Customer centricity means that you shift your focus away from your company and to your customers. You change from being company- and product-driven to determining really who your loyal customers are and what their problems are, then providing mutually beneficial solutions.  The most critical aspect of customer centricity is to own your customers’ problems. Once you own your customers’ problems and offer solutions to solve them your company will become bulletproof.


So why is customer centricity still not mainstream? I submit that companies are afraid to risk abandoning their traditional business culture because status quo has served them thus far. Before companies can become customer centric, a commitment needs to be made from the top down. Customer centricity does not happen overnight—it takes fearless leadership, tremendous consumer insights, and tenacity.


Put Your Ego in Check 

Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . customer centricity has been a buzz word for the past five years. You’re right, it has. Unfortunately, only a few major retailers have taken this strategy to heart and are  making the most of it (Apple, Google, and Amazon, to name a few) and, as a result, the stocks of these customer-centric companies are soaring.  More companies need to quickly put their egos in check and realize the importance of solving their customers’ problems. 

Is your company product-driven or customer-centric, solving your customers’ problems? 

Sources:  Inside Best Buy   Customer Think  Wharton Business