Only the Brands Obsessed with Customers Left Alive: 5 Steps to Creating a Customer-Centric Culture 🚀
🏆 A business filled with meaning and obsessed with customers is the new religion of modern entrepreneurship. Today, let’s talk about how to create value for customers, why it’s important to form an obsession strategy, and how it impacts the success of companies.
👀 What is Customer Obsession❓
A company obsessed with customers places the needs, desires, and satisfaction of customers at the center of its business decisions and actions. 👉 At every stage [from product or service development, marketing strategies, service, etc.], it strives to create value for its buyers, understand, anticipate, and exceed their expectations, and in the long term — build an emotional connection. Forrester emphasizes that “customer obsession” should not be confused with “customer orientation.” The latter is primarily about providing the best possible service [let’s be honest, this is a given and should be done by every business]. 🚀 In contrast, customer obsession begins with the desire to understand their expectations, thus building the business around their needs.
📌 Example 1. Zappos exhibits customer obsession in every step. The company offers a WOW experience in delivery and returns: it delivers all orders for free, regardless of the amount, and provides a 365-day period from the date of purchase for returns and exchanges without any questions.
📌 Example 2. Starbucks creates a welcoming atmosphere in inclusive spaces, offering an incredible variety of coffee options, among which even the most discerning coffee lovers will find their perfect drink. They also actively interact with customers through social media [as defined by Howard Schultz, the former CEO, this is “customer mania”].
📌 Example 3. The founder of online giant Amazon, Jeff Bezos, views customers as invited guests at a party, where the hosts (the store itself) should make every aspect of customer service the best it can be.
📌 Example 4. Netflix gives its viewers exactly what they want to watch. The service uses special algorithms to personalize recommendations. Each subscriber sees content tailored to their needs.
💫 What Benefits Will Your Business Gain from Customer Obsession?
Focusing on customer values guides entrepreneurs on the path to prosperity. Obsession is important for several reasons:
✔ investments in customer obsession can yield at least 700% ROI over 12 years [data from Forrester];
✔ brand loyalty and customer retention. Satisfied and loyal customers return, share positive experiences with others, attracting a new audience;
✔ customer obsession makes the business more adaptable, even if external circumstances change [King Arthur Flour increased flour production at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to consumer requests, reequipped the existing production line, and supplemented online content with baking videos. Employees on the hotline advised professional bakers and everyone interested in flour, sourdough, and yeast. The main question the company’s authors ask themselves before writing materials is, “What would help consumers bake?”];
✔ it helps test new models without losing customers. Escapology launched web rooms for virtual teams when physical spaces closed due to COVID-19;
✔ it saves finances. Target reduced operational costs by 40% after offering customers to pick up their online orders from the store on the same day.
5 Steps to Help Create a Culture of Customer Obsession:
1️⃣ Assess the current situation. Collect customer feedback and analyze metrics (customer lifetime value [CLV], net promoter score [NPS], and customer satisfaction score [CSAT]);
2️⃣ Use the obtained results to develop a customer obsession strategy. This is a roadmap for your team. Together, you will determine priorities and key factors that create value for customers and find ideas for new products or services;
3️⃣ Regularly monitor performance indicators.At this stage, you can use the above metrics as well as the customer effort score [CES]. Control all stages of the customer life cycle and pay attention to retention strategies. Today’s market is hyper-competitive, so the cost of customer acquisition is increasing. The longer the customer stays with you, the more economically beneficial it is. If a monthly subscription to a product costs $100, the cost of customer acquisition can be $300 to $400, especially in highly competitive conditions. To break even, a person must stay with the product for at least 3 months (and this is forgetting about the cost!);
4️⃣ Adapt the work of the team, especially the employees who directly communicate with customers. Develop training programs for the support service, encourage employees with bonuses, give them more freedom in decision-making, which will affect the level of responsibility. Create internal platforms for feedback, where the team will share suggestions and reviews for improving service;
5️⃣ Stick to a long-term position. Customer obsession is an ongoing process. Analyze metrics, look for opportunities to improve the quality of the product or service, adapt offers, and improve team qualifications. This will help meet changing customer expectations and provide a competitive advantage.
