Customer-centric organizations set themselves up for success by meeting individual needs and creating a positive experience for the customer. They put the customers first, maximize service and product offerings, build relationships, and commit significant resources to identify the needs of current and potential customers. They seek to build long-term relationships and customer loyalty. Basically, they do what it takes to keep customers coming back rather than making a transaction a one-time thing. The most important idea is that putting customers first, will build loyalty that results in them spending more of their money on your products and services in the long run, and less likely to go elsewhere based only on price. This is especially important for small and local businesses. For example, a local store may not be able to match the prices at a big-box store, but may be able to make up for that through excellent service. Customer-centric businesses ensure that the customer is at the center of the business' philosophy, operations, and ideas. Customers are the primary reason for the business to exist. As you can see from the graphic to my right, every element of the organization revolves around the customer and is dedicated to making them happy. Focusing in organizing your company around the customer must be done sincerely and shown through actions and behaviors. In other words, you've got to both talk the talk and walk the walk. Customers are smart and will be able to tell if you really care about them. All companies and organizations have internal or external customers, or both. Internal customers work within your organization and require assistance from other employees to do their jobs. They are your peers, co-workers, bosses, subordinates, and people from other areas of the organization. They need assistance with things like human resources, logistical support, securing additional resources, and so forth. This is in contrast to external customers who pay for your goods and services and are not directly connected to the organization. This group includes vendors, wholesalers, and end-users, the people who use the product. No matter where you work, your goal should be to assist customers in meeting their needs. Your success and that of your organization depend on it. Implementing a customer-centric model takes more than just treating the customer right. Now, that's good on its own of course, but not enough. It also includes a shift in internal culture from product-centered to customer-centered. This shift must be led from the top and requires buy-in at all organizational levels. Supervisors play a key role because they are responsible for the employees who have the most contact with customers. Customers will largely base their opinions of the company on how they're treated by employees. Companies choose a customer-centric approach for many reasons, but the biggest is probably customer retention. New customers are just really hard to find and just as hard to lure away from your competitors, unless you're providing a brand-new good or service. The majority of customers will evaluate your business against your competition. For example, consumers typically compare one pizza shop to another, or they compare Starbucks to Dunkin. Acquiring new customers is also expensive and requires hard work by the marketing and sales staff. Businesses are more successful when they keep existing customers happy and sell them more. For example, Apple built iPod alongside iTunes to maintain a seamless, convenient user experience. Customers keep coming back to buy new devices, mostly iPhones now and to download music. Customer retention is not exactly simple or easy, though. You've got to pay attention to the customers current and anticipated needs and put forth the same amount of effort both before and after the sale to attract and retain customers and drive profits. Walking in customers with superior service is the go-to strategy for customer-centric companies. They strive to create an experience so good that their customers can't imagine receiving the same level of support and attention anywhere else. Looking at the customer across products also increases the lifetime value of the customer. Buyers of one of your products are potential repeat buyers for the same or another product. For example, if you're in the car business a happy compact car buyer, may one day be a good candidate to buy another compact car or even better, a luxury car. Of course, there are natural limitations on how many products and services one company can offer while maintaining superior quality. Some companies offer too much and erode the core services that made them outstanding in the first place. For example, a deli might decide to add pizza to their menu, but unfortunately it turns out to be not very good, and this harms the deli's overall reputation. As with any approach, taking it to an extreme is as dangerous as not practicing it at all.
