Holding top competitor status in the industry is 5 times more likely for customer-obsessed businesses (Forrester 2016).
We are in the “age of the customer.” This means that the customer is at the center of the business. No more is there just a customer service department in the most successful companies, now customer service is in every part of the company.
You can measure your customer obsession toward your startup’s ultimate success. It helps to look at this on a continuum, from customer obsession, to customer centricity, to customer awareness, to customer naivete.
As far back as 1999 Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon) was tackling customer obsession. “If there’s one thing that Amazon.com is about, it’s obsessive attention to the customer experience end to end.” In 2016 he added, “Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better.”
Renowned brands like Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, UPS, Disney, IBM, and Hubspot are built on the foundation of customer obsession; no doubt you agree if you think about your own experience with them.
Below, see where your startup lies. Compare the two highest measures of love for the customer: customer-centricity and customer obsession. Customer centricity is good, but customer obsession is the gold star.
CUSTOMER CENTRICITY CUSTOMER OBSESSION
| We know who our customers are. |
We have built our business strategy around who our customers are.
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| We know what our customers want or need. |
We search for tangible ways to satisfy our customers wants/needs.
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| Our marketing and advertising taps into our customers’ wants or needs. |
Our marketing and advertising delivers to customers on its promises.
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| Our branding messages speak to the customer. |
We have created a clear and genuine brand promise.
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When customers complain, we have a department or manager act on it.
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We empower all employees to problem-solve customer complaints. |
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We request customer feedback right after the buy.
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We foster end-to-end product improvement based on customer suggestions.
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We require our employees to have great customer service skills.
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We hire and develop our employees with a primary emphasis on our customers. |
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We provide a way for customers to provide feedback.
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We are flexible to hear customer feedback; providing multiple ways to receive it. |
| When customers churn, we find out why. |
We analyze reasons for customer churn and create changes where necessary.
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Here at Truify, we can talk to your customers to find out who they are, and what they want, so that you can build your customer-obsession strategy with a strong foundation.
We hope you enjoyed this blog!
References:
www.linkedin.com/pulse/7-habits-customer-obsessed-companies-mohanbir-sawhney/
www.linkedin.com/pulse/20-small-changes-create-customer-obsessed-will-kingston/
whataboutthecustomer.com/2019/customer-centricity-or-customer-obsession/
www.prophet.com/2017/05/3-strategies-to-achieve-customer-obsession/
www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2015/05/26/building-a-customer-obsessed-operating-model/