What does it mean for a company to become customer centric? And what are the solutions that a company can implement on a practical level to set a path towards customer centricity? We talked about this last week in our LinkedIn live to clarify to those who follow us what the opportunities and possibilities are to put into practice immediately. Watch the complete talk on our LinkedIn page (Italian audio).
What it means to make a customer-centric company
In a previous article, we talked about how customer centricity is one of the keywords of this 2023: now that the corporate customer experience tools are fully developed, the next step can only be to get closer to customers and work on their happiness and satisfaction, to close the circle and create a market where service and solution providers, companies and users all enjoy advantages and can reap the fruits of mutual interests.
But what is customer centricity? During our live on LinkedIn, Dazerolab’s CEO Fabio Asselle gave an important definition because it includes both the meaning and the challenges and advantages this term encloses: “Customer centricity means rethinking the organization according to the customer. A simple concept to say but complex to do because it involves a series of demanding steps for the company that have an impact on the organization, at the level of the application map and also on the training of people.”
CRM Enterprise: the popular choice, but is it the “silver bullet” solution?
How do companies solve this complexity? During our live talk, Fabio spoke about how the solution commonly adopted by companies to increase their customer centricity is to implement an Enterprise CRM, intended as a Customer Relationship Management platform that frames all customer processes. This is a step that is widely accepted as the “silver bullet” solution to reach a customer-centric status: a one-time, one-platform quick fix in which the company invests on a budget, time and training level. But is it the solution?
The truth is the choice of an Enterprise CRM could be sometimes necessary, sometimes undertaken to follow the trend, but often turns out to be insufficient: there is no magic solution and setting up a complex CRM can become a very long and demanding operation for the company since it includes a commitment by all resources in the training and use of the new software. After the training phase, however, the company may end up realising that this big software is short of specific functionalities: the problem at this point is that making changes to an Enterprise CRM requires further large budgets and long timescales, and therefore it becomes an endless, expensive, and exhausting process.
Agile technologies to increase customer centricity: cloud is king
Fortunately, other solutions are more agile both in terms of processes and changes and in terms of budget. As it will be easy to understand, the best way to avoid entering the infinite circle of costs/times for implementation and costs/times for the necessary changes is to customise the processes in the design phase. To do this, it is necessary to use other methods – more agile, accessible, and autonomous – which allow the paths taken to be tested easily and quickly until the ideal flow of processes tailored to the company is achieved. One of these is the one that, with the same application map, makes it possible to lighten flows by reducing the components and converging on more agile models. In this sense, the key is to be found in cloud technologies: platforms such as AWS allow you to create automation systems with easily connectable basic services while using the advantages of AI and machine learning to analyse data and habits.
Practical methods to draw up a path towards customer centricity
But customer centricity doesn’t end here: even with the right tools in place, there is a lot of work to do on the company to get to know the customers better and be able to deliver an outstanding experience. The methods to do so of course are related to the study of habits and data relating to the users’ experience. In particular, an effective customer-centricity strategy not only offers the customer what he needs to meet his needs but even manages to know them in advance: in this way the company manages to anticipate user needs, increasing their satisfaction.
To do this, there are several methods. Let’s see some of them that can be put into practice right away:
– implement a relational model with the customer: it is important to shift thinking from the classic market model, which views the exchange between the company and the customer as completed as soon as the purchase is made, to a relational model. From a customer-centric point of view, it is crucial to focus on creating and growing a relationship between customer and company over time. In this sense, the methods for predicting the customer’s future needs are very effective because they do not stop only at the present but also take root in the future.
– request opinions and listen to customer feedback: the opinions of users and customers about services and products are free strategic tools to be exploited as much as possible. These are real clear indications provided on the work of the company and help to understand the wishes, needs and possible frustrations of customers. A customer-centric company must collect as much feedback as possible and analyse it in depth.
– make use of AI and machine learning smartly: on the one hand, by offering an improvement in services and customer care through virtual assistants and automatic responders who can help customers solve problems and direct them to the appropriate assistance channels where more help is needed; on the other hand, by using new technologies to analyse data and find new ways to meet customer satisfaction.
– personalize, personalize and personalize: in increasingly complex markets, competitiveness passes through the details. That’s why personalizing the user experience becomes crucial. Tools such as AWS and our catalogue of software allow companies to customize user experiences on services down to the smallest detail, creating truly tailor-made process flows.
– reach customers on their preferred channels: overseeing each channel of customer interest with a variety of assistance and care services is important. Today even more, it must be the concern of the company that wants to offer an extraordinary experience to the customers to meet them where they are.
– constantly measure results: keeping an eye on statistics and trends is often considered a separate step from customer-centricity improvement strategies, but it is not. On the contrary, always being aware of the level of customer satisfaction and the improvements made is a best practice for deciding the next strategic moves.
Dazerolab can help your business become more customer-centric
Dazerolab is a cloud software service provider and is part of the AWS ecosystem. It offers both internally developed tools – OnBoarding Funnel, AFC, and Quid – and the possibility of drawing on AWS solutions to enhance business flows and processes in an agile, lightweight and simpler way. We are not only developers, but we also offer tailor-made services to increase the customer-centricity of companies with an eye to the future.
Are you interested in learning more? Contact us now to talk about how Dazerolab’s services and software can help your company become truly customer centric.