The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Customer-Centric Strategy for Your Business

Simply offering a good product or service isn’t going to cut it.

Here’s why?

A survey by PwC found that 73% of consumers rate customer experience as a key consideration before making purchasing decisions.  

What’s more, customers are actually willing to pay more for experiences that matter to them - be it friendly service, human interaction, personalization, convenience, or efficiency. 

Source 

That’s how important a customer-centric approach is for any business.

In the face of growing competition, you need to shift your focus from just the products or services you offer - to the people who consume them.

A customer-centric strategy bridges this gap by placing the customer experience at the heart of all business decisions.

With that in mind, we’ve compiled a guide to equip you with the tools and knowledge needed to make your business truly customer-centric.

In this article, we’ll look at:  

• Definition and importance of customer-centricity
• The key steps to developing a customer-centric strategy
• How to measure the success of a customer-centric strategy
• The role of technology, including knowledge bases, in supporting customer-centricity

But first….

What is a Customer-Centric Strategy?

A customer-centric strategy prioritizes customer needs, preferences, and pain points at every level of the business to help you deliver exceptional experiences. Building customer-centricity involves considering your customer in all decision-making processes - this includes product development, marketing, and customer service.

With the increasing demand for better customer service experiences, this strategic approach can set you apart from your competitors.

It’s an opportunity to revamp your customer service strategy and build long-term relationships.

Why is a Customer-Centric Approach Important?

Frustrated customers, dwindling loyalty, and stagnating growth are all signs of a company with a poor customer-centric approach. No business owner or leader wants to be in such a situation.

You can reverse all this by paying attention to customer-centricity. This approach can significantly transform your business, leading to various benefits that enhance both customer satisfaction and the company's bottom line. 

Let’s take a closer look at the benefits you get as a customer-centric company: 

Increased Customer Loyalty

According to the HubSpot State of Customer Service report, 31% of customer service leaders’ key focus is on improving loyalty and customer retention rates. 

And it all makes sense why.

Think of a company like Apple, known for its customer-centric approach. All the campaigns,  product launches, and services emphasize on user experience and customer satisfaction. This explains why the company’s loyalty sits at 93% - with a customer base that consistently purchases new products and advocates for the brand.

Similarly, adopting a strategy that focuses on customer-centricity can help you build solid customer relationships. This leads to: 

• Repeat business: Loyal clients are more inclined to make repeat purchases, bringing in consistent revenue.
• Reduced customer acquisition costs: Keep in mind gaining new customers incurs higher costs than retaining existing ones. 
• Positive word-of-mouth: Satisfied customers become brand advocates, recommending your company-centric company to others.
• Higher purchase frequency: Loyal customers tend to buy more frequently and spend more per transaction.

Higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Think of it like this; you’ve just signed up new customers.

But how can you ensure they stay loyal to your brand in the long run? 

That’s the challenge for most businesses.

However, with a proper customer-centric strategy, you can encourage repeat purchases from this customer base.  

Customer lifetime value (CLTV) represents the total revenue a business anticipates from a single customer account. It increases as loyal customers purchase and engage with the brand over time.

A customer-centric approach directly impacts CLTV by:

• Addressing customer pain points to reduce churn
• Upselling and cross-selling to offer additional products or services
• Creating strong customer bonds

Improved Brand Reputation

Offering a diverse range of products and services isn’t enough.

You still need a strong brand reputation. 

It’s evident that a significant number of adults in the U.S. value this. 58% of consumers consider the company’s reputation before making a purchasing decision. 

You could lose customers if you’re known for poor service, late deliveries, product recalls, rude staff, or lack of transparency. 

Customer-centric companies do the opposite. All the resources are dedicated to meeting customer needs and enhancing your reputation, especially in today’s competitive marketplace.

Ensuring that your customer’s needs are met at every step of the buyer’s journey signals genuine commitment. Consistently delivering these exceptional experiences also shapes a positive brand perception.

Competitive Advantage

Every business is competing for the same customers. This means marketing strategies are also becoming more targeted.

To differentiate yourself, you can start by delivering superior customer value. This is the best approach if you want to attract more customers and boost your revenue. After all, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable. 

For instance, if you run an e-commerce business, start by offering a seamless customer experience from when the order is received to delivery and possible returns. Customers will remember this the next time they want to buy a similar product. 

Have a customer support team on standby to respond to questions and provide a knowledge base that customers can access independently. 

As a result, you’ll make more sales and gain a competitive edge over other retailers. 

Key Components of a Customer-Centric Strategy

Let’s say you want to develop or revamp your existing business strategy to be more customer-centric. What should you incorporate?

Here are the key components to consider:

Understanding Your Customers

To craft a truly personalized customer experience, it’s essential to deeply understand your customers. With this foundational knowledge, you can design your services, products, and interactions to meet (and exceed) their expectations. 

Here’s how to achieve this:

• Conduct customer research: Are your customers happy? Are there services they need improved? Surveys, feedback forms, and brief interviews can help you collect this customer data.
• Segment your customers: Businesses often have multiple customer segments. To serve each segment well, divide the customer base into distinct segments and offer personalized services.  

Aligning Company Culture

Understanding your customers is one thing - ensuring that everyone in the business is committed to customer-centric values is another. 

If your team isn’t fully locked in, your customers will see through it.  And they might eventually abandon you for your competitors. 

Creating a customer-centric culture requires involvement from the leadership to the front-line employees.

While the customer support team is the face of it all, there needs to be leadership buy-in and commitment from everyone to customer-centricity. The organizational goals and mission should also reflect these values to set the tone for the entire company. 

This makes it much easier for employees to align with customer-centric values. If you have new hires or need to refine your strategy, you can organize employee training sessions to equip your team with customer service best practices.

Empowering Employees

Employees are the face of a company.

So, how do you empower them? Start by:

• Giving them the tools they need to excel. For instance, your customer service reps need live chat tools, internal communication platforms, and a knowledge base to refer to for company documentation.
• Organizing ongoing training sessions to develop employees’ skills and knowledge in handling customers at every step of the journey.
• Rewarding employees for outstanding customer service.
• Creating a business environment where employees feel supported.
• Provide regular feedback and recognize employees’ efforts to deliver excellent customer service.

Customers today demand exceptional service, so ensure your team is well-equipped to handle them and resolve any issues that arise.

Leveraging Technology

Most of the business transformation we see today is fueled by technology. In fact, data by HubSpot shows that 71% of business leaders are determined to increase their investment in customer service technologies such as AI chatbots. 

The result?

Better customer intelligence and self-service options. 

Technology enhances customer experience by enabling better communication, more personalized interactions, and streamlined processes. However, you still need to leverage the right technology for the best results. 

Think of customer relationship management (CRM) systems, knowledge base software, or helpdesk software tools that benefit both the customer and support teams. 

8 Steps to Develop a Customer-Centric Strategy

So far, we’ve covered several key elements of a successful customer-centric strategy.

But you still need to develop and implement it. Let’s look at the steps to guide you.

Gather and Analyze Customer Data

If you’ve ever used brands such as Amazon, you know that they collect customer feedback about products and services by looking at reviews, ratings, and surveys. Such information is important for a company looking to overhaul or build a customer-centric culture.

Collecting and analyzing customer data provides feedback and information on client behavior and preferences. Here are some ways to get these details:

• Use questionnaires: The quickest way to determine whether your customers are satisfied and enjoying the shopping experience is to send out some questions. Ask about every aspect of the customer interactions to learn what works and what doesn’t.
• Social media and website analytics: Your Instagram or website holds important insights about what your customers like. Check the social media insights and use tools like Google Analytics to track engagement. You can also analyze which blog or social media posts generate the most interest.
• Sales and customer support data: Don’t ignore the information from the support tickets. The conversations between customers and your support team provide data that can be used to identify common issues and areas for improvement.

Understanding customer needs isn’t enough; you must go a step further and translate this into actions that drive growth. 

Create Customer Personas

These are elaborate profiles of your ideal customers based on data and research.

So, how do they boost customer-centricity?

Let’s paint a picture.

Imagine a fitness brand that wants to improve its marketing strategy and product offerings. 

To better understand its diverse customer base, the company creates two key customer personas, based on their research - “Young Professionals,” - typically aged 25-35, who live in urban areas with disposable income for premium fitness products, and “Busy Parents,” aged 35-50, who struggle to find time for workouts due to family and work commitments.

The fitness brand designs targeted marketing campaigns and product lines. They offer a range of high-tech fitness gadgets and exclusive gym memberships for “Young Professionals” and create a series of short, effective home workout videos for “Busy Parents.” 

This is how customer personas work. 

They help you understand different segments of your customer base and tailor your strategies to meet their needs. You don’t have to waste the company’s money creating products for the wrong audience.

Map the Customer Journey

Your customers interact with your brand differently at each stage - be it awareness, consideration, decision, retention, or loyalty. Your job is to make sure they are satisfied throughout the buyer’s journey.

Customer journey mapping helps you visualize the entire process to identify touchpoints and areas for improvement. Here’s how to go about it: 

• Map out all the touchpoints where customers interact with your brand, such as your website, social media, customer service, and in-store experiences.
• Pinpoint areas where customers encounter challenges or frustrations.
• Address these challenges to enhance the customer experience. 

Align Internal Processes

If your goal is to become a customer-centric company, you have to work together as a company. It might seem obvious, but it's still essential to ensure that all departments are aligned. How do you make this happen?

• Review your existing operations, workflows, and team structures to determine if they support a customer-centric approach.
• Break down information silos and encourage departmental collaboration to ensure a unified approach to customer service. For example, marketing, sales, product development, and support teams should work together to address customer needs.
• Train your employees to deliver the best customer experiences.

Once everyone is on the same page, it becomes easier to provide consistent service.

Implement Customer Feedback Loops

You can’t fake exceptional service. However, you can improve your standards by using customer feedback to improve your offerings. 

Gathering this information can be done using social media, feedback forms, in-app surveys, or customer service interactions. 

For your loop to be effective, you must go beyond collecting feedback - make sure you act on it. If your customers want new features on the software, prioritize this update to keep them happy. 

As you make the necessary adjustments, also communicate these improvements to customers. Responsiveness assures your customers that you have their needs in mind. 

Invest in the Right Technology

In this day and age, it’s impossible to ignore technology. This is why a Zendesk CX report shows that 73% of business leaders believe technologies like AI are crucial for CX interactions. 

Source

With so many tools to choose from, you need to invest in the right technology. Ask yourself:

• Does the tool streamline customer-related processes?
• Will the technology enhance customer interactions?
• Can I get valuable insights to help meet my customer-centric goals?

A quick way to get started is to get knowledge-based software to manage and share information. The better if it's self-service, since customers can access FAQs, guides, and articles independently.  

Source 

You can go a step further and adopt technologies that create interactive tutorials and guides for your customers - to help them understand how to use your products or services. You have tools like Wizardshot for that. 

Train and Empower Employees

Can you imagine how frustrating it is when you call the customer service teams and they don’t have solutions to help you?

That is bad for the company’s reputation and the quickest way to lose customers. 

Your priority should be investing in the training and development of your team members. This includes comprehensive product knowledge, communication skills, and problem-solving techniques.

Remember, customer service reps are at the frontline of your interactions. It’s only fair that they represent the company in a good light. Keeping them well-prepared to execute their tasks improves customer interactions, boosts satisfaction rates, and helps you build a customer-centric culture.

Measure your Customer-Centric Approach

You’ve aligned your processes, incorporated customer feedback, adopted technology, and trained your employees. Now, what's next?

It’s time to measure the effectiveness of your approach. While there’s no specific method to measure customer-centricity, there are key metrics that you can use to determine if your efforts are paying off. Here are the key ones:

• Net Promoter Scores (NPS): If you want to know if your customers are happy or if they would recommend you to others, this is the survey you need. Your brand promoters will give you a high score. 
• Customer lifetime value (CLTV): Ask any customer-centric company. They have long-term customers. Customer lifetime value calculates the revenue a customer brings to the company as long as they purchase your products and services.
• Customer churn: We are all working towards customer retention. But it’s not always a perfect picture; some customers might leave if they are unhappy. You can calculate your churn rates by determining the percentage of customers who stopped using your products within a certain period.   

However, all these statistics will be useless if you don’t use them. Once you have the performance metrics, you can continuously refine your customer-centric strategies.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementing a Customer-Centric Strategy

While all these strategies sound so easy, becoming a customer-centric company requires dedication and effort. You have to overcome these challenges first:

Siloed departments

• Challenge: Departments working in isolation can make it hard to deliver consistent customer experience.
• Solution: Build cross-departmental collaboration through regular meetings and shared goals. A unified approach to customer service ensures that everyone is aligned with the overall customer-centric strategy.

Ineffective Technology Tools

• Challenge: Does your customer service team have the right tools and technologies to offer faster feedback and personalized experiences? Inadequate tools will affect how you interact with customers. 
• Solution: Select self-service tools that are user-friendly, scalable, and capable of integrating with existing systems. 

Lack of Leadership Buy-In

• Challenge: Without strong support from leadership, the business initiatives may lack the necessary resources, commitment, and strategic focus to build a successful customer-centric company.
• Solution: Demonstrate the value of customer-centric strategies through data-driven insights and case studies. Connecting your initiatives to other business goals can convince executives to buy in.

Real-Life Successful Customer-Centric Examples: The Auger Case Study

Auger, a UK-based engineering firm, struggled with managing scattered information across multiple platforms. Implementing Helpjuice transformed their operations. By centralizing knowledge, they slashed out-of-hours support requests by 80% and onboarding time by 25%. 

Helpjuice’s functionality also improved information retrieval, making it 500% faster for users to find what they need to assist customers. These positive results extended to Auger’s field engineers, who could now access content using Helpjuice’s mobile-friendly platform.

The Role of Knowledge Management in Customer-Centricity

A truly customer-centric strategy needs seamless access to information - and knowledge management is the backbone of this accessibility. 

Whenever you run your business without proper knowledge management, you compromise your team's ability to deliver a positive customer experience. 

At Helpjuice, we understand this. With a well-structured knowledge base, you can reduce response times and enhance the customer experience. Investing in knowledge management tools isn’t just a business cost - but a strategic investment in building an efficient customer-centric company.

Let’s get you set up! Book a demo with our team!