If I asked you if your customer is at the center of everything your business does, I suspect that just about everyone would say, "Of course."
While you may not want to hear it, the truth is that virtually every company today claims to be customer-centric, but few really are. I believe this is because many marketing executives look at customer centricity as understanding and responding to the customer's needs.
But in today's Web 2.0 world, this definition doesn't go far enough. Brands need to dig deeper. They need to turn their perspective from inside-out to outside-in in order to get the depth and breadth of the insight they need to be truly customer centric.
Social media tools and technologies give marketers the unique ability to adopt the "from the outside looking in" perspective they need to be CLEAR about what drives a customer-centric strategy.
- Collaboration
- Listening
- Experience
- Action
- Relationship
- Collaboration
Viewing markets as a place where goods are bought and sold is passé. Today's markets are places of conversation, connection and interaction. They are places where customers seek information and share their ideas and opinions. Customer-centric brands not only accept this shift, but embrace it by collaborating with their customers to define, create and deliver value.
For instance, launched in February 2007, Dell Computer's IdeaStorm is a new way for the company to listen to customers on how to build the best products and services. IdeaStorm is an online community where customers can post their thoughts on technology and Dell products, services and operations, and the community votes for the best ideas.
Dell then shares these ideas throughout its organization in order to trigger innovation. Says CEO Michael Dell, "We are at our best when we are hearing directly from our customers. We listen, learn and then improve and innovate based on what our customers want."
And, according to a recent article in Business Week ("The Latest Research Trend: Customers Behind the Wheel," 2/25/07), proactively co-developing with their brands is exactly what consumers want to do. A whopping 68 percent of young people surveyed in the United States and Canada -- or what BusinessWeek calls the "collaboration generation" -- are eager to help companies design their products and services.
ListenFor those of you who think you know your customers, social media is just the reality check you need. Even with the thousands of dollars spent on marketing research, CRM and even CEM, are you really hearing the voice of your customers? And if you are hearing them, are you really listening to what they're saying?
Establishing a dialogue with customers and listening to what they have to say helps marketers keep their business strategies fresh, current and compelling -- and customer-focused. After all, who knows you better than your customers (and your most loyal ones at that)?
Talking with them via a variety of social media tools (such as blogs, forums, chat rooms and online communities) gives marketers the immediate, unfiltered and continuous customer feedback they need to get into their heads and hearts.
This is exactly the goal behind Marriott International's CEO and Chairman Bill Marriott's foray into the blogosphere. As he writes in his inaugural blog, "Bottom line, I believe in communicating with the customer, and the internet gives me a whole new way of doing that on a global scale.
I'd rather engage directly in dialogue with you because that's how we learn and grow as a company. So tell me what you think, and together we'll keep Marriott on the Move!"
Experiences Experts agree that customer centricity means not only meeting but exceeding customer expectations. It's about building real brand experiences with, not just for, customers. A recent survey conducted by E-Consultancy for cScape found, however, that many companies are not making the grade because they fail to provide a personalized customer experience.
According to the survey's "Customer Engagement Report," 95 percent of company respondents believe that personalized experiences are essential or useful for customer engagement, yet a full 37 percent are providing no personalization at all.
Customer-centric companies realize that it's no longer the product or service that differentiates the brand; rather it's the customer's experience with that product or service that sets the brand apart from the competition.
And, given the array of social media at one's fingertips, customers increasingly are empowered and enlightened, continuously upping their expectations and demanding more "what's in it for me" experiences with the brand.
Action
To take action customers need information: the right information. Yet, given the massive amounts of marketing messages they receive every day and the plethora of information available on the internet, getting the information they need to take action is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
That is why in the world of customer centricity, relevance is key to enabling action. Marketers that provide customers with meaningful content, and give them access to the tools they need to manage this information, will stand head-and-shoulders above the competition. Consider these statistics:
- 59 percent of users consider customer reviews to be more valuable than expert reviews (source: BizRate)
- 77 percent of online shoppers depend on consumer-generated reviews and ratings (source: JupiterResearch)
- 63 percent of users indicate they are more likely to purchase from a site if it has ratings and reviews (source: eVOC Insights)
The disconnect here is that despite the value customers place on this type of user-generated content, the "Customer Engagement Report" found that a full 34 percent of organizations have no plans to use user-generated content at all.
Relationship
When you put all of these ideas together, you realize that the crux of customer-centricity relationships is building mutually profitable relationships. Says P&G's global marketing chief Jim Stengle in a recent article in Adweek, "It's [marketing] not about telling and selling. It's about bringing a relationship mind-set to everything we do."
Social media and Web 2.0 have facilitated the ability to bring that "relationship mind-set" in ways that were not possible just a few years ago. Via ongoing two-way conversations, marketers gain the insights and power to implement a truly customer-centric strategy that drives long-term business growth rather than short-term results.
As I said, markets are no longer about buying and selling; they're about conversations. And it's these conversations that fuel innovation, build customer relationships and drive long-term business value. So, there's no need to be in the dark about how Web 2.0 tools and technologies impact customer-centricity.
It's CLEAR that the rise of social media has given marketers the power to implement five key points that are the cornerstones of an effective customer-centric strategy: collaboration, listening, experiences, action and relationship.
Joe Lichtenberg is the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development with Eluma, the provider of only desktop application that drives customer loyalty and incremental revenue through the power of communities.