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Without customers, you would have no business. So it makes sense to make customers the number one priority of your business. Yet, many brands fail to put a large enough emphasis on customer centricity — and it could be costing them.

Find out what customer centricity is, why it is so important, and what your brand can do to make customers a top priority for your business.

What Is Customer Centricity?

Customer centricity is a business philosophy that focuses on creating a positive experience for customers. When a business is customer centric, their mission and brand values put the highest priority on serving their customers and improving the way they feel about their branded experiences.

This approach is different from brands that are product centric (and focus mainly on product development and acquiring market-share) or sales centric (and focus mainly on making the most amount of sales possible).

Brands that are customer centric start with the customer and then shape their products around what customers want and need, and they focus on driving sales by building customer loyalty.

Why Is Customer Centricity Important?

Customer centricity is important for reasons that matter to both customers and brands.

Customer centricity leads to better customer experiences. Of course, when customers are a brand’s top priority, they will end up having better moments while engaging with branded touchpoints.

Customers who have great experiences spend more and are more likely to stick around. Harvard Business Review research shows that when customers have a great branded experience, they can spend more than 140% compared to those who had a bad branded experience. They also found that customers stick around when they have great experiences. In a study, there was only a 43% chance a subscription-based customer would stay after they had a bad experience versus a 74% chance they would stay after a good experience.

Customer centricity leads to higher customer satisfaction. Great experiences lead to happier, more satisfied shoppers, clients, and customers.

Satisfied customers come back and spend more. Happy customers don’t go looking for other options. They stick with the brands they know, trust, and love, help reduce customer churn, and spend more than new customers. Brands have 60-70% chance of selling to existing customers and only a 5-20% chance of selling to new customers according to Marketing Metrics research.

Pleasing customers provides benefits to both you and them. You get the benefits of higher revenue and lower expenses, while they get the experiences and high level of service and value they want and need.

How to Make Your Business More Customer Centric

Now that you see the value in making your business more customer centric, let’s look at a few ways you can make your brand more customer focused.

Learn about your customers.

You may think that you know exactly what your customers are thinking, asking, and feeling during their experience with your brand. But, you may be wrong. Your customers know more about their experience with your brand than you. Don’t assume you know about their customer journey. Learn about them so you get the truth about their experiences.

  • Ask customers about their experiences. Conduct in-person interviews or send online customer surveys.
  • Collect data about them. Create customer profiles and collect customer data about their shopping habits and purchasing trends.
  • Map the customer journey. Lay out the path that customers take on their way to make a purchase to get a clear visualization of their journey.

Make it easy for customers to share feedback.

While you should be proactive about collecting feedback from customers, you also want to make it easy for them to share their experiences on their own accord. Make it very simple for them to offer feedback when they have it.

Place touchscreen kiosks in your location that allow customers to rate their experience and provide feedback. Also, collect customer contact information when customers make purchases and send follow-up emails with instructions for leaving feedback.

Design products, services, and experiences that give customers what they want and need.

After you collect feedback, use it. Don’t just listen to customer perspectives; actually put the feedback to use. Take what you learn about your customer experiences to design new products, services, and experiences.

Being a customer centric business means that you design and shape your business around customer needs and wants. So listen and look for trends. When you identify gaps and areas where you aren’t meeting customer wants and needs, develop new offerings that provide them.

Focus on building relationships, not just making sales.

Sales centricity is all about making the sale. Customer centricity is all about pleasing the customer. If you decide to be customer centric, reflect that philosophy in your business by using your branded messaging and marketing to make relationships, not just push sales.

Don’t create content that is only intended to sell to customers. Instead, create content that helps your customers so they can see that you care about serving them. Also, create content that shows off your brand’s personality so customers can form a deeper connection with your brand based on what type of lifestyle you stand for and promote. Feature this content in your store by using digital signage and video walls that get your messaging right in front of in-store customers.

Make Your Brand More Customer Centric

By prioritizing customers, you can improve customer experience, decrease customer churn, and increase your sales and revenue. So if your brand isn’t focusing enough on giving customers a top-notch experience, explore ways to improve your branded touchpoints.

Use the tips in this post, and get even more actionable takeaways by downloading our free ebook The Ultimate Guide to In-store Marketing. It explains how you can leverage in-store marketing tools to make your business more customer centric and provide amazing experiences for every customer who walks through your door.