The modern business landscape is constantly evolving, and you must adapt in order to stay relevant and profitable. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is by adopting a customer-centric approach. It puts the needs and wants of the customer at the center of all business decisions, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
Such businesses focus more on the customer and the experience their business creates for them.
As any business is done for the customers, having a customer-centric business approach is advantageous in many ways. This keeps the customers happy, decreases customer turnover, eases the processes of CRM, etc which in turn benefits the business. There are various strategies through which we can achieve this. Let us look at a few of them.
Strategy 1: Provide an Amazing Customer Journey
“Human interaction is the key force in overcoming resistance and speeding change.”
— M. Scott Peck
Customers interact with our business at various stages. From just knowing about the business to them being our customers they connect in myriad ways, which is known as the customer journey. Having an amazing customer journey creates a pleasant experience for the customer.
One of the steps to providing an amazing customer journey is to have a clear vision that you can communicate within your organization. This vision will guide each element of your company for your approach to dealing with your customers.
You also need to have an emotional connection with the customers. Emotions are a strong driving force while making any decision. Brands that the customers can emotionally connect with tend to drive more traffic and sales. One of the best examples of making an emotional connection is at Beginest Coworking Spaces.
We are not just a coworking space in MG Road and Indiranagar, but a community of entrepreneurs. Founders of Beginest Coworking Spaces share the same office space with fellow founders and entrepreneurs and as they are seen every day, this makes them approachable and helps establish a personal connection with the brand.
Strategy 2: Stay Ahead of the Competition
In today's highly competitive business environment, staying ahead of the competition is crucial. A customer-centric approach allows companies to continuously gather feedback and stay up-to-date on customer needs, which in turn helps them to identify new opportunities and develop innovative products and services.
One of the first steps to staying ahead of the competition is to know your customers better. Customers at present times have more options than earlier. If you know them better than your competition, you can serve their exclusive needs which are not catered to by the competition. You can conduct interviews, reflect on your experiences, etc. One of the best ways to know your customer better is to analyze the pattern of the complaints.
Strategy 3: Increase Customer Retention
Customer retention is one of the important aspects of any business. A customer-centric approach helps to increase customer retention by improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. By understanding customer needs and proactively addressing any issues, businesses can reduce the need for costly customer support and returns. Additionally, satisfied customers are more likely to recommend a company to their friends and family, resulting in increased word-of-mouth marketing.
One example of working towards customer satisfaction is the practices at Beginest Coworking Spaces. We have coworking spaces in MG Road and Indiranagar and are in a service-based business, out of the scarce problems faced by our customers, the operational ones need to be resolved ASAP to provide a seamless work environment for the customers. To help our customers with this we have set up a complaint QR code, that directs the customer to a complaint form. The complaints filed in the form are swiftly resolved by our operations team. This approach reduces the customer's efforts, which he would have to spend calling and following up with concerned persons. It also helps us in tracking the patterns of customer complaints to know them better.
In addition to this, you can create a customer feedback loop. Regular customer feedback or NPS (Net Promoter Score) helps know how they feel. It allows them to give inputs on which you can work. Rewarding promoters and loyal customers makes them feel good about the brand. If a customer doesn't feel valued, it would take just another better deal for them to switch. An example of this is providing free gift hampers for a customer’s 50th order or liking and sharing a post by them that mentions your brand.
It's worth noting that a customer-centric approach isn't just a one-time event, but rather a continuous process and even the smallest of efforts prove to be game changers. Businesses must continually gather customer feedback, analyze customer data, and make changes to their products and services to stay ahead of the curve. This requires commitment and investment from top-level management, but the rewards are worth it. A customer-centric business is more likely to retain its customers, increase revenue, and stay competitive in the long run.
If you are looking forward to meeting folks who are working towards building great businesses with a customer-centric mindset, you are at the right place. Beginest is a cult of entrepreneurs that has one of the founding principles to help new businesses and budding entrepreneurs. We are not only a coworking space in Bangalore but also a community of startups and entrepreneurs. We have built a network of over 200 flourishing startups and small businesses that have benefited from the provision of our incubation, startup service capabilities, mentor hours, access to funding, and other resources. We have coworking spaces in Indiranagar and MG Road.
You can contact us to join the cult. See you!
Comments