Historic returns do not mean anything in the age of economic Darwinism. We live in the era of invention capital, where even a single individual can have an idea that values millions of dollars. Ideas are the new currency of the 21st century, and everyone’s competing for the next revolutionizing one. Multiple well-known companies like Kodak, Myspace, Barnes & Nobel, etc., went from thriving to being on life support at warp speed.
The rise and fall of brands often happen precisely because of the lack of growth. Whether it is a long-established behemoth or a small startup that experiences a meteoric rise, lack of growth can be devastating to both. Building a customer-centered approach is the key to surviving the modern business environment. The customer’s voice must reflect every decision a brand makes. This will help them maintain a relationship with customers and monitor their needs and concerns.
The topmost tech companies across the world engage with their customers through feedback loops that make them highly proactive to customer first sentiment. So, why should your brand always aim to put the customer first?
You have to listen. It’s the only way to discover what your customers actually need. You can’t just focus on what you think they need and try to make their answers line up with your own preconceived notions.
The majority of returns come from:
I. Higher Revenue
Better retention leads to less price sensitivity and positive word-of-mouth marketing.
II. Lower Expense
A Customer first approach means fewer complaints, leading to a decrease in customer acquisition costs.
If you add the above two points together, you’ll see the relevance.
“Customer-led innovation puts brands ahead of the curve.”
Customer feedback (positive and negative) is an opportunity. It is one of the greatest assets your company can have. It’ll tell you where you’re leading the way and where you need to improve. The hive mind of the internet allows brands to move quickly in response to the changing needs of their customer first mindset. It will tell you where you are leading and where you’re lagging. Basically, customer collaboration means the development of products/services that speak directly to them. This lowers the overall risk of products being met with a lukewarm reception or failing outright. So, the question goes: How to become a customer first organization? Here are 9 ways to help you:
How to Become a Customer First Organization?
Being a customer first means investing in and implementing a strong customer experience and customer first strategy. Ensure these 9 things are happening at your organization:
I. Lower The Communication Gap: From The Bottom Up
The flow of management goes from top-down, but innovation comes from the bottom up. Customers and lower-level executives are closer to the challenges, and their solutions will put your brand ahead of the competition. You can create communication opportunities that flow from customers to support executives and eventually move to upper management. This will enable you to hear and take action on thought-leading ideas as they come up.
II. Listen Actively On Your Social Media
Make sure that your social media platforms fit your demographic and that your executives run them properly. Social media is the best way to take feedback and improve. You can respond to complaints when they come in, take feedback whenever necessary and listen to ideas that bubble up. Make sure you are putting in the effort and that your customers feel heard. Social media can be the most personal way you communicate with your customers. An engaged community of loyal customers brings more results than any marketing campaign I’ve ever seen.
III. Implement Customer Ideas And Feedback
Engagement is the most throwaway word these days but giving your customers a chance to interact with your brand authentically is always a good strategy. So, if you’re asking for feedback on innovation, you need to give the chance to win recognition (for their ideas) to your customers. Nothing works better than your customers feeling valued and validated. After implementing their feedback and ideas, you can inform them about the same. You can also let the world know about these changes and tell them that they’re customer-driven changes through your social media channels.
Focus on Multi-Dimensional Needs of Your Customers and Support Executives
Set up your customer success team, and build a collaborative environment with the best-in-class helpdesk management software.
IV. Customer Satisfaction: Strive For More
Customer relationships and feedback goes hand in hand. You’ve to create a loop of these two to build customer loyalty. Besides this, you need to offer a well-executed product too. No tech company is born perfect. And changes in strategy, employees’ mindset, etc., can bring new challenges. Listen to feedback from your front-line support executives too. They’re the ones who work closest to the customers. Once you know the issues from both your executives and customers, do your best to acknowledge issues and address them. Embracing negative feedback from an unhappy customer will pave the way to enhance a better experience for all in the future. Use the insights to anticipate needs and deliver exactly what customers demand.
V. Ensure 100% Customer Visibility
One of the most crucial aspects of building a customer first brand is ensuring full customer visibility. It provides a better picture of customer needs, pain points, and an overall sense of how strong your relationship is with them. And only data can bring in this visibility. Therefore, make sure you use the right ticketing system software that lets you integrate all of your customer data into your helpdesk. It provides a better picture of customer needs, pain points, and an overall sense of how strong your relationship is with them. Data will enable you to have a full context every time you interact with a customer. By prioritizing data visibility, you can become someone who anticipates customer needs and addresses their issues quickly and accurately before they become problematic.
VI. Prioritize Empathy
Empathy can be an important differentiator. The more empathy you infuse in your customer interactions, the more authentic connection you may be able to foster. A study states that 69% of customers expect an organization to prioritize their problem if they are upset, and more than 50% expect a business to personalize their interactions (and experience.) You can always ask your customers how they feel about their real-time interactions with the brands and determine whether their opinion is positive, negative, or neutral. You can make minor changes to your workflows to enable empathy. For instance, you can escalate queries of customers with the most urgent needs. You can train your employees to put themselves in customers’ shoes and determine the best way to communicate at that moment.
VII. Listen, Learn, and Evolve
You cannot underestimate the importance of a customer’s voice. You need to adopt an “outside-in” mindset, and you can do it by listening to what customers say and share.
Customer experience leaders outperform in the market by 107.5%. Those that lack customer experience fall significantly behind the average.
The feedback and insights coupled with data and predictive analytics, will let you make the necessary adjustments and deliver exceptional customer experiences consistently.
VIII. Deliver Proactive Customer Experiences
Proactive customer support is desperately needed to meet customer demands, states Gartner. On the contrary, only 13% of customers said they have ever received proactive support. This is where you can shine and stand out. Delivering a proactive experience could be a competitive advantage. The only way to be proactive is to understand your customers and put them first in your decision-making process.
IX. Empower Your Customer Support Team With the Latest Tools
In order to keep all your eyes focused on the customer, it is imperative that you set up your customer success teams for success. This means recognizing their needs and providing the most robust technology tools to empower them to do their best. When your customer support agents feel empowered and knowledgeable, they can better focus their attention on addressing the multi-dimensional needs of their customers.
Not Quite Customer First? It’s Okay. You Can Start Now!
Becoming a customer-first brand means building a strong foundation. Evaluate if your brand focuses on the customer and figure out what action it will take to deliver that promise. Here are some questions to begin with:
- Is the customer experience mission (and vision) strong and clear?
- Does every support executive at your brand see beyond the product?
- Is proactive customer experience prioritized and understood as part of your brand’s success?
- Is your customer data centralized and visible?
- Can your employees deliver a personalized and meaningful experience?
- Are your support executives able to deliver personalized and meaningful experiences?
- Is your support available on every channel?
There are N number of ways to create positive change in your organization. Even if you haven’t checked everything off the above list, start where you can. Keep your focus on customer-first! Your brand and customers will thank you!
The Bottomline
Helpdesk tools integrated with data can help brands put their customers first and curate a better experience for them. DeskXpand is a robust helpdesk management software that lets you connect your support data into a single platform. We are ISO27001-certified portal experts with 15+ years of industry experience. We aim to help you achieve complete visibility and attain a high-resolution rate. Take a free trial today!
