7 ways to build customer-centric capability in an organisation

In today’s competitive business environment, building a customer-centric capability is essential for any organisation that wants to succeed. 

A customer-centric organisation is one that puts the customer at the heart of everything it does. It is an organisation that listens to its customers, understands their needs, and delivers products and services that meet those needs. 

In this article, we will discuss how to build customer-centric capability in an organisation.

Here are 7 ways to build customer-centric capability in an organisation:

1. Develop a Customer-Centric Culture

The first step in building a customer-centric capability is to develop a culture that places the customer at the centre of everything the organisation does. This means creating a customer-focused vision, mission, and values that are communicated to all employees. Leaders need to ensure that every employee understands the importance of customer satisfaction and knows how their role contributes to it.

2. Collect Customer Feedback

To build a customer-centric capability, an organisation must collect customer feedback regularly. Customer feedback can be gathered through surveys, focus groups, customer service interactions, and social media. The insights gained from customer feedback can be used to improve products, services, and processes to better meet customer needs.

3. Analyse Customer Data

Customer data is an essential resource for building a customer-centric capability. By analysing customer data, organisations can gain insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and needs. This data can then be used to improve products and services, identify new market opportunities, and create personalised experiences for customers.

4. Empower Employees to Make Decisions

Empowering employees to make decisions is essential to building a customer-centric capability. By giving employees the autonomy to make decisions, they can act quickly to resolve customer issues and provide exceptional service. This means giving employees the tools, training, and resources they need to make informed decisions.

5. Create Profiles of your Customers

Creating customer profiles is a helpful way to build a customer-centric capability. A customer profile is a fictional representation of a customer that helps employees understand their needs, motivations, and behaviours. By creating customer profiles, organisations can tailor products, services, and marketing efforts to better meet the needs of their target customers.

6. Use Technology to Enhance Customer Experience

Technology can be a powerful tool in building a customer-centric capability. By using customer relationship management (CRM) software, organisations can track customer interactions, preferences, and behaviours. This data can then be used to create personalised experiences for customers. Other technologies like chatbots, social media, and mobile apps can also be used to enhance the customer experience.

7. Measure Customer Satisfaction

Measuring customer satisfaction is an essential part of building a customer-centric capability. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, and other feedback mechanisms. By measuring customer satisfaction regularly, organisations can identify areas for improvement and track progress over time.

Building a customer-centric capability is essential for any organisation that wants to succeed in today’s competitive business environment. By developing a customer-centric culture, collecting customer feedback, analysing customer data, empowering employees, creating customer personas, using technology to enhance the customer experience, and measuring customer satisfaction, organisations can create a customer-centric capability that drives long-term success.

We cover off the core capabilities employed by high performing organisations and more in our new book coming out in May 2023 titled ‘Leading the Customer-led Revolution’.  

If you’re not yet on the wait-list, don’t suffer FOMO – get in the know here.

THE AUTHOR

Peter is a global leader in transforming SMEs, large businesses + organisations through the eyes of their customers. As a customer strategy catalyst, he brings over 25 years of experience in consulting projects for both commercial + government organisations in the UK, Australia + throughout Europe. 

With unrivalled global business credentials + an enviable cross-industry portfolio – American Express, Terry White Chemmart, PPQ, EFTPOS, RICOH, HMRC, Murray Regional Tourism + News Limited – he is known to be one of the founding technicians of customer-led change, with a style that is engaging + thought-provoking.