Research indicates that when polled, 80% of your customers will respond that they are very satisfied with your products/company. Makes you feel great, right? Don’t be fooled by the common misperception that these customers are indeed loyal and plan to repurchase products, or endorse them to their peers & colleagues. The answers to these two questions are the real drivers of customer-centricity & loyalty.
How Can You Drive Customer-Centricity?
- Analyze Data – work with I/T to get historical purchasing information, segment your customer-base, discover trends, analyze retention rates, assess geographic market penetration, and ultimately build your set of CRM metrics.
- Observe – develop marketing analytics processes related to website activity, customer behavior, predictive modeling, forecasting, and campaign ROI.
- Gather Feedback – conduct an annual Customer Satisfaction Survey.
- Profile – help your staff understand Market Segments and Customer Profiles by working with customers to create Case Studies and generate testimonials.
- Understand – as markets continuously evolve, redefine your target markets by reading our report and conducting a Market Segmentation, Targeting, & Positioning initiative.
- Plan Interactions – some accounts are more strategic than others. For those of paramount importance, implement a Key Account Planning process.
- Listen – consider adding a customer-facing Blog to your corporate website. Blogs are very effective for generating feedback on products and services.
- Consult – work with Sales to adopt a more Consultative Sales approach.
Action Plan:
- Work from a Checklist – download Demand Metric’s Customer-Centricity Checklist to kick-start your initiative. There are 12 proven strategies with associated reports, tools, and advice to help you improve customer loyalty, and increase profitability based on higher retention rates.
Demand Metric Analyst Perspectives 
You made some great points! Your suggestions are giving me some ideas for my own business. I am surprised how few companies even have a way for customers to give feedback. You would think that that would be common place, but it’s really not. I enjoyed your post.