Customer-centric approach goes a long way in growing business

With abundance of products and services, customers are rightly demanding high level of services

PHILADELPHIA: Recently, we interacted with a number of entrepreneurs in Pakistan and asked what has contributed most to the survival and growth of their businesses?

Among various factors, 'customer experience' emerged as a common strategy in guaranteeing success. Entrepreneurs shared their stories of approaching, serving, caring for, and retaining valued customers. We understand that many factors contribute to a superior consumer experience. However, this article discusses a few salient aspects of customer-centric approach for business organisations.



Customer experience is defined as the process that ensues from the point a customer shows interest in a product or service, making a purchase and the after-sales service. Harley Manning the author of “Customer Experience Defined” described some facets of good customer experience as follows:

“Good customer experiences are three things from the perspective of the customer. They are useful (deliver value), usable (make it easy to find and engage with the value), and enjoyable (emotionally engaging so that people want to use them).”



This approach can help to ensure continued business for an organisation in the form of consumer loyalty.

With the abundance of products and services in the market, customers are rightfully demanding high level of service from each supplier. Many businesses recognise the need to provide top quality customer service consistently, but only a few of them are able to define what that means or successfully achieve this objective.



Providing high quality customer experience and service requires deep insights into customer expectations, and consistent delivery of the solutions they need. Businesses need to understand the customer’s journey and try to improve the customer experience because building a customer-centric organisation will boost customer loyalty and foster profitable growth.

In order to ensure that an organisation is able to break through these current trends there are some examples and proposed actions as below:

• Go above and beyond: Most corporations in Pakistan claim in their mission statements or organisation’s vision to provide best customer service to their consumers. However, the concept of dedicated comfortable parking spaces, welcome gestures e.g. offering ice-water or snacks while a customer is waiting all seem to be in scarce practice. If you observe certain offices, you will find the staff’s cars parked in the shade, while customers struggling to park in hot weather conditions. In the research article “Analyzing predictors of customer satisfaction and assessment of retail-banking problems in Pakistan” by Muhammad Naeem Anjum, “research findings suggest that basic services can improve customer satisfaction and banks should have distinctive focus on staff behavior and service products that need to be constantly improved”. Zappos, an online retail store, sets an exemplary standard for making a customer feel valued. For example, Zappos sent flowers and a get well soon message to a customer after they discovered that the customer had suffered a foot injury and purchased six pair of shoes in the hope that one of them would fit. Another such example, as quoted by qz.com, is that the CEO of Goldman Sachs, a $96 billion company, Lloyd Blankfein personally calls customers to inquire about their experiences with the bank’s personal loan product. These gestures give customers a message that “they are valuable and being cared for.” On the negative side, one of us (Naveed) called a dozen time in a day to talk to his doctor at one of the Islamabad’s elite and tertiary care hospital in H-8 sector but the doctor did not call back. Would a patient revert to such a doctor ever again? NO!


• Provide what no one else will: Sometimes it is important to understand customer’s wants vs customer’s needs. For example, had Steve Jobs asked Apple’s customers what they wanted, a majority of them would have suggested a larger keyboard on the cellphone. But Jobs envisioned a trendsetting touchscreen interface in the shape of the iPhone. It is important to understand the gap between the customer’s wants and their needs to be able to disrupt the established industry, a key lesson for young entrepreneurs.


• Walk in their shoes: Delayed deliveries are a common plague that retailers and manufacturers suffer from at the suppliers end and is a big cause for increased costs incurred by businesses. This promotes a culture of delayed product and service deliveries to the customers as well. Conscious recognition on part of the businesses can help hold the suppliers accountable to ensure timely deliveries and thus ensure that the product reaches the consumer in a timely fashion as well.


• Customer Trust: The breach of trust of a customer is something that is most damaging for any business. Maintenance of confidentiality is a responsibility of every service provider be it a small start-up or a mega business, like Facebook. This is evident from the recent allegations of privacy violations severely hurting its reputation, customer base, and share price. It is a real-life example of the cost of breaching confidentiality and the potential for subsequent losses. As a result, your revenue and profit margin go down.


• Empowering your employees: The culture in Pakistan’s businesses is still feudalistic. The salesperson or waiter who is dealing with the customer directly has no power to make a decision. This process is time consuming and leaves the customer frustrated. Empowering your workforce can help resolve matters such as refunds, exchanges and complaints efficiently, while keeping the customer in high regard and ensuring that business policies are nurtured. Nordstrom, a famous clothing retail store in the US, gives one such example where a salesperson provided a refund to a customer without management’s approval for tires he purchased from a “tire store” that used to be at the same location as Nordstorm. In exchange for this, the Nordstrom management commended the salesperson by stating that “He treated the customer like he would like to be treated.”

Lastly, if you want to start building a customer-centric organisation then first identify your customer journey and recognise complaints as opportunities to win long lasting customer loyalty.

Naveed Iftikhar is a public policy adviser and researcher having interest in public-sector governance, cities and entrepreneurship and Irfan Altaf is a management and strategy professional working for a leading consulting group in the US

 

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 21^st, 2018.

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