Did you know that client-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to companies whose strategies are not focused on the customer?
Keeping your clients happy is crucial for being successful in the business world. To make sure this happens, you need to create a customer-centric strategy. While this might seem like an obvious approach, studies show that only 14% of marketers consider that customer-centricity is a hallmark of their companies.
So how can you differentiate your business from others and successfully adopt a customer-centric strategy?
Read on to discover our tips.
What is a Customer-Centric Strategy?
Before exploring the ways to implement a customer-centric strategy, let’s make sure you understand what it involves.
To begin with, customer-centricity involves putting the customer first. That means focusing on building long-term relationships rather than closing as many deals as possible. Also, it means going the extra mile to provide an outstanding customer experience.
Therefore, your marketing and sales approaches should be tailored to fit the needs and preferences of your target audience. Carefully research your ideal customers and keep them in mind whenever you are working on your strategy.
What are the Benefits?
The most obvious benefit of a customer-centric strategy is that customers will be more willing to buy from you and it is more likely for them to become loyal clients.
Turning occasional customers into loyal ones not only means more profit but also fewer expenses. In fact, studies show that it is five to 25 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Plus, happy customers are much more likely to recommend you to others or to leave positive reviews about your business. Therefore, a customer-centric approach is also great for your word-of-mouth marketing efforts.
How to Deploy a Customer-Centric Strategy
Now that we’ve established what a customer-centric strategy means and why it is so important for your business, let’s see what are the best ways in which you can implement it in your company.
Check out the following tips:
1. Involve all your employees
To be successful in creating a customer-centric strategy, you need to make sure that all your teams are involved, even those who interact less with the clients.
For this, great collaboration between your teams is a must. Host regular meetings, make sure their goals are aligned and that everyone knows who your target audience is, and share your vision with everyone. You can also ask your marketing team to share insights about the profile of your customers with others so that everyone can get a better understanding of who you are targeting. Your sales team could also share valuable information, such as the challenges they are facing when interacting with potential buyers.
Also, while trying to keep your customers happy, make sure that you do the same with your staff. A happy and dedicated team can work wonders for your company, as their attitude will reflect in everything they do. That means that they will improve the way they interact with customers and will be more willing to share insights that can help you craft the best customer approach.
B2B customers want to interact with companies that act as advisors instead of strictly salespeople
2. Actively seek customer feedback
What better way to find out how to improve your services than by asking your clients for feedback?
Customer feedback is essential for understanding your audience, determining which areas you could improve, and for identifying your assets. The best way to find out the opinions of your audience is by actively offering them the chance to provide their feedback.
For example, you can create a survey that is automatically sent to all clients who purchase from you. Alternatively, you can add this survey to a special section on your website. Make sure your surveys contain a mix of closed and open-ended questions and that you ask relevant questions.
Encouraging customers to share their opinions will not only help you create a better strategy but will also show them that their feedback is important to you and that you value transparency. Plus, adding testimonials to your website will also help you gain more clients, as 92% of customers read online reviews before making a purchase. To find out more about the importance of client testimonials, check out this article.
3. Offer a personalized shopping experience
A customer-centric strategy involves making constant efforts to keep your clients happy by offering them the best shopping experience.
To do this, it’s important to understand that each client is different and that there is no single strategy that works for everyone. Therefore, in order to be successful, you need to provide a personalized customer experience, tailored according to each client’s individual needs and preferences. Doing this can make a huge difference in how your audience feels about your brand. In fact, it is predicted that B2B companies with e-commerce personalization will outsell by 30% competitors that are not providing a personalized experience.
Start by dividing your customers into categories. A big or medium-sized company will have different needs from a local business, so you need a different approach for each of them. You can ask for more details about their company in the sign-up form. Try to find out information about their business, such as size, type, location, and anything else that you consider relevant. Then, begin your segmentation. When doing this, also take into consideration aspects such as customer behavior and buying habits.
4. Offer detailed information about your products and the buying process
Modern customers want access to information. They no longer want to be forced to contact your sales team in order to find out details about your products or about the buying process. Instead, they want to be able to access this information by making very little effort.
So what should you do? The easiest way to meet this requirement is by investing in a modern e-commerce website or an online catalog. This will not only enhance the purchasing experience, but your users will be able to see the specification of all your products directly on your website. This way, they will easily determine whether your products are a good fit for them and they will be able to make comparisons between you and other distributors. Also, they will be able to check which products you have in stock, so they will not have to contact your sales team to check for availability.
Once you have divided your clients into more categories, you can begin to create personalized strategies for each of them, tailored to their specific needs. Nowadays, B2B customers want to interact with companies that act as advisors instead of strictly salespeople.
Offering a personalized customers experience involves more than remembering your clients by their names or being aware of their purchase history. It means making an effort to understand the needs of your clients and taking into consideration their special circumstances before trying to close a deal with them.
Create a modern e-commerce website with Yodify
Not sure where to start?
Offer the best customer experience by creating an e-commerce website with Yodify! We will help you display your products in a professional and highly informative way.
We also offer a sophisticated quote system, automatically generated categories, customer account pricing, and many other features that will help you take your business to the next level. Plus, our team and your Yodify Partner will be there to help you every step of the way.
Book a call with one of our experts and let’s do this!
