What Is Customer Orientation?
We will synthesize what, in our opinion, is characteristic and demonstrates the importance of customer orientation—making a decalogue, something simple but pedagogical of what cannot be missing in generating a customer-centric culture. In addition, to be rigorously evident that everyone’s participation is required. However, the leadership of marketing and human resources is a perfect alliance:
Company Culture, From The Top Down
The importance of customer orientation in providing this service is indisputable. Being the mission, vision, values , and creed, the commitments to the market must be focused on the interests and expectations of the public. The culture, carrying the desire to exceed each client’s expectations in the company’s DNA, is a vital element to achieving success. This is how training is a cornerstone of effectively implementing any cultural transformation towards customer-centrism, as we have been describing.
The competitive strategy, positioning, and leadership style (linked to the value proposition) company-out. As well as the management style, they must be focused from the perspective of your target audience.
Information About The Client
Know in-depth, in all its dimensions and characteristics, the needs, desires, and expectations of its consumers. These companies are characterized by a total obsession with obtaining customer feedback through commercial research techniques such as surveys, group meetings, and other techniques. In addition to the mystery shopper, you can obtain qualitative and quantitative information on your audience’s feelings.
In a company where customer orientation is valued, the customer satisfaction survey is applied and should allow gaps and necessary improvements to be detected. They are turning this tool into an essential raw material for the daily management of the management team. Likewise, other operational quality metrics (internal management data, adaptation to quality standards, etc.) exist.
In the same way, the metrics related to complaints and incidents-dissatisfactions expressed (monitoring of complaints received. And especially those whose origin may be a poorly performed service) must be a source of information of great importance for management.
Information Dissemination
It is vital to incorporate the “voice of the customer” throughout the company’s structure. These companies use information focused on the clientele (metrics and other elements about their consumers, as we said). Because it must be disseminated later in the organization (periodically, the data is updated on the intranet and published in electronic magazines, bulletins, and any other elements that exist).
The company must have a robust knowledge management policy (participatory knowledge portal that is desirable for everyone’s collaboration) linking all the information from the generation of milestones to the planning of objectives focused on customer retention results and other challenges of position in the market; in addition, to the individual remuneration of the personnel of any department and not only of those who show their faces in commercial management.
“We all have a client,” the philosophy and principles of quality transcend the commercial area and reach the back office. Quality objectives are personalized (“we are all evaluable”) and set because the incentives are established in a personalized way (salary and extra-salary) that will be behind the success of the client-centrism process. All this is in a climate of non-imposition since, in the model, it has a better chance of success if the unions have participated.
Answer’s Capacity
The company must put all its effort into developing an infrastructure for innovation in customer experience management. Also, in terms of managing them (segmentation and personalization), promoting the multichannel strategy, and adapting to new relational trends (2.0, mobile marketing, and interactive Contact Center ).
Value Creation
Today, a central element of customer orientation management is the generation of the utility of value in everything the company does:
I am avoiding the communication of spam and excessively commercial information.
Simplicity, through speed and utility, is critical to the ease of the search, ultimately, the essence of the value provided. Please distinguish complexity from progress. The best things in life are often the easiest.
Regular And Proactive Communication
One of your goals should be to maintain proactive communication with customers and not contact them just “to get their money.” Look for a relationship based on the contribution of value, personalization, the generation of links, and bi-directionality—the generation of participation and interactivity channels that generate affection, bonding, and a sense of belonging.
Do It Yourself
Incorporating self-management elements in the relationship with customers is fully compatible with customer-centrism; Consumers expect choice and control, especially from service organizations that can afford self-service in certain customer transactions.
Give value to self-service and the centralization of attention to customers who prefer conventional treatment. This way, the service becomes dynamic and diverse, adapted to market changes. And to the types of people following the capabilities of the company. For this reason, all variables must be considered because the client knows what he wants or needs. Sometimes, he prefers not to talk to anyone and wants to help himself; by pressing a key, clicking the mouse, or simply by his voice. “Multichannel” is an extreme urgency.
Cross-Functional Coordination
The importance of customer orientation in a company shows that the entire organization is towards a common goal. It is essential to foster the voice of the internal customer throughout the organization. In addition, to work to satisfy the current and future needs (anticipation), desires, and expectations of the clientele. Through systems, processes, procedures, and operations. These are designed to ensure that the internal client-external client culture thrives and generates the expected results.
Transparency And Honesty
Customers expect the company to be honest with them. Reveal any information about the changes in the company, inform about the products and the problems that can be found. This way, fears, uncertainties, and doubts are avoided, being relevant issues.
Using the website to make press releases and claims about what the company has been up to lately is a must to gain credit. Customers are eager to hear your side of the story, even if you’ve been in the news for negative reasons. They want to get the reasons to keep your trust.
The Database
Strategically, the different departments are fed with the information (selecting the one that interests each one) from the client. Using a single relational database, from a single repository that contains the information, being respectful (and evidencing) with the legislation
Conclusion
The importance of customer orientation and its influence on business success is quite evident, likewise, in the high rates of maintenance and recurrence of its consumers. Therefore all departments must work in unison. Especially human resources and marketing, push in the same direction and assume the challenge of improving the service’s quality towards the client’s needs and loyalty to the relationship.
That is why obtaining the necessary and feasible tools in this area is essential. Either through training, as is our course: internal and external customer orientation 2.0. This is of such importance for the excellent development not only of the staff but of the company. Since, at a corporate level, you can have a unanimous image in front of the client. As a work team, they maintain the same philosophy, and quality can be added to the experience of acquiring a product or service.
Also Read: What Are The Benefits Of Business Intelligence For Companies?