Defining Customer Centricity

Customer Service

Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to customers throughout the customer journey; before, during, and after the sale.  Humans usually provide customer service to other humans, but some service comes from machines, technologies, animals, etc.   The service a customer receives becomes part of the experiences they have with the company.

For example, if you purchase a product and need to return it because it is missing a part, you might drive to the store, get the product out of your back seat, put it in a cart, wheel it into the store, visit the return counter, speak with an employee about your return, and so on.  You may even phone the store before driving there.  In this example, your perception of the company and your experience with the company will be based on many factors:

• Availability of parking
• Availability of carts
• Wait time in the line-up at the return counter
• The manner in which the employee speaks to you at the return counter (courteous, professional)
• The efficiency of the employee implementing the return process (equipment, cash)
• The manner in which the employee speaks to you on the phone (courteous, professional)

Now, imagine that you did phone the store before driving the product back to the store for a return and refund. You explained that there was a missing part to the staff member on the phone. The staff member on the phone who works at the service desk informed you that many customers have had this same issue and that the manufacturer is able to send you the missing part by express delivery, free of charge.  As well, the manufacturer will include a small gift, an accessory item for your product, due to the inconvenience.  Will you now decide to keep the product?  You may or may not, but you will feel that the information the customer service representative shared with you over the phone was valuable and you will appreciate that they did so.  This touch-point, over the phone, is an experience that should leave you with a positive view of the manufacturer and the retail store, even though the manufacturer made an error by not including one of the parts in the first place.   Would your perception of your experience have been negative if the representative on the phone had not shared this information with you, and you found out only after you had driven all the way to the store and stood in the return line for some time? Most likely it would not be as positive as hearing this information before you put in the effort to return the product.  That is why it is so important for leaders and managers to build a culture of customer centricity, train employees, build standards, and measure performance pertaining to customer service.  Companies need to retain customers to stay in business, and you need to help the company retain customers to stay employed.

A final note about the scenario above, the retailer is actually a customer of the manufacturer (product supplier or vendor); therefore, the manufacturer also has the desire to keep the relationship positive with their customer (the retailer).  If the manufacturer did not satisfy the retailer’s customers by offering a free replacement part with express shipping, the retailer’s customers would become angry at the retailer (the place they purchased from). If this situation occurs often, the retailer will most likely search for a different product supplier or at least stop purchasing that product from that specific supplier.  So, it is not only important to keep individual customers happy in business-to-consumer sales (B-2-C), but it is also important for businesses to keep their business customers satisfied in business-to-business sales (B-2-B).

In subsequent chapters, you will learn about providing customer service in both a face-to-face retail environment as well as in a contact center environment, and about managing customer service teams and customer service technologies.

Watch the “Poor versus Great Customer Service” YouTube video below for an example of what bad service looks like compared to good service.^[1] Transcript for “Poor vs Great Customer Service” Video [PDF–New Tab]. Closed captioning is available on YouTube.

Customer Experience (CX)

Customer experience is the result of an interaction between the customer and the company.  It is how customers perceive their interactions with the company or brand. A customer touch-point is a point in time when the company connects in some form with the customer (e.g., website, phone, email, social media, retail store, returns, service, and products).  There are many different customer touch-points, for example, when a customer phones the contact center for support, when a customer first visits the company website to review its products, or when the customer visits the store.  The customer will get an impression of the company from each of these interactions.  If the store is unclean, the products are difficult to find, or the staff are rude this may leave the customer with a negative impression of the company which the customer will perceive as a negative customer experience.  The customer’s perception IS the customer’s experience.

Companies work hard to create a positive experience for customers, but things do go wrong at times, and some customers will perceive that the company has not met their expectations in some way, thus, leaving those customers with a negative impression or perception of the company.

Over time, as the customer has more and more experiences with the company, these experiences may shape the customer’s perception negatively or positively, and too many negative experiences will most likely cause the customer to discontinue engaging with the company; they will visit a competitor’s store instead.

There is a popular saying, “A company is only as good as its people.” This saying refers to the need to hire good people, train employees, and create a positive corporate culture.  When the employees are happy working for the company they will most likely do their best work to help the company provide positive experiences to customers.  Of course, while the interactions your employees have with customers are a large part of the customer experience, other factors are also important.

Customers have certain expectations of service and what they experience with the company, for example, when you shop at a Dollar Store (e.g., Dollarama, Dollar Tree, Dollar Store, Dollar Shop, etc.) you probably expect low prices and do not expect that every product the company sells is of high quality and comes with a warranty.   You might expect those things from Apple, BMW, Harley Davidson, or other company that is known for high quality and prestige. From a dollar store, you expect the store to be clean and the products arranged in a manner that makes it easy to find the products you are looking for.  You expect prices to be low. You probably expect the staff to be helpful, friendly, and professional. If for example, you walked into the store and the lights were not working, it might upset you, or if it was the middle of winter and the store had no heat, you might not shop very long.  If the products were not on the shelves and there were boxes blocking the aisles, you might become annoyed.

What if you had received poor service at the store, the store was a mess, the cash register was not working the day you visited the store, and you could not find the product you wanted in stock?  What would you do or say to the staff?  What would you think about the store?  Would you shop there again?  Would you tell your friends about the poor experience you had? Most likely, you would not go back, you would think the store was not professional, you would not shop at that location again, and you would probably tell your friends and family what a bad experience you had there.

Organizations that do not improve their customer experiences through improved customer service, improved customer journeys, and improved customer centricity will not stay in business long in today’s global and technological world.  Consumers today are savvy and they can easily shop online to purchase whatever they desire quickly and easily.  They can also switch to a competitor, in most cases, with little risk or switching costs.  Consumers research and learn about products they want before they buy and they expect a lot from the organizations they patronize.

Customer experience has become the ultimate competitive advantage. The big retailers, with Amazon at the forefront, have served consumers so effectively that most people now demand high-quality, ultra-fast service for everything they buy.^[2]

Customer Journey

The customer journey is the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with a company and its brands.  It considers the complete path from brand discovery to purchasing and beyond. The focus is not on purchases made, but rather on how the customer feels about the interactions throughout their journey with the company.

Below is an example of one customer’s journey.

Tom is shopping online for a new car (website touch-point). He decides to phone a car dealership to ask about a vehicle he saw online (phone touch-point).  Tom is greeted in a friendly manner and has all his questions answered by a salesperson (employee touch-point).  Tom makes an appointment and comes to the dealership to test-drive the vehicle he is interested in (location/organization touch-point).  The salesperson, Jordon, whom Tom spoke with on the phone greets him, answers his questions, demonstrates a friendly and professional manner while dealing with Tom, and sends him out on a test drive (employee and product touch-points).  Tom decides to purchase the vehicle and Jordon completes the paperwork, processes the sale and payment, and offers to deliver the vehicle within two days (employee and company policies/practices touch-points).

Jordon assures Tom that the vehicle comes with warranties, and should Tom change his mind about the purchase, he may return the vehicle within the first 30 days no questions asked (employee, manufacturer, and company policy touch-point).  Jordon asks if Tom would like to register for a loyalty program whereby Tom will receive emails on future promotions and receive gifts for referring others (if they purchase a vehicle too). Tom is interested and Jordon gathers Tom’s email.  Jordan provides Tom with a $100 gas card as a thank-you gift for purchasing the new vehicle (employee and company policies touch-points). Later in the week, Tom tweets a picture of himself standing in front of his new vehicle and he mentions the dealership and the excellent service he received from Jordon.  He even recommended the dealership on dealerrater.ca. A few months later, Tom feeling loyal to the dealership, and remembering the loyalty rewards program, refers a friend to Jordon at the dealership.

In building a customer-centric business, personas and customer journey maps are important strategic tools that help provide an in-depth understanding of who a company’s customers are, what they need, and how they interact with the company across all touchpoints.^[3] These tools help to share customer insights across the organization and can be critical for building employee buy-in and helping teams take targeted action to improve customer experience.

Personas are fictional customer types created to represent real target customer groups.  They are more than generalized customer segments because they have individual names and stories that reflect personal attributes and behavioural characteristics such as customer needs, motivations, and attitudes.  For example, a company may target Reza, a college professor, a parent of three teenage children, age in their mid-40s, shops online due to time constraints, orders delivery from restaurants a few times per week, enjoys exercise, eats vegan, etc.  The company creates these personas to help them better understand all the needs of their target customers, which in turn helps them provide products, services, and processes that will meet or exceed the customers’ expectations.

Once a company fully understands the lifestyle and demands, responsibilities, attitudes, and desires of their target customer; they can map the customer journey.  Mapping the customer journey will allow the company to identify where they may not be serving the customer to the best of their ability so they can make improvements to the customer experience.

The customer journey map is a visual depiction (diagrammed or written) detailing the path the customer takes from the time the customer first discovers the brand, to purchasing, and beyond. The customer journey map examines the full experience of being a customer with the company and examines all touch-points and channels.

It is important to create many personas and scenarios because every customer’s journey will be slightly different.  It is also important for companies to talk to customers (and employees) to learn more about the customer journey and experiences customers have.  Creating personas and customer journey maps will help organizations identify poor service issues so they can take action to improve their customers’ experiences.

Customer Centricity

Customer centricity is a way of doing business that fosters a positive customer experience before, during, and after the sale in order to drive repeat business, build customer loyalty (which leads to customer referrals), increase business growth, and gain a competitive advantage.

A customer-centric company is more than a company that offers good customer service. Anytime a customer-centric business makes a decision, it deeply considers the effect the outcome will have on its customers. An organization that forgets about customers is destined to fail. They will build the wrong products, invest in the wrong resources, and lose goodwill with customers.^[4]

Customer-centric organizations identify their most valuable customers and ensure their satisfaction.  These organizations focus on ensuring employees understand how important customers are to the company.  Often the organization’s mission, vision, and values include a customer-centric focus as more and more companies see a need to build relationships with their customers.  Based upon the company’s mission, vision, and values the company aligns goals, distributes resources, develops products and services, defines processes, and develops strategies for competitive advantage.

Markets have moved from product centricity to customer centricity. Companies used to focus on design, manufacturing and logistics and in the past when products and services could achieve a clear product/service difference, sustainable and beneficial, a product-centric approach made sense. Today, we have informed consumers, competitive markets, and few tangible product/service benefits—a combination that has resulted in the focus shifting to customers.^[5]

Don Peppers has a very good article on LinkedIn explaining why businesses have moved from an era of product centricity into an era of customer centricity.  For a good read, visit Product-centricity and customer-centricity – source Don Peppers – read on LinkedIn

The main reason organizations should follow a customer-centric strategy is that if they do not acquire and retain customers they will not survive.  Many company leaders believe their business is customer centric, but employees and customers do not always agree.  Why do you think that is?

Why do so many companies struggle to get customer centricity right? The volume, velocity, and variety of customer data that now exists overwhelm many organizations. Some companies do not have the systems and technology to segment and profile customers. Others lack the processes and operational capabilities to target them with personalized communications and experiences.^[6]

Being customer centric is about more than just offering a good product or staffing a contact center. It becomes a cultural way of life for the company and impacts everything from employee engagement to customer experience.

Forbes provides a list of 100 customer-centric companies from 10 industries including Retail, Finance, Healthcare, B2B, Software, Hospitality, Insurance, Telecom, Manufacturing, and Agriculture. Listed below are a few of the companies included on the 2022 list.^[7]  

• Airbnb regularly donates housing during times of trouble, including offering 100,000 places for healthcare workers and first responders to stay during the pandemic. When travel was limited, Airbnb pivoted to digital experiences to expand its mission of belonging and inclusion.
• Google helped prevent the spread of false information during the pandemic. The company created a fund to allow staff to take paid leave if they tested positive for COVID-19. Google also donated $800 million to small businesses and healthcare organizations.
• Lululemon found innovative ways to adjust to at-home fitness growth, including building a robust omnichannel experience and offering virtual classes.
• Nike’s app offers recommendations through chat and connects customers to in-store workshops and events. Nike is also opening more Nike Live stores with a shoe bar and consultations.
• ​​Starbucks pivoted away from in-person dining to improve its drive-thru and delivery offerings and continues to strengthen its already top-tier app and rewards program. Its innovative Deep Brew AI system streamlines operations so employees can better serve customers.
• Shopify, named the #1 most innovative company by Fast Company, pivoted quickly during the pandemic to launch tools to support small businesses as they shifted to e-commerce. It highlights local stores on its app and designed a plug-in to create shoppable ads on TikTok.
• Samsung recently unveiled a new support site and chat features that increased customer engagement by 19%. It uses AI to measure feedback and calls, find patterns, and prevent future issues. Samsung earned the highest customer satisfaction score among cell phone companies.
• Trader Joe’s customers love the unique products, personalization, and great service, as do employees. The grocery chain is leading the way in sustainability to reduce food waste. Unlike other grocery stores, Trader Joe’s didn’t pivot to delivery during the pandemic because in-store discovery is essential to its business model.

If a company is committed to making customer centricity a corporate priority for the organization, the absolute first step is to fully understand the customer’s needs and expectations. While much of this happens through the customer-facing employees, they will require the support of the rest of the organization to succeed. As such, everyone, regardless of department or role, should actively contribute information, background, tools, resources, and training to achieve a unified understanding of the customer. Once this happens, the organization will be well on its way to becoming customer-centric.^[8]

Factors Impacting the Service Sector