What Customer-Centric Means

Customer-centric is a popular catch phrase that can mean almost anything. I wasn’t fond of the formal definition from Business Dictionary.com so came up with my own.

“Creating a positive consumer experience at every touch point from the first contact through to the 1,000,000th visit. Leveraging people, processes, technology and expertise to meet and exceed customer expectations. Every time.”

With this definition, it’s really clear what Customer-centricity means. Let’s break it down.

  1. It focuses on every touchpoint. Which means that it is everyone’s job from the business owner to product development to front office and beyond.

  2. It is a good reminder that a customer relationship is not transactional. It’s focused on the long-term relationship that you ideally want from all of your customers.

  3. It provides some guidance on how to be customer-centric. It’s not just a smiling front office worker, but also puts the focus on developing thoughtful processes, investing in technology and bringing expertise (whether a service or product) to the table.

  4. Lastly, it means that you don’t just have to meet your customers needs, but you should focus on exceeding them. Every time.

Being customer-centric is not a nice-to-have part of the business. Customers are your business and without them you are just a product/service that no one is buying. Want to know more? Schedule a complimentary consultation with me and we can discuss my favorite topic.