Customer focus
Customer focus is the organizational level activity and process within a company by which the company maintains its desired level of customer satisfaction. The concept has been around for decades and has been found to be a predictor of company performance. There are various ways to operationalize customer focus including customer surveys, customer complaint data, and customer retention data. A company that is customer focused is one that aligns its business processes and policies to best meet the needs of its customers. This means that the company understands its customers’ needs and requirements and designs its products, services, and processes to address these needs. In order to be customer focused, a company must have a deep understanding of its customers and their needs.
Potential risks and benefits of Customer Focus
There are countless reasons why companies should strive to be customer focused. In today’s competitive business environment, it is more important than ever to differentiate oneself from one’s competitors. Being customer focused is one way to do this. An example of just a few benefits:
- it leads to increased customer satisfaction
- it can help to build customer loyalty
- it can help a company to generate new ideas and innovations
There are many more benefits when it comes to being customer-oriented. It is much more important, however, to maintain a consistent customer focus strategy. While a lot can be said about potential benefits of customer orientation, there are a few potential drawbacks that come with being too customer oriented, that should not be ignored. They include:
- a company may lose sight of its overall vision, strategy and goals.
- a company may become too focused on pleasing its existing customers and fail to attract new ones
- a company may become too reliant on customer feedback and lose the ability to make decisions independently.
Before proceeding with maximising customer focus, one needs to define the attributes of happiest clients, as well as at risk and potential customers.
How does a company become customer focused?
In order to be customer focused, a company must take a number of steps. First, it must have a clear understanding of its customers and their needs. Second, it must design its products, services, and processes to address these needs. Third, it must constantly monitor customer satisfaction levels and take action to address any problems. Finally, it must be willing to make changes to its products, services, and processes based on feedback from its customers.
Even more important, in order to become customer focused, a company needs to put the customer first in all decision making. This means that the company should be constantly thinking about how their actions will impact the customer and what the customer wants and needs. The company should have a clear understanding of who their target customer is and what they are looking for. They should then create a customer experience that is tailored to the needs of that target customer. In order to do this, the company needs to have a deep understanding of their customer base and what they want and need.
Customer focus is not a new concept, but it is one that is becoming increasingly important in today’s business environment. Companies that are able to successfully implement customer focus strategies will be well-positioned to compete in the marketplace and to achieve long-term success.
References
- Cook S. (2012). Customer care excellence: How to create an effective customer focus
- Eliyahu M., and J. Cox.(2016) The goal: a process of ongoing improvement
- Steinman D., Murphy L. (2016) Customer success: How innovative companies are reducing churn and growing recurring revenue
Author: Mykyta Bitkov
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