by Flora Leoni
The new mantra that rules business today is customer centricity but it is hard to understand exactly how to manage it and what it really means.
I do not have any specific academic tips to share or a real definition able to cover the whole subject, I prefer to rely on my personal experience and bet on my intuition.
I kind of understand that being customer centric is not just a matter of attitude or strategy, it is deeper and more complicated and sometimes it’s intricately connected with our way of approaching life. I’m not talking about psychology or new age theories, but I simply believe that before asking what we could do to improve the customer lifetime value we should ask to ourselves that we can do to improve the relationship.
And this is when the approach to life comes into play. Have you ever done something just for the pleasure of making someone happy without any specific gain? Certainly yes. So, imagine acting like that every day in your workday life with your own customers. Let us think how you would like to be treated as a client, the service you would like to experience in your shopping journey, the relationship you would like to establish with the company’s staff.
It’s not so difficult and I’m sure that many ideas will come up easily without effort. Not all of them will be feasible but they would draw a path to follow, step by step, to create a real customer centric experience that would make the difference.
That’s the way I act when I am thinking about my gift card business, both in the b2c than in the b2c even if I know that customers have different needs.
My corporate clients asking for a smart and efficient service: they want to have clear and transparent explanations, quick and punctual answers able to address specific needs. Gift cards is a simple product, but you don’t have to underestimate the quality of relationship event in the simplest transaction. The rules I like to follow are easy: be kind, be helpful, don’t take for granted that your clients know everything, if needed, repeat the same piece of information twice or more, not all customers will end the transaction, don’t forget to thank, they will remember.
Of course, gift cards are not always bought and used by the same person and here it comes the b2c challenge. Making the product easy to understand and use, safe and secure and, why not, nice to see, is the real goal to create the longed-for customer centricity.
And moreover, don’t stop improving, this is the real sign you really care for your customers.
