Introduction
Customer centricity has emerged as a pivotal strategy for achieving long-term business success. Customers have more buying options and higher expectations, so it is now imperative for businesses to prioritize them every step of the way. In this guide, we will examine what customer centricity truly means, its profound impact, real-world examples, and actionable steps to adopt a customer-centric approach in your business.
What Is Customer Centricity?
Customer centricity is a business philosophy that places the customer at the heart of all decisions and processes. It revolves around understanding customers' needs, preferences, and pain points to deliver exceptional value and build long-lasting relationships. It is a fundamental shift in how businesses think and operate.
Product-Centric vs. Customer-Centric
It is crucial to distinguish a customer-centric model from a product-centric approach. A product-centric model focuses primarily on developing and selling products or services, often with limited consideration for customer feedback or evolving needs. In contrast, a customer-centric approach prioritizes creating products and services that precisely address customer demands, satisfaction, and loyalty.
Customer centricity can be applied to three customer-facing areas: marketing, sales, and service.
In customer-centric marketing, marketing strategies are based on customer insights. This includes personalized messaging, targeted campaigns, and data analytics to understand customer behaviors and preferences better. Customer-centric selling depends on building relationships and providing value during the sales process. Instead of pushing products, businesses aim to solve customer problems and fulfill their needs, resulting in more successful and long-term sales. The goal of customer-centric services is to deliver exceptional customer service. This includes offering timely and efficient support, resolving issues promptly, and maintaining open channels for feedback and communication.
What Is the Impact of Customer Centricity?
It is easy to see why there is such a heightened focus on building customer-centric organizations. The philosophy can have a profound influence on four main areas:
Customer Centricity Examples
Several companies have excelled at implementing customer-centric strategies. Perhaps the best-known right now in the retail and e-commerce sector is Amazon. Known for putting customer needs and wants at the forefront, the retail giant provides personalized product recommendations, efficient shipping, and stellar customer support. Apple is another example in this sector. It focuses on creating products that are not only user-friendly but also aesthetically pleasing, reflecting a deep understanding of its customers' desires. Zappos sets the bar for exceptional customer service, offering a 365-day return policy, and empowers its employees to do what it takes to resolve customers’ issues.
Several life sciences and pharma companies also exemplify the concept of customer centricity. Genentech, a leading biotech company in the life sciences field, embraces customer centricity as a core element of its operational transformation.1 The company is redefining its approach to deliver improved health outcomes for patients while reducing overall healthcare costs.
This transformation departs from traditional pharmaceutical models and focuses instead on local healthcare ecosystems, the intricate networks of healthcare entities in specific geographic regions. These ecosystems encompass healthcare systems, providers, payers, pharmacies, and policymakers—all pivotal in local healthcare delivery.
Under Genentech’s innovative approach, each ecosystem is led by both commercial and medical executive directors. These leaders possess deep local healthcare system knowledge, ensuring organizational alignment with local needs and regulatory landscapes. The biotech's commitment to enhancing patient outcomes and decreasing healthcare expenses exemplifies customer centricity in the life sciences sector.
Another example of companies demonstrating a solid commitment to customer centricity is Catalent, a global pharmaceutical services provider based in Somerset, New Jersey.1 Even though the company doesn't directly market medications, it is crucial in guiding its partners to develop the best drug delivery solutions. According to their Director of Customer Experience, the focus is on optimizing the patient's experience by tailoring drug forms to suit their specific needs, such as turning tablets into soft gels, adjusting dosing frequency, or exploring alternative routes of administration. By actively helping pharmaceutical companies understand their options, the organization ensures that the final drug products are designed for patients' well-being and convenience.
In essence, this company's dedication to customer centricity in the pharmaceutical sector lies in its commitment to enhancing the patient experience through tailored drug delivery solutions, highlighting the importance of patients' needs in the drug development process.
What Is a Customer-Centric Business Model?
A customer-centric business model revolves around creating value for customers rather than solely focusing on profit. It often involves subscription-based services, loyalty programs, and a strong emphasis on customer relationships.
How to Create a Customer-Centric Strategy
While there is no single, fixed approach to becoming customer-centric, businesses should consider some strategic steps toward developing that mindset:
Following a Customer-Centric Approach for a Business
Once you’ve created a customer-centric strategy for your business, you can fine-tune your approach with specific actions:
Anticipate customer needs before your customers realize the needs exist. Use data analytics and market research to stay ahead of trends and preferences. Predictive analytics capabilities help in achieving this step. Building an intuitive sales and marketing team also helps.
Collect customer feedback, both online and in person. Regularly gather customer observations and criticisms through surveys, reviews, and direct communication. Use their sentiments to make improvements and demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. Meet the customers where they engage with the brand, either online or in person. Engaging directly with customers helps build relationships and understand their needs better.
Be easily accessible, making sure customers can reach you through multiple channels, including phone, email, chat, and social media.
Provide proactive customer service. Don't wait for customers to reach out with problems. Consider what issues may arise and address them before they become major concerns.
Adopt customer service tools. Use customer relationship management (CRM) systems and customer support software to streamline interactions and improve service efficiency. Social media listening and engagement platforms like Sprinklr and HubSpot are great tools to improve customer service across multiple channels.
Look beyond the purchase. A customer's journey doesn't end when they buy your product. The post-purchase experience is equally, if not more, relevant to a customer-centric organization. Follow up, provide ongoing support, and nurture long-term relationships.
Create an onboarding process. A customer success mindset that offers comprehensive onboarding resources and assistance will help customers get the most out of your products or services. It helps iron away the “teething” and adoption issues customers face when initially engaging with the product or service and creates a lasting first impression.
How Does Developing a Consistent, Customer-centric Culture Help a Business?
An ongoing customer-centric culture fosters an environment where all team members are dedicated to delivering exceptional customer experiences. It leads to empowered employees who understand the importance of customer satisfaction and can make decisions that benefit customers. A customer-centric culture also leads to consistency, ensuring that the quality of their experiences remains high for every interaction with the brand. A constant customer-first culture also lends itself to adaptability, allowing businesses to respond quicker to changing market conditions and customer demands.
Customer Centricity for Life Sciences
In life sciences, there is no single customer archetype. Companies aiming to be customer-centric must address the needs of patients, HCPs, healthcare organizations, and payers. Each customer type has differing needs. A genuinely customer-centric life sciences company will need to:
- Recognize the stated and unstated (or implied) needs of each customer archetype. These needs vary, from addressing sentiments to operational advantages, strategic imperatives, and better health outcomes.
- Accept that each customer archetype flows through a virtual funnel, broadly known as the “Awareness Interest Decision and Action” funnel. A truly customer-centric organization recognizes the critical touchpoints that will nudge the customer further ahead in that funnel by fulfilling the required condition (i.e., making them aware, piquing their interest, or aiding their decision process).
- Address a micro-segment, whittling it down to a segment of one. The days of macro segmentation are long gone. A customer-centric life sciences organization works to address and individualize any communication or series of communications to every archetype and individual receiving the content.
- Provide the confidence and comfort of conscious efforts, all aimed towards adherence and a commitment to quality, safety, efficacy, dosing, and transparency.
- Act, listen, change, repeat. Regardless of the sector, customer-centric organizations focus on constantly innovating, receiving, and responding to feedback. They take that feedback and iterate or adapt, continuously and consistently.
- Build enduring relationships. Doing so puts the company’s focus on maintaining advocacy and loyalty.
Conclusion
In today's fiercely competitive business environment, customer centricity has become a necessity rather than just a strategy. By prioritizing customers, understanding their needs, and consistently providing exceptional experiences, you can build loyalty, enhance profitability, and ensure long-term success. Adopting a customer-centric culture as your guiding principle will enable your business to thrive in the era of empowered consumers.
This article is contributed by Amit Sarna, Principal at Axtria.
References
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Riley K. Seizing the customer experience opportunity in life sciences. Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. April 2021. Accessed August 28, 2024. Available from: https://hbr.org/resources/pdfs/comm/salesforce/SalesforceCXLifeSciences.pdf