For some of us, the Age
of Manufacturing and the Age of Information probably ring a bell. However, as
the world is now transforming into the Age of the Customer, business strategies
have gradually diverted and been shaped by empowered customers across the world.
Today’s customer-led
market has created a paradigm shift in the business environment – from being
customer-centric, or customer-focused, to now being customer-obsessed. Think
about it, customers today have higher expectations towards a more consistent, and personalised
customer experience. Ultimately, it is essential for brands, and companies to
meet these expectations as this will show how they value their customers’ needs.
To be clear, we have a
number of brands out there which focus on putting their customer first.
However, how many have truly succeeded in this? While many brands today pay lip
service to customer-centricity, a market research company, Forrester
predicted that brands or companies that are
“customer-obsessed” will be more likely to take on the advantage from their
competitors; especially when a brand has unique stories to tell. Speaking of
which, a customer-obsessed company
focuses its business strategies that could enhance knowledge of, and engage
personally with customers in order to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
This is when engagement will be put forth in fulfilling this strategy.
With technology opening up an
abundance of engagement opportunities, customers are now not merely just the
buyers of products and services, instead, they have now become more actively
involved with brands – sharing their voices in shaping up their favourite brand
– simply to ensure consistent brand experiences no
matter where, when, and how they engage with the brand.
The following article by Zarina Lam Stanford
touches on how the evolution of technology has made customer obsession within
the reach of organisations.
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The Age of the Digitally Savvy Customer
The
explosion of customer data provided by social and digital have put extreme
power in the hands of marketers, provided we learn how to wield it. A decade
ago, the challenge for brands is to collect insight and data on their customers
in order to properly segment them for the right marketing approach.
Today,
it is no longer sufficient for brands to own intelligence about customer
demographics, past purchase decisions or even what they have browsed through at
the last visit.
Data is
live. Technology is live. Customers are making decisions in the moment, live.
Marketing must therefore be live and ready to deliver that tailored experience
involving customers’ past data, present contexts and predicted future
behaviours.
Digital
disruptors such as Uber and AirBnb have arisen today because they are serving a
gap in addressing customer needs, live. These companies have built a business
model that is hinged on the evolving customer needs and experience.
However,
in today’s cluttered market, where almost 30,000 new products are being
introduced into the market every year, identifying that unique market
opportunity has become a lot more challenging.
The
R&D cycles of the past, where mega products take months in the making, are
being challenged in favour of iterating new services in a scalable form until
customer needs are met. Savvy, forward-thinking marketing leaders are already
looking beyond campaigns to analyse the dynamic, multi-faceted relationships
between customers and brands.
Building a Customer Obsessed Brand
Customer
obsession is built on three (3) key principles:
Firstly,
marketing’s number 1 role is to be relevant and serve a customer need.
The first litmus test is always to think about whose needs we are serving and
why. This is particularly true in what is emerging to be a C to B world where
the consumer is leading businesses and where the customers’ customers are
driving the transformation.
Secondly,
the
days of a single transaction is gone. Today, the obsession with
customers has to be built over the entire life cycle of their purchasing
experiences, over time and on a repeated basis.
Finally,
and most importantly, brands must keep in mind that customers are
humans too.
Their
lasting relationship with a brand is a blend of their personal and professional
experiences through different personas. Customer obsessed brands must think
about the human value and purpose that resonate with these personas.
This is
what I call humanisation of brands and this will differentiate the
customer-obsessed brands from their competitors.
Research
by the Harvard Business Review suggests that customers exhibit higher loyalty
with brands if they associate with the brand at an emotional level. Brands that
successfully connect with customers are fulfilling a deep and unconscious
desire, which is highly personal and reflects the sum of the individual values
and goals.
To attain this level
of customer intimacy, brands must first build a relationship that is anchored
on a shared value and purpose between the customer and the brand. Focusing on
building this trusting relationship, and understanding when, where and how they
want to be engaged, is a far more important criterion today than the next product
launch.
Thanks
to technology, digital transformation has become a major driver for businesses
and consumers alike. From the way consumers evaluate choices to how supply
chains are managed to Internet of Things, technology has allowed brands to reimagine
their relationships with customers.
In
fact, in a recent study commissioned by SAP of 19,000 consumers of brands
within Asia Pacific and Japan, digital experience by consumers strongly
correlates to key business-performance metrics such as customer loyalty and
advocacy.
However,
many today are still struggling to make sense of the deluge of data flowing through
the organisation. While organisations now know that data can help marketers
make decisions at the right time, using the right means, with the right
content, what is more important is to have a single view of the customer across
the organisation.
To do
this, marketing needs a platform that is capable of breaking down silos of disparate
data pools in the organisation. Sales data must merge with social listening,
customer profiling, merchandising and even supply-chain data to create a
comprehensive matrix of the customer universe.
In the
digital age, customer relationships must evolve and look beyond what drives
sales to building an emotional connection with customers. Brands with a clear
purpose tied to human values will surpass those who don’t.
At the
highest level, sophisticated brands today are already making emotional
connection with customers, reinventing functions from product development right
down to supply chain to centre on them.
Harvard
Business Review has revealed that fully connected customers are 52 percent more
valuable than those who are just highly satisfied. Can any brand afford not to
be customer obsessed?
Inspiration:
Customers Obsession is About Humanising Brands
Image
Source:
(1) influitive.com
(2) linkedin.com
Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 
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