True Customer Focus

Have you ever worked for a company that did not claim to be customer focused? Probably not since everyone has a customer of some type or other and needs to keep them happy to stay in business.

Jeanne Bliss, in her book Chief Customer Officer 2.0, explains what this truly means. 

In her five competency model, not only is there someone whose job it is to ensure that customers have a great experience, but everyone in the company and every function is also responsible for ensuring this. 

As she explains, if leadership is not aligned and if they do not work cross-functionally, breaking down silos as they go along, this effort is doomed to fail. And systems and resources need to be devoted to CX (customer experience) so that everyone can see what's working and what's not, and so that problems can be fixed before customers are lost.

Jeanne also points out how important consistent and reliable customer experiences are. It's not enough to give them a memorable experience occasionally; if they cannot rely on this, they may not come back and they definitely won't tell others about it, either in person or via social media. She shares two amazing stats: 

• 92% of people worldwide trust friend and family recommendations better than any advertising and 
• you can improve revenue 300% by reducing negative word of mouth rather than promoting positive buzz.

One point of Jeanne's that I really liked was that to deserve this growth, your underlying focus needs to be to improve your customers' lives or business. If this is what is at the heart of your business/service and what drives all your decisions, you will grow and deserve to do so.

We've all had experiences with companies that think they're offering a value they're not, so be sure to get actual customer input. This is where having systems set up, both to gather multiple streams of customer feedback and to measure what's working and what's not, are vital.

Have you worked for a truly customer-focused company? What did they do differently?