Customer centricity can be tricky. It’s supposed to mean being so in synch with customers’ needs and values that they are at the center of your brand universe.
Sometimes, though, I see organizations so focused on customer touchpoints in the quest for customer centricity that they forget the customer. They put the website or the mobile app or the chatbot development at the center of their universe, forgetting that the customer – the human – needs to reside there.
That’s when I remind them that a great customer experience is defined not by what you offer, but by how well you enable your customers to achieve the outcomes most important to them.
It comes down to trust
What sounds astoundingly simple is actually quite complex because nailing a customer experience for thousands of individual customers takes science — data science, to be exact. And due to the many data privacy breaches that have occurred over the past several years, customers may be hesitant to provide your company with personal data.
If you can master data privacy and create a relationship of trust with your customers, though, data and analytics can vastly improve customer experience. For instance, my favorite José Andrés’ restaurants could create a “living customer profile” of me if they had a holistic view of me, rather than just a snapshot of my dining behavior. For example, I live in the metro Washington, D.C. area. I have professional degrees. I’m involved in certain organizations. I am an advocate for various causes. All of those elements of Jake Brody are out there digitally. But few companies and organizations have the capability to capture the 360-degree view. It’s the difference between being able to predict what Jake might want in a multitude of contexts versus just knowing how foodie Jake enjoys his dining experiences.
Get holistic: Become a business of experience
Business of experience (BX) is a fundamentally new way of working and a mindset shift that allows companies and organizations to become customer-obsessed and reignite growth. In recent Accenture research, C-suites told us they’re on their way to completely redefining how they interact with customers.
A sea change in the C-suite
When a majority of C-suite executives make the same move, you know there’s a good reason for it. In our research, 56% of COOs, 53% of chief strategy officers, and 51% of chief financial officers reported their company will fundamentally change the way it engages customers. Today, more than four out of five brands report languishing growth from their investments in CX. It’s time for a new direction. In this case, changing the way they engage and interact with customers is about better serving those customers in a way that drives profitability and growth. Mastering BX can get them there. Getting there means becoming a business of experience versus a business that prioritizes customer experience. This may sound like semantics, but it’s not. The numbers prove it.
What you can do now that you’ll thank yourself for later
Most executives want to know where to start. Here are four areas to think about as you create your strategy.
1. “Amazing” starts with people, not technology. Our research shows that leading companies are twice as likely to have the ability to translate customer data into actions (55% versus 26%). To put AI and data science into play that way, you need people with the skills to generate customer insights. Applying those insights can lead to amazing and delightful experiences.
2. Modular platforms can take you lightyears ahead. No matter what experiences you’re creating, use a modular cloud platform that you can shape and that integrates with your existing systems. They’re unmatched for speed and agility.
3. Plan for intelligent products. An increasing portion of the data collected on customers will come from intelligent products, particularly as we wear technology versus carry it around. Account for this in your strategy — particularly the trust and privacy elements with your customers.
4. Think about purpose as a center of your brand. We’re seeing more and more consumers seeking an understanding of a company’s purpose before making decisions. What a brand stands for is becoming just as important as what that brand sells or produces.
Accenture’s recent research contains stories about companies already on this journey. Putting customers at the center of your business sounds simple. It’s not, but it certainly can be simplified by harnessing data and AI to master the business of experience. Meaningful customer experiences will follow.