Three Dimensions For Customer-Centric Growth

Customer
By Dennis Van Den Berg, Senior Consultant MEA, Vermeer & Amol Ghate, Country Manager UAE, Millward Brown

The digital revolution has opened businesses up to a world of possibilities that only a decade ago was considered science-fiction. By 2020, there will be more than 50 billion connected devices worldwide, that is seven devices per person. Welcome to the era of the connected consumer.

It is difficult to imagine the possibilities for the ocean of behavioral data these devices will provide. It means we will have the data available to better understand people and what they want – and to reshape our brands and business to become truly customer-centric. Being customer-centric is key in the current environment, where traditional value drivers such as product quality or a strong distribution network don’t cut it anymore. Anyone can produce quality products, manufacturing no longer provides a sustainable competitive advantage, and with channels widely available and used by all the distribution network hardly provides a competitive advantage.

Marketers know deep in their hearts that customer-focus leads to better commercial decisions, which lead to improved commercial results. Vermeer’s recent study, Insights2020 – Driving Customer-Centric Growth, reveals what out-performers do well that their underperforming peers don’t. A clear pattern emerged, revealing drivers of customer-centricity that impact business growth.

Purpose-Led, Custom, Consistent
Customers these days require a seamless, consistent and tailored brand experience that goes beyond functional benefits: one that has a clear purpose. Over performing businesses understand this dynamic: 80 percent of their respondents say their company links all they do to a clear purpose, versus only 32 percent at companies identified as ‘under performers’. A clear example of this is Dumyé Dolls with Purpose, a Dubai-based start-up that gifts a doll to an orphan for each doll purchased from them.

Over performers are also more likely to customize brand experiences with use of data-driven insights; 74 percent of respondents report doing this, versus only 30 percent among under performers. A good use of data to provide tailored solutions is Emirates Airlines’ utilization of its frequent flyer rewards program, Skywards, to build a relationship with its customers.

The third driver is touch point consistency: a fully consistent brand experience across all touch points, for which the need will only intensify as the number of channels through which we interact with brands is increasing. A pioneer of this field is Mashreq Bank that prides itself on delivering a consistent customer experience regardless of channel.

Customer Obsessed Organization
The second dimension of customer-centric growth is to drive customer obsession through the organization, an internally oriented dimension. Over performers state that customer-centricity is not something that resides in a silo of the business, but is embraced by the entire organization (79 percent vs. 13 percent). This is the driver where over performers and under performers show the biggest difference, ensuring that all employees make decisions with a view of the world from the perspective of the customer.

A culture of customer obsession gets implemented starting from the top. Leaders can set the tone, embed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and base incentives on the customer-related KPIs to bring customer-centricity to life.

Other drivers of customer obsession are the fostering of a culture of collaboration and of experimentation, with collaboration active on different levels, marketing to work better with other parts of the organization, working with the right external partners, and co-creating with customers. We see this with brands such as Doritos and GoPro asking consumers’ input for product development.

Culture at over-performing organizations is also skewed more towards ‘embracing risk and experimentation’. Budgets are allocated to reward experimentation and to ensure the proper tools and methodologies are in place to embed this behavior in the organization.

The Insights Engine
The final dimension is about the mindset, role and impact of insights and analytics in business – ‘the insights engine’. Companies with a strong insights engine are more capable of combining different data sources to distill insights and drive decisions.

In the past, the insights function had a supportive role, coordinating research activities. Today it has a strategic role, independently challenging the rest of the business, reporting directly to the CEO.

Unlike a decade ago, none of the respondents in the study complained about lack of data. Today’s major issue is what to do with all the data gathered. The insights function is an orchestrator that connects the dots and understands the implications, becoming the key change driver. It no longer relies on historic data but is building complex models to predict future behavior and real-time insights.

Three capabilities are critical to use data to drive effective decisions – a strong business sense, storytelling abilities and a whole-brain thinking.

Combining the science and analytics of the left-brain with the creative side of the right-brain is the most effective way to bring the customer story to life.

One has to be agile to be ready for today’s ever-changing business world, and the best way to prepare is to develop a strong purpose to guide the company, build the processes and structure to ensure customers are at the heart of all actions and decisions.

Add Comment