What is your Customer Centricity score?

As part of our Consumer Centricity Academy we discussed a generic framework for creating a business that is ‘Customer-Centric’ versus more ‘Inside Out’ and reactionary.

Our teaser survey on “How Customer Centric are you?” already revealed some interesting results. Curious about your Customer Centricity score? Take the survey!

Here are a few highlights:

Some good centricity structures & habits are already present

Nearly 80% of the 120 research users and professionals participating in the survey claim to have references to the customer in their Mission Statement and this receives implied support by establishing a customer insight (or CMI) function that is advisory to the business versus purely support (nearly 75% claim this).

On top of this, if we look at customer-centric habits or processes, we see the majority is regularly talking to customers (on an individual level) and making sure to use their own brand, product or service when they can, great for instilling a sense of customer empathy.

Finally, one of the key proof points of really being customer-centric is having customer insights (or unmet needs) at the core of every major value proposition launched or campaign created, which is something 60% of the survey participants claim to be doing on a consistent basis.

Room to grow

Great stuff and you can definitely take a glass half full view on many of the scores, but we see some improvement areas which, if not addressed, could be dangerous to business health over time.
Lack of structural dialogue
Nearly 50% of businesses have not yet established a mechanism to continuously engage in conversation with their consumers or end users (e.g. community platforms). By not having a finger on the pulse of customer needs and concerns, businesses risk always playing catch up and/or losing customer relevance over time to more customer-obsessed players.

CMI not always in or near the C-Suite
Nearly 60% of businesses have a CMI leader that does not have a seat on the Management team or at Board level. Our experience shows this can be a major impediment to protecting customer-centric processes and research if the CMI leader is less able to define, defend and control Global Budgets and Research Methods to drive centricity.

Don’t forget the front line
Your customer care team (online, call center etc.) is out there on the customer ‘front line’ with first-hand learnings into needs, aspirations, frustrations. But how often do we tap into this knowledge, especially for product development and campaign creation?
Turns out we can do more – less than 50% regularly share customer care center feedback with R&D and product design departments and unsurprisingly less than 40% of businesses involve their call center or customer care managers in marketing discussions.

Be more insight-led
Finally, our survey showed that 40% of businesses are not systematically ensuring that new products and campaigns have strong customer insights behind them. Innovation failure rates are not going to drop suddenly; it is more difficult than ever to stand out in a clutter of brands and the chances that a disruptor can copy/paste your business has never been higher. Relevance in the eyes of your customers is vital and the only way to achieve this is by your products and messages tapping into a powerful customer insight.

Meet our Consumer Centricity Academy

Several of the modules in our new Consumer Centricity Academy discuss the theme of creating a customer-insight-led culture in your business, which is continuous and goes beyond Market Research functions.

Want to become more customer led and improve the competence level around insights in your organization? Let’s talk about the Consumer Centricity Academy!

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